Merry Christmas!

To all you back home. It is Boxing Day here. Yesterday was jam packed full of holiday goodness. Jo and I exchanged our gifts Christmas Eve when we got home from service. We had decided we wanted to do something to help others together for Christmas so we helped set up a big Christmas day feed that The WaySide Chapel hosts in Kings Cross in Sydney.

For us it was an exercise in putting action to words. It wasn’t a thing to make us feel better about ourselves. If anything it convicted us. It gave us some perspective. It was good to be reminded that Christmas isn’t the same for everyone. The Wayside Chapel is doing some really good things, and we were grateful to be a part of it. One of Jo’s friends and her mom have been going on Christmas morning for the last few years, and told us about Wayside.

We had lunch with family and then had our extended Aussie family to our house for dinner. It was good day but exhausting. It’s nice to relax a bit today.

Tomorrow we are heading to Melbourne for New Years. Looking forward to the trip, and meeting some new friends. Probably won’t be posting until after we get back, so have a great New Year!

And to continue on the spirit of Christmas, here is a flash video to “Weird Al”’s song, “The Night Santa Went Crazy!”. Enjoy!

The Night Santa Went Crazy Flash Video

Tis The Season

To break out the fan favorite Star Wars Holiday Special. So many people in the land down under to show this television only aired once gem. I gave Jo the 30minute preview tonight… just glimpses of each horrible part. It just may have saved our marriage (not showing her the thing in it’s jaw dropping entirety). I have put a lot of people through this feature.

A few years ago Croswell and I found a news paper article about this Star Wars tv special that we had never heard of or seen. We ebayed it and found a vcd copy. The rest is history… and 2 hours of your life you will never get back.

Just quietly… I had forgotten how bad it is.

Find the Cast & Crew comments on it here
Find the FAQ here

Doors Of Devonshire Street

Our Little Friend

This guy built his massive web on our fence in front of our car. I’d look for him every morning. We moved out of our flat today into our house sitting house. Last night he was sucking the juices out of a bug. We was probably twice as fat as he is in this picture. I guess his was a good spot.

On moving… was probably the easiest move I have ever done. None of our furniture came with us. At least the pieces that were ours. The rest was borrowed and was picked up by the owners. 80% of our stuff is packed and ready to be moved into our next place in May. I must say, we have again been blessed with accomodation. I’ll take some pictures of the place… we are out in ruralness… I love ruralness. 3 minute walk from the train line. 3 minutes from Jo’s school.

We are having my hockey team over for a bbq tomorrow. Our first entertaining in the new pad. We bought some prawns for the barby last week. I do enjoy the prawns (shrimp for us Northerners!).

Comfort Zone

This past Sunday afternoon, Jo and I helped some friends out and collected food for the Exodus Foundation. From their website:

The Exodus Foundation runs the “Loaves and Fishes Restaurant”, a free restaurant serving upwards of 300 meals per day for the hungry. Exodus also provides help and support services such as social workers, chaplaincy, counselling, food parcel assistance and appropriate welfare assistance.

I really don’t like cold calling. Never have. Probably never will. And we aren’t members of The Journey (the church that was doing the collecting), but, it was for a good cause… and I need to make myself uncomfortable every once in a while. It’s good for the soul.

I was actually really surprised (now this is based on the assumption that no one lied to us, which I am happy to make at this point) that many families claimed to have no canned goods. Now most people were not white anglo saxon Aussies. My first thought was (well… my first thought was, “Maybe they just couldn’t be bothered.” But if people were honest with us, that is impressive. That would mean that, in this area at least, most people were making fresh food. Very impressive. That’s just my naivity and observation.

Notes From The Forge Intensive

Seeing as we are a movement that follows Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and call ourselves “Christians”, or “little Christs”, it is very important that we learn and know as much as we can about Him. So, my question is simply, based on scripture and other sources what was Jesus like? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

A Link in the Hand is Worth 2.1465 in the Bush

The Beer Belly – A removable spare tire that serves a stealth beverage! – This would be one of those fun things to own… completely unnecessary… like a water balloon sling shot… but I have one of those!

Arcade Games of the 1980’s online for you! – As if you didn’t have enough things to do.

The Chillow – the Personal Cooling Solution – I am forever turning my pillow to find the cool spot… this could be the pillow I’ve been waiting for.

Mosaic – A cool mosaic generator. You type in a subject and it creates mosaics with pictures of the subject.

The Dave Saunders Smear Campaign – I’ve never met Dave, but if what his oppositions says is true, which they say isn’t… but maybe that’s just the kind of people they are… I can’t bring myself to vote for him. Watch the video and decide for yourself! This link was brought to you by the supporters of the “Justin Coutu for best Leader Campaign”

Tonight

This Weekend

I do love Fridays. Jo and I have decided to not plan things on Friday nights… keep them to a “spur of the moment” kind of affair. Sometimes we are baked and just want to go to bed. Other weeks we’d like to do something. What we are trying to avoid is the committment we made early in the week that gives birth to resentment because we need to honor it come Friday.

However, the Summer Kick Off Party is on Saturday night. Sunday afternoon we have a group dinner and the I have a hockey game. Nothing early morning. 2 days of sleeping in.

We also move in 2 weeks into the house we will be housesitting for 5 months. No rent x 5 months = debt in Canada PAID! Well…. mostly. If we are diligent it could be a reality. It will be seriously reduced regardless though.

My subjects are done eating, so I need to go clean up and catch my train. I might post more later, seeing as I have been in the mood today.

What To Do, What To Do?

I have been thinking about what I am going to do with this little piece of the web. I am pretty unmotivated right now to post, and have thought about maybe calling it quits after the New Year. I have also tried to think of different ways I could keep it going, but turn it into something different. Maybe work on some art projects and share them here (i.e. pictures, video, flash, design stuff, music, poetry etc.) But I don’t know. I am still catching up sleep from this weekend. Plus, this is pretty much the only way you all know what’s going on down here (aside from the odd email here and there), and to be honest, posting here AND writing emails seems redundant to me. Or lazy. Whichever one you want to take is fine by me. So, yeah. Feelig tired out and unmotivated.

However… I do get to sleep in tomorrow. And tomorrow is another day.