αλλά αμαρτωλούς εις μετάνοιαν

moving out of house and blog

2007-04-14T23:59:32Z

Words probably can't describe exactly how weird it is to be calling the house that I've lived in for the past 22-and-a-bit years 'my parent's house'. For all this time it's been 'my house' - even 'my home' - but today it changes.

Moving out. How odd it is.

This is also going to be my last post on αλλά αμαρτωλούς εις μετάνοιαν, my trusty blog on my working life. However, I think that it will be beneficial to begin a new blog - a more public blog, in keeping with my new position (hopefully one that is beneficial to my job, too). I'll be notifying LJ friends and some others.

Colon dash capital dee

2007-04-13T08:57:18Z

To my great delight, I recently accepted the offered position. It means that I will be moving to a new city on Sunday, and will start work on Monday.

I am greatly looking forward to this job, and to all that it can offer - not just finance and fringe-benefits, but this is the kind of job where I'm going to be working with people, so I'm really looking forward to helping people to become, well, better, well-adjusted people.

Reactions to my recent lopping-off-of-hair have been varied. Some have noticed the beard gone first, and then noticed the hair; others have noticed the hair first, then the beard. Admittedly, the beard was fairly low on the face, but still. Some have done a double-take, others have just stared and babbled something incoherently...but the funniest reaction was a two-parter.

On Tuesday, after the Liturgy, I was talking to one of the priests (a generally serious priest, dry sense of humour) and a few altar boys.
Me: I got the haircut, went home, shaved, looked in the mirror, and said to myself...I look like a chick!
All well and good, moving on from there.

Then today, after the Liturgy (again), I saw another of the priests (a generally not-so-serious priest!). After the usual greetings (he'd been at another parish until a couple of days hence),
Fr: (The beard's gone,) Alright, show me the hair
Me: *turns head around*
Fr: Wow...you look like a girl!

Admittedly, I was a little surprised - both that he thought what I did, and that he, well, actually vocalised it

Me: *laughs* that's what I said!
Fr: Yeah, I know, word travels around!

Okay, so no coincidence, but still.

Went to see a movie with a friend yesterday - Bean, the Disaster Movie (worth the actual time in seeing, but not worth paying money for, imho); went to another friend's today. Lots of 'wow, so you're actually leaving!''s all round. After church on Saturday, we're planning on going out (as usual), but in honour of the occasion it's been termed the 'I can't believe you're going' party.

After I was told about the job, that was fantastic...but after a few hours I realised that I was going to have to pack things.
Moving is such a lot to organise - really, I'm asking myself what I am going to need for the next, well, x amount of time - it's not something that comes naturally (never having moved before).
But, I'll get used to it...

A Composed Nature

2007-04-11T10:47:45Z

Yesterday, I went to church. Apparently, aside from the complete lack of English, the service itself was totally botched...badly cut up and basically rearranged. Again, glad I didn't go, because it would have made my ecclesiarch-like personality completely spin out.
But. In keeping with the structure of the services in Bright Week, we did the Paschal matins properly today. Surprisingly, we even had a small amount of English - especially surprising considering the small amount of even bilingual people there!

After that, had breakfast with a couple of people who went that morning; then, I went home, and started composing for a short period of time, before deciding to watch Just Shoot Me! on DVD. Then went to have dinner with a friend from high school.

This morning, I eventually got to finishing the compositions for the service of St Bede the Venerable. There are five pieces in this service that do not have pre-arranged melodies and are supposed to: in Vespers, the Dogmaticon (or Doxasticon) for the Kekragarion (after 'Lord, I have cried' - or, Kyrie Ekekraksa, from which is derived 'Kekragarion'), the Dogmaticon for the Vesperal Aposticha; the Apolytikion of the Saint; in Matins, the Kontakion and the Dogmaticon for the Matinal Aposticha.

