Monday, May 3, 2004

[Haven't got my list here...]


Wee..sitting on the computer in musical. Heh. I'm so evil.

~_^

Finished my English assignment, totally kicked arse in Halo [Yes!]

I managed to beat Cam, we drew in kills and deaths, but I beat him in assists, so I won.

[28, 18, 7/6]

^___^

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Friday, April 30, 2004

'I get my exercise acting as a pallbearer to my friends who exercise.' [Chauncy Depew]


Feel the goodness. I've just finished my Ancient History essay, word count between the max and min allowed.

Feeling the goodness right now.

*dances around*

Mmm..referencing is fun.

Just a big heyo to my pal Livy, and thanks for all that info on Numa and his Roman religious reforms.

*crosses fingers*

C'mon High B..

^_^

*dances around*

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to have lunch. And then after that, I'm going to play Halo until my eyes bleed..or something like that.

^_^;;
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'Name me an emperor who was ever struck by a cannon ball' [Charles V]


Wee...late nights, lots of work and the lack of the brain juice.

Weeble.

Busy busy busy. Musical Dress rehearsal tonight, so hopefully it will go well.

^_^

[GAH! Honour blazer not arriving until school photos! *shakes fist*]
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Saturday, April 24, 2004

'Being in the army is like being in the Boy Scouts, except that the Boy Scouts have adult supervision.' [Blake Clark]

"Those that shed their blood and lost their lives...you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours... You, the Mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well."
-ATATÜRK, 1934 [First President of Turkey]

That’s the monument erected in the graveyard at Turkey. Later in my life I hope I can make the trip, but owing to the contention in the world, Turkey has advised Australia against making the trip to the dawn service.

Ah well. I went to the one here last year, but not this year, owing to it being on Sunday, and that Mum ‘n Dad didn’t want to get up that early to drive me in. lol.

This excerpt is from an entry I made in the Otaku Lounge a while back.

“To feel the concentrated pull of the Anzac spirit you must go there. Walk the beaches and the hills and pause a while at the little cemeteries to read the names and the achingly young ages and say a prayer for lifetimes lost”

Australia was a relatively young country when the call to war reached it, fourteen years old since federation, and eager to prove itself to the larger countries already rallied for the battle that lay ahead.

“News cabled on 5 August that Britain, and therefore the Empire, was at war with Germany immediately impacted on that post-colonial generation of Australian men and their families. They responded in patriotic droves. In the cities long queues of young men eager to sign up formed outside recruiting centers. Country boys marched together down dusty roads, some walked isolated tracks alone, some rode horses. All had a single purpose: to volunteer to serve their country at war, which too often would mean to volunteer their lives.”

Ages ranged from 18 to 45, and the youngest, the 14 year olds that faked their age to fight and die for their country.

Fourteen years of age. Such a sacrifice, a decision to travel to a country unheard of, to fight in disease ridden conditions where death stalked in every corner. Those boys were our age, if not, younger. To think, would you be able to make that decision? Would you, no pressure what so ever, go out of your way, forge your age and join the army?

I think not

417 000 Australians enlisted in the army that year. Australia’s population was five and a half million at that time.
New Zealand’s was only one million, and they gave 100 000 of their finest, a staggering 10% of their population.

At 4.29 am on Sunday 25 April 1915, Queenslanders of the 9th Battalion landed in front of the foreboding black cliffs. They had landed in the wrong place, the current taking them further up the coast than planned. Two kilometers away, the planned landing area, was a flat stretch of coast, relatively safe compared to the soon to be blood soaked cliffs of Ari Burnu.

As the landing boats continued to pile up on the beach, confused officers tried to make sense of the useless maps. The only choice they had was to make camp and ready themselves for the mad charge that would cost many their lives.

One account of one of the suicidal charges:

“I can remember wading to the coarse land and stepping over dead men as I raced to the cliff face. Everyone was rushing madly up the cliffs. Rifles were snapping; shells were bursting; in front of bayonets were glistening in the half light; and behind us was the roar of the ships.”



