The not-so-secret diary of Bing (aged 24)
Monday, November 29, 2004
Scummy old dial-up on the scummy old PC
But it's on my scummy old dial up, on my scummy old PC, so that is awesome. Ihave been able to get online at work, but that's not nice to "surf" on, and generally I spend way too much time there as is. Today was a lovely 6am- 8pm. That is too long, although a couple of silly mistakes and some poor timing really didn't help.
But anyway, I guess, I 've been busy because I'm building up towards tomorrow. Tomorrow is themedical sciences congress in Queenstown which I'm presenting a poster at. I've also attempted a microarray (about 4 days work) with the assistance of Pauline the Assistant Research fellow. It's been really neat working with her, because she is just so onto it, and you learn so much just by watching her, and taking her advice. My general lab organisation is so much better now because of her. The microarray (a microscope slide which looks at what genes are being expressed in a tissue, aka, a heck of a lot of data or a barcode of what a tissue's doing).
It has also been incredibly time consuming, and I surprised Bjorn the other day by coming home before 7!!! Speaking of whom, it has been really cool to flat with him over the past few weeks. Ok, so I still haven't shown him how to clean the loo, but we have eaten pretty well, and had some pretty mean prayer sessions. He also trapped and caught a rather large mouse or small rat on Sunday, which I haviong a strong dislike of small rodents was very pleased about. I'm also stoked that he's round cos yesterday I started stressing about going into work, and he was good enough to be woken up prior to 7am (on a sunday, people!) to pray with me.
Why was I stressing about going to work? Because I wanted to have one slide done by the weekend, and I had Shaughn and Adelle's wedding on Saturday. So I did a slide on Friday night. Got to 9:30 and the final wash, and I dropped the thing and lost the tissue. ARGGGH. So I went and I enjoyed the wedding on Saturday, Adelle looked amazing, and it was a really good time. It was cool how they based the wedding entire message on the Gospel. It was very inspiring to shear, and reminded me of why Shaughn and Adelle are such cool people. On a very different level go being a single guy with lots of female friends aye? (that is such a bad call, but it can stay!) There was a dance instructor there, and I think I danced with most of the girls/ladies I knew. Just good, clean fun.
I then woke up on Sunday morning, and flipped my lid. Yay for God for convicting me and providing a way out.
Speaking of God, my relationship with him has been a little rocky at the moment. I guess I'm coming to an understanding of relationships as a sharing process, and I'm not entirely sure how to procede. It definitely doesn't help that I'm generally dead tired too. (and still sleeping!!!) i think that it's a season of work and prayer at the moment, so it's actually quiet nice to take sometime to reflect. I have been journalling a lot more, although the bible reading has become a little less regular than it should. I was very inspired twice yesterday. As mentioned on other blogs, Julian Batchelor was very inspiring on evangelism, and I realised that comm-pact was bordering on missing, if not missing the point of doing all the good, loving charitable stuff-->To share the GOSPEL!!! I will definitely write to Mike R about this, cause I think that's where it started to fall down a little this year. I wasn't going to go hear Kirk last night, but Justin and Andrea talked me into it. The guy is so passionate about making money, and what he'll do with it. It's quiet weird being in a church sermon/ practical session about making money. But it was all solid aye- well apart from "paying retail is for sinners" for the Kirk McKay girn of smugness- maybe that's not quiet biblical, but he did have a point. I also liked his idea about never giving anything away/donations without sharing the gospel- conviently these guys were both at Shaughn and Adelle's wedding, so were available to speak this weekend. Their hearts were inspiring, and made me think, if I can be half these guys when I'm their age, it would be cool. But you know, I actually want to be able to do that in time. And there's no better time like the present.
I've come to realise that 22-30 mumble are the money-shot years. The ones where you're no longer the whiz kid, but actually have the chance to establish something in your life. And that's pretty exciting and scary too.
