Out of the closet as an Anglican blogger

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Oh, that's right. You knew I was an Anglican all along - it must have been my tags that gave me away. Anyway, I like the sound of being an "Anglican blogger."

Just a quickie...

Knee is going well - starting to feel a few little itches etc, so more ibuprofen going down. Had first shower ever with plastic bag tied around the bandages but all good. Meant to do about 100 leg lifts a day which seems a little weird - not sure how it works upon the knee, but I guess it's about thigh stabilising or something.
What else? More schoolwork - spent a fair amount of time on Youtube and got on to old Rowan Atkinson and Fry & Laurie clips which were a very pleasant memory or else brand new to me. Trying hard to see if I can use them in RAVE - if not, Yr 10 Satire for English will have to do. "A Warm Welcome", "Songs of Praise" and "Apostle's Creed" all have potential, but as they say, all need to be used "carefully". I really wanted a nice clip on Francis of Assisi for Yr 8, but as I feard, the clip which came up features good old Donovan in 'Brother Sun, Sister Moon' stripping off and I fear bare male buttocks won't fly in Yr 8 RAVE classes - I think. Same problem with Jesus of Montreal, probably my favourite movie of all time - just a couple of sequences which might get me some complaints - disappointing, but that's the reality of schools today.
Time to confess I did waste some time playing more online chess at www.chessmaniac.com but must immodestly report I played some of my best chess ever! I won my last three games and must say this site seems to be much more my speed than freechess. The next step is to join one of their teams and meet some other like-minded chess nuts. Looks like a team called the 'Chess Fiends' are seeking my services.
The only downside of Youtube I have yet found is the number of 'militant atheist' videos. There was one which has had more than 6 million hits by a particularly obnoxious sounding American who wants to know why God doesn't cure amputees (!) There was a rather nice rejoinder in another clip where a man asked why the first guy is so sure amputees need to be cured etc. So much of the atheist clip was asking why we can't just use our rational intellect and get over the delusions of religion. I guess if the original atheist had something positive to offer, we'd be onto something. Still, there are good arguments for all sides.
Watched Chaser again tonight - had a few chuckles. The scary part was when they showed genuine middle Eastern news clips featuring Arabs saying the most outrageous things about Israel and the US. I suppose the US Fox Network is almost as bad, really. It strikes me as crucial that 'sound' liberal Anglicans like myself try to become the voice of reason at these times, but will we be drowned out by the extremists on both sides?
Tomorrow, I vow - minimal chess, maximum school work. May even need to try to drive to school to get things, check the office, see if Lizzie has moved in OK, etc. Thanks God for friends and for you and all the good things you have to offer this world. Night night.

Happy again - well, mostly

Hi ho everybody,
Well, I'm sitting here blogging and playing chess while fam watches final of HomeMade, the latest reality show which the other 75% of my family seem to love but I fear I don't. Oh yes, and I also have a big bandage wrapped around my knee to remind me of the day's events.
Woke up 5.30 (actually Verity achieved that yet again at 4.30 but that's another rant), quick shower (trying not to drink too much water) and off to hospital at Everton Pk. Hospital under renovation but easy to get in, get registered, say goodbye to fam etc. Sent off to next waiting room where each person went off for another quick chat then returned to go into the very public bathroom right there in the waiting room, and got changed into our paper undies, gown, dressing gown, etc. A nice young nurse then came in to shave my knee area all around which I don't think has ever been done before, but no dramas.
Then off to a bed for a little more waiting then basically straight to the theatre door. Met more staff including very nice anaesthetist Martina who made life pretty easy and did a good job with the needle into my arm, a) giving me a magazine to read beforehand which I could then use to shield my eyes as I winced and b) getting me to cough as it went in, which I turned into more of a laugh, a technique I often use at the chiropractor when he is really crunching me hard. Admittedly, part of that chiropractic laugh on my part is always laughter that I'm paying someone lots of money to basically hurt me, and maybe that was also the case today. I think she took a couple of goes to find the vein, but hey, it was still a lot better than I expected. I saw Dr Tuff (my godfather) for about, oh, 30 seconds before he got down to business, but that's fine. I'll go see him for a follow-up in a week or two, and I won't be too worried about it.
Still no pain and it's been probably 9 hrs or so since op. They say they use Marcain, a long-lasting local anaesthetic and by golly, it must be pretty good stuff. I also took panadol and ibuprofen as directed, and will give myself a another dose tonight to see what happens. It certainly seems good to have done this on holidays to prevent more walking around and other hassles. We'll see how I feel on Monday when school resumes though. Was pleased with number of people who responded to my Facebook mention of my op - not that I was going out of my way to get some sympathy, but it's nice anyway.
Other matters: still trying to jazz up these RAVE programs - must do whatever I can not to make them boring and enthuse staff and students - I really feel some weight of responsibility in that regard.
Formally mentioned this blog on the Facebook group for Anglican bloggers so in case anyone reading those posts ever feels called to check out each one, I guess I may actually get a visitor sooner or later. On other Anglican matters, I'm very disappointed with the English bishop who has apparently decided to do some more gay bashing, or 'calling upon them to repent' which is the Anglican equivalent... the younger generation simply cannot fathom this kind of approach, and there is no surer way of dispatching our Church to the historical scrapheap... Anglicanism is about intellectual honesty - why is it not possible there is a genetic component to homosexuality? Even if there wasn't a genetic basis, what is there to be appalled about? If a bishop wants to target sexual immorality, that's another matter, I think, but just going after gays for being gay is really ridiculous. Reminds me of the time during a theology oral on the life of Paul that I intimated there had been a case made for St Paul being gay - the lack of evidence of his marrying, the references to hating his body, etc. Some of my audience wanted to hear all about it afterwards!
All righty then, see you tomorrow.

