What a monster intro. I was having trouble starting this episode but then got into the intro and now I am halfway there. I have been doing a lot of writing this week. I wrote a post about Performing Skills and decided to give it away to whoever wanted it and some of them posted it on their blogs. The people who posted the episode were Spencer, Jeff, Eduardo, Sam and Jamie. You can click on their names to see the blog and if you click on Jamie’s don’t freak out like I did when I saw his blog, because it has the same theme as this one except his has a picture of Chuck Norris.

I had the day off today because I was owed a day for working too many days previously, but instead of sleeping in I spent the day doing my other job/hobby/community service/hanging with a good mate/thing I seem to spend a lot of time doing. That is spending time with my friend Dave and that segways nicely to this week’s episode:

“Head Bashers”

A lot of people on the internet know David Wakerley because I think he was the 7th person on it. He has been blogging at www.davidwakerley.com before WordPress was around and was twittering way before it was taken over by Ashton Kutcher. Dave is like chalk and I am like very attractive cheese. He gets very angry at me for writing episodes in the most used writing program in the world – “Word” – and I get very angry at him for not using a money-maximising device called a budget. We have some similarities though, like we are both massive and loyal Nintendo fans, but in the most part we are extremely different and that is why I spend one of my days off a week with him creating scripts, videos, productions and sometimes salads.

Dave is an intriguing character for many reasons but the reason I go back every week to him is that he has a thick head. I was going to add after “metaphorically speaking”, but I thought it was funnier if I left it out. Dave is not afraid to let me know if he doesn’t like my idea and is brave enough to defend it. I could have an idea that I have puts hours of effort into and he will say “it’s not doing it for me”. Then the games begin and with ego’s aside (sometimes), we will bash heads until something amazing is created. Every time without fail the idea is stronger or completely different and better; and it takes the constant working, moulding, shaping, and breaking that happens in a good head bash.

Who is someone in your life that you run ideas past and have to really sell it and defend it? Do you have just positive people who love anything you do and even if it is not your best they will still praise you? I hate being encouraged when I know I can do better. It is like you’re learning to juggle and you can juggle 3 balls for a minute and you show someone and you drop it in 5 seconds and they say “That was great”. What is the point?? If we celebrate mediocrity you will be easily pleased but rarely satisfied.

We all need someone who is brave enough to bash heads in all areas of our life. In my personal life my Princess will not let me get away with sloppy thinking or mediocre options and she will make me believe in my ideas, and takes time to help me challenge them. This has brought so much life to our relationship and our family that wouldn’t of happened if ideas were left unchallenged.

Yes sometimes you may need some Panadol or Tylenol but it is the only way to get ahead.

I can’t believe I finished on a pun.

Have Fun

Dan

Well what a week it has been. I just got back from a roadtrip with one of my best friends who is on his way to Korea; I completed the final 6 days of my detox diet (I will explain below;, I went rockclimbing; I bought and had installed air condition in my home; my Princess bought an oven; I went mini-golfing; and I even found time to go to work! Also something exciting happened for my friends in #kidmin (if that is not you or you don’t know what it is feel free to slip to the paragraph before the episode title). The next offical #kidminchallenge has started. Check out my friend Sam Luce’s blog for all the details.

Seeing I am on the topic of #kidmin I might as well tell you two other things before I get all the other readers back. First I am offering my services as a writer to any #kidmin blog that wants it. The Thursday Blog is a blog about life so I don’t have the platform to talk about things that are #kidmin specific, but if you do then I have a episode that you can have that will be done in the next week. It is all about developing your presentation and performance skills in your ministry. If you want it then you can DM me your email on twitter or just email me on dan@thethursdayblog.com. Secondly and more excitingly I have been asked by the legend himself PJ to be a part of Napkin Conference 2011. If you don’t know what the Napkin Conference is then look it up and register for this year. This year will be great and it is the only conference where you will be able to meet the creative genius from Hillsong Kids – Dave Wakerley, and the leadership and team-building guru from the same place – Nath McLean.

