Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Sunday Pizza

On Sunday, Sarah, Steve, Jono, Jen, Jess and Tom came to my place, we decided which pizza's we wanted to eat and ordered them over the phone. Then we drove up to Pizza Cutters and picked up our pizzas. Saul was very nice and gave us free drinks. We were gonna come back to my place, but decided that it would be nice to eat in the park since it was still daylight. After devouring our
-Beef Royale
-Margerita
-Hawaiian
-BBQ Chicken
-Berrylicious
-Caramello
We decided to play some games. We were quite loud and everyone else in the park thought we were strange. But we had a lot of fun. I taught them all my crazy youth group games and they taught me a really cool game called "the music game." The games we played were:
-big tractor (always entertaining)
-stupid (which Jen loved!)
-the music game (a super cool new game which I'm dying to teach my youth group girls)
-carrots (much loved by Jess and Tom)
-alien (my personal favourite)
-pear (which Jono had a bit of trouble with)
-G'day Bruce (which Steve was very very good at, Sarah did quite well too)
hmmm... I feel like I'm missing a game. Oh Well. Once we had enough of embarassing ourselves (it was very tiring) we left to go our separate ways. I had a nice sleep that night.

From Car-O-Line

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Turandot and the Giant Walking Emo

Yesterday I went to 'Opera in the Domain' with my parents. It was a pretty good night. We got there at 5 and there was still plenty of space (not like Symphony in the Domain). It was quite cold though... there was a lot of wind. We were all hungry so we had our dinner. Then we wanted snacks but we didn't bring any. So I walked to the 7/11 near Wynyard and bought some expensive chips. It was cool because I saw this giant walking emo puppet walking. There were these huge ropes and one man working an arm while another person was working a leg and a forklift truck moving the emo puppet forward etc. There was a whole japanese film crew... so if you next see a giant emo puppet in a japanese movie... it was in Martin Place... and I was there!!!
The opera they were showing was Turandot by Puccini... my first ever live opera. It's the story of the very beautiful Princess Turandot who kills those who love her. [fummy moment! The people behind us were saying "but she's not even beautiful! Why would he go after her?] She sets them riddles and if they can't get it... they get their heads chopped off. Along comes this clever guy Calaf... and when he first sees her he falls in love and summons her to give him the riddles. At the other end of the story, Liu has fallen in love with Calaf and doesn't want him to risk his life for Turandot (because death seemed to be a certainty). But Calaf gets all the riddles right... but now Turandot doesn't really want to marry this stranger. So... Calaf sets her a challenge... if she can guess his name by morning... she can kill him. You may not have heard of Turandot but it's the opera where Nessum Dorma comes from (the song that Australian Idol Damien Leith sang... badly). The music in it is very very good! The orchestra was amazing! Afterwards me and mum were saying that it was slightly cruel to drag dad along to this cultured soap-opera. [funny moment! The people behind us were saying "now I know that operas usually have really out-there plots, but this one... really takes the cake!"] Dad was funny and said "It was very sad when that girl died... it was very... emotional... it almost brought a tear to my eye." Hahaha!!! He was being sarcastic... although I think he enjoyed opera in the domain more than he would have enjoyed symphony because he could read the surtitles and follow along (because he's hearing impaired).

PHOTO TIME:


Dad and Mum enjoy the evening



The giant walking emo.



Check out that beautiful sky


the beautiful sky looking not so beautiful

From Car-O-Line

riddle time care of Turandot:
1. what is born each night and dies each dawn?
2. what flickers red and warm like a flame, yet is not fire?
3. what is like ice but burns?

Friday, January 26, 2007

So many good memories... [1986]

Anybody under the age of 13 should not read this, and if you do, you should
not repost this.

Just because you were born in '97 doesn't mean you're a 90's kid.

It's not like you could remember the original Simpsons. I am sorry but three
conscious years of the 90's just wont cut it.

You're a 90's kid if:

You remember tazos.

You can finish this [ice ice _ _ _ _ ]

You remember watching Doug and Ren & Stimpy

AAAAAAAH Real Monsters!

You had a favourite member from FIVE.