The Last Supper

Well, I'm writing now to calm my nerves somewhat. It's the night before my knee operation and I admit I am now anxious about it. The knee has felt close to 100% much of the last six weeks, but just every now and then I feel a twinge or something shift and I know it's not entirely reliable. It's just hard to shift the feeling that I'm going into hospital with a pretty good knee and may or may not come out with the same feeling. Hard to believe that this time tomorrow (in fact by lunch time tomorrow) it will be all over. Thank goodness I haven't had to wait six months or more for the op, even though I think I've done a pretty good job of putting it out of my mind in recent times.
I am scared of the unknown - I've had operations under general anaesthetic before, but not since 1984 when I got my wisdom teeth out. I shouldn't be too worried about needles, because I've had them before enough times. I kind of just don't want to know all the details of what's going to happen in the operation, which I suppose is going to be a problem because I'm sure the nurses, surgeon and anaesthetist will feel obliged to tell me (or are legally obliged to tell me!)
Can't eat or drink anything after midnight tonight, even water, although I am allowed to shower tomorrow morning which is a good idea.
Had a nice dinner with Greg & Ingrid last night at the Caravanserai restaurant at West End - pretty busy for a Sunday night but great food, very good service and only $35 per head for the simplest banquet (with $2.50 each corkage). I couldn't remember much about the food we ate in Turkey when I was there in '99, but I would guess this was authentic. I am very confident that Al and I will be going again - a great find, with brownie points to me for picking it, if I may say so immodestly.
Kids and Al were out a lot today playing and shopping so I have advanced further in my lesson prep, but there's still a fair amount to do. I fear I am going to have to abandon most if not all of the big home projects we had planned for this Winter break, e.g. sanding and repainting the deck. I just don't think it's going to happen. Still, I shall try hard to do the school stuff fast and see what my knee allows me to do this week.
Liking DJ Ironik's take on Tiny Dancer atm. Missing my old penpal Adam too. Time to be helpful elsewhere.

Windy Saturday

Getting back into this habit of blogging has brought back memories of my first major efforts way back in 1998 or thereabouts - I decided it was a good habit to reread the last blog entry before writing in an effort to prevent repetition of content while still hopefully allowing a flow from entry to entry. Wow - I was really whinging yesterday but I'm pleased to report that today was very productive in schoolwork and in some other household admin tasks like filling in forms for govt rebates etc. Still liking my RAVE powerpoints a lot but not sure whether to send them out to Anglican RAVE colleagues as a freebie or stick them on the site EJW sent me recently: www.teacherspayteachers.com which is certainly something to think about. Maybe I could create an Australian version (and then probably get sued or something). Kids in pyjamas just about all day today - one of those kinds of days.
Quick chat to Phil who said mediation went well - he has finally secured unsupervised access at long last, for 5 hours instead of 3 - and that's great. Aiming for overnight stays in December or so. He said he'd ring back tonight but hasn't - he's probably too stuffed after 3 little kids running / crawling around him all day. Thanks to God that it went well.
Couldn't quite avoid online chess today, but have kissed goodbye to FICS in favour of www.chessmaniac.com and I won't be looking back. Alright, time for some more Tim Winton. Night all.

