Quick Question

Are there any purely secular events?

So I have like an hour to kill waiting at this freezing train station because I'm a silly head and misunderstood the time table.. I think it must be about 6 degrees, so different to yesterday! Today I'm trying to get to Arlington and would you believe that the town/suburb has no public transport at all? It's so strange for me, I'm so used to just being able to jump on a bus or a train to get somewhere.. Arlington says you can drive or catch a cab.  I'll just get as close as I can then get a can I guess.

Yesterday I went to the mall and got a Sim for my phone, I've been texting Aidan which is pretty cool, sounds like things are a lot colder up in buffalo!

I found these amazing products for sale in the inflight shopping magazine on the airplane.. I am writing thus on my phone so I'm not sure where it will attach the pictures.. Anyway, fingers are freezing, time to finish this and put my hands in my pocket.

Airport Tarmac Workers

Airport Tarmac Workers =

a bit plane

So I was researching the airplanes I would be flying in.. Curious to know whether they had somewhere I could plug a laptop power in or whatever.. Annndd they're like the most boring planes ever! Nowhere to plug stuff in and ordinary old screens in the aisles for an in flight movie. I had so much fun stuffing around with that inflight junk last time I flew L.A to Sydney on Virgin. Fancy pants plane.

Who cares, I will have to find a REALLY awesome book to read.  Any suggestions?

One week until I go to Texas

I just realised that I don't know whether 'Until' is spelled like that or like 'Untill'. .. ... Yeah, no it's 'Until'.

Anyway SO in about a weeks time I will be flying to Texas for three weeks of delicious fun and not getting lost/murdered. It's been a busy lead up. I spent three weeks working in Canowindra with the Watermelon harvest to save money which was a fun challenge. One of my arms at least feels quite gunny and strong now. One armed pushups? It was really neat being there, meeting some new people, getting to know better people I'd met previously, swimming in the river, drinking lots of tea, eating lots of melon.. I had a gig at Taste Canowindra on the 27th which was a lot of fun! I love playing there - especially since I score a free lunch for doing so!

I introduced myself to Charles Williams (the Inkling and peer of C.S Lewis, not the bad-crime-fiction writer) while I was there. I started with 'Descent into Hell' which follows the lives of a few different characters connected to the production of a play. Its hard to explain but it's kind of about their interactions with and responses to fear and oblivion and deception and grace.. Heh anyway, one of the more impacting quotes that I'm just going to throw out there without explaining the context is:

"... but don’t you know how quiet the streets of Gomorrah are? Haven’t you seen the pools that everlastingly reflect the faces of those who walk with their own phantasms, but the phantasms aren’t reflected, and can’t be. The lovers of Gomorrah are quite contented; they don’t have to put up with our difficulties... There’s no distinction between lover and beloved; they beget themselves on their adoration of themselves, and they live and feed and starve on themselves, and by themselves too, for creation is the mercy of God, and they won’t have the facts of creation… No, we don't talk much of Gomorrah, and perhaps it's as well and perhaps not."

 But please don't read 'Gomorrah' and think this quote is supposed to be some comment on homosexuality. Because it's not.  When I was looking for the quote on the internet I found it on some guys blog who was using it like it was and it made me cranky.

ANYWAY it was a pretty interesting book, if a bit didactic at times. I was confused sometimes about what was actually happening in the narrative because he weaves together different levels of reality and experience into this big colourful picture that is quite easy to get lost in - but I wonder if that's his intention. I also enjoyed the way Williams portrays the horrific in a way that throws true goodness into sharp relief. Maybe I'm just a wuss, but I've never much enjoyed horror for the sake of horror.

 So yeah, worth a read I say. I've just finished 'War in Heaven' which was much more straight forward than 'Descent into Hell.'

Since I got home I have been moving house - I now live with Dad and Jo and Rachel and Kaitlyn! W00! And working on some stuff for Yak the student magazine and seeing Samara and Jethro who visited for a week and practicing music for a friends wedding reception and hanging out with Gilbert a bunch. He has made so many great improvements on his boardgame in the last few months. It's actually really exciting to watch this thing taking shape and just getting better and better.

At the moment also I am trying to decide what to do for a self-directed project this semester. I'd love to do an animation, or stuff for the boardgame, or typeset a small book, or.. a billion other things..

But writing this just reminded me of something I forgot to go do so I'm going to leave this unfinished and go and do it.

-Han

3D Animation Assignment

I intended to post this aaggeess ago but never got around to it. This is an animation assignment I did this year using Cinema4D. I've never done any 3D stuff before and had to learn Cinema4D as I went. Dang thing nearly made my head explode but it was still a lot of fun. We had to create a 30 second animation of a Rube Goldberg machine - a chain reaction type machine. It had to include an object from a kids bedroom, a kitchen and a garage/shed. The music is Cats on Mars from the Cowboy Beebop sound track. I think I used the song another time on some other video of trumpet running around in her little rat ball.. ANYWAY here it is.

Mary

It's 12:01. Christmas time! I am awake wondering things.. I am thinking about the shepherds coming and seeing Mary and Joseph and new born Jesus. They came and saw and at some point told everybody what the angels had said about Jesus. "He is Christ, He is the Lord." It says the others who heard the shepherds were amazed, but Mary treasured all these things and turned them over in her mind. I've just never really noticed that line before, at first it strikes me as quite a peaceful description of Marys experience, but I do wonder what she thought of.