For those who know what parts of the service are, and don't need the explanation, skip this paragraph.
During Vespers and Matins, whenever one hears the 'Glory to the Father...' chanted rather slowly, that means that the Dogmaticon is coming right up - in Vespers, it usually means that an Entrance is near; in Matins, it means that it's almost time for the Doxology and the Liturgy. In Greek, the connection between the name and what they mean is more apparent, because the word for Glory is 'Doxa', and the name of the hymn is a Doxasticon.
The Dogmaticons are, AFAIK, always written as idiomelons, which essentially mean that they have no set melody. Each tone has its own general feel for how it should sound, and assortments of notes - but they're usually made up on the spot by an experienced chanter who knows (or, of course, knows that no one will correct) how to do it. In contrast, the hymns in between the versicles are usually set to a melody (for example, the verses after 'Lord I have cried' and before the Dogmaticon are set to 'Πανευφημοι Μαρτυρες / O All-praised Martyrs'.
However, it has become an increasing trend in Greek service books to not only have the text, but to have a composition (of how to chant the dogmaticon) in the back of the saint's/event's service book. This is where said composition comes in - to fill a gap that might be existing, by providing an example of how to chant the dogmaticons in a pleasing manner in the appointed tone.
There are two other pieces that are un-melodied (for lack of a better word) - the apolytikion (main, short hymn of the saint) and the kontakion (another short hymn for the saint). Notably, these are the only two sets of hymns relating to a saint or an event (aside from the Resurrection, of course) that are actually put into a Divine Liturgy in standard parish practise (just after the Small Entrance, before the 'Holy God'). However, these are both able to be melodied - the apolytikion to 'Την Σοφιαν και Λογον / The Wisdom and the Word', and the Kontakion to 'Τη Υπερμαχω / O Champion Leader'.

I haven't posted the compositions yet - I'm still running them by some local people knowledgable in chanting and Byzantine notation and see how it sounds to them - but I shall do so when I think that they're ready for release. Reviews are, so far, all favourable.

10 Days Worth of Post

2007-04-09T05:50:49Z

Christ is Risen!

So, a lot has been happening...in the last, like, 10 days!

The final Thursday at The Company was uneventful - goodbyes and best wishes. Got a reference from my then-current boss, which is always handy.
The next day was largely consumed by me getting my learners permit, which now allows me to learn how to drive and (hopefully) get my licence in six months.
Last Saturday was spent setting up for the Palm Saturday Night Fete, which ended up being pretty cool, with fun times on the jumping castle. Afterwards we went out for slurpees, and a very odd photo.

Palm Sunday proper was spent at another parish, after which a bunch of us went to a talk held by a couple of the ethnic-centric youth groups in this city. The talk was good, but for a question-and-answer session there wasn't a lot of interaction. Afterwards was the first Bridegroom Matins.

Monday morning I went to the Presanctified Liturgy, then had dinner with a friend from high school that evening. Got home late, so missed the Presanctified Liturgy on Tuesday. Went to the Bridegroom Matins on Tuesday night, though.

Wednesday ended up being very busy. There was the Presanctified Liturgy in the morning, then I decided that, to plausibly go for the job that I'm going for, it was time to change my look. So, I went to the local barber and got a haircut. I haven't had a haircut at a barber's since I was 17 (when I got it trimmed for my formal), and it's been tied back since I was 16. My hair is curly, but if you stretched it out it would make it about an inch away from the end of my back (even without that, it made it to the end of my shoulder blades). I'd asked the barber if he could cut it so that it could be put into a ponytail if need be, but would also look good out of a pony tail. He took that to mean that the back side of my head needed to be tied back, but the hair on top and at the front and on both sides didn't need to reach. Of course, now it looks horrible in a ponytail, but it looks pretty good out. Then I went home and shaved, and remembered what my face looked like after about 2 years of having facial hair (which included the period of time between just having facial hair and actually having a proper beard).

Then I went down south to the Gold Coast for Easter services, and went to all the Easter services for one parish (a small, English-language parish) and most of the Easter services for another (which is bigger and has more services at different times). Awesome experience, and hearing about the unbelievable amount of English at the parish I usually went to, totally worth it.

Also had an interview while I was down there. Again, not wanting to say a lot until I know the outcome, but suffice to say I'm veryhopeful of getting the position.

Aside from having more English, the services were also shorter at the Greek Orthodox parish - the chanter there prefers briefer chanting, rather than the drawn-out style that can be so popular (for chanters only) when there's more than one chanter.

The Resurrection service itself was, as usual, awesome. Afterwards I was invited to someone's house, which was beautiful.

So I got back home in the morning (just) on Sunday, relaxed a little, relaxed today as well. Went out last night with the Saturday Nighters to Hungry Jack's, then went to Lucas' to watch How I Met Your Mother. I'm fairly sure that we can rename ourselves after the show (although 'the HIMYMers' may sound a little funny to the untrained ear). Taking the show's inspiration (when they called Barney 'Swarley' for an entire episode), we've decided to rename someone in our group. I shudder to think what the next inspiration we'll take is...

