Everybody Walk The Dinosaur!

Well, Kirk was in the land down under… and I couldn’t pull it together to go see him. He was in Brisbane (12 hour drive), and I had 30$ to my name which = no trip for you! (You being me…Caleb.) A little disappointing to say the least. AND he delivered to me the last UFC, and some DVD specials. Kirk Perry. Awesome guy. Go and tell him you want a t-shirt with his face on it (the “I Lost You At Hello!” one) so we can order the dang things!

I finally picked up the First Complete Season of The BBC hit series, “The Office”. For those of you who have not partaken of such comedy, I’ll share them with you when I bring them home. Beautiful, beautiful stuff.

March is coming up which is exciting for so many reasons. First of all, it is Dougie Fresh, a.k.a. Doug McKenzie, a.k.a. Doug “The Funkmeister” MC’s birthday this week, AS WELL AS the man whose Y chromosome fought off the overwhelming odds to bring forth yours truly…Doug Lapointe…my dad…as well as my brother’s dad. My birthday falls on Easter Monday which kicks some major tail as it is a stat holiday, which means not only do I sleep in, but I get paid to have been born this year! I will be instituting my birthday week this year (as borrowed from Heather Ann) So much love and excitement.

Over the weekend I was introduced to a new game…Japanese Rock/Paper/Scissors…which I doubt is of Japanese origin…but whatever. I will be doing an instructional video before I come home so we can enjoy it. It would be a great addition to UEB.

I am trying to get to bed earlier this week, as I was totally buggered from the festivities last week and felt a cold coming on. I can afford to get sick…litterally!

Now, open the door get on the floor…………

Club Red

This weekend is the young adult retreat called “Club Red”. It runs from Friday night to Sunday arvo (afternoon) and apparently this will be the biggest one they’ve ever had with 210+ registered. I have only been to one Axis meeting (once a month young adult dealio), so I am interested in what this weekend will entail. I am not looking forward to the lack of sleep this will mean… I guess there are workshops on different things in the afternoons, and the young adult pastor is a good communicator… his talks are usually very well done. Plus it’ll be a chance to hang out with a few people that I don’t usually get to see on any kind fo regular basis.

I am going to try and snag a video camera… grab some footage… I need to start compiling some stuff for when I go home. And I have a couple of side projects that need some immediate attention.

Anyways, job front is going alright… I still loathe getting up in the morning… but at least it isn’t cold… I was put on full time staff straight away…which drops my hourly rate a bit… but for every 3 months you acrue 1 week of holidays… How sweet is that?… that means I would get 4 weeks of paid holidays if I worked for the year. Unfortunately I have been sending most of my bling home. Anybody want to buy a car? Perfect condition. Certified. Please?

The rugby season is starting up soon. One of the local guys is speaking at youth tomorrow night. I am being pressured to choose sides. I need to see some logos first. And names. Although they have teams like… The Eels…and the Roosters. Buh. You would have thought the world of sport would have learned from front runners of bad names like The Mighty Ducks…Montreal Canadians…etc.

At The Risk Of Sounding Soft

I have a friend who heaps loves Jane Austin’s “Pride and Prejudice” (the book as well as the BBC version of the movie). I was quite skeptical at the request to watch such a movie (as I had no idea what the story was about)…and the fact that it was a 6 hour marathon! That’s right. 360 minutes. I did watch it over the course of 3 nights…2 hours (episodes really…it is nicely broken up to watch in segments) a night. The reason I risk and share this information is just a lead into the recent viewing of:

Bride and Prejudice.

Basically it is a loose translation of Jane Austin’s story set in modern day India. It is classic Bollywood, with random songs and dancing, and ranging colors. I found it beneficial having watched the original first, as you appreciate the humour a bit more as you watch the story and lines you are familiar with twisted into a different culture and setting.

Read the reviews here.

I Am In Your Debit

So I wanted to get a debit credit card (a visa that works like a credit card but you can only access money you have in your chequing account…a good deal!), which my current bank did not offer (among the things they do not offer is an open business after 4pm on weekdays, and service on Saturdays). So I go trotting on down to Blacktown to a different bank which does both of these things. In order to open an account you need 100points of identification. Your passport is 100points of identification…at least it was when I opened my first account. Since I have been in the country for more than 6 weeks, it is now only worth 70. My birth certificate, driver’s license, health card, credit card all worth bupcus. My other bank card (from the Australian bank) was worth 25 points…so I was 5 points short. I had a bank statement from said bank with my name and address on it…worthless. Ahh…but a letter from my employer…that was worth another 25 points.

Fast forward to Saturday morning.

After hanging out until 4am the night before, I get up and carry my exhausted carcass into said bank again…this time with a letter from my employer. And we get all settled in Kushma’s cubicle and she tells me I am not elligible for a debit credit card.

(pause a moment for dramatic effect)

Why the frig was that information not explained to me when I first asked to open an account specifically for this purpose? Buh.

However, I needed to wire some money home so I can pay for some bills. No problem. They do that. But not on Saturdays. But the bank next door might.

They did. I was thankful for that…provided the money goes through without a hitch. Which I won’t find out until Tuesday. And the beat goes on. And the beat goes on.

