waxing lyrical

back in my shiftwork days, we used to listen to the radio during night and weekend shifts. one of the girls on my team had an uncanny ability to sing along to just about every song that came on. she said she just listens to a lot of music, and remembers the words (and tune).

me? i usually get about as far as humming bits of the tune and maybe recalling some of the lines from the chorus parts. that's why i don't go for karaoke, cos i can never remember how to sing the whole song, even if the words are flashed up in front of me and in time with the music.

amazing thing this the human mind. great capacity to remember lots of information - other people i know are variously good at quoting quotes and reciting lines from movies, plays, and episodes of the simpsons!

the other day a quiz got circulated at work - the 90's lyrics music quiz, with the aim of identifying song name at artist from a given line from a song. my two immediate colleagues started naming answers, while i struggled to convert the feelings of familiarity to actual titles and names. i could vaguely hear some of the tunes in my head, recall the context in which i heard the song (eg. this was featured in the soundtrack of an animated movie), or half-picture what the artist looked like. i think i got about two artists and one complete boyz II men song right before i gave up. the next day one colleague came in with answers found online, and as i scanned the list there were a number of lightbulb moments as the memories of songs from yesteryear came flooding back... well, those few that i knew anyway... quite a few were UK ones which i had never heard of.

anyways, the whole thing got me thinking about how powerful songs can be. even when you don't necessarily mean or intend to commit a song to memory, if it comes wrapped in a catchy tune, into your memory it goes. and sometimes, you can't get it out of your head! often, you may not even really think about what the lyrics are saying, yet you sing along regardless. i remember a time in high school when we looked at pop songs and lyrics during english class, and i was quite surprised to find that the lines i had been repeating from a certain prince song was actually quite sexually charged - and really not the sort of thing a young teenager ought to be taking any pride in saying/singing.

it's been some years since i regularly listened to commercial pop radio -- partly because my tastes have changed as i grew older, and partly because of the power of music/song to ingrain lyrics in my head. often i have the radio on not so much to actively listen as for background music. and these hours spent (perhaps subconsciously) absorbing all those lyrics have quite probably contributed to a warped view of the world. at the very least, they're not doing anything positive for my mind. which is not to say that all pop is bad, but if you're not actively filtering and selecting the stuff that's going into your mind (ie choosing what you listen to), and just freely taking everything in... well, that's a recipe for easy corruption.

since those younger years, i've spent a lot more time listening to christian music - whether christian pop or the songs used for church/congregational singing. they often (though not always!) have much more meaningful lyrics, and especially good are those which remind us about God - his character, his deeds, his promises etc. one thing i've tried to do on occasion is to memorise the lyrics of a whole song, so that i can sing it from memory. i find this helps me to focus on the words, and to think about what i'm singing (what words are coming next?). it's too easy, when the words are in front of you on a page or a screen, to engage the autopilot of the mind and read/sing the words as they come, and not think about what those words are.

i'm not very good at memorising whole songs, and mostly i rely on the fact that i've sung the songs hundreds of times before, so there's more of an osmosis effect than active memorising. but when i can, i like to not look at the lyrics as i sing.

if you ever see me singing with eyes closed, you'll know why.

What Keeps Us Going?

because i can't come up with anything original, and because these are words i need to hear...

from the second quarter 2006 edition of send! - the gospel for asia news magazine, where gfa founder k.p. yohannan shares these thoughts:

I am always intrigued when I watch the start of the marathon during the summer Olympics. All the runners appear to be in top physical shape, excited to represent their countries and determined to win the gold medal.

However, it's a different story when I watch them 15 or 20 miles later. They look exhausted from the hot sun that beats down on them or miserable because of rain that makes their trail slippery. Some have trouble breathing when the race takes them over a mountain, and others struggle to keep up with the fast pace.

Although everyone, no matter how long it takes them to cross the finish line, is celebrated with cheers and applause, some runners will never get there. Somewhere along the route they drop out of the race due to exhaustion, injury or discouragement.

