Christianity or Bust

This week, my life has been filled with so many late nights. Tuesday and Wednesday were filled with uploading my CD collection, YouTube videos and miscelleanous stuff that I’ve downloaded.

Quick Sidetrack #1: On Friday night, it was nice to find someone else who doesn’t download pirated music and has trouble filling their iPod.

Quick Sidetrack #2: I think the weirdest free (and legal) thing that I’ve downloaded from the Internet is The Conet Project as MP3s. These are recordings of various Number Stations. If you are too lazy to read the Wikipedia link, Number Stations are mysterious short-wave radio transmissions that are broadcast periodically where the transmission consists of a person (usually female) speaking various numbers or letters. They are generally believed to be one way transmission to intelligence field agents. Oh yeah, Wilco sampled “” for the song “Poor Places” on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. I think the coolest pirated thing I’ve downloaded are a couple of speeches by Martin Luther King Jnr.

On Thursday night, we continued our study of End Times, focussing on Judgment.

I got there around the same time as the first arrivals for the Bible Study. Yay! (ie I didn’t show up 15 minutes late) It seems like the three of us had had bad days for various reasons but some of that lifted off us because here we were together to learn more about God’s word. However, I think many of us were really tired. I was a little anti-social… well not-talkative as a result.

I blame my fatigue for not getting as much as I could out of that night.

Afterwards, I started to cycle home with Gvz with us doing crazy but harmless things such as me towing him as he rollerbladed. We said goodbye when I bumped into some occasional workmates from one of my secondary jobs. Somehow I always bump into them on the corner of Glebe Point and St John Roads. I’m a bit concerned for Zvpuryyr since she’s temporarily moved out fromher husband even though she and FhFuv have been married for about 1.5 years. She says they were getting on each others’ nerves and she would have killed him.

While talking to Zvpuryyr, Puevf from my Bible Study group called up and asked what I was doing for dinner and I said I was getting pizza. So I said goodbye to my occassional workmates and decided to meet Puevf at the pizza shop. He shows up in the manual car he’s been lent with Fgrir in the passenger side as I was heading home (I was getting the pizza delivered so I could relax at home. I also can’t carry a pizza and cycle at the same time.)

Back at my place, we gorged ourselves on pizza while watching Spiderman 2 and talking a LOT. Our chatting wasn’t very spiritually based… actually some of it wasn’t very appropriate (more about that later in this post). However, I did get to know Fgrir better and some of his life stories are pretty hilarious. The stories are inoffensive but I won’t repeat them here lest they offend people with a particular nationality with a reputaiton for binge drinking and violence.

Puevf was knackered from having two hours sleep and left half way through “Spiderman 2″.

I think I was a little grumpy because everyone else was talking more than they were watching the movie. At least they shut up when I told them the Bruce Campbell scene was coming. Bruce is my favourite B-grade actor. He plays “The Snooty Usher”.

On Friday night, I was in grumpy mood. I think it was because of a number of things that happened during the day including:

• being bothered by my workmate Cnhy during the day: he always comes around to my area to chat when he’s bored and today I wanted to do work and how he was really insistent that I read some pirated copies of Sin City (yes, people even pirate comics via the Internet) and
• how I had lapsed in an area of commitment to God after some success and I should have prevented it.

Later, Puevf drove over to my place and we drove to Qnir’s party. During the trip Puevf was rambling on about stupid stuff in the car including the usual “there are so many beautiful women in Sydney” thing. I wasn’t impressed that he was “evaluating” women who were walking by and sadly I did that too, briefly.

We eventually reached Qnir’s birthday party… at around 11:45 pm. It was a pretty good party even though it was dying down by the time Puevf and I got there. It was great that was that it was a chance to have decent conversations with people. Puevf, Fgrir and I were the last to leave.

I gave Fgrir a lift close to home (a police car honked us and turned its lights on at us when we stopped on Cleveland Street to try to drop him off and thus he had to walk a few extra blocks).