“One thought uppermost in my mind as I sit here is that I will not be found wanting, shall not find myself a coward”

C.B. Giffin, a 32 year old farmer from the 14th Artillery Brigade.
Few of the 60 000 Anzacs who came to Gallipoli did not have similar thoughts before they stepped onto that deadly place which was to claim 11 400 Australian and New Zealand lives.

To me the history of the ANZAC spirit is an integral part of Australia. In the First World War, Australia was the only entirely voluntary force out of all of the allies.

That’s 417000 people that volunteered their lives to meet the expectations of the Empire. You’d be hard pressed to find that many people willing to give their lives for their country.

Australia, owing to the sheer mass of forces [and bad landing plans on behalf of the British, lol] suffered the most casualties. New Zealand suffered the most percentage loss of troops [Something like 54% I think], out of all the allies.

In my opinion I think we’ve done pretty well. I mean, there’s 300+ dead American marines, and a whole lot of 0 dead Australian Infantry.

[Once again, the quote is unerringly appropriate. That's three so far. I'm scared..o.O;;]


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'To err is human. And stupid.' [Robert Byrne]


Wow, for once I haven’t wasted my weekend on wholly indulgent activities. I managed to complete a third or so of my Ancient History draft…even if it did take me five hours.

Gah!

x.X;

Having to mow the lawn, only to find that the blasted thing [that we had to go and pick up, right in the middle of an important conversation] won’t start.

I worked on that stupid thing for the better half of an hour, fuel’s full, oil’s good, spark plug was on, engine wasn’t flooded…and yes, I did the obvious check of whether or not it was on the ‘start’ setting.

I managed to mow a strip of grass when it finally started, and then it struggled and whined and then went bung and carked it. The grass wasn’t even higher than my shoe!

ACK!

Send it to an infernal pit of burning and stuff…

I’m not frazzled at all, lol.

Any how, I worked on my Ancient draft, went well, despite writers block, and I resisted the temptation of Halo and Wolfenstein. You should be proud of me, ^_^;

Anzac Day tomorrow, which means I’m doing a special entry, just for my adoring fans, so you’d better appreciate it good *shakes fist*

~_^

I was talking on the phone to Brie the other night, and I discovered that Sunshine Coast phone connections are incredibly dodgy, but Brie asked me a funny question. Funny to me, I suppose, but to others I guess it’s a bit of a mystery.

She asked me how I managed to remain so optimistic, despite things that happen in my life, however miserable they may seem. A month or so ago, something happened that was an incredible blow to me. It was hard for me to deal with, and to be honest, it still worries me, but it’s changed me for the better.

I came across a scripture that I’d heard last year in seminary, one that I always seemed to lose the reference to, but changed my outlook on life. I know at times that I am incredibly dodgy and upset, but the next morning I’m all better. It takes a while for this scripture to settle in, but when it does, I know I can grow from the event.

D&C Section 122

The word of the Lord to Joseph Smith the Prophet, while he was a prisoner in the jail at Liberty, Missouri, March 1839
The ends of the earth shall enquire after thy name, and fools shall have thee in derision, and hell shall rage against thee;
While the pure in heart, and the wise, and the noble, and the virtuous, shall seek counsel, and authority, and blessings from under thy hand.
And thy people shall never be turned against thee by the testimony of traitors.
And although their influence shall cast thee into trouble, and into bars and walls, thou shalt be had in honour; and but for a small moment and thy voice shall be more terrible in the midst of thine enemies than the fierce lion, because of thy righteousness; and thy God shall stand by thee forever and ever.
If thou art called to pass through tribulation; if thou art in perils among false brethren; if thou art in perils among robbers; if thou art in perils by land or by sea;
If thou art accused with all manner of false accusations; if thine enemies fall upon thee; if they tear thee from the society of thy father and mother and brethren and sisters; and with a drawn sword thine enemies tear thee from the bosom of thy wife, and of thine offspring, and thine elder son, although but six years of age, shall cling to thy garments, and shall say, My father, my father, why can’t you stay with us? O, my father, what are the men going to do with you? And if then he shall be thrust from thee by the sword, and thou be dragged into prison, and thine enemies prowl around thee like wolves for the blood of the lamb;
And if though shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if though be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.
The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?
Therefore, hold on thy way, and the priesthood shall remain with thee; for their bounds are set, they cannot pass. Thy days are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less; therefore, fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever.

