Room

Well it has finally happened!!!
I have my own room.
I can now turn out the light when I wish. Read before I go to bed, listen to my music alarm and continue to once it has gone off. I can construct my room as I wish. There is currently photos and posters all over the room, with more to be added over time.
I have more room, so my guitar stuff can come out of the closet. I have my own chest of draws, so I can place my shoes in the bottom two draws. A draw for my sox, and another for my boxers. So much closet space. Got no idea what to do with all of it.

Well have a nice day
Cya

Well long time since I last blogged. Went on holidays and got out of the routine.
So I dunno, guess my blogs will be kinda sporatic* from now on.

Fran is ok for the moment. She has kushings disease, which means she has a tumour on the petuitary gland. So for the time being she is ok, but it is going to shorten he life span. She is on medication, so its just life as usual for the time being. So she still gets in trouble for barking at the ironing man.

I have had two driving lessons now, and I have got my hours up past 50. So I am on track to get my P's by the end of the year.

Year 12 is going well so far. We are getting into some really good stuff in all my subjects.
Physics - Universal gravitational law and projectile motion.
Chemistry - Nuclear Chemsitry, and carbon chemistry
Maths - applications of calculas
Modern History - WW1 ie. Battle of the Somme, Haig, Trench Warfare, and the Stalemate
And since dropping Hospitality i got a bit more time on my hands, which is good, and my study and the amount of work I am doing is improving.

Also I am going to the Roseville girls formal. Should be good fun.

Mind you not everything can be good.

My standards of what is right and what is wrong are coming under great scrutiny at the moment.
I didnt wag classes on the last day of school last term, and that is being questioned.
I stay completely away from alcohol. This is because I am under age and it is illegal for me to drink because of this.
God asks us to submit to authority and this is what I am doing. But some of my christians friends do not seem to understand this concept, and decide to get drunk, one plastered. I have put up these standards, because I believe in them, I stand by them because I see that they are things that must be done, that they are things that God asks us to do. But appently some of my christians friends choose to ignore them and do their own thing when God's standards for us become an inconvenience!!! Is this what God wants for us, is this how he wants us to look upon the standards he sets for us?! Please could someone inform me that I am doing the right thing! and tell me that some of my friends are not, cos I care about them and don't want to be the only person that sees their actions as wrong. I do not want to stand alone in this place, cos it is awful lonely.

Its just that there are things that God asks of us and I am doing my best to do that. I have motive for my actions, and that motive is God and his standards. So when other people, that are my age, that are christians - when they start to choose a different path, and decide that my actions are too literal, and that I am taking the word of the bible too seriously, and that when they said "submit to authority", they didnt realy mean it. So when they decide to act in a way that suits them at the time. They mock and insult my motives, they insult my knowledge of God, and therefore; from where I see it, they mock God.

Time will reveal all things

Well some interesting days ahead.

Year 12 will start
Fran my dog is sick (very)

only two things, but they will create some interesting days.
Year 12 is year 12 and the days ahead are predictable.
My dog Fran though; well when you find out your dog is sick initially, it's the knowledge that something is seriously wrong, serious tests must be done to find the problem, and you just pray that it is something relatively minor and can be sorted out with some medication and will go away in a month or two. The other way it can go though is that by the time you find the problem your pet has been suffering and that the best thing for them is to put them down. The in between is that you find the problem, do the medication and treatment thing in the hope that it will solve the problem. What you get is an extention to the life of your dog but the treatment does not work and your pet is put down after any where between a week to 3 months. I believe though the treatment can work if the life of your pet is extended without suffering for a year. I that case the treatment has been successful.

We'll see what happens. Thing is though; Fran could have liver cancer. But that is with the emphasis on could. It is just a possibility; but also a possible reality.

Prayers would be appreciated.

My Dog Zac

He started howling again last night; this time I ignored him.

And Today in grand final day, where Sydney and West Coast will go hammer 'n' tong to fight for the glory in the biggest game of the year. Sydney are sentimental favorites and now the favorites to win the game and are set to take home the flag for the first time in 72 years. West Coast have been the best team all year round beating Sydney as well in the forst game of the finals; ubt this has been disputable with some pretty crucial umpiring decisions towards the end of the game with Sydney less than 2 goals behind.

