heno toshi! you're reading me! hehe...

the nanae_2002 mailing list is alive! i've just sent my first message to it, to kick off the archiving. but... even though i checked it a couple of times before hitting send, i still managed to omit the subject line... *sigh* pretty sad considering i saw that the subject was still empty, but said to myself: remember to put in a subject before you send. moral of the story? don't bother talking to yourself ;)

"the rookie" turned out to be fairly ok... nothing earth shattering, but not a bore either. would make a good tv/video movie... but perhaps not one i'd jump at the chance to pay to watch in the cinema. good thing i watched it for free then :)

don't you just hate it when you encounter a slow, lazy afternoon, and you feel like hopping on your blog to tap out an update, and the power goes out?? well that's what happened last week. actually the power was only out on one of the phases to the building, so my computers were still on. but the outage did take out the local switch, so i had no network. i guess i could have typed out something and saved it to a file for later uploading, but that kinda defeats the purpose of blogging somewhat, so i played pinball and did a bit of reading instead :p

so... what was i going to say? went to japanime thursday night for the opening night (and queensland premiere of the) movie "spirited away". not overly impressed with the cinema itself (screen, seating etc) - i've been spoiled on the excesses of "senstadium" and "cinestadium" seating - but it was a full house and the atmosphere was positive. the movie started about 30 minutes late, and was perhaps a bit on the long side (i found myself checking my watch on more than one occasion), and some people commented afterwards that the ending seemed a bit rushed, coming too quickly. but overall i enjoyed the movie, though i'm still not entirely sure what to make of it as a whole. it was somewhat intriguing and interesting - probably not the sort of thing i'd automatically choose to see (especially at the price it was going for) but it's always good to watch movies in the company of others and be able to chat about it afterwards. the "after party" consisted of sushi and other tidbits of food, coupled with a few choices of alcoholic beverages.

didn't end up watching any other movies at japanime... was supposed to go to a concert at church on friday night, but that got cancelled somewhat last minute... and ended up staying back late after work anyway, so in the end i went home and veged out. while preparing to heat up my dinner i heard on the radio that they were giving away movie tickets, so on a whim i rang up the station to try my luck. the competition was called "battle of the suburbs" and i was pitted against another contestant in a best-of-seven questions quiz. in the end the score was tied 3-apiece as one question didn't get answered in time. so one of the announcers decided to give us both a half of the prize and not bother with a tiebreaker. and i still didn't quite know what it was that i'd won! but, picked up the tickets this morning and it turns out to a couple of free passes to a preview screening of "the rookie"... so that's what i'll be doing tonight :)

saturday was the word 25% off sale! rather handy for picking up a copy of sara groves' new album which i had been intending to buy anyway, along with some other items. then i did my tax return in the afternoon, and played more a bit more pinball at night - manged to break the 10 million mark... once.

sunday saw me getting wet on the way to the 96.5 festival of choirs, at the albert st uniting church in town. the special guests there was an a capella group called the idea of north, who performed two sets during the program. quite enjoyed listening to them sing, and using their voices to create a myriad of sounds. good fun (except for getting a little wet... :p)

and it's about time for lunch...

hmm... one of my fillings just "broke" and came loose while i was munching my way through a biscuit! how odd. needless to say, it's leaving a rather strange sensation in my mouth. guess i'll have to pay the dentist a visit soon :|

almost forgot... watched "my sassy girl" last friday night, one of the (two) free movies screening during the korean film festival. it was much more entertaining than i'd expected! funny, not taking itself too seriously, yet not too outlandish... at times quite poignant and ever so slightly verging on cutesy romanticism, all in all a throughly enjoyable and fun movie, one that i would have been happy paying money to see. here's just one synopsis/review.

japanime hits brisbane tomorrow night - am going along to the opening night premier of "spirited away". it's a hefty $25, including an after party with food and drinks, so hope it'll be fun!

uploaded pictures from brothers night, which took place two weekends ago. val has also put up some of her shots here.

wait and see

if you look closely at him today, you may catch him smiling to himself, or notice the hint of a goofy grin wriggling to escape to the surface of his person. his smile is not from a joke or amusing anecdote, though it could make for a nice story in years to come. he's not recalling a funny incident, or scheming up a practical joke. and he's not crazy - at least, he's pretty sure he isn't.

he smiles. mostly on the inside, but sometimes can't quite keep it from showing on the outside. he smiles because he's happy.