There it is. I know it’s not much of a secret to my nature, just more of a path.

Hopefully I’ll stick better to it in the future.

EDIT: Um, with the quotes, I've already got them listed for each entry, has anyone noticed how some of them are coincidentally appropriate? [EG this one and TFY] o.O;


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Thursday, April 22, 2004

'I never believed in Santa Claus because I knew no white dude would come into my neighbourhood after dark.' [Dick Gregory]


It's kind of disturbing how many people put Dave as my someone special. lol.

Well, I just took Harley's quiz today...and much of the sucking at it. lol. Mind you, there was a suspicious amount of exclaimation marks..I'm starting to think it wasn't him at all...*shifty*

Wee...much fun in Physics today. I discovered that I HAVE THE TOP MARK IN PHYSICS!...in the D's..heh..

At least I'm 32 out of 35.

lol

Not last!

Story, damn it! I completely forgot. I've got to write that draft for tomorrow. Curse it *shakes fist*


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Wednesday, April 21, 2004

'The graveyards are full of indispensable men.' [Charles de Gaulle]

Wee..the friend test went pretty well, Harley managed to score the second highest, and I've completely forgotten the name associated with the email of the person that got first.

x.X;;;

*don't hurt me*

Eee..I've got to get off...x.X;;Scoreboard, yay!


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Tuesday, April 20, 2004

'I can't die until the government finds a safe place to bury my liver' [Phil Harris]


Important news today ladies and gentlefolk.

I've discovered that Mimmi was the one that created the very spiffy Men in Hats myOtaku linky thing, so much thanks to her. I'll probably get round to putting the links in for everyone else, eventually, lol.

I've just received word of a few very important pieces of information.

Number one:

My application for an Honour Blazer has been approved, for the three areas I applied in: Community,Cultural and Service.

Eee! *dances around* When I get the cash for the blazer itself, I'll get a photo posted up for y'all.

Number Two:

I passed my Complex Reasoning part of my Physics exam! *Yay*

Number Three:

I received my musical shirt today, and it is much in the goodness of being black.

Number Four:

Amnesty International has approved my attendance to the 2004 ARC conference!

Number Five:

I'm finally writing a 'My Friends' quiz and will post a link here shortly. Yay!

Anyhoo, that's what's going down in my part of the world, let's just hope my mind doesn't implode from the work load.

Hey, that rhymed!

EDIT: Just for y'all

Take my Quiz on QuizYourFriends.com!
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Sunday, April 18, 2004

'The trouble with born-again Christians is that they're an even bigger pain the second time round' [Herb Caen]


TFY. Wow. Last time was a real turning point in my life. I was fourteen, introverted and a complete geek. I was incredibly shy and pretty obstinate when it came to doing stuff. My councillors went at me and went at me, and it changed my life completely.

If it hadn’t been for them, I would be a very boring person indeed.

This time round was no less perfect. My troop started off pretty small, about 25 of us, tops. My group had four in it. That included Ben and I. There was John, Samoan, and Kaitlyn.

John struck up a conversation with Ben and I, you see, Ben and I had been talking about Command and Conquer Renegade. John mentioned Counter-Strike, and we just took off on our daring exploits. Things got interesting when he asked us where we were from.

‘Toowoomba hey? Man, I heard weed was really expensive up there.’

I must’ve looked incredibly confused when he said that, because he went on to say;

‘Do you smoke?’ I said no. ‘Does your mate smoke?’ I said no.

The makings of an awkward moment were beginning to seed, but our counsellor started off a ‘getting to know each other’ activity, and it was pretty cool.

She basically went round to each of us [we’d combined by then with her cousin’s group] and tipped peanut M&M’s into our hands. She and her cousin then said that for each of the colours, we had to say something about ourselves. Name, Ward/Stake, favourite scripture, favourite song and something about ourselves.

