1 day to go!

Yes that's right, street chaplaincy for schoolies 05 begins tomorrow!

And I need to pack!

And everything.

So this is my last post for awhile :-) Thank you, my dear readership :-) Please feel free to continue to comment while I am absent :-)

Hebrews 13:5b,6
God has said, "Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you." So I say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?"

Good verse to leave with.

Bye guys!

Planetshakers lyrics!

Would you believe me if I said
That God can make miracles happen today?
Would you believe me if I said
That you don't have to wait for the answers before
You step out in faith?
Would you believe me if I said
That nothing is ever impossible for God?

If I had wings I would fly
Cos all that I need You are
And if the world caved in around me
To You I'd still hold on
Cos You're all that I believe
You're the one that created me
Jesus, because of You
I'm free! ~"Free"


My song for 2004 :-)

I thought it was impossible for me to stop being afraid. I thought I would never be able to get free of all the thoughts that used to plague me......

And then Romans 8:6 showed up in family prayer time one night :-)

So that was the start. Learning to be filled with the Holy Spirit meant that He transformed my thoughts and thinking patterns. And eventually I was free - He set me free.

So would you believe me if I said that nothing is ever impossible for God? ;-)

A tribute to friendship!

Friends are friends forever
If the Lord's the Lord of them
And a friend will not say "never"
Cos the welcome will not end
Though it's hard to let you go
In the Father's hands we know
That a lifetime's not too long
To live as friends

~ Michael W. Smith "Friends"

Michael W. Smith wrote that song for a friend of his who was moving away. But I think it sums up friendship well.

Nelle and I have a saying: "Friendship is stealing chips." That's because when you are really good friends with someone you can eat food off their plate (or in this case, from their KFC meal) and no one minds. You can also wake them up in the middle of the night......lol. You can let them sleep in their seat and half of yours too on the bus :-) *That was funny*

You can be honest with them. You can count on them to ask you what's wrong, even if you haven't said something's up. They don't put you down - they lift you up and encourage you to be all that you can be. Sometimes they can see who you are going to be and help you get there, even when you've forgotten.

They will be in on that 3am prank. They return SMS's, say hi on MSN, comment on your blog and send you emails.

If they have to point out your weaknesses, they have a way of not rubbing it in. They ask you to be more than you are when necessary. They are there when life is painful and you cannot possibly take another step.

Thanks God, for coming up with the idea of friends :-) That was a champion idea.

The email tally

Since getting off MSN and onto schoolies prep, my email count has skyrocketed. No wonder I'm addicted to that unopened envelope in my inbox! ;-)

November 10 - 4
November 11 - 3
November 12 - 5
November 13 - 10
November 14 - 16!!!
November 15 - 10

That's 36 in the last 3 days, not counting hotmail or work email!

Cool.

Thanks everyone who emailed! Email ANYTIME! :-)

None as of yet for November 16! But hey, the day (night?) is young.....and you're so beautiful. B flat. :-p
The niiiiight is young
And you're so beautiful..........

hahahahahahahahaha............I'm sure this is only funny cos it's so late and I haven't slept in a while ;-)

gotta go...

Noof the noof. The very noofy noof. (Btw, 'noof' rhymes with 'roof')

P.S. What's the most emails you've ever had in a day?

Graduation

My sister graduated this evening. (Well, yesterday, really.) And she won the Home Economics award :-)

Something about school....it's a great place to be. You just don't recognise that fact all the time....maybe you don't recognise it until you've left! But just something about seeing the same friends everyday, who finally become like family.......Just something cool about sharing your life with people.

Maybe that's what this blog is for.....a poor substitute for sharing my life with you. Who wants to do coffee sometime? Or something? :-)

Looking forward to schoolies - here's what we get to share:
Food
Excitement
Nerves
Advice
Information
Friendship
Encouragement
Sleeping quarters
Sleep, or lack thereof
The bathrooms
Chores
Emotions
Pain
Joy

Looking forward to it all, guys! :-)

part of a hymn....

Sometimes the way is lonely
It's steep and filled with pain
So if your sky is dark
And pours with rain
Cry to Jesus
Cry to Jesus
Cry to Jesus
And live

Oh and when the love spills over
And music fills the night
And when you can't contain
Your joy inside
Then dance for Jesus
Dance for Jesus
Dance for Jesus
And live

Relient K :-)

Relient K once wrote a song called 'Jefferson Airplane'. And that's a band.

