roygbiv

Ephesians

2010-04-10T12:23:00.004+12:00

I have been reading Ephesians lately, such an awesome book in the bible. Something that has spoken to me is Ephesians 4, especially verses 17-32.

17 With the Lord’s authority I say this: Live no longer as the Gentiles do, for they are hopelessly confused. 18 Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him. 19 They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity.

20 But that isn’t what you learned about Christ. 21 Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, 22 throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. 23 Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. 24 Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.

25 So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body. 26 And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.”[a] Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 for anger gives a foothold to the devil.

28 If you are a thief, quit stealing. Instead, use your hands for good hard work, and then give generously to others in need. 29 Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.

30 And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he has identified you as his own,[b] guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption.

31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. 32 Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

Paul is talking here about changing the way we live our lives. It's not just 'Don't do this, Don't do that, keep on doing what that guy does;' he's talking about a complete transformation of our lives.

And you know what? WE CAN'T DO IT. We can try and we might make a lot of progress, but in OUR OWN STRENGTH we will never pull off a complete transformation of our lives.

eg V28 - 'If you're a thief, stop stealing and start working hard so you can give generously to others.' What kind of thief would be able to just decide one day that they're going to stop stealing and start working hard to GIVE to others? It's a complete transformation from being selfish to selfless.

Or V31-32 - 'Get rid of all bitterness, rage, slander, anger, harsh words, evil behaviour and be like Christ.' Again, what kind of person will be able to just decide one day that they are going to do that, and then be able to actually pull it off?

We actually can't do it. Not in our own strength. We need God.
V23 - "Instead, let the spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes"
THE SPIRIT. We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit regularly if we're to have the strength or ability to overcome sinfulness in our lives. Our own strength is nowhere near enough for us to overcome sin. But with God and the Holy Spirit in us, we are more than conqueror's and we will see our lives transformed.

Attitude

2010-02-03T10:48:00.002+13:00

Yesterday I was working at a milk/ice cream/juice production plant out of town in a place called Leeston. I was with a whole bunch of people, and around 3pm we were all informed we would be finished work by "5pm at the latest". It had been a long day for those of us from Christchurch (I personally had a little over an hour's travel each way to get to the fatory, I had left home at 6:40am for an 8am start) and so we were looking forward to the end of the day. 10 minutes to 5 we start on the next job which ended up taking about an hour and a half. Needless to say, there was a lot of unhappy murmuring and outright complaining going on. I don't mind working a long day, but to be honest I was ready to go home and disappointed, and felt that we had been unfairly misled.

About 10 minutes into everyone's complaining and moaning, I became aware of my own attitude. Not that I was voicing any of this, but I found myself getting sucked into the negativity around me. I started thinking, "They (the bosses) need to sort themselves out, they need to get organized, how dare they keep us later than they said they would, some people have plans tonight, I hate this, I just want to leave, what would they do if we just stopped working" and so on and so on. I was annoyed, but the fact that things hadn't gone my way really didn't give me an excuse to treat my bosses with contempt and let my work ethic slip. How quickly my day changed from being pretty good to being pretty lame, and unfortunately (and sadly) it took far too long for me to sort myself out again.

I wish this story had a different ending, one where I changed my attitude from negative to positive, where I let this be reflected in how I carried out the rest of my day and that people noticed this and saw Christ in me. Unfortunately hindsight is all I have. I learnt a hard lesson.

The negative attitudes of others are extremely infectious.

In Romans 12:2 it says, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."

The pattern of this world is to grumble and complain, be insubordinate, be sinful, have a terrible attitude, treat others with contempt, be selfish, to steal, to bring others down, to abuse power, to kill, to deceive, the list goes on.

How often do we conform to this pattern world?

How infrequently do we let our mind be renewed and let this transform the way we live out our lives in every situation?

How often do we let the attitudes of those around us become our attitudes and ruin our day? And then bring that attitude home with us and let it impact negatively on our loved ones?

What would happen if we let the Holy Spirit renew our minds, if we listened to His promptings and lived our lives in a way that shows God to those around us? I reckon it would transform our society, our city, our country, our world.

Too many of us are guilty at one time or another of being no different to the world around us. We are called to be different. If there’s nothing different in our lives to those of our non-Christian friends, what do we have that they don’t?

We have Christ.
He should take first place in our life.
He should be seen in us.

I want my life to be a billboard for Him.
I want people to meet Him when they meet me.
I want people to want what I have.

I want Him to continue to transform me by the renewing of my mind, and for that to change the way I live.
That’s what I want.

I'm Learning

2010-01-18T12:34:00.003+13:00

I am learning more everyday.
For example - I have learnt since getting married that my wife sheds more hair than I ever thought possible. I find it EVERYWHERE, on my clothes, clogging the drain, in our bed, clogging the vacuum cleaner head, but as of yet I haven't (that I remember anyway) found any in my food.
I have however found, on more than one occasion, a long, filthy black hair in my chinese food from the chinese shop down the road. Note to self - Do not EVER go back there.

I'm learning to overcome disappointments as I miss out on jobs that I've been applying for. I'm learning not to worry. I'm learning to keep plodding along, learning to not hate my temping jobs so much, and I'm learning how faithful God is every day. It is awesome. Praise Him!

I have also just learned something really awesome that I can't tell anyone - yet. I will as soon as I can, and I will probably post it up here.

In other news...
'Global warming' is losing the support of the public more and more everyday. Sorry Al Gore, you're going to have to find some other way to fleece the public of hard earned money to line your pockets.

The Senate race in Massachusetts is heating up. Normally this probably wouldn't be a big news story, but here's the catch. If the Republican candidate, Scott Brown wins, this would take the numbers in Senate to 59 Dem, 41 Rep. And that would be good news to me. Why? Because then the US Government would be forced to change their tactics and do things bi-partisanly. That is, treat things democratically.

The health care take over won when it went to the senate because the democrats had 60 members. Obama needed 60 votes for the take over to be passed. All he had to do was convince all democrat senators to vote 'yes' and he would have success. I'm not against that so much. However, my main problem with this is the way it was carried out. It was not a democratic process.

Knowing the republicans are generally opposed to government intrusion into the everyday choices of the public, he shut them out of talks. It became a one sided debate, aimed at bringing about the largest government takeover of the private sector in American history. Instead of transparency, these talks were held behind closed doors.

While campaigning for presidency, Obama promised to have a transparent government, have open doors talks with both sides of the political spectrum on issues such as health care, and to have c-span camera's present at all of these meetings. None of this happened. The talks resembled more of a secretive, under-cover-of-darkness campaign then a genuine, democratic process for the good of the people. Never mind the fact that only 30% of american's support the government take over of health care, and that most people actually oppose it.

So for me, anything that is going to bring democracy back into the white house is a good thing. I think it will be great to see the president faced with the challenge of working with both Democrats and Republicans, instead of just needing to do the bare minimum to get votes from his own party alone.

George W Bush (Republican) spent the majority of his presidency with a Democrat majority in both congress and the senate. He didn't have the option to do things any other way than bi-partisan. And I think that's a good thing. Not only does it mean that people on both sides of the political spectrum are better represented, it means both sides have to work together to reach the solution. And that has to be a good thing.

My life so far in 2010

2010-01-13T16:16:00.004+13:00

It's 2010.
I'm unemployed - It really does suck. I have finished my Diploma in Civil Engineering, but when I try and use it as bait for potential employers, they generally have been telling me it's pretty much worthless. Would really have liked to know that before I spent two years and about 15 grand on getting it. Apparently going back to Uni to get my BE is the only way to get into what I want to do. I know for a fact that just a few years ago, that wasn't the case. I knew it would be harder with just a Diploma, but I didn't think I would be told by a number of Engineering Firms that its impossible.

Don't worry, I'm not depressed. I have been battered by disappointments BUT... I have faith. I believe God when He says, "I know the plans I have for you. They are for good and not disaster; to give you a future and a hope." I know that as these doors seem to close, He's moving me to the open door He really wants me to go through.

So for now, I've re-signed with a temping agency which should be able to provide me with enough work for us to pay the bills and on the days I'm not working I will be continuing my door-to-door job hunting and giving out a billion copies of my CV and praying for God to open up opportunities. Watch this space.

One thing being employed has 'helped' me with is now instead of a quick read up on the news every day, I have a lot more time to do some reading. I'm passionate about politics - not because I like to argue, but because I think it's extremely important for us to know what's going on around us in the political scene. The politicians are employed by us to make decisions for our good. So it's important to me that I know the full story about a law change that's being proposed. Or a policy change. Or what lawmakers are debating on. It's important to be informed and to really do some research into the pro's and con's.