One thing that I have accomplished is composing the Kekragarial Vesperal Dogmaticon (i.e. the big hymn after the first 'Glory' in Vespers) for St Bede the Venerable of Jarrow, using the composition guide from St Anthony's Monastery (in Byzantine notation - naturally, since it's the only one I know). I'm planning to do the second one for Vespers and the one for Matins as well, so I'll post them all up when I've finished them.

less than 20 hours to go...

2007-03-28T12:59:19Z

So things have been pretty fantastic this week.

I formally resigned on Monday. It was pretty easy - I asked how one would go about submitting a resignation (about as formal as that), submitted it to the appropriate people, and it was formally conveyed to the relevant bosses, well, certainly by Tuesday.

I happened to do an experiment, though (completely unintentional) - I didn't tell anyone on that Monday, but on the way home I caught the train with someone I used to work with. Somehow, this information spread to the other end of the floor, then down to my floor, then back up to that floor. By the end of it, some apparently thought I was going to another city to teach psychology (not the case), but the news travelled enough that people were coming up to me and asking if the rumour was true (which it was).

Went around today and said goodbye to everyone, sent an e-mail around to pretty much anyone who I considered to be anyone saying g'bye, etc. It seemed that a lot of people didn't really think that I was going to make a career with The Company, which was kinda odd (but fair enough).

It really made me reflect on employee satisfaction. Most of the people I used to work with are really unhappy with their jobs, and most of the blame is going on their direct manager, who is most definitely not following in the line of the previous managers - do your hours, make sure the work is done, etc. This one seems to be pedantic about arbitrary rules being followed for the sake of rules being followed, and it's completely killing morale.
I can understand procedures, particularly when a single object goes through five departments - procedures need to be followed. Not what I'm talking about. Rather, I refer to size of lunch breaks (I would regard taking five minutes off a lunch as being justifiable for leaving five minutes early, for example), when lunch breaks are taken, rejecting timesheets because they're a minute or two out, and generally being nasty. It kills morale, which kills productivity, which kills employees, which kills productivity. Unless a person has a vested interest in something working, it is counter-productive to focus purely on productivity. Focus on a job well-done, and you might have a totally different story.

So, tomorrow's my last day - it'll be all over by 6pm. I'll be happy to leave, but it's a happiness that I'll have because I've worked there and experienced. It proved that I have the capacity to do the whole working-in-an-office thing. Plus, it's great on a resume.
As I've mentioned previously (I think?), I'm planning to take up another job soon. This one will require me to have a public image, so I'd rather not use this blog to post on it. I've already set up another blog, and intend to tell LJ friends and (if I know them) commenters on this post where it is, but there will be no link from this blog to the other.

The Rosy Interlude

2007-03-22T11:13:09Z

You know how when you decide to stop doing something at a particular point, and during the time between when you make the decision and when you make public the decision everything starts getting rosy?

Similar kind of thing is happening with my work.

That being said, I don't think I'll buckle. Monday's the day of announcement; Thursday's the day of departure, Friday's the day of freedom!

Oh, and I bought some clothes today. Nice clothes, too. Y'know, as you do.

Yesterday was my brother's birthday - dinner thing at home, which was nice.

Suddenly Everything Rocks!

2007-03-18T12:55:58Z

It seems like everything's been snapping into place recently.

I ask a blessing to pursue a particular path; I am given such; I really put some time, energy and metaphysical hope into it; I now find that every single door is opening...all in a, well, about 18 hour period!
Problem: when one door opens after another, you think it'll be sequential, so you can just walk through at a steady pace before they close at some pre-set time. When all doors open at once, you feel like you have to run through them all before they close.
Why it's my fault: I did ask for things to be obvious, so I really shouldn't be surprised and can't be miffed about it. It's kinda like a guy who won lotto saying 'I wish I could have gotten this slowly', well sorry, but it's a lottery, it happens at once.
Solution: Gratitude. If there was to be an eleventh commandment - say, if someone was inclined towards graffiti - I'm sure that 'not grumbling about the preceding 10' would be a possibility.

So...in short, I'm still quitting, but it looks like I'll have something to quit for; I'm going back to uni, but possibly not so intensely.

And last night's goings-out was totally awesome - we went to kfc, then surprised Despina at bowling (a surprise birthday). Bowling was also awesome - $20 gave unlimited bowling between 9 and midnight, and we did about 2 hours - again, totally awesome.

Summer's Last Great Act of Defiance.

