Movies

Well, I suddenly felt the need to share some of my favourite movies here. What a good idea. It may be of some sort of interest to people, somehow. Anyway, I probably have forgotten some, but that doesn't matter. The following movies are in no particular order.

• The Shawshank Redemption -Frank Darabont 1994
• Ocean's Eleven - Steven Soderburgh 2001
• The Lord of the Rings - Peter Jackson 2001
• The Lion King - Walt Disney Pictures 1994
• The Sword in the Stone - Walt Disney Pictures 1963
• The Princess Bride - William Goldman 1987
• Anchorman - Will Ferrel, Adam McKay 2004
  

There. Wow, aren't these the best movies you've ever heard of/seen? If you havn't seen any of them, go, right now, and watch. They are honestly the best ever.

ps. Did you notice how many fo the started with "The". It is so stupid and unoriginal. More movies should start their title with something different.

pps. If there are any others that you think I have forgotten, that are clearly in the list of the best movies ever, make sure you remind me, and I will add them to the list, providing I agree with you.

Diamond

I am a lover of analogies. I make them constantly, and I use them lots. Many people will know how much I like giving everything an analogy. Well, I was on the phone the other day, and I came up with a particular analogy that I have since used again, and I think is fairly cool. I alos think people can take a lot form this one, as it applies to almost anything, and is something that I've sturggled with, being a perfectionist and all.

Basically, the analogy is about perfection, and how quality is not found in perfection, but is found, in fact, in the flaws. Something that is perfect, is not perfect at all, as it lacks all the qualities that make something good.
The analogy I used was of diamonds. A diamond is simply lots of compressed Carbon. (And for those who understand a little bit less, that is, compressed graphite, or the stuff used in grey lead pencils.) And we all know how valuable diamonds are, yes? Yes. Well, because diamonds are also the hardest solid thing around, they function very well as tools and what not, like drills and stuff. At the same time, it is very easy to manufacture diamond, as it is simply compressed carbon. So many high quality tools are made form artificial diamond, and the diamond used is not really very valuable at all. Then we look at the diamonds used in jewelery, which are natrual, and are filled with cracks, dirt and imperfections, hence, coupled with the way they are carved, the reason that they shine. These diamonds are worth much, much more. For a diamond to be filled with natrual imperfections, that diamond cannot possibly be man-made, and is rare and expensive.
So, from this, we can see that the invaluable imperfections of a diamond are what make it valuable. Basically, what I'm tryign to say is that if somthing is not perfect, if you are not perfect, then there is nothing wrong with that. In fact, you are who you are because of your imperfections. If everybody was perfect, then what would the world be? Bad bad bad bad bad.

Sindrome, from the awesome movie: "The Incredibles" wants to be "super", like many of the superheroes of the time, but is not, and feels inadequate. He is quoted as saying that he wants to supply goods to the world that make everybody a superhero, and says that "When everybody is super, nobody will be." And this is so true. If everybody was perfect, who would be?

Nothing is perfect. And don't think that anything ever should be.

-xox-

Nothing Time

The other day, more specifically Sunday morning, I did something, or had a moment that I had not had for a long, long time. Basically, for a small period of about three hours, I experienced the sort of feeling that you get waking up on the first day of the summer holidays at the end of the year in primary school. Yes, you should all know that feeling. You generally have nothing to worry about, all the time in the world, and you could just do exactly what you wanted to do. Actually, this moment wasn't quite like that, but I at least felt like I was relived of everything for a small three hours, and I could just lie there, in my bed, and think about stuff. Everything/nothing.
One of the things I did for those hours was look up above my bed at a new piece of artwork that I hung on the wall a few days earlier. It made me feel happy, for some unknown reason, and I thought about how good it was, when I was younger and had no issues hanging over my head all the time, to be able to just sit, and spend time making art and drawing and the like. I used to do it all the time, and I would produce what I (and, I am fairly sure, a considerable number of others) thought was some fantastic stuff. But I just don't do this sort of thing anymore.
I used to get fired up, passionate and so immensely excited about spending a day, sitting outside, on the grass, or in my tree house, or anywhere, just drawing, and spending time with myself. Why don't I ever do this anymore?
All I want is to be able to spend some time living in the present again, and possibly go and just draw again, like I remember I used to love doing. I want all my issues, the ones that prevent me from feeling like I can spend carefree time doing what I feel like, to just float away, even for just one day, and for time to stop.
To be able to just be, and forget about the rest of the world for a moment is the greatest. I am hoping I can at least have some similar time to this over the holidays which are coming up next week, but I know it will be immensely hard, as I have just to many things to think about. And when I have things on my mind, they stay there, and my brain talks through them to no avail for hours on end, causing me to not often concentrate on everything else I am doing. This only adds to my lack of concentration that is making it very hard to do a lot of things.
All I want is some time alone. Not necessartily on my own, but away from all the dilemmas and problems of life. Some time away from thinking, for a change. Some enjoyment time. Some drawing time. Some nothing time.

