It ain’t right

Wide awake at 7am on a Saturday. That kinda ain’t right. 

Been wide awake since 3:30am. That ain’t right.

Had a Valerian Forte tablet at 3:30 to get me to ease into sleep but had no effect. That really ain’t right.

Now tossing up whether to torpedo my day’s plans by taking mixing prescription Temazepam and another Valerian so I can get some sleep. That definitely ain’t right. 

Key action taken: jump on the phone and blog. That’s just wrong. 

Have a great day! 😁

I got COVID

So looks like I’ve caught the dreaded virus. Feeling pretty average like I have a pretty bad flu, having to nap each day, and headaches. Said headaches = loss of appetite. 

Never have I felt a lone piece of broccoli to be such a Goliath-like adversary.

Guess who's back? Back again...

Once again inspired to kick start this ol' thang. It began as I sat with two friends in particular this week who have a zest for life and a passion for what they want to do. I suppose they were infectious (can I make that joke even in early 2022?). 

So, is there a mission or vision? Do I have a purpose? A goal perhaps? Of course I do!

The aim is for me to properly digest some of what's going on in my noggin so that I can clarify better what I want to do creatively. Maybe that's continue this blog. Maybe that's make more YouTube videos. Maybe it's learning how to paint (probs not tho). 

Either way, just like a good and straightforward movie there should be a clear beginning, middle, and end (take note David Lynch).     

For now, it's family time as we've just arrived for a week's holiday in Point Lonsdale (the good Lord knows we need it!). Ciao!

Good start so far - at lunch we turned the place upside down

Get After It

In the middle of a 5min break whilst I study during my last Swot/Stu Vac of College. It's been interesting reading about Hermeneutics and the presuppositions we all take for granted. Good old Goldsworthy.

Today began quite well, woke up 6:15am and 'got after it' - got up ready to go and started studying early. The discipline and ambition this morning has largely quelled my sense of nostalgia that's been lingering over me the past week. 

A lot of the nostalgia was triggered by the last week of College, and little things that I'll miss, even if I took them for granted during my four years at Moore. The carpools in the morning, the early morning mochas from the College coffee machine, even the standing desks in the new library. 

What helped me deal with this sentimentality was a meeting with my 'ordination chaplain' this week. He came up from Melbourne for a meeting, and speaking to him really helped me focus on what I did at Moore that is driving me into the future. During that conversation I became excited again by the needs of the gospel in Melbourne and the potential to work in full-time Word ministry. What a privilege! 

Anyway break time is over, need to 'get after it'!

Forms, Forms, Forms

I feel it in my fingers,

I feel it in my toes,

Forms are all around me,

And so the feeling goes...

Spent hours in the past week filling out forms, collecting documents, getting them certified, contacting referees to get onto the ordination path in the Melbourne Diocese. 

It's also been a time of procrastination. For example, filling in said documents involved answering a long series of questions. One included asking about a suspension of drivers' licence. The answer to that question is a 'YES' (!) but for the life of me I wasn't sure which year that was - 2003? 2004? 2005? Sometime around then.

Amazingly I found the answer to that on this very blog! What a blessing it is to have some record of the banality of my life. After a fair bit of hunting (or let's be honest, reminiscing), I in fact did post about having my drivers' licence suspended all the way back in 2004.

Not sure if I should be proud or ashamed.

Time Flies

Stumbled across this last week, typically whilst trying to finish an essay evaluating the usefulness of 'covenant' as a heuristic concept. Spent close to an hour reading old blogs from 10+ years ago about my favourite songs, about movies I watched, observations linking a dark night at Uni to the plot of Taxi Driver. Those were the heady Uni days!

Fast forward a bunch of years and I'm married with two children! Today is Monday where I took a couple of hours out of my study day to hang out with my 3 year-old son Zach, visiting Christ College library, then making a sneaky Maccas run before driving through the automatic carwash which he enjoys. These are the duty-bound theological student-cum-young-parent days!

Music To My Ears

I've thought about putting this blog to rest. But I realised that it might not ever die off. I can write as often or sporadic as I like. That's the beauty of the online domain.