You remember when it was actually worth getting up early
on a Saturday to watch cartoons.

You remember reading "Goosebumps"

You took plastic cartoon lunch boxes to school.

You still get the urge to say "NOT" after (almost) every sentence . . . not

when everyhting was settled by rock paper scissors

when we played Hide and go seek until our legs grew numb.

when we used to obey our parents

You used to listen to the radio all day long just to record your FAVORITE
song of ALL time.

video hits was actually good.

"Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?" was both a game and a TV game
show.

Captain Planet. He's a Hero.

You knew that Kimberly, the pink ranger, and Tommy, the green ranger, were
meant to be together.

You remember when Super Nintendos and Sega Genisis became popular.

You always wanted to send in a tape to Australiass Funniest Home Videos . .
.. but never taped anything funny.

You remember watching Home Alone 1, 2 , and 3 . . . and tried to pull the
pranks on "intruders"

you had a fringe at some point. none of this side fringe crap, a real fringe

You remember those Where's Wally books.

You remember eating Warheads.

You remember watching the Aladin, and Ninja Turtles,.

You remember Ring Pops.

If you remember when every thing was "da BOMB!"

You remember walkmans

Writing M.A.S.H. notes.

You knew all the characters names and their life stories on "Saved By The
Bell".

You had at least one Tamagotchi, GigaPet, or Nano and brought it everywhere.

.. . . Furbies.

You haven't always had a computer, and it was cool to have the internet.

And Windows 98 was the best.

You watched the original cartoons of Rugrats, Power Rangers, and Ninja
Turtles.

When Goth (NOT EMO) was crazy cool! Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth, the good
bands.

You remember Bewitched, Jump 5, S-Club 7, and that whole period with the boy
bands and pop divas.

You remember exactly where you were and what you were doing the first time
you saw a Britney Spears or N'SYNC video.

Michael Jordan was a king.

no one had brand pencilcases

You collected those Beanie Babies.

Carebears

Lambchop

sesame st was actually good.

You collected all the Troll dolls

You owned a portable tape player.

You know the Macarena and the nutbush by heart.

"Talk to the hand" . . . enough said

You always said, "Then why don't you marry it!"

You went to McDonald's to play in the playplace.

Before the MySpace frenzy . . .

Before the Internet & text messaging . . .

Before iPods . . .

Before PlayStation2 or X-BOX . . .

Before Spongebob . . .

when you got one sheet of homework for the whole week.

When light up sneakers were cool.

When you rented VHS tapes, not DVDs.

when Caller ID was a new thing.

When we recorded stuff on VCRs.

When we called the radio station to request songs to hear off of our
walkmans.

When the Chicago Bulls were the best team ever.

Way back.

When it was all about N64.

WHEN YOU TRADED POKEMON CARDS FOR A LIVING.

Before we realized all this would eventually disappear.

Who would have thought you'd miss the 90's so much!!!!!

Post this in your bulletin if you remember these days . . . .

Post with the year you were born

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

the evidence

Ok... so here is my thumb post doctor visit. She used this really nifty thing that I've never seen before to put the bandage on. I thought it was cool. The slice seemed to have stuck back together pretty well which is good... but from looking at how deep the cut is... doc reckons I nipped the nerve (hence that's why it hurt and the tip of my thumb is numb).

I also made another huge discovery at the doctors today! When you mix red onion juice with band-aid glue, it turns green! So my thumb is green underneath (man I should have taken a picture of that too!!!). And yes... my hands still smell of onion.

From Car-O-Line

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

crazy day

got some bible study work done today which was really good. it was kinda hard to do... must wrestle with it more later.

Tonight at work... I sliced my thumb while cutting onions. Man it really stung. And there was all this blood coming out. Now I don't know what's been up with me lately... but I basically fainted. I didn't fully black out but I couldn't hear anything, I went all pale and couldn't stand up. So after dressing my thumb I went out and sat in the bathroom and drank some good sugary coca-cola (they should pay me for saying that). I think I gave my boss a good scare... either because he hadn't seen me so pale before, or because he didn't want me to sue him (I think it was a combination of both). Another guy at work also cut the same thumb that I cut today too... but he didn't do the whole 'damsel in distress' thing... he was more of a man and got back to work a lot quicker. Those stupid onions! They cause me so much grief!!! I'm glad I wont be working tomorrow... I need a lil break from it. My hands stink. I don't think I'll need stitches... but then again I don't know what constitutes the need for stitches... so I better go get it checked out by the doctor tomorrow.

