Sabrina

That's the name of a movie I watched tonight. What a great movie (it's a bit of a chick flick, sorry guys.....all mush and romance).

Yeah that's it, I've been pretty "deep" the last few posts, so this one I don't have anything deep to say. It was just an all-round great movie :-) Go see it. (Oh, that's the new version with Harrison Ford and Julie Ormond, not the old version with Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn - but I may have to look into that one)

"Frasier"

Frasier has won a lifetime achievement award for his work on his radio show as a psychiatrist. On the evening he is to receive the award, he steps into his former professors office to tell him. He blurts out that he is upset and he doesn't know why.

After much discussion, his professor insists that it is because he has built his life around his career, and that his career was based on learning to use psychiatry as a way to distance himself from fear and feelings.

Frasier disagrees and says that he is suffering from a mid-life crisis, and that if someone had called up his show, he would have been able to diagnose it in half a minute.

His professor suggests that he pretend to call his own show. So Frasier sits down and begins:

FRASIER: Good evening, Dr Crane. (pause) I love your show! (pause) I'm calling because I've spent my life working on my career, and now I feel.....empty.
Frasier then moves to the chair opposite the one he is sitting in and proceeds to diagnose himself.
FRASIER: This is a problem also known as....
PROFESSOR: (cutting him off) Rediagnosing. Deal with the feelings.
FRASIER: Last month in the New England magazine...
PROFESSOR: He's read it.
FRASIER: How do you know?
PROFESSOR: He's you. If you read it, he read it!
FRASIER: Well, this is a common problem and ah, as Freud once stated...
PROFESSOR: Stalling. Deal with the feelings.
FRASIER: There are a number of visualisation techniques you can use...
PROFESSOR: He already knows them! Why do you keep talking to him about psychiatric jargon?
FRASIER: Because that's all I have!!!
There is silence.
Then Frasier speaks to his 'caller'
FRASIER: I'm sorry, caller. I can't help you.

Later on in the show, Frasier steps up to accept his award. "Thank you for acknowledging my life," he says sadly. "I just wish I knew what to do with the rest of it."

It doesn't come across with such impact on the Internet. You don't get to see the body language or hear the tone of voice. But you can imagine.

And I think we all feel like Frasier sometimes. I know that I have. Sometimes we feel empty and we don't know why. And we don't know what to do about it. We don't feel that what we have done counts. We don't know what we can do to make the rest of our lives count.

Emptiness is painful. I know of many temporary fixes or distractions - careers, uni work, money, boyfriends/girlfriends, hobbies, a job, a ministry. And they dull the pain. But I know of only one permanent cure - and that is a vibrant relationship with God.

"Great," says one of my Christian friends. "I have a relationship with God, and I STILL feel empty."
I know. I was you last year.
Here's what I learned, and I hope it helps:
- Above all, please do not give up on God. Who else gives you eternal salvation? Where else are you going to go to fix the problem of sin?
- God hasn't abandoned you. He is there and He cares. If He didn't, He would never have sent Jesus to die for your sin. As I read in a book, "God hasn't brought me this far to leave me."
- Find someone you can tell about how you feel and get them to pray for you often.
- Do what you can to keep your side of the relationship with God going. Do keep praying and reading your Bible.
- Try new things. You will find something that connects you to God. For me, I discovered at Sonfest, it was praise (shoulda guessed, being a muso!). Try to do "your thing" often.
- This emptiness is not your fault. It is not God's fault. But if you are angry at yourself and at Him, you need to let Him know.
- Emptiness doesn't last forever.

The key is not just a relationship, but a vibrant relationship, one that grows and gets stronger every day.

And if my non-Christian friends haven't tuned out yet, then think about it. If you are definitely sure you wouldn't want to know God as a friend, what are your reasons? and if you discover what they are, are they good reasons? But if you do want to know God as a friend, are you willing to ask some questions to find out how? (If you are, I'd love to hear your questions and answer (or try to answer) them)

Frasier is one of my favourite TV shows and it's on channel 9 at 7pm on weeknights (except not this week, the swimming's on). It's a pretty funny show.