2007-03-12T11:15:46Z

If people didn't think that I was both a) a bookworm and b) a liturgeek (or, self-referentially, 'liturgic fanboy'), they don't know me terribly well.

As part of my hell-no-we-won't-work-(much-longer) period, I'm setting aside some money that won't go into my savings account (to, y'know, live on) and using the remainder that won't go in to pay off debts (which is, in my mind, what a tithe basically is - particularly the way that I do it, but I digress, and possibly confuse). But, it has afforded me some opportunities to buy liturgic books that I just haven't seen in English, well, anywhere.

I've got a few back-issues of Road to Emmaus coming in, along with a small shipment, including the Liturgikon and one of Kh. Frederica Matthewes-Green books (the first years of her husband's mission parish), and a couple of CDs by Fr Apostolos Hill. The fact that he keeps putting out CDs implies that he's pretty good at it, and I'd like to learn the funeral stuff properly (particularly since it's so focused on Life-after-death).

Work is, as mentioned, easier to handle because of my near departure. Sleeping is actually a problem, though, because of the heat...

On the weekend, we were blessed to have a priest up from Melbourne. On Sunday, we began what we could probably describe as 'Summer's last great act of defiance, 2007' - 38 degrees celsius. Normally, that's rather hot; but in this part of the world, we also have humidity, which just makes it altogether intolerable. And that's for people who are used to the weather...which this particular priest was most certainly not, and was quoted as saying (tongue firmly in cheek) 'Father, I'm not coming back here until you install air-conditioning!'. We had coffee later, and chose where we were going to sit based on the one-degree difference, hoping that the constant flow of servers would create some air flow.

In a place where one survives summer by moving from air-conditioned house to air-conditioned car to air-conditioned office to...well, you get the idea, it's a fair thing to say. The heat (plus humidity) is such a problem that I have had to set up a mattress in an air-conditioned room just to get to sleep - something that I last had to do in late January (when the admittedly rather late summer kicked in).

I'm (still? don't know if I've mentioned this, or if it's ad nauseum to some...) considering a number of options that must be thought about, considered, prayed for and about for rather long periods.

I should also mention that, with the upcoming change in the whole, y'know, my life, I'm considering a new blog to go with it. Definitely not a sure thing, and not before June. As much as I like the friends page on LiveJournal, I'm not a fan of the LJ layout.

Work starting to not suck as badly due to its imminant cessation

2007-03-09T23:21:00Z

Well, I've decided to depart from my place of employment as a (mainly coincidentally) Holy Week present to myself. If all goes well, I'll be able to get Youth Allowance when I go back to uni - not sure how I'm going to manage it yet, but I'll find a way.

I'm actually looking forward to it. In the past, I'll decide that a situation is intolerable, and then once I've found a way out, I've gotten better so much that I'll decide 'oh, maybe it wasn't that bad', and then a few weeks later, invariably once I've missed a good opportunity, it'll suck again, and it's a bit of a cycle until I decide to bite the bullet...
(incidentally, who bites bullets as a normal everyday activity??)

I've managed to get through the Typica, now I'm half way through the Katavasiais. Not sure what I'll do next - probably the less-used Liturgies, then the special chants in Vespers or something like that. I really can't thank St Gregory Palamas Monastery (particularly Fr Seraphim Dedes) and St Anthony's Monastery enough for putting quality Byzantine chant in English online.

Bible study (Philippians) on Monday was good - some good stuff, like how we try to rely on ourselves and wonder why things don't work for long. Afterwards we went to coffee and said goodbye to one of our group, Lon (not his real name), who is going to England with his sisters. Bon voyage!

Had a bookstore session last night. We chose $1500 worth of books to keep and, like, $8500 (or more, not sure) to send back. So tired.

All else is going well enough.

Welcome to the 2007 edition of getting to know your friends.

2007-03-05T15:30:35Z

1. What time did you get up this morning? 7:20am

2. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds

3.What was the last film you saw in a cinema? Dear me, it's been such a long time...I honestly can't remember

4.What are your favourite TV shows?  Scrubs, How I Met Your Mother, Black Books
5.What did you have for breakfast this morning?  Nothing until midday, which I had a debate on this morning as to whether that qualified as lunch (because of time) or as breakfast (because it was breaking the fast)...no conclusion.
6. What is your middle name?  I have two.
7.What is your favourite cuisine?  Pizza - BBQ Meatlovers with extra BBQ sauce.
8.What foods do you dislike?  Anything spicy, can't stand it.
9.Favourite chips?  BBQ
10. What is your favourite CD at the moment?  Mystical Supper, by Boston Byzantine Choir.
11. What is your favourite sandwich?  Nutella. Lent is good like that...
12.What characteristics do you despise?  Lack of honesty, people who talk and reveal their own stupidity.

