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Two posts in as many days? Shocking. Today was amazing though so I'm going to write about it.

Woken up by Jasper this morning, had a ten minute snooze then fed him. After which I had exactly the right amount of time to shower, do hair, watch Cheers, smoke a cigarette, get dressed and my lift to church turned up as soon as I opened the door. Perfectly timed. Nice sunny day and it stayed as such until it got dark. This was especially good because I got new sunglasses yesterday, first time I've owned any as far as I can remember. Got to church at 9am which I enjoyed but was mostly uneventful. Since I've been pretty depressed lately (to the point of stress-induced hair loss) it was nice to be up, awake and willing to help with a smile.

Church was excellent. Or rather, the presence of The Holy Spirit was excellent. Worship was so great and I really connected with God but there weren't any words brought for me specifically and I wasn't in a place where I needed to be singled out and told anything specific, God and I just connected. I felt filled with The Holy Spirit in a straightforward joyful way, feeling like I was God's son when so often I've felt like I've had to be His "project" (although I know that's not how He sees me).

In fact, God so overwhelmed the church during worship that the preacher didn't give the preach he'd spent so long preparing. He came before the church in tears, saying he was a "broken man" and that the sermon he'd so meticulously prepared wasn't right. God had been telling him something else all week and he'd tried to work it into a mostly unrelated sermon (the church was going to start a new series today). Honest, convicted and humble he just preached what God had told him about in the week and what God was saying to him in the morning, which fitted perfectly with prophetic words other people had brought during the worship.

This is what church should be about!

After the slightly shortened sermon we were encouraged to split up into groups and share any words that we may have had for one another. God was speaking so clearly to so many people that there wasn't time to have everyone come to the front and share so we shared with each other in groups then prayed. This is the first time I've seen this happen on a Sunday morning in all the years I've been at The City Church Canterbury (since December 2002). I had a word about how the biggest pain Jesus felt on the cross wasn't the nails but it was the separation from The Father. The perfect relationship of The Son and The Father which had been in place since before creation was broken while Christ took on the sins of the world. We were also talking about how Jesus felt every temptation and understands every trial we go through; my point was that He even knew separation from The Father due to sin (although not His own) and somebody was feeling that. One guy I didn't know well responded and we all prayed for him then back into some more worship.

Set down was nice and uneventful, then I got invited to a barbecue. It was mainly with people with whom I had not socialised before so how surprised was I when the "So which is your favourite window manager?" discussion came up! Turned out there were a few geeks around! Another highlight was me and Mike chasing after an ice cream van that we couldn't see but heard. We'd cycle after the sound, not find it, go back to the house disappointed, then hear the sound again. This happened twice more and we eventually found it and told the driver where Mike's house was so he could come sell us ice cream. Great stuff. Just a really nice time in the sun with some interesting discussions (not just the geeky stuff, there was some spontaneous bible study which was really interesting and fun as well as the usual party-style discussion) and some excellent people who I wouldn't normally see much of.

This took us right through until 6pm when we went to Invision (the evening meeting for students and other 20-somethings). We got there just in time for the worship which wasn't as spectacular as the morning but nonetheless great. The preach was also very good, sometimes hilarious and sometimes challenging. Good times. It was about Christians and drinking, standard student-y subject and well-presented without (as far as I could tell) making anyone feel condemned for drinking. The overall point was that alcohol is good and a gift from God which we are to enjoy in moderation (drink, enjoy it, don't get drunk) and the solutions alcohol is often meant to solve (stress, boredom, loneliness) are to be solved in a more permanent fashion by God.

Afterwards pub with some of the guys from Invision, good time of fellowship and fun conversation nicely topped off by some very funny conversation with a few guys on the way back home. The icing on the cake is now, coming home and chilling with Andy in the living room watching Family Guy after a brief conversation about what a great day it was for both of us.

The chocolate chips in the cake (oh yes, it's that good) were the myriad of compliments I received during the day on my new hair cut, shave and glasses. Seems it's a good look. Also a lot of people didn't recognise me which was just hilarious, particularly at the pub where a bunch of girls I didn't really know said things like "IT'S BILL HAYES!?" to each other. I showed them my driving license (provisional, don't get excited). Also a few people had come back to Canterbury after being with their parents over Easter and it was wonderful to see them again.

And y'know what? For the first time in ages I've spent a whole day being around people and not once wanted to kill anyone or escape somewhere quiet and lonely. That, I think, is real evidence of my depression lifting.

God has been good to me today, very good. It's so much more than I deserve and such a wonderful gift. This rarity of an LJ post is made to commemorate a wonderful day and praise Him for it.

o/~ Our God is an awesome God

Posting this here because it's cool.

( Under the cut... )

Album: mistakes.morti.org.uk
Gig: 21st (that's next Saturday), Run of The Mill, Canterbury, 8pm.
Facebook: facebook.morti.org.uk

Facebook link is there so you can become a fan and find the event for the gig so you don't forget to come along. It's free entry and will be excellent. Album costs £8 and is also excellent.

Thanks.

Made me laugh anyway.

Click the image to get the song.


Edit: It happened again. I could imagine a giant future space woman being from Ukraine.