Back at my place, Puevf had a more God-related discussion… and other stuff. We agreed that some of our discussion the previous night (ie gossiping) had been inappropriate as a Christian, despite how it does feel natural and that from now on, we’d change our ways and warn each other with a code word to stop. We also talked about our relationship to God and the merrits of telling people their faults that caused them to grieve us.

On Saturday night, I had a DVD night with Puevf, Zrt and Ynjel.

We watched The Thing and The Princess Bride and had Thai for dinner.

I’m proud that Zrt watched all of “The Thing” without complaining or anything - it’s such a gory movie and one of the best horror movies ever made.

I was surprised noone else had seen “The Princess Bride” before. Heh… The “as you wish” part was part of a sermon last year.

Prayer Requests:

• Pray for my friend who is spending time apart from her husband
• Pray for my friend who is leaving Australia soon for a few months

Has anyone actually read this entire blabbering and rambling post?

OK. Due to popular consensus, I’m going back to using real names… but I’m putting them in code. Futhermore, it was just too much of a cramp on my writing style to not refer to people even when it is harmless. However, it’s a pretty easy code to crack.

Last Friday, Puevf was pretty keen to visit Koorong but I was meant to go to bed early in preparation for last weekend’s bushwalk.

So we agreed to go last night. I think Puevf was keen because he’s starting some theological education next semester. I also invited Ynjel to come along. Then I changed my mind about going and Puevf convinced me to go. I had to go home with Puevf to get the car then pick up Ynjel at his workplace.

We got to Koorong with an hour to spare.

I didn’t want to buy anything because I still have a stack of books to read. I was really close to buying War and Grace by Don Stephens, which is a testimonial book about people who survived war found grace from God. I read about 3/4 of the story of one of the Japanese pilots who led the attack on Pearl Harbor… then realised I’d probably ought to buy it if I kept on reading. I’ll get it later.

I ended up only buying Every Man: Every Young Man, God’s Man because I’ve recently finished reading Every Young Man’s Battle and that book has changed me (review coming in a few days).

After that, we went to a “Korean BBQ” place together for a late night dinner. I haven’t had Korean BBQ for about 5 years. It’s so awesome. I love how as soon as you enter the restaurant, the smell of burning marinated animal flesh hits you. We ordered two dishes of cow ribs, chicken, calamari and prawn and scallop skewers.

Korean BBQ really impresses me as one of many forms of Christian fellowship. So often when you eat out, there’s an unspoken “what’s mine is mine except that token offer of a mouthful to let someone else try it” attitude. Yet with Korean BBQ, people do try to share it out amongst ourselves so we all get roughly equal amounts. Secondly, there’s also something paternal/maternal going on with people seeing that the meat’s ready and offering it to the person next to them.

We also ate heaps of kimchi. The place we went to didn’t charge us extra for more bowls of it.

I also think Christians should have yum cha together and more often.

Ynjel recommended that we try some Korean alcoholic beverage. We also shared 1/2 a bottle of that. It was pretty strong but only had about 1/2 of it.

Throughout the night, we talked about a lot of stuff too but that’s personal.

This post is named after song 16 on Husker Du’s Zen Arcade.

As a group of nine, we went bushwalking on the weekend for two days.

On the first day, we started at Cronulla wharf and caught a ferry to Bundeena. I found it amusingly ignorant and hypocritical yet awful racist rant written on a wharf shelter’s window telling Lebanese and Asian people to “go home” and complaining about them “invading” our people’s countries. I should mention that in December 2005, there were race riots in Cronulla.

The ferry ride was pretty fun because the water was rough. However, someone else felt seasick.

I hated most of the first day’s walk because it rained all morning. I felt miserable. Overall, I shut up about it except when someone asked me how I was doing. It stopped raining and sunshine broke through the clouds around 1:30 pm.

We reached Garie around 4:30 pm and the beach was nice but it was very wintery.