13.What are your favourite clothes? Trenchcoat. All time favourite. Sadly, the weather is far too hot to wear such things.

14.If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation?  I wouldn't go anywhere - I live here because I think it rocks!
15.Favourite brand of clothing?  Giordano, if I had to choose one.
16.Where would you want to retire?  To where I was needed (i.e. I wouldn't).
17.Favourite time of the day?  about 8pm
18.Where were you born?  in the same city I live in.
19.What is your favourite sport to watch?  I think that debating should qualify. Not bickering, but proper construction of arguments. It's difficult, and people don't get that because they don't know what argument is or how it's done - see question 12.

20.Who do you think will not send this back? Uh, it's not on an e-mail, so no one.
21.Person you expect to send it back first? See above.

22.Pepsi or Coke? Coke. Is 2L a day bad for you?
23.Beavers or ducks? Ducks.
24.Are you a morning person or a night owl? Early morning, like around the 2-6am mark, when I've had a good night's sleep.

25.Pedicure or manicure?  Neither.
26.Any new or exciting news you'd like to share?  Not really. This is a blog, read my other posts.
27.What did you want to be when you were little?  Oh so many things...
28.What is your best childhood memory?  Can't think of one.
29.Piercings?  None.
30.Ever been to Africa?  No
31.Ever been toilet papering?  nope
32. Been in a car accident?  No.
33.Favourite day of the week?  Liturgic Sunday (i.e. Saturday nighttime and Sunday daytime)
34.Favourite restaurant?  McDonald's.

35.Favourite flower?  Seriously, who has a favourite flower?
36.Favourite ice cream?  Vanilla
37.Favourite fast food restaurant?  Macca's.

38.How many times did you fail your drivers test? 0 - I don't have a licence.

39.From whom did you get your last email? Scooby
40.In which stores would you choose to max out your credit card? Online Orthodox stores - books, cd's...

41.Bedtime? About three hours ago.
42.Who are you most curious about their responses to this? everyone

43.Last person you went to dinner with? group from church which was tonight
44.What are you listening to right now? My typing speed.

45.What is your favourite colour? Blood red. Red always has been, but blood red is a hangover from my gothy days...*cue reminiscent music*
46.How many tattoos do you have? None.

So: Copy the above, and paste in your own answers. C'mon, it'll be fun.

I actively hate my job.

2007-03-02T23:01:46Z

This, I think, has been just one of those weeks.

Spending an entire week changing dates in various computer systems is, admittedly, not my idea of enjoyment. Employment, of course, is generally not the same as enjoyment, and I have no problems with that - my original job was advertised as data entry, after all.

Work (and I'm excluding vocations or 24hr on-call jobs from this) should be something that lasts for 40 hours and you can leave at work, feeling your anxiety go as you sign the sheet and as your foot hits the pavement. But work should not be something that one detests, should not be something that stays with you.

Ideally, one should get a job doing what they're passionate about, and then it's fine for it to be with you 24/7, because you'll assumedly enjoy it. But that's the ideal, and I'm not talking about the ideal. I'm talking about a minimum standard: work shouldn't tax one's mental health.

For those of you who are wondering, I'm not talking about some meaningless hypothetical situation that I've been subtly musing about as I've danced around the maypole. I actively hate my job, and since I don't have any dependants or interdependants, there's no 'protector' idea going around that I need this job for others.

Added to that, I'm looking at my options for going back to university - doing my masters or somesuch - in second semester. Stay tuned for that.

And for those who are wondering at my progress through the Anastasimatarion: Matins is done, and I'm up to Tone 6 (Pl.2) in Vespers - for non-liturgic-geeks, there's eight tones, and going through each tone takes about 20mins, so I've got about an hour to go. What next? Not sure.

Occupational Alternation

2007-02-23T13:33:20Z

Well, today ended up having something in it.

Firstly, my aforementioned project to go through the Sunday matins has gone far faster than I thought it would (had I thought it would be done within a week I'd have done it long ago!), with only the 11 Eothina to go. These are _really_ long pieces, so these 11 are about the equivalent of another tone.

Secondly, it's probably just in time.
My job has changed! Well, somewhat, at least. Instead of looking after a particular area and doing stuff related to that (and generally being the main paper pusher for guys that actually do the work), I have been swapped with someone to one of the two paper-pushers that keep everyone else in line.