Dear O2.

Here's what I want:

• A Sony Ericsson Xperia X1.
• When that is out of stock, I would like you to order one for me on your system such that it will be delivered as soon as it is in stock.
• I don't want to call you once (often more than once) every single week as I have been for the last three months to check the stock of this phone.
• Stop offering me other phones, we've been over this plenty of times.
• More Internets, being able to view a 10 minute YouTube video in under an hour would be nice.
• When I call and say my download speed sucks, listen to what I say without making me go through all your ridiculous test procedures that waste my time and yours. I know what I'm doing.

Failing the above:

• I want out of my contract. I owe you nothing.

This is seriously ridiculous. I'm one slight away from T-Mobile, that's how annoyed I am right now. I've been with O2 for as long as it's existed (I used to be on BT Cellnet) and it takes some pretty bad treatment to get me to want to shift elsewhere but that's what I feel like I'm getting at the moment. Sure, most of the people who work there are very nice when I call customer services (every week, remember) but an actual usable service in terms of either mobile phone or Internet would be much appreciated given that's what I'm paying you for.

Fuck you.

Bill Hayes.


P.S. Fuck you.

ALBUM

:D

Current Music: Morti - Spot The Deliberate Mistakes

Here's to another year of mindnumbing fail. Cheers.

mistakes.morti.org.uk

Enjoy. Leave a comment here or in the guestbook.

Album is mastered! :D

MySpace has three sample tracks you can listen to now, website for the album is going to be up either today or tomorrow and you'll be able to buy it in two or three weeks just before Christmas if all goes to plan. It'll cost £8 and will contain 15 tracks. I reckon that's good value for money.

I'll sell it through my own online store initially then it'll go out to various other places (including iTunes and CD Baby). Exciting stuff.

If you saw me in the back of a police car, what would you assume I'd been arrested for?

Today I am annoyed with people who live or die entirely on what his or her partner does or says. It's not being annoyed at couples per se, just the sort where someone is entirely dependant on their "other half" for all kinds of support and validation, gets ecstatic when they're around and gets depressed when they're not. That's not a relationship. That's drugs.

Thanks.

Well, I have to say that when I fired up Safari to test LJ's all-session logout feature the last thing I expected was to be presented by Bill's LJ.

But evidently, that's exactly what's happened.

Have you tried putting a banging donk on it?

Current Location: absolutely not syn's flat
Current Mood: totally not syn
Current Music: whatever syn isn't playing

If you're on my friends list, I want to know 36 things about you. I don't care if we never talk, or if we already know everything about each other. Short and sweet is fine ... you're on my list, so I want to know you better!

Comment here and repost a blank one on your own journal.

01) Are you currently in a serious relationship?
02) What was your dream growing up?
03) What talent do you wish you had?
04) If I bought you a drink what would it be?
05) Favorite vegetable?
06) What was the last book you read?
07) Create your own question seven and answer it.
08) Any Tattoos and/or Piercings? Explain where.
09) Worst Habit?
10) If you saw me walking down the street would you offer me a ride?
11) What is your favorite sport?
12) Do you have a Pessimistic or Optimistic attitude?
13) What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?
14) Worst thing to ever happen to you?
15) Tell me one weird fact about you.
16) Do you have any pets?
17) What if I showed up at your house unexpectedly?
18) What was your first impression of me?
19) Do you think clowns are cute or scary?
20) If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?
21) Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?
22) What color eyes do you have?
23) Ever been arrested?
24) Bottle or can soda?
25) If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it?
27) What's your favorite place to hang out at?
28) Do you believe in ghosts?
29) Favorite thing to do in your spare time?
30) Do you swear a lot?
31) Biggest pet peeve?
32) In one word, how would you describe yourself?
33) Do you believe/appreciate romance?
34) Favourite and least favourite food?
35) Do you believe in God?
36) Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same for you

Current Music: Morti - City Living

COMMENT HERE AND I WILL:

a) Tell you why I friended you.

b) Associate you with something -- a fandom, song, color, photo, etc.

c) Tell you something I like about you.

d) Tell you a memory I have of you.

e) Ask you something I've wanted to know about you

f) Tell you my favorite userpic from your list

g) In return, you need to post this on your own livejournal

This is what boredom does.

www.morti.org.uk

These days I'm mainly working on an album. I'll post when it's done and do all the promotional stuff then. The userpic is from a promo photo taken for the album release. Having promotional photos of oneself has an odd feeling about it.

Current Music: XOC - SMW End Credits

I'm inviting the Internet out for pizza. Everyone from the Internet is welcome.

http://www.new.facebook.com/event.php?eid=21430590278

16th August, 4pm, Pizza Express in Canterbury.

Add yourself to the event or reply here and feel free to invite anyone.

Now we can all be social networking friends, let's stop the feuding.

Or I figured out how to get LiveJournal posts on Facebook.

You know how I've been in the second year for five years?

Not anymore, baby! :D

I seem to be doing 50/90 (50 songs, 90 days)

http://5090.fawm.org/writers.php?id=303

See?

Current Music: Morti - Grow Old (Or Die Trying)