I am a dual citizen of the USA and NZ. So I have a huge amount of interest tied up in what is going on in the USA (as well as here in NZ).

I'm watching the Healthcare Reform (or should I say Government take-over of the Health Sector) with great interest. I've been watching the global warming scam with great interest. I've been watching the media frenzy over Sarah Palin with great interest. I've been following the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan closely. I've been watching the out of control Government spending closely.

I don't like how biased the media is. I don't like how EVERY media outlet is biased, mostly left wing, but Fox, a right leaning outlet, is the only one bashed for having a biased viewpoint. I have been surprised time and again by what is reported on the news and how it is reported. I'm sick of humanity-caused climate change being reported as fact when there is less evidence for that than there is for life on mars. I don't like the direction Barack Obama is taking the USA and I don't like the way the press plays favourites with him. It seems they spend as much time praising him as they do trying to slam Sarah Palin.

This was not meant to be a rant, but I guess I got started on one. I wasn't expecting it to become a list of things I'm getting a bit "over it" about.

ANYWAYS...
I hope you are having a fantastic year so far. I am going to try and keep this thing updated fairly regularly and just say what's on my mind. It won't always be Politics. It won't always be winging and moaning (hopefully only a rare moan will make it on here). It will always be from the heart, and hopefully it will add something to your day, not take away from it.

just some questions...

2009-09-17T09:19:00.002+12:00

Why is it that now it is automatically referred to as racism if someone criticizes President Obama? http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/16/gibbs-rejects-carters-claim-obama-critics-racist/

Why are some old people still allowed to drive when they obviously aren't capable? (foot slipped on to accelerator???) http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2872349/Car-smashes-into-Christchurch-bank

What is this world coming to when a 13 year old is caught drink driving? http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2872423/13-year-old-girl-caught-drink-driving

Why is my friend Elijah still in hospital?

Why is Niggy still not home from Afghanistan? (I miss you bro!)

What is with our fascination for finding another 'earth'? http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/2872010/Earth-like-planet-gives-hope-of-life

Why did I not get up in time to make lunch today?

What is with the lethal injection saga in Ohio? http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/2871953/Lethal-jab-halted-by-vein-trouble

What is with all the sexual abuse and incest? http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/2873457/Australian-Fritzl-raped-daughter-daily

Why have their been so many murders, assaults, stabbings, and the like in Christchurch recently?

Why am I still hungry?

Why haven't I finished my assignments?

Why am I writing this instead of writing my assignments?

Why did I think that guy at the skatepark was Tom and start hassling him when it turned out to be some random dude? And why didn't he punch me for being a dick? (Toby, you are my new friend - haha, hopefully see you again at the park soon)

I don't have answers for all these questions. What I do know is God is good, even when we are not. Even when the world looks to be in so much trouble, even when it looks grim, there is hope. I know that we may turn our backs on God and reap the consequences of that, but He is always there waiting for us to turn to Him. He is a good God, and just because an ungodly world is spiralling out of control, that will not shake my faith and hope in God, and it will only make me work harder to let my life shine His light and be an arrow pointing people to Him.

I believe with all my heart that God is good. I know that this world is not perfect. I know that there is pain, suffering, grief, poverty. I know that this stuff is not fun, or cool, or of God. But I would much rather take the hard road and have faith that God is good and claim the promises written in His word - the bible. And believe that He is the hope of the world, that He is the answer, that He is and will always be an awesome God, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords.

I would much rather do that then take the easy road and lose hope, become a person just going through the motions, letting how I feel determine the extent of my faith in God, become negative, cynical and un-joyful.
Questions, I have.
Answers, often I do not have.
But this I know - God is good, and I choose to put my faith and trust in Him. Praise God!

Thoughts on Friday 11/09/2009

2009-09-11T15:20:00.002+12:00

once again I am realizing how easy it is to forget my blog, or put it on hold. I know its been ages since I wrote and I know that I initially wanted to write my blog every day or two. But in all honesty, I still intend to update this from time to time at the very least - I don't want to forget about it.

It's been a sad week in some respects. You may have heard about the 16 year old guy who died in a caravan fire in Edendale last weekend. His name was Matthew Kingsbury, and his family have been friends of my family since I was about 6 years old. It was so sad to hear the news, and weird to think what his family must be going through at the moment. It was weird to think about my sister, who was born around the same time as he was, and to think that he was her age. And its still crazy to think that he's not around anymore...

I hate it when people die so young and so tragically. But I know this - God is good. And I know that life does go on. And I know that we all have to die. And I know that we live in an imperfect world where there is pain and suffering in our midst. But I also know that God is a comforter, a redeemer, a healer, a provider, and a good, loving God. Even if we don't understand things that happen in life sometimes, God is sovereign, and He is God. So I pray for the Kingsbury's and friends of Matthew, and I thank God that He is Good, that even when I don't 'get it', He will never leave me or foresake me. Praise God!

On a lighter note - I have been following the Air New Zealand Cup quite closely this year (as I do every year) and for once, my boys, the Southland Stags, are doing flippin well! They are second on the table and have the chance to go top of the table tonight when they take on current top of table team, Bay of Plenty. Go the mighty Stags!!!

Sydney

2009-08-24T15:13:00.002+12:00

Tomorrow I have an early start. I am flying out to Sydney at 6.30am which is not a good time for me considering I'll need to leave home at 4am to get to the airport on time. But needless to say I'm not too concerned about that, I'm more stoked to be going to Sydney for the first time!

God has blessed me so much. I have been given an awesome opportunity to go over to Sydney to check out C3 Oxford Falls, Change (on Wednesday night), hang out with Josh Kelsey (who runs Change) and hopefully there will be a chance in there for me to get together with some of the worship musicians to bang heads and gain some wisdom from some of the experts. It's really exciting and I am so thankful and blessed to be able to do it! I'm looking forward to whatever happens, and it is going to be awesome!

I am so thankful to be able to play a part at such an amazing church here in Christchurch, and to be part of the C3 movement. God is alive, God is good, and God is moving!

Monday!

2009-08-24T14:38:00.003+12:00

So it's been a little while since I last posted anything. And with that I realize that my initial dream of writing a new blog every day or two has possibly died. However, I am blogging much more regularly than I used to be so I think that is a good thing. I also think if I was blogging every day most of them would be pretty lame so it could be better quality wise if I blog less frequently. Anyway, moving on...

Today is Monday. We just had an awesome Sunday at C3 Church, Christchurch. I love my church so much, its a great family to be a part of. It is awesome to see it growing in both quantity and quality. Every week it seems we have a bunch of new people and the presence of God descends in a more powerful way than before. I love it!

I was lucky enough to have been given the opportunity to preach at our evening service last night, and it was just great. Our pastor had asked me about a month ago if I would do it and I said count me in! It is such an honor to get asked to preach, and this was a big deal for me. I have preached a number times in the past at Primal and at a couple of high school christian groups, but never at Sunday church. So this was the real deal, a big deal, definitely my biggest gig. I was pretty nervous.

I preached a message that has pretty much been on my heart for a while now. The theme for our Church this month is "Supernatural" and I based my message on the concept of worship and how it ties to the Supernatural presence and power of God. I believe with all my heart that worshiping God invokes the presence of God, and the presence of God invokes the power of God. I believe it is this presence and power of God that are vital for living out our lives as Christians and helping us become more and more like Christ. I also believe that the power and presence of God active in our lives is going to draw people into the presence of God, and we're going to see miracles as we are released into a life of worship.

I think that when we worship God with EVERYTHING, not just a few songs at church, but how we live our lives, the attitude behind our actions, aligning our lives with the Bible, that we have the power of breakthrough in every area of our lives.

When we worship God in our relationships, He blesses them.
When we worship God in our finances, ie tithing, being generous, He blesses our finances.
When we worship God with our work ethic, He blesses the work we do
When we worship God with our WHOLE LIFE, He blesses our whole life.

I believe that when Christians break through into a life of worship, we are opening up the door for God to come in and do the miraculous. I'm talking healings, deliverance, salvations, breakthrough, miraculous provision and more! And I believe that this extends beyond us, that when we open up that door for God, it will impact not only our lives, but the lives of our families, friends, workmates, classmates, communities, and our world for God.

Socialism?

2009-08-14T13:31:00.005+12:00

I wouldn't normally post something that got forwarded to me on my email, but I think this illustrates a good point. Don't start hating on me or trying to debate me because of it, just read it and think about it. I admit that it obviously was started by a staunch opponent of Obama trying to make a point, but its worth thinking about. We have seen what socialism has lead to in the past, and even if this is a made up story it is exactly how socialism (spreading the wealth) works

As the late Adrian Rogers said, "you cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."
This man is truly a genius!