That night, we stayed in a YHA cabin. The cabin had two rooms of bunks with a kitchen / dining room between them. Naturally, we separated ourselves between the two bunk rooms by gender. It was very rustic. There were no showers, no electricity (there normally are lights but they are solar powered and the day was overcast so the batteries probably didn’t charge) and there were only bush drop-toilets. On a more positive note, there was gas stoves, kitchen utensils, plates and cutlery, candles and most importantly of all, tank water.

Together, we had pasta dinner and cake dessert around 6 pm. It was good for everyone to be together for that. A lot of people went to bed really really early. I mean 7 pm early. Some of us stayed up and played Connect-4 (there were some games and cards at the cabin and various things). We also chatted about music such as what CDs we are most embarressed about owning and the ones that are we consider our most offensive. That’s a topic of conversation where the details can never be disclosed.

Speaking of non-disclosure, there were some funny things that happened and I’m guessing they are partly a “Cultural” thing.

I went to bed around 8:45 pm!!! While I was trying to sleep, a couple of guysin the kitchen talking in the kitchen in Cantonese about God.

The night was freezing but there were plenty of blankets. I felt like I slept pretty well despite waking up many times. I got up around 8 am. Later, I overheard the guy who was sleeping above me say that he shook the bunk to wake me up to stop snoring. I don’t know if he was joking or not… about the shaking. I know I snore. I’ve recorded myself and know it.

The second day of the walk was for a short 4 km to Otford but was completely hills. It was a pleasant day despite that because the sun was out and so were the digital cameras. We reached Otford train station at around 2 pm. Some of us went home by train while others went back to Cronulla for our cars. I got home around 5 pm.

I think I don’t actually enjoy bushwalking but being with people is great. I hope that this time has a positive impact upon the non-Christians that were amongst us.

I’ll upload pictures later. I really am too busy right now.

This will probably be the last post where I refer to other people who I know unless it’s absolutely necessary. I think I’ve upset too many people even when I haven’t tried to be a jerk. I probably should stop writing altogether. It seems…

Every little thing
Every little thing
Every little thing
(Is gonna) Just tears you apart
- Wilco, Summerteeth, ELT

On Sunday morning. a friend and I went to watch the World Cup 3rd place final match on Norton Street between Portugal and Germany. That started around 5 am EST.

It was amazing and desserted. Everything was closed except the Norton Hotel. Even Papa’s Cafe was closed. There were less than ten people in the whole of Norton Hotel - just a few drinkers, a couple of security guards, a couple of bartenders and us. Even their pokies room was closed. All we drank were 3 Cokes during the night too.

Eventually they kicked us out around 6 am because they said their liquor licence didn’t allow them to remain open. We watched in a cafe across the road, where they served the best greasy breakfast.

I was cheering for Germany because I was so tired and just wanted the game to end without going into extra time and penalties. I was cheering for German efficiency.

I watched the final at home… alone. I needed time alone.

I wish the French won. So many people hate the French but at least they don’t dive. They just annoy everyone by demanding UN inspections before starting a war.

I’m glad the World Cup is over. These early morning have devastated my body.

Anyway, here’s a link to the Zidane Flash game. Happy headbutting!

This morning, the Socceroos played against Italy in an elimination match of the World Cup.

Meg gave me a lift and we met up with a group of Barneys people on Norton Street… after spending a while looking for parking.

My legs were still killing me from the bushwalk.

Meg on Norton Street with the big TV at the far end of it

Norton Street was filled with so many people, fans of both sites. There was a huge screen outside one of the high schools with a festive atmosphere - an inflatable boxing kangaroo and a blow up doll in Italian jersey were being tossed around.

An inflatable kangaroo flies around the crowd

People sitting on top of the bus stops

I was actually feeling pretty bummed out. I was thinking about what a friend had said / I was hoping it was a lie (Neil Young, “After the Goldrush”). It wasn’t said as a lie and it was truthful and accurate.