Everyone but a few are trying to predict the outcome of the game; but I see it as anyones, where it can go either way.

Last night Ben Cousins was awarded the Most Valuble Player of the Year, while Glen Archer took home Most Courageous Player for the 5th time, and Brent Deledio took home best first year player.

Well its anyones guess to what is going to happen today, Sydney vs West Coast, guess we'll know who wins when it happens.

My Dog Zac

Last night was so incredibly weird. I went to bed around 10:30 and was looking forward to a nice night of sleep without dreaming of exams when My Dog Zac started barking. He has never done this before and this behaviour seemed incredibly odd. So I went down stairs to hopefully find the cause to his barking. So I saw him in the kitchen and and he saw me, and he walked right to the back door completely intent on going outside. But this again seemed very strange because dad always puts the dogs out every night for their chance to go to the bathroom; and our dogs are very indoor dogs. So out of sheer curiosity and desire to know what was going on I let him outside. So he walks out onto the patio and doesn't go any further. So he clearly does not need to go to the bathroom and his wasn't about to be sick. All of a sudden I hear a faint bark from another dog somewhere in the area and this is followed up by Zac barking and howling as loud as he can. He stopped pretty quickly and went to do it again, but I called him to stop him. He was about to wake up the entire neighbourhood.

So I had to go up into the backyard in nothing but my boxers and get him. Brought him back in, and headed off to bed only to smell something absolutely rancid. So I checked my foot and it smelt like poo!!!!!! oh man, just my luck I ended up treading in poo. So I put my foot in the sink and washed it and finally got to go to bed.

Night...
I am that tired and its 11:40 in the morning.

Yay for rain and friends

Today had many emotions attached to it.
I got up this morning and stayed in bed. I was really tired cos I stayed up doing Modern Hisotry study till 10.30. I finished and went to bed and still hadn't studied concepts. But I went to bed anyway. So when I got up I stayed in bed and I think I ended up going back to sleep with my eyes open. But then my back-up alarm went off and I got up. I got up and watched T.V while eating my standard 5 weet-bix with honey, this breakfast was a bit radical. This time at the adivice of the teacher I had a hearty breakfast to help with my exam; so I also had some orange juice and a cuppa tea. I then studied my concepts, basically memorising them word for word. And then before I knew it it was 8am, with my exam at 8.15. So I quickly brushed my teeth and put my shoes on and off I went. I got to school with two minuted to spare and before I knew it I was in the middle of a 3 hour exam.

So the first part of the exam was concepts. How disciplined I was to study. I got the concepts down without any worries, matching up the terms with their correct definitions and giving the definitions of Industrialisation, Imperialism and Capitalism. I was kinda helpful memorising them 30 min before the exam started.

Well then the exam finished and I went away feeling a bit bad about it. I am not very confident about my result, which is unfortunate because I would realy like a really good result. I mean there is a lot of really smart people in the class, and it would be really nice to do as well as them. I would really prove a lot to myself and it would be a really nice result.

Well I headed home with a nice walk with Jimmy-Jo-Jo and we talked about the World Wars. Stalin, Hitler, and the tactics they used. It was really quite an interesting conversation. Well after I arrived home I had some lunch (5 weet-bix with honey) and I watched a bit of T.V to relax after a hectic exam. I then went and had a shower listening to John Butler Trio, which I thouroughly enjoyed.

I then went and had a very nice long walk up to church, and lay down the park with the grass under my hands and rain falling into my face. It was some really nice down time after a really hectic week of exams and study. I have never in my life done so much study and work. But it was all very good for me and I'm glad I had this week as a learning experience.

Kids Klub then happened where I learned of my costume for the Yr 11 formal, which you will find out about in due time. I'll surprise you with a photo. So today was a lot of fun, and also pain; I mean the writers cramp that I got in my hand from the test today was something chronic. I started to struggle to hold onto my pen.