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before,
but had once failed an entire class.
That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.
The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan".
All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.
After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B.
The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.
As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.
The second test average was a D!
No one was happy.
When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.
The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.
All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

Could not be any simpler than that. (Please pass this on)

30th post WAHOO!

2009-08-14T12:51:00.003+12:00

So I'm here writing my 30th blog post thinking about my life and stuff. It's been a wild ride over the last year since I started bogging. I try to voice my thoughts in a way that if people want to know what I'm thinking they can read it and if not they don't have to. So now my question is, what to blog about for #30?

I've decided to just talk about my life. I have been so blessed, God is good! He has always been with me, even when I maybe didn't realize it, and I have just been blown away at what He's been doing the last little while.

I'm still buzzing about "Empower Summit." The worship was amazing, and I was so honored to be able to serve in that. It has been awesome to see, this year especially, that all the struggle and hard work has paid off. Our worship sound at C3 Chch is developing into its own, we are seeing the presence of God more and more each service, and I am constantly blown away that God would use us to lead people into His presence.

I'm working hard at Polytech in my final semester of my Diploma in Civil Engineering, and I have been applying for jobs. Things are exciting, as there is a lot of interest in graduate Civil Engineering Technicians (which is what I'll be in November), and lots of careers nights and meetings in the coming weeks with Engineering firms. I'm hoping to land a job pretty soon! I'm praying and believeing God is going to open and shut the right doors and I'll end up in the position He wants me in, so thats exciting!

At the moment I'm working on a sermon about Worship. I'm going to be preaching at our Sunday night service in the next few weeks, and our theme for the month is "Supernatural." I believe there is great power in worship and I have a heart to see people released into a life of worship that goes far beyond attending Church. So I'm basing my message around worship and the supernatural power of God and how they go hand in hand. Should be a goody. I'm also going to be preaching at Primal in a few weeks time, so there's a couple of opportunities coming up for me to step out and preach the gospel which is exciting. I love it!

Thought for the day (blog):
"God is good - ALL THE TIME"
He really is. It takes faith to claim this over your life, but trust me, when you put God in His place as Lord, He proves to you how awesome He really is!

Praise God!

What an amazing weekend

2009-08-10T12:47:00.002+12:00

Wow. That's really all I can say. I just had probably the best weekend of my life. It was amazing. GOD IS GOOD!!!

My church, C3 Church Christchurch, was hosting an event called 'Empower' featuring Ps Tim Hall from Adelaide (in Australia) and Ps Wayne Peat from Howick (in Auckland). It was a powerful weekend, I was blown away by the power of God more than once. We saw people healed, delivered from demonic spirits, receiving words of prophesy, the gift of tongues, and so much more. But the thing that blew me away most of all was the presence of God in the midst of all our meetings and services.

I was leading worship for the whole weekend. We only had a 4-piece band for the weekend - Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Bass and Drums. We were lacking things like Keys, lots of singers, an extra guitar or two, but it didn't matter. In fact, I think keeping it simple made it that much more special - it was possibly the most powerful worship I have ever been in, I really felt the presence of God at another level.

I saw so many Supernatural things this weekend. I saw people healed, delivered, receive gifts of the spirit, and so much more, and I am still buzzing with the excitement of having an encounter with God! What really set the tone for me was the worship - there's nothing better than a large group of people worshiping God, united and passionate.

I think Ps Wayne Peat said it best - worship brings the presence of God, and the presence of God brings the power of God.

We saw that in a huge, awe-inspiring way over the weekend. My heart is more on fire for seeing people released into worship than ever before. It's vital that we break through into the zone where we're worshiping with ALL of our heart to His glory, because that is where we will see God's presence fall among us, and that's where the power is, that's where lives change, that's where the miraculous happens. Without that, we're just a having a good old sing-a-long at best.

And it starts outside of Church meetings. I have really been challenged by this lately. Do I set aside a good amount of time DAILY to seek God through Prayer and reading His Word? Am I really praying "fervent, effective prayers" (James 5:16) for my Church, my City, my family, my classmates, my friends to have an encounter with God? Or am I just cruising through life, taking the easy way out? Do I really have the heart for the lost and broken people that God cares so much about? Or am I way too concerned with me?

God is an awesome God. What will it take to get passionate about Him? I have been so guilty of having an apathetic attitude, and it's totally not cool, that's not honoring Him. We need to stand up, seek God above all else and let Him reveal His glory to the world through us.

We have the hope of the world, we have the answer, let's live every moment of every day FOR HIS GLORY.

Busy

2009-08-04T16:12:00.003+12:00

Life is really busy for me at the moment. Mainly because I'm in my final semester of a Diploma in Civil Engineering and hence inundated with school work, but also because I run the music team at my church, and we have a great event coming up this weekend, the Empower Summit.

I really love having stuff to do, and I do enjoy being pretty busy. But I don't really love getting slammed with everything at once. For instance - I have been working on stuff for the Empower Summit for about a month now. I get a couple assignments a week or two ago. Then about 5 more. Then they're all due by Friday afternoon which is when the Summit begins. On top of that there is an Engineering Expo at tech on Friday that I'm hoping to get to so I can meet some engineering firms and hopefully score a job before I graduate. So I'm madly rushing to get assignments in early, finish my cv, go to meetings and band practices, be a good husband and still have time for God and time to chill out.

Hahahaha.... oh man. So busy right now. But it's all good. I'm healthy, alive and pumped for the Empower Summit this weekend. It's going to be an awesome weekend in Church!

laugh at me

2009-07-31T11:06:00.003+12:00

I've been thinking about jokes lately. Well, maybe more about humor than jokes. Its funny (pun) how someone's sense of humor will be completely misunderstood by someone else. I quite often come across as a dick because of my dry sense of humor. I'll start being a bit sarcastic (I use sarcasm sparingly mind you), or I'll make some dry remark and if someone doesn't know me I tend to put across a terrible first impression. *sigh*

Some jokes are actually lame. Some are funny. But generally jokes aren't that funny. Joking is funny, like pointing out something hilarious (such as the fact that someone in the group has braces), or spinning a good yarn or quoting something (in or out of context) which will make people laugh.

I'm no humor expert, but I sure can tell you a crap joke or two

Smile :)

2009-07-30T09:24:00.003+12:00

I was starting to write this entry as a bit of a whinge. I was starting to say how 'I think this and that and when people disagree with me and blah blah blah' and I was like - Hang on. Thats actually lame. I was about to post a blog telling people not to be haters when in fact thats what I was doing.

So new idea - I'm going to be Joyful!
If you're not already aware, I am a Christian. This doesn't mean I hate gay people or anything like that, but it means I love Jesus and I strive to live my life daily according to the example he set. I also love the bible, the inspired word of God.

I am generally quite a cynical guy, can be quite negative and given my personality (ISFJ on meyers-briggs) its quite easy for me to border on depression. But I have been noticing more and more, especially in the last couple years, how important it is to be positive, to speak life, and to be happy, full of joy, and SMILE!

God created the universe by speaking! "Let there be Light" and there was! I believe the same power God used to create the universe has been passed down to us through Jesus when we received Him as our Lord and Saviour and received His Holy Spirit. Therefore, speaking life into our situations carries great power - 'I am prosperous', 'I am bold', 'I am the man for the job', or how about this - "Be Healed in Jesus Name!"

I spent too much of my early Christian life being the negative, cynical guy. It not only brought me down, but it killed the mood around me. I reckon if I'd spoken a bit of life into my life I would have had a much more positive impact on those around me.

1 Thessalonians 5:16 says "Always be joyful" i.e "BE HAPPY!"
SMILE, it will make you feel better and honestly, it will make you way more attractive. When I was living in Auckland, I boarded with a lady named Maggie. She said to me one day, "You always look like the world is on your shoulders. Do you think it will make people want what you've got?" That really got me thinking; maybe I should actually do what the bible says and be happy, people should want what I've got but when I'm the lame, negative, cynical guy all the time why would they? Maggie also said to me in that conversation, "You've got a smile that lights up the room. You should show it off more, it's bound to win you the heart of a lucky young lady."

And you know what? She was right. Ask my wife what she noticed first that attracted her to me and she'll say my smile and the twinkle in my eyes. Thank you Maggie for that great advice! And thank you God for being so awesome and blessing me so much!

music

2009-07-29T13:51:00.003+12:00

Tonight Me and Holly have a band practice with my brother and two other guys. We're playing at a music thing in October called Samstock. Its pretty sweet, we're stoked to be playing. Its funny because my brother just mentioned to us one day about joining his band and then all of a sudden we're in it and we've got a gig lined up.