But it is so hard.

Dear Readers...

Once again, I am sitting by the computer during one of my free periods at school, and am starting a blog entry, without knowing at all what it is I am going to end up writing about.

I know! I will write a letter to all the people that actually read the stuff on this blog site. Normally, although I write with the knowledge that people will read my site, and with also the expectation that they will, I generally don't write TO the readers, and I write for my own benefit or entertainment. A few posts don't follow this general rule, but generally, yes, they do. So, this is a post directed right at all those faithful readers, and those unfaithful ones. A letter for you. But now I'm not sure what to write. I will think of something... Now.

Aha! I thought of something:

Firstly, I would just like to say that if you are reading this post, and it is new, just check to see if you have missed another new post that I may have posted recently. I have noticed that if I post two posts on this site fairly closely together, people who have not been here for a while tend to just read the most recent post, and not realise that there are, indeed, older posts as well, that they have not seen. I just thought I'd mention that, because I am always reluctant to post a new post, if I have recently published one, for fear that the otehr one will not be read, or looked at.

At the moment, I have many things on my mind, e.g. issues and dilemmas that I cannot overcome, and that I don't exactly feel comfortable expanding upon over the internet. And when I say cannot overcome, I actually mean I can overcome them, but not with ease. This sort of thing happens to me occasionally, and everything all happens at once, and there is too much to think about. Then I will blog about how much it is all annoying me, like this, as if it makes it all better, even though I never discuss the propor issue. I don't know where I am going with this, just saying how things are with me at the moment.

I get annoyed a lot, it may seem. I get annoyed at people, the way people do things, and the way the world works. I probably get annoyed at everything, at some stage. This is all true, but at the same time, I believe I am a very accepting, and tolerant person. I tend to consider myself sombody who will not take offence at most things, and who accepts whatever sombody else thinks or does, no matter what. Unless it is radically bad. So if I am always ranting on this site, or seeming angry at everything, yes, I am angry at everything, but I am more un-angry than angry. It is just that I only tend to write about the stuff I am angry or agitated about, because everything else may not be as interesting, or may not be so much on my mnd as the stuff I am angry at.

And also, I want to thank you all for reading this stuff, and commenting, and all that jazz. It makes me feel so awesome to see that people have commented and given their opinions on all of the stuff I write about, however nonsensical. It is all actually very appreciated. I love blogging, now, and I love that people like to read my blog as well. Awesome.

I will now finish this post. There. Finished.

Alfragooglewak

Once there was a person.
His name was Alfragooglewak.
He didn't like to eat cheese.
And he didn't give any cheese back.

"Save me", "Save me",
The woodpecker cried.
But it was not the Alfragooglewak,
That man had died.

Evidently, Alfragooglewak was dead,
so the whole world went sad.
But then he came back as a bear,
so the whole world went mad.

After many events had happened,
Alfragooglewak fell in love.
And remember, he was a bear,
but he fell in love with a dove.

The dove looked at him, and said:
"Look, I don't know what to say."
Because it didn't know what to do,
given that it was really only yesterday.

And Alfragooglewak never said how he felt,
because he didn't listen to what the glove said.
He was going to eat a bannana tomorrow,
But, remember, Alfragooglewak was dead.

INFP

Well, many people may know of the Myers-Briggs personality test type indicator thing. I thought it may be interesting to include a little post about what type I think I am. I don't agree with the fact that many people choose "mates" and base their lives around what they know to be their personality type, but I do think it is an interesting thing to look at, at least so you can understand yourself and others better.
Anyway, I'll explain what I mean by personality types. Basically, you get a four letter personality thing. Some personality options are ENTP, ISFJ, INTJ and ESFP. Anyway, it works like this: you get either an E or and I, then either an N or an S, then either a T or an F and finally a J or a P. I will explain below, and share what I believe I am.

