Going to Geelong tonight for SUFM training weekend.
And it's Buy Nothing Day. So buy nothing.

Oh, yes - fasting's over now.

RIP
I just found out why there were so many queries regarding Radio Dave leading here on the weekend - he died on Thursday. I only ever spoke to him a couple of times, when he asked me for some money or a smoke. There's an article about him here, from Saturday's Courier.

Mount Arapiles recovery camp
We left Ballarat at about 7:00pm Friday, stopping in Ararat for dinner.
I've been to Ararat a few times before, most recently for a field trip to the J Ward gaol/mental institution. Witnessed two old men ou the front of the bottleshop, gurgling at the top of their voices. They could be heard all over town. There was also a woman in the supermarket who kept walking into people, probably because she was walking backwards.
Once we'd had dinner, we drove on through Stawell, passing the roof of Haydn's parents' house. Someone suggested to Haydn that he should call his parents so they could climb up on the roof and wave to them, but he didn't think that was a good idea.
Next city was Horsham. From Horsham we almost ended up going to Adelaide, but, luckily, we realised we were going the wrong way, and turned back, heading for Grass Flat.
Grass Flat is so small, it's barely even a place. There's no pub, petrol station or general store. There's just a church, which is apparently used once a fortnight. That's where we stayed.

In the morning we went out to Mt Arapiles to go rock-climbing. I wasn't rock-climbing though - I was exhausted from doing a unit in 48 hours.

Before dinner we played Risk. My mission was to anihilate Russel, but I was unable to get anywhere near him. I had one territory left (Western United States), and Moose could have destroyed me easily, attacking from Central America. But i convinced him not to, since it could have been somone else's mission to destroy me. So he didn't, and next shot I cashed in some cards, got 25 units and took over most of North America, leaving Hadyn with one unit in Quebec - in case it was someone's mission to destroy Hadyn. Next shot, Steve knocked off Hadyn's last unit, winning the game for Devo. And ity turned out that it was someone's mission to destroy me - Steve's.

After dinner we drove into Natimuk to watch Space and Place, part of the Natimuk Fringe Festival, a.k.a. Nati Frinj. Space and Place was a production about the Wimmera region, which consisted of images projected onto a cluster of silos, accompanied by aerial dance and music.
Afterwards we went to the pub and watched the end of the Rugby World Cup grand final, in which England beat Australia, on extra time.

Sunday morning we had a church service. Moose talked a bit about persecution.
After the church service we chucked a rugby ball around for a bit, then played cricket, on the old, crumbling, wedd-infested tennis courts.

After the others had lunch (I was still fasting) we packed our stuff and cleaned the church up, then started the long drive home.

In the end there was no 'nature walk'. Russ, Steve and Devo chased a few rabbits, but that was pretty short-lived.

Piece of cake
I have just completed Myths & Symbols A. I started the unit Wednesday night at about 11pm.

Just been at Bridge Mall, for a meeting between some of the Ballarat Students for Christ leaders and youth ministry people from my church, to talk about how SFC and our church can work together in the universities and TAFE here.

Afterwards there was a New Zealish Hare Krishna monk handing out books, so I talked to him for a while and got a book off him - I think it's importnat that we understand other peoples beliefs even - or particularly - if we don't agree with them.

This weekend is SFC recovery camp, out at Mt Arapiles - an opportunity to wind down after exams. Some people are going rock climbing tomorrow. And there are rumors of a 'nature walk'.

No more MP3.com
It's been bought out by CNET. So no more free MP3s. Hopefully the independent artists will quit the site.

The Matrix Revolutions
Just saw The Matrix Revolutions. If you don't want it spoiled, don't select the white space below. I think it was a lot better than Reloaded. Three things I didn't like:

The script was still really bad. Even worse than in Reloaded. While Trinity lay dying, I lay falling asleep.

Trinity's death just seemed stupid. Like it belonged in a spoof ... perhaps The Matrix Recycled.

It borrowed to much from other sci-fi series: Star Wars, Mad Max, Aliens, Superman.

