More adventures:

So last night we went and ate at Pancakes on the rocks, which is basically Sydney's version of Waffle House, except they specialize in dessert pancakes (and the restaurant is nicer). Anyways, I got this awesomeness:

Afterwards we walked around Circular Quay and had a wonderful time celebrating Christine's birthday. We even had Kinder Surprises for dessert after dessert. They are illegal in the states, so I got to have a rebellious stage for the 5 minutes it took for me to eat my chocolate and build my toy! (If you are still curious go here for more info http://www.ferrero.com/products/the-most-famous-products/kinder-surprise/surprise-play-chocolate/)

Anyways, it was the start of Vivid Sydney, meaning that there was some cool light shows going on everywhere and most importantly the Opera House was lit up! Here are some pictures. (side note: For the first time in a long while, I am happy with how these turned out)

Unsteady hand + boat =  Indie

Peace and Joy
Boyer.

Its my 101st blog post. Not as exciting as the 100th.

I have a couple of fun/funny things to share.

First I had a crazy dream last night. My fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Wright, was giving a math test to me and  a collection of people I know and have gone to school with from over the years. I know what your thinking, probably something along the lines of "Boyer's a math major and he's dreaming about math tests. Nerd." Well all I have to say is this wasn't the good old math test that I enjoy, because I do enjoy math tests (occasionally) because I am a nerd. But this was some crazy several hundred page booklet filled with things, which I realized upon waking, weren't math. And everyone else in the class understood it all and did well. And I was failing miserably. And it lasted longer than the SAT. It wasn't a nightmare, but it was definitely one of those strange strange dreams that you feel restless the entire time during. And why was my fourth grade teacher there? I haven't thought about her in years.

Second, I want to share this video:

This is a video about Ben Underwood,  a boy born with sight but had both his eyes removed after complications with retinal cancer around the age of two. He eventually taught himself to "see" with echolocation, like a dolphin. First of all, this makes him freaking ballin'. Second this is extremely inspirational. But more than anything I see reflections of the redemptive story of Christ in this. It just makes me feel good inside.
The video is one of a five part series on youtube, but the last four aren't really worth watching in my opinion. It just follows him as his Mom tries to get him to use a cane as a tool to be able to live in the world in an even less handicapped way. The director spends a lot of time showing him as a little stubborn and unwilling to accept what to him is a sign of being handicapped. All I see is how un-handicapped he is, as he is a true 14 year old, which stubbornness is a good sign of.
On a sad note, apparently Ben passed away from complications with cancer around the age of 17.

Third and finally, I have had multiple people make comments about me being skinny. Which just makes me laugh cause I don't think I am skinny, nor do I care really what I am. It just makes me interested to weigh myself.

Peace and Joy,

Boyer.

P.S.
¹⁴ "For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD 
   as the waters cover the sea."

Habakkuk 2:14

Song of the moment:

The Hairbrush Song- Veggie Tales

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtHr7gluh08

It's my 100th blog post! Everybody celebrate!

After everyone is finished celebrating the rather surprising fact that I have actually had 100 things worth posting on my blog AND I have actually posted them, you can read a couple stories from the past week(s):

First a little background, one of my roommates broke both of his feet and was in the hospital for about 10 days. This sucks. However, he is home (in Australia) now and in a wheel chair, and is being a champ about everything. But since going out into the city is a little more difficult, as you can imagine, we have been hanging here a little more. The game of choice is monopoly.
I am proud to say, that for the first time in my life, I completely finished a game of monopoly. Never has this happened before, and there's a decent chance it never happens again. Here's the play by play: Three hours and forty-five minutes into the game, I had a devastating roll. Rolling doubles, i was forced to land  on property with a hotel not once, but twice. 2500 fake dollars in debt, I sold my houses on boardwalk and park place, mortgaged everything, and came up short. Yuck.
Even more ridiculous than me actually being patient enough to finish a game is the fact that all of the property names are different over here.

Though it wasn't on the roof or in a pillow fort at the Dixon's, like we tried so often in my childhood, I am just really proud I finished. And it was actually really fun.

Unrelated to board game adventures revolving around greed, last night we had Mega-Boom connect group. This essentially meant that four connect groups (the Hillsong equivalent of small groups) got together and had a super awesome party with worship and communion and things.
The night was kicked off with a rousing group singing of Rebecca Black's Friday. (If you are completely in a bubble and want your ears to bleed from the awfulness of this song, click here.) This was complete with delegations to specific peoples specific parts of the song. Wanqi had to rap and she had never heard the song before. hahahahaha

Lyrics

A short clip of Nathan and Germaine killing it:

And here is a link to the Bob Dylan version which is awesome: Bob Dylan- Friday

After singing friday, we had worship, communion, and prayer. It was great. I am thankful that God works. And I am thankful that he works even when I think he would choose not to.
We then proceeded to hang out around Sydney Uni and eat a late night meal. I told the people I was sitting with about "Yeah college, no parents!", "its funny because...." and "I'm going to go to the woods and die" and a couple other sayings that i have restrained myself from saying here because no one would understand. Luckily, I got to use several in the following conversations.