But all in all today was nice.
Have a nice day all and I'll cya soon.
Tim...

exams

Well I am in the middle of my exams at the moment. It's Wednesday afternoon and I had an English exam today where I had to talk about Sylvia Plath and Othello and Proof. They went ok, i thought I went alright. Seeing as I wrote 4 pages for Sylvia and 5 and a half for Othello and Proof, where as others wrote a lot less, I guess I didn't do too badly. Yesterday I had a Chemistry practical exam where I didn't do well, but I did get two assignments back that were 40/40 and 37/40 which I was happy with. I had a hospitality exam too, where because I studied a bit, meant that there were a few questions where I knew a bit more to talk about. Also on Monday I had the first of my 2 Enbglsih exams, in which i went ok, thought I didn't dot oo badly, and there was a Physics practical exam which went bad. But oh well, can't do much about it now. Gonna just have to do a bit more thourough study next time round.

Tests which are yet to come are
Modern History
2 unit maths
3 unit maths
Chemistry theory
Physics theory

Oh and friday week is slave day, so I will stock up on shaving cream and other things and have a good day.

You might even get photos

oh and may I bring to your attention some very wise words from Tom French back in December of last year.

"May I encourage U2 buying. U2 are the Bomb."

I so whole heartedly agree...
they really are.

sigh, trying to do a physics assignment all afternoon, and i have done what could have been done in an hour. it makes me feel ill when i think how much time i have wasted. I havw got so much study to do, and i just cannot focus. sigh


well get this next bit done, and maths study/homework

be up to about 11 i'd say.

way past my bedtime.

anyways, cu guys l8a...

tim

I have really missed people's company recently, quite a few people have gone away, and I miss them. Can't wait till I see them next.

oh and i have lots of exams.

oh and this is about all that has been running through my head recently.

ams exams exams exams exams ams exams exams exams exams ams exams exams exams exams ams exams exams exams exams ams exams exams exams exams ams exams exams exams exams ams exams exams exams exams ams exams exams exams exams ams exams exams exams exams ams exams exams exams exams ams exams exams exams exams ams exams exams exams exams ams exams exams exams exams ams exams exams exams exams ams exams exams exams exams ams exams exams exams exams ams exams exams exams exams ams exams exams exams exams ams exams exams exams exams ams exams exams exams exams ams exams exams exams exams ams exams exams exams exams ams exams exams exams exams ams exams exams exams exams

so life has been a bit stressed recently, and i am not coping as well as i would have liked.

cya

Inspired by Luke

ok well Luke has given me an idea that I think would be great to start up.
Luke well done for being so self-disciplined to at least give what your doing a go.

We could start a fundraising thing... week by week, or a fortnight maybe. People give up luxuries they think they couldn't live without. In the process we raise money for example; the RSPCA, or Youth Alpha's trip to Japan

ideas that i have thought of would be:
Beth going two weeks without coffee.
Gemma giving up sleep ins. ie: not sleeping past 8am on any given day for several weekends
Myself giving up listening to music for a week or two.
Monty giving up visits to Glenrose for a couple of weeks.

Well i think its a good idea, it'd be kinda funny too.

Ciao

LOVE IS (all around us)

wow... i cannot express how privilidged I feel to be apart of St. Stephens. I am so proud of all my friends that were involved in the production of 'Love is'. Guys you were all incredibly awesome. The choreography of the dancers was amazing, grabbed everyone's attention and had everyone's respect from the moment Jodie walked on stage for the first dance of the night. It set the atmosphere for the rest of the night. Everyone was completely consumed by the performances of everyone involved.

I was a big fan of Pip Rasmussen's one line in the production. Delivery was great, and everyone laughed. Big congrats to Tom on that line.

One thing that i really thought was top notch out of the film was the camera work. It was really good. It conveyed the atmosphere of the scene, it showed emotion and feeling. It kept you involved and it was a film, not a theatre production. The changing of views, the audience saw everything, the expressions on everyone's faces. How nothing was lost, everything that needed to be visible was, and anything that didn't need to be there wasn't, there were no distractions in the scenes. What was meant to be scene was, and that was where the attention was put. Top work guys.

Dancing... what can I say. Not a lot unfortunately seeing as I'm not a dancer. But i did get to see it all from an audience's view. If there were mistakes, I didn't see them. Be encouraged girls you were brilliant, and you should be very proud of yourselves. Sally, Helen and anyone else I have missed. The choreography was exceptional, you were wonderful. Conveyed messages and atmosphere through great techniques and such graceful movement.

