I am not going to make any false apologies or promises. I haven’t been updating; I don’t feel bad about it. What do you think about that. But I was just brushing my teeth before I go to bed and I was thinking, “Golly I’ve learned a lot this year”. So I decided I would blog about it. This is also because a few weeks ago I was talking to Isaiah Hupp (shout out) and he was upset that I haven’t put anything on here. And since he is the most stubborn human on the planet about things like Facebook, Twitter etc. and therefor has no real way of knowing what I am doing/thinking outside of this blog, I thought I would be a good friend. So I am going to make a bullet point list of some of the things I have learned throughout the year. Enjoy.

-The saying “Everything worth having does not come easy (or something like that)” is very true. But I realize that I notice this after I have the thing of worth and look back at how hard it came.

-Pretty girls are plenteous but girls I can actually enjoy being around are hard to come by.

-I like books more than I ever have before

-Australia is a hot country and I am a sweaty person

-Anyone that talks of how awesome they are, aren’t

-Anyone that will argue that they are a secure person, prove the opposite

-I like to sound smart

-Even if it gets you a girlfriend, busting out a guitar and singing at a party or public place is douchey. No matter how good your voice is.

-David Bazan makes me think.

-David Bowie is pretty awesome too.

-I have the coolest family on the planet.

-I am awesome and really secure. I will fight this to the grave

-Red hair has not gained the cool status that I have always dreamed it would. Yet

-Thrice, Brand New, Mute Math, Mew, Imogen Heap and Metric all made really good albums this year.

-Growing up is exciting. Sometimes in a crappy way and sometimes in an awesome way.

-My opinions on a lot of things are changing but don’t freak out

-I think too much. Seriously, I overthink everything

-Unjustifiably grouchy people piss me right off

-I like most people, but some really frustrate me. Hopefully in 2010 I will learn to focus on the good ones instead of getting frustrated with the others.

-Honest people are way more fun to hang out with

-I want to get better at a lot of things.

-I suck at keeping in touch with a lot of people I  really care about.

-Bad words are mostly funny. But when they aren’t, soooo awkward.

-Please don’t argue why you don’t like Twitter to me, I am only a moderate fan.

-I like mornings

-I make a really good chai tea latte

I want to think of more because this is fun. But I’m pretty tired. If anyone reads this you should post a comment, no matter what. Anything. I would be very interested to know if anyone does

I love my family

Once again, I haven’t written for ages. But isn’t that how it is? As soon as you get a journal when you’re a kid you write in it every night for a week and then you forget until a month later and you somehow convince yourself in doing so that you’ve sinned. Another few months goes by and you don’t write in your new Tazmanian Devil journal and then you remember that you have it and decide to write and realize it has almost been a year to the day that you’ve written in your Journal. At least that’s what happened to me as a child. Even the Tazmanian Devil part. My mom bought if for me as a surprise. BUT now I write in my journal several times a week. Well that’s kind of what I do with this here blog, so maybe some day I will get better. For now I’m okay with writing stuff when I want to and I don’t really care who sees it. If you do see it though you better make a comment or something. Those make me feel good.

Anyways, why I wanted to write was because I am reading a book right now called “Spurgeon vs. Hyper-Calvinism-The battle for Gospel Preaching” and it is sooo good. I tripled the amount of “O’s” necessary in that word for emphasis. You may think the book sounds lame, but if you think that you are missing out. I don’t even care to ever preach, it is just really good for Christianity. I don’t want to explain it because my explanations of things have a tendency to suck, but you won’t fully understand what makes some of the quotes I will share so cool unless I do(foreshadowing).

This guy named Charles Spurgeon was a pastor of pretty much one of the first mega churches ever in England in the mid-late 1800’s. He is awesome. There was this “sect” of Christianity, that should really be it’s own religion because of how skewed from real Christianity it is, that is called Hyper-Calvinism. Hyper-Calvinism is defined by a credible source as “a pejorative term for a theological position that denies that the call of the gospel to repent and believe is universal – that is, for every person. Hyper-calvinism also asserts that since a person who is not influenced by the Holy Spirit does not have the ability to believe in Christ, he therefore does not have a duty to repent and believe in Christ for salvation.” I just learned what “pejorative” means. How I have understood hyper-calvinism is that it is the belief that no altar call or public Gospel should ever be given or preached because it would be inviting people who may not be part of the chosen elect of God to salvation. It suggests that these “elect” have felt the pull of the holy spirit and have a penitence towards their sin that separates them from every other sinner. The book is about how Spurgeon taught the opposite and stressed what the Bible actually says about salvation. I hope that wasn’t too long. I just want people to see these quotes because they’re so cool. Partially just because I know typing them will help me remember them better. If you have stopped reading already or want to now, I won’t be offended. You’ll just miss out on these lil’ nuggets of awesomeness. I’m just going to list them now because I’m tired of explaining, and you are too most likely. If you like them, read this book.