Our group tried out different locations on Norton Street such as the spot near the big TV near JB HiFi and the place near the school. Bianca really didn’t like the packed crowd and decided to head away from it all. Meg followed her; I followed Meg… but couldn’t keep up with my stuffed legs. It was sweet of Meg to be always looking out for me when I lagged behind.

Outside Papa Cafe

We eventually watched the match at Papa Cafe, not far from Norton Street. It was interesting that so many weeks ago, we were at Papa Cafe and left to go to Norton Street - reversal and closure.

Initially only Bianca was interested in eating my chocolate mousse despite how she had decided to quit eating chocolate the day before. I even offerred a police officer one but he wouldn’t because his superiors disapproved of them eating on duty. At half-time, two of Bianca’s friends had some and I gave two to strangers.

Neighbours of Papa Cafe display flags of both countries

You’ve got to feel sorry for the people living around Papa Cafe. It’s not just the crowd. The cafe periodically pumped out the first few bars of the song Eye of the Tiger even when nothing major was happening and some bogan with access to the microphone began that “Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!” thing. It was pretty funny how Bianca commented that they were prostituting that poor song. I have to disagree with her there. I think there should have been more musical “prostitution” but with greater variety.

My suggestions:

• Queen’s We Will Rock You
• Twisted Sister’s We’re Not Gonna Take It
• AC/DC’s It’s A Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll)
• a healthy dose of Barnesy

I can’t believe how close the match was. Australia lost in the last minute due to what some people feel was a questionable penalty.

Bianca was really disappointed and seemed to rush off. I caught up with her and she felt it was a “cruel” ending.

At this point, I felt an urge to lighten up the situation by quoting what was possibly the first line said on television with profanity: “Let’s get the hell out of here” ( Captain Kirk, Star Trek: The City On The Edge Of Forever) in the same dejected way as The_Shat but didn’t.

I’m glad things didn’t turn ugly after the game like in Melbourne, multicultural capital of Australia (article).

Psalm 119:105: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”

This passage is part of my NIV Bible’s “This Bible is presented to … by … on …” page. Astute readers may notice that I’m not actually showing the NIV version. I guess, I’ve always thought of and heard this passage in the other version. For example, there’s that classic song Thy Word (lyrics by Amy Grant and music by Michael W Smith).

Yeah, I’m meandering. I couldn’t get this passage out of my head on Saturday night, which was an amazing experience for so many reasons. It was one of those experiences where God takes it and makes you appreciate the gravity of things. Anyway, first, let me explain the background to this…

On Friday night, Chris called me up and asked me what my plans for the weekend were. My plans were to go to Ruth’s place to watch American Beauty as part of a Barneys small group film-lovers and to go bushwalking with Lawry and a group of Barneys friends. I asked him if he wanted to come and he seemed interested depending on where we were going. (We went to Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains.)

On Saturday morning, Chris decided to come. He and Lawry ended up driving a group of eight. (Chris has the car of his boss, who is away in Germany wathing the World Cup.) I had had only 5 hours sleep the night before because I was watching TV and making chocolate mousse for the Kairos talk. Chris, Steve, Matt and I went in one car; Lawry, Dave, Linda and someone who’s name I keep forgetting, in the other.

The trip was pleasant. Noone complained about my choice in music. Everyone got to know each other better and shared our testimonies.

The bushwalk was really challenging but enjoyable. However, I wouldn’t use the word “fun” to describe it. I think the wet weather made the risk of injury into a constant concern. It was rewarding. Overall, the afternoon was really uneventful (in the dramatic sense).

The lagoon at the bottom of Wentworth Falls

Wentworth Falls

The first real drama occurred around 4:30 pm, just after we reached Wentworth Falls. The quality of light was starting to drop and we passed a lone walker, who looked like he wasn’t dressed or prepared for the occassion - he looked like he was going to an indie rock gig. :-). Apparently he said that he was going to meet friends but we hadn’t passed anyone recently. A few minutes after the encounter, some of us became concerned for him because it wouldn’t be long before nightfall. Steve and Lawry tried to find him to make sure he was okay. That delayed us for half an hour or so. (Later on, Dave said that he thought the guy was acting suspicious since he had seen him at the carpark at the start of the journey with a girlfriend and thought he might be trying to kill himself.) Lawry and Steve didn’t find him.