Then when it was all over... there was Tom.
This was inspired. There was the Holy spirit written all over this sermon. God has gifted Tom immensly and was with him every step of the way tonight. Guiding him with tone of voice and choice of words. It was clear people's prayers were with him tonight. I was sitting next to an elderly lady tonight who was absolutely rapped in Tom's sermon. She sat there the entire way through nodding, saying "mmm... hmm" as well as a couple of "yes" and a "definately" as well. Tom did magnifcently and if i could get an 'Amen' it would be appreciated.

To everyone involved in the production of 'love is' you have done exceptionally well and all the hard work and effort you have put in has come off to no end. Prayers were answered in full tonight, and as a church we should be praising God for the wonderfully gifted people that we have working with us, that we are friends with, for God has guided and gifted them to no end and they have given those gifts back to God, they have served us and blessed us in the production that was performed tonight....

---------- ------------- ------------ ------------- ------------ Love is

lets see here

I am so tired. despite the prayers of friends and some organic sleeping assistants, I still do not sleep deep enough at night. I just don't get it. Do i have little faith, is it my own fault that prayers are not being answered? I know I could go on forever about how tired I am. But I think an event that occured this afternoon will suffice.

After school finished I walked home. I got to the door, opened it, went inside. Said hello to my two dogs. Put my two bags down, lay down on the floor right there and then and fell asleep. I woke up 30 mins later and decided to let the dogs out, and put my bags away.

I am that tired, it has been going on for too long, i fear i am about to burn out. I need your prayers guys, please.

I will lie down and sleep in peace for you alone O God make me dwell in safety - Psalms

cya later guys
tim

injury
Well to the few people that read my blog, here is the news you need to know. I have successfully cut my finger off in hospitality... no not really, my apologies for those that I freaked out. But i did deeply cut some skin clean off my knuckle on my left index finger of my left hand.

i did it in hospitality class todaywhen i was sharpening my knife. slipped and took a lot of skin off. it bled a lot and the people in my class were very supportive. Will and Jasmine were currently studying first aid in PD, so i was in good hands. It was apparent that it was quite deep, so once i was a little bandaged up, the lovely Mrs Ferguson (not the science one teacher) took me down to the office so they could check me. They called mum and dad (as you do) and put another dressing on. This one was a lot better.

So dad arrived and took me to the doc accross from forestway shopping centre. The lovely Chris Lee looked after me. He took me into their little surgery and undid the dressing. Again. well he said he would do a little exploring first of all to see what i had done. Then he said that i would have to go down to the hospital if i had damaged my tendon in my knuckle. Because then he just wouldn't be able to stich me up. So he got this antiseptic that was the colour of poo and he cleaned away all the blood and then applied the poo. He then went exploring. he didnt touch or cut or doing anything to my finger. he just asked me to bend and strighten my finger while he looked at it under a magnifying glass. A big proffesional one that had lights around it, and was mounted on the wall. He then told me that i hadnt damaged the tendon, cos he could see it, and could see that it wasnt damaged. He told me that bone was visible.

So i think that I did well to cut the skin off my knuckle, right down to the bone without damaging anything apart from a minor amount of flesh being removed. PRAISE GOD!!!

So i had an eventful day, and in the end im alright. Mind you... i think i will sharpen knives a bit more carefully from now on...

cya's all l8a

and so you know, i have a new email as well.

timothymccloud@gmail.com

Making Poverty History

Well to the few people that read my blog, here is something that everyone can do to help make poverty history. We can send the Prime Minister an email!!! It's ok, the make poverty history team has made it easy for us, and they have email content outlined for us. just copy and paste, change it if you want; but be polite... and then head to this website to send John Howard an email. http://www.pm.gov.au/email.cfm?sssdmh=dm16.151591

Now the email to send if you wish is as follows:

Dear Prime Minister,

As a supporter of the Make Poverty History campaign in Australia, I ask you to attend the UN Millennium Summit in September. I have been encouraged at the recent commitments of extra aid and debt cancellation by the EU and G8 countries. Australia can and should match them, with a timetabled commitment to increase our own aid giving and a plan to target this increase towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

In light of our generous response to the Asian Tsunami, I wish to see Australia in the forefront of countries responding generously to the ongoing tragedy of poverty. At this time of economic prosperity and budget surpluses, we have never been better positioned to increase our aid budget and enhance its focus on the poverty-reduction targets of the Millennium Development Goals.

