... an idea...

"I don't know what you're complaining about," she grumbled. "We took your car - "

"I'm not complaining. I'm angry. There's a difference, Karen." He felt as if the entire trip had been matched to a soundtrack of dropped plates in a kitchen, one fall after another, one spinning plate coming to a halt before a brief respite - and the next crash.

"Then I don't know why you're angry."

Dean ground his teeth. "You don't want to know." Just let it go, he thought.

Karen looked out the window at the damp street. Shops on both sides were closed, excepting the odd bottle shop or pizza place. She turned and stared at the side of his face, the slight tick of his jaw muscle working silently as he focussed on the tram in front of them.

Dean could almost sense her about to say something, like bread about to pop out of a toaster. traffic lights ahead, the tram slowing down; Dean shifted gears and slid sideways into the left-hand lane. If he was quick, he could pass before -

"I just - "

"DAMN IT!" Dean slapped the wheel as he automatically slowed at the sound of her voice. He could hear the bell of the tram sounding, saw the doors opening as he moved past, almost saw the face, eyes narrowed angrily, another, eyes wide in shock.

Karen yelped in surprise and shrank back into her seat.

"Can you not just let it go?" Dean growled. "I obviously don't want to talk about it, not while I'm - "

The engine abruptly died, windscreen wipers stopped in the middle of their paths across the glass.

"What the hell is this?" Dean wondered aloud. Karen turned in her seat to look through the rear windscreen, while Dean checked his mirrors. The car was losing momentum: he guided it gradually to the kerb, then braked to a halt. He put the gear into neutral and turned the ignition - silence.

"Shit." Karen was silent, eyes dumbly following the tram as it passed them. Dean unbuckled his belt and popped the bonnet. "I'll be right back." As if knowing he had no umbrella, the rain began to fall more heavily, drumming on the roof.

Dean opened the hood of the car and disappeared from view, then Karen felt a thud as if he'd fallen into the engine. Karen opened the door and raised her voice over the rain.

"Dean! What are you doing?"

She heard a grunt in reply and nothing else. Then the car seemed to shift, as if someone heavy had scooted across the back seat from one side to the other.

"Dean..."

She opened the door, then leaned back and pulled the keys from the steering column, not wanting to accidentally get locked out. She stepped up and out into the rain. It felt like icy needles and she decided to leave the door open instead.

Cars passed and it was with a sudden sense of dread that she stepped past the edge of the car door.

"Dean - " Karen yelped as she saw him lying headfirst in the space under the bonnet. It looked darker, almost... oily -

- and then the darkness moved.

Karen shrieked but the sound was lost as a tram on the other side of the road braked as it approached the traffic lights. She felt herself smacked in the face as if by a slab of meat, but it stuck to her. She realised sickeningly that there were some kind of hooks in her flesh, then she began to shriek again as she was yanked into the darkness under the bonnet of Dean's Commodore and into the smell of salt and seaweed and then she felt nothing more.

... it's out there...

i saw this somewhere and i couldn't keep a straight face the whole time - this guy should be releasing a dvd or something!

... nanowrimo 2.0 (for me, at least)

well, november begins tomorrow and so does my latest attempt to write a novel. i don't remember right this second where i found out about national novel writing month but ever since i've been planning and trying to come up with ideas that will take me over the 50,000-word mark by november 30. i guess we'll soon find out.

this year, if you're reading my blog, my challenge to you is to likewise take up the challenge. i know some of you who read this were creative writers in times past. if you can crank out 1700 words a day, you too can write a novel in november. the link is www.nanowrimo.org. last year i only managed a few thousand words - this year i plan to be a good deal more disciplined.

give it a try. if you manage 2,000 words a day you get to have a sabbath! and if this appeals but you don't think you can write a novel (and the theory behind nanowrimo is that everyone can write a novel - a good novel comes from the editing... maybe), try script frenzy - it's 152 days away (apparently) and requires 100 pages of script over the month of april. the script itself can be film, television, radio or graphic novel.

wish me luck - comments and text messages with script ideas are welcome and appreciated!