So now I'm listening to J.A's music. Kind of hippie. Peace, man. Make chocolate, not war :-p

Jefferson Airplane by Relient K:

Jefferson Airplane
I'm trapped and I'm enclosed
But I won't complain
I'll open all the windows
Cos when it's colder
I feel much better
When I cry on my own shoulder
Just throw on a sweater and go....

And I'll go
To undergo
A surgery to purge me of this lonely mood
And my ego
The status quo
Provides me with a decent attitude
And I'll go
To undergo
A change of heart
A change of clothes
And when I'm home
I think I'll go
Eat cereal and
Stare out the windows.

This one's for the guys....

I think I may owe an apology. Lucky me, eh?

Just that in the last few posts (and not just on this blog, on my other one) I've been acting kind of mean towards guys - saying things that put you down and stuff. Anyway, I'm sorry about that, and I hope I haven't hurt anyone.

I don't want to be one of those girls that walks around going "I hate guys, they're all stupid!" I really don't want a 'boys are stupid, throw rocks at them' (or 'boys are stupid, shoot BB guns at them' :-s) poster on my wall, or even one written all over my attitude. I think I have a few things I need to deal with, but taking it out on my blog at my friends is not really the way to go about it. You guys are great friends (not to mention awesome MSN buddies! :-) and I really appreciate your friendship.

That's my confession. Thanks for listening.

I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers....
~Philemon 1:4

My issue of control

This helped me:

"Jesus' ownership of our lives is not a control that manipulates us or takes away our dignity. Jesus never presumes things or decides things for people. He does not abuse or bully people. In fact, we find Jesus asking as many questions as people asked Him. He does not decide what people need and then give it to them. He asked the blind beggar Bartimaeus, "What do you want me to do for you?" (Mark 10:51) He asked the paralytic, "Do you want to be made well?" (John 5:6)....And He told His disciples, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." (John 14:15)

Jesus always preserves our freedom. He allows us to choose Him over all others. Jesus will not control us in the wrong way. Nor will He control us in the easy way, by making every decision for us. He governs our lives in the right way; by being who He is without compromise and by insisting we become all that we are meant to be. And He tells us this can occur only through following Him, obeying HIm and maintaining a living, passionate kinship to Him."
~Rebecca Manley Pippert, Out of the Saltshaker

Poetry....

One by one He took them from me
All the things I value most;
Till I was empty-handed
Every glittering toy was lost.
And I walked earth's highways, grieving,
In my rags and poverty
Until I heard His voice inviting,
"Lift those empty hands to Me!"

Then I turned my hands toward heaven
And He filled them with a store
Of His own transcendent riches,
Till they could contain no more.
And at last I comprehended
With my mind, stupid and dull
That God cannot pour His riches
Into hands already full.

(unknown author)

All dressed up and somewhere to go....

I was shopping again today.

*I only bought 1 shirt - actually Mum did.*

I discovered that I really do like shopping. Just not around Christmas time at the Hyperdome.

And since that's practically the only time and place that I used to shop for high school - I practically had a complex :-p

But enough. Today I was in the Hyperdome wearing my street chaplaincy shirt from last year.

A lot of ppl were looking at me. "Hmmm," I thought to myself, "I must be looking really good today!" Then I realised that a bright yellow shirt screaming 'Missing peace?' might have had something to do with it. Ah well, that's an even better reason ;-)

So I'm standing outside some new shop (can't remember its name) while my sister and my mum were inside. My 10 year old bro had gone to sit down on these couches a little way off. And I'm listening to "This Love" by Maroon 5 (I love the bassline). But then this thought came that I really should go and sit with my brother, he likes it when ppl spend time with him. So since the song was almost over (only a 'repeat chorus 5000x or until bored' left), I went over to him and started to chat to him.

