Recently I've had a few run ins with honesty. People being REALLY honest about things.
And while it can be a little confronting, uncomfortable or weird, in the end, I sort of like it! I love knowing where I stand and what's happening. I, personally, roll with the punches fairly well, so once I process, I can come up with a plan or at least think about it enough to wrap my head around it.
It also works in reverse. There's a lot of fun in just being honest if someone is annoying the heck outta you.
It occurs to me that every plot line and every tv show suffers from the same problem.
A lack of communication.
Think about it! All shows have some kind of hidden secret or motive that noone wants to talk about.
Ok, so maybe not all... there are a few percious gems that don't follow this all the time, but an episode or two will succumb to the good ol' plotline, just cos it's easy.
I was thinking about the different genres of shows and had a little fun with thinking what they'd be like if people communicated.




or what about spy movies...




People with secrets or pasts would confess and there would be no story line of avoidance & covering up.
It is frustrating me that people don't deal with things straight away.

That is my two year old tantrum frustration picture.

While truth is hard and often confronting but gosh, isn't it preferable to the ridiculous amount of time wasted avoiding it?
So, the moral of today's story. Stop being like a badly written cliche movie, & say what needs to be said, have the courage to speak truth, the decency to do it with gentleness, the humility to know that sometimes you're wrong and sometimes you're right, and if you're right, you don't need to rub it in or parade it.
And if someone comes to you with truth, if it's hard to hear, at least they appreciate you and value you enough to be straight forward and not play games.
So be grateful you have people in your life that want a real relationship.
And if they're just being cruel, than be bigger and have grace.
Besides, being graceful in the face of cruelty just makes them looks dumb anyway.
And that, it my rant for the day.
humph.

God works in mysterious ways... and through bumbling idiots.

I've mentioned before that I lead and direct on Christian holiday camps for teens and kids. I also mentioned how much I love it!
Not only because each year I get to act like a kid and just play and have fun! (How many other mid-twenty year olds do you know that dress up as superheroes, villains, people from the past, or begin food fights and get porridge poured all over them, or tackle kids in night games. Brilliant.)
It's one of the most beautiful places in the middle of nowhere.
It's also amazing to see how kids grow and change over the camps.It's a real privilege.
some of my favourite, funniest moments have also happened on camps. Pranks, meeting amazing people, hearing great speakers, getting into trouble, laughing hilariously at stuff no one can remember. So fun. I could write a blog purely on camp craziness.
One of my favourite parts of camps is the times kids, out of nowhere, ask about how to become a Christian.
Now, no matter how many times you go over different ways to explain this, if a kid asks you while you're trying to walk in gumboots filled with dumplings and syrup, or after four days of not a lot of sleep right when you're about to go to bed, or when you're in the process of stuffing your mouth with dinner, then, from my experience, you blank.


If I'm asked during a cabin devotion time or after a study session where a speaker gives a little talk about the Bible or God, then sure, I'm ready for it.
Put me on the spot, then all my preparation is non existant.
However, you can't not answer. So you sneak a prayer in, and then begin.





At this point, I have no idea what I've said, the camper is looking fairly blank, and I am desperately trying to remember anything that just happened.




And so, although I am ridiculously unqualified and bumbling, or even when I am qualified and I just make a mess, somehow, God does his thing.
I don't think it's a mistake either. If I could do it well and with all the right words, I don't know if I'd realise how much God was in it.
But when I have no idea what I've said, and I have a pretty good idea that it was a lot of nonsense or uncomprehendable, then I know that it was all God.
Which is a good thing because there's a lot of nonsense I speak. A lot.
It's nice to know that God interprets my bleh and turns it into goodness. :)
So, the moral of my story is, even bumbling idiots can be redeemed.

Miss McGyver & duct tape pranks

So. I'm staring at my portfolio which I absolutely need to get done. It's even a fun portfolio! It needs pretty paper and pictures, but I have no motivation.

Then I saw an episode of McGyver. On a side note, if I sound like I watch tv a lot, it's cos I'm one of those crazies that needs noise. Loud music, the radio, movies... I just need background noise. So, yes, there will be lots of tv mentions.
So... back to McGyver.
He was strapped to a rocket. Or next to a rocket. When the rocket went off, then McGyver was supposed to burn up.
Bad guy underestimated McGyver, however. Rookie mistake.
Now, picture McGyver firmly tied onto the trailor holding the rocket, with the booster pointing straight at him. (It's not a massive rocket btw... just a mini launcher one)
There's a cart of nitrogen gas bottles nearby but the brake is on.
this is how McGyver figures it out.