So I was enjoying the absolute luxury of lying in bed after 8am on a very wet Saturday morning and turned to my iPhone. Realised that I had some albums on there that I hadn't listened to in a long time. I worked out that I forgot about them because I don't use my iPhone to listen to music much, and that the original albums I had have been loaned out to friends, never to be seen again (if you're one of my friends with a CD or DVD of mine, could you please kindly return it? Thank you in advance!).

I listened to some Thirsty Merc and John Mayer and then remembered about this blog. I'd like to therefore make an attempt at naming my favourite 10 modern secular songs. I also discovered that to make the top 10, they had to not only be musically attractive, aesthetically pleasing songs, but they were mostly during my teen years. I reasoned that as I grew older, I had less emotional attachment to songs pertaining to circumstances in my life - in other words I'm less melancholy than my teen angsty years.

In no particular order, here you go.

Monkey Wrench - Foo Fighters
Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
Bedtime - Usher
My Completeness - Thirsty Merc
Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
Champagne Supernova - Oasis
Arithmetic - Brooke Fraser
Lullabye - Billy Joel
Reptilia - The Strokes
The End Has No End - The Strokes

Honourable mentions:
Stars - Switchfoot
3x5 - John Mayer
Great Indoors - John Mayer
Somebody to Love - Queen
You Make Me Wanna - Usher
Wonderwall - Oasis
Only Hope - Mandy Moore
On Bended Knee - Boyz II Men
When The Weather Is Fine - Thirsty Merc
Under The Bridge - Red Hot Chilli Peppers
My Friends - Red Hot Chilli Peppers

My favourite music video is still Star Guitar - Chemical Brothers. I've been a big Michael Gondry fan ever since.

I'm a CA

After two years of an impotent social life and cramming lots of accounting-related facts into my head, I've finally completed my CA. Woohoo!

procrastinating rock star?

If this don't make u wanna solo the crap out of a Les Paul then I don't know what will.

Have I mentioned how I LOVE THE STROKES?!

Click on "Watch on YouTube". 3:03 is my favourite bit.

Costco+, Life+

Managed to piggyback off a friend on Tuesday and get in to the exclusive Costco. It was kind of just to see what it was like. I remembered that I had actually been to one before in the States years ago but never really paid attention to it. I just knew it was big and like a warehouse with lots of items that you normally wouldn't find in a warehouse.

Anyway, this time I definitely kept my eyes peeled, and to understand the concept of a membership wholesaler. I walked in and the first items were televisions. I was impressed since they had all the latest brand name TVs, not random no-name ones that look cheaply built. To my surprise, just behind the TV section was the small jewellery section. And this was probably the shock of the night - plenty of diamond, but one ring in particular costing $159,999.99. What the...? There was another next to it for $69,999.99 too. No extra security on the display cabinet, and no staff within sight, apart from the scrawny TV sales guy. I decided that because of the size of Costco, it'd take at least a minute to run to the exit, and then a further 10mins to your car because it's in the-middle-of-nowhere-Docklands.

I didn't really know the prices of a lot of things in the outside world, so I didn't end up buying much apart from food (muesli, salmon). Although I made mental notes of some of the items and came home to research them. Well, next time I get the chance to go, I will surely get some Colgate toothpaste which was $16.98 for a pack of four 160g tubes (or $4.25/tube) where Coles and Woolies are selling it for about $6/tube. Cheaper toothpaste - how cool am I?? Haha

Also played some tennis last night for a good 2.5 hours till 11pm. That's kinda tired me out today, but it was really good to get a strong hit out. I realised recently that I was playing terrible, and even a 1-hour hit wasn't enough to start getting my groove back, but after last night, I think I made a bit of progress. Hopefully if I play about once a week over the next month for over one hour each time I'll begin to hit the ball okay again. I'm kind of excited thinking about playing some really good tennis again, like back in my pre-Uni glory days. But to get to that level and maintain it I think I'd have to start up competition and training again. Not sure if, at this stage of my life, I can spend that much time doing that.

I also noticed that next month, this blog will have been running for 5 years. Wow. That kinda freaks me out. I don't dare to read my posts older than say, this year. It makes me cringe at how much of a n00b I was. Not that I'm not a n00b now because I bet in a few months time when I read this years' posts, I'll cringe too, but that I'm slowly but surely becoming less of a n00b. I guess that's a good thing though, because at least I'm heading in the right direction, and if I laughed at my stupid 20 year-old humour it'd be a worry.

