Saturday Part One.

Well things have been busy and net access has been hard to find, but here we go… Not much time, but will do my best…

Saturday – Part 1.
Up around 5. Stayed at the central coast again, so had to get into it early. Left the motel around 5.30, heading for McGraths Hill Maccas to meet my parents. Anyways, got to maccas (I know its evil), met up with Mick, and then we all went our separate ways. Mum and Dad home with Makhyah, Karz up to the Hen’s night, and Mick and I to Skirmish.

So Mick and I rock up to Skirmish, meet a bunch of people I might have met once before yonks ago, and get ready for battle. or whatever it is. So, they split the teams up capoeira guys against everyone else – oh how I wished I was a capo guy right then – it was the sentence to getting my butt kicked. So, I guess I will just write a couple of key stories (or ones that I was involved in) to paint a picture of the day.

I’m pretty much slow and big, so there is very little I have going for me when it comes to things like this. So my strategy is to hide, or lurk round the back somewhere and hope I don’t get hit. Apparently neither plan worked too well. First game, I’m hiding in the main fort (where the other team had to take the flag from) when… BANG! In the neck. I tell you, it freaked me out. Then we swapped sides, I’m just wandering round up the back when BANG, cant remember where I got hit, it was just so surprising that someone got me from that distance – big target I guess…

So, our ref for the day was a bit of a tool. Didn’t explain things well and was pretty much not there mentally. They were pretty full on about keeping masks on, which is good, better to be that way than loose an eye.

So… Change of plan. Now I will hide until I have a good spot, then HERO RUN! So I hid behind a barricade with Mick and Kara (Grant was on the other team), then when the time was right(ish) I charged out trying to get the guys who were shooting at us. So… I leap up start bolting, and couldn’t see anyone, all the places I thought they were, there was no-one. So I got hit a coupla times and wandered back to the shed.
When we changed sides on that one I started with the hero run, but then got behind a barricade and was like “now what do I do”. I’m pretty sure I got hit by friendly fire.

Well, gotta run, a few more stories will follow I’m sure…

Update: Thursday and Friday

Finally getting a chance to blog some stuff that’s happened over the last week. Man, its been busy, very busy, but here we go…

Thursday
Raced around a bit Thursday morning. Nakari had to go to a shop at Pac Fair, but really we went down the coast cause I left my sunnies at work. Good one… anyways, picked up the boy from daycare, went to airport… flew to Newcastle.
Newcastle was so so so cold (windy etc), and the lady from hertz wasn’t very helpful, but eventually we got on the way, a guy from a servo gave me directions and we headed for foresters beach (I thought it was about half hour…) hmmmm…. A little over an hour later we were stopping for dinner. Got in around 9, bed…

Friday
Didn’t do much. Shops mainly. Karz wasn’t feeling well so I entertained Makhyah for a while – amazing what fun you can have with a $2 ball. It was soooo windy though – kick the ball forwards and it went backwards… arghhh
Got fish and chips for dinner. Crashed out….

Will try to get back on soon to write about the huge day I had on Saturday.

t minus 12 days...

So, 12 days til the wedding. Been a little bizarre lead up thus far, but its all good.

clothing and bridal parties. always fun and games. tomorrow i shall be driving half way across town hunting for a shirt. im glad we found one, i'd hate to stick out (yeah right). Also got my suit jacket being sorted by my champion mother-in-law, so it wont look too big, but thankfully (?) i put on some weight so it wasnt as big a issue as it could have been - yay to chocolate!! glad i'm not nakari though - the dresses they are wearing are going to be freezing... oh well, i guess my suit jacket will be surrended to my beautiful wife, and we will both be cold... dunno???

Spoke to Mick yesterday, as i said a very funny fellow (or fallow if he was a farm boy). Had a litte chat about possible gifts, i wont allude to his possible choice of gift, but i can share some of the no-go options. My favourite was a bottle of weed-killer and a small spade, with a small sticker on the outideside saying "weeding present", gold! just gold i tell you. For some reason big bizarre sculpture were also mentioned (a la Mr Burns' gift to bart for being a blood donor). There were alot of funny things mentioned, but i cant remember them all...