There was this guy sitting there on the couch. Suddenly he pipes up, "Are you going to schoolies?"
I climbed over the shopping to sit down. "Yeah," I said (how utterly undignified am I). "We're street chaplaincy."
"Are you guys like the red frog people?" he asked.
"Yeah. Only we don't have red frogs. Do you know about the red frog people?"
"Yeah, I got this card saying 'If you want red frogs, call this number anytime!' which was pretty cool. So what do you do?"
"We walk around on the beach mostly, at Surfers Paradise, and on Cavill Ave. We just talk to people, make sure they're okay. Last year I sat with a guy coming down off drugs."
"Whoa."
"Yeah, that was a bit scary. We help drunk people to the recharge zone where they can stay until they feel better. Are you going to schoolies this year?"
"Yeah. I don't have a place to stay, so I'm just going to stay up!"
"You're not going to sleep all week?"
"Daytime's for sleeping."
"Well don't get sunburned sleeping on the beach!"
Yada yada yada.
"Maybe I'll see you down there."
"Yeah, hope to see you down there. What's your name, sorry?"
"I'm Christian." (We shake hands)
"I'm Nicola. Good to meet you."

It's amazing what this little yellow number can do. I'm not even AT schoolies yet, and they're already asking questions! :-D

Only 6 days to go......
Pray so hard guys.

"Great personality!"

That was our little catch-phrase for our shopping trip today - me and Hann :-) Boy did we have a great time!!!!

Hann is an absolute champion. That's because she is 100% honest and says what she thinks. She's also very funny :-)

We were walking to the shops, discussing what to buy. A girl walked past us wearing a see-through top with a bikini top underneath.
"You should get something like that, Nic," said Hann. "You'd be so popular. And it'd be cos of your great personality."

She was completely serious. I cracked up. And so the joke continued throughout the day.

We discussed an annoying characteristic we've noticed in some guys. (Note the word SOME - not all, k guys?) How they might complain about what girls wear, but as soon as some under-dressed girl walks past, they stop talking to you and openly stare at her at she goes by.

"Just checking out her personality, eh?"

I don't mean to complain - I think girls should dress modestly. It's just annoying when we do and then find that we get ignored for the girls who don't - even if a guy does protest he's not interested in that type of girl.

Anyway, we wandered through Target and I ended up buying like 5 shirts. For $50. Don't tell me I didn't inherit my mother's talent for bargain-hunting. You try finding a shirt for $10 at Target, let alone 5!

Then we grabbed a large Slurpee each (Slurpees are great on hot summer days) and chatted about lots of stuff :-) How sometimes it's hard to treat someone well if they don't treat you particularly well - but how conditional our love is if we only treat those well who act the way we want (there's my little - I mean, BIG - challenge!). And we talked about God's grace and forgiveness (and nearly cried :'-)

We wandered around through a few shops - through Myer. I showed Hann my favourite perfume ('Beyond Paradise', Estee Lauder, if you're buying ;-) and then she suggested I try the guy version of the same thing. At first it smelt a bit like Aeroguard, but as time went on it started to smell better. Hann suggested I marry the guy who wears that. "Just go around the city and ask," she said.
"But I want him to be a Christian."
"Okay, go around all the churches and ask who wears it."
"A marriage based on a fragrance? I suppose they've been based on less," I said.

We went to Jean's West. Guess what we bought. Go on, think really hard.

Meanwhile there was some Santa parade in Queen Street. But we missed it, we were busy NOT trying on jeans in Cotton On (Hann said not to, as it's a most depressing experience apparently :-p ). And we passed a shirt that I considered buying (it was in City Beach) that said "Schoolies 05! Go hard or go home!" I wasn't sure......so we didn't get it ;-) Plus, there'll probably be a stack of ppl at schoolies wearing it.

Then we went to priceline where we managed to get a lot of lip gloss all over ourselves....not quite, but there sure seemed like a lot of it! Hann insisted it made your lips bigger. I insisted it didn't.