In the marathon race and in our Christian life, persevering until the end is what it's all about, not just starting well.

What am I talking about? Not giving up in our walk with Jesus and enduring in the call He gave us to win this lost world and build His kingdom. Both ahve to do with our inner life and with our commitment to serve Him.

Like the marathon runners, we, too, will encounter adversities along the way that have the potential to cause us to quit the race. Some of these trials include:

• Relationship problems with other Christians that severely threaten our treasured self-life and call us to humility
• Physical and financial setbacks that cause us to lose hope
• Lack of fruit and fulfillment in our service to the Lord when we forget that the sowing season must come before we can reap a harvest
• Facing our latent failures and sins when circumstances expose unbrokenness, pride, a selfish attitude, stubborn will or critical spirit
• Frustratin and a desire to escape when serving the Lord becomes hard work and the feelings are gone
• Feeling inadaequate and overwhelmed by the expectations our leaders and other Christians have for us
• Spiritual dryness that comes when God tests us to see if we will still walk with Him by faith, even when there is nothing within or without to support us
• Losing sight of our priorities -- shifting from serving the Lord to protecting our self-interests

With such a frightening list of adversities, what chance do we have to run our race and victoriously cross the finish line as the Apostle Paul did?

I have served the Lord full-time for the past 40 years. From my own life and experience I can tell you this: The godliest Christian leaders I have met, the most challenging sermons I have heard and the best books I have read on evangelism and discipleship have not been enough to help me survive in the race!

Only one thing has kept me in the ministry and following Christ -- and that is learning and practicing what the apostle Paul wrote in Hebrews 12:1-2:

"Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking only unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith."

The secret of our survival is fixing our eyes on Jesus and making Him alone our focus. Then our walk with God and our commitment to serve Him will no longer depend on whether or not people treat us right or circumstance are in our favor. We will no longer rely on our emotions to support us or on our successes to keep us going. Jesus alone will become our goal and motivation -- our prize -- and we will live for Him, run our race for Him and cross the finish line for Him.
My dear friend, unless you learn to fix your eyes on Jesus alone, you will have no stability in your walk with God or in your service to Him.

Jesus Himself said, "Follow Me."

Therefore, meditate on Him, consider Him and think about Him so that you may not grow weary in your heart. The answer to enduring until the end is not self-effort or rational attempt to figure out the answers, but to stop and look into His eyes.

If we do this, we will experience what this song says: "When I look into Your holiness / When I gaze into Your loveliness / When all things that surround become shadows in the light of You / ... I worship You". After all his struggles, Job found the answer he was searching for when he fell on his face and worshiped the Lord.

Today let us decide to fix our eyes on Jesus throughout the race set before us.

a feast of food and fireworks

last saturday...

after being woken up by a phone call mid-morning, asking for some IT help later in the day, i decided to roll out of bed and meander my way through the rest of the morning. in the end, it became a bit of a rush to shower and eat before dashing out the door to unknown challenges... which were really unknown cos it involved databases, in which i've little knowledge. besides the big DBs like oracle, sybase and informix that i had fleeting involvement with in my IT helpdesk days, i've only ever dabbled with the small fry of MS access.

well, to cut a long story short, after 60+ minutes of playing around with the installation of ppmp which was "not working", i serendipitously stumble upon the problem and it was all good from then on with the program starting properly (though i've since heard that it's playing up in other areas). can i just say that the installation guide was rather sparse... really not enough information to guide even the somewhat IT savvy. or maybe i just need a clue about mid-sized databases! or just select the right database from the drop down list, which was all that it was :$ but how's a guy to know that if the instructions don't tell you what to look for??