CBS SUMMER EDITION TOMORROW!!! YAY!!!

Driving home from work there was a huge storm with scary lightning and bucketing rain. It should be good for the nearby bushfires. Seeing the lightning and rain reminded me of how powerful God is and the fact that he is able to destroy the whole world in an instant. This both scared me and made me feel awe-ed by God. I'm reminded of that C.S Lewis quote about Aslan that everyone quotes... goes along the lines of... Aslan (God) is dangerous - but wonderful.

From Car-O-Line

Monday, January 22, 2007

update!!!

I forgot to say that Morris Iemma said may-es-tro instead of maestro at the Domain. How silly.

A Mad Weekend

Saturday:
I met Jen and Bess at Penno at 2:10 and we took the train to St James station where we then walked to the NSW Art Gallery! We got there at 3:30, then decided to look at the paintings. The security guard was quite funny... When we walked in I was saying to Jen "Should we leave our bags at the front?" and the guard was crazilly nodding his head. Hehe... also after we left he was like... "is there something happening over at the Domain today? We heard some music practice before." Poor security guards at the art gallery just sitting in the same place... must be boring at times. There were some really good artworks. I think the one I liked the most was the awesomely huge picture of British cavalry. There was so much depth to it. I also liked this really cool aboriginal painting... I think it was called something like "my paradise." It was really vibrant and beautiful. There were some pretty weird artworks there too... especially this one of this bubble which had a weird face projected on it... and it was saying things like "kill me... kill me now!" There was a funny old lady saying "what is it saying? I can't hear it." Lol. After having all that culture... we went to get our spot for the Symphony in the Domain.

We had a pretty nice spot. We were in full sun from 4 till when the sun went down (possibly 6-7). But none of us got burnt!!! I love sunscreen!!!
Jen in full sun... but not sunburnt!

People who joined us later were Jen's parents, her brother Andrew and Jono. Also some people from the coast that they knew came too. We had a nice picnic dinner of bbq chook and salad on rolls. I also brought some nice cheeses... hehehe... so much culture for one day. Before the music started... me, Jen, Jono and Andrew/MC Rocker/Nathan played 500. I hadn't played 500 in ages! I love it... so much fun. I used to play 500 every free period at school with Jen and Bec. There was a funny round where I think everyone had quite bad cards for anything... I was first to bid... I bid 6 hearts... then the bid was changed to 7 clubs... Jono my partner seemed not happy with hearts of clubs at all... so I then changed the bid to 7 spades. We had a good laugh about it cuz it was such a crazy bid. We almost won! Lost by 2 tricks which was quite surprising.

Does this flash work?

Jen and Caro having fun!

I must say I was quite pleased with the music. And this year they got the fireworks sync-ed really well with the 1812 overture. The cannons are always cool too. Then Jenfaffle's parents drove me home. Ah it was an awesome day.
Caught!

Sunday:
Church in the morning. Maitland Mission people still not back... so was quiet again.
I went to work in the evening. It was such a crazy crazy night! The first bad thing that happened was the F3 was closed... which meant all traffic around our shop was at a standstill... which meant delivery drivers were in a big dilemma... which meant we had a huge huge line up of pizzas that was just building up and up... and not enough oven to get that all done... so delivery times escalated to 1hr (usually 35 mins)... so people decided to get pick up instead... which meant we had a huge rush of people coming to get their pizzas... which put pick up time to 35 mins (usually 15 mins)... and being a sunday (normally a quiet night)... there were only 2 girls on front (could have easily used 3 girls)... which meant at the end of the night... which I was closing... had a stack of washing and dirt all over the floor. Oh and I forgot to mention the scorching heat... which made our computers overheat... which made them reboot twice... meaning we lost some orders... which meant we had to call back people and handwrite orders. Also lots of people must have had their air con on heaps... which caused a power-surge where our oven kept on starting and stopping. I think our boss nearly had a heart attack... and he's trying to quit smoking! I don't think last night helped. LoL.