he might well have reason to be unhappy - there was the confirmation of a traffic infringement fine and associated demerit points a few days back, and that incident last night where his car was hit by two eggs, seemingly propelled with some deliberate force by persons unknown, while driving home. and things are not perfect at home, at church, with friends, and family... and the future is still quite uncertain.

of course there have been positives too - helping a friend celebrate their 21st birthday, and another couple their engagement, during the weekend. an enjoyable and entertaining korean movie last friday, and good conversations before and after that. other good conversations and prayer in the next day. and this morning, having a recurring problem with the car alarm identified and finally fixed.

but mostly he's happy because he can't help feeling that way... he's happy because God is good. he's found himself wrestling with a specific issue of late, and doing a fair bit of thinking, both by himself and with the thoughts, opinions, and counsel of a few close friends. though wrestle might not be the best word... since it hasn't seemed that hard. he's been wary of depending on himself and his own abilities, motives, and wisdom, and hence tried to bring the problem before the Lord in prayer, and sought the advice of trusted people. and he feels quite at peace with the ensuing decision. "trust and obey, for there's no other way, to be happy in Jesus, than to trust and obey." no doubt the trust and obedience is flawed and at best imperfect, but he's feeling a quiet sense of joy and contentment from the attempt.

the decision? asking a friend about the possibility of venturing into a more-than-friends relationship.

the response? wait and see...

read an interesting article (url from bloggerbuzz for october 17) titled "how to write a better weblog". some good points in there; food for thought indeed. if you have an opinion on this blog (and haven't already shared it with me) i'd love to hear it.

- - - - -

someone at work recently changed the behaviour of some of the internal mailing lists we use - something to do with making it a closed list ie. only postings from subscribed addresses will be allowed. this was supposed to be a spam-fighting measure, but a couple of things got overlooked:

1. many staff have multiple addresses, and often the subscribed address is not the same as the sending address when posting
   
2. which can be worked around, if only people had been notified of the change!

quite a few emails had been sent to the various lists but not delivered. adding to the confusion was the absence of any bounce or other error messages indicating the failure to the original sender. it turns out that all the emails being sent from non-subscribed addresses had been delivered to an admin staff member who didn't know what was happening and didn't do anything about it!

communication - getting it right can be hard work.

speaking of which, i'm starting a mailing list for anyone who wants to receive updates/news/info regaring my short term mission trip to nanae in december. if that's you, you can subscribe to the list by sending a blank email to this address:

nanae_2002-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

it will probably start seeing some action in the next week or two, and last for a few months at the most. if you know me you'll probably hear from me soon on this topic, so consider this a pre-release bonus for my blog readers ;)

noticed a new album by sara groves in the koorong catalogue i got in the mail yesterday... so had to go searching for more info, seeing as i already own copies of her other two releases :) the album looks so good, i think i'll have to buy it soon! this is one CCM artist whose lyrics i've appreciated, and often identified with. i haven't even heard anything from it yet (there are realaudio samples available from her site, but i can't get it to work from my machine), but i'm sure it'll be worth it. go check out the lyrics and reviews for "all right here". i think my ears are starting to itch... :)

heh... my pay increment has finally gotten through... only about half a year late! oh well... i get the money eventually.

speaking of money... i was talking with some law student friends a few days ago, and they were working on this assignment where they were investigating a lawyer who had made a few questionable/inappropriate transactions with her money and her client's trust money. then i somehow managed to figure out that the minor transgressions could be used as a cover for the more major transgression of money laundering. of course, that was based on about 30 minutes worth of talking and background info, so i might have been totally off the mark! but... maybe all i've demonstrated is an example of the wickedness of humankind, ie the tendency towards perverting justice, ethics and laws etc for personal gain... :o

anyway, onto other financial matters... still gotta do my tax return before it's too late, and consolidate my super(annuation). feels like such a chore... someone commented recently that the ATO has an army of unpaid tax accountants - ie those who do their own tax returns! i'm an unwitting draftee... wouldn't life be simpler without the tangles of all these financial concerns?

ahh... back on the air... couldn't access my blog yesterday...

photos from glor's 21st are up.

attended part of the OMF prayer conference last friday/saturday - it's been a while since i've spent that much time in praying for other people in the space of one day. it was good, got to speak to a few people - some ex-missionaries, some current (on home assignment), and others who had done and are still involved in short term stuff. looking forward to visiting nanae in december - got an email from the omf missionaries there, so now i have a better idea of what i'll be doing during my time there, and how/what to prepare beforehand.

then on saturday i came back to brisbane for the yf brothers night, which was quite fun, and also full of encouragement and prayer. excellent stuff :) photos to come...

got another friend's 21st coming up this weekend, plus an engagement party. and two weeks later a wedding. should be good for catching up with some old friends and people i haven't seen in a while.

it's 2:30pm in the afternoon, and i am past being ready for the working day to end... TGIF? :)

it's actually looking a bit dark and stormy like outside. will be leaving town and driving up a mountain later today, so i hope my sense of timing will be off and i'll miss any storms waiting to hit!