anyhoo... time for an ad break. so my friend sandra is staring up her own physio practice, which is why i was helping her out with ppmp... well if you're ever looking for a physio/acupunturist in the south brisbane area, check out holistic physio at 489 stanley st (3844 8202). it's actually inside a hair/beauty salon, so don't get confused. parking is available out back (entry via a driveway off graham st). hopefully the signage will be in place by the time people start rocking up :)

then it was off to meet up with the rest of the clay crew and mosey on over to the semillon and seafood festival which was taking place at portside wharf. this was the first i had heard of, let alone visited, this venue, so it was just a little bit new and exciting. the festival itself was somewhat disappointing, though i don't really have any baseline to compare it against. i don't drink, so was really there for the company and getting out of the house factor, and to try some seafood. that was even more disappointing... i think there were like 5 stalls out of the whole lot selling food. of these, 1 had nothing to do with seafood, unless there's something about mushrooms i'm yet to grasp, and 1 was the deep fried variety. the 3 remaining "real" seafood stalls looked rather rich for my blood. now i know seafood ain't the cheapest of foods, but really... at $15 per snack-sized serving, i went for the $9 seafood basket from the deep fryer. even then i was still hungry, and succumbed to ordering a $3 hot dog. yes. hot dog at a seafood and wine fest. the epitome of class. AND the breadroll was crumbly to boot... *sigh*

as the sun started to set, we wandered around the wharf and shops, taking pictures and browsing here and there. then headed back towards town to catch riverfire, the annual fireworks component of the riverfestival. thanks to D, i skipped the crowds below and saw the show from 10 floors up in a riverside office building, while some others decided to catch the action from ground level. i missed both fly-bys of the f111 jets with their afterburners - first time cos i wasn't ready, and second time i was ready but misjudged the height of the flight path. did manage to take some nice pics of the fireworks around the story bridge (though i'm sure the city reach / southbank area had more to see). some turned out a bit blurred... still i'm fairly happy with my handheld effort. here's one a more serious photographer friend took - what a difference a tripod and mega long exposure makes!

btw the streak of light across the top left corner is the trail from the jet.

after the fireworks show we walked to chinatown for dinner at cyber city 2002. this place was quite crowded -- we received a few hints to leave after we finished our food as there were still people waiting for tables around 9:30pm. i don't know if it's always like it here, being my first visit, but i guess if popularity is any measure, it's a half decent joint. one person cautioned that the food here is 'cheap and nasty', but i found it neither cheap nor nasty. we then capped off our time together with a pit stop for some gelati on the walk back to the cars. great way to spend a saturday :)

more photos of the day (from my camera) are available here.

there'll be no turtles here

so steve irwin, mr crocodile hunter, dies at the "hands" of a stingray barb, and the world mourns.

i found out not through the news media (of which i consume very little), but because people on my msn messenger contact list are paying tribute to the man by inserting the icon of a turtle in front of their display names. i saw it earlier tonight and thought little of it, but having just returned to my pc and seeing more turtles on my screen, inquired as to the reason.

i've nothing against (nor for, really) the man himself, and it sounds like a freakish way to depart this mortal coil. and death is never really a joyful thing to contemplate, unless you have the hope of life beyond death, in which case not even death is an altogether bad thing, and if you take (the apostle) paul's perspective on things, it's more than "not bad", but far better.

i reflect not on the man, his life, what he represented and stood for, nor what he meant to others (human and/or animal??), but on this wave (ok, maybe wave is too hyperbolic a word) of response i observe on msn. i opine not on specific individuals who choose to conform (ok, perhaps participate is a less confronting word :p) to the trend, for i cannot judge the motives and thoughts of their hearts behind the typing of "(tu)".

yet i wonder... who thought of starting this trend in the first place, and what does it achieve really? was the turtle chosen because it's the closest default emoticon to a crocodile? it's a dark green/grey coloured reptile...

more importantly, why choose such an arbitrary gesture to denote the payment of tribute? it may be well-meaning, but well... does it really mean anything? or is it another here today, gone tomorrow type of fad, more transient than the life (and death?) to which it's meant to point. does it even point to him, if people don't understand the sign?

the cynic in me thinks there's an opening for some clever marketing and promotions people there somewhere, do with a turtle what has been done with red noses, pink and red ribbons and the like.

but i digress...

in the end, if the death of someone, whether it be your closest friends/family or a celebrity on the other side of the globe, forces you to consider the fleetingness of your own life and the lives of others, then there's potential for good things to come from that. may you find a sure hiding place in the rock of ages, and bring others to him, such that you may all sing:

While I draw this fleeting breath,
when my eyelids close in death,
when I soar through realms unknown,
bow before the judgement throne:
hide me then, my refuge be,
Rock of ages, cleft for me.