Well... I hope that was exciting for all of you.


From Car-O-Line

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

sudden urge to blog

wow.. it's like 12:02am on a tuesday morning and I just got the sudden urge to blog... don't know why.

I watched V for Vendetta yesterday. I think it's a very good movie that a lot of people should see. I also think that Christians should watch it because of the confronting ideas that are raised in it (eg: Christians are under a totallian regime and have no free thought). I thought one important message in the movie is that your faith can't be a product of something someones told you. You need to know why you believe.

I watched another movie today... well... it wasn't really a movie... but it went on for 90 mins... and it wasn't a tv show either... so I hear you say: "what was it?" It was the presentation of the new iphone by Steve Jobs at the mac conference. Gosh I didn't expect it to go on for so long... I must admit that I drifted off a couple of times... but it is an AWESOME phone/ipod/internet-thing. And what surprised me the most was that it would sell for US$499 which is pretty cheap for something with those features (including multi-touch screen... which is so cool!!!). Ok... so does this make me a nerd?

I was also thinking this arvo that I could be a much better leader to my youth group girls. Compared to my old leader who was awesome... I think I need to be bolder and not be afraid too confront my girls with things I think they do which don't honour God... man being a leader has heaps of responsibilities... it's like being a parent to 15 kids. I'm not ready to be a parent!!! I should talk to old people more on how to lead the kids better.

I realised today that I'll need to fork out at least $400 bucks this month... so no more spending for me. It's very good I have a job now... but I'm worried about how things will pan out once uni starts. The last time I had a job alongside uni was in first year... and I quitted that job because it was too hard to keep up. But maybe now that I'm used to the whole uni thing... it'll be ok. I've told the boss I'll be available 3 days a week... which leaves me one free day... which'll probably be taken by a church bible study. I considered not going to a church bible study... but Cler said I should. I'm thinking 2 shifts of work a week will be good.

Can't remember if I blogged this (I'm always having deja vu nowadays)... but my uni timetable screwed up again... because they cancelled the tute that I picked. So I had to go searching for another subject. There were no music or education (my arts) subjects that fitted... so I decided to have a look back at linguistics (an arts subject that I did in first year)... and there were 2 interesting courses available. I picked the one which allowed me to have a day off keke. It'll be my last arts subject anyways... so I don't really care (I just need to pass!)

haha... I read back on my diary from last year... and I was such a nerd! I was always studying and writing plans and to-do lists... no wonder my results improved. I should keep up with that.

man... i'm really going to have to make an effort to fit in violin practice. And need to fit in some one-on-one times. I'll have to do all my work on the train and at uni.

ok... my blogging urge has gone (I know this because for 5 mins I just forgot that I was blogging and got distracted by my timetable... kekeke)

From Car-O-Line

Sunday, January 07, 2007

My Exciting New Year

Monday 1st
Me and Cler slept at about 4am (after she dropped Euge and Mark home). So we were pretty buggered. Unfortunately... my aunt from the US wanted to wish us a happy new year at 8am... and mum (tucked in bed) let me run out of bed to pick up the phone. Then mum and her sister chatted (very loudly... in true malasian/asian female manner) for an hour... so I sorta just lay in bed for that hour half asleep (me and Cler remember laughing at something my mum and aunt said... but forgot what it was... haha!). I got out of bed at about 9.30... Mum and Elsie were having a lovely chat about me and other things. As soon as they saw me... topic changed! LoL. Cler and Jess came out a little later. Jess and Elsie left at about 12... then I just lazed around... Cler went back to sleep. After visiting my uncle and his dogs (and the rest of the family) me and Cler went to Tashie's 20th birthday party. (Oh no... I'm getting the feeling that I've already blogged about this before! A double post!!! What will I do? Meh...). We ate some lovely food... then we played pictionary. Then we ate some tasty cake. Then we sat around and chatted. Then some people left... and the party crew (ie church people) stayed and took some funny photos. It was a fun time.