Safety vs Morality

I have this subject at uni known as 'process drama', which is an awesome subject. This week we did a drama that investigated the idea of racism, safety and morality.

It was based on a true story about a girl called Kelly Turner, who was 15 years old and lived on the East side of London, a place where there were lots of racial tensions. One night her ex-boyfriend called her and told her that he and his gang had bashed up a guy. (This guy went into a coma because of it). She didn't believe it until the police gave an appeal on tv for the public to come forward with information about the bashing. She went and gave them the information she had. Later on, she was followed, got threatening phone calls and was even bashed for what she'd done.

Anyway, it was interesting to hear the responses of everyone when we discussed what we would have done in her situation. Some people said they wouldn't have gone to the police, for fear of their own safety. Others said they would, because they'd feel guilty if they didn't.

What came across clearly were the consequences of doing the right thing - putting your own personal safety at risk. Obviously she was going to be in danger if she went and told the cops.

But what nobody really discussed was the consequences of NOT doing the right thing - of playing it safe. Okay, so let's say we're Kelly and we play it safe. We don't tell the police. The consequences?
Guilty conscience
Racism continues, and we are indirectly responsible for that.
We become hardened to the violence that goes on around us.

If we become too hardened, pretty soon we won't care who gets beaten up. We might even participate in beating someone up. So, directly or indirectly, we end up contributing to the hatred that is already growing.

Can I encourage you then, to do the right thing, even if it is difficult? Even if it is at the expense of your safety? Because it will make a difference.

Of course, people would never do such a thing (place a higher value on morality than on safety) unless they had a really good reason. I've got my reason. He didn't put his safety above my need. So I hope that when it comes to the crunch, I won't put my safety above someone else's need.

Hitch - movie review

I saw Hitch last night! What an awesome movie :-) Okay, that's about the extent of the review. I don't want to give anything away - go and see it if you're so interested!

And on top of that, it'll give you plenty to think about - what are your ideas about dating, love, relationships?

Hitch made this statement: "Any man has the chance to sweep any woman off her feet. All he needs is the right broom."

ADVICE TO GUYS FOR CHOOSING THE RIGHT BROOM:

1) Check your intentions. (Most guys I know have good intentions) If you don't, you'd better get some. Are you in this for her or you? Are you only looking out for your happiness, or do you care about her well-being more? The vacuum cleaner approach is not acceptable (i.e. suck them in and throw them out with the rubbish). The broom method (sweep them off their feet) is the aim.

2) Be bold. If you feel like the girl of your dreams doesn't know you exist, then let her know you exist. Try to do this with tact and in good taste. Running across the street screaming and trying to avoid oncoming traffic is probably not the best way to go about it. Having said that, I'm sure it worked for someone along the line.

3) Be yourself. Don't pretend to be someone you're not. What if she doesn't like who you pretend to be? What if she DOES like who you pretend to be and then find out you're not that person?! That'd be worse. Be honest.

ADVICE TO GIRLS FOR BEING SWEPT OFF THEIR FEET BY THE RIGHT BROOM.

1) Same as #1 for the guys. Check your intentions. Why do you so badly want to be swept off your feet? Cos you actually like the guy, or because you just like the attention? If you are simply looking for attention, but you don't particularly like the guy, then I suggest you don't proceed. You'll end up hurting him.

2) Okay, so your intentions are good. Here's the next thing: patience. The man of your dreams may not be as bold as the guy who ran across the traffic. So just wait. He'll get there eventually. Meanwhile, there's plenty of life to be lived. So live it! Sure, you'll feel lonely sometimes. That's why God gave us lifelines....phone a friend!!!!

3) See #3 of the guys advice. (Change the word 'she' for 'he')

Having written all this great advice, I have suddenly remembered that I am single. Heh - one of life's great ironys (is that a word?) - a single girl giving relationship advice. Well why not. It makes for interesting reading, if nothing more ;-)

A Tribute

A tribute to my friend's (Aaron's) hair.