We mainly play covers, but with one or two originals. Its good fun so far. I play the electric guitar and Holly plays bass, and generally we have a good time jamming with the guys.

If you're down Mosgiel ways on October 2nd, be sure to come down and support us. I'll even give you a high five

PEACE

Saturday

2009-07-25T10:31:00.003+12:00

Its Saturday morning. 10.30am July 25, 2009 - NZ time. Today is the day my cousin Jenny Yoshida and her fiance, Eric Lorant, get married. They are in Orange County, CA, USA so that will be tomorrow our time. But none-the-less, its pretty cool to think that this is the date that they tie the knot and become husband and wife. I wish them all the best.

Holly and I had our friends, Donald and Elise Lucassen stay with us last night. They are friends of mine from when I was at high school, they got together a few years ago and were married at the end of 2007. It's weird to be married and have married friends come stay with you. Hard to explain, but its awesome to think that some of your friends have also made the comittment and their 2 lives have become 1. Pretty cool.

When I think of my marriage with Holly, I hope and pray that we 'do' our marriage how God always intended it to be. I hope and pray that our relationship honors God and show's others how awesome it is when you put God first in your relationship and seek to honor Him every step of the way. Marriage is awesome. Marriage is a beautiful thing. It's something I cherish and hope I always will. Don't take it for granted. Cherish it. Love it. Enjoy it. Have fun. Live Life. Be there. Always look to honor your husband or wife and more importantly God, I have no doubt in my mind that as you do that God will bless you and honor you.

So yeah, pretty boring post but just what I'm thinking at the moment.

Back to School

2009-07-20T12:27:00.001+12:00

So I’m back at school for my final semester. It’s quite hard adjusting to being back in class again after 2 great weeks off. I have already had my share of adventures with regards to enrolling, timetable changes, etc. Shaping up to be an eventful semester.

I was originally enrolled in Structural Theory which goes hand in hand with Structural design. However I was not enrolled in that and it makes no sense to do one paper and not the other. So I went about enrolling in Structural Design. I didn’t want to have 6 classes again this semester, as it made last semester flippin’ insane, so I pulled out of Traffic Engineering. This is a double goodness, as it means I didn’t pick up any extra work, and in changing my class I don’t have any night courses this semester, YAHOO!!!!

It’s a good feeling knowing that I’m almost qualified. It’s taken way too long, but it’s going to be awesome sitting that final exam and walking into that sweet first job!

EARTHQUAKE!!!

2009-07-16T09:04:00.002+12:00

There was an earthquake last night, centered down south about 100km out of Tuatapere. It was apparently felt as far away as the Taranaki region, which isn't surprising considering it measured 7.8 on the Richter scale. We definitely felt it here in Christchurch, it was similar to most earthquakes I've felt in recent times, a rolling one like a wave rather than a violent shaking. The main difference was how long it lasted - it went on for ages! Apparently it was shaking for around 2 minutes.

Lucky for you I did a geology paper last semester so I know a little bit about earthquakes. I'll share some details I know.

Plate tectonics
New Zealand is situated on the boundary where the australian plate and the pacific plate meet. They are constantly moving (to the tune of a few mm every year). What makes it more interesting is the fact that above the north island the pacific plate is subducting under the australian plate, where as below the south island the australian is subducting under the pacific. Add to this the Strike Slip characteristics of the Alpine fault (plates moving past each other, one moving north, other moving south) and you have a country prone to earthquakes.

Magnitude vs Intensity
Last night's earthquake measured 7.8 on the Richter scale. But what does that mean? The main thing to consider is the difference between magnitude and intensity.
The Richter scale measures the magnitude, that is how much energy is released. However, this doesn't necessarily correlate to what is felt.

The modified Mercalli scale measures intensity, that is how damaging a quake is (such as the shaking, or destructiveness of it... pretty much what you feel). It has a scale from 1-12, where 1 is barely felt and 12 is large scale damage and destruction. So what people in the deep south felt may have been about 8 on the modified Mercalli scale, where as here in Chch it might have been like 5 or 6 and up north maybe it was barely felt at a 2 or 3... It will depend on the depth of the quake, geology of the area, distance from the epicenter, to some extent the magnitude, etc, etc.

Final facts?
An earthquake like last night occurs when the plates which have been grinding and pushing against each other, building up energy, then all of a sudden something gives way, releasing the built up energy in an earthquake. This happens all the time with energy generally being released in small earthquakes that we often don't notice. However, with energy building up on the plate boundaries, if the movement is stopped (ie the plates get caught or wedged or something and they can't move and release energy a bit at a time), the energy keeps building and building until something gives and the built up energy is released in a bigger earthquake.

I hope you have learned a lot from this 3 minutes of earthquake facts. I also hope I got an A for Geology. Still waiting to hear my results...

Haircut part 2

2009-07-15T10:11:00.004+12:00

I probably shouldn't blog about the same thing 2 days in a row, but what the hey, why not?
I got my haircut yesterday and its a hummer! I look hot again. Haha. But during the course of this haircut I noticed something that I notice everytime I get a haircut. My facial hair is whack.

It's not that I grow it and it looks strange, but more the fact that it grows in patches and one of the patches it doesn't grow is about a half inch beside my ears where the sideburns should be transitioning from being head hair to facial hair. Every time I get my hair cut again, I notice the gap in my sideburns between where the hair from my head meets the stubble on my face. When my hair is long enough, I don't notice it, I let my sideburns grow further down my cheeks. But as soon as its cut it's like, whoa I'm a freak, what's that bald patch doing there!

The hairdresser yesterday got to the point where you can notice this dramatic 'gap' in sideburn growth and he (yes I got the dude again) kinda just stared at it for a while before saying, 'You want me to take your sideburns up bro?' When I replied 'Nah, it should be ok for now' he stared at the gap again then after a bit of an awkward silence he goes, 'Oh yep, fix it up yourself at home kinda thing' and he goes on finishing cutting my mop.

It's kind of funny when I think of how I seem to be finding grey hairs all over my head yet I still haven't hit puberty enough to grow sideburns without a bald patch. I remember thinking like 4 years ago (when I first noticed some growth of facial hair) that it wouldn't be long before the patchiness went away and my sideburns would be respectable... still waiting. I'm 22 years old and I'm still trying to grow sideburns better than my 14 year old brother.

haircut

2009-07-14T09:26:00.001+12:00

I'm getting my hair cut today. I'm looking forward to it, last time I got it cut was like a week before I got married, so it has gotten quite long and annoying. Holly trimmed it for me a couple weeks ago but its time I went to the hairdresser and got them to fix my style.

I like going to get a haircut, partly for the novelty of never quite knowing if you'll be happy with what you end up with, and partly because it's a good feeling losing those annoying locks. I don't really like it when I get the gay guy and he decides to give me an intense head massage (as in cranium) but last time he gave me a really good style so I don't doubt his hair cutting skills.

I find haircut conversation quite awkward generally. The usual question "so what do you do" is quickly answered and I always seem to follow up my answer "I study engineering" with "what about you" at which point I realize (just a bit too late) that I know what they do, they cut hair.

Yup, conversation dies pretty quickly at the barber...

Church a la Roy

2009-07-13T10:11:00.006+12:00

I love church!
I love my church, C3 Church Christchurch, and I also love The Church.
I am convinced that the local church (and in turn The Church globally) is the hope of the world. That we have the solution, not the problem(s), and we should be the solution as we bring Christ into the picture.

I know so many people that would say that they love the Church (global) but that they are not into church. I have had conversations with people (Christians even) who refuse to be planted in a specific church. They refuse to be a committed member because of 'church politics' or 'they only want my money' or 'I like to sleep in on Sunday' or 'that church is too big' or 'they're just a bunch of hypocrites' and so on and so on.

I can't even begin to address all complaints or points of view, that is not what I'm here to do. These complaints are all valid to a certain extent. But I will say this - with all the faults in the church, it is still the one thing that Jesus Christ ordained as the vessel through which to show His glory to the world and bring salvation to the 'lost'.

The book of Ephesians is full of teaching like this - in fact, read all of St Paul's letters, they all have an underlying theme of building the church. Jesus Christ Himself said in Matthew 16:18 "I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it."

Jesus gave His life for the church. He believes in it. He knows there are faults with it - let's face it, there's humans involved, and we all have flaws and faults. But He still chooses to use the church to reveal His glory.

I believe in church, I am passionate about it. I am not passionate about Religion, but I am passionate about God. I believe that saying I love God with all my heart should by default mean I also love the church and would do all I can to build it. When I think of it like that, it makes sense to give time and money to my church, it makes sense to be there every week and serving in any way I can, it makes sense to defend it and fight for it, it makes sense to invite people every week, it makes sense that my church should grow and become a large family, carrying influence and having a positive impact on my community.