So also had to sort out everything else we are doing. Makhyah, Karz and I are staying up the central coast somewhere Thursday, Friday, then have the Bux/Hens parties on this coming saturday. The skirmish we are going to starts at 8.30am, then aparently from there we are doing dinner, going out, etc... crikey, i imagine i will either pike early or fall asleep, we'll see. So, Saturday morning we have to drive from the central coast to my parents place near Bankstown, then out to skirmish, past windsor. fun and games.

Another highlight of our time in Sydney has come totally out of the blue. Kaya (those funky girls from x-factor) are playing a gig at the Basement - i love the basement - good memories - tidas, jeff lang, john buttler, blea fleck and the flecktones (best gig i have ever been to), just to name a few. So, kaya should be great there, really looking forward to it (love to meet them too, wanna talk to alex about africa).

not sure what else will go on while we are down south, i shall try to blog at least every coupla days. thats unless i just get overwhelmed by grant's good looks and cease to exist (man, he's just a babe) ok im the best man, i have to say things like that, or do i?

"always play with their minds"

The Wedding Approacheth

what nonsense is ian rabbiting on about now? well, thought i'd blog a little about the wedding that's coming up, so when i refer to it over the next 2.5 weeks, it'll make sense.

Background
Nakari and I have been married for a little over 3 years now. Somehow, amazingly, this is the exact amount of time that Rachel and Grant have been together. So yeah, you connected the dots? Rach and Grant got together on our wedding night. But wait... there's more... Grant was my best man, and Rachel was Nakari's head bridesmaid/maid of honour (whatever you call it). So, Grant has selected me to be his best man (out of all the men in the whole world, I'm the best), and Karz (Nakari) was asked by Rach (how symmetric). So, its a pretty big deal.

Not Background Anymore
I dunno, how do you define the break between background and not... anyway...
So, the wedding is on the central coast (somewhere, i think???). So Karz, Makhyah and I fly down next Thursday (23rd) stay a coupla nights somewhere, then catch up with my parents in sydney, then do stuff with grant and rach, wedding, home. thats it in a nutshell.

Some key things you will need to know about the characters as the plot develops (just gonna mention the ones that i will be spending the most time with.

Grant:
Pretty much the best looking guy I know (will show photos later). Teaches PE, has a real disability (read here - is a bulldogs fan - NRL). likes capoiera bjj and pretty much anything where you get to hurt people. likes crap music (lol) but good guitarists, has random taste but that is a good thing. I went to school with Grant, and well, we had a fair few run ins, but somewhere along the line music got the best of us and we hung out stacks.

Mick/Michael:
Micks a teacher too, primary school. Pretty much the funniest guy i know. has never been to Nepal. plays guitar well - cleaner than me thats for sure, has a nice motorbike (nicer than grants methinx) . A groomsman in the bridal party (both Grant's and mine), lived not that far from me so we hung out lots at school. Mick was the 3rd member (along with Grant and I) of the infamous Tree-o - we got our name at school from sitting in a tree at lunch time playing guitar (at least thats where mythology has taken the story). Mick also likes some crap music, but got me into yes among others, so for that i am grateful.

Kara/Jason:
Kara is good friends with grant, i haven't had a lot to do with him since school, but hes a good guy - when hes not making fun of you. Kara is organising the bux party - read here skirmish, cause im too far away, thanx your a legend. oh and kara is an extreme conservative, he thinks our country would be better as a fascist dictatorship, and hey, i agree, way to go big fella (please don't take that last sentence literally, metaphorically, or at all).

that'll do for now, but i guess i have to mention Jay, grants brother. hes not gay.

i assume i will be hanging out with these clowns a bit over the next couple of weeks, so that gives you insight into my mates.

anti-semantic

The following blog reflects the fact that im working on a journal for class at the moment and have ridiculous thought flowing about everything, particularly things that have nothing to do with pastoral theology (the subject im doing). anyways, the thoughts i reflect here seem to paint the instiution i study at in a poor light, but thats not fair, i love my college, ive just been there too long and get frustrated. anyways, onto the blog...
anti-semantic
no, you didn’t read that wrong, I have decided that im now officially anti-semantic. I’ve had enuff, I’m just totally over it.

