Where the Streets Have No Name

After years of saving, months of searching, weeks of organising and days of packing, we've now successfully moved into our (the bank's) house. It's not quite far enough out that streets are unnamed, although nearby suburbs in my old street directory are full of un-named streets.

It's been an exhausting process, but it's good to have a place that we can organise as we like. Anyone who would like the new address knows how to contact me.

So, I apologise for the lack of blog. Now that things are (mostly) back to normal, hopefully life will be a little less hectic.

Links: Rabbits

Wikipedia's entry on the Great Wall of China has been subject to some interesting changes. See an example of the changes here and the discussion here.

[dave] The Beefing (as opposed to The Briefing)

Snow White Queen

I apologise for the lack of posting - things have been very hectic.

Last Saturday at 5:30pm saw me leaving home to head off to the Evanescence concert. A short drive to the Entertainment Centre, and I was queuing up by 6:15. I'm not sure why they open the Entertainment Centre doors at 6:30 when they're not actually going to open the floor doors until 7:30, but a long wait later I found myself about 10 people back from the front of stage.

Concert atendees wore a wide variety of very interesting outfits. I wondered at one point what on earth people who just happened to be walking past were thinking. From full male gothic dress (complete with skeleton gloves and punk hairdo) to female gothic and even complete Wagnerian clothing styles, more elaborate than formal dresses! I felt out of place not wearing black!

The support act (Shihad, who I think were previously known as Pacifier) started at 8:00, and were musically good (although a bit too much language for my taste), and the lead singer seemed to think a bit much of himself.

The main concert itself was awesome! They did the standard songs as expected - a mix of the most popular ones from Fallen and The Open Door, plus a brief rendition of Highway to Hell by Meatloaf. Nothing from Origin but that's not unexpected. I slowly made my way closer to the stage, mostly due to the high number of people who fainted and were carried off by the security guards. Eventually, they clued up and started splashing bottles of water over the first few rows of people standing closest to the stage (including me by this stage!).

It was very satisfying to find that Amy's voice is really as good live as it sounds on CD (perhaps better). The music was perhaps not as full as the produced versions, due to the absence of strings and additional instruments, but the stunning (and I do mean stunning) vocals more than made up for it. Concert effects were well done, with including fake snow for Lithium and good lighting.

Easily my best concert experience :) I'll be going again if they come out to Australia again (I was even tempted to try and get tickets for the extra Sunday night concert)

Thanks to www.evanescencefan.net for the pictures, which were taken from about 2 metres in front of where I was standing.

Crazy Times

Sadly, I seem to have been hit by comment spam. I shall have to consider comment moderation :( One of the pitfalls of being so popular I suppose :(

It's been a while between posts - I don't need to post in detail about what I was doing over Christmas-New Year, as most readers were with me at Presbyterian Youth Summer Camp. I found it an enjoyable, if exhausting experience once more, and I'm looking forward to the next time (after a suitable rest, of course!)

It was great to cement old friendships and even better build new ones. I managed to feel much more a part of camp than in previous years - not so busy that I couldn't spend time with people, which was great. Music (my job on camp) went well, and I have been surprised at the lack of exhaustion I've had over the last week or so. I also found that the talks on Hebrews were solid and encouraging.

But for now, it's back to the real world. Back at work, all the regular meetings (work and church -based) and activities are starting up again. New Years resolutions have been made, and (so far) on the whole kept.

For some reason this year feels more like a "New" year than any other. It could be the wide range of new clothing I received for Christmas. It may be the change in bling (can you call new glasses bling?). It may just be that I found the talks from camp personally encouraging and challenging.

On Sunday at church we looked at 1 John, and how as Christians we should be encouraging and fellowshipping with each other. Now, as the least busy time of the year, is probably the best time to build the habits of enjoying regularly spending time with friends. Hopefully, that can then last over the whole year.

Canon in D

Just some links today, although I haven't stopped thinking about 5 people to invite.

[bbspot] 25 Gadgets that save you money .

Pachebel's Canon Rant (video).

Mission-in-Snowdriftland (flash game) - cute for Christmas.

Entertaining Angels

Top 10 Bloopers for Technology in the Movies

[cafedave] the Ten Most Dangerous toys of all time.

As Christmas fast approaches, I think I've done everything I need to. A couple more days left at work to try and tidy up some loose ends before the new year, but nothing that's terribly urgent.

A was pondering the other night as I drove home the age-old question - if I could invite 5 living people to entertain at dinner, who would they be. I'm still thinking, but the people who are coming to mind are all people for whom I have enormous respect (if not for their life overall, at least in the field for which they are known). The first three places are very much taken (Don Carson, Al Gore, Amy Lee), so I've got Theology, the Environment and Music covered, but the last two spots are up for grabs.

So, I'll throw the question out there. Who would you invite? I'm adding a couple of arbitrary rules to make it more interesting. They have to be alive, and they can't know you personally.

Asphyxiation Theory

What would a town look like if it was suffocated in mud? Well, now we know. A company, part owned by an Australian company has left a bit of a mess in Indonesia. I've heard it described as the biggest man-made natural disaster since Exxon Valdez, which I'm not entirely sure about, but it is pretty nasty.

From Ghana to South Korea - at the end of this year, Kofi Annan will be replaced by Ban Ki-Moon as United Nations Secretary General. Five year terms are a long time!

You may (or may not) have noticed my post titles are following a bit of a theme at the moment...