Those who can, do; those who can't, administrate.

I'm not entirely certain if it's a promotion, or a positive, to be honest. There were a couple of tensions of late (i.e. in the last week) that have come to the fore in the last couple of days, and I would suspect that, as the most expendable person (and, it must be said, one of the people involved in the aforementioned tensions), the move has been influenced by that.
That being said, there are distinct advantages: the biggest one of which is that I can basically choose my own hours (within normal business hours, of course). This will let me go back to evening activities (and the ability to be home to catch the last bit of primetime TV), yet still have a decent start time - both of which I'm a big fan of. Now that I think about it, it'll be a lot like my old job (i.e. the electronic equivalent of paper shuffling), just with the current (i.e. increased) rate of pay.

Why is it just in time? Even though there's only about an hour's difference, it's the difference between having 30mins to throw at something and having 90mins - and 30mins is just too small a block of time to really throw at something.

So for those of you who were wanting a real blog entry, I hope that today's offerings have satiated your wish :P

The Eight Echos

2007-02-22T14:00:28Z

My usual daily routine is to wake up at a time just after when people consider normal (around 8am), do stuff until I leave (around 10am), go to work, get home (around 9pm), and spend an hour or so winding down before going to bed. There's no particular significance to this routine - it's worked for me, and there's no reason to change.

One of the benefits of this routine is that I have about 90mins at the beginning of each day where I can just throw at something - which basically ends up being anything except reading. Why not reading? Mainly because I do around an hour of reading each day, just on the train to and from work, plus whatever I can push in - any more seems to reduce its effectiveness. Reading for as much as I do, as quickly as I do, tends to have tangible results - the pile of books on the floor which I received from St Tikhon's Bookstore has basically halved in the week that I've had it, going through just over a book every two days (and decent sized books, at that). Of course, that progress may not be as dramatic if I expect that to work on the Prologue of Ohrid, but still.

This week, I've basically thrown it at learning the Sunday matins service in each of the eight tones. Skipping the first tone (since I already know it), I've gone through about one per day (with the exception of the last two days, when I did three between it). Tomorrow is Tone Seven/Grave Tone (depending on your translator); and probably Monday will be Tone Eight/Tone Plagal Four
Why? For all the things that I don't want to be the excuse for not transitioning to English services, the one that I resented the most was that we didn't have any competant chanter in English. The response that we didn't have more than four in Greek (all of these well into retirement years) didn't assuage the truth of the accusation - I'm not sure if anyone can do an English matins service on Sunday here. So, I'm going to learn it, purely on principle. I expect the whole thing to take 8 business days (I'm not including the Eothina in the tones, so they'll all be done on one day).
Next up: Vespers. This could be shortcutted, but I also want to know that I can do the long version of 'Lord I have cried' (i.e. Psalms 148-150), so I'm going to allow the same amount of time.

All of this does illustrate the sheer quantity of Orthodox music. For this, I'm only looking at the basic, regular stuff done on a regular Sunday, and it's still going to take me about 10 hours to go through it all. Saturday nights, about another 10 - again, just for the basics. In a standard week, yes, these are the biggest and most-used parts; but I haven't even started on feasts, seasons of the ecclesiastical calendar (i.e. Lent to Pentecost), doxologies, advanced pieces...and all this is not including the Divine Liturgy, of which there is, no doubt, entire libraries worth of books devoted to different versions of hymns for the same 60-90 minute service.

People can ask how we can put up with the services changing all the time. In reality, the answer is that, if the services were done in anything like their fullness, we probably wouldn't notice.

(oh, and in case you're all wondering - work still sucks, and I'm still seriously considering other pathways)

Four Sentences

2007-02-20T22:04:07Z

Q. What's stranger than me taking a, like, two week break from blogging?
A. The fact that I can catch everyone up in about four sentences.

- Last week, I had really bad McDonald's withdrawal.
- This week, I expected to have chocolate cravings, but I just have food cravings...
- I'm seriously considering quitting mid-way through the year and going back to uni, to do an MA specialising in Theology.
- I'm sick of saying 'not much is happening' and meaning it. Every week is a near-replica of the previous - the only differences being in how it's a near-replica.

Strong, Confident Women

2007-02-09T11:21:37Z

Post based on Remembering V-Day: A young nun defends The Vagina Monologues. Props to wwabbit/Huw Raphael.

