Jesus of the week

There are some funny/cool images on this site- the things some people try and sell.....
(www.jesusoftheweek)
Also reminded me of recently visiting my grandma with the rest of the family. She's always had this really nice pic of Jesus knocking at the door but didn't know how much it meant to me till I saw it hanging there crocked, couldn't stand it- hand to fix it, Jesus shouldn't be crocked. Think the rest of the family thought it was pritty wierd- esp. as my sister is usually the obessively neat one and I'm obessively unneat.

emotions and God

In one of my lectures this week we talked a bit about a study that was done where they wanted to test if/how high arousal affects peoples emotions. This was done by having one group of guys walk across a suspension bridge with an atractive female model talk to them and give them her number compared to another group who where given her number with the idea that the group on the bridge where more aroused (either scared or excited- think guys a much more likely to admit to the later of the 2!). Anyway, a significantly higher number of the guys from the bridge phone the lady back compared to those who weren't- with the conclusion that the amount of arousal affect the intensity of emotion (the bridge guys felt a higher level of desire).
In other studies done, it's been found that both music we like and music which is generally considered to be arousing is- so our emotions while listening to such music is also intensified (marketers are so not stupid when they have music esp. arousing music during their adds!!).
Is that intensified emotion really a good thing- esp at church stuff?
How does/ would that affect how we relate to God?
Is having an alter call straight after arousing/ popular music even ethical? (does that explain why in my experience they often don't last?)

That may also be why so many teenagers come to christ- rekon the teens are a pritty full on arousing period of life, so they find this intense emotional eexperience with God but when things settle down they think somethings wronge and thats it, Gods not there anymore. the relationship was based on emotion.
Does this also mean that musicians are a bunch of emotionally high freaks!?! (think Steve would prob think so after I burst into tears at him during the week, may also explain why I act like a teenager a lot).

So is that emotionally intense desire/ seeking of God what we should be aiming to achieve or is it unethical?

The diff between deciding and doing

"5 frogs are sitting on a log. 4 decide to jump off. How many are left? Answer: 5. Why? Because there's a difference between deciding and doing."
Source: quote from The House select committee report on Katrina ("A Failure of Initiative"), page v (pg. 8 of the pdf).

progress vs. culture

Apparently India is trying to ban rickshaw's. (their version has the buy running and carrying the rickshaw compared the the bike versions I saw in thailand). The documentary I watched on it at the ends asked- a living or inhumane, ugly or iconic?

The friendly or stupid games

Well, it seems most people really love or hate the comm games!- well actually I was completely living in my obsessed with the tv and loving the whole thing bubble until I had about 4 people shun the whole thing to me last night.

yes I think the tv coverage was very aussie sided and probably the money could have been better spent somewhere else, but enough with the negativity! It only happens every 4 years,(2 if you count the olympics), if you don't like sport then you have every rite to that opinion but don't winge over 10 days, as for the money-would you complain if it was a big music or christian festival- or that our whole society will soon have to go out and buy digital tv's- which will cost so much more!
Don't give money so much credit, yes it's important and powerful in our society but God is so much bigger and powerful than money will every be.

God hates Fags!

There is seriously a baptist church in american with this as the name of their site, and they go around protesting and arguing this message, even at the funerals of soldiers and saying things like 'thank God 4 dead soldiers' and 'God hates America'....etc. And they've labled this their 'Love Crusades'- yuk!!!

see for yourself- http://www.godhatesfags.com

21st Lyrics

Due to the lack of cognitive thinking on my part at the moment, possibly due to being over whelmed with uni and a few other things going on at the moment, I've just decided to write out the song I performed as part of my 21st recently.