Recently I've dealt with a few people with "issues" and that's really made me use my counselling/listening skills. Wich has been cool. Except that it's kind of drawn the focus off God. I've even used Christian principles of forgiveness, and grace to help someone, but didn't actually bring God up. That's very weird and frustrating.
Well I'm going to go, before I start laying all my problems online- and I still need to pack- perhaops starting off with a nice burger. I had Spinach, mixed vege and 2 minute noodles for tea tonight. Arggh, I'm turning into a lifelong bachelor!!! Nooooooo. :P
But it's on my scummy old dial up, on my scummy old PC, so that is awesome. Ihave been able to get online at work, but that's not nice to "surf" on, and generally I spend way too much time there as is. Today was a lovely 6am- 8pm. That is too long, although a couple of silly mistakes and some poor timing really didn't help.
But anyway, I guess, I 've been busy because I'm building up towards tomorrow. Tomorrow is themedical sciences congress in Queenstown which I'm presenting a poster at. I've also attempted a microarray (about 4 days work) with the assistance of Pauline the Assistant Research fellow. It's been really neat working with her, because she is just so onto it, and you learn so much just by watching her, and taking her advice. My general lab organisation is so much better now because of her. The microarray (a microscope slide which looks at what genes are being expressed in a tissue, aka, a heck of a lot of data or a barcode of what a tissue's doing).
It has also been incredibly time consuming, and I surprised Bjorn the other day by coming home before 7!!! Speaking of whom, it has been really cool to flat with him over the past few weeks. Ok, so I still haven't shown him how to clean the loo, but we have eaten pretty well, and had some pretty mean prayer sessions. He also trapped and caught a rather large mouse or small rat on Sunday, which I haviong a strong dislike of small rodents was very pleased about. I'm also stoked that he's round cos yesterday I started stressing about going into work, and he was good enough to be woken up prior to 7am (on a sunday, people!) to pray with me.
Why was I stressing about going to work? Because I wanted to have one slide done by the weekend, and I had Shaughn and Adelle's wedding on Saturday. So I did a slide on Friday night. Got to 9:30 and the final wash, and I dropped the thing and lost the tissue. ARGGGH. So I went and I enjoyed the wedding on Saturday, Adelle looked amazing, and it was a really good time. It was cool how they based the wedding entire message on the Gospel. It was very inspiring to shear, and reminded me of why Shaughn and Adelle are such cool people. On a very different level go being a single guy with lots of female friends aye? (that is such a bad call, but it can stay!) There was a dance instructor there, and I think I danced with most of the girls/ladies I knew. Just good, clean fun.
I then woke up on Sunday morning, and flipped my lid. Yay for God for convicting me and providing a way out.
Speaking of God, my relationship with him has been a little rocky at the moment. I guess I'm coming to an understanding of relationships as a sharing process, and I'm not entirely sure how to procede. It definitely doesn't help that I'm generally dead tired too. (and still sleeping!!!) i think that it's a season of work and prayer at the moment, so it's actually quiet nice to take sometime to reflect. I have been journalling a lot more, although the bible reading has become a little less regular than it should. I was very inspired twice yesterday. As mentioned on other blogs, Julian Batchelor was very inspiring on evangelism, and I realised that comm-pact was bordering on missing, if not missing the point of doing all the good, loving charitable stuff-->To share the GOSPEL!!! I will definitely write to Mike R about this, cause I think that's where it started to fall down a little this year. I wasn't going to go hear Kirk last night, but Justin and Andrea talked me into it. The guy is so passionate about making money, and what he'll do with it. It's quiet weird being in a church sermon/ practical session about making money. But it was all solid aye- well apart from "paying retail is for sinners" for the Kirk McKay girn of smugness- maybe that's not quiet biblical, but he did have a point. I also liked his idea about never giving anything away/donations without sharing the gospel- conviently these guys were both at Shaughn and Adelle's wedding, so were available to speak this weekend. Their hearts were inspiring, and made me think, if I can be half these guys when I'm their age, it would be cool. But you know, I actually want to be able to do that in time. And there's no better time like the present.