I feel like we have been encouraged to argue semantics. If someone uses a word in a popular way lets just say ‘liturgy’ for example, we need to correct them first in what they are saying, or alternatively, not correct them and just blow them out of the water totally, with a big fat “your wrong, you idiot!”

So, here’s my example.
Liturgy.
To the theologian, the student and possibly the pastor is basically all the elements of a service. So one liturgy may be formal, lots of reading/responding etc. Another may be somewhat spontaneous, with various emotional displays, and then we have everything in between, from hymns to Eucharist to whatever.
But…
To most people (or lots i know anyways). Liturgy is what they do in high churches – read here Roman Catholic, some Anglican, Orthodox, some Uniting, some Lutheran etc. It’s the formal stuff I mentioned before.

So… what do we do with that?
Instead of just going, cool… we are using the same word and meaning different things (obviously). We either slam people and make them feel like idiots, or tell people they have a poor vocabulary and make them feel stupid.
Does it really matter? As long as we clarify, by liturgy I mean this… oh, when you say liturgical you mean that… oh ok…

I know the other day in class I asked about mysticism, and well, I was meaning Christian mystics, not full blown mystics. Arghhh… maybe that was just my poor understanding of the English language coming thru…

It just bugs me.
I imagine that I am arguing for a total breakdown of human language as we know it, where one day no-one will understand anyone else (like trying to speak Welsh with an English understanding of phonetics).

Does anyone else get this? Or is that just a more obvious sign of my ever growing slide towards insanity? Or, possibly both…

tagged!!!

so, here i am, just minding my own business when tamyka comes along and tags me. arghhh!

after composing myself, working out what on earth is going on and getting my act together i decided to submit to the power of the tag and flow with it. have to agree with tam, glad its on music, cause my life has been too insane for it to be about anything else at the mo.

1. Total amount of music on computer?
not much, about 2 1/2 gig. so yeah enough for an emergency but thats about it.

2. CD you last bought?
Ben Lee - Awake is the new sleep.

3. What is the song you last listened to before reading this message?
starchild - Jamiroquai. (yes, that is off the new album, the album that isnt out yet... hmmm?)

4. 5 songs you often listen to, or which mean a lot to you?
Have to echo the senitments of all in saying that 5 is a ridiculous task. but i shall rattle off the first that spring to mind...

James Taylor - love has brought me around
I went thru this phase where i was listening to stacks of James Taylor, Cat Stevens, America, Carole King etc. Just fairly cruisy late 60s/early 70s stuff. And well, this Taylor song is representative of all that for me. Yeah, its just got the right stuff going on. It reminds me of doing stuff in our old flat, music up load, so we coulnt hear each other, and as always, I play each side about 4 times before I could be bothered to turn it. Love that.

Dave Matthews Band - Lover Lay down
This song is a memory song. I think of sitting in front of a fire place when i was 17. I first heard dmb in 96 when some americans were out with the church. Well, i only heard the intro of "what would you say" and i decided that my hard earned (ha) money could be used to buy something of theirs. I got to Bankstown, found the album, bought it, and spent all my bus money. So i had to walk home (about an hour). It was well worth it. I guess that song reminds me of that, but also of what it represents as far as my tastes go, it was the first step on a new path, a path that led to lots of awesome things (and still is)

Elton John - Take me to the pilot
I love to sing this song. Its just so funky. I love funky stuff, and really (early) elton does it so well, it amazes me. Its a great stomping song too. I just love it (off Elton John (selftitled)), but also love honky chateau. great albums.

Phish - Billy Breathes
Oh, Phish. I spent a long time with them. For me not to put a phish song would be like not inviting your family to your wedding - you would regret it later on. I think Billy Breathes is just an amazing song, but again its not just about that. These 2 guys (kevin and gavin) that worked at the record store i frequented in the late 90s (collect records) really changed my ears forever (yeah a bit of a toss, but its true). Kevin in particular led me down roads i would have scoffed at just months before. Without Kevin, this list would be totally different.