No Witty Title

This evening a group of us met to discuss starting…er…a group. Having talked to a few people over the last week or so, I was encouraged to find people wanting to put some hands and feet onto the things we discuss at church or at a Bible study. This was a gathering of those who were interested in trying to figure out what that all meant. Again, I was very encouraged by each of us who shared their vision for the group, what they wanted to see happen, and what they were willing to do to see those things happen. This was only our initial meeting and before our next gathering our group has the potential to double in size already, so I am sure there is more hashing out to be done.

Summarized and from memory (which isn’t real great as I need to go to bed) are things we want to be incorporated:
- times where we tackle scripture
- praying and special prayer nights
- we want to be intentially involved in our community
- to be a part of the group it is understood that we will be required to offer leadership in some form
- we need to be committed to being honest, free to share, supporting one another, and to participating in the group
- eating meals (next week we are doing a spontaneous potluck…ah that brings back memories)
(yeah, I know, nothing amazing, but I am excited at the opportunities the group’s openness presents.)

I shared a few things that we used to do in Brockville (i.e. prayer drives) and I guess there are things that we did all the time that they haven’t heard of down here, so it’ll be fun trying out some different ideas.

We are going to see how we go for a few months and re-evaluate. People seemed excited about the things we talked about, and there may be a few more of us next week. We are going to share the vision again, and have a prayer time after our spontaneous potluck. Should be a good time. And again, it’s nice to be doing something with the talk.

On The 53rd Day After Christmas Canada Post Delivered To Me…

And to be fair, it was postmarked on the 4th of December. Way to go Canada Post! Your insufferable suckiness is once again confirmed. They will be globally known as the worst postal system ever! I wonder if I can get a manager’s job in an organization to make that known? I’ll let you know.

Some awesome finds in my package:

- A 2005 Duct Tape Calander (sadly not made of duct tape…but has lots of good stuff about duct tape!)
- A sweet spider man puzzle
- A CD and a book
- 2 T-shirts – “Friends Don’t Let Friends Wear Speedos”, and a “Rasied by Monkeys” (sorry mom, the family secret is out!)
- And a picture of the 4 cuties who sent it to me

Most excellent.

Axis & Allies

“Incarnational life is the new standard of excellence–not the quality of performance, but the level of participation in community.” –Leonard Sweet

“Instead of getting my neighbor to church, my goal must be to continue journeying with her to faith….I would love to introduce her to my fellow Christ-followers, but that doesn’t mean we end up in a (church) building. I want to involve her with my friends there, but we may end up at home, eating, praying, talking, existing together.” –Sally Morganthaler

Thanks Hannah Jo for the quotes!

Still sorting out my “church stuff” down under. These 2 quotes kinda summed up what I have been thinking about lately. They address some of the things I feel really challeneged by. Things I get hung up on. Things I don’t want to be the same. Things I want to change. Things I want to become.

From Anywhere…To Anyone…In Five Months Or Less

Ah the slogon of Canada Post. I finally received my Mike Knott albums. They were shipped out on the 21st of December 2004. I got them this week. I am hoping my Christmas package makes it sometime soon.

For those of you who enjoy Mike, you can purchase most of his stuff here. One of my favorite albums of his was “Rocket and a Bomb”, which I picked up as part of the “burn series”. The disk is no longer in print, so they are selling burned copies…$$ goes directly to Mike so I am cool with that. I also picked up his latest release called, “Comatose Soul”. Just to bring back the memories here is the song list from “Rocket and A Bomb”:

1. Jan the Weatherman
2. Jail
3. Make Me Feel Good
4. Serious
5. John Barrymore Jr.
6. Train
7. Bubbles
8. Kitty
9. Adrian
10. Skinny Skins
11. Rocket & A Bomb

Excuse Me…Are They Now Playing Hockey In Hell?

If not, they can start at anytime, because apparently it has frozen over. My Dad left a comment. Tomorrow it could be the apocalypse. Watch yourself.

Sweet Dreams Are Made Of Cheese

Mmmm. Cheese. The job is going well, although I am now part of the fleet of good people who face a grotesque 1 hr drive in 60km/h traffic to work. Thank you iPod. You have saved the lives of countless people who are unaware they were one “Snakes In The Playground” from being rammed off the highway. It’s actually not so bad, but I have renewed my dislike for the A.M. Life is so much better after lunch. Once I get back into the routine again I am sure it will be fine…oh wait…I never got used to the stupid routine…oh yeah…now I remember…I hated the A.M. back then too! Yay!

The car shop was a bust, HOWEVER, I did test drive a 1984 Mitsubishi Colt…Gold…all original interior…with a metal screen visor. My first car, a 1989 Dodge Colt looked exactly like this one…except for the color…The Blue Stallion had found me here in Australia. I am serious…this car was beckoning to me. Like a tractor beam it was pulling me in. So we took it for a test drive. Yeah. Stalled twice. Odometer didn’t work…so those 130 000kms were more likely to be 400 000km. The tractor beam was disabled in my heart by some old guy muttering something about an all powerful swartz, and we walked away. And what were they selling this gem of a vehicle for? 2000$. Oh yeah. Insane.

I hope to get back to some regular posting, but right now I am far too tired. It has been hot here at night and I have had trouble sleeping. 2 fans on me on high just isn’t enough aparently.