I remember, in year seven, saying to my friends,

"You know, one day we'll be in year twelve, and we'll all be like 'we're in year twelve and this is our last year of school!'"

And here we are.
And it's been said.
Countless numbers of times.

My 13 years of schooling is finally coming to its end.
And I am not happy,
or sad,
or excited,
or scared.

Nothing feels weird or different.
It
all
feels
the
same.

Poverty

Well, BC's post alerted me to the fact that it is Blog Action Day (B.A.D.? You would think that they might choose a more appropriate name and, in turn, get a more appropriate acronym. Although, maybe this acronym inspires humour, and that's a good thing!)

So, the B.A.D. 'theme', if you will, is Poverty.
Poverty is... bad.

I have never experienced poverty. I have never been to a third world country, never seen the 'slums' of my own country either, really, and I have never, myself, been in a state of poverty.
There is always, of course, what the media show and tell us about poverty, but that is still not really experiencing it.

Duh. Yes, Emily, everyone knows that.

I suppose because I haven't experienced poverty, I am apathetic towards the topic.
Yes, I know poverty is bad. Yes, I know people die every day from preventable causes. Yes, I know people live in houses smaller than my bedroom. Yes, I know there are people who are my age and have to drop out of school to work and support their family. Yes, I know.

But somehow for me, and for millions of other people I suppose, just knowing all of that isn't always enough.
People are still selfish, including me. People still complain about things that don't matter...

Even though I feel apathetic towards poverty, I don't ignore it. I donate to charities, I join in with fund-raisers, it gives me a good feeling. But I don't really get passionate about it. Then again, it feels like a long time since I've been passionate about anything.



There are lots of 'end poverty' movements. Claiming that we can end poverty in our life time.
I think I believe that. I think. I mean, in theory it's possible, in theory we could eradicate poverty within a week. A day, even.

But will it ever happen?

Even if we do 'eradicate' poverty, there will be a new form of poverty. Societies will always be divided into status and class, and while all people may have basic human rights, a place to live, people to love, and food on the table, there will still be people with more money. There will still be people with less money.
So, in a way, we can end poverty, and in a way, we can't.


Gosh, I'm so defeatist.


Although, a positive way of looking at poverty through this 'defeatist' view would be to look at a story I've heard a few times about a boy walking on the beach...


-
There is a man walking along the beach after a storm. The storm has washed thousands of starfish onto the sand, and they are all lying in the sun, drying out and dying. The man sees a boy up ahead who is throwing the starfish back into the now calm water.

How can he ever hope to save all these star fish?

The man walks closer to the boy, who is still diligently picking up and throwing the starfish back into the ocean, one by one.

"Hey kid, what are you doing?"

"I'm saving the starfish."

The man does not want to let the boy down, but how on Earth can the boy save all the starfish? They are drying out much too quickly.

"But kid, how can you ever hope to make a difference? There are thousands of them, they're all going to dry out before you get to them."

The boy did not stop, or hesitate. He did not give up and go home. He just picked up another starfish, and threw it back into the sea before speaking to the man.

"It made a difference for that one."

He threw in another starfish.

"Made a difference for that one"

Another starfish, another.

"Made a difference for that one, and that one."

-

There are probably countless versions of this story, and I don't know if it's true or not, but it's a good allegory for poverty.

Maybe we can't change the world. Maybe we can't eradicate poverty forever, or ever.
But why should that be reason to give up, just because we can't change the whole world?

We can make a difference for one person. And another person. And another person.

Why should fear of failure or minimalism stop us?

---

This post is part of Blog Action Day 08 - Poverty

I've been going to 'Pentecostal' churches for pretty much my whole life.
One corrupt and super dodgy. The other awesome, so far.
I've visited plenty of other churches.

When I was younger I didn't really know about different 'types' of churches, and I just thought that non-Pentecostal churches weren't as passionate, weren't as 'in' to Christianity as we were.

I certainly don't think this now.


But I'm sorry,
for my naivety.

Such Love...

I don't really have anything to blog about... I just felt like blogging.
It's been ages since I've written anything blog-worthy...

A lot has happened since my last 'real' blog post, here are some of those happenings in list-form:


-I live with my sister Holly now! It's exciting and challenging and different. Sometimes I hate it, sometimes I love it.
It's good because I am learning and growing, bad because it's inconvenient travel-wise and because it's hard to break old lifestyle habits.

-I turned sweet (and sour?) 18! A fact I am (usually) proud of.

