Yadda Yadda Yadda

Well Lior last night was incredible! The support act was rather odd to say the least, but Lior himself was brilliant! He played a lot of stuff off his debut album 'autumn flow', and then some other things that I hadn't heard before! He also sang 2 songs in Hebrew which were amazing! He was born in Israel, but raised in Sydney, and you can see his Hebrew influence in his music. I adore it! He is such an incredible guitarist, and his voice! *sigh* It's strong, controlled and has such a beautiful tone! I'm rather in love with his music at the moment. I wish I could write music like that! You guys who didn't come missed an incredible night. I recommend getting along to see him if you get the chance.

On another note, Ingi & I are doing an open mic night tomorrow (Thursday). We haven't done one for quite a while, so it'll be nice to get up and perform again. We're not sure what time we'll actually be on stage. If you want to come along here are the details:
Thursday 22nd (tomorrow)
Arlington (Wattle Park Chalet) off Riversdale Rd in Surrey Hills (Melway map 60 J2/K3)
8pm - 11:30pm (but there's no need to stay the whole time)
FREE!

An update on the acoustic duo I'm in. I'm not sure if many people got that there is a new song up on Synergy's website. I took off the Missy Higgins song, and put up "Feeler" by Pete Murray. So feel free to have a peek.

Look what Naomi did! Isn't is just awesome?!! It's me! There is some text that goes with it underneath. It's called "hidden kiss".



Theres a kiss there, hidden on those lips, she's not sure who it's for yet, but it's there...

I'd just like to say that my hair is sitting super weird because I had just had a shower and it was wet and just not happening for me.

I was thinking (dangerous I know!), and I think there are two things I'd like to be more prominent in my life.

The first is Encouragement. I want to be someone who encourages, someone who actively invests in others. I think it would make more of a difference than I can even imagine if I was a person who constatntly encouraged those around me. I love seeing what it does for people when they feel encouraged. And I kind of enjoy being encouraged myself! :)

The second thing I'd like to be more prominent in my life is silliness! That's right! I love being silly, and being silly with others! I don't like stupidity, there is a big difference. I think the difference between the two is responsibility. I think stupidity lacks responsibility and can hurt people, but silliness is just being a bit strange or different or spontaneous but still with a sense of responsibility. I love doing fun things for the sake of it. I like being silly! Bring on the silliness! MORE SILLINESS FOR ALL! Randomness is a lost art for most. But I can think of certain people who take it to new heights! :)

ENCOURAGEMENT & SILLINESS!

I did a public speaking course called "Synapse" this weekend. I learnt so much, and I just loved it! The aim was to equip us with tools so that public speaking becomes manageable and less daunting, and I certainly feel that is true for me! A lot of it was about the art of story telling, how powerful stories can be to make a point. There were about 25 of us who did the course. It was so awesome to spend the weekend getting to know some people better too. I feel like I've made some new friends this weekend, and strengthened some other friendships. Anyone reading this who was at Synapse: YOU ROCK!!!

I've just had a fantastic weekend! Synapse was great, the theatre sports on Saturday night were incredible, and I had a great day yesterday. After Synapse finished I had lunch with a bunch of people, then 6 of us went to visit Luke in hospital. He's coming home today! WOOT! Then we went to Lygon Street and had Gelati while we sat in a park. Mmm... Gelati... I'm sorry Kathryn! Kathryn hates it when I get gelati without her! I still love you! Then I went to church, and we went back to Brent's place to paly table tennis and stuff.

I'm on 2 weeks holiday! WHOO! Mid-semester break!

Check out my blog and links list. Lots of new blogs and links to check out! Brent has had a blog for a while which he has been keeping from us! And Naomi has a gallery now! Yay!

EDIT: If you want to check out Synergy's (the acoustic duo I'm in) website, I've taken off the Missy Higgins song, and put up a Pete Murray Cover.

I just wrote this huge giant blog and when I posted it, it just disappeared! It's happened to me before. It took me ages to write this big long blog about my weekend and lots of other stuff! It's so weird, it's all there, I click publish post, it says it does it, then the post is empty! Noooooooo!!!!!!!!!!

So I went to see some professional theatre sports tonight in St. Kilda. I had soooo much fun! I've never seen real professional theatre sports before. It's all improvisation stuff. This was the second last show of a bunch of international players that are over here for a festival at the moment, so it was some of the best players in the world all together. They were just so spontaneously creative and hilarious! They had a lighting chick, an MC and a dude on keyboard who provided music stuff inbetween and during most of the skit things.