I'm pretty sure the Wachowski brothers didn't explain how Neo retained his powers after he left the Matrix. If they did, then they did a pretty poor job of it.

The main characters (except the Oracle) were still bleak and unlikeable.

Otherwise it was pretty good, and it ended well (unlike Reloaded). Perhaps (once Revolutions is out on DVD) if I watch the two sequels back-to-back I'll like Reloaded more?

Check out my Morality! 71% liberal, 29% conservative

Just found out from Tim that Mel Gibson did a film in Beanie's backyard.

How did I get on Google?
Okay, somehow my blog is listed on Google again. I think it's because I submitted it to Yahoo. Anyway, here's some recent queries that have led here:
This post will be updated regaularly with any queries.

Nov 18 2003
"sounds like chicken"
-site:http://www.mp3.com.au
ramadan in australia pic
Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu+photos
What's on T.V. tonight Ballarat
blog brothel sydney
Yu Xiuzhen 1996 "shoes with butter"

Nov 24 2003
"boiled alive" uzbekistan
"radio dave" ballarat - four times
The wars between Christians and Muslims were called?
teiresias
miTunes
MIT students aren't happy
wendouree village
maria cardoso "dancing frogs"
chernobylite
"secondary college" site:blogspot.com
ballarat satanist
sweet 16 declaration stuff
nathe blog
lennon "john howard" imagine
Jan Michelini James Caviezel
ballarat city skate park

Dec 5 2003
booth 2003 military immune
she squashed spider
Matt's birthday Ballarat
Alby Mangles
"i'm at deakin"
kinza clodumar
neanderthal powerpoints
melbourne waterspout
christop and james fairhills

Dec 31 2003
sunniest place in learmonth australia
"Jars of Clay" Furthermore tab dig
Stuff Wars - twice
christop booth - twice
trinity's death in revolutions still pics
billy graham mel gibson blog
alby mangles
"christopher white" australia school
erin broken arm vegas
"psychick", music, mp3
warrnambool sufm
mi-tunes
dubyaman meaning
"soul contention"

Hmmm... yes...

Black? White? Orange? Who cares?!
I think this article is a good example of why race is irrelevant and we need to just get over it. Who cares what colour the Israelites where? Seriously, there are more important things...

It don't mean a thing if it aint got that swing
Wheaton College are having a swing dance, after a 143 year dancing, drinking, gambling and smoking ban - established before the American Civil War - was lifted from the conservative Christian college, where Billy Graham studied.

The Empire That Was Russia
In Russia,during the 1900's/10's, a photographer called Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii used red, blue and green filters to take 'colour' photos, even though they couldn't yet be developed in colour. Recently the Library of Congress used the red, green and blue-filtered photos to reprosude colour photographs that are almost 100 year old. They're quite good too.
Props to Adam and Nick.

New e-mail address: stuffwars{at}hotmail{dot}com

Pumpkin

Dave says:
Ok, I'm gonna ask you some questions and you have to answer as soon as possible, ok?
Christop says:
okay
Dave says:
what is 5 + 1
Christop says:
6
Dave says:
2 + 4
Christop says:
6
Dave says:
3 + 3
Christop says:
6
Dave says:
4 + 2
Christop says:
6
Dave says:
5 + 1
Christop says:
6
Dave says:
Now say 6 as fast as you can over and over for 15 seconds
Christop says:
6666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666
Dave says:
Now think of a vegetable
Christop says:
pumpkin
Christop says:
oops, tahts a fruit
Dave says:
what?????????????
Christop says:
i know, it was supposed to be carrot, wasn't it?
Dave says:
You've done this before?
Christop says:
yes
Dave says:
ARGGGGGHH
Christop says:
carrot was the 1st thing i thought of
Christop says:
but i knew that was what the answer was supposed to be
Dave says:
really funny eh?
Christop says:
so i deleted it and typed pumpkin

Tonight is the Professional Writing & Editing anthology launch. Tomrrow is my Mass Media exam. Saturday I'm going to Melbourne for a Warrnambool SUFM core group meating.