Tuesday 2nd
yeah... lack of sleep = I can't remember what I did on this day. Chances are that I just sat on the couch and stared aimlessly into the sky.

Wednesday 3rd
I spent about 2 hours trying to enroll for uni. It took me so long because I had to pick which courses to do... then find out that they wouldn't fit my timetable... then pick new courses... then find out I wasn't allowed to do them... then pick new courses... and decide I didn't like going to uni for 5 days with only 10 hours... then pick new courses... and get an ok timetable. It's looking like I'll have Mondays off (which is nice) and 18 hours (including subjects, cbs stuff and music ensembles). Now just gotta work out which day I wanna have bible study and which day I wanna have violin lesson... and which day I can tutor my neighbour and teach violin to Grace. Oh the dilemma of organising yourself.

Thursday 4th
Went to Cler's house in the late afternoon... then we travelled by train to Cathy's house... before setting out for Ichi-ban Boshi in the Galleries Victoria. While waiting to be seated for dinner... we browsed kinokunyia (sp?) which I've never been to before. It's an awesome store... I reckon it's better than Borders! I wanna go back and buy stuff now. Then we had our tasty dinner. We possibly ordered too much because we were starving (but we could have ordered more entree... luckily we didn't). Then we browsed JB Hi Fi for a little while. Jen will be proud to know that I bought Human Nature's Mowtown album. I figured it would be good as a teaching aid. I also got Coldplay Rush of Blood to the Head. Then... since our food had digested... we went to Gloria Jeans for coffee (or should I say wannabe coffee?). Then we walked back to Cathy's place... played this funny National Geographic game... then me and Cler went back to her place. We both journalled... then we sorta went to bed... chatted for a while... Cler introduced me to all her soft toys (and boy there were a lot!) and then she introduced me to Mandy's giant microbes. They are so cool! I so wanna collect them now!!! Will cost me a fortune though... they cost $8.06 from uni and there are over 20 different microbes. Me and Cler ended up staying up till 3am.

Friday 5th
Woke up surprisingly early from Cler's bright bright room. Had breakfast and then walked to Chatty Westfield. Went to this awesome craft store (I wanna start scrapbooking now) and bought all this nice paper and charms and stickers for Tashie's birthday present. We made her a personalised journal with photos and musical charms and a spot for her CD of the week and some spare blank manuscript for when she gets creative. It was very pretty and both me and Cler decided that we wanted one. LOL.

Saturday 6th
Woke up later than I should have... then walked to Elly's house for a girly hang-out to celebrate Elly's birthday. We watched 3 movies (Raising Helen, Take the Lead and In Good Company) and ate lots of fried food. It was a nice time. Take the Lead is a pretty cool movie. We all got into a dancing mood so we danced to Kylie's greatest hits. We also took lots of silly photos with Elly's phone.

Sunday 7th
The first church service for the new year... which also meant a new starting time of 1oam. I was on music so I had to be there early... turned out when I got there no one else was there... so I think I just sat there for 20mins waiting for other musos to come. We looked at the importance of prayer. Our church camp theme is also going to be on prayer. I'm looking forward to having a prayer focus at church. Then I had a lovely nap in the afternoon... set my alram clock for 3am so I wouldn't be late for switch leaders meeting... was woken up by an sms from Cler asking where I was... realised that I should have set my alarm for 3pm. Made it to the meeting only 30mins late. We talked about what we wanted to do with our kids this year based on where we saw their needs were. It's sounding quite exciting. I'm looking forward to it. I reckon I'll be learning a lot with them as well.

and now I'm here.

From Car-O-Line

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

2006-2007

Here are my reflections on 2006:

It started out awesome... I was at Cler's house with a bunch of other church people and we played eye-toy till the early hours of the morning.
The year was a very busy year (even though I didn't have a real job). Uni became a lot harder and on top of that I received a lot more responsibilities. In the middle of the year... I was booked for 3 camps in 3 consecutive weeks (among other camps in the year). I was also holding a main role in organising two of those camps. My immune system seemed to fail me for a bit too... I had food poisoning twice in two months. It didn't take me long to realise that I needed to plan for 2007 a lot better. I also set a new years resolution to read the bible in a year (using one of those guides). Half-way through the year I became a lil slack... but persevered on. I'm currently 2 months behind... but I'm still going slowly.

