If you were having a bad day......

and I wanted to make you smile, I'd write something like this:
(thanks to Pat for proof-reading this one)


"Oh how you frustrate me
You drive me up the wall
Just because you know that I am
Short and you are tall.
It isn't fair, I tell you.
How can you be so mean?
To use your height to your advantage
It is just obscene.

Just quit picking on me now
You're getting too big for your boots
I hope a giant ant comes along
And bites one of your foots.
Oh how I'd love to see that.
I'd really have a laugh!
And when your foot is swollen to the size of your head
Then I will call the Mafia,
And they will come and get you
And they will bring you down
To your proper size, won't you be surprised!
The news will be out around town.

And then won't you be feeling sorry
Won't you be feeling uptight
When they shrink you down, then you'll be short
And I'll be twice your height!"

Strine

'Strine' is the unofficial language of Australia. This post is a lesson is Strine. So, translate this (if you can :-)

"Water bat jars-chewer nigh goa natter teat night? Jarssa touvers. Wicked deffer few drinxer nairn F.T."

Give it your best shot ;-)

The Last 3 Days

I spent at my grandparents house :-)

Now for those of you who don't get to visit their grandparents very often, either due to time or distance restrictions, you should try to visit them sometime.

REASONS TO VISIT YOUR GRANDPARENTS:
1) You can hear all about your mum or dad and what she/he used to get up to
2) You can learn about your family history. Sound boring? It's not - it gives you a sense of belonging - you know who you are, where you've come from.
3) Grandparents are just generally great people. They drive sensibly. They eat well. They are polite. Society needs more grandparents!
4) They listen to your stories, no matter how boring or long they are.
5) They let you read their books.

So:
THURSDAY
Grandpa drove me down to their place. We went to a fish and chips place by the Broadwater for tea. Then Grandpa told me a lot about his family history. That was great, and I think we'll have to put it into a book sometime.

FRIDAY:
We went out a bit on Friday. To Harbourtown (but I didn't go shopping, except to Woolies), to the workers club for lunch. Spent the rest of the day at home. Read some books, played their piano - chilled.

SATURDAY
I slept in! To 9:30am! (Grandpa gets up at 5:30am every day - he's a morning person.) :-0
Then......what did we do then? Just more hanging out. And then watched 'Fiddler on the Roof', which was LOOONG, but good :-)

Heh heh.......I liked this verse of the song 'Matchmaker':

Matchmaker, matchmaker, plan me no plans.
I'm in no rush, maybe I've learned
Playing with matches a girl can get burned.
So bring me no ring, groom me no groom,
Find me no find, catch me no catch.
Unless he's a matchless match!

And then

SUNDAY
Church at the City Baptist Tabernacle........which was great!!! And a couple who went to my church got inducted there - the husband as the new associate pastor. And the music there is fantastic.

Then we went to Toowong, and my grandparents pointed out where my grandma was born, and which house she grew up in. (Also, we went to Roma St Parklands for lunch) Then we came home and here I am!

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for a great time! :-)

Outage

An "outage" is scheduled for 4pm PST on this here blogger thingy.

They seem so apologetic : "Blogger was down for 10 minutes at 6am one morning. We apologise profusely to all those inconvenienced by our stupid, terrible, awful, nasty server, and we promise that we will take steps in the future - lots and lots of steps - to ensure that this appalling, disgusting, horrible tragedy will never occur again." (Think the restaurant sketch in Monty Python - "It is, it's a dirty, horrible, nasty, smelly fork.")

I'm not complaining! Blogger can go out for all I care - probably the only time it gets fresh air and exercise anyway. Perhaps we should start a union for blogger and demand good wages, decent breaks and......something else I haven't thought of yet.

Word verification, on the other hand, will receive none of these benefits as long as I keep getting x's and z's. It hasn't made a proper word yet.

I'm going to have lunch.

Nightlife

Take a little good advice
Try a trip to paradise
It's not hard to find
You've got it on your mind
You can't pretend it wouldn't be nice......... ~Goodies theme song~

Nightlife lite happened last night. And it was good. I don't really have anything further to report. Except how LONG did that "imagineiff" game take?!

