What an eventful week it’s been. I don’t want to put the mozz on it, but February is shaping up as the best month in quite some time. I really don’t know where to start on this one, but since it’s been a while since I’ve actually sat down and written anything, I think I’ll warm up with a quick run through with an old favourite.

How much fun is playing with street spruikers?

I met a really nice one last weekend, who, despite having come up from Sydney, refrained from making comments about how he had no idea what was going on and how different Darwin was from Sydney and how it was sooooooo hot and how much he liked the markets. I mean those are all valid points (except the markets one. They don’t start up again for a while yet), but you’re not going to convince me to give you money by telling me how weird my home town is. Like I don’t already know. This guy made sensible comments about the charity he was spruiking, and actually listened to my answers and questions rather than abandoning each unsuccessful persuasion technique in favour of a different approach. In the end, I had to tell him I was all tapped out for charity donations for now, but if you have some spare space on your credit card, go check out Mission Australia’s Youth Up program. It looks like it would be really worthwhile getting behind.

Meanwhile at a different charity stall:

Hot German Backpacker: Hi. Would you like to come and talk to me?
Gw2Rs: (checks watch and confirms how much of his lunch hour is left) … Okay.
HGB: What is your favourite animal?
Gw2Rs: The velociraptor.
HGB: The what?

And with that she blew any possible chance she had of being taken seriously, either as a charity spruiker or as a human being. I decided to stick around and see how much free information I could get out of her.

Gw2Rs: Never mind. I like eagles.
HGB: Wow. What an interesting answer.
Gw2Rs: … ?
HGB: Most people say cat or dog.
Gw2Rs: BORING!
HGB: I know. So have you heard of the WWF before?
Gw2Rs: The wrestling show?
HGB: … No. Well, what we are doing is we are trying to save endangered animals from extinction. Do you like tigers?
Gw2Rs: Sure, who doesn’t?
HGB: Did you know there are five different types of tigers in the world?
Gw2Rs: Hmm… Bengal, Sumatran, Siberian, Tasmanian… What’s the last one?
HGB: … I don’t know. But what is really sad is that soon all these different kinds may be extinct. Blah blah blah reducing numbers, blah blah destruction of habitat, blah blah humans are evil. We are starting up a new program to help tigers. In ten years, 2022, it will be the Chinese year of the tiger. We are hoping to save all the tigers in the world by the time that year comes.
Gw2Rs: Sounds good. Apparently this year is the year of the dragon. How many of them did you save?
HGB: I don’t know.
Gw2Rs: (gives up and leaves).

Apparently the missing tiger types are Malayan and Chinese. They aren’t so well known, mainly because they really are as rare as they say they are. Maybe it’s just as well. I was going to suggest Italian, but God knows what the next poor guy would have been told if I’d given her that idea.

Make of that what you will.

Garry with 2 Rs

I don’t know what it was about 2011. It seemed no matter what I turned my hand to, it just didn’t work. Things which should have been straight forward were ridiculously complicated, and things which would have been complicated anyway ended up being flat out impossible. Last year, while I may have had nine and a half resolutions set out on my side bar, really there were only three things I actually cared about. And I didn’t get any of them done.

I’ve wanted for ages to get a combined worship service going in Darwin again. I’ve wanted it to be intercongregational, or ecumenical, or interdenominational, or whatever your preference of term for “all in it together” might be. My friend and I have come up with “intercongradenomonagalactical.” If that sounds stupid, that’s only because it is.

But the point is it’s happening. We’re booked in for the 4^th of February. One way or another, I’m making a start. I don’t have a drummer, a drum kit, or anyway of getting the word out apart from right here on CTC (and maybe Facebook), but come what may the movement is starting in two weeks. Stay tuned.

Probably the biggest disappointment from last year was my utter failure to get myself a vaguely interesting job. Sure, I made the move from staff trainer to operations supervisor, but even though I counted it has half a point on my checklist, it really wasn’t what I was looking for. I tried a few strategies to get into a job with more to do with media, communications or writing, but just couldn’t make anything happen. I started to get pretty despondent about the whole thing towards the end of the year there.

This year, I’m determined to turn it around. I have a two week placement booked with our local paper, the highly esteemed NT News, which is more than I’ve managed to achieve in two years up to this point. I’ve spoken to some friends who work for the paper. They’ve unanimously advised me not to work there, as apparently it sucks the soul out of you. But when it comes around, I’d rather work in a sould destroying job doing something I like than work in a soul destroying job doing something that I have no interest in whatsoever. It’s a pretty bleak view of the universe I suppose, but there again, I don’t imagine there are that many people in the first world thinking “Hooray! Time to go get a job!” anyway.

And then there’s resolution seven. That link goes to some post about Dan geting married. I think it's the only one with an overt mention of resolution seven on it. I was going to write a post about it at some point... but I didn't. Basically last year's resolution seven was "fall in love".

No. Still nothing to report on that front. But the way I see it, it’s not even the end of January yet, and I’ve already achieved a gazillion time more than I had in the two year previous. Two out of three major life goals in the pipeline, and one that I’m not really in control of anyway. Geez, if I could just generate the self-discipline to stop playing with my new computer and actually do something worthwhile, I might just change the world this year.

Probably not.

Garry with 2 Rs

Blog posts, much like sermons, Hollywood witch covens and Super Nintendo boss fights, operate according to a very strict established convention: the rule of three. Sermons always have to have three central points, with bonus points awarded if the headings all start with the same letter. Hollywood witch covens always have to have three sisters, with bonus points awarded if they are actually sisters. Twins and/or triplets is the ideal here. And it’s well established that you have to jump on Bowser’s head three times to kill him. Or grab the hammer. Whatever.

And so it is with blog posts. Before you can take some aspect or happenstance of your week and inform everyone on the internet (or your mum and a few friends) of how worthy of their attention it is, you need to have three items that you can write about, ideally with some thematic link.

As you know, here at Cum Tacent Clament, we’re very careful about the way we value inherent structure, respect established conventions and stick to a finely defined line of argument. This is why it has been a little longer than it should have been between posts this month; I’ve just been so flat out trying to find a set of blogable experiences that are simultaneously appropriate, memorable and threefold. But this afternoon I managed to do just that.

First off on this morning’s thematically consistent Saturday was another trip out to Berrimah Correctional Facility. Prison ministry is still going strong, and continues to be an enlightening, enriching and engaging experience for the prisoners, the officers, and us.

Next stop was the very first practice session for One Body NT, which turns out to be a worship service and intercongradenomenagalactical church network rather than a discount gym franchise. We’re still putting the play list together for the first time, but I’m really excited to be finally getting the idea off the ground, even if it is going to start small. Next Saturday promises to dynamic, lustrous and cutting edge. It may or may not renege on that promise.

Thirdly and lastly I called in at my old church, Darwin Memorial Uniting, to get re-acquainted with the organ there, since they had asked me to play for them Sunday morning. It’s got some nice sounds on it, but the user interface always takes me half an hour to get used to. I mean, obviously the keys and stops and things are the same, but the settings to turn the reverb down and get some kind of decent volume out of the swell needs some experimentation in order to get your head around the confusing, uninformative and thoroughly non-intuitive settings menu. It’s the only church organ I’ve ever seen that has a remote control. It would be really cool if that meant you could play the processional from outside in the car park, but unfortunately all you can do is turn the  reverb on and off, unless you want to start mucking around with the tuning, which given the tone of an organ in the first place, probably isn’t a good idea.

And fourthly I had Portuguese chicken for dinner. Make of that what you will.

Garry with 2 Rs