Rough Night, Good Day.

Ted is listening to: Hard drive going whir whir thucka-thucka-thucka
Ted's mood: Persnickety
Winnings: $60 In Kitty: $50

I guess I start with the rough night.

My sleeping patterns have been haywire since the night shifts. Sat night I was awake til 5am, also sculled an old bottle of champagne from the garage fridge because I was thirsty and there was no beer. Fell asleep about 5:30 am, woke up 7am Sunday, WIDE awake and feeling very seedy. Ho hum. Got up, staggered around, had a Sunday lunch with the family, felt more alive and headed off for a meeting with some folks from church. Halfway through (c. 4pm) I went past "exhausted and feel like sh!t" into actual "sleepy" and went home from the meeting to go back to bed. Meant to nap for a couple hours then head off to Mass, instead slept right through til midnite.

Woke up. Had had 8 hours sleep, feeling fine except now my day starts at 12am. Oops.

Modded for a while, about 4am or so went back to bed and actually slept through til 7:30. Now I had had way too much sleep but at least I was back on schedule. So I wandered down the road to get a coffee and generally get the blood circulating, stopped by work to see if the pool was happening (stinking hot yesterday) then wandered home and washed my car, first time in ages. More modding (Endarire's NPC) and watched 'Last Samurai' with my ma whom I knew would like it. Not a bad flick if you don't expect too much from something that takes itself so seriously, really quite good I think.

Bout 9pm last night I am yawning and think, "great, I am back in a good sleep pattern for my 7am starts next week". So I go to bed at 9:30, and am out pretty kwik (thats something for me).

Midnight I wake up. Wide awake, my body has decided this was not a night's sleep, merely a nap. Bugger.

So I get up and mod for a few more hours, back to bed and get maybe 2 more hours before waking up at 6am. WIDE awake again. Bugger.

So I get up and polish the car (damn it needed it). Yesterday was stinking hot: today - now that the car is washed - its all overcast and threatening rain. {sigh} Then I head down to Parra to book tickets for Malaysia in March - Yvy and I have to do the pre-wedding Church course thingy - and have a word with Immigration about bringing Yvy out. Also wanted to go to the club and test out a roulette system I been working on (the club - its a Leagues Club, the one attached to my team, the mighty Parramatta Eels, I also stopped by the returned servicemen's club - has roulette machines like slot machines, cheaper than the casino, $1 minimum bet and they don't jack it up on the outside betting like the casino. There, they have $2, $5 and $10 tables and outside betting like odd/even, red/black etc is 5 times the minimum. Gets expensive real kwik.) So I park at the shopping centre - thats the biggest mall in the southern hemisphere don't u know, and they have just added a massive extension at that - and hoof it to the servicemen's club. They don't have the roulette machines so I keep going til I get to the Leagues Club - I need the exercise anyway! Lug my umbrella all the way but no rain.

At the club, I run my system - several dozen wins in simulation, only one loss (loss amount easily covered by wins) and win $50, the amount I intended. WOOHOOOOO!! $53 to be exact. Won $7 trying out the machines a few days ago to get the hang of them, though didn't have enough in my pocket that day for any serious efforts.

So, then I realise I can catch confession at the Cathedral across the road, and off I go.

No I didn't have to confess my gambling. ;-) Gambling, imho opinion, is not inherently sinful, though like many things it is bad if not in moderation. To me it comes down to one thing: gambling is never condemned in the Bible. Mentioned, yes - the soldiers who diced for Jesus' clothes at the Cross - but never condemned. Like many things Puritanism claims is sinful (drinking in moderation, guitar music, dancing, fiddle music, theatres, cinemas, fun of any sort really...) there is no Biblical backing.

What I had to confess was not making it to Mass on Sunday (see above) and certain issues of anger and other dispious dispositions I have had lately. Anyways...

Confession remains one of the real sticking points between Catholics and other Christians. Its funny... lots of modern churches, such as the Pentecostals, are really starting to understand the sort of authority Jesus gave his people. Authority to heal, to cast out 'demons' (real, or the demons of our lives like smoking, gossip etc). They exercise this authority, miracles happen, they rejoice at the authority given in Jesus' name.

But seriously, Jesus himself asked - what is easier to say? "Your sins are forgiven" or "be healed"?

To claim (or acknowledge) authority to heal the effects of sin, but not the sin itself, is just inconsistent. Why would you think one pastor can say, "In Christ's name be healed" but another can't say, "In Christ's name your sins are forgiven". Either way, it is God who is acting through His minister.

The difference, of course, is that anyone can pray for healing, but not anyone can exercise the authority to forgive sins in Christ's name. The Bible is very clear on that - it is always associated with the Apostles and the Church Elders they have appointed (Jn 20:23, Matt 18:17-18, Matt 26:28, Jas 5:14-15). I guess thats the real sticking point - you can't exercise an authority granted to a Church you have left.

O well - at least we have the Holy Spirit together, praise God!

But enough pontificating. Where was I? O yeah, at church ;-) Afterwards I wandered back to the shops, had lunch, and booked my tickets to Malaysia. WOOHOOOO!!! O and I went by Immigration as I said, that was a slow and pointless meeting but not actually bad news, thats something. I won't go into it here.

Church again tonight, I guess I should be modding but I am so damn sleepy. O well, I can get some brain-dead stuff done, like renaming the mp3s Endarire sent me for his NPC to match the dlg file I made. I think you folks are going to like this character, he has, well, real character :-)

Anyways, thats my day. What with the winnings, the exercise, getting stuff done, and getting to Church, I liked it 8^D Really nice crepe for lunch too, but tried that Coke Zero stuff, didn't do it for me. When are they gonna release Pepsi Fire and Pepsi Ice out here? Pepsi Samba doesn't do it for me either.