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  glenstorey 07:37:38 am on September 7, 2008 | 2 | # |
  Tags: cognitive dissonance, mosaic, road rage, ruapehu, snow, snowboarding, turoa

  Just got back from snowcamp. Went with the mosaic youth crew (a part of mosaic that works with highschool aged youth) down to Mount Ruapehu. To be honest, it was madness. Great times, but, very high energy – poor sleep. We had the most amazing day boarding on Saturday – ever, lots of snow, and Turoa’s six seater was magic. Magic.

  

  Doesn't look super snowy here I know- but this is from the very lower mountain (by the cafe). Above the clouds

  

  Snowbird Run I think.The fog was gone by the arvo.

  

  From the top of the six, I think

  

  PCP Crew Repz

  Anywho – had a great day’s riding. Camp was awesome. Most excellent.

  Could see Taranaki from up Ruapehu, and on the way home today could see both mount taranaki and mount ruapehu. Quite an achievement given that taranaki is on the other side of the island.

  

  

  Taranaki (sorry not great white balance on the camera)

  

  180 degrees around Ruapheu

  

  Ngauruhoe (mount doon - lotr) and Ruapehu. And a branch.

  Good times.

  Driving back from Ruapehu resulted in me finding all the slowest cars to follow. One was going 60k all the way from Paeangaroa to Te Puke. I wanted to throw a moose at him. Or a grenade. I actually flashed my lights and tooted (which, isn’t really like me – I’m not known for my fits of rage).

  On a lesser note, in the unplesant and often dreaded unpacking after camp stage, my laptop got a nasty dent. It works sweet as, but I like things to be shiney and new. It’s good to get over that by force (is this, perhaps, a bizzare twist of cognitive dissonance?). It’s my birthday on Thursday, maybe I’m finally starting to figure out that, in fact, stuff doesn’t matter. People do. But it is a lot easier to be better with stuff, and with work, then it is to be with people (easy is usually not the best option, it seems).

  So. Summary of the weekend. Big youth camp. Great snowboarding. Three Burger Fuel Meals (2 great, one not so good). Slight Road rage. Dent Laptop. Blog. Ready to sleep.

  Throw a moose. Or a comment.

   

• glenstorey 07:23:53 am on August 6, 2008 | 5 | # |
  Tags: bloggin, Bob, Jealousy, Keri, Monique, mosaic

  Bob and Keri, probably my two favourite bloggers, blog more regularly then I brush my teeth. An I’ve got fairly good dental hygiene. Their blogs are normally informative, funny – and sometimes they have cool pictures. Once Keri had a bomb in her blog.

  I don’t know if I can match that.

  Sunday week I’m speaking at mosaic about jealousy. We’re doing a series called ‘the hidden chamber’, about the nasty things we hide in our hearts. Not cholesterol, it’s a metaphor (oh my, was that a Dad joke?). Clearly I’m green with envy of Bob and Keri’s literary skill, of Monique’s goldfish (let’s just say it has benefits) and of America – but only because it has Chipotle.

  Monique thinks that if you’re jealous, you’re jealous. And if you get the thing that you’re jealous of (let’s say, a toaster), you’ll find something else to be jealous of.

  It has a film twist, we’re using film to accent the message – what films are about jealousy? Here’s my list, off the top of my head:

  - Aladdin (that bad guy was so jealous…or was he just greedy for power?)
  -  Cinderella (the sisters)
  - Snow White (Stepmother = cow) (another metaphor)
  - Clearly I’m on a disney buzz here. Ok. Two of those weren’t my ideas.

  HELP! Inspire me. What are you jealous of, and why do you think people are jealous?

   

• glenstorey 09:40:09 am on July 30, 2008 | 1 | # |
  Tags: geeks, giving, money, mosaic, pizza, podcasts, storms, the economy

  Was at the gym today – and while I’m at the gym I listen to podcasts. Lots and lots of podcasts. It makes the weirdness of a whole bunch of people staring at mirrors and grunting a little less obvious.