BLT images

photos from BLT, posted by

• iggz
• js
• moi (along with a few i pinched from another camera)

i gotta say that i do quite like a few of js' creations. the group photo in my previous post was organised by him, and thus looks half decent -- i was happy to delegate that one to somebody whose interest in photography extends beyond whipping out a compact auto and pressing the shutter button without too much thought on lighting, composition, and all those other things that go into the making of a good shot.

- - - - -

i think one of the most valuable things from something like BLT, is the presence of servant-minded Christians who get alongside the delegates, have meaningful conversations, encourage, spur, and pray with them.

not that i experienced or even noticed much at the time, but that's the impression that i get from talking to other people and seeing some of the pictures afterwards.

great that it happens during the camp, not so great that the greatness is perhaps accentuated because it doesn't happen (much?) every other day of the year (even every other weekend/sunday of the year) at the local church level?

BLurT

it hasn't always been the most enjoyable of rides... after being involved in organising the inaugural Brisbane Leadership Training conference in 2004, i opted out in year 2, before being drafted back to do more in 06. i had a few very late nights leading up to the camp held last weekend, and was surprisingly alert for the whole thing - awake enough for tasks, if not necessarily people. speaking of whom, a quick glance through the group photo below finds me looking at lots of faces i don't even recall seeing!

maybe it's a tendency for me to zone out when i'm focussed on something (or perhaps being distracted or otherwise occupied also does the trick), but i think i don't really look at people when i'm "working". i barely remember snippets from the talks and the one seminar/workshop i did manage to attend. while i did meet a few new/unfamiliar faces, i don't think i had a single fruitful conversation with anyone, including old friends. in fact, probably the longest conversation i had with anyone (not counting my visitor) was the security guard, who came into the dining hall to get a cup of coffee while i was clearing up, and we probably chatted for a good 15-20 minutes.

and so the whole weekend was a bit of a blur. i'm glad that it's over, and that initial feedback indicates that most other campers found it a good time of networking and learning. i can only praise God that things didn't fall apart, despite my knowing that a lot of preparation was lacking or done somewhat blindly.

i look forward to doing nothing for a while. it won't happen, of course... but at least that one big thing is over and done with (mostly) for now...

recykled material

i suppose i could go and recycle the sort of thing i say/blog about, around about this time of year. but i'm too lazy to start. instead i'll do two things:

1. say that sunday, though not really anything spectacular, was nevertheless nice. i'd say that pretty much anything is enhanced by welcome company :)

2. on a pretty much totally unrelated note, commend the boys and girls from team CCCB who took part in recykle 2006 on saturday, raising funds for the leprosy mission. i went along and watched what looked to be fairly hard (and painful?) work... here's a clip of some of them in action - bear in mind that this is about 10 minutes into a 60 minute riding session, so they all look pumped and rearing to go now ;)

ronnie - iron chef dessert

i don't consider myself to be someone with much of a sweet tooth, and that generally precludes indulgence in things dessert. but faced with the vast array of tempting treats that ronnie recently served up for his 21st birthday celebrations last sunday night, i just had to try out at least a representative sample of those offered.

yum, yum! full photo album and a short video clip are also up - maybe one day we'll see him dance ;)

i remember first seeing him as the (at one time) youngest person to join our youth group, and playing cricket at the mansfield oval. seeing how he has grown and matured in Christ over the years has been a blessing and encouragement. spoke a bit to his mum and found out that their whole family is now attending church in the one place, which is awesome progress and an answer to much prayers - praise God :) may He be pleased to continue moving in that family, drawing the lost to Himself and building the found for the glory of His name.