I've come to realise that 22-30 mumble are the money-shot years. The ones where you're no longer the whiz kid, but actually have the chance to establish something in your life. And that's pretty exciting and scary too.
Recently I've dealt with a few people with "issues" and that's really made me use my counselling/listening skills. Wich has been cool. Except that it's kind of drawn the focus off God. I've even used Christian principles of forgiveness, and grace to help someone, but didn't actually bring God up. That's very weird and frustrating.
Well I'm going to go, before I start laying all my problems online- and I still need to pack- perhaops starting off with a nice burger. I had Spinach, mixed vege and 2 minute noodles for tea tonight. Arggh, I'm turning into a lifelong bachelor!!! Nooooooo. :P
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
Busy like a buzzy bee
I'm so busy. I can't believe how much work I seem to be procrastinating- which isn't good. It'll all be over soon, but man It's weird how much you plan to do but don't. Poster is nearly prepared and the madness will nearly be over. I'm starting to think I don't like people criticising me- but I think that's something that I'm going to have to get used to. You know just learn to ignore it and do what I know I'm meant to anyway.
Another interesting lesson in growing up me thinks
Ps 6:6-7
I am worn out from groaning;
all night long I flood my bed with weeping
and drench my couch with tears.
7 My eyes grow weak with sorrow;
they fail because of all my foes.
It's nice to know that there's nothing new under the sun.
I'm so busy. I can't believe how much work I seem to be procrastinating- which isn't good. It'll all be over soon, but man It's weird how much you plan to do but don't. Poster is nearly prepared and the madness will nearly be over. I'm starting to think I don't like people criticising me- but I think that's something that I'm going to have to get used to. You know just learn to ignore it and do what I know I'm meant to anyway.
Another interesting lesson in growing up me thinks
Ps 6:6-7
I am worn out from groaning;
all night long I flood my bed with weeping
and drench my couch with tears.
7 My eyes grow weak with sorrow;
they fail because of all my foes.
It's nice to know that there's nothing new under the sun.
Friday, November 12, 2004
Who thought that I'd forget?
P.S. Note the change in title.
Well that's been my birthday for 2004. First time I've really celebrated it with my Dunedin friends, which is funny considering that they're my really good friends (you know what I mean).
On reflection it has been a heck of a long week.
I really enjoyed the fireworks last Friday night- lots of laughs and fun, pity I had to spend so much time organising everyone, but hey- I'm glad that everyone had a great time. Spent Saturday working, and on Sunday, Matt and I skipped church to drop Andrew, Matt's Dad and Matt's mate Mars off at the airport. Which was cool because we got to drive on a real nice, sunny day and just chat. I can't believe that Andrew's first year has just finished. I swear it was only yesterday that he arrived on my doorstep,and stayed in J's room for a week.
Finished off the da Vinci code. I enjoyed it as a story, but thought that a lot of the ideas were a little bit "theory as fact" like. And some of the stuff the Church gets blamed for (like sexism in all the major religions) seems alittle far fetched. But in saying that it did challenge me about how I perceive a lot of stuff in christianity, and in my walk. Like I thought that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute (ala J.C. Superstar and Hero), but actually had seven demons cast out of her, and was one of Jesus' major followers- including being one of the first to witness his resurrection. She also provided for Jesus' ministry out of her own money (Lk 8:3). It's interesting how I'm not offended at the concept of Jesus having a wife. but that's for another time.
The main reason I haven't blogged lately is because I've been extremely busy. I don't think I've managed to be home before 7, 7:30pm at the moment. (stupid staining) Actually 6:30 to cook tea was pretty good yesterday. But this morning was an adventure.
