Vanilla Sky

Yes, saw it last night.
It's one of those movies which make you think alot. I thought it was good, but Stacey didn't really and I don't think I got a straight answer from Robs - you never really can these days.

It made me sad - it was a movie with this overhanging sense of regret, and I guess I have this thing with regret - I'm qite anti-it. And it really made me think about dreams verses reality - ya know, trueman show, matrix etc. Apparently I need to see 'waking life'

So I'm all sad and depressed now. I guess I wanted the dude to end up with the foreign chick and all, but I dunno. It was quite....... something.

I really wanna go surfing...

SHAZAM!

The Meaning of Life

Yupp, u read right.

In a nutshell, I follow Socrates logic - the meaning of life in my opinion is to pursue truth. I'm pretty sure 'the fly' said something like that - help me out Pie.

Many people, as I have, have found this truth in 'religion'.
I believe that there is only one God and He sent His Son Jesus to die for our sins so we could be with Him and all that.
And so I try to do my best to follow His teachings, and live my life always in approval of God.

This is what I believe to be 'Truth', and I stick to this. Someone should kick me when I don't stick to it.

So I have respect for those who have researched, searched and found an answer to what they think truth is, and have stuck to this conclusion.
I also really respect those who are still searching.
In away maybe we are always searching, if not for a truth, but maybe within the truth we find.

I do not respect those who do not stick to their findings.

In saying this, I personally don't believe that there are multiple truths, but only one truth(as I have explained above).
Also, I don't think Truth is relative, it has to be unchanging from all perspectives.

A sign that Claire Cooper pointed out to me in photography states something like this -
"The moment an instant or a physical persective is recorded (unadulterated) on film, it no longer is fact, but it becomes an opinion"
So if something physical that is mechanically recorded/captured, for us to view, is not fact, then what is? The Greek historian Thucydides claimed that the body's ability to percieve things with it's senses was flawed, and so noone can ever see exactly the same thing.

If our physical bodies/the physical world hinder us from finding truth, then I come to the conclusion that there must be more to everything than just the physical, and that the truth must be in a 'spiritual' realm, which is why I think that people must turn to religion to find the answers.

Just my thoughts down on button and screen

Scott - a living example

Sorry bout goin on about the whole money/donation thing, but I was reminded of a real cool story that happened to me personally.

There was this pastor/minister/preacher guy who lead a youth Bible study group in a church called Calvary Chaplel in wairau park. He was an awesome dude from America - he wore modest clothes, walked around in bare feet most of the time, and was an all round nice but firm guy.

He used to be a hardcore surfie before he decided to become a follower of Jesus. He also had the most insanely awesome Bible knowledge ever - he could back up pretty much whatever he was saying with countless numbers of Bible verses, and was also very smart/wise - he had studied molecular biology (I think), and so was effective in convincing me to believe in creation rather than evolution due to his profound knowledge in this area. He is to me an example of what a Christian should be. He has a family- a wife and two little kids, one of which has an asthma problem.

Anyway I was helping him move house so he could go down to Rotorua to set up a church there, along with most of the other youth in the Bible study group. To cut a moderate story short, he gave me a surfboard (pretty much perfect condition).

I mean, this is an awesome board! He could have sold it for at least 500 bucks, but he didn't, he gave it to me. Now this dude lived in a very average home in sunnynook, didn't have a flash car, and only had about 2 other surfboards! He realised that his belongings didn't belong to him - they belonged to his master, God, and he was His servant.

Money does not matter to him! He's been living on the border of being poor, yet still gives.

He is what being a Christian is all about I reckon

extra money stuff

Yeah, I found some Bible stories that are really relevant to the whole money thing.

This from Matthew chapter 25 verse 14.
(Its definitley worth reading)

14"Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. 15To one he gave five talents[1] of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. 17So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. 18But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. 19"After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 20The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.' 21"His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!' 22"The man with the two talents also came. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.' 23"His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!' 24"Then the man who had received the one talent came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.' 26"His master replied, 'You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest. 28" 'Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. 29For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 30And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'
(A talent is worth more than $1000)

So in response to David's comment of Bill Gates having given away half of his estate (being $40 billion), thats an awesome effort, and good on him. But from a Christian perspective, and through this Bible story (told by Jesus), a person who has the ability to do well in making money should give that 'talent' back to God.
So, if someone who follows Jesus' teachings only needs 1% of his earnings to surivive, then he should give away the other 99% to God (to charities, churches etc), because he has been given the ability to make money and therefore has the ability to 'help' God out in that way, more than someone else.And this person has a greater responsibility than someone who only is able to make another 50% above what he needs.