© Christop Booth 1984 -
My life is my intellectual property. So do I own copyright of it, since Australian copyright law says that intellectual property is automatically covered by copyright? One problem I can think of is that I'd need documentation of my life to proove that somebody had breached copyright by, perhaps, talking about a significant part of my life.

There is no shoe
On Tuesday night when I was walking home from work, this huge, old guy with a fuzzy beard and stained, faded clothes stopped me and said, 'Oh'm tryin'a rake up enough money f'the bus ta [insert suburb] an' Oh w's wunnerin' if y'got s'm spare coins?'
I had no money (except 34¢ in the bank) so I said, 'Sorry mate but Oh'm broke.'
'I'd 'elp you if th' shoe w's on the other foot,' he said.

Today I opened an account at DeviantArt. Click here to see some of my drawings and photos.

Create your own church sign

Mad Forest
On Saturday night I went and saw Mad Forest, the 1st year Theatre Performance students' main project for this semester. It was so good that I went and saw it again on Sunday afternoon, when Romania's Honorary Consulate to Victoria, Nicolae Cojocaru, and a couple of other medium-wigs also attended.
The first act of the play was about two Romanian families in Timisoara just before the revolution in December 1989. In the second act, people of Bucharest are interviewed (this part of the script is constructed from interviews with people who were in Bucharest at the time) while their fellow citizens run across the stage in panic; revolt against the dictators Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu; and are shot dead by soldiers and terrorists. The third act is set just after the revolution, shows the two Timisoara families trying to come to terms with life after the revolution, trying to work out what actually happened and includes the trial and execution of the Ceausescus, re-enacted by some of the characters.
If anyone ever puts Mad Forest on near you go see it. Or do it yourself.

'Any time you have a billion dollars in box office, that's pretty impressive. I don't know how you point a finger and say there's anything wrong there.' - Joel Silver, producer of The Matrix 'trilogy'

Hurrah! The Sun is back!
(I'm tired.)

Starbucks Oracle
Although we don't have Starbucks in Australia (except in Melbourne CBD, maybe?) I tried this out. You tell it what you normally order at Starbucks (so I just told it what I'd get at any other café) and it tells you what sort of a person you are...

Personality type: Asshat

I don't know how that translates to Australish, but I can guess...

You carry around philosophy books you haven't read...

Wrong.

...and wear trendy wire-rimmed glasses...

Wrong again.

...even though you have perfect vision.

Wrong. I'm long-sighted

You've probably added an accent to your name or changed the pronunciation to seem sophisticated.

I've cut the 'her' off the end, so I guess that's right.

You hang out in coffee shops...

I go to a café about once a month.

...because you don't have a job...

Yes I do.

...because you got your degree in French Poetry.

What degree?

People who drink normal sized cappuccinos are notorious for spouting off angry, liberal opinions about issues they don't understand.

That's right.

Also drinks: Any drink with a foreign name

Yep.

Can also be found at: The other, locally owned coffee shop you claim to like better

As I mentioned earlier I don't go to cafés very often, but I probably would rather go to an independent café than Starbucks, if I'd ever been to or even seen a Starbucks.

I'm in one of the ANZ labs at Mt Helen campus, trying to finish a Myth & Myth-making assignment. Three drunk guys have just staggered in and are all trying to a get onto the one computer chair. But they're cooperating at least.
Now one of them's challenging the other two to a race to the whiteboard. And they're off! 'Tim''s winning. He's won. 'Ben''s way behind. The other guy's not gotten up yet.