Welcome back everyone. Inspired by last weeks revelation I set out to change a few things in an episode called:

“Detox, Weight-loss and Wii Fit”

So I started a 10-day detox diet last Sunday. This is not one of those fad ones where they say eat nothing but this special water drink that we only sell for $48 a litre; but is a diet designed to rid your body of all the toxins it has been collecting for a very long time. So I didn’t starve, in fact I ate more food then I ever have, but it was only fruit, veggies, some nuts and seeds and that is it. No meat, no dairy, no bread, no eggs, no sugar and no fun. 10 days of being full on lettace but feeling hungry awaited me. But it would be all worth it if I achieved my Wii Fit goal.

Ahh yes the Wii Fit, my arch nemesis. Let me give you a bit more of a background on how my goal started. After it pointed out that I was overweight and I needed to do something about it, I set myself a goal of losing 3kg (6.6lb) in one month and set about training. Well it was a slow start, with doing no exercise and eating a whole block of chocolate, and the next day I found out that that had put on 1.4 kg so I now needed to lose 4.4kg (9.7lb). The Wii Fit rubbed it in my face and made me pick a reason why I put on weight. I then got to work and ate better and exercised hard. I tested myself the next day and I had lost 0.8 of a kg. Instead of my Wii Fit celebrating, it told me if I weighed myself at different times in the day my weight can fluctuate 1kg (2.2lb) therefore this weight-loss dodn’t really count (even though it was 15 mins after the same time the previous day).

Once again angry, I yelled at it “Get under my feet you evil thing”…and then realised that it already was.

Over the next 2 days my weight was up and down but I managed to lose another kg, however I still had another 2kg to go before my deadline and then I started my detox diet. This wasn’t planned, I had wanted to start it one day, and I got up on a Sunday and couldn’t find anything to take for lunch so I thought “ok, let’s start now”…I only found out later that the last day of the diet was my weight-loss due date.

A detox does funny things to your body. After completing one day I did my test and found out that I had put on 0.1kg. A little bit disappointed even though I knew it took a few days to see results, I went to contemplate life on the toilet. Well the detox was definitely getting rid of the bad things inside and I had what can only be described as a monster session in there. Afterwards, I had a crazy idea and I repeated my weight test. Well the detox was working because from before the toilet to after the toilet I had lost…………..0.5kg (1.1lb).

After 10 grueling days it came to the last day of my diet and my goal was up in the air. Did I achieve it or did I fail because the previous day I still hadn’t got there. I weighed in and over the month trying to lose 4.4kg I………………..lost 5.1kg (11.5lb).

As for the Wii Fit? It celebrated that I reached my goal and then said it was worried how quickly I lost the weight. Don’t worry guys, I am standing on it right now, stepping hard.

Have Fun and eat lettace!

Dan.

Hey I know what you are thinking and the answer is no – I was not a contestant. How dare you!

I am not saying that there is anything wrong with those amazing people who are contestants but they are the largest people in the country; and sure I have put on some pounds but nothing compared to that.

And I can lose these kilos when ever I want. Maybe I like them. Maybe I think they fill me out a bit more. Maybe I enjoy being more hug-able. Maybe….. maybe….. maybe……..

Maybe I am a bit sensitive about my weight. Oh well at least it is a good segway to this weeks episode:

“My Wii Fit Woes”

The story goes that I was a very skinny teenager. In fact they used to weigh us at school, and from year 7 to year 12 I weighed the same magical 52 kilos or 114 pounds. I never gained weight no matter what I did. My body ran a strict nightclub policy: 1 in my mouth, 1 out the backdoor. I was also one of those annoying people who ate whatever they wanted and nothing much happened; and if it did it was easily dealt with. Yes, it is true that every now and then I would get a bit of flab on my stomach but I would simply do a set of 25 sit-ups once and go for a walk, and the next day it was perfectly smooth.

I didn’t have it perfect though because I had no muscle – I was the skinniest kid you have seen. In fact when I used to work for World Vision most people thought I was up for child sponsorship. I was a bit of a runt but I put no effort into my physical health and I still looked good, so I had it pretty good!