"Um...no wait, I'm not ready!" Everyone
"So....what colour are you?" Hann
"Move me forward one." Chris Ryan
"Quick game's a good game!" me
"Yes." Jim (to every possible option available)
*Snort* (this person shall remain nameless)

Fun times. And even more coming up next week at Lisa's. I don't think I'll play "imagineiff", if that's okay ;-)

I Survived Teenage-Hood - You Can Too.

I am 20! :-)

The next 10 years hold many new and exciting, and probably difficult, things.

Yesterday was my birthday, and I had a great time :-) Thank you to everyone who helped me have a great time.

I got one of the funniest cards I've ever received. In it, John Howard and Kim Beazley both agree that I am a blessing to the Australian economy. Is this meant to imply I spend a lot? :-p

I received presents from the cute to the fun to the useful to the wacky and the bizarre - even the non-existent (one friend gave me air for my birthday). I don't know what I'm going to do with my c-clamps yet, but I'm sure they'll come in handy ;-) Same with my new tarp. I got a tarp!!!!

*Oh, and the Goodies DVD*

Heh...I also got some sticker things........and you may be seeing more of them on this blog.......I have an idea. Stay tuned.

I'm off now - must get onto my 'to-do' list. Thanks guys :-)

So far today, God, I've done all right. I haven't gossiped, haven't lost my temper, haven't been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or over-indulgent. I'm really glad about that. But in a few minutes, God, I'm going to get out of bed and from then on I'm probably going to need a lot more help. Thank you. In Jesus name, Amen. (http://jokes.christiansunite.com/Prayer/So_Far,_So_Good.shtml)

That's almost exactly what I pray in the morning :-)

So peeps. ("That's so ghetto," I can hear my sister saying. Yeah, well, word up. Or whatever.) Tomorrow is the last few hours of my teenage years - then I become a "twenty-something" (or -someone).

I don't know what this entails, but I'm sure it's going to be fun! :-D Anyway, if you have God, you can get through anything, right? So if you have God and a sense of humour, maybe you can get through anything and even enjoy it. Bring on the fun!!!

USES FOR SILLY STRING:
1) Spray on people while they are asleep
2) Spray on people while they are awake (you just have to be faster)
3) Decorate your room
4) Decorate someone else's room
5) Or your car
6) Or theirs
7) - 100) Take to MYC and plot with your friends ;-) *See, none of you will remember this by MYC, so I can say it now.*

Mu hahahahhahahahaaa :-D

Evil laughter is so pretentious. I don't think I'll do it anymore.

Hey, did anyone apart from Pauline and I notice that the two lead girls in "Memoirs of a Geisha" are actually Chinese, not Japanese? One of them is from 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' and the other is from 'Tomorrow Never Dies'. Apparently one is dating the director - and the other used to. Boy, that would be the worst. I mean, can you imagine trying to be professional? i.e. steaming quietly in your caravan/trailer after shooting for the day. Still, it's a job. If the alternative is Centrelink.........well, it's hard to say which one would be more painful, really!

The alarm on my phone just went off, reminding me to ask my friend what his idea was. 1 and a half years ago, he said he had an idea that he could put together, but it would take 1.5 years, so to ask him then. Well, that day was today. And I asked him at church. He couldn't remember what the idea was, but he could remember that it fell through. Never mind. Maybe he'll remember by tonight.

See you crazy kids when I'm all grown up!

Blonde joke

Slightly annoying but this blonde joke is also funny.

The quest for.....well, something.

My quiet times/devotions these last few days have not taken on their usual form.

I was reading Luke 8:1-15 - that's the parable of the sower. You know the seed that falls on the 4 types of ground? Well, I was kinda thinking that if I was any of those 4 types of ground, I was probably closest to being the thorny type of ground - choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures (see verse 14) and the worst bit: "and they do not mature," and I was like, "Crikey!"

So, I thought, how do I stop from being choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures?

The answer to stop being choked by worries was found in Philippians 4:6,7.
Riches - my answer was to store up treasure in heaven. How to do that is tomorrow's devotion.
Today's was how to stop being choked, or controlled by pleasures. I mean, let's face it - pleasure is fun, right? So it's difficult. If I want something, and God says no, will I be able to say no to myself?
"They don't put verses like "this is how to enjoy stuff, but not let pleasure control you" in the Bible!" I thought.