  Here’s my top five four:

  

  1. The Friday Night BBC Comedy Podcast.
  I haven’t talked to Dana yet, but, I’m pretty sure british humor is funnier than american humor. This is a solid example. It only comes out once a week, which is good, because I’m pretty sure laughing until I cry isn’t a good look in the gym…’no, no no, I’m not laughing at your squats, it’s british humour’; ‘no, no, I’m not laughing at your spandex underpants which are flagrantly obvious and make me feel alone and frightened – it’s british comedy’.

  2. The mosaic podcast.
  Mosaic is the community I was a part of in L.A. Good podcast on spiritual topics.

  3. Mount Mosaic’s Podcast.
  Mosaic is the community I’m part of in New Zealand. If you listen to this, you might hear me.

  4. Scientific American’s 60 Second Science.
  Some people have an inner nerd. He has pocket protectors. Pulls his socks up. Knows Pi to 20 spaces. Will never get a date with Lucy Lawless. If you are one of the unfortunate, this podcast is like a soothing balm.

  On Wind

  In New Zealand right now, we’re in the middle of a really big storm. A few people have died, and today the school that I teach at was closed (not all our children can swim instead of walk to school). Today I wore my snowpants. Why did I wear my snowpants, you, and some of my flatmates might ask – because they’re waterproof and my jeans were in the wash. I know it’s a recipe for disaster – we all know that snowpants + glen = irrisistable irresistible to women; but it was ok. The 100k gusts of wind, torrential rain (it rained so hard I thought I saw a moose fall from the sky) had nothing on me. I was irrisistable irresistible, dry and warm.
  Wind makes you do crazy things. Like wear snowpants in lower altitudes. Like buy burger fuel ($22) instead of taking your lunch to work. Or, Or maybe, Or maybe get home, feel extremely lazy, and instead of cooking yourself some kai – ringing hell pizza and spending $27 on getting a Double Trouble with a gluten free base delivered when the economy, apparently is in the middle of chaos.
  Somehow, I think ordering a Double Trouble with a gluten free base in the middle of an economic downturn (and 10 year storm) is irrisistable irresponsible and wrong.
  Today was a big day for spending (I also may have gone a little wild on 1-day). I think it was the snow pants.

  Money’s a funny thing. You can use it to make you happy – you can use it to make other people happy. It’s good to do both. I guess the funny thing about the second option is it does both. The first one only does one. Kiva.org is a good option. Today, I don’t know if I can talk because I brought pizza.

  I want to end this post on a meaningful note, but, I don’t know if it’s going to happen. Sorry about that.

  Don’t judge – leave a comment.

   

• glenstorey 12:37:43 am on July 17, 2008 | 6 | # |
  Tags: christchurch, eddie murphy, holiday, iPhone, mosaic, ruapehu, snowboarding

  I’ve been out of touch with the world for almost two weeks now – by two weeks I mean 10 days – by the world I mean the Internet. Travelled down to Christchurch to help support some incredible people making a mosaic there; now in Ohakune with my friends, the Tuckers, not thinking about work (even thinking about not thinking about work is somewhat stressful).

  I’m headed back to reality tmrw night, after, hopefully, a great day snowboarding on Mt Ruapehu. For now, I live in a nice wee illusion that my world is a Alpine Retreat.

  Here’s what the last two weeks looked like:

  • Flying to, and from Christchurch (feels like a small town – flat – great cafe’s (especially the Java Lounge (can you have parentheses inside parentheses?)) – southern looking people (long hair – beards) – secound hand bookshops and antique stores – coffee – coffee – coffee - cold – exciting new start ups)
  • Not buying an iPhone because it would cost NZ$1000 (but when my contract is up for renewal in November it’ll only be $500).
  • Travelling 1500 km’s on Sunday (Chch to AKL, AKL to Papamoa, Papamoa to Ohakune).
  • SNOWBOARDING.
  • Mount Ruapehu, as of yet, has not erupted. I, as of yet, have not been consumed by a pile of burning rocks.
  • My friend Bob David, started a blog and it’s awesome. BobDavid, actually helped me become neurotic about the correct use of possessive apostrophes; he inspired me to use semicolons and other grammatical thingys to slowly take over the world. Slowly. (Crap, was that a fragment?).
  • Mulled wine!
  • Failed my warrant of fitness on account of bung shock absorbers. Yay!