So. With such little effort and some good boot action, I thought, why can't I do some mcGyvering myself!
First, I thought I'd clean the house. Which I did, but then it backfired...

I couldn't find anything once it was away.... I'd cleaned so well! Too well....


So with not being able to find stuff, I began imagining what else I could do if i could get my hands on some duct tape.

I, admit, was thinking of someone specific when I drew this, and he looks happy to be duct taped, cos I think somewhere deep down he know's he's irritatingly frustrating. He knows he needs to be duct taped to a wall for a good day or so.




I figured I could make a whole house. Why aren't more people making duct tape houses? I mean, you get a hole you just patch it up? You want to extend, pull out your stanley knife and add on! So good!
Although my experiences dealing with duct tape wasn't great. I got skin pulled off from repeatative tape ripping and sticking.
It all started on a camp. I lead on christian holiday camps. i LOVE them. I get to play but also share my favourite topic - God and how good he is!
I've been going to this campsite most of my life. All my life defining moment happened on these camps. It's pretty special.
Last camp, I had an awesome group of girls and they really wanted to pull a prank. And let's be honest, if anyone could help them pull a prank, it was me.... I have a history, some probably wouldn't even know about, cos I don't always own up, of pulling pranks, and it had been awhile since my last one.
I was a little proud my girls were up for it.
There is a limit to pranks you can involve campers in on camps. Usually pranks are between leaders and subtle enough that the campers never even know about it.
Campers involved in pranks usually means things will get out of hand. There's always one that takes it too far or too personally.
This time, we decided to wait till the last night, so there was no time the next day for retaliation. We also couldn't do anything that involved personal property or disrupted sleep. (there's a legal limit we're supposed to allow for sleep or something like that - duty of care and all that)
So, being that I know that camp, I got my hands on mass amounts of newspaper and tape.
We stayed up for ages making door sized newspaper walls, really thick and reinforced with mass tape. We made enough for each guys room door.
It was insanely like a bad spy movie, and the girls felt like they were pulling off the most intense mission and were very serious and in the game.
One of my girls gave a little pep talk mission speech.
'You will not giggle! You will not make any noise! You will take of your shoes and tiptoe and not stomp everywhere!'
It was very seriously recieved.
Then we all got ready for our first hit. Two girls grabbed the newspaper wall and the rest of us grabbed a line of tape as long as we could hold our arms out. We then formed a line and did a silent sneak to the first door.

It was very funny to watch.
One by one we went to each door, two holding the paper wall, the rest of us armed with tape and did this amazing effective line of walking past, sticking the paper down and then doubling back to get more tape. It was sheer brilliance.
We came to one problem, when one cabin had left their window open. The windows were right next the door and the newspaper wall wasn't exactly silent. So we assembled a smaller team and gave strict orders, evn making a few hand signals for 'FREEZE' in case any noise from inside the cabin was heard.
We posted a 'listener' at the window, and did our little parade of tape, more intense than the other doors.
I swear, if the army ever needs a team to do a tape mission, I have the people for you, tried and tested.
Everyone had doubled back except for two of us, when the light suddenly went on. We had a protocol for potential capture. It was duck under the window, and flatten against the wall and not move. Running would only alert them to something.
So thats what me and Rach did. Flatten and freeze.


It was hilariously funny, but at the moment, adrenaline was racing, heart was pumping, we were both terrified we would get caught out too early.
But the guy inside was just going to the toilet...
and we snuck away.

WE were up till 2 papering doors and feeling like we were super spies, and the girls were SUPER excited they'd pulled a prank.
We woke up the next morning to watch.
The leaders were the first to notice. We saw a few bluges appear in the paper while they tried to find a weak point. (there weren't a lot - we'd used roughly 6 rolls of tape....) One kicked his way through. Another pulled a side away and slipped through the edge. If you want to see something funny, get a 6 foot guy to try fit through a newspaper gap.
A camper came out and then started READING the paper. The girls were at first confused and then thought it was hilarious.
We got ready, keeping an eye on the doors, and then made our way to breakfast.
Hottest topic - newspapered doors. The girls then did an academy award performance of not knowing anything about it.
I was super proud. The only thing better than pulling a prank is to deny existence of it.
A few of the boys declared it a worthy prank and the girls were satisfied.
The point of my story is you can always do good things with duct tape. Always.
Everyone should have duct tape and be able to pull of McGyver worthy stunts. Or pranks.
And that is what my policy would be if I was going up for an election.