... oops...

well, it's been a little while, alas. just a short note to let anyone who might possibly be reading this blog that today (october 13) is international suit-up day. suggestions for how you might participate in the day include:

• wear a suit to university
  
• wear a suit to work
  
• wear a suit to hospital
  
• wear a suit to school
  
• buy a suit
  
• drink in a suit

my small group at church is going out for dinner tonight and i know there is at least one woman in the group who, instead of "rocking up and frocking up" is actually going to suit-up for the event!

... ready for boarding

alas, my plane is not. i'm waiting at the domestic terminal at tullamarine for my flight to sydney. i played raiden ii (classic vertical-scrolling airplane fighting game) and realised i'm very out of practice. actually, i rather hope i'm just out of practice - i'd hate to think that my hand-eye co-ordination is decaying so badly!

the gate lounges are very clean but a bit spartan. i don't think i've ever really noticed that before. after having spent several hours wandering (pleasantly) around san francisco airport, my expectations of what a good gate terminal should be like have risen - perhaps unrealistically. given melbourne is meant to be such an artistic and cultural mecca in australia, it seems a shame that there's no art displays to speak of around the departures terminal. when i was in s.f., there were a series of display plinths along the centre of the corridors showing crockery (i know, a little boring, but...) from different eras in post wwi american history. i found it really interesting, especially the accompanying stories of the designers and their lives.

later...

arrived in sydney ahead of time if that can be believed. we left melbourne ten minutes late and actually hit the tarmac here in el norte just a little ahead of schedule, around 10h35. refreshing. so i'm sitting here, enjoying a gloria jeans coffee and whiling away some time while i wait for my pay to be processed by my bank. i'll buy my new myzone multi2 ticket (which i've just learned has replaced the previous travelpass series of tickets.

i find it a little ironic that i've just left melbourne, in a state that has wasted something to the tune of $1.2 billion, and touched down in sydney, where the nsw government has implemented a ticketing system that looks and smells a whole lot like the metcard system that myki is meant to be replacing. not that i'm complaining - i think it's about time that the private bus companies in sydney were finally brought into line with the rest of the transport system's ticketing - i just hope that when the time comes for government to waste the public's money on the public transport system here in new south wales, they'll throw money away on improving rail infrastructure and not one a white elephant smartcard that is more difficult to use than the system it's meant to supersede.

still what would i know? i don't drive or have a mortgage or a credit card, so why would my opinion count for anything? (oooh... bitter much? just a little bit, maybe...)

... not unhinged

having lunch and catching up on reading phd comics and in a strip about visiting comic-con for the first time jorge cham referenced another online comic called unshelved. i took some time to check it out and while it refers mainly to to the world of librarians, i think there are some gems in there for anyone who's worked in customer service. now that i've been working in a bookshop for a while, i'm enjoying rather a bit more of it than i would have before. delicious. you should check it out.

... visiting el norte

i have my flights booked - 09h15 melbourne to sydney on the 5th, 21h15 sydney to melbourne on the 8th. i even worked it out that i'll have clean work clothes for the monday and tuesday after i get home that i will have washed on the tuesday night before i leave! (bonuses to being a creature of habit...)

i'm looking forward to catching up with people in sydney while i'm there, as well as kicking back and relaxing a little. i'm especially looking forward to visiting mars hill cafe - it's been such a long time since i had my classic chicken quesadillas and dark horse coffee, i've almost forgotten what they taste like!

... some musings on wisdom

i've been thinking about wisdom a little bit lately. here are some quotes on wisdom that have stuck in my head:

wisdom for a man’s self is, in many branches thereof, a depraved thing. it is the wisdom of rats, that will be sure to leave a house, somewhat before it fall. it is the wisdom of the fox, that thrusts out the badger, who digged and made room for him. it is the wisdom of crocodiles, that shed tears when they would devour. but that which is specially to be noted is, that those which (as cicero says of pompey) are sui amantes, sine rivali, are many times unfortunate. and whereas they have, all their times, sacrificed to themselves, they become in the end, themselves sacrifices to the inconstancy of fortune, whose wings they thought, by their self-wisdom, to have pinioned.

- sir francis bacon, of wisdom fo a man’s self

in seeking wisdom then art wise; in imagining that thou hast attained it, thou art a fool.