  A siren just went off, which either means the volunteer fire brigade has to go put out a fire, or that the mountain is about to spew out burning lava. I’ll leave you in suspense.

  You can leave me a *suspenseful* comment.

   

  P.S. While publishing this post, I’ve been watching cafe ‘63 on sky (music). Who knew that Eddie Murphy had a music career!? Watch this. Watch it now.

   

• glenstorey 08:39:55 am on July 6, 2008 | 3 | # |
  Tags: fresh start, mosaic, video

  I’m going to talk about this later – blog about it, the toothpaste, my bleeding gums, the coffee consumed, the good times and the layers – but, not right now.
  Here is our 48 Hour Film Entry for 2007. Will write more about it later,
  

  Hey sorry about the apparent thinness of my blog, fresh start is overweight and can’t fit through doors.

   

• glenstorey 02:26:45 am on June 7, 2008 | 0 | # |
  Tags: coeliac, flat, gluten, kiva, life, mosaic, tires

  To be honest, starting a blog wasn’t something that came to me in a moment of inspiration on a Saturday afternoon in the hot (June?) sun. No. No no. It was brought out of intense frustration and one of those days…or weeks, or months even – where life gets so funny you have to share.

  Here’s the story.

  I’m part of a community called mosaic, and we had a meeting on Friday nights (Friday night meetings are awesome. I mean really – there’s no good tele on a Friday, and who does anything fun?). Meeting was great, awesome food, good laughs, a glass of wine was also consumed. The meeting finished about 11.30, got a ride to where my car was parked, helped a friend set up for a surprise birthday (not hers, obviously) and left there around 12.30 in my car.

  I noticed my car was making this awesome sound, sort of like, the death of a thousand teaspoons; and it wasn’t really driving like a car – well a car with four wheels – should.

  I had a flat tire. I should mention here, that I’ve never had a flat tire before in my 9 years of driving. So I was surprised to say the least (I blame the fact that I filled up my wheels with air earlier that day in a bid to save the environment – mother nature is a fickle one). Thankfully Monique gave me a ride home (if it wasn’t for her, I’d be stranded at 12.30am on Newton Street. Not cutie cutie).

  So. Ride home. It’s all good. No dramas. Talked to my flatmate jono, went to bed, and, got violently ill. Turns out that the yummy food I had earlier that night was poisoned – with, you guessed it – gluten. And for those of you who know me, you’d know that I am Coeliac (also known as Special, Gluten intolerant, disproportionately wheat challenged or intelligent). 3 hours of sleep, some angry prayers, 3 panadol, a walk, two drinks of water later – it was morning. And then I got an offensive bill from my insurance company (see below).

  It made it tough because on Sunday I’m leading a conversation about cravings at mosaic, when, instead of preparing creatively with my supreme wit and sense of style, all I wanted to do was lie on the couch and abuse my flatmates – which, I may have done.

  Somedays don’t you wish you could take all the gluten out of your life – speaking metaphorically – those flat tires, the literal gluten, tax, insurance bills, dentists and headlice (primary school teacher here)? They’re the moments that make you a better man, or, drive you to madness.

  The day got better with some frivilous spending on kiva.org and smear campaign against the offending stew and a good hard laugh at myself. But what do you do with flat tires and food poisoning? Is there any sense in it all? These questions are far too deep for the first ever post on this blog, so, I’ll digress right about now.

  

  (I was cheeky and sent them 20 cents and said keep the change. Oh my.)

  Leave a comment yo!

   

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