adam’s [insert adjective(s) here] blog

well, i slept in this morning, then i started and finished one of my assignments, then i caught up with friends. still no FEAR on the proverbial radar.

i spent a couple of hours writing up my assignment for Praxis. hopefully it’s good enough for a pass, or a credit. distinction would be nice. caught up with Si, then we went to Jon’s place. played Catan, then had a BBQ. won’t be many more of them for a while. the weather is starting to pack it in. watched TV and played poker for the rest of the night. it was cool.

i went on another camp this week. you may have noticed the distinct lack of posting on my blog.

in a nutshell, the camp was cool. we got to hang out at El Rancho with kids from Bishop Viard College. they’re cool kids. the camp was a lot smaller than the last one, with about 160 less people. i was in charge of the flying fox again, which was cool. go to see a lot of the kids overcome fears, and nobody got stuck over the pond :o)

also got to do some archery, and helped some kids up the rock wall. a lot of general hanging out too. hung out with the rest of the STARS staff a lot. and at night, after all our meetings, we cranked out Catan! i don’t know how many games were played over the week, but there were a lot. i won 3/3 on Wednesday night!

on Wednesday, i took a break from camp and came into Wgtn for the last of my Praxis groups. i’m starting a new module next week. i have no idea what it’s going to be like…just like with the other two modules i took :o) on the way back to El Rancho, i bought F.E.A.R. and F.E.A.R. Extraction Point (computer games) that were on sale. i’m not going to allow myself to play them until i’ve finished the last of my two remaining Praxis assignments, otherwise i’ll just end up procrastinating and having to do a lot of work on Tuesday night.

i also want to buy S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl at some stage, but there’s no point in me buying it yet, when i’ve still got two other games to play?

and what’s the deal with games these days all having N.A.M.E.S L.I.K.E T.H.I.S?

on Thursday night at the camp, the kids put on a concert. there were some awesome items. me and Whetu did the WWHR drama. we got some of the best responses from an audience that we’ve ever had. it was awesome!

got home last night, then went to St. Jo’s today for our last day there. ran our new Dreams programme with the kids. it was really cool. got some awesome cards from the classes. it’s so great to see that we’ve made such an impact on these kids’ lives. hopefully they’ll be able to retain what they’ve learnt and use it throughout their lives.

one of the great things about helping out with the STARS camps this month was a surprise bonus of Westfield vouchers. so after school Team X went on a shopping spree!

i bought DVDs.

• Godzilla
• Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels
• Snakes on a Plane
• Stargate
• The Fugitive
• The Jackel
• The Princess Bride

and i’ve still got over half my vouchers left over. go figure!

so tomorrow, the plan is to sleep in and catch up on a week’s worth of lost sleep, finish (to a decent standard) my two Praxis assignments, then spend the rest of the day/night/early morning playing FEAR (flag the .’s).

school holidays are coming up soon, so i should have plenty of time to play games and watch DVDs and catch up with friends who i haven’t seen in a few months…

went to church this morning. it was pretty cool. the youth had a BBQ afterwards to launch the KRANC groups that are starting up to continue on from Connexions. they should be cool. i think there’s a few cool kids in the group i’m helping lead.

came home and mucked around. played Diablo II for a while. i need to play that online with Carl again sometime…

me and Dad went out to KFC for dinner. then i came home and watched Assault on Precinct 13 on DVD.

well, so much for me starting my other Praxis assignments. i’m going to hate myself next weekend when i’m trying to finish them…or start them. you want to know how much of a slacker i really am? i’m going on another camp tomorrow for four days, and i’m going to pack tomorrow morning.

meh…

the first part of my day was boring, but essential. i finished writing my Mission Theology assignment for Praxis. it took a while to get it all typed up.

the second part of my day was fun, but non-essential. i watched Indiana Jones and the Raiders of The Lost Ark on DVD with Dad, then went to Christine’s flat warming. i got to dress up like a pirate. yarr! spent the night chatting with girls and their boyfriends. one day, i hope to be the boyfriend of a girl who some other guy is chatting to at a party…had a great time. we cranked out SingStar and i won about 80% of my games. the only person who bet me was Jen. good stuff Jen :o)

got home tomorrow morning.

why is it that things we have to do in life are usually more boring than things we choose to do…?

had Team X today. we ran our new Confort Zones programme. it was pretty cool. hung out with the kids at kunch and ran around and chatted and skipped. fun stuff. wrapped up our Team X week with a game of Catan. what else? i won this time. poor Whetu. he has yet to win…maybe next week at the other Stars camp we’re helping out with…

went into Wgtn tonight and met up with Celia. we had Hell Pizza for dinner. that is good pizza. walked around and chatted, then went to a café, then walked around and chatted more, then went and saw ‘Wild Hogs’. it was pretty funny. not ‘best comedy of the year’ kinda funny, but still ‘a lot of laughs’ kinda funny. dropped her home, then came home to sleep…

had a meeting with one of the guys from Clued Up today. might be getting some payed acting/improv work. sweetness! bought a couple more DVDs on the way home.

i finished my Praxis catch-up reading in time for my catch up meeting. it was pretty cool.