Then to the markets where I bought a watch, and with Hann's help, a pair of awesome pink earrings! ;-)

Then we had to go. :-( But it was a great day!!!!! Thanx Hann! :-)

P.S. Today I read Proverbs 31:10-31 in devotions. It's all about the characteristics of a godly woman. Anyway, what stood out to me was
1) This girl has a lot of side-projects going on, doesn't she?
2) She's eagerly working.
"Spending 4 hours a night on MSN" does not equal "eagerly working". Therefore I'm not going on MSN until I come home from schoolies. So if you want to talk, please email me!!! :-D *I promise a reply!* And if I happen to stumble, fall, and do a triple somersault and end up on MSN, DON'T TALK TO ME!!! Thank you, I would appreciate it :-)

Until next time, dear reader ;-)

Isn't work wonderful :-p

Approximately a conversation my dad had today:

"I want to speak to Pam, please."
"Pam? Pam who?"
"I don't know, she didn't tell me her last name."
"If you don't know her last name, then I can't help you! We've got 1200 people working here!"
"Yes, but they're not all called Pam, are they?"

During the course of this futile exercise, Pam had already sorted the problem out, called, and left a message to say it was all okay.

That was the patent office. But it's not just them - it's Centrelink, it's Optus, it's Telstra, it's the ATO, the superannuation, it's the accountancy software, it's Mabo, it's the vibe.

"Customer Service" is more like "Customer please-call-and-be-put-on-hold-for-twenty-minutes-while-we-find-your-file-lose-it-find-it-lose-it-again-have-it-signed-in-triplicate-and-put-it-behind-the-filing-cabinet."

I love work :-p

More about our good ol' buddy MSN :-p

MSN's a funny thing. Occasionally you get bored with the normal talking, so you start new things. Attempting to translate French for instance. This is particularly interesting for a non-French speaker like me :-) Or then, on MSN 7, there's the good old ink drawing.....it's good for pictures, house plans, you name it! I haven't tried the games yet, but I think that might be on the agenda in the near future. Checkers, anyone?

Songs running through my head

Apathetic way to be - Relient K (new one from their new EP - go to purevolume to hear it)
Wishes - superchic[k]
Bowling Ball - superchic[k]

Frasier!

My goodness, I don't know whether I love to love this show or love to hate it ;-) No, I love to love it :-)

If only Frasier could get his act together! I don't know - I spend half the show yelling at him for his stupidity, lack of tact and lack of TIMING (guys, you just don't ask a girl out when she's only JUST broken up with her boyfriend, k?) - and the other half feeling mournfully sad for him (the girl he likes has a boyfriend and isn't interested in him!)

I'm pathetic, I know. But something about these shows.....gives you a wonderful, bittersweet feeling.

Until next time, dear reader, this is Noof, wishing you good reading health! :-p

How apt

A title for a play at the Roundhouse Theatre at QUT, Kelvin Grove:

I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change!

Ad on MSN conversation windows

"Fed up with your flatmate? Find a new one right here!"

They're selling those now?!

The Messiah - but who is that?

I'm writing a talk on the teachings of Jesus about His identity. The rough draft is a week past due - blame assignments :-s

Anyway, since Jesus claimed to be the Messiah, I'm trying to look further into this concept of the Messiah - what was his role exactly? The quickest way would be to find a resource that says "The role of the Messiah was to ____". For some reason I have in my mind the Messiah as a deliverer and conqueror/ruler of Israel - and that's why some people couldn't accept Jesus as the Messiah, because He was so different to their concept of Messiah. But I don't know where I got that idea from. May have heard it around the place.

Anyway, the alternative to getting a nice easy resource is 1) Finding every single prophecy (implicit and explicit) about the Messiah
2) Reading all these prophecies and somehow interpreting them in order to get a picture of the Messiah
3)Then being able to say "So Jesus fulfilled this and this, and we're waiting for His second coming to fulfill these".

It's a problem, isn't it, when you know the answers, but you don't know the questions. So off I go, working backwards!

If you know of anything that might be helpful, please comment :-)

P.S. My phone is no longer on prepaid! Hooray! :-D

I am not a morning person

At 4.40 this morning, I was awoken by the sound of a bird.

It was one of the most ANNOYING sounds ever.

It would not shut up. Now if you've gone to bed at midnight and are woken up 4 and a half hours later, you're going to be somewhat grumpy, right?

Well, maybe you're not. But I was.

I marched out of the house. It was raining. I stood outside the door and yelled, "SHUSH!" at the bird. This had no effect whatsoever.

I marched out to underneath the tree it was in. Still nothing.

That's when finding a rock suddenly seemed like a great idea.

