Lost In Translation

It's gonna be a great year this time round.
A time for new beginnings. A new page to turn. A fresh start on life.
A year of Arising. A year of sproutings. A year of standing up and standing out.
A year that's going to leave a bookmark in the stories of your lives.
Cheers to that. And have a blessed new year, everyone.

Ah... What a great way to start off the new year.

After a great time at Dan & Joy's countdown-cum-pool-party last night, the day started off slow today with a slacking morning due to excitement hangover, only to pick up with momentum much later in the afternoon during Planetshakers' album launch for Arise.

It's a kickass album in my opinion, with great songs and a fresh new flavour to it. Just a wee little teeny-boppy maybe. I think they exaggerate a little too much with the screamings/shoutings. They mixed and edited it a lot, being a studio album, and with that, I think they might have been carried a bit too far away with their mixing toys as what comes out of it is quite... er... messy. Don't get that the wrong way though. The songs are great. They just don't necessarily sound so.
Then again. I am biased. So...
(Sidenote: I can't say the same for the album-art though. Biased or not, I think the cover's AWESOME!)

With the new services now at the Melbourne Town Hall, starting from 5:00p.m., this was followed straight after at night by Euge's birthday party-cum-Xbox-session at Justin's.

Lavished by good food and good people, all was however topped off by two Xbox's present with 8 controllers, 8 avid players and the anointed Halo. Split in two teams of four and changed around from time to time, TK, Terence, Alex, Andy, Shawn, Uncle Joe and I shouted at two wall-sized projector screens screaming bloody murder, chasing the ladies out of the room while trying to make some sense out of Capture The Flag.

It was definitely just a boys moment. I felt sorry a moment for the ladies being left out by their respective partners, jealous of Terence and TK whose girlfriends were in Malaysia and free from guilt or "responsibilities", but only to have my attention snapped back to the screen when Hengster skillfully sniped me down from minuscule distance. Being my first time trying a hand at the game (actually, Xbox itself), I think I faired rather well. In senseless killings, that is. Strategic teamplay in CTF? I get an F-.

Nevertheless, it was all good fun. It's true how the ugliest sides of us all surface in the tension of a gunfight. But boy is that amusingly entertaining as well. It's been awhile since I had a great geeky time tonight. I can only look forward to many more moments like this with the boys throughout this year.
My first time on Halo ain't gonna be my last, buddy.

I have had my hands full.

It has been a while since I last blogged, I know. But I have such little time to spare for leisure these days I can only afford to log on to read others' at night. Work has been good this week, thank God for that. He has really blessed me quite a bit this week and I owe it to Him for my progress in performance. In other words, more ka-ching lately. Heh.

But before I go further on about this week, let me share a bit about the week before. I took time off from work (3 days to be specific) for the Planetshakers' 10th Year Anniversary Conference. As you may have read from Esther's blog, it really was quite a blast - ranging from the awesome worship time (not to forget PS' jumpcrazy new songs) to the powerful speakers like homeboys Russell Evans and Matt Fielder, Mike G, Chris Hill, and the unbelievable Reggie Dabbs.

I believe that what hit me most during the entire conference itself were the worship sessions and Reggie Dabbs. The worship sessions reminded me of how important it is to simply give my all to Him (as a worship session isn't about good songs I like or not but really just an offering to Him). It's easy how when good times come I can simply thank Him for it. But when the whole world crashes down on me, I lose faith and grow weary. I complain and whine and get frustrated, when really, I shouldn't. The worship sessions taught me (again for the umpteenth time that I really should worship Him at all times - when my days are up and also (more importantly) when my days are down. It is when I do so when the act of worship is most powerful.

Reggie on the other hand was fun and all that but when he gets down to the Word, boy does he mean business. What I took out most from him was the very simple phrase: "Carpe Diem", which means "Sieze the day" in Latin. As simple as it sounds, it meant a whole lot to me. I never bothered wondering just how much I always let the day pass me by and see it go to waste. With useless ambitions. Laziness. Unproductiveness. Complains. And so the list goes on. Until now. I look back upon the days and all just seemed meaningless. The countless hours rotting away with computer games, tv, or simply slacking. Never have I bothered with something 'good'. Something meaningful or at least productive.

Last Sunday I picked up my Bible at home to read a coupla verses. Something I had not done in over 4 months. And it felt good. I read only a few lines but it was refreshing. Like an old dusty photo album, it felt like I was walking down an old familiar road - a road of better times and life lived to the fullest.

I learnt again the true meaning of life and how to live it by faith.
Hence, my motto for the year, Matthew 6:33 (KJV):
"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."

And how has it been so far? Like I said at the very beginning, I've been having a pretty good week. God has been blessing me well all week. With my friends, with work, and little miracles. And even if He isn't giving me anything, yet will I praise Him like David did. Because for far too long have I let my days pass me by. For far too long have I let life slip before my weak fingers. And for far too long have I ignored and held back the praise I owe to Him.

A new day begins.

A new opportunity to Seize the Day.

Somewhere about 30,000 children die everyday from hunger and sicknesses due to extreme poverty. As sick as it sounds, there are kids out there as young as 5 being exploited in prostitution and sweatshops.

But all this can actually be prevented or dealt with with our help and support. These children can be developed instead by us helping to provide them with clean water, medical aid, food, and education - the basic necessities that you and I could easily have taken for granted in our lives.
For something as small as $4.00 is enough to pay a child's school fee for an entire year.
$3.60 is enough to pay for a medical worker to help poverty-stricken communities with malaria or HIV.
$0.22 can buy a bar of soap just for the kids to keep clean.
As silly as all this may sound, such little contributions can go a long way for these kids.

You can make that difference for these kids.
Start by finding out more at www.makepovertyhistory.com.au.