Can you imagine how hard it would be for someone who their entire life had been skinny as I was, to have to come to grips with the fact that I am now 80 kilos (176 pounds). Well I have been taking it pretty well (and taking heaps of it, if ‘it’ is deslious fatty foods) because things happen and things change. It did get me down a bit and I tried real hard to shed the pounds but it wasn’t until I stood on my brand new Wii Fit that I realised there may be a problem.

I was so excited with the new cheerful Wii Fit. I chose my character and registered myself. It gave me a tour and then offered to do my daily test. It tested my point of gravity and weighed me and then proceeded to tell me that I was overweight!!! Overweight! Overweight. I am skinny little Dan and you are telling me that I am overweight? Just so I got the picture of what it was saying it took my normal-sized character and morphed it to triple the size of what I have it set at. Now I am not just overweight in theory but my avatar looks chubby.

My reaction was simple – I jumped off my Wii Fit and yelled at it “Oh yeah!!! Well you don’t have a heart!!! So there.”

It is very tough to have the truth look at you in the face and gently say “remember me?”.

I knew that my body wasn’t in the shape that I wanted it to be, but I tried to push away the fact that I needed to do something about it. I was in denial, I wouldn’t buy new clothes because I was determined that my skinny clothes would fit. I diagnosed that it was a tempory state of being and prescribed myself the usual 25 sit-ups and walk around the block. After walking many a block and many an attempted sit-up (for some reason they were a lot harder than before) I was not back to normal and I feared I never would.

I have tried a lot of things over the years that generally ended up costing me stupid amounts of money in unused gym memberships. The thing is I have never really been healthy when I was underweight or now overweight. However looking back at all my attempts I realised that there was always a desire to change but never a conviction. I believe that that is where I have gone wrong. I have tried losing weight to look good, to feel good, to save money on not buying clothes but these reasons are fickle. I am going to get healthy because I want to be alive, not only for 120 years but to have more life in me to be a better husband, father, friend and servant. I believe this goal will be worth any sacrifice – even chocolate.

Have Fun

Dan

I am being extremely organised this week and writing this early. I don’t normally find myself able to write in advance as the ideas generally come to me when they are ready – which ensures that the episodes are fresh but also keeps me slightly nervous. Many a time I thought it was all over for this world famous Blog only to have the new idea come right at the last moments. So now I just leave it till it happens, usually the night before it is due. This is not a strategy that can be used in any other area in life. I state that because I don’t want to be responsible for millions of students leaving their major essays to the night before to ‘keep it fresh”.

The only time I can write in advance is when there are important events coming up, so my mind lets me in on its next idea in advance. That is the case this week because as of Wednesday I am off to camp. We are running a camp for kids aged 10-12 years old from Wednesday to Friday. More than one turning point in my life happened to me when I was at a camp and I would like to share one of them in today’s episode called:

“Unleash the beast”

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaCamps are great. It gives the young males a chance to get back to nature and run wild, and it give young females a chance to get back to nature and run away from the wild…………… young males chasing them. Camps played a big part in my life as it was a place where I discovered more of myself (and I am not talking about my stomach with all that crazy camp food.) Shall I explain futher? Seeing I am only 343 words in I think I shall.

I was an extremely shy child. Now if any of you have met me, seen me perform, or had me cook a roast turkey for you, you would know that I am not shy. In fact I can get away with wearing absolutly what ever I want no matter how bad it clashes because I have the confidence to support it. This works out well because I have absolutely no fashion sense. This was not always the case and when I was younger I was constantly worried about what others thought. Then I went to camp and it got better. The End

What, only 435 words in? Ok, here is how it really happend.

I got asked to go to a wonderful place called Camp Clayton. I went to the 5 day camp and for once in my life I wasn’t surrounded with the same people that had done an awful job of being my peers. I had a chance to try and be myself and it was all tested when I met someone new. They introduced themselves and then asked for my name and for the first time in my life I referred to myself not as Daniel but as Dan. This sacrifice of 3 letters was incredibly significant to me, as I was no longer Daniel the boring, insecure, shy, scrawny pale white kid but Dan the interesting, confident, fun, scrawny pale white kid.