maranatha!

because it's all very ambiguous

Maybe I'm just growing old;
Losing my mind and getting bald.
Maybe it's a growing fear
Of never ever getting there.
Where is it I am to go?
My Lord, my Lord, won't you please show...
In His word He's told the way:
Child follow me, trust and obey.

mirrorman

there's a guy at work who is allegedly known to "look into" a lot of things, but never getting much of an outcome. one colleague had dubbed him "mirrorman".

i have a tendency to spend a lot of time looking in the mirror. not that i look in a mirror very frequently (as could relate to vanity issues), for i don't have a mirror in my room, and usually only find myself in front of a mirror when i'm in the bathroom. it's when i need to be here that i can on occasion spend large slabs of time standing in front of my reflection... reflecting. i don't know that the reflecting takes me anywhere.

tonight, while and after staring at the man in the mirror, this came into my mind:

Unable to fight
I sink
Slowly I'm pulled by
quicksand

Perhaps unwilling
in truth
What is wrong with me
I ask

That I do not know
sadly
It's all in my mind
perhaps

The words, they don't come

Silence.

it may be winter but this ain't no sonata

recently a friend recommended the popular korean tv series 'winter sonata' for me to watch. the last asian tv drama series i watched was over a decade ago. the only thing i really remember was watching the vhs tape on 2x play and skim reading the subtitles, wanting to finish the whole lot but couldn't be bothered waiting with the slow pacing of the drama itself to unfold.

and i've seen plenty of bad/over-acting in asian tv, from the bits and pieces glimpsed in various visits to the region. so i was a bit hesitant about whether i would like this particular series. however, given my penchant for the odd romantic drama, i proceeded to do a bit of research into getting hold of a copy.

taken somewhat aback by the high cost of new units selling on yesasia, i turned to the global marketplace that is ebay, hoping for cheaper alternatives. what i found were very cheap options (though still probably more than what i'd like to pay for something i'm not sure i'll enjoy). anyways, long story short, i picked up on a listing from a seller, and even though i suspected it to be a fake from the start i thought i'd try to ask the seller about the item and see what sort of response i get. i've posted a transcript/screen cap trail of our exchange, along with some of my accompanying thoughts.

i like how s/he tries to turn the tables on me towards the end... i almost get the feeling that they were saying that if i want to play in the sandpit of ebay, i should put up with so called less safe products from china, or not play at all. and don't cause trouble for those who want to profit from trading in such products.

there are those who probably don't care that a product is pirated, and buy anyway. then there are those who are the too ignorant to know the fake from the real. but what really gets me is those who think they're getting an original, find out after the fact that it's an illegitimate copy, and still give the seller positive feedback! makes a mockery of ebay's ratings/feedback system, which was probably a good idea at the time but is of considerably less use and value than it could be. maybe they're all just too scared of getting negative feedback themselves, as tends to happen when you stand up to a pirate -- funny how there's a trend i see among those accused of piracy turning the blame back on the victim. and who's going to help you or take up the fight against these profiteers? ebay? daryl kerrigan would tell you you're dreaming!

and i will borrow from wiser heads than mine and say forewarned is forearmed, and caveat emptor. looks like i'll be holding off on any long forays into soppy melodramas for the moment...

- - - - -
related sites:

• wikipedia entry for winter sonata
• the endless love series
• korea tourism org's page on the filming locations for the series
  

related posts (on ebay/piracy):

• oiav? someone's got this back to front...
  
• when your opponent gets persnal...
  