Anyways, I'm sure that post was far too long. Down under is pretty cool.

Peace and Joy,

Boyer


P.s.
After 14 chapters of being upset at his bride and his chosen people being unfaithful to him, and promising justice and destruction to those who are unfaithful, yet forgiveness and love to those who return to him, this bomb is dropped through Hosea:

Hosea 14: 9
"Who is wise? He will realize these things.
  Who is discerning? He will understand them.
  The ways of the Lord are right;
  the righteous walk in them,
  but the rebellious stumble in them."

I like it.

In other news, these are too awesome.

From:
http://kronikle.kidrobot.com/8-bit-vs-reality/

Been a busy week. I had 5 assignments due, and I successfully did them.

Anyways, here is a couple of fun things I did and learned this week that in no way relate to presentations on mathematicians or papers about australian cultural stereotypes relationships to the aboriginal peoples:

Thursday, after frisbee practice, I went to the on campus bar with all the guys and gals on the team. Nothing crazy there, they go every week, and I finally bought a change of clothes to join them. Anyways, two things I learned:

1. In Australia, after happy birthday is sung, everyone always yells "Hip Hip HOORAY!" three times. I like this. They also have some crazy rhyme that involves chugging a beer, (it ends in "down, down, down, down, down.....) I wouldn't be surprised if there is a lot of these in America, but the bottom line is singing happy birthday last a lot longer here. haha

2. I finally had someone explain cricket to me. Never do I want to play this game. I would lose.

Friday I went to Manly and went surfing. I struggled this time, but the beach was gorgeous.

Today I volunteered with Hillsong City Care. The group I went with went to a suburb I have never been to and we ended up working in a lady's garden for like 4 hours weeding and mulching. It felt good to work with my hands again. The woman we helped was older, but she was also the full time caretaker for her elderly dad, who can't talk or walk anymore. Other than her dad she lives alone. She made some small talk with us before and after we worked and said she wanted to buy us cupcakes but Coles (one of the major grocery store chains here) was out. It was just clear that life was hard for her and that she was tired.

Anyways, after we finished some of the guys who have been doing this for a long time and helping her for a while talked about how much she had opened up and become "friendly" to us. They said she had moved from acting like she hired the volunteers and she was a client to being relatively kind and talking about her grandkids and stuff.

I only mention this because it was just a good reminder that love does change people.

Its cold here, to the point I am thinking about buying a space heater. Every morning when I have to force myself out from under the covers into the frigid air in my room I am kind of forced to remember that it summer back home...

Song of the moment:

On the Ocean by Guster

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU9zJDBu66M

Peace and Joy,

Boyer

I remember the other thing i wanted to say last post:

The beard is back. Not in all of its glory yet, but its getting there.

In other news, I am running out of things to blog about. So don't expect much from me here anytime soon. My life pretty much consists of finishing school and surviving right now. In another week, i'll only have 1 essay left to write before finals and hopefully I'll have something fun to talk about.

Some random things:

Had a fun discussion in Australia class today (not a class discussion, but a discussion while class was going on...) about the Australian stereotypical view of Americans. Here are the four key points:

1. Fast food
2. Guns
3. Walmart
4. Stupid/Arrogant

Score one for America?


Its starting to get cold here. And because we don't have heat (or AC) its cold inside as well as outside. I'm wearing long pants and a jacket usually. Everyone can think of the last time they saw me wearing both of those and be surprised.


List of all samples Kanye West has used can be found here, plus links at bottom:
Kanye West: Original Samples Collection
I found this interesting because the dude has some great taste in music. Steely Dan, Daft Punk, Prince, Curtis Mayfield, Bill Withers, Al Green, MJ, Aretha Franklin, and Steve Miller are just a few that jump off the page at me.
This list doesn't include 808 and Heartbreak or My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy so it should me even longer. I also think there might be correlation between why people like Kanye so much (his music at least) and the fact he knows the good stuff himself.


I still suck at essays.


I have less than 3 weeks of class left. Crazy.

Thats all I've got for now, felt like I had more to say when I started. I'm definitely missing G'ville a little bit too.

Peace and Joy,

Boyer.