Unfortunately camp ended and I went back to school and my last 3 letters followed me. I was a Daniel and I was treated like a Daniel. For the next 2 years I would go back to camp in the holidays for a week as Dan and return to school as Daniel. At camp I started leading the younger age groups and everyone started to know who I was and wanted to hang out with me. At school everyone already knew who I was but they wanted to hang me. (A side note: nobody wanted to hang me but it worked really well with the contrast to hang out with me that I just put it in). I didn’t think I could get the two worlds to collide until I hit year 11.

I moved to a public school that only had senior years 11 and 12 students and it had a lot of them. I went to my first class that was drama. They got us to sit in a circle and go around the room and say who we were. We got to me, and I was slighty shaking with the decision faced before me. Would I be Dan and trust myself forward, or be Daniel and slip into the shadow. When the teacher said “and you are?” I smiled and said “I am the Sexy Beast”.

I wasn’t confident and it still took me years to develop it and I still am, but it was at that point I chose to give it a try anyway. Those times at that school were amazing and it were pivotal to where I am today. I was known as the Sexy Beast for years, not because people called me that, but because I called myself that. I even got my student ID to read: BEAST, Sexy.

The question is what do you want to be because you have a world of choices. Now maybe it’s time to “Unleash the Beast”.

Have Fun

Dan

Reality TV shows are something that I will never quite understand. Why do I enjoy watching how someone’s day, whom I have never met, was; when I am sitting to the most beautiful woman on the planet (My Princess) and I haven’t asked how her day was??!!

In fact there are a number of things in this fun and fantastic world that when I see them I think to myself:

“You have got to be kidding me”

Speaking of the reality TV show “Survivor”, it is quite obvious that it was a very successful show in its heyday many years ago, and now it is still just able to turn a profit so they can run it into the ground (until it is “Survivor – Retirement Village” so that by then Jeff can still host it). After seeing the success of the mighty USA series and the once-off hit of the Australian Survivor (not to be confused with the American Survivor that ran in Australia), a production company in Australia decided to make there own rip-off series. It was the same premise: 16 contestants, 40 days stuck on an island, going insane, and pushing the limits of the human body to the possible detriment of their health. It was actually a good show that I got into because it was as hard as Survivor so therefore fairly interesting, but it had one major flaw – the grand prize for the person who endured the torture for 40 days and was not voted off by there peers was…….. $50k.

You have got to be kidding me.

Survivor USA was $1,000,000, Australian Survivor was $500,000AUD and this was only $50k. The contestants almost died out there, just so that all they could possible strive for was an average years wage. The cost of going on the show would have been 6 weeks off work, possibly unpaid, for a one in 16 chance to win 52 weeks pay. There wouldn’t be a gambler in Vegas that would bet on those odds. The show lasted one series and then went down the drain.

Speaking of the drain I was in the toilet a week back and I saw a man who works in the fish shop washing his hand after using the facilities. I also looked why he wasn’t washing his other hand, and it was because on it he had his glove that he uses to pick up the fish to keep it hygienic.

You have got to be kidding me.

Here is a guy that on his first day at work he was told he need to always were a
glove to handle the fish. He must of thought ‘I will never remember to keep putting it on, I will just never take it off”. What I loved best is that in a busy shopping centre there would have been 50 people see him walking with his glove on and walking into the toilets. Those people and I will stop giving our money to that fish shop.

Speaking of money I went to buy some lunch a week back. Avoiding the fish shop I went into the chicken shop. I bought some chicken wings and noticed they had some new chicken rissoles (kind of like a chicken ball). I asked for one of them as well to which the lady said “you can get 3 of them for $2”. Interesting offer, I thought.

I don’t really want three but it is say over a dollar for one, and if I can get 2 more cheap I might do it. I asked “how much for one” to which she answered “60 cents.”

You have got to be kidding me.

She wanted to me to buy 3 and give her a 20 cent tip. I think a better tactic would say there are 3 for $2.40 to which most people would say “ha, I can buy 4 for $2.40” and purchase 4 just to show her. Therefore the chicken shop sells 4 when in all honesty nobody was buying any.

So if any of you could help explain these strange things you can win a prize. Simply take 6 weeks of works to try and win $104, a chicken rissole and a used fish glove.

