Happy New Year!

2012 has officially arrived. I'm not usually one to make resolutions because I hardly ever stick to them, but this year I have some goals I would like to try to stick to...

1. Read my bible for a few minutes everyday. This may not always happen but I figured I should try seeing as how I have never read the whole way through it yet!

2.Find time to write for 20-30 minutes everyday. No matter what it is, whether it is a blog post, a short story, ideas for a story or a poem etc.

3.Include time to revise my English and grammar skills by reading resource books on how to improve my skills or researching on the Internet, and also reviewing some of my previous TAFE course books.

4. Paint a painting. I usually like to paint realistically using symbolism. I haven't painted anything for a long time so this could be a challenge.

Well, they are my goals. Not sure if I will stick to them but I'll see how I go. :P

The meaning of Christmas

It's that time of the year again.

Christmas is around the corner.

It really doesn't seem like a year has gone by again. I just don't believe it. Twelve months just go by too quickly!

So what does Christmas mean to you?

To most Westerners I think Christmas has turned into the biggest Shop-a-thon of the year. Not because we want to either. It seems we have to buy presents for the family, then there's the wrapping paper, and the name tags, cards, candy canes... the list goes on. There is pressure to buy the best food, presents and etc.

Why is Christmas so commercialised? Well I guess I know the answer to that. Businesses wouldn't make any profits if they didn't up-sell their products at Christmas time. I guess I just wish it wasn't as overwhelming.

But what does it really mean to you? Do you go along with the commercialism, thinking that's all there is to it? That's not what it says in the bible.

In the bible, the Christian bible, it is about the birth of a baby. A baby with a special purpose, to save mankind as a result of his birth and life, but especially his death.

Christmas is supposed to be the focus of Jesus's birth. Jesus Christ, not Jesus the celebrity, just to clear that up if anyone was confused. (I'm sure I heard about a celebrity called Jesus at one stage but I can't for the life of me think of his last name.)

That's why it is even called Christmas, it has Christ in it, because Christ was the main event. It was the reason why the 3 wise men came to the stable that night- to give gifts to the future saver of mankind. That's how the gift giving tradition started. They gave gifts of gold, myrrh and frankincense to honour the birth of the new king. The king of the Jews.

King Herod was also given the title the king of the Jews by the Romans, however, he was only part Jewish and unlike Jesus, he was not born of David's family line, so technically he was not really the true royal heir. When he heard about the birth of Jesus, he immediately wanted to kill him to prevent any threat to his throne. He didn't succeed but Jesus never became king in the magisterial sense, he was king of the Jews' hearts and spirits.

To me, Christmas is about the birth of my Saviour, my friend, my comforter, my brother in spirit. He has given me the gift of forgiveness for all of the sins I make in my life; all of the problems, the stuff-ups, the complaints, the swearing, the ungratefulness, the controlling behaviour, selfishness, rebellion, anger, hate, guilt and fear.

No one could give me a better gift than that.

Although I still make mistakes I know that Jesus has forgiven me, for the past, present and future mistakes in my life. This doesn't give me a licence to make more mistakes on purpose but it means that when I inevitably make them, because I am still a sinner and everyone makes mistakes, I know I am forgiven. It is because of his grace that I am saved, through his death on the cross.

You may be thinking it is all well and good for me to believe in Christ, but what about Santa, he is another symbol of Christmas. That is true but where did Santa originate from and what were his influences?

I found the following information at: http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/who-is-st-nicholas/

St. Nicholas Artist: Susan Seals All rights reserved Exclusive print in our shop

The true story of Santa Claus begins with Nicholas, who was born during the third century in the village of Patara. At the time the area was Greek and is now on the southern coast of Turkey. His wealthy parents, who raised him to be a devout Christian, died in an epidemic while Nicholas was still young. Obeying Jesus' words to "sell what you own and give the money to the poor," Nicholas used his whole inheritance to assist the needy, the sick, and the suffering. He dedicated his life to serving God and was made Bishop of Myra while still a young man. Bishop Nicholas became known throughout the land for his generosity to the those in need, his love for children, and his concern for sailors and ships.