Extroversion vs Introversion (E vs I)

Basically, for those who don't know, and extrovert is a person who gains energy from those around them, and an introvert gains energy from inside themselves. The two terms are also concerned with where we direct our energy. A common comparison between the two is that an extrovert is "extensive", while an introvert is "intensive". Of the many times I have done personality tests (approximately 7 times), I have always come up with near 100% I (Introversion) and near 0% E (Extroversion). I can see this definately. I am a very introverted person, and gain my enegery from within myself. This means I often need time alone, and in terms of relationships with other people, I rather have a few good/close ones, rather than a lot of not so close ones. I am an "I", all the way.

Sensing vs Intuition (S vs N)

Yes, I know, intuition is spelt with an "I", but "I" was already used for the previous letter, so no using it again. Basically, this section deals with how we process information. Sensing people take in the true hard facts, they interpret things for what they are and notice things that are real and tangible. These people are observant. Intuition people take in not what they sense so much, but they take in the big picture, focus not on depth of fact so much, but on the connecting of the facts to the larger picture, if that makes sense. Haha! Get it? "sense"?! Anyway, some common comparisons between the two are that S=dwells in present, N=dwells in future. S=Truist experience, N=trust inspiration. S=undertsnads ideas through practical examples, N=wants to clarify ideas before putting them into practice. For ths one, I am fairy definately an N. Every test I have ever done has always returned this same result. There, it is as simple as that. I am an N, here.

Thinking vs Feeling (T vs F)

This one deals with how we make descisions. We either think about them, and come up with logical descisions, or think and make descisions according to how they may affect other people, or from "our heart" or "gut feeling". Basically, it is the difference between making logical descisions,a nd thinking about them as opposed to going with our feelings and doing what is "right". Possibly. Basically, I am not sure which one of these I fit into, I tend to do some of both, but according to the test results that I remember most, from the first time I did this test, in the most test-like conditions, with the most questions, it returned that I was an F. I think I can agree with this. It is the documents from this first test I did that I am using to jolt much of my memory about these things, where I would have otherwise fogotten them. (See below for quotish thing). I am an F.

Judging vs Perception (J vs P)

This comparison is all about how we organise our life. Judging is to do with deciding, and making definate descisions about how we are going to do things, and living in a planned and ordely way. Percieving, on the other hand, is about going with the flow, and taking everything as it comes. These people tend to be spontaneous or simply indecisive, as final descisions seem confining to them. I definately relate strongly to this last one. Much like T vs F, most times I do a personality test, I have come up with a different answer to this one. Maybe I simply change with time, but I have been told that that is supposed to be impossible. I am very factual, and make descision consciously about everything, but I am often inclined to make descisions to go with the flow! How does that work! Make descisions to go with the flow. It's like merging the two together. So, again, I am not entirely sure, but that first test I did returned the result of P, but I am not entirely sure I am P over J. I really could be either.

So, basically, I am an INFP. Form my document I got in response to my test, which was many pages long, this was the brief overview of what this personality type means:

INFP: The most idealistic person:

Quiet observer, idealistic, loyal. Important that outer life be congruent with
inner values. Curious, quick to see possibilities, often serve as catalysts to
implement ideas. Adaptable, flexible, and accepting unless a value is
threatened. Want to understand people and ways of fulfilling human potential.
Little concern with possessions or surroundings.

NOTE: This type is the most "idealistic" type. That is not the most "ideal" type. There is a difference. Look it up. I can't be bothered explaining it.
I think this applies well to me. But all the variations with J vs P and T vs F seem to suit me as well. The only things I can really say for sure is that I am "I" and "N".
If I am not an INFP, I am an INFJ. If anybody want any more information from me and my many documents about all this stuff, just ask. I can also send you a copy of a test for you to do.
Awesome.

Failing Minesweeper

I have been trying really hard to win a minesweeper game in Expert. But I have been doing poorly. Why is this? Because I am bad at it? No. Because it is bad at me. Above I have included a picture of what an average game of Minesweeper looks like when I play it on Expert. See, how unfair is that! One day, I will finish Expert. Then I will be the champion of everything. Yesss!

Or maybe just the champion of Minesweeper. Even then, probably not. Oh well. I will try, nevertheless.