Have Fun

Dan

Now New Years Eve is always an interesting time. I am not sure why people feel the need that out of 356 days in the year that on the 31/12 it is party time, but who am I to go against tradition. So tonight is the night where the world is partying, having a great time and being responsible (because I firmly believe that if you can’t have a great time without being responsible you are not stupid but you are boring!). There is a time on NYE that causes a large segment of people to feel awkward. In fact this happens only split seconds after the climax of the night when we all yell “Happy New Year”. Today’s episode is to help those people in that time. It is called:

“New Years Eve Christian Pick-Up Lines”

Now before my large reading base that are not Christian tune out, I should say why I have made this “pick-up lines for Christians”. Basically they need more help. The typical Christian male is hopeless at talking to women and the typical Christian female is so amazing and knows who she is, and is self-confident to the max, so it makes their job quite harder. So this is to help them out but you may be able to use them yourselves because some of them are just really nice.

Before the large Christian audience tune out because of the words “pick-up” lines, I must point out this: get over yourself. The point of a pick-up line is a conversation starter that enables you to obtain or pick-up something you didn’t know before. I know for some that means trying to sleep with someone but it can also mean obtaining a new friendship that hopefully would lead to dating, exclusive dating, courtship, engagement, marriage, then sleeping together. There is something magical about NYE and there is something magical about relationships and I love seeing people get together. So tonight could be your night and I am going to help you out.

Now traditionally a male would use these lines on a female so they are writen that way but that doesn’t mean these lines can’t be used by a woman just by changing a few words. I figured that females are smarter then men so they could change it rather then a man forgetting to and saying to a woman “you are the hottest guy in the room”.

I know there are a lot of these on the internet but here are some of my original ones. Any that aren’t original I stole over 5 years ago so I can trick myself that I am clever.

Here is the list:

The Dinner Line: “We have to go to a restaurant now! Because I have been praying and fasting for you all my life!

The Walking Past Line: Man: “Excuse me were you talking to me?”
Woman: “No”
Man: “Well could you start please”.

The To A Stranger Line: “Enter into courtship with me if I am wrong but do I know you?”

The Found Line: “There you are, I have finally found my rib!”

The Tithe Line: “Want to help me spend my 90% left?”

The Wristband Line: “Oh, I see you are wearing your “Wise Woman Just Date” band. Good call!”

And finally here is the one that I used on a very very very attractive female myself that led to all the things listed before because she became My famous Princess.

The Vision Line: “Hey let’s get married, have 12 kids and start a church….. I’m sorry, I am a man of vison, would you like to go on a date?”

So for the last time for 2009 I say to you my friends those welcomed wise words…

Have Fun

Dan

Hello everyone and welcome to another heartfelt episode of The Thursday Blog, the only blog in history to be on the top ten list of wanted presents from Santa. This poses a bit of a problem for Santa because he thought he would have to make them all laptops which meant flying in those specialised elves from Apple and IBM etc which is quite expensive. Then on the eve of production he had a brainwave and instead he collected all of their email addresses and subscribed them to that world-famous blog. Why don’t you follow Santa’s lead and give the gift that wont be returned: “A 52 week subscription to The Thursday Blog” by entering in your email address to the right of screen.

So it is now Christmas Eve and all of the mouses have finished making their pancake and flapjack batter for Christmas Day, so therefore are not stirring…

Now… where were we……. oh that’s right, we’re on the edge of a cliff hanger. My Princess and I are in downtown Amsterdam, fighting like it is the local custom and we are trying to fit in, and then My Princess did something so unexpected that it left me with my jaw open. All will be revealed in this exciting episode called :

“But I Want Ribs – Part 2″

There we were, tension mounting: my Princess who did not know she was pregnant, was so adamant on getting ribs that she didn’t care if we had to cancel a prior arrangement that had been set in stone for months. Me, who also didn’t know that she was pregnant was adamant that we were not going to stand up about 50 people that we all excited to meet us. We argued and just at the point that I did one of the stupidest moves in history that a male does when talking to his partner – putting my foot down – she did the thing that shocked me. She walked away!

We are in the middle of the city of Amsterdam; there are a million people walking past us, our friend and guide and only connection to safety (becasue I had no idea where he even lived let alone how to get there) had moved away a little bit to give us some space, and she had walked off into the crowd. Using the same logic – I walked off after her.