Under the Roman Emperor Diocletian, who ruthlessly persecuted Christians, Bishop Nicholas suffered for his faith, was exiled and imprisoned. The prisons were so full of bishops, priests, and deacons, there was no room for the real criminals—murderers, thieves and robbers. After his release, Nicholas attended the Council of Nicaea in AD 325. He died December 6, AD 343 in Myra and was buried in his cathedral church, where a unique relic, calledmanna, formed in his grave. This liquid substance, said to have healing powers, fostered the growth of devotion to Nicholas. The anniversary of his death became a day of celebration, St. Nicholas Day, December 6th (December 19 on the Julian Calendar).

Through the centuries many stories and legends have been told of St. Nicholas' life and deeds. These accounts help us understand his extraordinary character and why he is so beloved and revered as protector and helper of those in need.

I have highlighted two words from the passage above in bold. Devout Christian. Saint Nicholas helped the poor and the needy, why? Because of his love for Christ, so he was therefore willing to do what Christ wanted of him. My point? Christmas still started with Christ.

You can all think what you like, but I thought for once I would share my point of view about what Christmas means to me.

Alice Springs Trip 2011

Hey all,

So my parents, our exchange student and I recently went to Alice Springs, N.T for 2 weeks.

The tourist attractions we saw:

*The Old Timer's Mine, Coober Pedy

*Tom's working Opal mine, Coober Pedy

*The Breakaways

*Dingo Fence or the Rabbit Proof Fence, whichever name you prefer

*Uluru

*The Olgas

*Kings Canyon

*Standley Chasm

*Glen Helen Gorge

*Ormiston Gorge

*Redbank Gorge

*Wigglies waterhole

*Rainbow Valley

*Royal Flying Doctor Service

*Alice Springs Reptile Park

*ANZAC Hill, Alice Springs

*Todd Mall

Animals we saw on the side of the road:

*Camels

*Emus

*A dingo

*Crows

*Cows

*Sheep

*Lizards, some were on the road but we managed to avoid hitting them!

*Roadkill (Usually either kangaroos or lizards)

Activities we did:

*Learnt how to play a didgeridoo at Todd Mall

*Skipped stones at Glen Helen

*Went swimming at Glen Helen

*Climbed the cliffs of Redbank Gorge

*Climbed up and did the 6km rim walk at Kings Canyon

*Walked 4km return Mala walk at Uluru

*Patted a goanna at the reptile park

Here are some out of the 800 pics I took of our adventures!

Cheeky camel, who did a dance for us in front of our car!

Part of the Olgas, we did a 4km return walk here too, after we had done the 4km walk at Uluru!

Us and an outback friend at the Old Timer's Mine

The chain up the side of Uluru, which you have to hold onto if you are climbing the rock. We did not climb Uluru though. Personally I think it is a bit offensive as the Aboriginals say that some of their ancestors were buried here. But I wouldn't want to climb it anyway, it looks far too steep for me!

The tranquil Glen Helen Gorge

The goanna we patted at the reptile centre.

Mum and Dad at Rainbow Valley

Operation Christmas Child

I have been wanting to post about this for several months!

This year I participated in Operation Christmas Child.

This is an operation which usually occurs annually where participants use their own or buy an empty shoe box, (I bought mine from the organisation for about 50 cents each) and fill it/them with toys and gifts for a child in a country in need.

This year they are possibly being sent to Papua New Guinea. The last time I helped with a Christmas box was when I was about 10, my Mum and I completed it.

Anyway I just wanted to show you how mine turned out. They can still be made and donated until October 25 in Australia. I'm not sure if it is the same date for donators in New Zealand.

This box is for a 10-14 year old girl.

This box is for a 5-9 year old boy.

Operation Christmas Child is a great way to bring hope and joy into the lives of many children who may have never received a Christmas gift before.

This is a link about it from the organisation, Samaritan's Purse.

http://www.operationchristmaschild.org.au/

The joy of nature

Spring is trying to arrive here in Adelaide and I was lucky enough to take a photo of a black and orange Monarch Butterfly the other day whilst walking around my area.

Butterflies represent hope and beauty to me and I'm very lucky to see so many near the hills where I live now.

This butterfly almost seemed like it had a death wish for a while, because it kept circling back and forth around me and nearly dived into my face at one point! But then it flew down onto a bush quite close to me and I quickly took a few shots while I could.