The hair that sits
On your head
Will soon be gone
And instead
You will be bald!

That will be a change
To say the least
Because your hair
Was an unruly beast
*I can't think of something that rhymes with bald*

But when you say
Goodbye to your hair
And as you get used to
People who stare

Remember the people
Who might one day have hair
Because of what
You chose to share.

Okay, I know that's REEEEEALLY corny, but it was okay for 2 mins effort, and tonight Aaron is getting his head shaved for the "World's Greatest Shave For a Cure" - all proceeds are going to support people who have leukemia. If you have seen Aaron's hair, you know what an impressive effort this is. I would put up a picture, but I haven't figured that bit out yet.

So Aaron......well done! We will all miss your unruly hair and we look forward to seeing it go through the 'afro' stage as you grow it back again.

God...Who is He?

People have lots of ideas about who God is. Probably 2 of the most common are also 2 of the most extreme. Either people think God is a big, mean, angry man in the sky waiting to zap someone with lightning when they do something wrong. Or they think God is a big "fuzzy-fuzzy" (as one comedian put it) and that anything people do, whether evil or good, is fine with him.

People don't really think about God as a father. I don't think about him like that enough - I forget, and somehow that image of "policeman God" is stuck in my brain.

Anyway, check out this link:
http://www.fathersloveletter.com/fllnarration.html
and think about it.

This one's for Janelle

(But everyone else can read it too, it just won't make much sense)

ROMEO: Girl, it ain't no thing
JULIET: Ain't no thing but a chicken wing!
ROMEO: Girl, you got it goin' on
JULIET: Twenty-four seven three sixty five!!!!

TAYLOR MASON:

"Got a nice house in the suburbs
A beautiful wife
Three great children
I love my life! I've got the blues.....
The happy, happy blues"

(just so you know, that's all from a video called Bananas! with Taylor Mason. Just in case the copyright people come looking)

Funny stuff

Life is humourous. I think so, anyway. Just about anything can be funny, depending on how you look at it. And if your life isn't funny, there are ways that you can make it funny. Spying on your friends at university and trying to sneak up on them, for instance. Or watching Veggie Tales. As my sister says, if you can't laugh at singing, talking vegetables, what can you laugh at?

Occasionally I'll be posting humourous, weird comments that I hear/see around the place. Here's the first one:

Sell your car for $9 on carpoint.com.au

(That was an ad on the end of an email from one of my friends. If I were you, I'd go to carpoint.com.au RIGHT NOW and snap up a bargain!)

Bands

Here are some of my favourites:

Relient K
www.relientk.com

Switchfoot
www.switchfoot.com

The Lads
www.theladsband.com

Downhere
www.downhere.com

Audio Adrenaline
www.audioa.com

Scat
www.scatjazz.com

Plus for music festivals check out
www.sonfest.com (Sonfest) and www.agmf.com.au (Australian Gospel Music Festival)
If you want to listen to music for various bands that sound generally cool, www.purevolume.com

"Life is Random"

That's the new slogan for the iPod shuffle. I think they used that word 'random' cos it's a cool word. But I think they were a bit slow - it's been in use for over a year now. So hey - to all my friends who were using it a year ago - you're cool :-)

Isn't it funny how you remember ads, but not what they were for? Or you remember the example the book gave you, but not what the example was of? Random.

Speaking of random stuff (and this is a random topic) we (being my sister and my friend and I) made some new friends at Sonfest (Christian music festival) who we named 'The Randoms'.

Why did random become such a popular word? Why does ANY word become popular, for that matter? And why can't I make the word 'noof' popular? (I'm sure you can tell that I'm trying).

Someone I know tried to make a saying popular: "The untrustworthiness of it all!" It didn't catch on. Why not?

Okay, that's the end of this one, but there'll be more later. My dad referred to a blog as a 'lazy person's website' and I guess I agree....I'm not gonna find time to maintain a website!