But quite by accident I ran into Colossians thingy verse thingy....hang on.....
Colossians 3:1,2.
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things.

Right! So basically - to cut the control that pleasure has on me - focus on heaven. Focus on the eternal, not the temporary. :-D That was helpful.

And today was about heaven - what's in heaven to look forward to. I think this could be a huge long study.....but Revelation was basically where I went. And yeah, there's gonna be this city and it's gonna be about 2.2km long, high and wide.......God's gonna be there. There's not going to be any death or mourning or crying or pain. yeah! and no night. Yeah, we never have to go to sleep! :-p and no sun - God's glory is going to be so bright that's all we'll need. And we will live with God. and Jesus. So it's got to be good. I don't know......reading it all just made me feel happy - I couldn't imagine anyone looking sad or upset or serious there - just big smiles all round :-D

Bring on heaven!

University! I can't BELIEVE you!!!!

Updated timetable:

Monday: 8:30-10:30am
Tuesday: 8pm-9pm
Wednesday: 10am-1pm
Thursday: A 3 hour tute somewhere in there!!!!!!!!!!
Friday: 10-12 and 7pm-9pm.

Oh how I hate you, my timetable.

Oh yeah. One more thing.

Don't recommend dating books to me to read.

See, I've slowly become tired of reading dating advice (or courtship advice). Contradictions abound between books. Some of them use the same Bible verses to back up two very different points of view.

I have a new idea!

I don't think I'll read dating books anymore. :-0

I think I'll try for myself to understand the principles that are in the Bible. And then do the difficult thing - work out how they apply by trying to put them into practice. Instead of a book telling me how to apply them - as though God's Word wasn't enough for me. (Btw, I'm not saying that everyone who has read a dating book thinks God's Word isn't enough - but for me I think I've depended too much on books and not enough on God's Word)

Heh - and then I'll write my own book. NOT! :-)

boredom

So dudes.

I'm at work and I'm bored. I've written 2 blog entries, but deleted them before posting. They weren't any good.

Now I'm sitting here writing an even worse one about the ones I deleted. Maybe I'll delete this one too. But then you'll never know that I wrote this, will you?

Of course it would help if I wouldn't finally drift off at 2am only to wake up at about 7am. Never mind - tonight I will sleep well.

I have to clean my room. You have no idea what an arduous (did I spell that correctly? it looks wrong!) task it is. If you keep it clean in the first place, you don't have to do cleaning marathons.

I want to read a good book. Can you recommend any?

The challenge

To find me the chords to Anberlin's song 'The Runaways'.

I can't find it anywhere, so if you can.........

Something I love about Relient K and Switchfoot is their ability to use words to express feelings and thoughts and describe things that happen. Would love to write like them one day.

Daisy is one of my new favourite songs from Switchfoot's new album. It makes me a bit teary sometimes, but it's such a.....hmm, what's the word? - brave- it's such a brave song.

Daisy lyrics

Just rambling now. "I was born a rambling man".....make that girl........Allman Brothers.

I am back now, so you can comment on my blog if you so desire.

Real life sets in

It's back to some form of real life after camping, although that won't fully start until uni. But already I am making work plans, attempting to renew Blue Cards and pining over my schedule.

Monday: 8:30-10:30am
Tuesday: 8-9pm. (what the?!)
Wednesday: 10-1pm
Thursday: Forget it
Friday: 10-12noon and 7-9pm. Alternatively I could have a 1-3pm class. In CABOOLTURE!!!!

On the upside, I get to sleep in most days. And I'm only doing 4 subjects, so I'll have more time to study, work and socialise. Less stress.

On the downside, I think my friends will all forget who I am. "Oh yeah," they'll say, "she used to hang out with us, but now......I guess she thinks she's just too cool for us." No, please, it's my Friday night class!!! You know how much I'd love to be out having a paint fight or whatever it is you're doing!

On the upside, I may have time to actually be in this band Hann and I keep talking about.

10 days left as a teenager! I'm getting the urge to decorate my room in pink, buy a Chik magazine and giggle to my friends on the phone about all the cute guys. Ah, high school.

Off the topic, Student Life now has a blog. Crikey. Go here to visit it.

Right, that's about it. When Dad develops his photos from our holiday I'll post some.