I woke up at 5:30 for a 6am start. I finished my realtime PCR at 9:00 and then began a 7 hour histology experiment. I also helped with a PCR and some cDNA amplification. Most of it worked, which was nice. But leaving the lab at 7:30 was a bit suck. I did get blessings throughout the day from many people which was really much appreciated. I also got picked up from work, which was a pleasant change. The original plan was just the boys (sans Gus) would go out for a quiet meal, but it turned out to be a 15 Afterwards we went back to Castle St for a chat and yeah, tired but good night.
For my birthday, I got a sleeping bag, Brooke Fraser and Simon and Garfunkel CDs from my folks, a 'doozie' giraffe from Jane (it's really weird- love it), a photograph album from Penny, and a whole heap of texts, emails and cards from people. I actually wish I had been at home today because it sounds like everybody came to visit. Meh, maybe next time.
Interesting thing that happened at lunch today. I was walking, eating my free subway sandwich (from Andrew) and I passed these two skater guys about 14 years old. And I assumed they were "just" skaters. When I heard one of them ask, "Hey, so whats up with you smoking so much recently?" with genuine concern and interest. And it blew my mind- I wish I was able to show that much concern for people sometimes, that I'd had that sort of conern for people more often, especially at that age. I think it actually made my whole day.
Night
P.S. Note the change in title.
Well that's been my birthday for 2004. First time I've really celebrated it with my Dunedin friends, which is funny considering that they're my really good friends (you know what I mean).
On reflection it has been a heck of a long week.
I really enjoyed the fireworks last Friday night- lots of laughs and fun, pity I had to spend so much time organising everyone, but hey- I'm glad that everyone had a great time. Spent Saturday working, and on Sunday, Matt and I skipped church to drop Andrew, Matt's Dad and Matt's mate Mars off at the airport. Which was cool because we got to drive on a real nice, sunny day and just chat. I can't believe that Andrew's first year has just finished. I swear it was only yesterday that he arrived on my doorstep,and stayed in J's room for a week.
Finished off the da Vinci code. I enjoyed it as a story, but thought that a lot of the ideas were a little bit "theory as fact" like. And some of the stuff the Church gets blamed for (like sexism in all the major religions) seems alittle far fetched. But in saying that it did challenge me about how I perceive a lot of stuff in christianity, and in my walk. Like I thought that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute (ala J.C. Superstar and Hero), but actually had seven demons cast out of her, and was one of Jesus' major followers- including being one of the first to witness his resurrection. She also provided for Jesus' ministry out of her own money (Lk 8:3). It's interesting how I'm not offended at the concept of Jesus having a wife. but that's for another time.
The main reason I haven't blogged lately is because I've been extremely busy. I don't think I've managed to be home before 7, 7:30pm at the moment. (stupid staining) Actually 6:30 to cook tea was pretty good yesterday. But this morning was an adventure.
I woke up at 5:30 for a 6am start. I finished my realtime PCR at 9:00 and then began a 7 hour histology experiment. I also helped with a PCR and some cDNA amplification. Most of it worked, which was nice. But leaving the lab at 7:30 was a bit suck. I did get blessings throughout the day from many people which was really much appreciated. I also got picked up from work, which was a pleasant change. The original plan was just the boys (sans Gus) would go out for a quiet meal, but it turned out to be a 15 Afterwards we went back to Castle St for a chat and yeah, tired but good night.
For my birthday, I got a sleeping bag, Brooke Fraser and Simon and Garfunkel CDs from my folks, a 'doozie' giraffe from Jane (it's really weird- love it), a photograph album from Penny, and a whole heap of texts, emails and cards from people. I actually wish I had been at home today because it sounds like everybody came to visit. Meh, maybe next time.
Interesting thing that happened at lunch today. I was walking, eating my free subway sandwich (from Andrew) and I passed these two skater guys about 14 years old. And I assumed they were "just" skaters. When I heard one of them ask, "Hey, so whats up with you smoking so much recently?" with genuine concern and interest. And it blew my mind- I wish I was able to show that much concern for people sometimes, that I'd had that sort of conern for people more often, especially at that age. I think it actually made my whole day.
Night
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
That's just weird- good book though
Canada aye?