Still down a bit

7.36pm. Watching Masterchef with family. Full of Pizza Capers - got to be happy with that. New chorizo/scallop pizza was yum-my. Declan finished Moggill Uniting daycamp today - had a great time, particularly after his team won everything, mainly thanks to an ex-army adult helper who proved a wiz at constructing the gunya out of palm leaves etc. Some people are pretty competitive, aren't they?
Felt a bit sad this afternoon. Cue: sad music and pathetic comments to follow.
Reasons: a)Knee was hurting a bit.
b) concerned about knee operation on Tuesday.
c) concerned about work still needing to be done before school restarts.
d) generally sad about my lack of application and work ethic in recent days.
e) angry that I had to spend hours doing household tasks like trip to the dump and day camp closing today (I realise how selfish this one is.)
f) annoyed we had to take 3 friends home from day camp today (see above re: selfishness)
g) generally hungry and thirsty. (pause now for drink - that's salty pizza for you)
h) some strange lower back pain - annoyed at posture and home seats which probably contribute. Annoyed in light of chiropractor visit on Wednesday night. Annoyed further at having to spend money on chiropractors.
i) annoyed that friends we ferried home from daycamp are much wealthier than us. They have come back from a family holiday skiing down south, and are off tonight to the Gold Coast prior to running in the Gold Coast marathon tomorrow. Further annoyed that this guy can spend so much time away from family training for marathon, apparently without resentment from said family. Annoyed about our lack of money. (Am really getting pathetic now.)
j) after visit to financial planner today, annoyed that I didn't have all the documents to hand which I should have had - further annoyed at my lack of good filing downstairs to make this easier to follow. Annoyed that we are not in a better financial position after so many years, but admittedly we have been on basically one income for many years, have two children, etc. At least this guy (yet another new face) sounds solid - even suggesting it was possible to run our investments ourselves! Points for honesty!
k) annoyed at not making more money from OzLotto and then blowing it all on a ticket for the Powerball jackpot last night, which nobody won. Why am I wasting money chasing the big one? Must not go down the path of a gambling problem on top of everything else.
l) concerned about Phil and Jo's mediation session this afternoon. Fingers crossed that things went OK and nobody stormed out etc. Will call Phil tomorrow sometime to see how it went. What a saga - I realise I am now of the age when some friends will start separating / divorcing but this one is looking particularly harsh.

There may have been other things as well, but that's a pretty good start. Will have an iceblock and start doing more schoolwork. Mad Men's final two episodes last night were excellent viewing, so that cheered me up a bit. Weird Al Yankovic clips on Youtube are also a good source - hope to use some in my Year 10 English satire unit this semester. Pray for a good sleep tonight - need to go to bed at 10 if possible, I reckon. My bedtime novel, Breath by Tim Winton, is going very well - memories of my amateur efforts at surfing brought to mind and he really is impressive in his descriptive skills. Ciao now.

Down a bit

Made a poor decision just now to finish the day with a game of chess at freechess.org - what a mistake. I lost narrowly on time after being in a good position - very disappointed. It tells me that I must try hard to go cold turkey from online chess for as long as possible. What surprises me is that I can win pretty regularly on other sites, but freechess just has too many good players. Particularly when I'm playing under time pressure, I'm just not up to it. I know I should just harden up, but it was a mistake to play it - it just makes me blue!

The day otherwise was quite productive. More Dance clips transferred to DVD, other DVDs copied for school. Lots done on a Powerpoint on Church history for 10 RAVE - wondering why I never did it before! Saw lots of Youtube today too - some great pieces on Luther including raps and polkas which I hope to use; more theist/atheist issues elsewhere - how people have the time to go wandering through Youtube doing nothing but making negative or abusive comments on people's sites disturbs me. Added lots to my favourites for use soon.

Went to chiropractor again tonight with family. As usual, torn between hoping the treatment helps me feel good, and wondering if it really does anything at all - increasingly concerned about the cost as well. Can we afford it? Al will quote my dad and say, 'You can't argue with results.'

Speaking of money, we go to see our new financial planner on Friday and I'll be pretty interested to hear what he suggests, given the GFC etc. Must admit I entered the massive OzLotto record jackpot yesterday, and no, I didn't win $53 million like some other people, but I did get a $13.20 Division 7 prize. Unfortunately my ticket cost $25, so what does this teach you?

Good Chaser and good M. Jackson expose doco on tonight. Good to see a critical Jackson story just keeping the balance there this week, too. What a life.

With good wishes for another solid workday tomorrow,
Goodnight from me.