Now I don’t want to elongate the story because I want to get to what I have learnt (besides not putting my foot down). After we had made up (which is the best part) and found our guide (after making a $45 roaming mobile/cell phone call), I realised that there was a certain part inside of me that was hurting. This was a feeling that I hadn’t felt before and I did not like it.

Fast forward to the last few weeks and this feeling has resurfaced. My Little Princess was tired, really tired but for some reason she couldn’t fall asleep. I was holding her in my arms and she started to cry. I was rocking her and singing to her because she had enjoyed that before, but on this occasion she kept crying and crying. Minutes would pass that felt like hours and her crying got more intense and I started to struggle. On the outside I looked calm and composed but that thing inside of me was screaming in pain. My Little Princess exhausted with crying didn’t stop and started to gasp for air becasue she was finding it hard to breathe because of the crying. This is where I broke down. The pain was too much and I cried out to God for help as I held her in my arms.

I found out what the pain was. The pain was not being able to provide for those who I dearly love. My Princess wanted ribs and I couldn’t give it to her and it hurt me that I could not. My Little Princess was upset and overtired and there was nothing that I could do to help her and the pain was excruciating. Now these were not critical situations – my Princess had a craving which most pregnant ladies do; and My Little Princess was overtired which is normal for a 2 week old. At the end of the day they were fine and no harm came to them, but it still hurt me.

This brought my thoughts to those less fortunate then I. Those without jobs, those without health, those without homes and those who live in poverty. I believe that the most painful thing to a man in the third world is not that he is hungry, or that he has had his leg blown off by a landmine…but it is when his little child cries because they are hungry and there is nothing he can do about it. That pain I would do anything possible to avoid.

We should all be extremely grateful that this pain is not in our everyday lives and be encouraged to help those for whom it is.

May you be blessed this Christmas and enjoy friends and family. I will leave you with this – only last week I called my wife and asked if she would like me to get dinner for that night on the way hom. It was over a year later and for the first time since she said “I think I would like ribs”. I thank the Good Lord that this time I could get it for her.

Have Fun and Merry Christmas

Dan.

Hello everyone and welcome to another special epsiode of the Thursday Blog, the only blog in history to be claimed as a national treasure by more than one country. In fact for years numerous countries have tried to claim it as their own. England sent their Navy, Russia sent their Army, Japan sent their Ninja’s and the US sent Nicolas Cage. To date no country can claim it as their own but Nicolas Cage did get 2 movie deals out of it.

I really hope you enjoyed last weeks episode. The little story was incredibly hard to write as I couldn’t use any words that started with vowels unless they were in the code. By the end I started to lose the plot  - changing words that started with a vowel to words beginning with an E only for my Princess to point out E is also a vowel. Also I checked it over 10 times to see if it would work and every time I would yell “darn it” because I would see a word not in the code that started with an M and for some reason I was convinced that M was a vowel. I would calm down, start checking again, see the word “many” and go “Oh, I give up this is too ha….. oh”.

Today’s episode is a ponder on just how fortunate a good-looking guy like me is. Forgetting that I am married to the most beautiful woman in existence, and that my Princess and I have a daughter that makes grown people in the street stop and start convulsing with weird noises of “ohhhhhhh it’s a ohhh it’s a ahhhhhh” – if we leave that aside because that puts me in the “luckiest guy on the planet” category; I am still very fortunate and I believe there is a chance you may be too.

This all starts with a request from my Princess in downtown Amsterdam. This episode is called:

“But I Want Ribs – Part 1″

It was August and instead of battling a cold winter in Sydney we were enjoying extremely hot weather in the only place to be during June to November – the northern hemisphere. My Princess and I were visting a very famous and close friend of mine – Spronky – in Amsterdam. We arrived early that morning and we had something planned for later that afternoon so we caught a bus into downtown Amsterdam. Now Amsterdam gets a bad rap from time to time and I was scared it was all going to be drugs, rock n roll, and everything in between. I started closing my eyes every 2 seconds because I would see big signs saying “XXXX” and I thought it was a dodgy shop. There weren’t a few of them but every shop had  ”XXXX” and I would stumble passed, eyes closed. It wasn’t until my friend had finished laughing at me that he explained that “XXXX” is their national symbol, had nothing to do with dodgy businesses, and I was currently standing outside a supermarket. It turned out that all the dodgy bits were contained in one small section of town which I appreciated.