Please also continue to support and fund debt cancellation mechanisms for the world's poorest countries and speak out in favour of reform of unfair international trade rules - including ending farm subsidies among rich countries and letting developing countries decide the pace and extent of trade liberalisation of their agricultural markets to protect the food security, livelihoods and environment of the world's poorest people.

Being Christ-like

Well I am in the middle of my Modern History Assignment and I couldn't help but take a moment to show something i found while I was doing some research.
As you may know I am doing my assignment on Nelson Mandela and as i was going through some interviews conducted about him I came across one interviewee by the name Desmond Tutu... no wait, it's Archbishop Desmond Tutu. He also is a recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize. Great man and a great christian. Now as he was being interviewed one question was asked of him; naturally of course concerning Nelson Mandela, and here it is:

Do you see him as a, forgive the heresy, Christ-like figure?

and this is what Desmond Tutu said in response:

No, I don't think it would be a heresy. There is no harm in saying, because our Lord wanted us to be Christ-like. Christ-like doesn't mean not having faults. It means that you do actually have a capacity to draw out the good that is in others. You make people slightly better than they would have been without your influence. It is helping people to move away from what would have been the normal reactions and responses that are destructive and move them in a direction where those forces are transmuted, and they become forces for good. So I wouldn't be appalled that you say he is Christlike ...

I really learbed something today... Christ-like isn't about being perfect, or even near perfect; it's about being a good influence on others, helping others better themselves in Christ, and build them up in their walk with God. And that is what being brothers and sisters in christ is all about, it is why we go to church.

kool...

well if you wanna check out anymore of that interview here's the website:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/mandela/interviews/tutu.html

love

Interesting concept... I mean love is the most basic of human emotions and the most central... yet such a basic concept. everyone feels love, loves others, loves themselves, and sometimes is in love with someone... sometimes themselves... But what is it about love that sometimes makes life hard?
(Just a warning... it's gonna get really fast paced in a second so try and keep up) There's when someone you love is hurt; and it is because of that, which makes you hurt aswell; because you care, and this makes life harder. But it is not because of love that makes life harder for you it is the reason that the person you love is hurt, that has made life harder for you. So... how did that come to pass? why is this person that you love hurting?
Chances are it is because of something that someone has done. So does love make life hard? Is love a complicated concept? Or is it just us that makes life hard, that make love a complicated concept? I believe through our sin we have taken something so primitive, so simple, and construed it and made it something that it isn't - complicated.

Just the other day I found out that Bob Geldolf had been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. I was very happy. It's was for the work he has done and is doing for Make Poverty History. Organising the concerts and the 'click' advertisements. I really do hope that he gets the award, he really does deserve it, but then again I'm not on the panel that decides these things. So my apologies for being cliche but i do hope the best man wins.

Hillsong

On thursday night, I went to hillsong conference evening with Hannah and Matt Stanton, we went up to the Superdome out at Homebush and met up with Dave, Steve, Jamie, Ben and Beth.

The conference caused massive traffic jam all the way up to Homebush. I was pretty hectic. Then we parked and headed down to the stadium. We got lost but thanx to helpful volunteers they directed us to a bus, and we got to the superdome. The amount of people there was quite ridiculous; this of course being a massive surprise to me because I haven't been to a hillsong conference before.

Well we were some of the last to get on to the end of the cue and we were about to be taken up to the very top of the stadium where you can't see the stage, but all of a sudden we were directed away from the escalators and taken straight into the Superdome. We had killer seats and were able to watch a great show.

It was really interesting to watch though. There were people leading everyone in worship but these people were also providing a bit of a disrtaction at the same time. All these guitar solos and such were great to listen to but I found myself listening to a concert rather than worshipping God. There was so much hype, I kinda wish they would have toned it down a bit. all in all though it was a great time, and Micheal W. Smith was awesome, although some would disagree. I liked him though.

It was also this night that we found out that London had been the victim of a terrorist attack. You could feel the shock of it fill the stadium.

Well they kept going, and all of us along with a lot of other people left on a high. It was a great night, we all had a good time. Can't wait for the next one.

the queue...