-I have done many barely mentionable things like making a giant cuddly tea bag, going to the show, being awesome, being not-so-awesome, having a school formal, various birthdays & such...

-I have a new phone number but I don't know what it is... so don't ring/message me.

-I have a car! (No license yet) It's an old, boxy Corolla, metallic/olive green. I have named it Jpeg, on account of it's square nature.

-I submitted all my VTAC/Uni stuff... how exciting.


There endeth the list.

The title of this blog has nothing to do with the blog really, it's just a song I have stuck in my head.

Such love
Such love
Such love is this for me...

This is Jesus
In his glory
King of Heaven
Dying for me
It is finished
He has done it
Death is beaten
Heaven beckons me


Well, I suppose now that the title does relate to the blog.

I've been thinking a lot lately, that I wish Vetamorphus went for two years...
I miss my group and I miss the weekly meetings. I don't have any substitute for those. Not even a church small group because everything's all changing at the moment and the only small group I'm involved in is one I'll be leading.
Which doesn't mean I can't learn and grow still, but it's different...

Beach mission stuff is finally getting started. I'm on the Rosebud/Section 12 team this year which is different, I'm going to miss McCrae like all heck, I've spent nearly half of my summers there.

Sigh. Yawn.

TubeFun

Dear world:
I'm very sorry to have neglected you for so long. I've been busy, see, and also the internet around here has been quite fickle lately.

I'm also sorry that after a long absence, all I'm giving you is YouTube videos, but seriously, they are grouse.

Although they are not relatively new, so you may have seen some, if not all of them before.



Beached Whale

I always offer my chips to people after watching this.



Darth Vader Being a Smartass

First time I saw this, very nearly 'rofl'ed.



Trent From Punchy

Apparently this kid is fo' shizzle.



Keyboard Kid

Priceless. Gets in your head for days.



Yours sincerely,
Emily, VCE. (Apparently when you finish VCE, you can put those letters on the end of your name... I haven't finished yet, but I sometimes like to pretend I'm quasi-professional.)

Black and Gold - Sam Sparro

This song is mad.
I love it.
You should get into it.
It's on the radio.
Anyway.
I love the lyrics.
The music is also cool.



-
Black and Gold - Sam Sparro

If the fish swam out of the ocean
And grew legs and they started walking
And the apes climbed down from the trees
And grew tall and they started talking

And the stars fell out of the sky
And my tears rolled into the ocean
Now I'm looking for a reason why
You even set my world into motion

'Cause if You're not really here
Then the stars don't even matter
Now I'm filled to the top with fear
That it's all just a bunch of matter
'Cause if You're not really here
Then I don't want to be either
I wanna be next to You
Black and gold
Black and gold
Black and gold

I look up into the night sky
I see a thousand eyes staring back
And all around these golden beacons
I see nothing but black

I feel the weight of something beyond them
I don't see what I can feel
If vision is the only validation
Then most of my life isn't real

'Cause if You're not really here
Then the stars don't even matter
Now I'm filled to the top with fear
That it's all just a bunch of matter
'Cause if You're not really here
Then I don't want to be either
I wanna be next to You
Black and gold
Black and gold
Black and gold
-

To Be Alone With You - Sufjan Stevens

Sufjan Stevens is probably my all time favourite musician.
I love the music and I love the lyrics.

The way he writes is amazing.

A lot of his songs centre around his Christian beliefs, but he does it in such a way that it's not 'Schmistian' (Christian) music. I love it.
Especially this song:

-
To Be Alone With You - Sufjan Stevens
I'd swim across Lake Michigan
I'd sell my shoes
I'd give my body to be back again
In the rest of the room
To be alone with you
To be alone with you
To be alone with you
To be alone with you

You gave your body to the lonely
They took your clothes
You gave up a wife and a family
You gave your ghost
To be alone with me
To be alone with me
To be alone with me
You went up on a tree

To be alone with me
You went up on a tree

I've never known a man who loved me

-

Funbag/Finally

Because the countdown/up/whatever thing that arrived last time I posted a blog on this topic has gone bonkers, I will do the old fashioned typing thing:

AT THE TIME OF WRITING, IT IS APPROX. 48 MINUTES SINCE JONO LAST POSTED A BLOG.
THAT NUMBER CHANGED TO 49 APPROX. WHEN I WAS WRITING 'SINCE'.

A link: http://fun-bag.blogspot.com/
That is all.



It's now been 50 minutes.

While I procrastinate.

