If you could buy Jesus in a pharmacy, he would be...

"Meet Jesus at uni" is the slogan for the brochure I'm working on, for the 2008 AFES Commencement Camps SA. I've been trawling the web for images of Jesus, trying to find something in between gritty and fun. Who wants a sop-bag?

WANTED
Jesus. Must be able to transmit God's life-giving message on campus. Wimps with nighties and flowing locks need not apply. Strictly no clean-cut Anglos.

There are all kinds of Jesuses out there. There's the rather overwhelmed Where's Christ and there's the bizarre menagerie of Jesus of the Week. Some others include:
Jesus Shaves
Jesus H Christ (who'd've thought?)

Jesus the tinned healer

Dreams and holidays

On a more personal note, term two has finished, accompanied by typically odd lucid dreams.

Yesterday morning I dreamt I was a prayer-reader at Tony and Jasmyn's wedding. It was a hyper-traditional Anglican service being held in a colossal wooden church building. I hadn't practiced my prayer and was hoping it would be easy enough to ad lib. Geoff Lin lent me his own everyday English translation of the prayer in case I needed it but I thought I would be fine without it. However, the prayer I had to read was so incomprehensible that I had to stop after a couple of stilted sentences. I simply couldn't get my head around it, least of all the reference to God as a powernoid -- whatever that is. The service went on without me.

This morning I had a dream about what might have been the Vietnam war. My imagination conjured things far more barbarous and gory than any war story I've yet heard. It doesn't bear repeating.

It's good to have a break! After the feet-finding of term one, term two has gone smoothly though I've been weary since finishing Middle School reports back in week 7.

Voronezh Hit, 3.2 Million Dead

Here's a new take on a not-so-new curiosity: global thermonuclear warfare on your PC. Defcon is the third highly fanciful and compelling game from Introversion Software. As a bunkered-down, push-button general, your goal is to lose the least. Millions of your countrymen are doomed but perhaps you can pulverise the opposition in the process. The glowing graphics evoke ancient CRT consoles. Together with a superbly eerie soundtrack, complete with irradiated coughing, Defcon is just the ticket for a nice long nuclear winter. The game is a Cold War spoof; the manual even has instructions for building fallout shelters. At the same time, there's a pseudo tinge of authentic Cold War angst.

In the event of a nearby nuclear strike of twenty (20) megatonnes or more, expect variable hours of operation in your local stores and businesses.

Our big backyard

As a nature boy, I enjoy Adelaide: there are lots of great wilderness areas under thirty minutes' drive east from the city centre. Of course there's the well-known reserves like Morialta and Waterfall Gully, the destination for many a Davis family outing in years gone by. Nowadays the Davises like to explore lesser-known spots, like Gandy's Gully (off Penfold Rd), Horsnell's Gully (off Old Norton Summit Rd) and, as Edwin was saying, Chambers' Gully (off Greenhill Rd). From Chambers' Gully you can walk up and along Long Ridge to its secluded bluff, which trails off Mt Lofty and gives an even better view of Adelaide. Look them up and try them out!

Pear connoisseurs ahoy

After some tough and gritty Aussie Packhams, I've been revelling in the delectable Chinese Ya. The Ya pear is an apple-pear hybrid. It's crisp like an apple but delicate and easy to bite into. It's juicy like a pear but lighter in texture. Works well in salads, they say. Although someone reckons its flavour is part way between a rose and a pineapple, the words subtle and honey are my best fit. From the outside, it's egg-shaped and pale yellow. From the inside, I imagine it's dark but it's hard to tell as I've not been inside a pear before. Do Ya know any better? The other Asian pear I've tried is the Japanese Nashi, grown in the Adelaide hills. Ya wins, hands down. China's "Fragrant" variety is the height of Asian pear delight, they say. There are so many Asian pear varieties that, for all I know, Ya could have been Fragrant. What have Ya been eating? Shout out to APAL. Check your season.