I couldn’t think of a favourite scripture, but luckily for me I didn’t have that colour. I ended up with four brown M&M’s and an orange and blue one. I mentioned Jet, the Dandy Warhols, the Living End and I think Muse.

The response from the rest of the troop was comical. The Samoans were confused [seeing as they live and breathe RNB], but on the other side of the circle, I got a lot of smiles and nods from the Sunshine coast guys.

Punks and surfers to the core. I mean seriously, one girl would have gotten on with Penny like a house on fire.

It was really awesome to see how different the youth are in the church, in most cases at least, and I couldn’t believe how easy it was to get along with all of them.

I’m still on a bit of a high from Saturday night’s testimony meeting. Our counsellors were just awesome. The troop leader was an R.M. by the name of Xander Orth. He called us all over to troop one by playing his bagpipes. Not surprisingly Troop One had an obvious tartan feel. My group’s counsellor was a beautiful Samoan sister that I still don’t remember the name of, but she has to be in the top five in my best influences list.

Thursday was a success. From the last TFY I learnt the hard way that you only get what you put in, so I threw myself into the fray. Ben was pretty hard to warm up to it, but he got into the swing of things soon enough. [Because of my wonderful influence, lol].

There was the traditional getting to know you shtick, followed by a hilarious performance made up by our counsellors on the ways and wiles of the world and TFY and stuff.

After that was lunch, where our counsellors threw pizza at us [not literally, thankfully], and then we went on to our classes. The first one was by Brother and Sister Stone on us and how planning our lives gives us direction, and how plans without action are just dreams. Dancing was next, and we learnt to jive and such, and how to ask a girl to dance and so on.

After that we moved to another class, a ‘Family Feud’ style thing, hosted by another brilliant counsellor that I remembered from my first TFY. Rebecca asked us what we’d just learnt and when someone said ‘Dancing,’ she asked for an example of how to ask a girl to dance.

A ‘volunteer’ stood up [by volunteer I mean planned volunteer], and he said;

‘Rebecca,’ he placed his hand on her shoulder, ‘will you me the honour of dancing with me?’

Rebecca fluttered her eyelashes, but shied away and said in a mock horror voice, ‘physical contact, physical contact! You do know if you go up to some girl and call them by name like that, they’re instantly going to think ‘STALKER!’

Heh. The little game show was fun, seeing our fellow youth go up there and make fools of themselves [I’m not being mean at all. It was funny].

Dinner was next and Ben and I lined up, and started talking about random rubbish, and two girls in the line next to us just joined in. We finally realised that we hadn’t properly introduced ourselves, and Ben mentioned that we were from Toowoomba ward.

The girls said, ‘wow, that’s weird. Do you know the Dixons?’

‘Yeah.’ I said. ‘Ben and I were best friends with them when we were growing up, we used to go to their place all the time.’

‘That’s bizarre. We’re like, Emily’s best friend!’

So yeah, small world. The talent show was that night, and we managed to secure some decent seats. The youth are always involved in the show, and it started off in the parking lot, with our Troop Chant, that we had practiced for a couple of hours before dinner. [I’m sorry this is so disjointed. I’m remembering as I go.]

We kind of screwed up, but being a Mormon audience, we had a riotous applause complete with screams and cheers. I still can’t get over how appreciative an audience they were.

At school activities, you usually get calls of derision and such, but these guys just went off and took it in their stride.

So often I forget who I am and slip into the role of a heckler.

Talent night, yes. Auditions were held during the troop chant creating period, and these performances were good. Really good. The youth weren’t the only ones that performed, the counsellors joined in and so did some of the adult leaders.

Popular songs were performed, [Evanescence twice. But who’s keeping score, lol ~_^], along with some RNB and such, but it was bearable.

Three Samoan boys started it all off with some seriously good beat boxing [or whatever], and we went through the whole Destiny’s child phase and such. One of the adults there that helped out the music played a really beautiful piece that he had composed for his wife. It was so haunting, but it was filled with a passion that just struck me.

We cheered, we shouted, we applauded, and we did the TFY chant over and over again until our throats were sore. The first day was finished with an evening devotional.