"Australian-Asian" takes a long time to say, but you can't shorten it to "Australasian" because Australasia is already a thing.

And "Ausian" is too strange a word for people to pronounce universally.

100 Things About eM

On Ben Chong's orders (I seem to do a bit of blogging on his orders... Bossy) here is a blogitty blog of 100 things about me, Emily.

1. I was born on the 25th of July, 1990. I was alive (in the womb) for about three months of the eighties, so now I can claim that I was alive in the eighties!

2. My name is Emily Kate Wood. I've posted a blog before about what my name means, and how I don't really adore the meaning/s of it, but here's a refresher:
Emily: Rival, Emulating, Striving, Industrious.
Kate (Form of Catherine): Pure.
Wood: ...tree? Probably and ancestor of mine worked with wood.
My middle name, 'Kate', was after our convict ancestor Catherine Kearney. We went to Tasmania to celebrate the 200 year anniversary of her landing (as a convict) in Australia. Woo.

3. I am the youngest of four children. I think I've had a lot of independence to build because of this; I never had to look after a younger sibling, I always had people looking after me.

4. I am an aunty five times. To Eliza, Jesse, Zachariah, Asher, and Baby X. I love being an aunty, even though I do get tired of just 'playing' non-stop.

5. I am generally an arty sort of person. I love to draw and paint. I like to think I'm fairly good at it, but I know I'm not fantastic, because these last few years I've hardly practised at all.

6. I am a Christian. I grew up in a Christian home, which I'm sure contributed a lot to it, but I'm definitely running on my own faith now, rather than my parents'. I feel like I should write more. But there's not much more to it, really. I love God, he loves me, I try to live like Jesus did.

7. My parents split up at the end of 2005. I don't really talk about this much, and it's not something I'd generally post on the World Wide Web, but it's such a large part of my life right now that I don't think I can write a list of 100 things about me without mentioning it.

8. Anyone who knows me will be able to tell you that I'm a horrible procrastinator. It's not something I'm proud of, and I've tried to work on it pretty much all my school life, to no avail.
But I feel like I'm making some sort of progress. It's not just about making a timetable. It's about discipline, and changing your mindset.

9. I am introverted and shy. Used to be extremely so. I'm learning not to be so shy, but I'm still very introverted. I like being introverted.

10. I love music. I used to hate a lot of types of music (i.e. rap, techno, and rnb) but lately I started liking most music. There is still music I don't like, but I enjoy music a bunch more now that I like more music, savvy?
I love getting 'lost' in a song, if you'll allow me to be extremely hackneyed for a moment, but I love the atmosphere a song creates, and the story it tells. I love pretending that my life is a movie and the song playing is part of the soundtrack. Some music makes me cry.

11. I also love movies! I will watch any type of film really, as long as it's made well. I really love films that make you think about things. I love films with good cinematography. I love short films and foreign films.

12. I'm female. Just in case you hadn't picked that up yet.

13. I love grammar and language and words. I love reading about grammar and learning about where our language comes from and how to use it correctly. I love how words have meanings attached to them, and how certain combinations of words can inspire or motivate, give you shivers or fill you with horror.

14. I love graphic design. It makes me as happy as grammar. I don't love bad graphic design. It makes me cringe.

15. I don't have one favourite colour. I just can't choose one, they're all so gosh darn good. I do have favourite colours for different things though. My favourite colour for cucumber is green. My favourite colour for lipstick is not green, etc.

16. I love making other people happy. Sometimes to the point of being a people pleaser and a pushover. This is bad but I'm working on it.

17. When I first started this list, this point read 'I don't drink'. But now, that has changed and I do drink. One time I was stressed out so my mum gave me a beer? Good to see you're teaching me responsible habits, mum.

18. If I had the money and the time, I would be interested in fashion. But I would still shop at op shops a lot. As it is, I don't have the money or the time, most of my shopping is done at op shops and target. Also I think money wasted on expensive brands can be better spent elsewhere.

19. I have never kissed a boy/had a boyfriend. I feel strange writing that? Also, I have never kissed a girl, just to set the record straight. Gettit? Straight? Ahhhaha. Not having kissed anyone is a fact I'm usually proud of. But soon I won't be a teenager anymore, and my 'abstinence of everything to the extreme turned frigidity' is starting to sadden me. Sweet (and sour?) 20. Sigh.