Also, its obviously not just the ability to make money that we should dedicate to God- it is everything. I mean, if we can make people happy by painting pretty pictures we should do it in dedication to God, and for those who are wise, to use this wisdom to bring knowledge to those who are poor in that area.

Luke chapter 12 verse 48:
"From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked."

And maybe we don't need to survive.......

Mark chapter 12 verse 41:
41Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins,[10] worth only a fraction of a penny.[11] 43Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything--all she had to live on."

Please comment, even if you dissagree. Say what you think Christians should be doing as far as giving money away, and also what people who don't believe in God/a god/haven't made up their mind yet should be doing.

Green Stats Sheet (post name curtosy Rob)

Yeah. This has absolutely nothing to do with stats.
What I want to talk about is how much people should be giving away, and how much they should keep. Yeeha. Like, there's dudes like Bill Gates who earns like a kazillion bucks a minute. I remember someone saying that in the time that took him to write out a cheque for $500, he wouldve earned that much. And everyone goes wow u are so great when he gives a million to some charity. he earns that in like a week or something. stacey wants me to write on christopher reeves (maddox?!). no stacey. anyway, there are christians like Brian Tamaki (Destiny church guy) who apparently gives 90% of his money away. So I guess some people can argue that he deserves to have those two outrageously fancy/expensive cars and a harley and a million dollar house. and from a non-religious point of view, i guess thats reasonable. But this dudes supposed to be a christian, and therefore shouldnt place value on material stuff, and he should be placing his treasures in heaven - as it says in Matthew chapter 6:20. This is because we believe that this life is only temporary, as well as everything in it, and so nothing really matters, except for relationships with people&God. We aspire for heaven, and the imperishable 'riches' that God has in store for us there. I mean, Mr T could sell just one of his cars and set up a hospital in a semi large african community, or give clean drinking water to hundreds of villages over there, or feed a thousand kids for a month over in serbia ( its a place). How can he justify sarificing this for his image, or being able to get to church a minute faster?

So anyway, how poor should we stay at? is comfortability a factor?
Someone told me she had a mate who went to indonesia or something for afew months and came back, and couldnt justify spending money on flashy clothes, or even sending a text because she could be helping a kid to survive for a while. My friend said that it was bad to be this 'extreme', but bad to completely hord stuff- she reckoned that it was good to be in between. But what was so bad with being overly conscious of ur spending/selfishness?
is bringing happiness&quality of life to people more important than helping them to survive? poor people are some of the most happy people in the world, should we just leave them be?
Im not saying i give all of my money away. I really have too much. But I think we all need to realise this (especially for those of us who live on the shore) .

Feel free to comment, just dont catch yourself trying to justify why you have that colour mobile phone, or that mini system

And this is what I read in Steven Hawking's book, 'A Brief History of Time' in whitcoulls a couple weeks ago. The basic idea is the same, I just had that vertical axis representing space as well, instead of time, and that only the cone was representative of time. I need to read into it more............. but I rule. Cmon guys, I kicked Hawking's tail bone 

This is what I drew halk way through 2003, trying to figure out geometrically how the 4th dimension would work on a scale/graph thing 

Things

My brother got a new phone.
Wow, look at him. Doesn't he rule. He figured that he'd save money joining telecom with their $10 texting. I don't know if I'm angry at Jono for not being faithful, or angry at stupid vodafone for not following suit and saving ME money. mind u i dont really spend that much anyways. the point i was trying to make is that he's trying to sell me his old charger for $20 (aparantly half price) which i was borrowing anyway because the car door got slammed on my old one.
Is this reasonable? And in a side thing, I'm sick of the fad of mobile phones. If we stopped using them, and just called each other instead, we'd save alot of money.
Anyway......
Oooo, Chem. Was quite hard, but I survived, apart from aqueous - that was just ridiculously impossible. I left the whole paper blank.
Does anyone know how to put pictures up on a blog? I want to show everyone how I am as smart as Steven Hawking (Almost).
I'm sure I had some other moderatley useless/interesting to say..............
Wow, I need money. I'm almost finished photography guys- don't stress, k?
Something deep, hmmmmmm....................
"The man with the most masks is the most weighed down" - Jacob Sawyer, 2003

I hate chemistry

I hate it so much. Its depressing.
If Chemistry was a small, flightless bird I would jump on it with soccer boots with the sprigs sharpened.
ooo dinner - barbeque.

seriously guys, don't try to go back in time