curiousDannii

I can say I love you

I can say I love you, in Helvetica. But I wouldn't if you happen to be phonology.

So another semester is over. I know my morphology grade already: 80.07%, which is pretty decent but a little disappointing cause I know I could have gotten a 7. I'm fairly confident with English through space and time (last Friday's exam) too.

But this morning's exam... nope. Phonology at 8am must be one of the worst. I only had two hours sleep which didn't help. Though as I somehow managed to answer almost every question I might just scrape by. If I don't, I don't think I'll be repeating it either...

I then had a digital systems exam which was super easy, might even get as much as 98.7% overall!

So what do you do when you're brain dead and super tired? Obviously watch a doco about graphic design! If you haven't seen Helvetica then come visit sometime. During the holidays I'll probably host a Helvetica Party, complete with Helveticake!

Write Comment / 0 commentsJune 18, 2008, 05:19:12 PM by Dannii

Long awaited update

Wow, it's been a long time. Sorry to my hypothetical readers.

I've just finished classes for semester, so it seemed like a good time to start blogging again. This semester has been pretty good, morphology was my favourite course this time. The others were alright, aside from phonology, which is worrying me. I've been seriously slack.

What else has been happening? In the past week we've started planning for next semester ES mission, which will be about the sermon on the mount. It has some very challening messages, and I'm quite excited. I just hope a little bit of what the ideas we've had will happen. I'm also planning on running the Ideas that changed the world training course on the four solas during the holidays with Frank.

I hope the next time I write won't be too far away.

Write Comment / 0 commentsMay 31, 2008, 03:06:01 PM by Dannii

NTE 2007

Well NTE is over and I think I've recovered enough to do a write-up! This might be an extra long one cause Gordo asked for it.

After flying in (on Sally and my own party flight) I was very lucky to stay at the home of Paul and Sue. Thanks for opening your house to me and for the conversations we had.

So then to NTE proper. We were staying at Fenner Hall this year, which was not as good as Ursula the year before. It was so far away and the food wasn't great, but the worst might be the swipe cards that didn't work and the elevator that got stuck on floor 8. But it was okay, rooms were nice and all. The first talks were at the National Convention Centre so after the half hour walk we arrived. The musicians were a good team this year, however the media people didn't seem to have their act together even up to the end of NTE. There were often times when the song words didn't change until half way through the verse. Something to work on next year! Greg Lee spoke on Hebrews 1-3, but as I lost my book all I can remember is that U2 are quite the pluralists...

After lunch we met our strand groups, and got straight into... biblical theology. Sigh. I'm not a huge fan of BT, and doing so much of it, most of which I've covered before in According to Plan and Tuesday Night Training, seemed repeditive and almost a waste of time. Perhaps it would have been more beneficial for those who hadn't come across the theory before (other than strand one). Peter Adam spoke in the evening, and oh, he is a funny silly man. He spoke on God's word: Receiving God's words, written for his people, by his spirit about his son. The first talk had some strong reminders of the power of his word, and the covenant nature of his words. In talking about the authority of the Bible he made an side-comment saying "not in this Bible particularly but in any reputable Bible." I had wondered if any of the Bible readers would later comment about the reputability of their translation, but they didn't . In the evening I went to the missos session with Geoff Cuschieri, who will be going to Malta early next year. He was a very engaging presenter, if you get the chance to hear him, do it! Afterwards I talked to him and got encouraged a bit, and I think he sort of takes my view of mission too.

Day two, and we were off again with Greg Lee. I didn't like his talk, but it was on the very controversial subject of Christians falling away (Heb 3-6). At the beginning he did have a good warning to avoid the gradual slide into sin, and I agreed with him at the end that a Christian can't really fall away, but I couldn't follow his argument and disagreed with most of what he had said before. After he had said that "you put aside laziness (laziness to avoid growing in spiritual maturity, not physical laziness), that's how you stay Christian" I realised that salvation through grace by faith was basically missing from everything he said. Peter's talk had some good points such as pointing out that if God ever wanted us to read the letter to the Laodicians or the annals of the kings of Israel, he would have preserved them, so don't feel like we're missing out! He said that the right interpretation of the OT is the one about Jesus, and that the great plan of the Bible is to bring blessing to all nations. Finally he made an interesting point about context: we're to read it as the original readers would, Theophilus not Luke, churches not individuals.

I didn't have any problems with Greg's third talk from Heb 7-10. He showed a very cool video with Tony Robinson as an analogy that Jesus is our "sin eater". And of course anything about Melchizedek just defines cool.

In the afternoon I went to the writing networking time, and got the chance to ask Karen Beilharz about Matthias Media's copyright policy. She explained that they're both understaffed and barely making ends meet, so I can understand that it's not wise to make risky business ventures when people's families depend on a steady income. However perhaps in the future God may bring more financial support and they could try moving towards adopting free culture/theology principles. In that evening's session it felt like NTE was being used a platform to market books and music, Mark Peterson especially (I think it was him). His presence on the stage also seemed to throw the balance of the band, and his songs weren't even up to the standard of the others.

Peter's talk that day would have been the busiest with a lot of content. He made the intersting point that even if the Bible's authors didn't feel inspired they were still writing according to God's will, and then he broke up the talk by using his bananaphone. But the big points were at the end, that the Bible is a living point and we can meet God through reading it; that we shouldn't grieve the spirit but receive his words; and that God is present personally to speak to us and help us understand.