Annoyed

I was discussing with a friend the other day about relationships and stuff. By "and stuff" I do mean many other things, but I won't go into those just here. Anyway, we were talking mostly about romantic relationships, and not so much friend relationships. I won't say what we talked about either, that is just stupid and breaching privacy laws. Yes, there are laws against that. Just like there are laws forbidding anybody from saying that Jono is not awesome. So anyway, I won't talk about what we discussed, but it all did bring up a few issues that I think I will discuss here.

First of all, for anybody reading this who doesn't know, I've never had a "girlfriend" as such, so I don't have much experience in that sort of area, although I have had many experiences of people liking me, or me liking other people. Yes, so has everybody, I know. And from these experiences I have come to get really annoyed at how it all works. I hate the way that if you like sombody, and they like you, nobody says anything, and I hate the way if sombody likes sombody else, and the other does not, then the one that likes the other one never realsies that the perosn they like does not have equivalant feelings in return. And thirdly, I hate it how if one person likes another, and the other does not reciprocate that feeling, then the one that likes the other in the first place cannot easially find out whether there is any possibility there.
There are many more things on the topic that annoy me. Everything annoys me. I get annoyed at everything all the time. Annoyed annoyed annoyed annoyed annoyed. In conclusion to all this ranting, I have come up with one solution, though, and that is that if everybody said exactl;y how they felt, then all this stuff would e so much easier. No hiding anything form anybody. But would that just make the world implode on itself? Yes, probably.

Ah, I actually started off this post with something good in mind to rant/talk about, but as I wrote I just completely forgot what it was, and I got sidetracked. Annoying. Annoyed annoyed anoyed annoyed annoyed.

One day I will actually think about what I am going to write before just going and doing it, and making up lots of stuff on the way. Like Ben Chong. I heard a rumour he actually writes drafts for hs posts every now and then. Wow! I just type as fast as my fingers will let me so that I look like a pro typer in this library I'm using. Ha! Not really. I just like typing fast. It is fun. Fun fun fun fun fun. Or is it? You decide.
Actually, I draft many posts, also, except that as soon as I draft something, I never end up publishing it proporly, or working out why it is I didn't publish it in the first place. This is an example of a post I would usually save as a draft, and not publish, but I will publish it this time. It is no where near as bad/controversial as many of the other ones I have locked away as drafts, never to be seen again.

There, that is the end of this Mega-Post. I hope it was not too boring/uninteresting/not inuninteresting. I have a feeling that there are numerous spelling and typing errors on this post. I may choose to fix them up at some stage, but I probably won't be bothered.

End.

-xox-

SYG Aftermath

My previous post was about SYG. (State Youth Games) It isa indeed something I get very excited about, and enjoy, so I have decided to summ up most of the events in a post here, although this psot will hardly do justice to the wholl weekend packed full of stuff.

Basically, in terms of sports, I played in Volleyball B (We placed 1st), Netball A (We didn't make finals), Ultimate Frisbee A (We placed 1st), Badminton (I reached 3rd round knock out) and Aerobics. Out church ahs won the aerobics competition six years running, ands this was the first year we came second. This hasn't phased me much, though. I am still the aerobics champion.

As per usual, though, the aspect fo SYG that I found the best was simply spending time with friends, having fun, and playing sport for the fun of it. I felt like I had a truely great time with friends around the camp sites and places like that. I don't know what else to say about this, so I will stop.

Unfortunately, I got really sick on Sunday night, and was then forced to go into my VCE Physics exam with a terribly runny nose. Funny. Also bad. But mostly funny. Anyway, that is finished now. There is an infinite amount more that I could say about SYG this year, but I can't put it all into words, and can't put it all on this site now. Any questions, make sure you ask me, I will answer.

I feel like this was a bad post, as I didn't do what I had to say about SYG justice. Maybe it wasn't a bad psot, I don't know. I don't care. I will post it anyhow.
SYG was 90% awesome this year. 10% frusterating in several ways. There, that was a good conclusion.

-xox-

25 things I like about SYG

SYG is coming up this weekend. Yes, it is over the queen's birthday weekend, and I am fairly excited about it, as it always is a sigificant part of my year, each year. Hence, I thought I'd blog something about it. I have included 25 reasons why I really do enjoy SYG (State Youth Games). Just in case you don't know what it is, I will tell you: it is basically a weekend where heaps of people (approx. 2000 competitors) get together and play in various sport competitions throughout the weekend, and compete for their teams, which are usually defined by the church group you attend the weekend with.