Mostly it was just various combinations of the players doing short games, and the audience would shout out ideas and they'd run with them, but twice they got people from the audience up on stage. They got this dude called Ross up there and he dressed up like a woman and it was all a bit weird. Then they asked for someone to get up and play the piano for them while they did a musical number, and all my friends (thanks guys...) were pointing at me, so I got up and played! It was so much fun! I'm so glad I did it! I played this predicatble progression to start with, then moved on to some slow jazz, to funky jazz, to deep moving jazzy stuff, to pretty chords. The players sang all this hilarious stuff! It was just awesome fun, and they gave me some red bull as a thank you! Haha!

I recommend going to see professional theatre sports if you get the opportunity! Great stuff!

So I'm really into Lior at the moment. He's a new singer/songwriter from Sydney. He's just so talented (not to mention gorgeous!), I adore his voice and he writes such beautiful music. Everyone should go out and buy his debut album "Autumn Flow"! I'm hopefully going to see him with Ingi this Tuesday night in Belgrave (a bit of a hike I know). I'm really excited about it!

I've updated my links list now, so check it out down the left side! Ingrid has a music site all of her own now as she does some teaching! Check it out here!

I'm doing a public speaking/preaching course this weekend called Synapse. I'm really enjoying it so far! Revhead is one of the people running it, and it's really interesting. I'm really looking forward to learning how to more effectively communicate.

Luke is doing much better! He's still in lots of pain but really improving. He's getting out of bed now which is fantastic! He should be home on Monday if all continues to go well. He's still bored though, so please feel free to go and visit him those of you who know him. Those of you who don't, perhaps going to visit him would be a little creepy... :)

"We have a natural tendency to think that no one understand the uniqueness of our particular situation. This tendency is based on our bent toward blaming and externalizing our problems, thereby avoiding the hard work of taking ownership and working through them. If we can say, no one truly understands my life, it helps us feel justified to stay out of the growth path."

Pg. 93 "How People Grow" by Dr. Henry Cloud & Dr. John Townsend

Update on Luke. He'll just love me calling him Lukey Pukey! Anyway, he's doing so much better today! It's incredible! He's still in lots of pain, but he says it's different pain, and much more bearable this time around. Yesterday was a difficult day for him, but today he is doing much better. He can breathe with no pain now which is just so good. Anyone who wants to go and visit him can. He's bored as you can imagine. He says thanks to everyone who's been praying for him. He really appreciates all the support he's been getting.

Well Luke went in today for his second operation. He now has 2 metal rods attached to his spine. It was such a major operation! He is in extreme amounts of pain. He can't move at all now. At least last time he could move his legs and his arms, now he can kind of move his arms, and not his legs at all. He's really suffering a lot. He kept saying how unbearable the pain was. It's horrible! So keep praying for him guys. It's so hard for me to see him like that and not be able to do anything for him. It made me cry, and I have tears in my eyes as I write this. My parents are rather stressed at the moment too. It's a tough time for our family. But we know God is looking after us. I just hope Luke feels better really really soon!

But the operation was a big success. They said everything went as expected and he came through it really well. But unfortunately that doesn't stop him being in lots of pain now. Here are some photos from tonight. First one is Luke in bed, the second one is Luke's freaky eyes. The morphine made his pupils all tiny and he wanted me to take a photo of his eyes so he could see them later. He can't really open his eyes at the moment. Then there is a photo of his hilarious socks! They are designed stop his blood from clotting, but I just think they're funny!

"When our approach to life revolves around discipline, commitment, and knowledge but runs from feeling the hurt of unmet longings, then our efforts to love will be marked more by required action than by liberating passion. We will be known as reliable, but not invovled. Honest friends will report that they enjoy being with us, but have trouble feeling close. Even our best friends (uncluding spouses) will feel guarded around us, a little tense and vaguely distant."

Pg. 107 of 'Inside Out' by Dr. Larry Crabb

I have felt this so much from others over the time I spent in Tassie. It's a horrible way to live. Such disconnection.

That's a word right?
Anyway, I have written my very first real song on my own. I'm very excited! Having a keyboard is awesome! I now have the means to do all this stuff I've wanted to do for such a long time. So anyway, I've written my first song, and I'm going to perform it at church tonight. I'm actually very nervous about it. It makes me feel very vulnerable for some reason. I have issues with opening myself up to criticism.
*giggles nervously*

"And we must admit our questions of others rarely invite a complete and honest sharing from their hearts. We all have a tendancy to keep safely distant from each other's feelings. To deal with what's really going on inside is disturbing, too uncomfortable; so we hide the inside truth from others - and from ourselves. Life works better that way. That's the clear message we've learned from many of our teachers and the one we communicate to others by our non-involvement."