Church in itself sometimes does not make sense. Decisions that are made, the layout of the service, something the Pastor said, the words of a song, things like this sometimes (or quite often) don't make sense. But in light of the Gospel, in light of Jesus, in light of His plan to bring redemption to the world, Church makes an awful lot of sense. Don't be a hater. Be someone God can use. Get into a good church, be planted in the house of God, let Him grow you and shape you and refine you, and let Him use you for His Glory.

Mildly Political

2009-07-11T10:41:00.004+12:00

I know a lot of people who hate Fox because it is 'biased towards the right', which is such a rediculous reason to hate it. EVERY news outlet is slanted one way or another. Pretty much all of them these days are slanted heavily to the left, worshipping the ground Obama walks on without sharing the full picture of what's really happening in America and around the world since his election. These same media outlets spent 8 years slamming George W Bush, again without showing the full picture. And with Michael Jackson, Fox's Bill O'Reilly dared to question the hero status of Jackson in light of his questionable morals and ethics when the rest of the media was hyping him up.

It's ironic that a lot of people ignorantly take these news reports as gospel when they are being shown a story from a certain point of view with a certain agenda. And its ironic that Fox, which leans slightly right, is the one that people hate on for being 'biased'. I mean, Come on! At the very least, its providing another side to the story which is vital for obtaining a full picture of what is going on. I don't claim Fox is any better than any other news network, but I do think that it provides some balance in an extremely biased media world. And I think it is necessary for us to open our eyes and search out the truth instead of taking a news report as the be-all-and-end-all.

I know a lot of people will disagree with me. I'm not trying to provoke an argument or anything, I'm just sharing my thoughts (like I said I would in an earlier blog). So don't start an internet war, just maybe have a think about this.

monops

2009-07-10T09:49:00.002+12:00

I played "monops" (monopoly in other words) for I think the 4th or 5th time in my life last night. Every game I have ever played has involved Steve Burgess and his rules, which make the game more exciting I'm told. I can't imagine what monops would be like without those rules and without Steve. I managed to get suckered into making a deal last night which involved a straight swap for some property plus $1000 for me. I was like, 'yeah ok I'll do that cos I have heaps of stuff and you have none.' Unfortunately for me, Chris Boon was shafting me from the get go, and it was all part of his grand scheme to take me out of the game.

Being fairly new to monops, I am still getting to grips with how it all works and what decisions are wise and unwise. Normally I find that monopoly has a bit of a social stigma in certain parts of society, but I think that is due to people being lame and taking it too seriously when they start losing. I think that when I get more familiar with monops and scheming and dealing, I'll be a monops force to be reckoned with. So watch this space...

Dane Cook has a good skit about monopoly, you should check it out on youtube.

Good Burger

2009-07-09T10:01:00.003+12:00

I have the plague. Its not fun. So I'm tucked up in bed living the good life... hot drinks and youtube make for a good day. I'm also applying for engineering jobs for the end of my diploma, hoping to walk into a good job in November.

I ate a really good burger yesterday. It wasn't amazing, but it was very good. It was from a place called "Prime" (i think) on high street. It's an American themed burger joint, even our waiter was an American, and boy oh boy was I stoked. Sure beats most American food we have here eg Mcdonalds, BK, KFC, Pizza Hut, Dominoes, Denny's... you get the picture. You should check out "Prime" and get a good burger. It's not even much more expensive than a Combo at Mcdonalds or whatever.

It's no Burger Fuel, but it is good

Life

2009-07-08T10:15:00.002+12:00

I'm sitting on the couch in my lounge, looking at the drum kit in the corner, holding the heater between my knees, looking at the sun streaming in through my window and wondering why it doesn't heat this place up. I like winter, don't get me wrong, but I don't enjoy being freezing cold. Honestly though, apart from being able to see my breath at 10:30am inside my house, I am enjoying life. I'm blessed to be alive, blessed to live in NZ, blessed to live in Christchurch, blessed to have an amazing wife, family and friends, blessed to be on holiday and blessed with, for the most part, good health.

You may have heard about the car crash in Invercargill on Friday that claimed the lives of 3 teenagers. The driver of the car, Jesse Langeveld, used to work at Mcdonalds when I worked there about 3 years ago. It sucks when someone you know dies like that. Though we weren't close friends or anything, it's still a shock as you could imagine.

Life is so short. You never know when you might be taken from this earth. I want to make sure that whatever happens, I never forget how to smile and laugh, and I never want to forget how blessed I really am to be alive. Even when life sucks, every breath is a blessing. Lets be positive people, and not waste our time getting negative and cynical. Life is too short

A Thought From 1 Corinthians 12

2009-07-07T09:59:00.004+12:00

This morning I was reading my bible and I found some cool stuff. In 1 Corinthians 12, the Apostle Paul is talking to the Church about spiritual gifts. He says in verse 7, "A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other," and goes on to say that the Holy Spirit decides what gift each person should get. He carries on to say that we are all part of one body (the Church) and each of us fit somewhere. We are given gifts to help each other and uplift and strengthen the Church. We do not all have the same giftings, but we are all called to be faithful with what God has given us to help and strengthen the Church.

It got me thinking. I recognize a few different giftings that the Holy Spirit has placed in my life. And its weird to think where I am now compared to where I would have thought I would be. I am the Music Director at my church and I lead worship regularly. But I'm pretty sure music is not my primary gifting. It is something God has given me to use however, and when there was a need I put my hand up and filled that role. I may have thought I was called to preach or something else like that, but God gave me an opportunity to serve Him and I want to be faithful with this. I want to be able to say that I gave it all I had, and I served God and the Church to the best of my ability with what was given to me.

We've all have a gift, no matter how small or large it seems to us. Maybe you're good at something or you have a passion for some area in your Church that you could serve in. Chances are, God has given you that to use for His benefit and for the benefit of His Church. It doesn't have to be something on stage. Maybe you could serve on the setup or packdown team. Or at the cafe. Or be the friendly face that greets everyone as they arrive at church. Whatever it is, find something you can do and give it your all!

The way I see it, Jesus gave His life for the Church. The least we can do is do all we can to strengthen the Church. If we really love God, let's serve Him to the best of our abilities with what He has given us.

What You Need to Know

2009-07-07T09:32:00.004+12:00

Here is what I promised in my last post. What You Need to Know before you decide you hate me or love me based on this blog.

ME
My name is Roy Bruce. I am a Christian - I love God and live for Him. I am 22 years old and I recently got married to the most amazing woman in the world - Holly May. I am in love. I love my wife. I also like my wife. Besides Jesus, she is my best friend in the world. I am so blessed to have her in my life. She is an incredible, beautiful, amazing woman.

I am a dual citizen - New Zealand & the United States of America. I live in Christchurch, NZ and feel at home here, but I also see the USA as home and Holly and I will most likely live their for at least a little while in the future. I am not very political... but in saying that I definitely have strong opinions on political stuff. I used to think of my self as a Liberal... I now would describe myself as a Conservative.

Some things in this world really grind my gears - however I do not want to make this blog all about that. I'd rather focus on the awesome things in this world, the blessings poured out on us and keep my attitude positive and thankful.

BLOG
The purpose of making this a daily(ish) blog is to just put something into words each day or so. Whether or not people read it and like it is kinda beside the point. I just want to let this be an outlet for some things floating around in my brain.

I hope whoever is reading this will find something they can smile, laugh, think or ponder whenever they check it. I don't want to be lame and argumentative, I just want to write some thoughts out daily.

As I said before, I want this to be positive and encouraging. I can't garantee however that I will pull this off. We all have times when we feel strongly about something that we need a to have a quick rant about it. But this does not change my underlying theme of putting my thoughts into writing daily(ish) and hopefully providing some encouragement, humour and thinking from time to time.

I hope you decide to join me on this adventure! Who knows where it will end up.

Update for you all

2009-07-07T09:23:00.002+12:00

Hi
I'm thinking that it's about time I either took this blogging thing serious or threw in the towel. So what I'm keen to do is make this my daily diary type thing online. I'm hoping people will keep checking up on this blog and see whats going on in my life. I'm not trying to be all emo or anything... I just think it would be cool to every day or two post something on here. Pretty soon I will start off with post number one. I has the potential to be a long one so I'm going to work hard to try and keep it short.

The first post in this new era will be called "what you need to know" and I basically just want to say a few things and be pretty clear on what this blog is and isn't.

Sweet?
Good!

I'm engaged to the most beautiful girl in the world!