*tick*tick*tick*

*twiddle thumb*

*sigh* might as well try and get some more work done i suppose!

happened to be driving near the previously mentioned intersection last night, so took a mild detour to scope out the lights... unfortunately they weren't behaving as they did when i passed through the other night. bummer. that'll be $135 and 3 demerit points, thank you very much...

onto happier news, i've just finished my cisco course! had the final theory and practical exam this afternoon, and managed 100% in both (had to guess a few in the theory MCQs) so i'm feeling pretty happy about that. should be sitting an official certification exam sometime soon, hopefully won't have forgotten too much by then! oh well... no more studying for a while suits me juuuust fine :)

more road stories of a different nature...

got my picture taken last night, while turning left at a T-intersection... during the approach to the intersection, i saw the turn arrow go from green to red, then the straight light turn from red to green, but the turn arrow must have stayed red (the one for going straight was definitely green, unless i've gone blind) cos i saw two bright flashes halfway through the turn... maybe i saw it and it just didn't register in my head cos i couldn't (and still can't) understand why one would not be able to turn left when one can go straight. the only thing i can think of is when there is a pedestrian crossing... and i'm sure there weren't *any* pedestrians around to have activated the signals... nor do i recall seeing any pedestrian signals...

i'm a bit disappointed about the whole thing as it wasn't like i was trying to beat the light and got caught. anyway, i guess i can't avoid being at fault, though i'd sure like to do the instant replay thing to have another look at the scene :|

pictures from the hksa ball are now up.

went to a friend's 21st last weekend, which proved more entertaining! pictures of that to come...

saw this signature in a newsgroup posting; thought it was pretty clever:

There are 10 types of people - those who understand binary and those who don't.

:)

more road stories...

last night on the way home i had a car try to cut in front of me three times in the space of about a minute. the first time attempting to cross a solid line when exiting a freeway - i braked to let him in. the second time peeling left on an added lane just after exiting the freeway - without signalling... i braked again. then after the peel was a left turn onto a double laned road. the guy took the left lane after the turn, and i went into the right to overtake... and just as i drew alongside he signalled and made to change lanes again. this time i accelerated. some drivers are not worth the trouble to be following behind.

speaking of which, i almost forgot about another incident the other day... might have been yesterday morning, or the day before. this time i'm coming into work, driving along the main road that leads in, and i brake to stop behind a car which is stopped at the lights. except the lights are green. no i don't mean the lights had just changed from red to green, which may explain why the car was still not moving. the lights had been green prior to the car in front reaching the intersection... she just stopped. as there was too much traffic in the adjacent lane, i had no choice but to stop also. but she soon took off again, travelling well below the speed limit. next intersection, she stopped again! not to make a turn, but to have a look around. then when she'd had enough of that, she took off again... by now there was enough of a gap for me to change lanes and overtake, an opportunity i was too glad to take.

how do people get their licences??

they say that most accidents happen within something like 1 or 2kms from your home... is that going out or coming back? last night on my way home some car (or rather its driver) nearly hit me. it was in the driveway of a townhouse block near home - i saw it, ready to make the turn onto the road, but waiting as there was traffic already on the road. the car in front of me turned into that same driveway, while i continued straight. as the car in front of me turned and i went closer to the centre of the road to go around, the car already in the driveway suddenly came out onto the road with a burst of speed! i don't know what the driver was thinking, but i'm fairly certain had i not swerved into the other lane (good thing there was no oncoming traffic) our respective bonnets would have collected each other in a rather non-amicable manner.

last friday a bus tried turning right on a roundabout from the left lane... while i was intending to go straight in the right lane. i don't know what was going on there either, but i suddenly saw a lump of metal crossing in front of me, cutting off my exit pathway. i wasn't going to argue with the bus (bit of a size mismatch there) so had no choice but turn. (or i guess i could have stopped in the middle of the roundabout...)

it's fun sharing the road with other vehicles... but i guess all i can do is try to make sure (as far as possible) i play nice myself.

japanime info is available online... www.japanime.com.au. it's a bit pricier than i expected though...