I also saw about 3 0r 4 Sulphur Crested Cockatoos all on one tree, 2 parrots, I think they were Rosellas, and a couple of Kookaburras.

I'm so grateful for nature. Exploring the world around us is a great way to forget the stress of everyday life, even if just for a little while. It also helps me brainstorm ideas to think of adjectives for descriptions! For example, one day I was taking note of as many adjectives as I could to describe the water going down a creek. I came up with a few like... flowing, gushing, gurgling, trickling, swirling and etcetera.

Anyway, back to my homework I shall go, wish me luck! XD

*Katz*

Truth is absolute

I had an interesting conversation with some one the other day and it got me thinking about what people's opinions are about the truth.

It seems there are various opinions about truth and whether it can change according to situations and points of view.

But this is what I know...

Truth is absolute. If it is not absolute then how can we trust that anything is real in our lives?

If truth was not an absolute we would question everything we do, see and experience.

If truth is relative, then it cannot logically be true. If something is only half true then how can we believe that it is really true?

For example, in the courts we are told to "...tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth etc." They do not tell us to tell 30% of the truth, or 90% of the truth.

Truth is not relative, it cannot change no matter what the situation is.

Perceptions are relative, they can change according to situations etcetera, but truth is not relative. Truth stays the same.

If you don't believe me, read these 2 websites, they make some very good points! They can explain it a whole lot better than me.

http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/absolute-truth.htm

http://www.hopeinchrist.org/truth.html

David Hockney

I'm sure David Hockney has been discussed in many other blogs before, but I have only just discovered his work so I feel inspired to mention him tonight. (It is 10pm here in Aussie-land.)

David Hockney is an English painter, draughtsman, printmaker, stage designer and photographer. He is based in Bridlington in Yorkshire and Kensington in London. (He must have more than one house, the lucky man!) He was born in 1937 and helped influence the Pop art movement in the 1960's.

Some of his paintings have an expressionist style while others use realism but all of them leave the viewer with something to think about. In his later works he also used cubism and a lot of his photos are photo-collages.

His use of colour is something I particularly admire about his work. I think most of his painting is a bit eccentric and not really my style but I do like the different experiments and passion he has used whilst creating his paintings and artwork.

Here are some examples...

Nichols Canyon 1980

Acrylic on canvas

A Bigger Splash 1967

Acrylic on canvas

Three Chairs with a Section of a Picasso Mural 1970
Acrylic on canvas

Some examples of his photo-collages...

The Desk 1984

Pearblossom Highway 1986

Place Furstenberg, Paris 1985

The Black Stump

HAHA! Finally a photo has uploaded for me! Hmm... maybe Blogger only likes me uploading one at a time! :S That could take a while.

"Hi" again everyone. Here I am at Paringa, a little Riverland town not far from Renmark where the Black Stump lives! (It is the large, round wooden thing behind me. It looks a bit like a wooden cobweb in my opinion.) We have a saying in Australia, "Beyond the black stump" which means: beyond the middle of nowhere, or something like that! For example the phrase can be used like this, "Oh you are travelling to Alice Springs are you? That's a bit beyond the Black Stump isn't it?!"

This "Black Stump" occurred because of one man's quirky sense of humour one day when he was out on the River Murray! However, I'm pretty sure it would've taken more than one man to haul this wooden stump out of the river and transport it to the front of his house. This is where the stump is now located.

I visited this stump not last week but the week before when I was on holidays. I came back to the Riverland for a few days to see my family and our current exchange student Jenny. I say current as she is our 10th exchange student so far. Jenny comes from Germany and is staying with our family for 10 months. She arrived in Australia in February this year.

Below are 2 photos of Jenny and me on the River Murray Queen, a paddle steamer permanently moored in my hometown Waikerie.

The photo above features an interesting koala sign we saw on the way to Paringa. There is a Koala sanctuary not far from that sign on the other side of the bridge. We visited the sanctuary for 10 minutes or so but didn't spot any koalas which wasn't very surprising... we were right next to the highway! The poor koalas probably hid in fright when they heard us roaring down the drive in our big mechanical beast (my parent's Ford)!

Since seeing this first koala sign I have spotted a couple of others around the Burnside area in Adelaide yesterday. However, the signs only featured an outline of a koala, they weren't quite as fancy as the koala sign in the photo above.