“Repent, and be baptized every one of you,” said Peter. As John Bunyan puts it — one man might have stood up in the crowd and said, “But I helped to hound Him to the cross! …. Repent, and be baptized every one of you.” “But I drove the nails into His hands!” saith one. “Every one of you,” says Peter. “But I pierced His side!” said another. “Every one of you,” said Peter. “And I put my tongue into my cheek and stared at His nakedness and said, ‘If He be the Son of God, let Him come down from the cross.'” …. Every one of.you,” said Peter. “Repent, and be baptized every one of you.” I do feel so grieved at many of our Calvinistic brethren; they know nothing about Calvinism, I am sorry to say, for never was any man more caricatured by his professed followers than John Calvin. Many of them are afraid to preach from Peter’s text, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you.” When I do it, they say, “He is unsound.”

“Can you understand it, for I cannot, how a man is a free agent, a responsible agent, so that his sin is his own wilful sin and lies with him and never with God, and yet at the same time God’s purposes are fulfilled and his will is done even by demons and corrupt men? I cannot comprehend it: without hesitation I believe it, and rejoice so to do , I never hope to comprehend it…….I worship a God I never expect to comprehend.”

“If he be lost, damnation is all of man; but, if he be saved, still salvation is all of God.”

“Beloved, there is nothing that so delights Jesus Christ as to save sinners….You misjudge him if you think he wants to be argued with and persuaded to have mercy; he gives it as freely as the sun pours forth light. Paul had no stinted Saviour to present to a few, no narrow-hearted Christ to be the head of a clique, but he preached a great Saviour to great masses, a great Saviour to great sinners….My Lord Jesus by his death has become immensely rich in pardoning grace – so rich indeed that no guiltiness can possibly transcend the efficacy of his precious blood.”

when I was little, my brother convinced me that every time you learn something new you get a wrinkle on your brain and that’s why old people have wrinkles. Their brain runs out of room so their skin receives the newly acquired proof of enlightenment. After not too long I realized he was lying, but only about the bit about the wrinkles going onto your skin. For like 10 years I was sure that every time you learned something your brain got a little bit more wrinkly.

Well if any of that were true, my brain would have taken on many a new wrinkle lately. I mostly like learning. I am still learning a lot about myself. I’m learning how to deal with my insecurities in a way that actually helps me progress in insecure areas; apparently that’s a first for me. I am also learning to distinguish between pride, principle and preference. I am learning that I have tons of time to do something “constructive” when I stop being lazy. I am learning that girls really are as stupid as I’ve always thought they were. I am learning that gross things happen when things don’t get cleaned up. I am learning that boys are even stupider than girls……..the list goes on. Well it doesn’t but that’s how I’ll wrap up this paragraph.

Remember how two posts ago I said I got a twitter account and then deleted it……….yeah I changed my mind.

Things I would like you to notice in this post:

• My possibly incorrect use of a semicolon
• I came up with that pride, principle and preference thing on the spot as I was writing. It’s still true, I just made it sound way good
• I often times put a word in quotation marks if I am somewhat embarrassed using it.
• Before this bullet point, this post was exactly 300 words long. it is now 315.

I got this huge Edgar Allen Poe collection book for Christmas and the other day I was reading one of the short stories called “the oval portrait” and it was crazy good. It had the best “spiritual parallel” for lack of a better term. You could read it if you like. Tell me what you think.

The other day I made a decision. I decided to make a twitter account. I registered, worked on my profile for a little bit, looked at other profiles to make sure mine looked the best, read some peoples updates…….and so on and so forth for about an hour. Then I realized I didn’t care about it so I deleted it. It is pretty cool, but do I really need another tool that will get me closer and closer to becoming a stalker of sorts? Facebook is doing a good enough job for that.

Listening to:

The Flaming Lips-At War With The Mystics

The Walkmen-You and Me

Modest Mouse-Good News For People Who Love Bad News

I haven’t put anything up in awhile. No whitty ideas I suppose so I’ll just give a little update.

I started classes again a few weeks ago. The first two weeks I had “intensives” as it is at the first two weeks of each semester where you do a semesters worth of hours for a class in two weeks. It went faster than expected and this week I started normal classes. The first couple of weeks after I got back were super hot and then it was real cold and rainy for the last two weeks until yesterday and now it’s nice again.

I am super excited for this year. I can’t even really say why. I’m excited for this year because of what it will mean for the years to come, which I think is a cool place to be in. There are a ton of things that keep happening that fully like God orchestrating my life to prove to me he has things under control. Maybe I am just noticing more the things God always does, but either way it’s pretty sweet. Now if I could just trust Him when that doesn’t seem to be true.

I have a feeling I will be listening to a lot of these bands this year:

• Taxi taxi
• The Cinematics
• Fujiya & Miyagi
• The Walkmen
• We Barbarians

Also, I got a hair cut. One night my friend was like, “hey can I cut your hair?”……………I said yes

For the first time in my life I just:

• watched Top Gun
• completed a proper resume

Which brings me to my next point. Getting a job is possibly one of the suckiest things ever. Well……looking for a job. Getting one is quite nice. But looking/preparing to look for one is suuuuuuucky. It’s so flippin stressful. And they do it on purpose. I think it’s so they know if you’re serious. Well I am serious. Now the rest of the puzzle pieces just have to fall in place. I will force them in to place.

phew

Sydney was the hottest place on the planet earth today.

Take that Sahara Desert

I keep trying to upload a picture on here of my mustache but it won’t let me. This picture is close enough.

the cool thing is, I don’t know what will possess me to shave it off at any point. I have reasons to keep it on and don’t have any reason to take it off, so logic tells me to keep it. Rock