- pg. 98 of 'Inside Out' by Dr. Larry Crabb

Here are some of my current favourite songs:

Daniel by Lior
Sitting with a stranger by Lior
Beautiful Love by The Afters
The power of two by The Indigo Girls
Ordinary People by John Legend
Sparks by Coldplay
Destiny by Zero 7
Hold me tight by Missy Higgins

AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
It's finally happened!!!!!!!
I got a keyboard today! This is the most exciting thing ever! Ok, not ever, but very high up there for me. I've wanted this for so many years. I've never owned a keyboard or piano. I've been playing for a number of years now, but I've always had to play other people's, or public ones. Now I can practice to my heart's content! I can play any time of day or night too because I can just plug headphones in. Talk about features! This thing can do almost anything! I got a Yamaha PSR-1100. Here is what I got. I got a great deal too. It's a $2000 keyboard, and I got it for $1400. I also got $380 worth of accessories for $160. Yay!

By the way, I still need to do a song on Sunday night about listening, and I have no idea what to do. HELP ME! :( I was thinking of just writing a song because there aren't any songs about listening!!! SHould I do that? Revhead?

Happy half birthday to me!
Happy half birthday to me!
Happy half birthday dear Megan/Tink/Ludicrousity!
Happy half birthday to me!

Well today, the 7th of September is my half birthday. I am officially 23 and a half. How exciting!!! And no one has remembered! No half cards, no half presents, no half phone calls, no half sms's. Nothing! Where has the long standing tradition of half birthdays gone? I'm sad that I'm spending my half birthday at home doing home work while people go on with their days like it's not my half birthday...

On another note, I need help. I've been asked to sing a song at church this Sunday night and it's supposed to be about listening. I can't think of any songs even remotely on the topic. If you can think of any, please let me know.

Anyone who didn't come to see Mal Webb on Friday night missed a fantastic night! It ended up being Kate, Rob, Alison, Andrew G (NOT from idol, just in case you thought I had celeb connections) and myself. He played for almost 3 hours this time! He's really big on audience interaction/participation. He gets people up to play instruments from time to time and I got up for 2 songs and played a little keyboard thing with a mouthpiece you have to blow in for it to make a sound. How fun! I even got a keyboard solo in each song! Haha! And Kate got up and did a dance demonstration with him. It was so fun! Anyone who hasn't been yet has to come at least once before he leaves. ONly 2 weeks to go!

Guess what I did yesterday? Ok, that was a rhetorical question for those of you who are trying to guess before I say what it is. But really, you can guess if you like. Go on. Try and guess. I mentioned it kind of in the first paragraph. Ok, now I'll tell you. I went keyboard shopping!!! That's right! I'm buying a keyboard!!! I'm soooooooo excited! I've played the piano for a number of years now, but I've never owned one. I've always had to go to other people's houses to pratice, or had to play on public ones. I can't wait to finally have my own!!! Hopefully I'll have one by next weekend. Does anyone know much about keyboards? I'm looking at either a Yamaha PSR 1100 or a Roland EXR 7. They have the craziest features! They were both on sale from $2000 to $1400. WHOO!!! :)

And can someone tell me what the hell this is?!

And this?!

I'm going to see Mal Webb again tonight. I told you about him a few weeks ago, he's that amazing musician guy who can do anything! He can do anything with his voice, and I swear he knows everything there is to know about music! I can't wait! WHOO!

I went to visit Luke with Naomi today. We did some shopping, had lunch at Nandos (Mmmm... Nandos...) then went to the hospital. I also bought a 'make poverty history' band. Finally! I've had such trouble finding them anywhere! I bought one for Luke too. Everyone should buy them! You can now get them at any HMV store.

Naomi got a puppy last night!!! I went and saw it and it's soooo adorable! Here she is. She's called 'Sugar'. Coz she's so sweet... awww....




Here are more photos from the hospital today.

This is mum & Luke



This is the dolphin Naomi bought for him



This is my blue turtle that he has ON LOAN from me

I'm sure I've told you how much I love Missy Higgins! I bought her new single this week 'the sound of white'. Even though I have her album, I buy all her singles too because they have all these awesome B sides! This one has 2 great B sides. My favourite Missy song is actually a B side on 'the special two' single. It's called 'drop the mirror'. Incredible song! I'm going to see her, Ben Lee, Ash Grunwald and the McMenamins on Oct 31st at the Sidney Myer music bowl. I can't wait!!! It's going to be so awesome! I'm going with Ingi and we can't wait!

I saw Luke again today. He didn't have such a great day. He's in a lot of pain (understandably) and he's getting bored (understandably). They tried to get him out of bed for the first time today, but he was just in too much pain, so they didn't, he just sat on the edge of the bed instead. He's coping fairly well, but it's hard for him. He said he's not in as much pain as he thought he'd be, but it's still pretty bad. I find it hard to see him like that. I feel so helpless. He's my little brother! :(

Keep praying for him guys!!!