Camping is fun!

Is this the new year, or just another night?
Is this the new fear, or just another fright?
Is this a new tear, or just another desperation? ~Switchfoot, 'The Blues'

Hey guys!!! I'm back from holidays. Thanks for all the crazy messages and pranks. :-)

I logged on to MSN today and my message says "I'm a Goody! And I'm going on holidays! But I would appreciate a full inbox when I get back!"

Boy, did I get one. 168 emails of spam in one account when I got back?! Mostly from banks. They must think I have money.

If I tell you every story, I'll be here all day. So I'll introduce you to the people we went on holidays with. (Unfortunately I have no photos, so I'll do my best)

Rob, Rosie, Heather and Josh Stevens.

Rob: The dad of this family. Great guy - drove down to Grafton from Sydney on Christmas day, and then drove us back to Sydney, because our car broke down on Christmas day. Thank you!!!! And he loves motorsport. (They all do, that's how we know them - they're from the Christian Autosports Club in Sydney. My dad's from the one in Queensland. Here is their website. Rob - or Bob, as he is sometimes known - was the president last year)

Rosie: The mum of this family. Loaned me a really good book. Took me, my sister and my brother into their house for 2 days (on our trip back home). You couldn't meet a more accomodating person.

Heather: Rob and Rosie's daughter - 16 years old. I didn't get to hang out much with her, but she's nice. She sings at their church (Hillsong, incidentally - all these guys go to Hillsong).

Josh: Rob and Rosie's son - 13 years old. Went mountain biking for a couple of days, took his Target bike over 4 jumps, sailed over 5 people on the last jump and stacked it at 42 km/h. Very proud of his injuries. He's also a really fast cricket bowler.....seriously, you do not want him bowling when we play it on the road......

Peter, Leonie, Ben and Troy Harris.

Pete: The dad. Is always good for a laugh and good for a chat. Took some of us fishing and taught me how. Even let me use his fishing rod! Owns the new Switchfoot album. Loves motorsport.

Leonie: The mum. She also loves to read (we had a lot of readers on this trip) And fishing! We think Leonie's fishing rod is lucky....she always catches fish on it, and I've even caught one on it once. So there you go.

Ben: Eldest son at 18.5 Motorsport fanatic. One of Tiph's best friends. Seems to know a lot of people. Didn't get to hang out a lot with him either, but he's a pretty cool guy.

Troy: Youngest son at 15. How can I say this? Troy is a ladies man. There is no other way to put it. He had at least 2 girls interested in him while we were camping. Wait, possibly 3. Anyway, apart from all that, Troy is basically a nice guy, who loves motorsport and mountain biking. He too took his over jumps, but didn't stack it. And he was the 5th person in the line of 5 under Josh's bike.

Les, Kerry, Dave and Gary Oliver

Les: The dad in this family. He loves to give Miles raspberries. "Nope," said Miles this year, "you won't be able to get me." But he did!!! Miles and Les get on quite well. And Les also loves motorsport. His favourite word was "goomba". (That's what you call people when they're being stupid - "ya goomba")

Kerry: Also loves to read :-) We should have had a reading party. I didn't get to spend a lot of time with Kerry either, but she and Mum seemed to have a lot to talk about.

Dave: Photographer extraordinaire, eldest son at 19. And loves motorsport. He and Dad and I went to this lookout 4 times trying to get a picture of a sunset. The third time he just took his brother Gary and I. We didn't get it :-( That's why we had to go a fourth time! On the way back we nearly hit a roo. That shook us all up a bit. But it was funny :-)

Gary: Youngest son at 14. Crazy kid. Got hit by a car a few weeks before we came. (He was on his bike.) Only got a broken leg, fortunately. He seems to get a lot of injuries. Rosie says the angels in heaven must groan when they get put on assignment with Gary. He's a nice kid too, just not always aware of what's going to happen if he does....THIS. (Ow!) Or if he is aware, he doesn't seem to care. The most used word while we were camping was: "Gary!"

They were the 3 families we camped with for the 2 weeks. Later on in the week Steven, Jane, Robyn and Connie Annabel joined us. And then a girl from a few campsites away came and hung out with us. Her name was Brianna. She too stacked it on the mountain biking expeditions.

So those are the people we camped with.