• assorted video tales
  

oiav? someone's got this back to front...

was browsing ebay for hdd enclosures when i came across this unit, with a logo which upon first glance was strangely familiar yet disturbingly not:

after a closer look, all i can say is that vaio it ain't, and "it's a sony" it ain't neither!

ok. now that this amusing little distraction has gotten all (and perhaps more than) the attention it's worth... can all the pretenders puh-lease get out of my way so i can focus on checking out those with a bit of quality and class about them?

sorry dr. spin, i'd like a second opinion please

so we (as in my workplace) took home some prizes in the recent ATA state awards. personally i couldn't really care less, other than the fact that it meant even fewer people on the phones taking calls (because they were busy putting up decorations and preparing for the judges site visit etc) when we are already understaffed. which just means more calls for the rest of us... joy.

what i really found amusing was this quote which appeared in a recent internal newsletter. it comes from a senior person from our site, who reportedly said the following in relation to our wins:

the excitement is palpable and the entire centre is ecstatic to the point where they haven't even noticed that there is a peak workload - they're just attacking it with renewed energy.

that's funny. maybe i'm blind (or just cynical :p) but i noticed no palpable excitement of any kind from a centre level, nor was/is there any ecstacy or renewed energy.

the peak workload? that i do see. i'm just glad that i've been put on temporary "higher duties" which takes me off the phones, and i'm hoping to ride this wave for as long as it lasts.

it's a very different looking hive depending on whether you speak to the queen bee or the worker bee...

i'll do it myself, thanks!

a few months ago...
dad asks about getting a replacement vibrating alert gizmo for his mobile phone, as his phone doens't have a vibrate feature and he misses calls due to the nature of his work. i gave him one of these devices a while back, but he's misplaced it, and asked if i had another one. i give him my old vibrating battery instead.

meanwhile...
younger sis passes her old optus pre-paid mobile to mum. it's still locked to the optus network.

a few days ago...
dad asks for the return of his original battery, cos the vibrating battery is playing up. dad also asks about using newer phone from younger sister. problem: his sim card is on the vodafone network... the phone won't take a non-optus card. well how about i take this phone (since i'm still with optus) and dad you take my old phone... unlocked and ready to roll. but... i'll still need sister's old phone unlocked for any overseas travel and local prepaid sims... hmm... back to the drawing board.

today...
enquire with younger sis about history of phone. eligible to be unlocked for free, but she no longer has prepaid sim card and cannot recall the number. nevermind, i'm sure optus can help... after all, phone is almost 2 years old and well past unlocking fee period.

ring optus after midnight, wait 5+ minutes, CSR claims cannot help as original owner of the phone is no longer with optus. hang on i say, phone is locked to optus, bought ~2years ago, can't you look up the imei and arrange for unlocking? further questions to try to clarify the situation results in CSR saying sorry cannot help anymore good night. no no no don't you hang up on me i say... the nerve... but click went the phone regardless.

lodge complaint via optus website about appalling lack of customer service -- accuracy of information notwithstanding, getting hung up on while i'm in the middle of trying to clarify is just plain bad service. back on the phone, different CSR, better service but still not the result i'm looking for.

plan b. search on ebay for phone unlocking service/info... could be an option... DIY for ~$10 or less... hmm...

but let's ask google? google says have you met my friend unlockme? no i haven't, but i'm glad for the introduction... and such a promising referral! download software to try, but wait, there's more! how about an online solution? oh yes thanks, unlock nokia free indeed... worked like a charm :) all for about 60 seconds of effort in typing in the phone imei and model, clicking a button and entering the resulting code in the phone. and all $free too.

if it's really that easy to do it myself, why do the corporate biggies make things so hard for the unsuspecting?

moral of the story? if you need a phone unlocked, don't waste your time ringing a call centre to wait in queues in the middle of the night only to speak to operators who can't / won't help (or even explain why), just google it!

and you could have been in bed that much earlier... *yawns*

- - - - -
related posts:
swings and roundabouts - part 2
Optus, you suck!

maranatha!

one old friend spoke of my presence as a 'stalwart' figure;

one newcomer had me pegged as a "senior", even before we met/talked;

and another newcomer thought i was too young to be having a younger sister in the mid-20s ("how old does that make you?" came the question).

thus went yf camp 2006, which was on the theme of "kingdom come", and hence the increase in usage of the early new testament greeting "maranatha!", an aramaic term meaning "come, lord jesus".