watched Shaun of The Dead. it’s great. i can see why it became a cult hit. i’m so going to get Hot Fuzz when it comes out on DVD :o)

my evening consisted of me cooking dinner and watching TV

had my Praxis cluster groups this morning. they were alright. good discussions.

but the best thing that happened to me all day happened on my way home. i was walking to the train station after having sat in the library for a couple of hours forcing myself to write answers to assignment questions. a school bus drove past and i looked at the kids sitting in it. pretty standard kids who i didn’t know. a few of them were doing the typical ‘wave at people to see if they wave back’ thing, so i did.

can you remember the last time you were filled with absolute joy? not happiness. joy. that happened when i started waving back at those kids. i saw the looks of delight on the faces of the kids i waved back to, and saw one of them pump their arm in triumph and say ‘yes!’ when i did. then more kids looked out the window and waved and i waved at them. their delight became my joy.

but it didn’t stop there. the bus stopped, and i kept on walking. then the light turned green and the bus drove past me again. pretty much all the kids on the one side of the bus were waving at me, and were stoked when i again waved back. then the bus stopped again, up ahead of me, and i had to walk past it again. more waving. more joy. i was grinning so hard at this point. it was great.

me and that bus full of kids must have passed each other five times. each time was a joyful experience.

i highly recommend it :oD

the rest of my day pales in comparison

did more office stuff at Team X today. Andy (ex-Palmie team leader, new Team X National Facilitator) joined us for the day, so that was cool. i sorted out a bunch of stuff on my comp. got the internet working, which was nice. i had a revelation that maybe i should try plugging the ethernet cable directly into my computer instead of trying to work it through a hub. presto!

still don’t know how to get it working on the other computers in our office. i think there’s only so much internet i can leech from the CFUH office…

also whipped up another network cable to connect the 3rd computer in our office to the network. now the girls can happily type up whatever and print things out willy-nilly…on our printer which is going to get fixed (hopefully) tomorow. we got the laser cartridge refilled, but it still ghosts when it prints, which means one of three things that the tech explained to me. i hope it’s the cheap and fixable thing…otherwise we need to spend more money on getting a new printer.

anyone want to sponsor Team X to get a new laser printer? a new colour laser printer even? that’d be nice.

and amidst all that, i had to find time to learn stuff for our new Comfort Zones programme for Friday. the team had a big discuss about the main section of the programme and now a large chunk of it has to be re-thought. luckily, i’m not presenting that bit, so i only need to work on my intros and framings…

what else did i do? i sorted out a bunch of photos for the team, installed a new network card on my computer, somehow broke the office network, somehow fixed the office network and got it running sustainably (which isn’t a real word…) between three computers, fixed a problem with a computer at the CFUH reception (which i created in the first place), signed a form in front of a JP declaring that i knew everyone else who had signed the form thus okaying someone to become a licensed marriage celebrant, went out for lunch and changed the picture on my desktop.

and then we had a meeting with the advisory board. i only had to stay for the first half and gapped it as soon as i could.

full on, huh?

no WIT for three weeks, so i stayed home and watched House and did some reading for Praxis.

went to Team X today. still recovering from lack of sleep in the weekend, but i’ll get over it. did office stuff and some photocopying, then suddenly the day was finished somehow. cool. i get paid for this :o)

my sisters and Dan came round for dinner. we looked at all the photos Mum and Dad took on their holiday. most of them weren’t exciting, but nevermind. i’ve been on holidays and taken boring photos before. they seem great at the time, but later, when you’re showing people who weren’t there, they kinda suck.

spent most of the night flicking through The Dangerous Book For Boys. it’s great. my family even had a paper dart making competition. the boys’ darts were better…obviously.

now i’m bored and slightly more tired. on a completely unrelated note, i wish Blizzard would hurry up and announce their next game that’s not console-only or MMORPG. StarCraft II or Diablo III or something. c’mon! stop releasing stupid wallpapers…get to the games!

so yesterday, pretty much the only exciting things i did were go to a wedding and do some improv.

Monique (who i did Team X with in 2oo5) got married to Kauri (who she did Team X with in 2oo4). there’s a lot of couples who come out of Team X. i spent some time after the ceremony chatting with other Team Xers who’d come down for the wedding. Katie was Monique’s chief bridesmaid. it was cool to catch up with her.

then i went into Wgtn for the start of the 24hr improvathon. WIT performed a Battle of WITs first up. Jen won. i came second.

came home and got very little sleep ‘cos the effects of my Red Bull hadn’t worn off. got up again at 1:00am and went back into Wgtn. performed in a free-for-all improv slot, then watched WIT’s new format - To Be Continued. it was cool. watched the Improv Divas after that. got home at 4:30am or something and got more little sleep, ‘cos the effects of my other Red Bull hadn’t worn off…

but the fun doesn’t stop there…oh no.

had to get up at 8:00am because Team X was running this morning’s church service. it was fun and high energy. Jono came back to my place afterwards, then i dropped him in Wgtn on my way back to the improvathon. i was directing the last show - another Battle of WITs - which was kinda nice ‘cos i didn’t need a lot of energy.

went to my sisters’ flat afterwards for a while, then came home to find my parents were back from their two week holiday. it’s nice to have people back in my house :o)