Yes - Roundabout
Makhyah and I love dancing to this song. Lots of air guitar, crazy spinning, drums and jumping. Sometimes i wonder if its for his benefit or mine. Besides that, its just an absolute cracker of a song, thanx again mick for buying me fragile - i now have 5 yes lps and love em all.

Also, need to quickly mention
Rolling Stones - Symphathy for the Devil; The Beatles - Rocky Raccoon; The Who - Pinball Wizard; Moe - Nebraska; Bela Fleck and the Flecktones - Big Country (off live at the quick - thanx copland); Galactic - Black eyed pea; Ani Difranco - To the teeth; Ani DiFranco - Animal (ok pretty much anything by Ani D), Powderfinger - How far have we really come?; Jet - cold hard; Jamiroquai - Main vein.
just to name a few...

I have to add, that this list changed about 24 times before i finally was happy with it. oh well, you get that.

So now i have to tag... arghhh a little difficult...
well i think i shall say gyna (who is another form of music guide) and chops who so wont see this coming, thanx big fella.

who changed the rules?

had a great weekend, or at least a good weekend with bits and pieces of other stuff thrown in.

The not so good:

• spent pretty much all night Friday getting these questions ready for the trivia night. Man, if some one had told me how much work that would have been, I think I would have smacked myself around for a while (fight club style) just to convince myself not to go there. So, Nakari helped me (thanx karz, love you) and we decided to crash at about 11.30 (or somewhere round there) cause we were just hammered. Still had a coupla rounds to put together, but needed sleep.
• wasted pretty much most of saturday getting the questions finished. if anyone ever tries to tell you otherwise, putting together a trivia night is not much fun.
• Copland and I (I'm sure i shall mention Copland at some point later), were victims to random shirtiness throughout the trivia night! Arghhh!!! We put stacks of effort in, and then what do we get, people trying to convince us that the answer "Carl Grusleski" is close enough for the real answer "Dr Karl Kruzelniski". I tell you, trivia nights bring out the worst in people - I know it does for me, arguing as to whether they mean world wide record sales, US record sales or Australian. Its important when you have the opportunity to prove to everyone else that you are smart (or at least know stuff). So, to those firing criticism our way, I don't resent or blame you. But you did make my night rather stressful.
• Then Sunday morning... Church was pretty pedestrian. I think i need to stop talking and start being/doing. I'm sure many folk found it enriching, fulfilling and maybe even "a blessing", but I didn't.

So... having said all that. I still had an excellent weekend. Here's why (I'm pretty much filling in all the bits i haven't yet mentioned:

• Nakari was an awesome help. Its great to spend time with her, it really is. Its funny that preparing questions for a trivia night (grumble) can be a good time together. But it really was. Thanx again, love you...
• Saturday morning we had swimming with Makhyah. He's such a little champion in the pool (maybe I will put up a pic of that when i get a chance). He seems to get a bit bored/distracted at times, but it really is awesome. Oh... and then i went to get changed after swimming with him, and left my pants outside. Its funny what goes thru your head when in such a situation. "Do i wander out there in a towel", "Do I just put my boxers on and hope that no one notices that I'm not wearing pants". I just got dressed in my swim clothes, again.
• Saturday afternoon Lynnelle came down from Tewantin. She's living up there with this teen missions mob helping out at their school/missions program thing - sorry Lynnelle, I'm sure i just totally butchered my explanation of that. Anyways, It's great catching up with old friends - we went to uni together. Its funny how life changes. In some ways I feel like I sold out and don't live by my beliefs of 6 or 7 years ago. In others ways i think that maybe I've grown out of that juvenile idealism. I'm sure the truth parties somewhere in between. Anyways, got a chance to chat about the good ol days, the church, theology, music, the band we tried to start etc... man it was a fun afternoon/evening.
• Sunday morning, for some reason, after having Lynnelle crash on our lounge (and Makhyah wake her up - and all of us up actually, I woke hugging a hammer - how many stories like that will i have). I fell this compelling need to make a proper breakfast. It was so bizarre, normally i would have eggs and that's it, but i had bacon!!! and no eggs. So I went to spar (I know its not called that anymore) and got eggs and made breakfast. Why is this significant, I don't know. But it was yum. Makhyah thought so too...
• Then Church, I've covered that. Oh, shame that Rebecca wasn't there cause Pat got a cake for Rebecca's 18th. Oh well, Happy birthday Bec anyway (I really don't know if she likes being called Bec, but i just shorten everyone's names).
• Then Muzz and Simon came round for lunch. They rock! Had a good time just hanging out. Had to wait ages to start cooking properly cause Simo went to get rice, and was slowed down by needing to "take car of business" -read here poo - how that adds 35 minutes to a task I do not know, but anyways... Had this really yum Rissotto - chicken, bacon (little bits) thyme and butternut pumpkin (squash for you foreigners). Then yeah, we just hung out and had a good afternoon. I almost fell asleep though.
• Simo and Muzi left. I had a sleep. Woke up and had to do college work. Oh well. It was a good weekend though...