- rabbi ben azai (aze)

the moving finger writes; and, having writ,
moves on: nor all thy piety nor wit
shall lure it back to cancel half a line,
nor all thy tears wash out a word of it.

- omar khayyam, the rubáiyát

the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction.

- the Bible (esv), proverbs 1:7

the words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one shepherd. my son, beware of anything beyond these. of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
the end of the matter; all has been heard. fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. for God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

- the Bible (esv), ecclesiates 12:11-14

... in recent news...

there's been a few things happening, so this is kind of a catch-up entry: there'll be more to follow of other musings and i may even finally start posting on my movie review blog. don't get too excited - i say may - we'll see what happens.

work continues well. i enjoy my job and work with good people and continue to be able to say that i have fallen on my feet and no mistake. i am reading quite a bit - i just finished john birmingham's new book, after america, and am currently working my way through a book slated for release in the coming months. i've not long since finished a couple of bill brysons - the lost continent and a walk in the woods - and i'm also reading all gone to look for america (peter millar), intercessory prayer (dutch sheets) and thriving youth ministry in smaller churches (rick chromey and stephanie caro). there's quite a bit on the go, as i indicated, but i'm enjoying the richness and variety available. my favourite book of the last twelve months remains the brain that changes itself by norman doidge, m.d. - it's a brilliant book, electrifying in its ability to inspire hope in the face of tragedy and the excitement of possibility in the face of the apathy of assumption.

my sister was married recently. it was a great day and i'm very glad for her. i'm sorry - i didn't take photos - i'm simply hoping to try to acquire some of the myriad photos taken by others i know who were in attendance. i'm a pretty poor photographer anyway. my sister looked beautiful; my new brother-in-law, mon beauf, seemed pretty pleased with himself and my mum seemed wonderfully content with the day. i'm glad. i'm hoping to visit sydney for a few days to see one of my sisters in Christ get married. (my weddings-and-funerals suit is really getting a workout...) if you're in sydney and would like to catch up, please give me a bell. i hope to be in sydney for three, maybe four nights. we'll see how we go.

i've been struggling with a cold this last couple of weeks but hopefully it's on its way out and i'll be back to my usual self in short order.

... what the...?!

my yahoo id has vanished. i checked my email today fine, last time i checked was about 2-ish this afternoon at work and now it's as if i haven't had the same email address for, oh... i don't know... a very long time!!!

maybe i'll wake up in the morning and it will all be a dream.

... i really like this

i was put onto this by a friend. personally, i think that the papyrus font has been seriously abused in the video clip and i'm sad to see such a versatile and robust font treated so badly. like ms comic sans before it, papyrus seems to be going through a bit of... well, it would be the font-equivalent of radio over-play, like with teardrops by womack & womack (in its heyday) or love is all around by wet wet wet. on the other hand, i do like the font used in the slideshow...

"Sunday's Coming" Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.

... tweet?

it's only a very short post but i had to pass on a retort i read as a comment on a vlog on youtube.

a canadian viewer commented:

"oh were you making fun of canada?
i couldn't hear you over my health-care benefits."

pithy but, as the vlogger commented in return, "i put this in 'cause it was a good call... that would hurt me if i were american... that would, uh, that would hurt..."

good thing it's an australian vlog.

... this is so true!

i was going to simply past the url for this image into my post but it takes up way too much of the column-inches. i love piled higher and deeper and today's comic is no exception.

check it out.

... time marches on

well, nanowrimo was a fizzer as far as my writing is concerned but that's not entirely a bad thing - it got me thinking more about writing and what i want to do with it. one of my new year's resolutions is to write more, and write more frequently. we'll see how we go from there.

Christmas and new year's passed quick as a flash, it seemed. all through 2009 i was dumbfounded at how fast the year seemed to fly by and after a week into the new year, 2010 doesn't show much sign of being any different. i'm hoping to visit tasmania for a brief holiday this year, as well as doing some planning for a five-week trip to the united states in 2011. we'll see how we go from there.

i'm going to be updating my movie-viewing blog more frequently, too. we'll see how we go there. i've got to put my thoughts together after seeing avatar and sherlock holmes. i saw rocky horror on new year's eve and plan to do so again next nye - i'm told it's an annual event at the astor.

as an aside, i'm amazed by the international (read: some american responses) to the kfc advert featuring west indian cricket fans being quietened down by a bucket of kfc chicken. perhaps kfc might broaden their appeal by creating adverts featuring such colourful groups as: hip-hop fans; shire-dwellers; bogans; politicians...

yes, i'm a bit tired and cranky. please forgive me.