2009-01-12T15:58:00.002+13:00

Holly and I are getting married. We got engaged on Saturday January 10th, 2009 and instead of telling the story again and again, I thought I’d post it on my blog for people to read. My American family, our friends who aren’t in earshot and people who want to check it out for themselves – this is for you…

It’s been our plan for about 6 months that we would tie the knot this year, but we didn’t really tell anyone even after we’d set the date because it wasn’t official. Now that Holly is wearing the ring it’s all good, so go tell everyone. Haha.

Holly and I have been doing this thing called ‘alphabet dating’ for a while now. Each week one of us takes the other on a date beginning with a letter of the alphabet, we go through from A to Z. This week it was Holly’s turn, so really she planned the proposal without even realizing it.

We had gone ring shopping just after Christmas and picked out the one we liked. I didn’t want to blow it and pick something lame and since we’d already established we were going to get married, it worked out sweet to go in together, pick it out together and have it sent away to be resized. Then the ball was in my court to pick it up and pop the question.

I picked the ring up on the Friday knowing that I was going to ask her on Saturday. I had a back up plan, but I was really relying on Holly taking us on a long walk on the beach or something and stopping somewhere romantic. I was quizzing her about our ‘L’ date on Friday night just to get a feel for whether or not I could rely on her to organize the perfect proposal scenario. She told me we were going to drive to Taylors Mistake and take a walk around Godley Head to Boulder Bay where we were going to have a picnic lunch. Perfect.

The night before she thought something was up by how funny I was acting… but I just did the whole, “Stop it. I’m not hiding anything. I haven’t even been to the jeweler I haven’t had any time! If they haven’t called tomorrow we’ll go get it after our date ok.” She didn’t buy it but she thought I was getting really pissed off so she dropped it. Later she said she stopped thinking about it because she thought I was getting really mad and it probably wasn’t going to happen as soon as that anyway. Plus she was worrying they were having problems resizing the ring as the jeweler hadn’t called.

Saturday came along and I went to Holly’s house via a florist so I could pick up a single red rose and hide it, with the ring, in my bag. I was wondering how I could bring my bag without it being obvious I was hiding something. Fortunately Holly asked me if I had my bag so we could put our picnic lunch in it. I was stoked. I packed our sammies and drinks in it and kept it close by at all times. We drove to Taylors Mistake and went for our walk. We had lunch down by the ocean which was so beautiful, it was meant to be raining but the weather was so sweet, thank you Jesus!

We ate our lunch and just as we finished I gave Holly something beginning with L for our ‘L’ date – a “Love Letter” containing a “Love List”, which was a list of things I love about her. At the end of it I had the scripture we both love and have talked about heaps since we’ve been together. Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

“ 9 Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. 10 If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. 11 Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone? 12 A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.”

Then under this it said, ‘Now look at me’ and at that point I was down on one knee, I had a red rose in my hand which I gave her and then I proceeded to tell her how much I love her and that I want to spend the rest of my life with her and then I said the line, “Will you marry me?” and she said “Yes!”

So, being very careful not to drop the ring in the ocean, I put it on her finger. We had a kiss and a hug and just enjoyed the moment before heading off. We wandered back to the car and then drove to a café where some of our good friends were waiting for us. All in all it was an awesome day! Many thanks to our friends and family who have been so supportive and shared in our joy. Now we’re in planning mode and we’re looking forward to the big day, April 11th.

Yeya!

Back in NZ

2008-12-01T17:04:00.002+13:00

I'm back in New Zealand and I have been for 3 weeks as of today. I thought I would just give a quick update since its been a while.

I got back and was straight back into work at school. I had one week where I was catching up on everything I'd missed and studying for two weeks of exams. I submitted two assignments and sat 3 tests in that week. Mixed feelings about it, I had been averaging in the 80's for everything before I left, and having slacked off a little bit I found things tough getting back into it.

I got some results back from the year. I was stoked with Geotech - I was sitting on 76% for the first half of the year even before sitting a test worth 10%. When I got my marks back for the two assignments for Surveying, I had a 58% and an 80%. So the buildup to exams was pretty good, although the first week back was intense.

Exams went pretty good, I would have definitely passed everything but maybe not as well as I had hoped. So now its wait and see time.

I finished my last exam on Thursday last week so now I'm hunting for work for the summer. I'm considering doing a drug trial, but not too sure. It's paying $8500, 3500 before christmas and the rest at the end of the trial in march. Its a trial of an anti depression drug so I can't see it being dangerous. I'm just thinking that if its paying that much there may be a risk.

Anyway, thats all for now. Hope you all are doing great.
Roy

Los Angeles and the like

2008-11-07T17:08:00.003+13:00

This is probably my last post before leaving for NZ. I leave LAX at 7.30pm on Saturday LA time and get to Auckland at 5.15am NZtime, layover for a bit then finally get to chch at 9.10am where my amazing girlfriend will be waiting for me. I have a couple hours to chill out before class from 1-9pm. Just between you and me, I might skip the 1pm class, but i need to go to my 5-9pm class because thats a test. Nice welcome back isn't it, thank you very much CPIT.

Anyway, since last post we made it to LA. I'll try to remember everything.
From Cresent City we went down to LA. Stopped at Santa Cruz which was epic, I bought a new skate setup for less than half what I would have paid in NZ. Haven't really tried it out yet. But it is awesome.

We also went to Redwood National Park and Sequoia National Park and looked at some trees. They were pretty sweet although I am of the thinking that visiting two parks famous for massive tree's was a bit of overkill. But I still had fun.

We stayed a night at a place called Westport at a scum dog place. That was an adventure and a half. It was even smaller than NZ's Westport. Hard to believe but true.

We made it to LA on Friday October 31 - thats right, Halloween. People actually get into it here. Something we should adopt in NZ I say. I don't care if you think its over commercialised or whatever, the truth is that its a lot of fun that we could be having. Anyway, what I'm saying is I saw a lot of people dressed up in costumes and lots of these were hilarious. My cousin Paul wore a Jean Simmons mask, I wasn't there but I saw photo's.

With arrival in the general LA area came our first stop at an IN N OUT BURGER. That place is amazing! So sweet! 3 choices on the menu, but when they are Cheeseburger, Hamburger or Double Double, who needs more?

Saturday brought the event of the trip - the Sanchez - Jungwirth family reunion. I met so many relatives that I didn't even know existed and ate so much Italian food that I could have thrown up and still been ready to explode. Sooooo Gooood. The Sanchez's and Jungwirth's are good people, and it was cool to see so many people who are related to me who have a funny accent. Except by now the American accents sound normal to me so I know I'm the one with a funny accent.

Afterwards mum and her siblings got together at the Hilton in Universal City, where my Aunt Peggy and my Uncle John were staying (unfortunately their other halves couldn't make it). A few of us from the next generation went and had a look at City Walk which is pronounced like City Wok... Made me think of a Southpark episode every time I heard someone say the name City Walk. Anyways, that place is sweet. We had a good time checking out the sites and sounds.

Sunday we went to my mum's old school/church for church. It was ok. It was cool seeing mum's childhood places. We checked out:
- the Osmond Twins old house which was just around the corner from hers
- her old house
and a few cool things along the way

We went to Aunt Linda's house for a hang out that afternoon which was awesome.

On Monday we left for the Grand Canyon. Mum's cousin Gordon Sanchez came with us. He's awesome. We spent Monday travelling and so Tuesday was Grand Canyon day. It was a good day. But the wierd thing is that it was the desert, but it was freezing. I was so cold. But it was amazing. I highly recommend a visit there if you can make it.

Wednesday we went back to LA via Las Vegas. It was pretty cool. I just wanted to play some poker. So we stopped at Treasure Island and Dad and I went in for a gamble, he went with the intention to play on the pokies and I went with the intention to play a game of skill - Texas Hold 'Em. Unfortunately for me there were no people in the casino so there were no poker games on in the poker lounge. There was a tournament later on but we had to get on the road. So I chilled out with Dad on the pokies, tried a few out and left with 3 bux less than I came in with. Dad ended up with 20 cents more than he came in with.

Today we went to the NZ Consulate in Santa Monica to vote. It was so wierd hearing the NZ accent again. It sounds so yucky after only hearing American accents (apart from us) for the last ages. Afterwards we went to the Santa Monica Pier for a look around. I played at the arcade, won lots of tickets and got a couple lame prizes for my little brother.

It's now Thursday night, and we're hanging out at mum's cousin Liz's house where we're staying. It's been an awesome trip and I'm stoked on the last few weeks. I have school work to do before I get home but I have a 12 hour plane ride to endure so I'm sure I can do some then.