1- Spending a week away form normal life is mostly always a good thing.
2- I get to meet and have fun with all my friends from almost all the churches I know.
3- I get to play sport for most of the weeked! Especially the sports I don't usually get to play.
4- Staying up late is fun. (We generally stay up late)
5- I love being in a community of people who you know are all in the same boat as you (i.e. camping, same religion, there for same reason etc.)
6- Getting to play sport where if you are winning, people who are not from your team still support and cheer for you.
7- Getting top play sport where if you are losing, other teams are very nice about it, and you still have heaps of fun.
8- Eating meals with a large community of people.
9- Having custard for breakfast that was left over from the night before.
10- Having custard the night before.
11- Slipping into a sleeping bag at night, when it is freezing, and slowly becoming warm.
12- Not feeling obliged to have a shower.
13- Smelling like smoke all weekend.
14- Sitting around the fire at night.
15- Playing sport (e.g. Ultimate Frisbee) in the mud, and occasionally while it is raining.
16- Occasionally having a good speaker and band that do a worship service at night time. This is not always good, though.
17- Dancing in front of thouzands of people.
18- Winning events.
19- Sharing in other people winning events.
20 - Losing events. Yes, only at SYG is losing an event so fun and satisfying.
21- Simply competeing in events at SYG.
22- Waking up early, and putting on shorts, even though it is incredably cold.
23- Laughing at why we always have this event in the middle of winter.
24- Getting lifts everywhere, so that you can compete in events and support other people who are competeing in events.
25- Meeting new people, and seeing people you havn't seen in a long time.

Procrastination

I am a fairly good procrastinator. Today, I am procrastinating. At the moment, there are a lot of things I should be doing: Studying for my year 12 exams, writing my speech for my Indonesian Oral SAC later today, completeing my homework I was meant to do for English, finishing the novel we have a SAC on soon for English, and the list goes on.
There are also a good deal many things I want to do myself, but am not doing, like doing blob (If you don't know what this is, dont worry), writing Gammana, writing Super Squad, organising one-on-one time with people, and the list goes on there, too.
But instead of doing all these things, I am writing a blog post about procrastination. Annoying!
Besides complaining about my too-good ability to procrastinate, I really don't have anything to write about here, I just wanted to put something there, so that people could read it. Yay! Fun!

Oh, yes, and a very side note: Once, I wrote a post about my favourite characters, but I missed one very important one, which I had to make sure I included now. His name is "Merlin" and he is from the Disney movie: "The Sword in the Stone." If you have not seen this movie. Go and hire it, and watch it. Now. Now now now now now. Merlin is so cool.

Recently, in my life, I have been spending a fair amount of time with friends and stuff, which is generally not normal for me, because I can never be bothered organising things and the like. But the more I do it, the more I realise how much it is, like, pretty much one of my favourite things ever. Even better than most of the other 25 things I listed in another previous post, that I will also link to. This has been good for me, and a highlight for the past couple of weeks. But now I've got exams coming up. Boring. Annoying. I still would rather spend time with friends than studying, though. Definately. Anyway, there is an insight into the life of Jono recently. Just thought I'd throw that one in there.

And pow! I think that's about all I have to input into this post to give it some substance, at least, I think. Now the post will finish, and you will have to stop reading this post. Bad.
Maybe there will be another post, soon, that you can read. Yes, that would be good/WILL be good/SMILL be good. Don't ask what SMILL means. It means nothing. But not "nothing", i.e. it does not mean "nothing". When I said it means nothing, I meant it has no meaning, hence, meaning nothing.

There, post finished. Have fun doing whatever else it is you're all going to do after reading this post and being fully enlightened about the world.

-xox-

Minesweeper Mastery

Inspired by a post from Matt Water's blog, I decided to master the game of minesweeper. And I was sucsessful. On only my fifth try, I managed to completely finish the whole game in less than a minute. I truely am a champion at this.

So, think you can beat me? You're wrong. I am the champion. I did it so fast I don't think anybody could ever beat me. I did it so fast that you couldn't even see me, that's how fast I finished this game of minesweeper.

If you wish to congradulate me in person, that's ok, in fact, it's a very good idea. One day, I will try and finish it on a setting harder than begginer.