In the Wild

So camp stuff is up!!!

Instead of putting it as one video because I really can't be bothered finding a program to put it together I just put them back to back in a playlist here.

If you can't be bothered watching the whole trip here's a intro video.

And here is one of the highlights ... well it's actually probably one of the only on location videos ... here it is.

Here's a Rosella eating a chip.

And a time lapse of of the sunrise ... with some Youtube edit music I could find.

Hope you enjoyed that. My next vlog will be in my new room, as in my new "living room". Not entirely set up yet but the computer and stuff is here now. Look forward to it ... and here's some of the photos of animals that I didn't take videos of.

And some of John.

 






And that was pretty much it. Thought I had posted this earlier but guess I left it sitting saved. Enjoy.

Gifts a plenty

One before the holidays.

Once Again ...

Once again it has been left unattended for a fortnight. I guess it would of happened especially because my semester started. Not to say I've put a lot of time into it but just that I procrastinate about study and it trumps this so this gets put further on the backburner.

So I'm posting now, means I've done some study. Cut my full load to just one subject to see if I can survive anymore studying in my life or if it's just futile. Online study just makes it harder. Bit weirded out posting to faceless people in the forums ... people I've never seen. Least the teacher's face is posted on the video. Will update more as I go.

Well I had intended on posting about camp in the traditional long post but don't think that's going to happen. Didn't really take any photos with it so would of looked kind of boring anyways. Least I'll share what I most enjoyed out of it. Glad to say it was the talks. The speaker had 4 talks which were 'The Bible is Personal', 'The Bible is Powerful', 'The Bible is Trustworthy', and 'The Bible is all we have and all we need'. What got me was that this wasn't anything new. Probably something we'd learnt many many a times. Yet these things are often forgotten. It was a great reminder and built our confidence once again in the Word that is the root of our core belief. Something that we've had from the start of this journey. So yeah that was great. Also he called me pikachu while I was on PA which confused everyone until they turned around to see me in my pikachu beanie. As usual wore all my weird stuff. Actually wore a jacket this year to try to be normal. Which is weird because usually I don't. I'm weird. Also shout out to the games, some interesting ideas used, not too complicated, and well implemented which is all I ask for :P. 

I'll leave it at that in this post. Once again I will just put down some possible posts I'll be doing when I get time. Work again is meant to come up ... keep adding to the list of what I'm going to post. Probably cut it down like this camp one but I do have lots of photos if I can find them. Also Pokemon Go stuff ... yes they'll be a post about that but hopefully its surprising and encouraging ... well that's how I visualise it as being. See how I go ... again.

In The Forest

Had a weekend picking mushrooms in the forest. When I told people at the time many were somewhat curious and asked me where. At the time I had no idea because other people were organizing the trip and I was like whatever because I wasn't driving. Who knows where you pick mushrooms? Was invited by a person from BWMC because I had previously shown interested during a random conversation. Always interested in trying new things.

I didn't plan too well that morning on the Friday. Firstly didn't realise the bag I wanted to use had been accidentally donated ... Mum's boyfriend was cleaning up outside my room and thought it was my brother's bag so donated it to the Salvos. Wasn't too happy about it because it was pretty much new, used once. Took me awhile to buy because I don't often shop out and had spent a few hours to find it. Mum gave me another bag but it was smaller but least she tried to patch things up. Secondly I packed a lot of stuff. Don't usually pack for winter stuff but the new doctor bugged me about not looking after myself so I thought I'd try. Also packed a bunch of stuff just to be prepared as usual. And also stuff that were required for mushroom picking. The wicker basket and boots were from the opt shop I got last minute the previous day. However the pocket utensil is mine ... always ready to eat. Third I got my blood tested. Well didn't really think about it until after that I couldn't lift anything with that arm for the day. Not a problem if my other arm was working properly. Elbows still giving me trouble. So wasn't much help carrying food and stuff for the trip. Fun start to the trip.

We stayed in a nice house there in Daylesford. I didn't realize I had been before for coffee during a camp we had. I'd rather had played dodgeball but the Koinonia group were having bonding time over coffee ... don't even drink coffee. Pretty sure I still remember the place that took me away from playing games ... 

Shiny

Had 17 people on this trip but we comfortably fit in the place. We let the girls have the "attic" room as it had 4 single beds and we moved a double in because there were 6 girls so didn't want to split them up. Found myself a room across from the bathroom, useful. Most were double beds so shared with someone. I did bring my CPAP machine but only realised later that the filter needed replacing ... hopefully it wasn't too loud for the other guy. People piled in from just after lunch to after dinner. The place was beautiful and had a large piece of land. However the grassy area was all covered in poop, most likely kangaroo grazing. I spent some time walking the land the the dog (someone brought it down for their engagement photo shoot) and climbed some trees. Would of climbed higher if it wasn't for my elbow. The lounge room was small but cozy. Had birthday drinks for the youngest fellow in the group. Just out of High school and wants to drink it up. Got my nails polished ... no not because we had been drinking, they brought some polish to try for wedding planning. Spent the nights hanging out there in the lounge or in the pool room. Yes there was a pool table, not a swimming pool, but still fun. Hadn't played in sooooo long and had some really good games. Fun. 