There was only one talk on day four due to extra strand time, so Peter finished his series by starting... with a rap. So random! Lots of fun though. He made an intersting point that may have something to say to the apologists, that even in the 1st century neither the empty tomb nor the eye witness accounts of Jesus' appearences convinced people. The OT did, that it proved the gospel of Christ. He warned us from simplifying the Bible too much, and from individualising it when we shouldn't. But he encouraged us that God is sanctifying us when we read his word even when we don't realise it, and that one of his plans is to program us to do good without noticing. Finishing (weakly I think) with a sizable list of Bible references, he said that the test of the Bible is how it changes us permanently.

On day five we had to deliver our talks on Micah 5, but as I had only managed to write about half of mine it went badly. I think I will work on it further though... The topic I choose was the remant of God and used both the passage and Romans 11. The main point of application was the complacent Christianity just isn't acceptable. Greg's last talk was a good encouragement to keep waiting for the future glory and put up with the current suffering. It's a hard thing to accept, but we have to remember that none of those heroes of faith ever received what was promised to them on earth, though the still endured for God. "Fix your eyes on Jesus and let the world do its worst!"

We weren't given a final lunch, so we went to the Pancake Parlour. I had a massive chocolate/icecream/strawberries extravaganza, and it almost made me sick! We found out that our flight had been cancelled which was a little worrying, but Virgin then put us on the Qantas flight half an hour later, which was great cause we got dinner too. And so ends NTE for this year. An exhausting but very rewarding time!

Write Comment / 0 commentsDecember 06, 2007, 08:54:22 PM by Dannii

HEAVEN07 (and other things)

Whoa, it's been a month. What's happened? Well firstly, I've finished uni for the semester! Hurrah! Maths and Elec will both be very close. I'll find out tomorrow whether I've passed them or not. I'm pretty certain now that I don't want to continue with Engineering, however there are a few courses that I'd be interested in taking just for fun. If there was an infinite supply of HECS this wouldn't be a problem, but as I don't have much left I'm not sure whether I should use some of it up just for enjoyment's sake, especially if a bible college is in my future plans...

This is also the time of the music students' recitals. I went to a few. Don't believe them when they say they're free! They don't consider the cost of the obligatory meal at the Pizza Caffe. But really Adam, Liz and Jenny all did very well! They make me jealous.

Last week I went away on the ES/Moore Park Baptist Church mission, which was an awesome time. It was the most busy week I've had for a long long time, but also one of the most fulfilling. We did the typical mission things like door knocking, walk-up evangeslism and RE, but we also did some unusual stuff like hosting an evening looking at five of the world's religions and worldviews called Meet the Candidates. I wrote and gave a talk on atheism. Continuing with the election theme, we delivered flyers for the HEAVEN07 campaign, suggesting people consider Jesus for New Leadership etc., and these flyers even got us in the paper! On Saturday morning we campagined outside the election booths, giving out flyers while we wore our shirts. One of the groups even got threatened with an injunction by a state parliament member! I had to leave that afternoon (for a friend's 21st), but was back for the Sunday round of church services. Overall it was a packed week, but a great one too. We got challenged, learned much and built new friendships. Oh, and we killed lots of French people in the game Guillotine!

I go down to Canberra on Friday for NTE, and then start the ES/Unichurch mission in 2 weeks! It's a busy time, but I'll try blogging again after NTE. So much to do, so many people to see...

Write Comment / 1 commentsNovember 27, 2007, 04:40:07 PM by Dannii

All grammared out

With my grammar final on Thursday, and the last day of classes today (okay now yesterday), the end is very close. Well for this semester at least

So what's happened this semester? Well my English grammar course has been interesting, although hard as well. As far as structural analysis goes, I think we have covered everything, so I'd be interested to see what the other courses are. I'd like to do some more morphology too... I've been mostly keeping afloat with maths too, although I have a bit to catch up on during SWOTVAC now. Elec is going alright, got a largish report to write, although I just found out it's due a week later than I thought which is great. Mech? Not this semester!

It's been a good semester to be a part of ES. After MYC we went straight into the mission, before hearing talks from 1 Peter by Glenn. It's been a good time getting to know more people and making some new close friends. Sadly though it's time for many people to move on. We'll be losing seven staff and lots of students of course. We said farewell to the staff at the Procrastination Party this arvo. Miss you all!

These past few months has also seen a change in some of my theology. I've been questioning quite a lot more beliefs that I haven't look at closely before, and perhaps more importantly, I've started putting down my thoughts and studies more permanently in the wiki. I read recently in Deuteronomy that the Kings were commanded to write out the Law in their own hand, so I'm planning to write out the Torah myself too. Why should Kings get all the fun?! Free theology is on my mind, and I'm becoming more convinced that it's the way things should head towards in the future, but I'm unsure as to the best way to point the resistant to the reasons why they should change. Christian writing is one of my new interests, and I'm going to organise a few meetings with some uni people, and then hopefully publish a small magazine early next year. And of course I'll make it available to download!

So now: to a few weeks of study and exams, ES missions, NTE, and the end of '07! Who knows what horrors 2008 will bring?

Write Comment / 2 commentsOctober 26, 2007, 06:55:09 PM by Dannii