20. I have never been outside Australia, though I have been to every state/territory except for Western Australia.

21. I have a Deviant Art page that I like to post some arty things on.

22. I am 19 years old.

23. I have sung on stage with famous German children's singer Rolf Zuckowski. (ha)

24. I am sad. Often.

25. I can't stand filing my nails

26. I also can't bite my nails. I've tried before, to no avail. They're just too darn thick.

27. Because I've never had a boyfriend, etc, I'm quite afraid of having one.

28. I am the messiest person I know.

29. I drink far too much tea and coffee.

30. I got an A+ for my VCD folio in yr 12. That means I must be awesome.

31. Contrary to number 30, I'm actually not up myself.

32. I started this list when I was 17.

33. I'm extremely indecisive. But learning to be otherwise.

34. It is much easier for me to admit my faults than my good traits.

35. I'm so disorganised. My mind is disorganised.

36. I love acting like a child again.

37. I love hugs.

38. I think love, as in romantic love, is funny. How funny that people love each other. How funny that the people you don't love, are loved by someone else? How funny that some people love you, and others don't? You'd think the odds would be tiny that you would love someone who would love you back.

39. I'm fairly awkward. Sometimes. I have awkward days. But I can laugh at it.

40. I'm a semi-scrunch-folder. I don't scrunch it up into a tight ball, it's more of a messy fold.

41. I detest sea creatures. Except for maybe the simplest of fish.

42. I'm not arachnophobic, but I don't like spiders. Actually, in referance to these last two points, if you are a creature that has less than two legs, or more than four, stay the hell away from me. I don't even want to hear about you.

43. My old church was severely corrupt. Severely. It's not something I generally talk about, though I wish sometimes that it wasn't something 'swept under the rug' like it has been. And by church I also probably mean cult.

44. My family often tells me I'm so much like my dad. Which I hate. Not because I hate my dad, but because they only pick on me for his faults, not his good qualities..

45. I actually AM a lot like my dad. Which is why it's so annoying when my family reiterates that for me.

46. I have no idea where my life is going, and that makes me feel even more scattered and lost and stressed.

47. I love rain. The smell, the sound. It's so relaxing.

47. I'm no stranger to fear. It likes to attack me.

49. I absolutely love writing. I just may study it at Uni. I'm going to write books some day.

50. This year has turned out nothing like I expected or wanted. This point applies to most years since probably I became a teenager.

51. I collect pretty notebooks and journals.

52. I write fanfiction. If you click that link, keep in mind that most of the things were written in my 15-year-old crazy fangirl stage. So. Just laugh a lot. But maybe even just don't click the link. Because, that would embarrass me.

53. I don't think Harry Potter is evil.

54. I like organising things, which clashes a bit with my disorganisation.

55. I'm allergic to animal fur.

56. I don't like olives.

57. I have a mad scar on my chin where I had stitches when I was three.

58. I aspire to one day eat an entire Brendan Burger.

59. I love taking photos.

60. Even if I wanted to do drugs (which I don't) I would have no idea where to get them.

61. I love to volunteer for things. But. Lately, I'm drained.

62. I love spending time with quality people.

63. If I spend too much time with people I don't want to be around, I become extremely drained and depressed.

64. I have an itchy finger. Scratch scratch.

65. I no longer have an itchy finger.

66. My current favourite bible verse is Isaiah 54:10:

Though the mountains be shaken
and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
nor my covenant of peace be removed,"
says the LORD, who has compassion on you.

67. I stand away from the microwave when I'm cooking things.

68. The beach is my favourite place to be. I'm only a little bit of a nature junkie, but when I'm at the beach or in the forest or in the middle of the desert... sigh.

69. This number still makes me giggle like a child on the inside.

70. I have undiagnosed and untreated depression.

71. I failed my Probationary Drivers License test twice. It was both better and worse when I failed the second time, because it wasn't such a shock, but damn it crushes me every time I think about it.

72. I work at Savers in Greensborough. It's like a massive op shop, or a K-Mart where everything is second hand.
I love it, I actually like going to work. Some people think that's weird, but hey, I'd rather be weird than hate my job every day. I'm so grateful for this job.

73. Some days, I freak out at how quickly my life is going. Other days, I can't bare the thought of all these years stretching on and on until I'm old.

74. Family dinners used to be a favourite thing, now I'd say that they're an un-favourite thing.

75. I live with my sister, her husband, and their three children. It doesn't feel like home. My old house has been sold. I have no home.