Although, my blog is definitely not indicative of the extent of how much I've changed over the last 5 years. I think a lot of it has been internal and more obvious to those who currently know me really well. I still shake my head in amazement at what I used to believe, say and do compared to now. It just doesn't seem possible that I was the same person then as I am now! Sure, there are similarities, but on the whole, if I met my old self now I would really struggle to relate. I guess some might call it maturing and growing up, but I know it's more than that. I'm more me now than I ever was before.

AO here i come!

scored big this morning - managed to get online at 9am on the dot and get 4 men's final tickets to the Australian Open! and they're not bad seats either - lower section!

it's been a long time coming but one quarter of my dream is coming into fruition! now there's the french, wimbledon and U.S. open left.

if any of you are interested in coming then let me know. i have 2 of 4 tickets still to be taken.

Discoveries

Goodness, I'm all John Calvin'd up from yesterday. Attended a free series of lectures on Calvin, 4 x 1 hour lectures, and a "public rally" which lasted about 1.5hrs in the evening. After that, I realised how much there really is to know in the world and that a million geniuses would still not know everything there is to know. Humbling.

I'm also getting back into golf. Been to the driving range a few times in the last week, thinking about taking it to the next level and getting lessons to get into some good habits. But I think I can hit well enough to get the ball into the right direction.

In other news, I just signed up to Ticketmaster's realvalue card. It's pretty good, you get 5% discounts on Coles and Safeway giftcards (brilliant, as they're necessities), as well as Safeway/Caltex fuelcards, and JB HiFi too! Which means on top of any discount dockets I get for petrol, I get a further 5% off which can't be bad.

I also found out that Australian Open tickets go on sale early October so I'm hanging out till then to see if I can score me some Men's Final tickets. They're about $290 per person, and I can only get a maximum of 4 at a time, which I'm hoping to do. I'm sure I'll get at least 3 friends who are willing to pay that much to see a Final of a Grand Slam, and maybe even willing to go with me! My aim is to try and see a Men's Final in each of the four Grand Slams in my life, I'm guessing I should at least start with the one that's in my very own home town.

Happy EOFYS

well it's the end of another financial year, even though it doesn't really hold much significance for me other than waiting for a big payload after i file my tax return.

been up to a few things recently. i can now bake and cook a few things and i've begun to understand the other side of the culinary experience. where i once only saw, smelt, tasted and touched, i've slowly grasped the gist of what cooking is - the creation of an experience by methodical mixing of food. i knew theoretically what worked and what didn't - too salty, smooth texture etc etc. but im starting be more precise with my diagnosis - a little more garlic, some paprika seasoning, too much chicken broth, more maple syrup.

ironically it was my first 3-course meal i cooked late December last year that still impresses me the most - shiitake mushroom omelette, crispy skin pork belly stuffed with apple, grilled fig topped with brown sugar and dessert wine. beginner's luck i think.

i've also forayed a little further into painting, although my first decent "work of art" still eludes me. my latest trial is below.

hopefully i'll have more to post soon. happy eofys.

first aid officer wong

can't believe i'm actually studying right now.

well it's not so much studying as it is reading.

have a short test tomorrow on first aid, then a whole day of training. after that's all done, i'll officially be a level 2 qualified first aider! which means i can bandage a wound, look after amputated parts, help you if you're poisoned and give you CPR if your heart's stopped beating amongst other things.

yay for you!

rainy day

to take my mind of some other things that have been going on, i've resorted to blogging about beauty pageants. oh dear.

briefly read about the Miss USA controversy. if you are unfamiliar with the story, please read it here:

Perez Hilton lays into Miss USA beauty contestant over gay marriage answer

personally i think it's a case of someone asking another person a question, and that person responding truthfully, and not in a way that's a cop-out, watered-down and fake.

it's pretty interesting how many people have jumped on the "Miss California is intolerant" bandwagon, and then go on about how they are not tolerating her intolerance, using language that, diplomatically speaking, belies their intelligence and is just a touch shy of eloquent.

i just see a black pot and a kettle. and the pot is talking too much.