I see plenty of articles about how women are being denigrated, ignored, abused; and plenty talking about how stereotypes are being perpetuated.

Maybe the girls (and guys, but that's not the point) I hang around are totally exceptional, but I just don't see it. On the whole, I see assured, confident, happy people - and the few exceptions to the rule are quite well aware that why they aren't has very little to do with their gender.

Now, admittedly, I'm not hanging out in the slums. You want to say that's a class conflict, and yeah, I'll concede that my anecdotal experience is completely lacking. Gender issues are brought out by having a lack in cash? Maybe; again, what I have personally seen is not relevant to that.

But I'm seeing women who are happy; men who are happy; and aside from gender being a part of most individuals (biology and anatomy, if nothing else), I'm just not seeing the woe-is-me-for-i-am-female thing.
Now that I think of it, the closest thing I get to anger at ones own gender is from guys.

Link to a cool post

2007-02-07T11:23:50Z

got nothing to say, so I thought I'd at least put up a link.
http://www.this-side-of-glory.com/archives/forgive-us-our-trespasses-more-than-we-forgive-those-who-trespass-against-us/

You know you like reading when...

2007-02-05T22:30:21Z

...a single publisher's catalogue has $787.50 worth of books that you want.
Oh, and that's US dollars - probably $1000 Australian.

There's so much still to read and learn.

The Nth Degree and Fast-Free Trads

2007-02-03T02:43:53Z

I've been thinking a lot about, well, about many things. I know that not everyone cares, so I'm going to put LJ cuts in.

What's the thinking on Orthodox evangelism? Twenty million in Australia, the majority living in the state capital cities (91% in cities), one million already Orthodox - all it would take is for every Orthodox to "convert" (if you'll excuse the imprecise term) one other person, and have the process repeat 5 times, and the whole country would be Orthodox. Right? That sounds easy enough (it's just five people after all), but even five is pretty tough, considering the national average as being less than 1.
But it's not even that easy.
Religious people who go to a weekly worship service make up a sum total of 1.5 million - about 7.5% of the total population, or 10% of the population that claims a religion. So, if we assume that Orthodox are particularly (i.e. stunningly) religious (and we ain't), that would be 20% of the million believers, or 200,000. Number of cycles to convert the country - 7.

It's easy to then say 'so how's everyone's average going?'. No doubt partly because my own would be consistant with the national average, I'm not going to do that; but it's something to consider - how seriously are we going to take the whole 'love your neighbour' thing?

But, assuming that all of the above is accepted - what is the best way to evangelise? Is it through small books in large libraries, through big churches, through various ethnic festivals? That's been the way for some time, and we should be surprised at how successful that's been - turns out that even the tiniest tip-of-the-hat concession still gets blessed and magnified by God.
So what would happen if we concentrated on making it a priority? That we be 'fishers of men', rather than rejoicing when fish fall into the boat? Would not God bless our attempts there as well?
What would happen if we really took the Incarnation and the Resurrection seriously? Even on a comparative study of religions, this is the first time that God has become a human and still remained a God, has died and resurrected, and offers us the chance to be adopted sons of God. Even as an academic study, the utter outlandishness must be considered notable - and considering that God is so incomprehensible, it's also plausible.

Could we not at least take small steps? When someone asks what we did on the weekend, could we not say that we went to Church? and afterwards was coffee? Have an icon on our desk, calling it a picture of a loved One? Read a spiritual book on the train? Even if we can't actively proclaim our faith and preach it, we should - and we must - be open that it is our faith - so if anyone wants to find the Truth, at least they'll know who to talk to.

Long-term readers may have noticed that taking things seriously and to the nth degree is a big thing for me - that applies wherever I am.

Not a great deal has happened since I last blogged - lots and lots of McDonalds, which can't be good for me, but it's almost a tradition. And the way this tradition is going, it might just work - I'm almost sick of it. Almost.

And there's the post.

recovery and the re-recovery

2007-01-31T21:45:46Z

So - not much has been happening since the youth conference. I've been to work three times (in three days - hardly exceptional). By Tuesday, I'd recovered from the youth conference (it was a big, big weekend).

On Tuesday, though, my co-worker decided that a day-trip to Sydney was in order to see a performance. So we got a replacement for the morning on Tuesday, and it happened to be the busiest morning of the week - phone calls coming in left, right and centre. I come in, and thirty minutes later they stop. It's like they can tell when one of the regulars isn't in.
So it was a tiring day - good day, just tiring.