... a rod to my back

i signed up late last month for a month of insanity this month, commonly referred to as nanowrimo, a wonderful, rolls-trippingly-off-the-tongue acronym for "national novel writing month". what began as an american thing quickly evolved into an international thing, as well as yielding other texts besides novels. (i am assured that there is a forum on the nanowrimo website for "nanorebels" - those people who regard the strictures of nanowrimo as being much like the pirates' code: more of a guideline than a rule.)

at present i have managed to knock together a little over 1600 words, or a little less than the daily average required to come up with the fifty thousand words that nanowrimo exhorts participants to achieve. the website itself is unapologetic for its disregard for the quality of the produced work - the emphasis is on quantity. diving for quality (a task not unlike diving for pearls, apparently) is a task left for the editing process. there may be some to be found but you might want to be careful about holding your breath.

so i have three ideas that i have been tossing up between:

1. a straight-out fantasy story using the campaign source material i created for a dungeons & dragons group i used to play with,
2. a body-swap story where a cat and the cat's owner wake up one morning in each other's bodies, and
3. a story about a guy who buys some revenge-of-the-nerds-style horn-rimmed glasses and is finds himself haunted by the spirit of the glasses' previous owner.

i'm not going to say which one i've picked.

please pray for me that i'll stick to my personal plan of 2000 words a day, with a day off a week, and that i'll not let anything else slide (too much) throughout november. like... oh, i don't know... sleep? proper meals? church commitments? getting to work on time?

thanks!

... the five greatest warriors

disappointed.

too much happening, too many rabbits.

intricate is fine (see temple); plenty of action is fine (see hover car racer); threat to loved ones is great (see contest, ice station, temple) or harm even (see scarecrow, seven ancient wonders).

too

many

rabbits,

alas.

... YAY!!!

my sister announced her engagement yesterday! she and her fiancé haven't set a date yet but it wouldn't surprise me if the big day happens early next year.

i'm so happy for you. congatulations, sis!

... still in the image of God?

we had an interesting time at small group on wednesday night, which, of course, is not to say that it's not usually interesting but tonight was a bit of an in-between night for a break between romans and nehemiah. we were discussing the question, are we still in the the image of God?

we looked at several passages in genesis (but none elsewhere in the old testament, it now occurs to me to notice) and several in the new testament (james, colossians, corinthians), considering a fairly general timeline of creation - fall - re-creation through Christ's death and resurrection.

discussion afterwards has really peeled back the lid on a worm-can-full of reading that i'm currently ploughing through. lots of stuff, right back to early church fathers like augustine and contemporary thinkers like john piper. i'm probably going to be pretty quiet on the subject for a little while as i ruminate on what i think about the whole thing.

part of that thinking will include the questioning the worth of thinking much about it at all. it feels to me that there's a certain dancing-angels-on-the-head-of-a-pin quality about the discussion: i'm not saying that mankind being made in the image of God is a pointless discussion subject but it would be so easy to get too caught up in the debate and lose sight of the point of it all, which should surely be an improved relationship with God? i'm somewhat pessimistic that the debate will lead to unanimous glorifying of God at whatever result emerges.

right now i'm thinking that on this side of glory we are simply unable to comprehend the imago Dei concept. it's already taking up a lot of brainpower thinking about it.