Thats all for now folks, this could be my last post before I get home.
Make sure you vote, let your voice be heard!
See you soon NZ :)

I am now in California

2008-10-29T18:27:00.012+13:00

I'm not in New England anymore. I'm in California. We arrived today and I am currently in a smelly room with my brothers (they are the reason it smells) about to go to bed.

We went to NYC after New England and did a few cool things. Went up the Empire State Building and went to the Statue of Liberty, Times Square and the site where there used to be some awesome buildings before a certain act of terror. We went to the ground zero visitor center which has been set up as a tribute to all those who lost their lives, it was quite emotional really but it's kinda hard to explain unless you go there for yourself.

We were in NYC for 3 days, and on the last day we were there, my uncle had to go into hospital. We didn't get to hang out with my aunt and uncle at all that day. That kinda sucked because that was the main reason we went to New York, to hang with them. But last I heard Uncle Stuart was doing much better and so thats good news.

I just remembered the wierdest thing about driving through New England... Most people have seen roadkill, but not everyone has seen deer littering the roadside. Some obviously had been hit by trucks, there were varying degrees of carcase quality. Some dead deer were in pieces, others looked like they were taking a nap. Needless to say it was something different.

We also checked out Niagara Falls which are every bit as amazing as you would expect. Go there. You'll love it. That also involved crossing the border into Canada. If you ask me, Canada is just a copycat of america but with a few subtle differences, i.e. when we crossed earlier from the border at maine into french canada, you get 100m from the border and EVERYTHING is in french. We crossed back over in New Hampshire and for a few miles the signs etc were written in both french and english, obviously the US is a tad more considerate than french Canada.

But in Niagara Falls, it had all the same stores, food, everything, just a slightly different vibe and a different currency. I liked Canada but to be fair we didn't see a lot, just the stuff thats pretty much america anyway. So maybe one day i'll go to Vancouver or something and have a good look for myself.

ANYWAY... arrived in seattle on Thursday October 23 after a 6 hour flight from NYC. At around 11am local time in seattle we made our way to baggage claim where we were greeted by a tearful Aunt Cece who hadn't seen us in about 17 years. We stayed with her and Uncle Jerry at their house in Puyallup for 4 days and had an awesome time. Went to a wildlife park called Northwest Treck where we saw caribou, deer, elk, moose, bison, mountain goats, mountain sheep and coyote's, bears, cougars and a lynx that did a super good ninja jump from one tree to another. That was dope.
Also went to Seattle and checked out Pike Place Market which is famous for birthing a worldwide phenomenon - Starbucks. So naturally we sampled... When in Rome...

We left Puyallup on Monday and started a long drive to LA. We stopped today at Crater Lake, Oregon and yesterday we went through Portland. It was pretty much just another city that would be cool to check out one day but we weren't too worried about not stopping. Last night we stayed in a random little town that i forget the name of and today we went to Crater Lake which is another amazing place.

Tonight we are in a place called Crescent City in Northern California. Tomorrow we're going to check out the redwood forests and go drive through the tree you can drive through (apparently there's a massive tree with a huge hole chopped in it) which will be epic. We are going to be heading through Santa Cruz (which is a city with skateboarding heritage) on thursday, I can't wait.

Thats about it.
Peace

New London, Connecticut, New England

2008-10-17T16:12:00.009+13:00

So its been a while. Since last time I wrote in here we've been heaps of places. I'll try and remember everything.

Left Memphis and the plan was to go to a Civil War Park near Chattanooga and an Apalachan festival near Knoxville before driving to my Uncle John and Aunt Anne's house in Manassas, VA via the Smokey Mountains. By the way, thats John and Anne SANCHEZ... They are awesome, not just because of an awesome last name.

We went on a different highway to the main one from Memphis and as a result got to drive through three more southern states, Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. In Alabama we went through a place called Huntsville which is home of the US Space and Rocket Centre and Space Camp, and so we stopped there and had a look.
It was pretty cool, I had a lot of fun. It was cool to see some rockets and simulators and stuff. They even had a moon rock on display. Thats about it for there, you really had to be there... :)

We spent too long there and so we ended up stayin in Chattanooga. The next morning we went to the Civil war place at Chickamauga which is the site of a famous Civil War battle between the Union (North) and the Confederates (South). That was interesting and I learnt a lot. Here's a photo of a monument.

From here we went to an Apalachan festival near Knoxville. I was convinced that 'Apalachans' were a tribe of Native Americans (Indians)... boy how wrong I was. I was so mad that I had to endure another day of bluegrass. But oh well, never again!!!!

We stayed in Knoxville that night, then drove all the way from Knoxville to Manassas the next day via the Smokey Mountains. That was awesome, the scenery is amazing! I highly recommend going there if you ever get the chance. We ended up going through Tenessee, North Carolina and Virginia that day. Here's a seductive photo of me.

So we stayed with Uncle John and Aunt Anne in Manassas which is famous for... well nothing really, except if you have heard of Lorraina Bobbet. Probably not the kind of thing you want your town to be known for. Kinda funny though.

Manassas was cool, mainly because I was meeting my Aunt and Uncle 'Sanchez' for the first time and we went to Washington DC and checked out a lot of cool stuff. Things I got to see were a lot of monuments, the White House, Lincoln memorial, and lots of other cool stuff. That was Monday.

On Tuesday I saw some museums which involved getting my bag searched at every entrance, and unfortunately in the process of getting my bag searched at the final museum for the day, the Natural History museum, I put my camera down and somehow didn't pick it up. So I now do not have a camera. It turns out someone picked it up and boosted, no camera's have been handed in and I filled out all the forms etc. I'm gutted. But it could have been worse.

Yesterday the boys went with Uncle John to the National Marine Museum at Quantico while the girls went with Aunt Anne to some mall. The Museum was epic, makes me want to make use of my US Citizenship and enlist. Only one problem - Iraq. Maybe one day haha! My Uncle was a marine back in the day, and its kinda cool seeing his pride in both the Marine Corps and his country. You don't really see people like that anymore who aren't hicks. Genuine people who are proud of who they are.

Today we drove all the way from Manassas to New London, which is in the state of Connecticut in New England. It was a big day, and we have another big day tomorrow. It should be good.
I'm trying to keep up with work and still have fun but finding the balance is not too easy!

Anyway, I miss all of you back home and hope your holding down the fort for me!
God Bless,
Peace,
ROY

ps Email me sometime, I may not get back to you straight away but I will get back to you. Its awesome to get some contact from my NZ friends.

I'm in Memphis

2008-10-08T16:58:00.002+13:00

I'm in Memphis now. Its pretty sweet. Still quite hot.
The weather has been crazy, we've had tornado warnings today and now flash flood warnings, thankfully not right where we are but not far from Memphis. I have never seen rain so heavy for so long in my life.

It almost flooded our motel...

But I haven't seen a tornado and secretly I want to.

It's been exciting. Tomorrow we're going to see some stuff like Elvis's Maryland, the Gibson Guitar factory and the Slave Haven which was a house on the underground railroad before heading on towards my Uncle Johns house which is a couple days drive away in Virginia (right next to Washington DC).

Not a lot else to report. Weather has been insane! I'm stoked to be out of Nashville, and looking forward to DC and NYC when we get there.

Keep it real,
PEACE

Nashville WHAT!!!

2008-10-05T08:09:00.005+13:00

I have been in Nashville, Tennessee with my mum, 2 brothers and 2 sisters since Thursday October 2nd. It’s now the 4th which happens to be my mum’s 53rd birthday and we are at a bluegrass festival…. YEEEEEEHAAAWWW.

But I can’t think of anywhere else I would see something like this where there’s a crowd and everyone is actually in to it. It’s really an experience I will never have again so when my mum asked if I was going to go, contrary to my initial ‘NO WAY,’ I decided it was worth a look. I have enjoyed myself and enjoyed watching the bands play; they are talented musicians even if I hate the music. I have been going to the sessions pretending I’m listening to non-hillbilly music which has helped me get through. I don’t know what my siblings do but they get through too.

I lost my bags when we left LA, but I have them back now. Stoked!
We were at LAX airport checking in to leave for Nashville. We got our bags weighed and ticketed, then had to go to a check point to drop our bags of for screening, where they would be taken away to be loaded on the plane. After we dropped them off, my mum noticed that two bags (my one and one of hers) were under someone else’s name. It was too late to tell the screening guys so we went back to the lady at the counter and told her the problem. To cut a long story short we basically got told by about 6 different managers who ‘were going to sort it out’ for us that our bags were lost and the best we could do was hope that they turn up when we got to Nashville. If they didn’t and they ended up going to Cabo like the labels said, we would have to sort it out from Nashville. Thanks so much LAX.