Second Day

This day was the second best out of the three. This day I met one of the most beautiful young woman, inside and out, that’s a member. She was in my troop, and part of the Sunshine Coast crew.

Ben and I were sitting around for something, lunch, I think. Well, she came over and started talking to us [Ben was reading.] and we just hit it off. She was such a truly beautiful person, and I was honestly surprised that she started talking to me. She asked what ward I was from and I said Toowoomba.

‘Hey, I’ve got an aunt who lives there.’

‘Would that aunt happen to be Janice Parish?’

‘Yes!’

‘Yeah, she’s a close family friend of ours.’

‘If you haven’t remembered from yesterday, my name’s Brie, Brie Parish.’

We exchanged old war stories, and I talked about my friends outside the church. She mentioned her friends and how they always seemed to be getting drunk every other night.

Something clicked inside me, I don’t know if it was a prompting of sorts, or if I’m just skilled, but I laughed and mentioned the Term One ‘party’ that happened at the beginning of the holidays. I talked about Hannah and Luci talking about having a ‘Liam friendly’ party.

She was surprised at this, and mentioned how her friends are hardly ever that interested in her standards.

I laughed, and jokingly mentioned that I had a sort of protective clique at school, I made sure to mention that they were all incredibly insane. Mainly Dave and Mark, but you know.

She said how I was so lucky to have such a supportive group of friends, and up until that point, I’d never thought of it that way before. I guess in my naivety I just assumed everyone had friends like that. Everyone of the youth in my ward had it that way, so I took it as a given.

She talked about subjects, I said mine and she was honestly surprised at my choices.

‘Okay. I can understand the English, Maths, Chem, Physics and Ancient History, but Art? Most guys I know wouldn’t even touch it.’

I laughed and said it was one of my favourite subjects, and she talked about her preferred styles and I did the same.

I’ve honestly never known a moment when I’ve bonded so quickly to someone that I only met an hour before.

I just spoke the truth and said how almost all of my friends are artistically apt [I’m sorry Toby, but Physics isn’t an art form], and how they’re pretty much all muso’s. I guess most of the conversation was about my friends, but there was so much to tell, and she was rapt.

It got to the stage when I’d talked about Dave and our incredibly stupid exploits, and Mark, and how he was so perfectly balanced when it came to study and socialising. Flynn and our Physics antics, not to mention the Inter-house music and Drama festival, and she just said, ‘that’s it. I’m moving to Toowoomba and adopting your friends.’

In reflection of our experience together at TFY, I’m still surprised at how alike we are; I can picture her in our ‘clique’ at school, and just fitting right in. A little insanity goes a long, long, way.

Ben finally put his two cents in and we talked about both our musical sides, how he’s been to MOST and State honours, and how the only spare time we seem to have is when we go to church.

I agreed and mentioned how my lunches are all taken up by Choir and Committee meetings. She was interested in the committees, so I explained them to her and about the stuff we do in Global service.

She commented, ‘you are really amazing, do you know that?’

Saying I was surprised, caught off guard, would be an understatement, but it’ll have to do.

I guess it was one of those movie moments. She smiled and my heart melted.

The concert was next, a performance put on by our counsellors, yet again, and it started off with our Xander playing a stirring bagpipe solo. The rest was a bit off a blur, and I’m really regretting not bringing a journal to write in, my brain is leaving out some of the details.

The concert was followed by ‘sportsmania,’ where we ran around doing all these quirky activities that had been meticulously planned by our YSA counsellors. Half of the areas had spiritual meanings, and the rest were just for fun.

We had free time next, and we wandered around, wasting an hour at looking at some touch football match, and minigolf. Then we wandered inside, to find out, THEY HAD HALO! ACK! I’d wasted an hour outside when they had Halo inside!

It was the last thing I expected to see, but there it was!

Mind you, two ‘boxes and only three controllers did kind of suck, but not as much as the opposition! Ha! BURN!

lol

Owing to the minimum amount of controllers, we played by ‘when you die you switch’ rules, and let me tell you, the other box was switching an awful lot.