We kept walking and the pass that we were planning to take to get out was closed for maintaince. Lawry was pretty annoyed afterwards because the park’s website and the ranger we passed hadn’t mentioned this.

This was the first point where tensions within the group rose. I’m sure it’s the influence of Christ but they never rose again. We decided not to try to go up that steep pass but go back.

During this trip back, it was really starting to get dark at this point and the scariest. We decided to cut through a maintainance pass. It was raining lightly and really cold. We could have survived the night out. The scariest part was just that we were walking in the night on really slippery rocks on the side of a pretty nasty fall.

Chris brought a torch along, thank God! Chris is my hero. It wasn’t even his torch - it was the one in his boss’ car.

As a group, we teamed up nicely and lovingly, showing great concern for one another. Matt seemed to have a good system where he’d scout up a few metres with the torch then shine the light onto where we needed to walk. I think it’s kind that people offered each other their hand despite their heteurosexuality. Slowly and safely, we reached Conservation Hill’s restaurant, where there was a road back to carpark - we chose the longer walk by road over walking through the bush. The journey seemed so suburban with even a taxi passing us.

That was around 7:10 pm. I left a message on Lulu’s voicemail saying why Matt and I would be unable to fulfil our role at Kairos. We were back to our cars around 8 pm. Lawry, Steve, Dave and I drove to have dinner at Chinese restaurant in Earlwood where Steve’s girlfriend Jo joined us. The others went home.

I felt a great sense of appreciation for being alive that night in Earlwood.

I don’t really know if I came that close to death to justify the next statement. I think there is someone’s sister I need to ask out before I die.

Yesterday I spoke to Lulu at church. She gave me a big hug and seemed joyous that I was alive!

Anyway, getting back to the real point of this whole post… God’s word is amazing.

I used to think of the path as being something like a garden path. Now, I feel the analogy is more like walking several metres at a time for kilometres in pitch black darkness where without that light, every step is upon a slippery surface and the slip would be a fatal plunge off a cliff.

It’s very much winter now and it’s the season for dressing in layers. However, I feel really fake. People who know me well, know two things:

• I love music and almost always wear a band t-shirt when dressed casually and not exercising.
• I hate soccer. It bores me.

Anyway, Chris has lent me his brother’s Soccerroos jersey from two World Cup campaigns ago. He genuinely thinks it’ll impress someone.

There is a genuine point to this post other than the confessional nature of it and search for absolvence.

What we wear is a sign of our allegiances. Tonight, my choices of clothing hid two allegiances - my Guided by Voices‘ “Electrifying Conclusion” farewell tour t-shirt (but I’ve worn it heaps of times and burried under all these layers of clothing is the cross that Mic gave me for my birthday.

OK. This post really is a load of rubbish. Consider these:

Job 29:14 I put on righteousness as my clothing; justice was my robe and my turban.

John 13:34-45 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

So there are better ways for people to know our allegiances.

PS: Oh yeah. I think everyone else noticed the jersey but not the intended target.

Last night, a group of us went to watch the match in Petersham. I think we moved to another place because the TV was in the storefront and it was freezing and croweded. Bianca led a sprint to nearby Norton Street, the less-good Sydney version of Lygon Street.The street was closed off by police.

The match was pretty good. None of that rubbish where players just pass the ball back and forth to each other for 50 minutes like in that Simpsons episode.

I think that after the match, my joking went too far - well, I repeatedly said “Let’s start a riot!” From accounts, a more prominent member of the church said something more extreme at his home sports fellowship event so I don’t feel so bad.

Here are some pictures.

Andrew eating a kebab roll on Norton Street.

Inside the cafe where we eventually stayed.