Now I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure that in NZ, we would have probably been able to at least sort out the situation before getting to our destination without our bags. I even think Auckland airport workers would have made an effort. LAX is massive, I know, but surely we could have arranged to have our bags forwarded to Nashville ASAP from there. The Nashville guys were amazing, they were able to find our bags in Cabo and arranged for them to get here on the first flight from there. I had to wait a day and a half before my bag (which had all my clothes and toiletries in it) turned up. But hey I got them back now so I’m stoked.

I don’t know what else to say about America so far. Nashville... Well it’s a lot like CHCH, laid out like a grid and full of trees and stuff, but it has hills and the city centre is not scummy like CHCH, it’s actually really nice. It’s kinda like a mix between CHCH and maybe Dunedin or Auckland.

I don’t get to some internet often, I spend half my time finding somewhere that has it for less than 10 bux a day. So hence there has been a minimal amount of contact from me in the last few days. Sorry about that. I miss home, I miss C3 and Primal and I miss Holly heaps, but I’m having a good time here and I’m trying to concentrate on that.

That’s all for now folks!
God bless,
ROY

Arrival in USA

2008-10-02T13:38:00.002+13:00

<----- This was a photo I took on the plane

So I'm in LA right now. We landed at 2.30pm Wednesday Oct 1 local time, but that is the same as 10.30am Thursday NZ time. I was a bit meh about the whole thing, couldn't be bothered with transition times and customs and whatnot. But this adventure of a lifetime has already had a lifetime of firsts so far!

Here's a basic list of highlights/firsts for me:
First time on a flight longer than 1hr20min
First time watching a movie on a plane
First time eating a meal on a plane
First time using a toilet on a plane (which is followed up by...)
First time doing poo's on a plane YEYA!!!

I can't really think of too many more firsts. But man I loved getting frisked at Chch boarding (metal detector doesn't like my metal belt and then security pwns me till they find no knife or weapon or anything of the like), getting frisked again at the metal detector at Auckland and finally getting the lucky 'random test' at the gate of the flight to LA where I was frisked again.

Compared to NZ, America is... well I dunno.
The security at LAX took about a tenth of the time that security at Auckland took, so much for panicky americans. The security guards in LAX have guns and its not intimidating. The people here are obviously different, but then again I already knew that having an american mum and all that jazz. They are really super polite people, well so far anyway.

My Aunt Linda and Uncle Ray met us at the hotel and are with us now. We are going to get some food soon which I'm stoked about. It's annoying how their accents sound normal to us but they can't tell what we are saying. It's annoying how no one here knows what I'm talking about when I say 'chur' or 'sweet as' or 'I'm beached bro,' but I'm sure we can work it out.

So in summary...
We got to LA 5 hours before leaving chch (due to time difference), Josh Pritchard and Jeremy Knox were meant to come hang out at Auckland airport while I was in transit but that ended up being jar bol (not sure whose fault but I'm saying I was not to blame haha). It was an emotional farewell at Chch airport for me and Holly after some crap pizza from the foodcourt, and I am going to miss her. awwww.

I will try and keep these updated regularly along the way. Miss you guys, hope your keepin it real in NZ!!
Peace,
ROY

Procrastination/counting down the days

2008-09-29T14:40:00.002+13:00

So here I am sitting alone in my room. All I want is to finish my assignment, skip class tonight and tomorrow, pack my stuff up and leave. But I have to wait another 2 days. Oh man.

And this assignment sucks! It's not hard, but nothing in me wants to do it...
Oh well, I guess its back to it then. Maybe I'll upload some photos to my Facebook

Adventure of a Lifetime

2008-09-26T08:31:00.001+12:00

I never thought I would see the day where I started writing a blog. But the time has come and my intention is that I write a blog semi regularly so people in my life can been in the loop of whats going on in my world. So here we are, entry number one...

Its 5 days until I go on the Adventure of a Lifetime. And by that I mean it's 5 days until I do something I have wanted to do for my whole life. Not by myself either. No, my parents and siblings will be there too which is so awesome!

I'm going to America.
Not just a few days in LA then coming home about the same time jetlag wears off. No, I'm going for six weeks. In case you weren't aware, I am a citizen of the USA, my mum is from Los Angeles and all her family lives over there. We have dreamed for almost my whole life of the day when we could go as a family to America and visit the relatives over there. And now its happening.

My parents sold their farm earlier this year and realized that this was a chance to do something that they hadn't done before - they could take us over to the US. So, praise God, they are paying for airfares and all that. It's actually too good to be true. I know I wouldn't have been able to go otherwise. I am so thankful for the way things have played out. It's like God had planned it all from start to finish. I don't want to go too much into details here because it would take forever, but if you want some stories, hit me up!

I don't really know my itinerary, these are the details I know for sure, the rest will either be made up as we go along or I simply have no idea.

Wednesday October 1 - Have emotional farewell at the airport. I won't be seeing my amazing girlfriend Holly for six weeks, it's going to be tough and as much as I want to say I'm not going to cry, I'm pretty sure there will be a few tears all round. I am going to miss her sooooooo much.

Christchurch - check in at airport at 5pm ish. Fly out at 7.20pm to Auckland. Arrive at 8.50pm. Depart Auckland for Los Angeles at 10.15pm on a 12 hour flight.

Wednesday October 1 - Arrive in LA at 2.30pm... the time difference means I get there 5 hours before I left Christchurch. Yeya, time travel!!!!
My Aunt Linda and a few of the relatives there are going to meet us, take us out for food and hang with us before dropping us at our hotel.

Thursday October 2 - At some rediculous hour (I think like 6am) we fly out to Nashville, Tennessee. We will be there till Monday when we leave for Washington DC, where my Uncle John and Aunt Anne live. I'm hoping that while we're in Nashville I can adventure to Atlanta and check out C3 Atlanta and maybe even BYFY church (which I hear is pretty much American Primal - so sweet!) but its a fair mish (something like 4 hours drive google tells me), so we'll have to see.

Monday October 6 ish - The dates are now estimates because I really don't know from here if they are correct. But on Monday we drive to Washington DC which according to google is like 11 hours driving. If it was NZ I'm sure we'd just do it in one rush trip, but since we pretty much will be tourists I'd say it will be a couple days travel. Lame for me because I hate not being where I know I need to be, so I will have to pass the time by taking photos, fighting with my little bro and playing sonic the hedgehog and alex the kidd.

Wednesday October 15 ish - Leave Washington and head to NYC where my Aunt Peggy and Uncle Stuart live. I can't wait to go to times square, statue of liberty, empire state building, twin tow.... damn!!!

Wednesday October 22 ish - Fly from NYC to Seattle, WA where my Aunt Cece, Uncle Jerry, and cousins Jenny, Luke and Alex live. Space needle is cool I hear. But meeting some family members around my own age will be cool too. We are going to go into Canada sometime around here, Vancouver Island. I hope my Canadian friend Nate is there it would be cool to catch up with him.

Friday October 24 - MAYLENE AND THE SONS OF DISASTER + SHOWBREED IN SEATTLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Punch me if I miss it ok! Oh and rumor has it that Norma Jean might be playing the same day somewhere close.... again punch me if this is the case and I somehow miss it.

Monday October 27 ish - Start a long drive from Seattle to LA going through Washington, Oregon and California. I'm looking forward to Portland, and Santa Cruz

Saturday November 1 - We will have been in LA for maybe 2 days. November 1 is the date set for the Sanchez family reunion (my mums maiden name is Sanchez...), which is going to be awesome. While being based in LA we are going to visit some sweet stuff around there. I don't really care but we're going to disneyland etc. I'm stoked on going to Grand Canyon, Crossing the border into Mexico, hitting Santa Monica, and I'm secretly hoping my cousin Travis will take me to Las Vegas.

Saturday November 8 - I depart LAX for NZ.

Monday November 10 - after missing a day (time travel again) I arrive in Auckland at 5am, then on to Christchurch where I land at 9.10 am. Holly will be there to pick me up which will be awesome! I have class at 1pm and a test at 5pm which is a great welcome home from CPIT, but nothing compared to the thought of exams the following week.... aaah.

I am stoked to be going, I can't wait. I will miss all my friends here in NZ, but keep in touch. Facebook is always good, and I will try and keep the old blog updated. I get to have some fun keeping up with school work/assignments etc when I'm away but it's a small sacrifice really.

Thats blog number 1!
If you're still reading, you are a champion. I hope you keep checkin up on this, and keep in touch! I'll be posting photo's like crazy and hopefully some sweet stories. I'm no Joe First Gear when it comes to good stories from adventures overseas (you might remember his fiji pig story), but regardless I will endeavor to keep you entertained.

God bless,
Peace,
Roy