I’ve never realised what good Halo players we Mormons are until that day. On our ‘box we pretty much aced the competition, even when they got their act together.

The guy that was on gave me the controller when he died [ugh. Hang ‘em High. Hate that level], and I basically stalked around slapping them in the back. Lol. I wasn’t invisible until I picked up a rocket launcher. When I set someone sky-high and cried ‘corpse!’ I actually got a cheer, lol.

But wow, it was fun. Cheering on the other guys when it was their turn, playing Chiron, mind you, it wasn’t until Blood Gulch that I came into my element.

Mhm…8 kills in a row. Four head shots on the same guy, each time he respawned. They called me a sniper, so I cruised around in the Warthog and took it up close and personal.

^_^; Moving along, I switched with Rebecca [the crazy counsellor] and she proceeded to run around in circles like a lunatic crying ‘shoot! Shooooot!’ It was about then that Ben and I went to get picked up to prepare for the dance.

Dance! Yes, dance! After sportsmania we went home, had dinner, got changed and came back at 7:30 for one of the biggest church dances I’ve been to.

Mmm..rainyness. Just a note to everyone out there, dancing outside in the rain to YMCA, while fun, is not good when you’re wearing suede shoes.

My T-shirt went down well. That is to say, the people who read it thought it was hilarious. Mind you, I had two people walk pass me, do a double take and read the shirt to say,

‘Same shirt different day? I like, totally missed the ‘r’.’

Wee…but we danced, we had fun. I had a stalker. [Don’t ask. Just don’t. Fifteen year old girls need to be locked up]. I talked to Brie some more and made some really good friends.

I also ate free snow cones until my brain froze. Ehe..x.X;

Ben and I limped to our Evening devotional, and it was really good. Chris and Xander went around with a bucket of water and a towel, and proceeded to wash everyone’s feet and dry them. The then cut up the towel into pieces and gave us each a piece.

This was with it;

‘At first glance you may look at this towel and think, “Good, I can use that. Mine are getting worn.” But have you ever stopped to think that for years, even thousands of years, the towel has not just been used in the kitchen, but for a variety of reasons?
Take for example the mother who wipes the tears of a little child to soothe the physical and emotional hurt: the physician who binds the wound of a bleeding patient: the woman in her home wiping her hands as she moves from task to task: the weary traveller who wipes his sweated brow: the manager who ‘throws the towel in’ to save the live of his protégé: or the young man wiping the grease of his hands as he fixes the old car.
Perhaps the most significant use of the towel, however, was about two thousand years ago when our loving Brother took and ordinary towel in His hands and dried the feet of his disciples only hours before his crucifixion. The towel is a handy item with a myriad of uses, but it also has deep meaning when seen in the hands of the Saviour doing a work of kindness for his fellow men.
So take this towel knowing it is given with love and do works of goodness with it, as the Saviour worked goodness with His so many years ago.

I thought it was something of importance, it really finished the day on a high note for me.

Third Day

This was the big one. We went to the Auchenflower basketball stadium for some fun. We did all these little activities with handicaps and stuff. Armless egg and spoon race, putting on a shirt without an arm, feeding each other jelly while we were both blindfolded. Ben and I were the best, apart from me stabbing him in the throat. At least I didn’t miss him completely, lol.

After that we crowded into the stadium itself for the best basketball match I have ever seen. Dude. Forget Olympic basketball, it pales in comparison when you see it done in wheelchairs.

Our leaders got into wheelchairs and took on the Australian Wheelchair Basketball team. To be frank, they got whipped. But it was so damn cool! Tight turns, insane amount of speed, ultimate ball control!

One guy’s wheels flashed! C’mon!

After that we got picked up, half an hour late I might add. But Ben and I don’t mind standing in the rain, lol.

We went home for some lunch, and Aunt Mary-anne forced food upon us. I mean, I felt bloated by the end of it, lol. We got changed into our Sunday best and came back for our last piece of TFY.

This was the special moment. We had our last ‘counsellor cluster,’ where we had a Troop photo taken, which will be emailed to me sometime soon by one of our counsellors. I’ll stick it up, mmkay?

Dinner!