Deforested Section

All these are poisonous or unknown so take only photos

 So onto what we had planned the trip for, mushroom picking. This was proper in the forest picking, not some farm. We had to listen to instructions proper so not to pick poisonous mushrooms and just some mushroom etiquette. The first pick was in the afternoon on the Friday so not everyone was there. The first forest we went to was the one they went last year however ... it had been deforested. The guy who organized the trip was so devastated ... poor guy. There were other places we could go to but apparently that was the best place. So we went elsewhere. I was typing some stuff but realized at the rate this post would be really long. So to the point I found the first edible mushroom. Had to ask a lot about the mushrooms I had found but the previous were all poisonous. So I was pretty happy I was able to do that. I got to cut down the first mushroom of the trip ... and was it addictive. Pushing that blade into that flesh ... you need to give it a try. Was asked if I had been mushroom picking before because of my mushroom finding but in general I'm just someone who can find things. Which is sort of weird because the previous day I lost 4 things ... anyways. From that point of the trip we found lots of these mushrooms. These were Slippery Jacks. Actually they are false Slippery Jacks, however apparently all the mushrooms in this family of mushrooms were edible. Well were ate them and we're still here. They have this really slimy top which glistens. Apparently has a laxative effect. That's why we shave them. I ended up calling them Slimy Jacks. The second species was called Pine Milk Saffron I think. It was so hard to find. Apparently they had been quite abundant the previous year. Might have been the rain or too early in the season for the reason we hadn't found much. I didn't find any until the very last mushroom and it was because I had given up hope and jumped onto the road ... onto the mushroom. It was small and was hiding in the gravel. But least I found one. Hopefully find more and bigger ones next year.

It was fun and quite the adventure. Sort of ended up by myself without my phone in the forest ... exploring too far. However not far enough that when calling out a group found me. Another group actually got separated enough that they had to drive around the edges of the forest to find them. The forests were all separated by roads on all sides so was not entirely possible to get lost. Just a long walk around to find the cars. Maybe drive the next time I'm on this trip. Give it a try if you like trying stuff. Just make sure you know your stuff or find someone who does.

Got bored so picked quartz

Not knowing

Didn't think about it but was crossing a thin overpass and thought I was less scared than I usually had been. In the past I would have said I was scared of heights.

Me scared of heights? Yes I was scared of heights, or should it be am scared of heights? Well put it this way, I'm less scared. In the past I've had a hard time standing up at heights.  A few months back went to the Gold Coast. Knowing I was scared of heights I was still up to going on the roller coasters and cliff diving at rock pools. 

When I was younger my dad pretty much forced me to ride a roller coaster. I guess the thing is you get on the ride on the ground. Once you get up there you have no choice. Same again at Gold Coast. However that doesn't mean I can't scream. Put this way, the day we first went to Movie World I lost my voice. Still I kept going on the rides even though each time it still freaked me out. Here's a video of me scream a bit on a giant swing. I've been on a giant swing a few times and I'm still freaking out here. And yes I added a video. Was considering adding other medias for the blog so see how far I'll go starting with this.

Cliff jumping was pretty much the same. Most of the time I was hugging the wall trying to convince myself to jump. Actually the first place we went to was probably the worst. The area where we were jumping was actually only a few metres from where the rocks were only waist high. Each time I checked when I was in the water to remind myself where NOT to jump. This was proven to not easy for everyone to do. It wasn't anyone in our group. As we were leaving a girl was pulled out of the water who managed to hurt her ankle jumping. We helped get her out. We couldn't do much else while her friends waited for an ambulance. Surprising enough we were headed to another cliff diving spot even though after witnessing this event. Over the trip we dived from four different places. Each time was scary, but it was exhilarating. Glad I didn't opt out. However jumping I did lose spare pair of glasses and my camera ... oh wells things happen.

Some people hear me talk about these things and say that they don't believe I'm scared because I can do these things like ride on roller coasters and cliff dive. So then what is being scared/fear? I think when most people hear about fear it's the type when you end up frozen on the spot and can't do anything. I think that's usually irrational fear. I agree I don't have that type of fear. I always say fear can be overcome by knowing. Knowing why things might be scary, and finding out why you shouldn't be afraid of it. So stuff like spiders and snakes don't scare me. They often just are protecting themselves when they bite so just as long as you respect that it should be fine. There are only two things I'm scared of. Heights and public speaking. 

Heights was said. Most of the time I'm scared of high places because of feeling the uneasy shifting and uncertainty of the stability of the structure. True many people have probably been on it and not being the first, but I could be the first that it fails for. I'll add to this that I'm not scared of dying. However you don't always die from such accidents. Could always end up crippled or something just as bad. Rather not get myself in those situations. 

And public speaking ... I just always keeping looking out into the crowd and think how each person is listening and formulating a thought, a opinion about what I've said and about me. I don't really know why I care because usually I don't mind angering one or two people with what I do. I guess it's more so the reason I'm speaking. When I'm hosting games and such, whatever it results in doesn't really matter because its just games, for fun. However when I'm talking about something important to me, I don't want to stuff it up. With so many different people I fear I can't be able to get them all to understand me. I just don't want to be only reaching a fraction of the people. I know its probably impossible to say one thing that they can all agree on but because thoughts are subjective, it might just be possible. And when I don't know how to convey that one thing I'm afraid I'm stuffing it up for those I haven't explained it correctly to. In the end it's something I need to come to terms with. Just like any rational fears, its possible to work them out ... eventually.