On the way walking down the streets we saw a restaurant advertising ribs. It was only 11:30am so we walked passed it. About an hour later we had walked a long way down the road and we were fairly hungry so we looked for some places to eat. We were undecided and then my Princess said “let’s get ribs”. It sounded like a great idea but we couldn’t find a restaurant near us that did ribs. We decided that because time was short we would catch a bus up the road and get off near the ribs place. We did so but it took some time and it was quickly getting to the point where we needed to catch a bus back to Spronky’s place to get to where we were going in the afternoon. We were meeting all his friends and doing some crazy Dutch activites called Polder Sports so we could not be late. We got to the Ribs place and they let us know that the ribs would take 45 mins to cook, but we could only spare 30 mins.

“I am sorry honey, we can’t get ribs” I said sympathetically.

“But I want ribs” She said slighty forcefully.

I will point out at this time that my Princess was about 3 weeks pregnant with our son Sam -(my boy in heaven) yet neither of us knew it. This means we were tackling cravings – pregnancy cravings. I don’t think either of us were prepared for this argument.

“Honey, we don’t have time for ribs. We need to get something else.”

“BUT I want ribs.”

“I know you want ribs, but I can’t give you ribs.”

“BUT I WANT RIBS” (Notice how all the words are now in capitals. Talk about creative writing!!! She didn’t really say those words, it was a bit more civilized but this is the gift of the conversation)

“Look, you are NOT having ribs.” (Notice the capital ‘Not’, someone is getting angry)

“BUT I WANT RIBS NOW! (Notice the addition of the ‘NOW’. Genius.)

What happened next was something so profound that it defies all human logic and could only happen when both parties were fighting immaturely and one of them, actually we can say both of them, had hormones going crazy.

What happened was…….

…To be found out next episode of The Thursday Blog, your mid-week guide to life!

Well what a week it has been. This will be the last week I am writing whilst being on leave from work and what an awesome experience it has been. I really wanted to place a lot of importance on the arrival of my daughter so I worked really hard then took a month off. My work amazingly gave me 2 weeks paid as Paternity leave (which is a whole new level of leave – time off for me because my wife went through and did all the labour) and then the last 2 weeks as annual leave.

My time off has been amazing. I have been doing a combination of attending to My Little Princess and sleeping. My Princess (my wife, not my child hence no “little” in front of her title – not to say she is big but compared to My Little Princess she is huge) … (I feel like I need to re-open the bracket to point out that My Little Princess is 3 weeks old so anyone compared to her is huge but My Princess’ size is not huge compared to a woman her age and she falls into the much sought-after category of perfect)…(I am really glad I re-opened the bracket last time… this time though was not necessary)…and I are having a lot of fun and love our new family.

Anyway enough about me, let’s talk about you. In fact I have a story for you inspired by My Little Princess. I have been doing a lot of thinking whilst staring for hours at my bundle of joy. I have been thinking about when I was a child, I was so reserved. I was afraid of rejection especially from people that deep down I didn’t even care about. It took me years to develop the confidence to be myself and start exploring life. If I could tell a story to that little boy that I was so many years ago, this would be it. A simple short tale with a powerful message – Enjoy.

‘The King’s Message’

The story starts @ the kingdom called Norrid, situated near the sea where the breeze could be sold for millions. Dan who was male, young & had the world @ his feet lived here. Fast-forwarding through my story, we notice Dan finding himself standing within the kingdom’s palace.

“Hey u” said the big security guard, “are you here to help the King?”. ‘Help the King?’ Dan thought, ‘Surely someone like me could not help’. For Dan thought himself to be common & not unique…but then the burly bouncer pushed him through the door and Dan found himself standing beside the throne. The room was extravagantly breathtaking & he was speechless. The King said “Do you like my room?” with cheeky grin.

“Amazing!” stuttered Dan.

