Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Thursday, November 6, 2008

America's problems explained

Young Chuck moved to Texas and bought a Donkey from a farmer for $100. The farmer agreed to deliver the Donkey the next day. The next day he drove up and said, 'Sorry son, but I have some bad News, the donkey died.' Chuck replied, 'Well, then just give me my money back.' The farmer said, 'Can't do that. I went and spent it already.' Chuck said, 'Ok, then, just bring me the dead donkey.' The farmer asked, 'What ya gonna do with him? Chuck said, 'I'm going to raffle him off.' The farmer said You can't raffle off a dead donkey!'Chuck said, 'Sure I can Watch me. I just won't tell anybody he's dead.' A month later, the farmer met up with Chuck and asked, 'What happened with that dead donkey?' Chuck said, 'I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at two dollars a piece and made a profit of $998.' The farmer said, 'Didn't anyone complain?' Chuck said, 'Just the guy who won. So I gave him his two dollars back.' Chuck now works for one of the two remaining US Investment Banks.

Now this is good

Sunday, November 2, 2008

hmmm.. serious

From Sunday... What determines success? Its a good point really cause I think we (I) get sidetracked VERY easily by being successful at *whatever* when really only one thing maters.

A couple of good quotes:
"God please change me! But please not the hard way, I dont want any pain!"

"Money is like salt water, the more you drink, the more thirsty you become"

We of course tie money in with success by nature - but a really interesting point is Paul's 'riches to rags' story, which is where his success is. (Phil 3)

People that are successful focus on ONE thing (ie Hackett and Swimming). Starts with talent/gift and then requires goals, hard work and discipline. Hackett: "Its a simple sacrifice if you want to be number one"


See, its so simple! Ha!

all things paint

Painting would have to be one of the most crap things you could do for a job. I certainly tip my hat to pro painters cause they make it look so easy which it is far from!

I've almost finished another house (inside and out) with the last few 'dregs' to go... which seem to take as long to do as the majority of the rest of it!

Now that I've had a little whinge about painting, I will be totally contradictory and say... Its not actually that bad. As long as you either take your brain out before you stat (otherwise it'll dribble out through your nose cause its so boring) OR listen to music/book while you're painting - it make its bearable.

If it wasn't for painting, I would not have read (listened?) all of Dan Browns books, Men are from mars - women are from venus, Wild at heart, and a number of sermons. No how many jobs can you do WELL, while listening intently to a story/teaching etc??? Also, how many jobs combine both these things, while getting paid stupidly large amounts of money!!! (yes, thats right - if you didn't know, painters charge a fortune! A friend was quoted $6500 to paint the outside of thier house - that'd be a weeks solid work)

pity its such a crap job...

Monday, September 29, 2008

Yay for Italy


So we visited Italy exactly a year ago and I now find myself with a bitter taste in my mouth after receiving a photo that the Municipality of Pisa kindly took for us as tourists :)


Most expensive photo EVER at 113 Euros! (so far)

After reading up on others' experiences of this same issue it appears to be VERY common - NICE - Good one Pisa for making your visitors so welcome.

I'm not asking for free parking or even to be let off (well, actually, that would be nice) but how about a bit more warning for those of us that cant read Italian and even if we could probably wouldn't see the tiny signs revealing the restricted traffic zone (I did wonder why I managed to park so close to the leaning tower lol)

I LOVE ITALY... But jeez this ticks me off!

Thursday, September 25, 2008

So True

The only normal people are the ones you dont know very well...
Joe Ancis
(via a dove chocolate wrapper)

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Trip to Ethiopia!

So I just found out that I've been accepted on the TEAR 'DEEP' exposure trip in January to Ethiopia... and I'm stoked as a goat :D

Finding out I was accepted did have a sad tinge to it thou as good friends of mine had applied too and didnt get in. It really sucks for 2 reasons: 1)they told me about it and 2)they have a real heart for the country and studied it at Uni... bummer :(

I dont believe doing something like this is essential at all for having God's heart for the poor in our world - but I think that seeing it first hand will change the way I see things and help me to make better decisions about what's important in life and push for a different world.

SO.. GDAY ALL THOSE WHO GOT IN TOO!

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

coffee

'Nescafe' in Portuguese means 'not coffee'.

I've been thinking about drinking coffee and the 'why' question behind it. Is it more about:
1)the coffee
2)the conversation
3)the fix

I've come to the conclusion that at different times its valid for any of the above to be at the top of the list
but
I still think the most important and most overlooked is #2

Sunday, September 21, 2008

The number one blog

So it seems having a blog is THE thing to do now (well actually it was a few years ago but I live in Tasmania so... here I am) and every good blog starts off with a first post so I thought I'd better write one.

Just been to the IMPACT conference (Energizer church) in Hobart where I heard Phil Pringle (CCC Oxford Falls) and Phil Baker (Riverview Church, Perth). No Doubt you will hear me talk about this a little bit in the next few posts cause there was some very interesting things said!

Phil Baker was excellent and I purchased a couple of his books (will let you know how I go with them).

Phil Pringle... well... yes. He said some good things too but his good thoughts were buried about a mile deep in ahhh.... not so good (wrong) ideas. Didnt buy any of his books. Cant say I've ever heard someone talk about themselves/money/church buildings/total crap/more total crap so much. Dont get me started.

I'll write a little more about Phil Baker later and would love to get some comments on what you think about his ideas.