Anyway Toodlepip for now, I heard an old Englishman say that on TV last night so I thought I'd try it out... I don't think it suits me really. Oh well how about see-ya later? XD

*Katz*

Stories within a story

Life is full of stories. In just one day in my life I can come up with several different stories about people. Particularly in the job I'm doing now! I'm a checkout chick at a supermarket, but everyday I'm amazed at the many little stories that occur in people's lives. (This may be one of my reasons for my procrastination with my novel writing. There's so much detail, although it may be irrelevant for fiction writing.)

For example, today at work there was a man who was humming to himself the whole time while he was at my register! Okay so this is more like a mannerism, but there is surely a story behind how he came to always hum to himself whilst he is at the checkout!

When I worked at a bakery I once served a man who tried to pay for his purchase using keys- ordinary house keys. He said, "These should be worth something. How much can I get with them?"

He was elderly so he may have had amnesia but it was quite a strange occurrence at the time. I handed him over to another employee to sort out and eventually he handed over a $5 note for his purchases. That has to be one of the strangest stories that happened to me when I worked there though.

Other people will tell you the reasons why they are making a purchase, for example "We are having a party tonight" etc.

Even the smallest thing like going to the shops for half an hour can turn into a story about say... a person who tries to find a certain chocolate bar. They walk up and down all of the aisles in the supermarket until they finally ask an employee who tells them the chocolate bar isn't stocked anymore. Their reaction to this information can be the most interesting part of the story. They could either shrug this off and look for the product elsewhere, or they could complain to the employee about this and go on and on about why they should be able to find this chocolate bar or about their desperate struggle to find it and that if they can't find it how unfair it would be. This is a hypothetical story but these days shoppers aren't afraid to tell you what they think isn't fair.

But going to the shops is not the only story in people's lives. For example, last night I struggled a lot to get my printer to work. It still isn't working today. But my story didn't start from there. It started last night when I tried to submit my tax return. I was trying to lodge it over the Internet. This didn't work for some reason so I tried to print it out. That's when my printer trouble started and then my computer decided to slow down too. So in the end, one thing was leading to another and I finally decided to give up on the printer and computer for the night. This story isn't usually one you would find in a novel because it would distract the reader from the main focus point of the story. But I just thought it was fascinating how we can fit so many stories into our lives without giving them much regard!

Holidays

Okay. So. Finally it is the holidays and I can actually relax again! Starting from last Friday I officially have no more TAFE assignments to do until... 2 weeks time. Yuck. But still, 2 weeks of hols are better than nothing! Movies time XD

But now I have to work... so I don't have quite as much time to relax but that doesn't matter.

So many things have happened to me since the last time I've been on here. I had my 21st, yay! I got a job... yay. I have been using my new camera that I got for my b-day... okay I'm going to stop saying yay now! It would be nice if I could upload some pics onto here of my b-day but blogger just takes way too long. Hopefully one day I'll add some more.

I'm not a big talker atm. I need to really collect my thoughts and just focus on one topic but I have to go get ready for work so I'll talk to ya again some time!

Ciao.

Katz

Jennifer Byrne Presents...

Hi there,

I received a link last night from one of my writing lecturers at TAFE who suggested to watch a certain program on the ABC last night. It was called "Jennifer Byrne Presents" and on last night's episode Jennifer talked about "The future of Books."

There were 3 guests on the show and Jennifer interviewed each person on their opinions about whether less paper books are being read due to e-books, Kindles and iPads being used more often lately. They were also asked whether they thought e-books were a good way to get people reading or not.

Here is a link to some of the notes of the show, many other interesting topics were brought up.

http://blogs.abc.net.au/abc_tv/2011/05/future-of-books.html

If you would like to watch last night's episode (Tues 17th May 2011) for yourself, here is the link to watch it on Iview: http://www.abc.net.au/iview/#/recent

The show is usually broadcast on ABC1 on the first Tuesday of the month at 10pm.

P.S. Sorry that I haven't posted anything for so long. I didn't even have time to post the rest of my assignments up here from last year (Write Articles for Publication 2)! Although it did get very tiresome as I had to type everything out because I am unable to copy and paste text onto Blogger for some reason! I have now moved from Waikerie to Adelaide so that is one of my reasons for being busy but not the only one.