Some infernal sports betting company setup outside my favourite cheap CD store.

A blurry reaction photo after Australia scored one of their three goals.

Bianca, Ange and someone else heading back to where we all parked our cars at the start of the night. Oh yeah, there’s the police presence there.

Ephesians 5:4: Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving

Warning: This post contains humour which some may find offensive.

Al, you’ll probably enjoy this post. Chris loved this story.

Yesterday, I went to Julie’s birthday luncheon. It was at The Barn in Rozelle. The Barn is a strange cafe that is also a grocerie store but the food was really good.

I saw all the people who I have ill feelings about and spoke to them. Well, they made an effort to speak to me. I felt awkward being around everyone from my past. SM asked me about how I was and what was happening with Barneys. For me, it was very much a case of getting through these questions and I didn’t ask him about his marriage or anything. So, I didn’t try to rebuild bridges. DY sat two spaces away from me and asked me about various things. Part of me feels like I should try rebuilding bridges. I’m not sure. Maybe if I just keep turning up to birthday functions, who knows?

I sat next to KG, who I used to have a crush on but now know she’s not interested and I know it wasn’t meant to be. To be honest with you readers, I realise now that I only was attracted to her because of her bum, her dedication to God and she was the only woman at my last church in my target age range. Personality-wise, talking with her reminded me of why I think she’s shallow. This time, she actually looked at me when we spoke.

I probably should feel some guilt and not include the next few paragraphs. It relates to the passage that opens this post. During the lunch, KG talked about her date that week with a client of her church (she manages hiring for rooms). He turned up to the date after a “few drinks”, forgot her name when introducing her to someone, then asked if they could stop off at a pub for a drink and asked to borrow money for a schooner. She was not impressed.

She also said that all her dates for the last few years were with guys who are weirdos and went nowhere. So I was laughing my head off on the inside. She next told the story about how one guy turned up to a date with a box. She initially thought it was a gift then found out it was the ashes of his pet cat that died the previous day and which he cremated himself.

I shouldn’t have said what I said. I even asked for permission to say it twice before KG said I could. I really knew I shouldn’t have said it.

I justified the guy’s behaviour by saying that “Maybe he couldn’t be without pussy for one day”.

Strangely enough, noone was amused. Someone said something about how having a cross around one’s neck prevents them from saying such things. I have a cross too. JA even started saying that Christians probably would use the word “vagina” instead. OK…

Although I know it’ll never happen between KG and I, I could have restained myself. Yet there’s part of me that’s stupid and wished I asked her out because I’m weird but I’m not a complete dipstick like those other guys.

So there you go. I gave in to temptation. You may feel that it’s pretty bad that I didn’t take to heart what was dicussed during the week’s bible study.

Last Sunday, I went to the 5 pm service instead of a 7:15 pm service so that I could watch and host a Eurovision Song Content 2006 night.

This was the first Barneys service I’ve been to since the building burnt down and was held at a lecture theatre at Moore Theological College. The theatre didn’t feel as full as a normal 5 pm service seems to be. I was disappointed initially because part of Moore College looked really old but the section we used is modern.

I felt assured by Ian’s sermon. He talked about how news reporters had asked why everyone seemed so strong despite the destruction. Ian talked about how it wasn’t stoicism but faith that God will use this event.

Four people came to my place to watch Eurovision: Lawry and Andrew from Barneys and Alan and Julie from CMP. Meg was going to come but I don’t think she originally planned to come until Lawry talked to her so she went to the 7:15 service. By the time the service had ended, all the songs were over and it was voting time.

It was a pretty entertaining night. As non-Europeans, we really enjoyed it as a comedy and not as a serious event. It was so cheesy. There’s not much I can comment on that you won’t find elsewhere, I’m sure. The only really religious aspect of the night, other than fellowship, was that there were a couple of points where events were blatantly pagan in ancient Greek way. Lawry commenyed about how that was the sort of thing that would have disgusted St Paul.