But then you assure me.....

It's amazing how God can assure us.

Anthony suprised me by showing up in Ballarat out of the blue on Friday night. He collaborated with another one of my good mates who is down here & we meet up under the attraction of Pizza and bowling. Which meant that instead of a weekend of dirty rooms, assignments and boredom I had a weekend of mates, movies, eating out and laughs. Despite my initial internal apprehensions, (& shock/surprise) it was the best thing that could've happened. (or second best anyway!) It interrupted the cycle of Uni, sleep, work, Uni, Assignments, Work etc. Also, instead of sitting in my room feeling guilty about now doing work of some description I was able to get away from it completely.

Sometime during the duration of the weekend I was also reminded somewhat of my (our) own self-worth. God loves me enough to give me mates that will take a weekend out for no other reason than to 'catch-up' or 'hang'. It was a huge encouragement to be reminded that with God I've got this far through Uni, and the with his help I can get through my final year. I have more Uni work now than I've ever had, but 2 years later I'm starting to learn to actually manage it. Don't get to wrapped up in the immediate stresses and work of life. Because then you lose your perspective on other areas of life. Not only that, but you become (as I did) introverted & self focused. This leads to guilt, selfishness and negativity etc. It seems that as Spiderman 3 (which we saw) showed, it's very often that the greatest battle lies within.

In Summary:

Sometimes I think that I'm not any good at all
And sometimes I wonder why, why I'm even here at all
But then you assure me

I'm a little more than useless
And when I think that I can't do this
You promise me that I'll get through this
And do something right
Do something right for once

More Than Useless - Relient K

Protests

Does anyone know what the protest up Swanston St. Melbourne was about yesterday? The tail of it was walking past just as I had to cross it. I couldn't see what they where protesting about though. My guess is either against Uranium mines (in which case it was pointless) or Industrial Relations (Again pointless, just vote Labor at the next election).

Anyways, good on them for protesting against whatever it was they didn't like about our Government. We're very lucky to have the right to disrupt daily life for thousands of people just because we have a gripe about something.

My only fear is that it fell on deaf ears.

Poster

This has just gone up in the toilet.

Wonder what comments this will bring?

Upstairs Living

Brace yourselves for the most controversial and insightful blog ever to grace the thisisjonny.blogspot.com/ domain....

Prior to now, I have not divulged to the blogosphere (I think that's somewhere between the stratosphere and the atmosphere) the fact that my room on res. this year is Upstairs. Not a major revelation, unless you are familiar with Res workings here at Mt. Helen. The units here consist of 12 rooms, 6 upstairs and 6 downstairs. In a mathematically perfect world this would mean 6 boys downstairs and 6 girls upstairs. But as those of you that've ever woken up before 8am would know, we don't live in a perfect world. So I'm living upstairs with 5 other girls. While I could say many things about living alongside the opposite gender, for the time being I wish to concentrate of the peculiarities of the upstairs bathroom. Now I know you're all expecting & waiting for one issue in particular now that I've mentioned this, but it really won't hurt you consumers to wait a moment for your fill of blogging gratification. That topic is last.

1. Hair in the Sink - I walked into the bathroom one day & discovered hair in one of the 2 sinks. Not unusual in my past, but as the only male frequenting this room, I was a little perplexed as to how this hair had appeared. You see, I had not shaved at that sink at any time in the past 2 days. (Any longer than that & it probably would've been cleaned)
   
My logical brain struggled for solutions:

• Underarm Hair? No girl would do that publicly.
  
• Facial Hair? Mine was still on my face.
  
• Arm hair? The day I see a girl with arm hairs that thick... I'll be scared.
  
• Leg hair? How is it possible to do that?
  
• Head hair? The smallness of the hairs would hardly warrant that much effort.

Answer: I learnt a few days later that it's possible to shave your legs in a sink if you sit on the bench. While it's not confirmed, this is the most likely explanation.

2. Splash back - Now we come to the toilet. No waitup, it's not that topic yet. But I generally go to the toilet standing up, whenever I can. So imagine my horror, when on one of those occasions when I'm unable to go standing up, I spot some droplets of.... liquid on the toilet seat. Again, mostly males get the blame for this, but I know for a fact that it wasn't mine!!!!!! My logical brain didn't even try to understand this one. Guys can misfire, but girls..... AHHHH!

Answer: I've since discovered that occasionally after flushing, some water will splash out onto the bowl. Again, this is the likely explanation. But there are others.....

3. Toilet Seat - Here you go, this is what you where all waiting for. Surprisingly, this hadn't been an issue until last week sometime. When a green sign with black writing appeared at about eye-level above the Toilet: "If you pee standing up, can you please remember to put the toilet seat down." Why? If the issue is touching the place that numerous people have had their bare bottoms, I have to do it to pee. It's fair that if they expect me to put it down, I expect them to put it up. I used to think that the issue was seeing whatever wasn't flushed down last time. But that isn't the case here, as there isn't a lid. Just a seat. So there is no resolution for this one as yet. Time for me to go make a sign of my own.......

"The rains are here....."

"Then, between the 26 & the 28th of April 2007, the worst drought in recorded history broke across Southern Australia"

At least hopefully a line like that will appear in a history book someday, and Mr Howards warning of zero irrigation in the Murray-Darling basin will never eventuate......

It's just started raining in Ballarat. But Nhill (~40km from my home) has already had an inch. Adelaide has had an inch and a half, or 40mm! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Ballarat Rainfall

Centeral Victoria Rain Radar

Praise God for his continuing blessings to us all!!!

My Minor Epiphany

I was sitting at my table, eating my delicious Ice-Cream and ok-but-far-from-brilliant Vanilla Slice at Res tea last night when I think I had a minor epiphany.

I was eating and thinking over a conversation I'd had the previous night with (the beautiful) Tiarnee and while doing so, I came to the conclusion that while it is fear that often (almost always) rules peoples lives, the object of fear is not always the most obvious one. It seems to me, that the vast majority of people are not in-fact fearful or scared of rejection. I contend that love and acceptance are more feared than rejection and disappointment. Why would anyone fear love? I'm not 100% sure but I'll try to explain it best I can.

Before I started 'going-out' with Tiarnee I was very hesitant to tell her that I liked & was attracted to her. It took some serious prodding from God (& Tiarnee herself) before I actually dared to acknowledge the feelings and things that where happening inside of me. I was petrified to acknowledge that I liked her, but not because there was a possibility that she would reject me. Tiarnee had already made it clear how she herself felt about me. I was scared of being accepted by someone for who I was. I was afraid that I would get too close to the wrong person. That God would say that this is the wrong one. But mostly, I was afraid that I wasn't good enough.

Too this day I still often feel in-adequate compared to the love shown to me by God and yes, my girlfriend. People don't go and have one-night stands because they're scared of rejection. Because rejection is a given in a one-night stand. The next morning it's all over. Both parties involved in a one-night stand realise they're just being used by the other. People have one night stands (I belive) because they don't know how to, or are scared of being accepted and thus, vunerable before other people. Because once someone is loved, and then loves in return, life loses its' focus on self, and losing self focus is about as popular as swimming in Lake Wendouree. This applies to all relationships with all people, not just ones with romantic (or otherwise) interest.

Does that make any sense? It made alot of sense when I thought of it in my head......