I wasn't going to throw it directly AT the bird, I promise! Just near it, so it would fly away and stop that noise!

Luckily for me, it did decide to be quiet at that point. And fortunately for the bird, we didn't have any rocks. So I went back to bed.

Please don't tell the RSPCA.

Ahem.

Apologies for previous carry-on.

Sleep has restored some of my sanity.

The assignment is finished. Thank you for reading :-)

P.S. So who wants to go do something fun now?! :-D

If I end up hurling this computer out of the window, I will not take responsibility.

Just thought you'd like to know.

Really. I am going to hurt something if I don't figure out Sibelius and its confounded drum kit rubbish soon.

>:-(

Now is a good time for me to be thankful that I am a Christian and therefore will not be polluting the air with profanities - although sometimes it is tempting.

Morning has broken....

The sun is just starting to come up now......it's only just starting to get light.

With freedom fast approaching (not to mention the deadline - noon), I've been thinking about my summer holiday list. (If you're like me, you make lists of things you need to do, or want to do, just so you don't forget anything)

Here's a start:

Watch all those movies!
Clean my room
Write schoolies talk
Get other stuff ready for schoolies
Go to schoolies
Go on holidays with family
Go to Longreach
Swim
Paint my nails
Do something different with my hair
Exercise
Have friends over
Practice piano for once!
Read
Write songs
Paint
Eat (always on the holiday list....always)
Think about what to do after I graduate?

Okay, back to work now. I don't think I'll be posting anymore - not for this morning anyway.

Peace out guys :-)

an update

So I've swapped the clarinet and trumpet, which has improved things, and the dead furry animal in the trumpet seems to have shrunk a little bit - meaning we can now actually hear the trumpet! Hooray.

Now, I was about to start the chorus, and nearly started composing, when I realised....I'm arranging! I'm not allowed to fully compose a new thing! So I think the verse will be ok so far - it's not too original. Hmm. I'm worried about it now, but it's taken me since 7pm to get there, so I'm not deleting it!!! I'll just have to adhere to the chorus more strictly.

Please let me get a 4, God. I'm not kidding - a 4 would be great.

I thought if I wrote about what I'm doing to do next, I might get some ideas. It worked for the clarinet and trumpet.

It's funny how the right question can provoke the right answer. See a previous post - the first one about this assignment. Luke asked, "What kind of an idea do you need?" And that got me thinking about what I needed - something with a few frontline instruments that could have a new time signature......things started to fall into place. It's amazing what the right question can do.

It was getting really stuffy in here so I've worked out how to pull up the blinds and open the windows.....after climbing on a desk and attempting not to kill a computer in the process.

It's a bit creepy around campus at this time of night. Fortunately there are 2 other ppl (that I know) in the lab with me, so we're all alright!

Until next post.....

Sibelius!! What IS your problem?!

It's just past 11 and I've been on the V for two hours.

It's not improving things.

I want to sleep.....how am I ever going to last all night?

I'm taking a break so I don't have to listen to that STUPID clarinet anymore! Don't you UNDERSTAND what 'piano' means? It means SOFT! Not cut through the entire song so that the harmony is the main line!!!

Wait a sec....maybe if I double the melody with the clarinet and use the trumpet in its mid-register for the harmony.....that might work, although Sibelius seems to not only have put a mute on the trumpet, it's positively shoved a small, dead, furry animal inside which prevents any sound from escaping!!!

Why is the font so darn tiny on a Mac?!

Oh no, I'm not tired in the least.

But I might go and have a nap in the recording booth.

Can't wait for sunrise....I'll tell you all about it, considering this room faces east. How awesome!!!!

Ok dudes

It's time for THE BIG ONE.

Yep, pulling an all-nighter at uni.

15 hours and 39 minutes until it's due.

Make that 38 minutes.

Think I can make it? ;-)

I'll keep you updated. So far: there's an awful lot of work to do.

assignments

I need a good idea really fast. Or I'm really dead.

Don't do arranging - kmb617 is not for the faint-hearted, weak-stomached or sleepy-headed.

Thursday night = a lot of V, no sleep and one assignment. :-|

Pray hard.

Just couldn't resist...

Pinch and a punch for the first day of the month!

(no returns)