My highlights for the year:

switch - we had a lot of new junior girls join us and I think a majority of them were non-christians. It was so interesting seeing how they matured and changed in their thinking during the year. They started off coming to youth group only for the games... and little by little they became more interested in the Bible and then really growing in godliness. At first they were a bit of trouble to lead... but I'm so thankful that I got to get to know them and lead them.

switch camp - My first time at organising a camp. Some parts were easy and some were hard. From this experience I learned how great it is to fully trust God and rely on him in our prayers. We had issues looking for a speaker... and it was 1.5 weeks before the camp, at a switch meeting... that we prayed for a speaker... and then Anthony walked in the room... we asked him... and he said YES!!! An awesome answer to prayer. His talks were really great and the kids learned a lot.

ISCF Conference - this conference is always a blast. For once I wasn't too sick (I did lose my voice) and could get closer to the kids. I especially enjoyed running workshops in encouragement and "yr 12 and beyond" where I got to encourage and develop friendships with some of the older teens. I was also encouraged to see a guy from youth group go and make friends and learn skills in christian leadership. It is such a fulfilling camp.

MYC - I came to this camp right after ISCF conference and I was buggered! I think for most of the talks I wasn't fully concentrating but from listening to the talks again on cd... I've learned so much. One of the best things about MYC was getting to know my fellow brothers and sisters from CBS a whole lot better and even having some deep and meaningfuls with some of the MTSers. The topic this year was on Relationships... and boy did I need it after having relationship problems in the beginning of the year. All through the week I was constantly challenged to glorify God in my whole life (including relationships).

Switch Leaders Retreat (SLR) - At this retreat we had 2 extra people come... one who already decided to join the leader team and one who was just questioning. We had an awesome fun time and I really enjoyed praying for each other and also for our kids. Switch definately brought along lots of different challenges for everyone this year and it was nice to reflect, praise God and pray for the future.

Muso Bible Study - This was something me and Dan wanted to do for a while since there were lots of music students who were christians. We started off with a huge number of people who somewhere along the line dropped off... but it was still cool reading the bible with those who stayed.

Music Education - this year we all seemed to be a whole lot more relaxed with everyone. We made more of an effort to see each other and we hanged out alot outside of uni. Especially fun was going to see Sam and his band play at the brass monkey. My marks also improved this year which was nice. Prac at Tangara wasn't as I had expected it to be... but I learned so much... and got so many resources... I'm excited about developing my own programs and using those resources in my own classroom one day.

CBS - I fully threw myself into CBS this year and I'm so glad I did. After not really getting involved in first year... I had the most awesome time this year. Elsie my MTSer has been such a great friend and mentor this year. She always encouraged me to keep on meeting together with the other christians at uni which was great. I made so many new christian friends this year which has made uni double as excellent. Volunteering for CBS was a surprise treat for me... postering early in the mornings wasn't as embarassing as I thought it would be and in fact I made friends with people doing it too.

One on One - towards the end of the year my friend from music and I got into a really good conversation about christian stuff. This wasn't odd as we talked about this stuff alot. I knew I should have invited her to cbs or asked to read the Bible with her but I was scared that she would say no. But God's plan was that I would read with her... and during that good conversation... she asked if we could read the Bible together. How could I say no?! This was very exciting for me. We started reading through Mark which taught us a lot about the character of Jesus. Although we failed to meet towards the end of the year... I'm praying that we can read some more stuff about God's love and his plan for salvation. Psalm 130 is good.

points of learning - I discovered a lot about myself this year. Especially areas of my life where I was discontent. Praying about this and reading the bible, and christian journals, helped me to become content with what God has presented me with. I thought God was being slack to me... but really... God has been AWESOME!

Well that is my particularly long rant. And my new years resolution: Learn how to serve God well (and not wear myself out).