'Photograph' music by Nickelback, Lyrics by Mim

verse 1
look at these photographs, every time I do it makes me laugh,
how did our eyes get so red, Craig DeWild should never shave off his moustache,
this is where I come to work , I'm the one who fixed it up,
blood noses and crying boys, just because they didn't win a game,
been studying for 16 years, and I've just singed up for another two,
before you ask whats wronge with me, who's the one thats still on holidays,
sharks a not dangerouse, rollar blading all around the streets,
Halls gap is the bomb diggity and Jesus is the bling bling

chorus
Every memory of walking out the back door, all the junk that I have spread out on my bedroom floor,
not hard to say it, time to say it, thanks guys, thanks guys,
every memory of hanging our with my friends, every trip that I have spent with my family,
not hard to say it, time to say it, thanks guys, thanks guys.

verse 2
Remember the back of the school oval, it was meant to be out of bounds,
often made us late for class, wasn't Dwyer a funny man,
used to harmonise to the radio, and sing every guitar riff I knew,
wearing black and head banging, I'm still singing at the steering wheel,
Kim's the first girl I kissed, was so nervouse that I nearly missed,
nah, actually that was a lie, I'd just run out of lines to write.

bridge
I run into trees, and lock key in my car,
make my sister eat leaces while I eat the dirt,
I drive through red lights and cry over spilt coffee,
I'm 21 now most people wouldn't believe it

If I could relive those days I know the one thing that would never change......chorus



I'd had all these great, creative ideas of vidoes and other stuff to do, but when it came to the week before, without having done any of them and without the technological knowledge of how to do any of them I decided to do something I did know how to do- and that was rip off someone else song!! worked well when mich and I did it at our yr 12 concert and still works now!

I kind of back

I really don't have much interesting stuff to write, except I start placements next wed at Brunswick special development school (a school for children with moderate to sever disabities) which I'm sure will be both interesting and challenging- esp as it's going to take me almost 2 hrs to get there and I'm meant to be there at 8:30am- and I'll so out of the habbit of getting up early! So I might have something interesting to talk about next week.

Jaws and cocain!

Well according to my doctor and the extreme pain I'd been in recently, when trying to eat or open my mouth too much, in my right ear (and yes, for anyone who knows me, my 1st freak out was that I may go deaf) -I have a jaw problem. Apparently some people are just more susceptable to this kind of prob and I'm one of them, just the way I'm made up. But saying it's from all my years of chewing hearty aussie steaks, talking too much, too much passionate/ violent kissing and having an incredably loud scream etc. is a much more interesting story! Maybe the truth is that it's somewhere between both explanations.
Anyway, I got told to go get some anti- inflamatories, not to chew anything and not to open my mouth more than 1 centimetre, to come back and see my doctor in 10 days and that my problem was chronic. Chronic just has so many negative connotations for me- chronic means always- so does that mean I'm always not allowed to chew, always not allowed to open my mouth more than 1 cen.....? that makes it hard to sing which in turn makes it very hard to be a music therapist. so then the combination of having an over active imagination and spending a decent amount of time on my own all long weekend meant I was at times quite miserable.
I'd worked so hard to get into this course and now because of a chronic jaw prob I may not be able to complete the course or be able to properly do my job (I know I'm going to look back on this and laugh at the stupid things I think sometimes).
Now I have something else to add to my things I really don't want to happen to me list- 1 to become deaf, 2 lose or not be able to use fingers (related to being a pianist), 3 have to go through kimotherapy, 4 having to go through the pain of losing someone I love, 5 having a jaw problem and not being able to sing. I felt like an athlete who'd become injured and not able to perform anymore, a gymnast who'd lost the ability to walk or a couple who after going through and spending heaps on IVF having a miscarrage. Why do the things that we fine most beautiful often corse us the most pain? why does playing a sport often leave us with physical injuries, and trying help others leaves us torn and food often makes us sick and playing too much guitar makes our fingers bleed and singing a lot without being properly trained can make you lose your voice and love - love at times just hurts.......

A happy/ interesting thought!!- learnt last week at uni that music stimulates the same pleasure areas in the brain that cocain does!!