Mc Copper. (Mc Dreamy was already taken...)

So, today I was running errands. Much needed errands. In fact, I was majorly behind in getting these errands done, and had already missed a few deadlines, but hey, sometimes facebook and staring at clouds is a priority.


Well, I finally stopped the important stuff, and got around to my errands.
First I went to the church my Mamia (mum) works in the office at, since I could use their phones, internet and printing services for freeeeeeeeeeee! (giddy twirling!)
I had issues with the online forms I was filling out so I rang the hotline.
This is how I spent the next 40 minutes.


Finally I sorted that out. And by sorted, I mean, finally got onto someone who told me there was a technical difficulty which their IT department would 'soon get around to.' And by THAT, they mean I'll probably have to wait till I'm 60 to actually get what I need to done. Brilliant.

So I leave there and head to the police station to get some forms signed. I walk in and there's no one around.Also no bell to ring.
All those movies where the police station gets taken over start popping into my brain, and I wonder who I should call if the police are unable to help, cos I'm pretty sure the A Team are only American.... And Chuck Norris might take awhile to get over, and then he may be jet lagged....
While I'm pondering this, the door opens, and out walks Mc Copper.


Ok, so in all honesty, I can't remember exact details, all I remember is he was good looking. I'm pretty sure my picture helps though.
Anyway, I pull out my licence to show my ID, and I pull out two. Yeah, I have two. I got sent two, even though I only paid for one. The folk people who give out licences made a mistake, so now I have the one I paid for, and a spare-ie.
So, I ask him what I should do about it.
His response was 'yeah, you should probably hand that one back in. Otherwise it could get used as a fake ID. Not that I'd care. I mean, I had one. So, your call really.'
I almost giggled at the irony. The cop telling me about fake ID's.
We chat for a little bit, while he does his stamping and signing. And then it's my turn to sign, and I have to go over and get to the paper he's holding still for me.




I forgot how to write my signature. I started it, then kind of drew a line, then kept going... I just got a little confused.
Once I awkwardly did sign my name, he gave me a winning smile, he wished me luck and a great week (which I grinned at - how sweet!) and I walked out the door, taking extra care to not walk into it, and double checking that it said push and not pull so I could exit with some grace.

I went home and then did important stuff. Actually, I did do some productive stuff!
YAY! Actually, I was a little inspired by Mc Copper. So I did some work.
And then I worked out, cos I felt like that was necessary too...

And now I need sleep. And a new reason to swing by the local cop shop. Or get them to me..... Hmmmmm.

Let's start at the very beginning... the cast of the Sound of Music recommends it.

I'm sitting on my comfy couch (I call it mine, although my parents technically own it, because it's shaped more to me, since I sit there more... Mine by associated imprint)
and I'm on my laptop with Ben 10 in the background.
I then decided to write a blog, since my friends tell me my networking comments and statuses are really entertaining. I assume this is their way of saying I should be in person less, and write more.
From that description alone, you may have a picture of me. I guarantee you're wrong.
The reason I'm doing a lot of sitting, laptoping and Ben 10 watching is because I have assignments and applications due, and I'm following my general pattern of procrastination. It goes something like this.


You see the amount of work that you need to do, and it mocks you. It knows!


And then you realise, it's right!! You can't finish it! So you go do other things, content that you've got time as a friend!

But then doubt creeps in....


But no! Time is your friend! And so is fun!!! You're ok!!!!! WHEEEEEE!


And so you play, facebook, drink lattes, frolick.

Finally, your conscience steps in. You really SHOULD do some work!


You really are entitled to a break at this point...

Then....

Now at this point, the general population would realise their predicament and knuckle down. However, I am part of the general population that rebels and refuses to have common sense. Some people call that stupid. I like to think of it as talented... It takes a lot of talent to not think of the reasonable thing to do.
So this is how I usually end up!



So, currently I am procrastinating. I have even created helpful pictures to enlighten. It only took me an episode of Hercules, The Brady Bunch and Happy Days and rest of Ben 10.
Win.
And now I will do one page of work to make up for it. I AM AMAZING!