The week has been a bit of a rollercoaster I must say. Quite a ride, swerving through sharp corners and slow rises followed by steep dips. There's also a car accident involved in it. My very first. Not proud of it, but that's a story to be told another time.

But what a great time it was last night, just chilling at the pub with a couple of my colleagues while bidding one of us goodbye. We had a farewell celebration last night (well, what other word should I use then, if not celebration?) at a pub at Hawthorn and it was simply... massive.

This is Daniel.

As you can probably tell, this isn't a very good picture of him. But nevertheless, it's just one of the very few photos I have of him off my phone. I haven't known him for a long time, you see, as I've only met him a week before Christmas at the company's Christmas party. But one thing I can testify to is that this guy's a champ.

Daniel's actually a backpacker from England, equipped with an accent and all that that's English. He's been traveling across the States followed by Australia for the better part of the previous year and have only come to settle in Melbourne for the longest while (relative to his entire trip) because he needed to "increase his traveling funds". Apparently that's pretty much how he started off with us about 3 months ago, seeing that this job is something he could do well in and make some good money at that.
But after 3 months and a bit more, it was time for him to head on off to travel a bit more across the land down under before heading right home.

So in honour of having his company and the brilliant performance with us so far, the rest of the guys decided to bid him farewell with a parting gift.

A massive underwear.

Everyone had a chance to write in a short farewell note all over it, and of course, we made him wear it there and then as well and as you can see, the champ is a real sport.

You should've seen the faces of onlookers at the pub, the ladies behind the bar being the ones most amused.

But as much as a laugh it all was, it was really hard to let him go as well. Dan had always been the cheerful-chirpy one, lightening the atmosphere whenever we had our downs. Him and his British humour and 'flipflops' and roll-up ciggies. He'll be one to miss and work will just never be the same without him.

Cheers, buddy. If ever you read this, it's been an honour working alongside with you and being able to call you as a friend. Will definitely look you up when (or rather if) I head up to your rainy side of the world in the future.
But till then, take care.
And quit smoking.

Happy Chinese New Year, everyone!
Gong Xi Fa Cai!!
May this brand new year bring about prosperity, greatness, or any other positive adjectives involving power a Chinese can think of to you and your family.
And of course, may the red packets start rolling in...

Okay. To start of the new year, I thought I'd share a bit about my car accident which happened recently on Australia Day. Why of all stories, you say? Well, probably to get it out of the way, I'd say. And it is after all, a pretty interesting story. Something I'm upset about, no doubt. But interesting. Simply because it's my very first (and hopefully, by God's grace last) car accident I've ever had... while I'm driving, that is.

It all started when Esther and I were hunting for lunch to ta pau back home to eat, and we decided to try Chinatown's King of Kings. If you don't know, that'd be a pretty awesome Chinese restaurant along Russell Street and it'd be a little hard for you to follow the story. But for the rest of you who are local, you'd probably know which 'Keep Clear' space I'm talking about just in front of the restaurant where everyone makes a U-turn at.

That was the spot where my fate was sealed when all hell broke loose and Lucifer's army fell from the sky about 2 millenniums ago. Exorcist: The Beginning was wrong. It happened in Chinatown, Melbourne.

In order to assist those who don't really know Melbourne's Russell St. in Chinatown, I've decided to take the liberty to illustrate the event colourfully using Photoshop at Paint's amateur level.

So there I was about to make a U-turn to the other side of the road when car no. 1 here on the other side of the road decided that she wanted to do the same. Now as wide as the 'Keep Clear' way may be, it wasn't big enough to fit 2 Camry's (as car no. 1 was a Camry as well). So since I was the first one there, she decided to let me do my U-turn first, which was fair, of course.

The driver of car no. 1 hence signalled for me to make the turn so that she could do it too when I'm done. So, interpreting that I could now go ahead with the U-turn, I turned. lah.
But out from nowhere, as if appearing from a portal leaving fire marks along the road a la Back to the Future style, came car no. 2 from the inner lane of the other side of the road, next to car no. 1!

I didn't see him. He didn't see me.
BAM!
Accident.
End of story.

Okay. So I may have exaggerated a bit at the 'BAM' bit in my illustration. It really wasn't that hard a hit and we didn't exactly collide, ramming into each other causing a huge explosion-like hit. We merely hit each other at each of our front bumpers, that's all. The left side of my bumper, and the right side of his. So it really wasn't that bad of an accident. No one got hurt, in case you're wondering. Esther was shocked, I think, but that was about it. So was I... duh.

So as a result of that, my front bumper, just on the left side at least, is now hanging a little off the car and there' this board thing at the bottom which I presumes help support the weight of the bumper as well is broken, left hanging. By leaving them just as they are, I won't be able to drive without having them scratching against the surface of the road. So I took the liberty, by using some masking tape, to tape it up now temporarily before sending it to the workshop to be fixed.

The insurance company says I'm at fault. And it's gonna be costly, I say.
Which is really depressing I must insist. Like I said before in my previous post, it's been a heck of a roller-coaster week. I've had my ups and downs and this was definitely the anchor of the week.
But oh well. I'll learn from my mistakes and vow to be more careful in the future. It was a really careless miskate to make, not checking the other side of the road for cars even though I was given the green light to make the U-turn already by car no. 1. I regret it. I regret this week, actually.

But here's a yum-seng to the new year, I suppose.
Cheers to a brand new start, perhaps? A year of prosperity. That I can do with.
With uni. With work. With God. With my relationships. And maybe even with Tattslotto. I had a dream last night someone bought me a car (I dunno who, but he seemed like a buddy of mine) because he won $3million from Tattslotto. That I can do with as well.

But till all that actually happens, Gong Xi Fa Cai again to you all.
May the new year bring about more blessings this time round, eh?
I'll drink to that (not before driving, of course).