The PM replied to another letter:

Dear Johnny,
I was wondering what you will be dressing up as for Halloween tomorrow?
Christop

Christop,
You know, in the past, every year I used to go as Robert Menzies. It wasn't a hard costume -- just a wig and a pillow up my shirt and I was set. But this year, I decided to dress up as someone different. Someone as cool as Robert Menzies... if not cooler! Yeah, that's right, this year I'm dressing up as George Bush! It's gonna be wicked, I've got a grey wig and everything!
Of course, the lame part is that I'm going to be in Canberra for Halloween. Canberra isn't scary at all. But at least it'll give me the chance to throw eggs and toilet paper at Simon Crean. Well, ok, I do that all the time, but this time I also get free lollies!
Plus, the cabinet always has a costume competition, though Phillip Ruddock always wins. No one's ever quite sure what he's supposed to be, but man he looks scary. Eric Abetz has a new costume, too. Normally he comes as Hitler, but this year he's gonna come as Bob Brown. And I think it's time that Amanda Vanstone stopped coming as Kim Beazley, though the similarity is uncanny...

Daniel Smith©
A Missouri driver, Daniel Smith, threatened to sue police for breaching copyright law when they wrote down his name. he also refused to give them his lisence unless they gave him a receipt.

Watch more TV
Much to the dismay of the mass media, people are watching less TV. I think it's partly because now people can make their own entertainment (digital cameras, imaging software, et cetera are now more affordable, accessible and user-friendly than ever) on their home computer, and download the creations of their online peers. The media's becoming decentralised.

'For those who've come across the seas/We've boundless plains to share'
I think those two lines ñ need to be removed from our national anthem. Why? Yesterday the government excised Melville Island and Bathurst Island (in the Arafura Sea, close to Darwin), along with about 4000 minor islands, from the migration zone, to stop fourteen asylum seekers from Turkey applying for refugee status in Australia.

Who believes in God?
This ñ article says that 10% of Protestants and 21% of Catholics in the US don't believe in God. It also says 52% of Jews don't believe in God, but I think Jews would fit into a different category, since the term 'Jew' refers to an ethnic group as well as a religious group. Being Jewish doesn't neccessarily infer that a person belives in Judaism, wheras a person claiming to be Protestant or Catholic is clearly aligning themself with a certain system of spiritual beliefs.

We Want Your Soul
Found this through Minefields, a Brisvegas blog. Apparently my soul is worth £46936.

Surprise, surprise!
Yesterday afternoon I went to SpringFest at the lake. All sorts of delicious-smelling food, and it was really, really hard not to break my fast.
I wasn't really surprised to run into Quinney and his girlfriend whose name I still don't know; that gothic guy from the Socialist Alliance (or was it the Greens?) who's name I don't remember either; a group of people from Ballarat City Church; or my Myth & Mythmaking lecturer.
But I was rather surprised to run into Holly, a girl I dated in year 11 (2000) and hadn't seen since about halfway through 2001. At first she didn't recognise me (I look a bit different now) and just kept walking past. I kept walking too, remembering the last time we'd encountered, in Melbourne CBD:
I'd just been to an art lecture at the National Gallery of Victoria. She was smoking with a couple of friends, so I stopped to talk while trying hard not to scrunch up my eyes as she blew smoke in my face to show her friends how bad she was.
Annnnnyway...
After I heard her stop and turn around I stopped and turned around too and said, 'Is that Holly?'
No derr...
Turns out her boyfriend goes to uni here in Ballarat, so she'd come up to visit him for the weekend. She didn't know I lived in Ballarat now. She's doing a child-care course at a TAFE back in Melbourne. Moved out of her mum's place at the start of this year; now shares a house with a uni student. And she has a pierced lip now.

Last night Connect Ballarat* held a Prayer and Praise night in the Uniting Church building on the corner of Lydiard and Dana Streets. About 300 people turned up.
A few of the pastors spoke about how the Christians need to be united - without prejudice between different churches, denominations and people - before God really starts to change things in our city.

*A group that aims to unite the churches (or church) of Ballarat in prayer for the city.

Croc hunter™
Steve Irwin has threatened a 'rival', Crocodile Mick, with legal action for describing himself as a crocodile hunter - a breach of international trademark.

Or maybe I was only born in 1984.

Sacked for blogging
Found this through Nick's blog: This guy has been sacked by Microsoft for mentioning on his blog that they use Macs. Of course Microsoft would have to use Macs! What kind of fools do they take us for?!

Blogger stuffed up and double-posted again. Ignore this post.