... slapped upside the head by God

so i've been on a fast for the past couple of weeks - a free-to-air-television fast. i don't have cable tv, so i'm not fasting from that much choice, and i'm not including videos or dvds either, so it would be easy to look at the whole thing and say, "well, where's the sacrifice then?" i know that if left to myself i'll happily stare at the tv for three or four hours straight of an evening with nary a blink, especially if i can channel-surf. not difficult most nights. thing is, though, if i choose to watch a dvd or video (yes, i still watch programmes on videotape!) i have to make a conscious decision about what i watch. if i channel-surf on the tv, the only conscious decision made is to turn it on - the channel-surfing happens on automatic pilot until the time/guilt factor kicks in and i decide to go to bed.

so i've been watching less tv, overall, and i've been reading and praying and listening to the radio all a lot more. my kitchen is tidier. i'm cooking more. (i know anything is more than practically nothing but hey...) it was while i was listening to light fm's rebroadcast of focus on the family that i was slapped upside the head tonight.

i can't even say that i've been feeling particularly sorry for myself lately in the usual "i hate being single" kind of way that i can be prone to falling into. it's long been a matter for prayer that God would give me contentment with the single status i currently enjoy (no pun intended) and i believe i can say that that contentment is gradually settling into my spirit. the loneliness that i've felt in the past doesn't have quite the bite that it used to and i firmly believe that it's God enabling me to trust his hand on my life that is the reason for this; i'm no less single than i was a year ago, or five years ago, or twenty years ago - it simply doesn't loom so largely in my field of vision. i pray earnestly that this perspective might continue, and improve.

tonight's focus on the family episode was part two of a discussion between dr james dobson and elisabeth elliot. as soon as i heard that elisabeth elliot was on air, my ears pricked up because i know the popularity and impact her book, passion and purity, had when i was younger. i'm encouraged to hear that that popularity and impact continues to endure. they talked about a bunch of stuff and the thing that jumped out at me - slapped me upside the head, so to speak - was her recollection of jim elliot's letters to her and his reference to amy carmichael's poetry. she mentioned a fragment from carmichael, who wrote:

if thy dear home be fuller, Lord, because a little emptier my house on earth, what rich reward!

i've said that as time has gone by i feel that in my experiences in youth ministry i feel that i have many more children than i could have been a blood brother or father to and that considering those times in that light lets me see the truth that "no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life." [luke 18:29-30, niv] (i know that the corollary passage in mark mentions persecutions as well but in the depths of i-hate-being-alone depression that usually feels like being persecuted by God anyway...)

what made this a bit of a slap upside the head was elliot's follow-up argument - that we are not our own, that we were bought at a price! the sacrifice that Jesus talks about in luke, above, isn't about trading one-for-many, it's about sacrifice for the kingdom of God. the service that we render to God in heaven begins here on earth and how insidious and easy it is to forgetting/ignoring that fact! satan's lies don't stop at doing everything he can to stop us looking at Scripture but continue to strangle and contort our perception of the truth even as it stands before us! i am certain that i could stand at the foot of the cross and satan would be doing everything to make me see Jesus' self-sacrifice and weakness in that action as human frailty and futility, rather than divine humility and grace.

so i'm praying hard now; not that God would make me content with my life where i find myself but rather that he would make me passionate for the kingdom of God, whatever that might mean. (argh!!!) it's probably one of the scariest things i've ever prayed but at this moment it is the only thing that feels right to ask. i don't want to be a jonah. i want to be a son.

... rhyme and rhythm

when i was a kid, my uncle (i think) gave me and my sister a cassette tape called "rhyme & rhythm". it had a lot of interesting and old poetry on it - it was the first time i'd heard the hilaire belloc poem, matilda, who told lies and was burned to death - and there were some english folk songs and poems set to music - the death of admiral benbow, the coasts of high barbary and bruton town. this last one was made popular by a group called "the pentangle" and, given the subject matter, i am these days surprised that such a dark and gruesome murder balled should be on a tape given to six-year-olds and not found instead on a nick cave album!

i've been thinking of a poem that was on the tape but i could only remember the last line: "and the moon sank red". turns out the poem is by a war poet named siegried sassoon; here is the poem in its entirety:

middle-ages

i heard a clash, and a cry,
and a horseman fleeing the wood.
the moon hid in a cloud.
deep in shadow i stood.
‘ugly work!’ thought i,
holding my breath.
‘men must be cruel and proud,
‘jousting for death’.

with gusty glimmering shone
the moon; and the wind blew colder.
a man went over the hill,
bent to his horse’s shoulder.
‘time for me to be gone’...
darkly i fled.
owls in the wood were shrill,
and the moon sank red.

just something i had to exorcise from my brain and now i know where i'll always be able to find it if it gets lodged in there again.