You're Animal Farm!
by George Orwell
You are living proof that power corrupts and whoever leads you will
become just as bad as the past leaders. You're quite conflicted about this emotionally
and waver from hopelessly idealistic to tragically jaded. Ultimately, you know you can't
trust pigs. Your best moments are when you're down on all fours.
Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.
Canada aye?
You're Canada!
People make fun of you a lot, but they're stupid because you've
got a much better life than they do. In fact, they're probably just jealous.
You believe in crazy things like human rights and health care and not
dying in the streets, and you end up securing these rights for yourself and
others. If it weren't for your weird affection for ice hockey, you'd be
the perfect person.
Take
the Country Quiz at the href="http://bluepyramid.org">Blue Pyramid
Thursday, November 04, 2004
Stuff
What a weird night- skipped cooking again so I could finish off some staining- it looks ok..., went to summer life group- looks really cool. I came home to an empty flat, and looked for tea. Which wasn't there-my bad communication with Gus who graciously agreed to cook for me tonight. Went down stairs to pull my curtains and BAH! Freaky Lydia staring into my window, grinning like the Joker.
Once she had returned to her plesant looking self by pulling off her hood, and I climbed out the window to join her, Dave and Alice outside in the warm twilight. we talked, which was cool and then Dave and I went to Countdown for some food for "my" party tomorrow night. It looks like it should be good, although a bit colder than the previous couple of days. I'm pretty stoked that so many people are keen to come, and the "box" in our hallway looks so tempting. I'm going to go get some sparklers tomorrow, but It'd be cool for others to bring stuff as well.
It's pretty crazy that I'm going to be meeting people at my Unofficial going away party- will I ever leave properly? Yes, of course I will.
but by golly I'll go out with aBANG!
(and no, we're not saving any for ManCamp 05 :P)
Also reading "The Da Vinci Code" at the moment, good story, very good story, but I've also heard some pretty dodgy stuff about it. If anybody's read it I'd be keen to chat, via email or person to see what they think.
cheers
What a weird night- skipped cooking again so I could finish off some staining- it looks ok..., went to summer life group- looks really cool. I came home to an empty flat, and looked for tea. Which wasn't there-my bad communication with Gus who graciously agreed to cook for me tonight. Went down stairs to pull my curtains and BAH! Freaky Lydia staring into my window, grinning like the Joker.
Once she had returned to her plesant looking self by pulling off her hood, and I climbed out the window to join her, Dave and Alice outside in the warm twilight. we talked, which was cool and then Dave and I went to Countdown for some food for "my" party tomorrow night. It looks like it should be good, although a bit colder than the previous couple of days. I'm pretty stoked that so many people are keen to come, and the "box" in our hallway looks so tempting. I'm going to go get some sparklers tomorrow, but It'd be cool for others to bring stuff as well.
It's pretty crazy that I'm going to be meeting people at my Unofficial going away party- will I ever leave properly? Yes, of course I will.
but by golly I'll go out with a
(and no, we're not saving any for ManCamp 05 :P)
Also reading "The Da Vinci Code" at the moment, good story, very good story, but I've also heard some pretty dodgy stuff about it. If anybody's read it I'd be keen to chat, via email or person to see what they think.
cheers
Monday, November 01, 2004
sobering
Read this
Anatomy of a meltdown.
It's from fortune magazine via lowercase. It is really sobering, and a quite stirring reminder, especially after PJ's sermon yesterday on being there for people.
And wow, so many people responded, and it was like deathly quiet in church. I've always prided myself (and my church) on being such a friendly, homely environment.
It was humbling to get a reminder
Read this
Anatomy of a meltdown.
It's from fortune magazine via lowercase. It is really sobering, and a quite stirring reminder, especially after PJ's sermon yesterday on being there for people.
And wow, so many people responded, and it was like deathly quiet in church. I've always prided myself (and my church) on being such a friendly, homely environment.
It was humbling to get a reminder