Okay, weird moment. I really don’t look that old do I?

I had two of the adults there say to me, ‘are you eighteen, or one of the counsellors?’

To which I replied; ‘no, sixteen turning seventeen, but if I say yes, do I get a bigger dessert?’

Way, way back at the beginning of TFY, I had a few people ask me if I was going to come back as a counsellor, seeing as it was my last TFY.

^_^;

I don’t look 18+ do I?

Fireside!

That was cool. Our troop was seated at the back, on the stage, but we could see a lot better than those in front of us. One of the youth sang ‘Look and Live,’ and I could really feel the spirit. A few people were crying and it was just a beautiful moment.

President Stone stood up for his talk and pulled out this nine-volt battery and asked for a volunteer.

Sister Young was picked and she went up. He gave her the battery and said, ‘go on. Lick it. It’s dead, trust me.’

She shook her head and we laughed.

‘Go on. It’s flat, show a little faith and lick it. Trust me.’

She refused again, and he turned to face us, a huge grin on his face.

‘Sister Young was lucky, because for once, I’m a dirty rotten liar. I bought this battery on the way over.’

He went on and finishing off by talking about the worldly snares Satan has in store for us. Some other people spoke, but I can’t remember the details. Through the course of the fireside, Brie and I just grew so much closer, I’d only really met her the day before, but it felt as though I’d known her my entire life.

Just before we sang the EFY youth medley, a Samoan girl and her friends introduced themselves to us. She smiled and said, ‘are you two together? It just is, you really look like it.’

Neither of us said anything but I guess the thought hadn’t really crossed our minds.

The EFY medley was beautiful. I know I’ve used that word a lot, so shoot me, but it’s right for the job. When the young women started singing ‘As Sisters in Zion’ and the guys started ‘We have been born as Nephi of old…’ I felt so…well, good.

We piled out after prayer and each troop peeled off for our last session together. Testimony meeting. I suppose 9/10th’s of this has been for me, but you get that. This next bit is one of those moments that mean everything to me, but nothing to someone who wasn’t there.

Our counsellors stood up, and you could just tell that they were shining with pride. It wasn’t pressed upon us to stand, but people got up of their own accord. Kurt, resident punk complete with the fishnet gloves, stood up and you could really see that he changed.

‘This was the last thing I expected myself doing.’ He said. ‘But I saw you others stand up, and I just knew it was something I had to do.’

The others stood up and did the five, but also mentioned how much that the conference had meant to them, how much of an example the other youth had been to them, how much they knew that they needed to set themselves to get closer to the gospel.

We closed with a hymn and a prayer, and everybody was running around, giving hugs and making promises to email, to call, and to visit each other.

My counsellor came up and gave me the biggest hug and said how proud she was of me and so on. I tackled Kurt [literally. It wasn’t enough to knock him over, but it was enough to give him a hug] I managed to get his number and email so we’ll keep in touch.

Brie made a promise that she’d hunt me down when I moved to Brisbane, and gave me the biggest hug. I’ve got her email around her somewhere. She said that she’d come up and visit sometime, so I guess you guys will see her soon enough.

^_^

I’ve still got my TFY tag on, and I’m seeing how long I can wear it without being told to take it off. Seeing as I can’t take it off without breaking it, *pout*

Well, I hope you guys have enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed TFY, if not, sucks to be you.

*waves*

[Damn. School tomorrow and here's me without having done my assignments]


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Tuesday, April 13, 2004

'Hey! The robot guy saved us, robot people always like me, it's because of my robot dancing!'
Well 250free was working for a little while, but not any more. Ah well.

Tomorrow morning I've got to get up at 5:30am so we can leave early to pick up this girl.

For those of you that know Liz, this girl is almost identical in nature.

Bah.

'Josh is so horrible, blah blah blah, pathetic joke, blah blah blah, more complaints...'

*sigh*

That's why I was attempting to tape music. Unfortunately my stereo has recently decided to tape in less than an adequate nature.

I'm not complaining at all..

^_^;

In other news, Enchanted Castle is fun! Britty has gotten me addicted to it..*shifty*


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