Then the King lost his smile “this land’s troubled young knight & we need your help”.

“My help??… Knight??… These terms have not described me before Your Majesty”. The King’s grin returned. “Adventure stands before you my son.”

“Your Majesty, for years my heart has eagerly yearned for such things, but my dreams have faded, there’s nothing but the simple life that awaits me. You must search for someone different my King.”

The King’s grin ceased & fury mixed with love filled his face. “If what you see before u sits the King with His power, you need to listen to my message & you need to understand…….

The message that the King had for Dan is the same message He has for you and me. To find out the message re-read the story above and search for all the words that start with a vowel. There lies your 12-word message.

Have Fun with your Adventure.

Dan

Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to another thrifty episode of The Thursday Blog – the only Blog in history to be pleaded by Google to let them put ads on it. It is nothing personal Google, I just want to wait and see if you are a reputable website that will still be around in 6 months or so.

With a new born things but still on time off from work I do get a few hours each day to think and to write so I tried something new this week. I wrote a really practical episode about Performance Skills that could be really useful to any public speaker, MC or performer. Seeing The Thursday Blog is Your Mid-Week Guide to Life, not a practical way to improve performance skills, I decided to give it to anyone who wanted it. So check it out and read all the other fantastic posts by the regular writers: Miss Sarah, Mike Vogel, Cadu and previous guest blogger at The Thursday Blog – Sam Luce.

Now I got up to one other thing this week that makes such a good story, so I am going to give it to you and you can derive your own life lesson from it. This is because we are going to observe something so complex, so ingenious, so dare I say impressive (I guess I dare) that the different applications are so numerous it cannot be contained in the 800 word self-imposed threshold. We are going to delve into:

‘The Inner Workings of a Criminal Mastermind’

I am not condoning breaking the law but what happened last week was so good I could make an exception. It is like when the Oceans 11 team rob a casino, even though it is against the law you can’t help but love it. The person who did such amazing thing last week was “me” and the number of laws broken were “0″…but what I did was so brilliant that it seemed to be illegal and a bunch of high-priced lawyers still won’t admit that I am not in the wrong. It all started with a phone call:

“Hello Toys R Us”

“Hey, its Dan”

“umm………… do I know you?”

“No, I just wanted to pretend that you should know me for a laugh”

“umm…… ok”

“Wow, no sense of humour yet working in a toy store, good choice”

“What?”

“I said ‘Can I speak to the video games department…that would be choice”

“…………. Hello Video Games”

“No, the name is Dan you must of mispronounced it”

“umm……………… do I know you?”

“Fortunately no, now are you selling the new Mario Wii game?”

After a little while the guy let me now that they do sell this game and it was at the low price of $70 AUD – a good $9 cheaper than anywhere else. I asked if I could get one tomorrow and he said there was plenty in stock so come whenever. I drive out of my way to get to this centre the next day and pick up the game. The guy scans it and tells me it is $80. I explain that I was told it was $70 and he said “oh yeah, we had a 3 day sale. It ended yesterday!!!”

Slightly gutted, I decid to go upstairs to a store called JB HiFi because they had it for $79 but more importantly (because I am not that cheap) I had a gift card there. I found the game and saw a sticker saying “trade in 3 Wii games and get this for free”. Now usually video game places have a list of 30 games they will accept but after questioning the staff they have a list of 70 games they don’t accept (the ones that came out in the first few months of the wii) and everything else is good. Here is where enters the mastermind. The next series of events seemed to happen very quickly.

- I went downstairs to another game place

- I raided the bargain bin

- I found and purchased 4 Wii games for $80 that seemed to be not too old.

- I removed all the stickers

- I went upstairs and presented my stash with fingers crossed

Not only were all of them not on the list therefore were able to be traded, but he scanned them individually and 3 of them were worth $15 so we used them as the special 3 games to get Mario for free. This made a $79 purchase only cost me $60 but the 4th game scanned up as being worth $27!!!! I needed to buy a $25 gift card for a secret santa gift anyway, so they gave me that and $2 in cold hard intelligent cash.

The mastermind had beaten the system and is now current investing in his next task: winning the Mario game.

Have Fun

Dan