76. When people drink from drink bottles near me, I get very sudden and violent urges to break things and scream.

77. I love stationery.

78. My life belongs to Jesus.

79. Sometimes I think about how silly that sounds, and then I think of all the things Jesus has done for me, and all the times I've experienced him and his love, and I know that he is real.

80. I passed my third Probationary license test. It was an epic tale or storms and zero visibility and broken traffic lights and a really good-looking tester.

81. I love food almost a little too much.

82. Starting in October 2009 to the present (any hopefully beyond) is my year of zero alcohol. I think I'm doing pretty well. Granted, I didn't drink a lot before this, but I could see where my drinking path was headed and I didn't like it.

83. I don't like to choose best friends. Because friends change so much I think it just adds unnecessary stress on both ends of the relationship. It's all about expectation.

84. I like to think that I 'get it', you know? It's probably just from a life time of introspection, but you know how some people just don't 'get' things? Well, I may be vague and naive, but I 'get' things.

85. I am studying a Bachelor of Creative Arts at Deakin University. My major is Visual Art, and I am doing a minor sequence in Graphic design. Although that doesn't count for anything.

86. I don't get nearly enough sleep, ever.

87. I'm a youth leader at my church and I absolutely love it. I love being able to serve Jesus freely, and I just love the people.

88. At the time of writing this, I will regress to tweeny days and admit that I have a 'crush' on someone. Teehee! But I'll never tell you who.

89. I fall in love with people on public transport. And get really sad when they get off the bus or train before I do.

90. I have never flown in a dream. That I remember. Or had my teeth fall out. Apparently they are both common dreams.

91. I've never been to Boston in the fall.

92. I would like to go and visit some hot desert-y places. Egypt, Morocco, or just the whole Mediterranean or something in the summer.

93. I am not overweight, but I am curvy. I'm sick of all the regular sized clothes being made for one body type: The Stick. Any search for more curve-friendly clothes always lands me in the plus size section or store, which I am emphatically not. It annoys me.

94. I'm an observer. Like I said, yes, maybe I'm vague, and I don't often observe the important things, but all the little details are stored in filing cabinets in my brain.

95. I want you to know how precious you are.

96. I just want someone to hold me.

97. It's a long, self-absorbed process, writing 100 things about yourself. I have enjoyed it, and been frustrated, and run out of things to say, and then found things to say, over and over again.

98. I am really paranoid when I cook chicken. Like, really. I'm surprised I never burn it, I cook it so long, and I wash my hands a million times and wipe the bench lots throughout the whole process.

99. I have some really amazing friends in my life, and I love them, and it's taken me a long time to get to this point where I enjoy my friends and their company, not just try to be everything for them.

100. I believe I can flyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! (Like, on a jet plane or something, or I could get like 3 feet of air that time)


Donejamin. It's been almost 3 years. Maybe 2 and a half. You should write a list, too. You'll probably beat my time though.

OH- Freude! Freude! Freude!

Schließlich! Ich kann dieses bekanntgeben.

Meine Schwester wird ein Baby haben!





Wort.
Frieden heraus, yo.

A blog because.

This is a blog post mainly because I was sick of seeing the green solitaire picture... it clashes with my layout.

Anyway, now I'm stuck with finding something interesting to blog about, which is not that hard really, but all the things I want to blog about are either only interesting to me, or are more the sort of things you would write in a diary, rather than posting them on the Internet for everyone to read.

I will tell you about my iPod - because I'm ever so sure you want to hear about it. Also it was the first object to come to mind.

I bought my iPod from ebay, using my sister Holly's account. It cost me roughly $180 for a 40GB Photo iPod.
It was my most expensive Christmas present and I bought it myself. How very... sad? Not sad that I didn't get expensive presents, but sad that I didn't get anyone else expensive presents... anyway.

It was refurbished, which is sort of like used but not.

I named my iPod, during a silly mood one day, 'DJ PhatPod Chunky' due to its fat and chunky nature, and its ability to play what we generally call music.

My iPod has a battery life of about negative 3 hours, which is really inconvenient.
I do exaggerate though, but it only lasts a few hours before informing me (when the battery meter is still quite full) that my iPod has no battery power left, and I need to connect it to a power source.

I have fully reset and wiped my iPod once. Because it decided to go all spaz and not turn on properly.

Josh frequently borrows my iPod to listen to in his car. Once he took it without asking and I told him off. A little.

I do not love my iPod; it is an inanimate object. But it is nice to be able to listen to music when DJ's battery permits.

Solitary glitch.

Umm... so... this is frustrating.

Care to elaborate, Microsoft?