On Wednesday, because aforementioned co-worker was returning to work during the day, we swapped shifts so I was doing the morning shift. We'd already done this once, at my instigation, last Thursday, and we reaffirmed that this was a horrible thing to do and should only be done when necessary. I'm fairly sure that I'm the only person who actually prefers the last late shift.

On Thursday...well, that's today. Everything goes back to normal.

Today is the fast free week to remind us that it's not all about the rules, and that we can pharisaically follow all the rules and then miss the point (i.e. Jesus). You know that you know your liturgic calendar well when you get a bit of a sinking, hungry feeling in response.

Last night, I decided that I should order some Orthodox magazines. I was going to order subscriptions, and then I realised that there were a lot of back issues that I didn't have. So I ordered them instead. I'm going to have about three quarters of the back-issues of Road to Emmaus. Next purchase - AGAIN magazine. Any other suggestions?

LXX update - please contain your surprise.

2007-01-31T11:32:18Z

From the LXX site:

As we write this message, the final pieces of the new Orthodox Study Bible have been sent to the publisher, where they are being formatted, typeset, printed, bound, packaged, and made ready for distribution. Though we do not know all that is yet to come, we do believe the new Orthodox Study Bible, Old and New Testament, will be available for purchase by Spring 2008.

Annoying, but...

Conference

2007-01-28T23:31:59Z

Wow.
The weekend that was, was the Ninth National Youth Conference of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia. A good summary of the official stuff is here on lucascosti's blog.

As a result of the conference and the work I did with the bookstore, I was completely drained. But the bookstore did very, very well - we were very happy with the results from it.

The best part was meeting new people - particularly the ones that I met seemed to be very switched-on and loved God, etc etc. Oh, and a totally beautiful and moving ordination on the Sunday - Panta Axios (Ever-Worthy - both as acclaimation and admonition) to Fr Nicholas!

If there's anyone reading the blog from the youth conference, please leave a comment - even if only a 'g'day!'.

And now, back to work today...

Seeming Inactivity

2007-01-23T11:30:56Z

I know I don't post as often as I used to, but that's because this week, in general, has been pretty sucky. Like, losing-sleep sucky. Lots of thinking and rethinking about things that I didn't anticipate thinking and rethinking.

So yeah. I could post a lot of oh-maybe-this but-on-the-other-hand-that but-on-the-hands-of-my-octopus-the-other-thing, but I'll save you all those hands.

Oh, and the heat isn't helping.

What is it with mid-to-late January?!

I am so my own country

2007-01-21T06:26:32Z

Heh heh heh :D

Your Slanguage Profile

Aussie Slang: 100%

British Slang: 50%

Prison Slang: 50%

Canadian Slang: 25%

Victorian Slang: 25%

New England Slang: 0%

What Slanguage Do You Speak?

two weeks in two paragraphs

2007-01-18T12:57:26Z

Wow. It's been two weeks since I blogged - and a fairly intense couple of weeks it's been. Of course, y'all know that I went down south, which was awesomely awesome as always - even though it was work, it was so totally different that I was still chillin'. In a, y'know, being at a monastery kinda way.

Then this week came along, and for a number of reasons, it's been a shocker. Sunday was a Liturgy out of town which I tend to go to - I enjoy it, but it's still a very draining day. Then Monday came along, came to work really cranky, ended up having to do overtime. Had a massive moodswing to Tuesday, when I was too happy - possibly because I brought a series of a TV show to watch at work. Now, because I like to mess with the system at the same time as I follow all the system's rules, this put me in a great mood.
FWIW, I finished an entire season in three days - not bad, since I actually had real work to do in that time.
Then I came down to earth and realised - hey, I don't actually have to care that other people aren't doing their jobs, because that's actually their problems, not mine. Happy since.

TTFN, BBL.

2007-01-03T11:41:35Z

Mwell. No time for End of Year Wrap, I have to pack for my trip to the monastery that I oft frequent - the shirts are done, which is good, but nothing else is. I'll be back in just over a week.

I did make a comment on this blog about this article - the idea that girls are being raised in a culture of sex while boys in a culture of violence is hardly a new one, but I made an opine on the topic.

Work hasn't been particularly interesting, and I haven't done terribly much else. Oh, aside from typing out all the services at the above monastery, printing them out and pasting them into my copy of the Psalter (with references to all the psalms, of course). I'd be a little surprised if no one's thought of that before, but I happened to like the idea - particularly as I'm one of those who must know what's going on at all times, no matter the language. Lots of flipping, but it should end up okay.