Another Blog!

just finished working on a blog totally dedicated to my son. Here tis,
http://makhyah.blogspot.com/

why, oh why? a tale of yoghurt.

hello world,
this all seems so surreal, to be informing pretty much whosoever could be bothered to enquire about things and stuff, stuff and things, and pretty much everything in between.

so why am i here. i just have to start with the vague events of yesterday morning.

i woke with my son by the edge of my bed, my wife had left for work already, and makhyah (my son) had wandered from his bedroom into ours. makhyah (who is 21 months today), crawled up into our bed and we both fell back to sleep.

the next time i awoke i noticed makhyah had very cold feet. its not really cold here, but cold enough to get cold feet - that morning thing that just chills your whole body. so i rubbed his feet, and as far as i can tell, we both drifted back off into the seamless void of "sleep"

or so i thought. the next time i woke seemed like it was only shortly after i had drifted off. makhyah had crawled back up into bed now holding socks and shoes (or shoes and socks if you like). makhyah (or 'mj' which i like to call him j standing for jaye) had realised that he needed to do something about his cold feet decided to remedy this by getting me to put shoes and socks on him. i declined the suggestion of shoes (as we were in bed, hello? i guess he's not even 2 yet, give him a break) and put the socks on his feet. not sure if he fell asleep this time, but i know i did.

i then woke with a strange feeling, like something was wrong. i looked up to notice 4 small tubs of yoghurt (little kids ones) open sitting on my chest. what on earth was going on. i leaped out of bed and heard the distant voice of mj, i panicked a little as it sounded like he had gotten outside. how had he gotten outside. what is going on???

i raced around the house to finally find him at the open fridge, helping himself to a spoonful of butter. hmmmm... now questioning why i stayed in bed that long i spent the next 15 minutes cleaning up the rather original and flamboyant mess my boy had left thru out the house.

mj the larakin

makhyah jaye, the boy at his larakin best (wearing mum's shoes)

a word on my links - triple j

just thought i'd flesh out the whole link thing and give little explanation.

triple j is the "national youth radio station" for Australia. I came to this harrowing realisation yesterday afternoon that I am no longer a youth (apparently). there was this awesome scholarship opportunity being advertised on the js (as many like to call it), and well im sitting there going "yes.... yes.... no!!!!" im not 18-24... arghhh

anyways, i like the station. some of the music annoys me, a lot. but some of it is gold. there a couple of funny bits, especially the arvo program today today... but thats not really why the link is here.

the podcasting is defiately worth checking out. the 3 bits that i regularly check out and listen to as im driving round, are:

• "hack" - a current affairs program that is actually acurrent affairs, not all about dole bludgers, bad teenage drivers and weight loss (dont get me started)
• "dr karl" - this guy who has like 4 PhDs or something, and basically knows heaps. its just interesting to listen to... im no science nerd, just find it different. oh, and hes a pretty funny bloke too.
• 'sunday night safran" - the science and politics program that somehow manages to spend time talking about science fiction. features this insane catholic priest (bishop?) father bob, who is great
• i know this is over 3. but there are links to the other abc stuff - the deep end on radio national is also bril. live music downloads (mp3)! ben lee the other day. sweet...

check it out sometime. there is generally a link on the homepage to get to the podcasting but if not try. http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/listen/podcast.htm

me