in the back of my mind somewhere i had the idea that last year's camp was supposed to be my last -- after all, it's getting to be a bit of a stretch to be calling me a youth, and i'll have to change the current wording in my "about me" box... so i don't know why i actually registered for this year's camp! partly out of habit, and partly to hear the speaker (bill colyer) again i think. i remember the first time he spoke at yf camp in 2000, and the talks impacted me a lot at the time.

couldn't stay for the full camp this year, and it was a bit different going as a regular camper with no "responsibilities" per se. lots of new faces, both of current yf folk and some of their friends. lots of young people running about during free time while i retreated to the dorms and caught some sleep. all of which contributed to a greater feeling of disconnection, which is not necessarily a bad/negative thing. anyways, i don't know where i'm going with these thoughts, so i'll show some pictures :p


more media:

• photo album
• video of the balloon and toothpick game
• video of the basketball drill
• video of the trumpet group skit

- - - - -
related posts: encouraged from reflections

urban truths - watch your wheel nuts

this is the sort of email which i would immediately flag as being an urban legend, except that this time it's a first hand account of someone i actually know, as opposed to a friend of a friend... even that "disclaimer" sounds like how many of these type of emails start, but i guess i can't force anyone to accept my credibility... anyways, here goes (actual names and places have been edited by me):

Hi all

Just letting you know of what has happened yesterday, after [meeting], as I don't want what happened to me to happen to any of you.

What happened was that my car had made a strange bumpy & rattling noise from the left side as I drove off from [church], after [meeting] finished. The car had not previously made that noise. Thinking that the noise may have been caused by something stuck underneath the left side of the car, I drove back to the church & asked the [people] still there (S, Y) if they had a torch I could borrow to check under my car. I also had thought maybe there was something wrong with my tyres, as they looked a little bit underinflated in the dark. It was then suggested that I get to a fuel station & pump in more air. This I did, & off I went to the Caltex station [nearby].

Under the bright lights at Caltex, as I set about pumping one of the tyres, I saw what the problem was, & I was rather alarmed. The tyres were fine, they were not flat by any means. But some wheel nuts were missing! All up, 4 wheel nuts were gone! (2 from left front, 2 from left back - the wheel nuts on the right side were still there). My thoughts were that someone had tampered with or loosened those wheel nuts, & they had fallen off after I drove off from [church]. With the missing wheel nuts, the wheels were not as secure, & was most probably the cause of the noise. Because it was unsafe to drive my car like that, I got the car towed home. More alarming developments was that this morning, it was discovered that pretty much ALL (or almost all) the remaining wheel nuts on my car were also loose!! Obviously, not as loose as the 4 which did come off yesterday....

Now, I don't know exactly where or when the wheel nuts were tampered with - it could have been last Sunday at the bbq at [GP] (I parked the car well away from [GP]), or it could have been last nite during [meeting] (the car was parked in a very dark spot). But anyway, I think it's rather disturbing that there could be someone out there who's so twisted & cruel as to do something like this - it's very dangerous as accidents can easily happen. This shouldn't be happening to anyone, & I absolutely do not want it to happen to any of you or anyone else.

That's why I'm sending this email out to you all, as some sort of a warning to be careful & be wary in case you experience something similar when you next drive off your car. Maybe it's an idea to check your wheel nuts & make sure they are not loose next time before you drive off - I certainly will from hereon in. I just thank God that nothing serious happened to me & that S & Y were still at church when I drove back.

can't imagine how the majority of a car's wheel nuts could come loose under normal driving conditions, and to think that there are people out there conjuring up this sort of tampering, whether as a malicious act or some form of misguided practical joke... it's all a bit sad, really.

new nibbles

i got sent some free nuts, courtesy of a nut company (morish nuts) which i joined as a member some 2.5 years ago. i had almost forgotten about it until i saw their name/logo on the package which came in the post today. i had been chosen as one of their monthly hamper winners, and so i get to try some of their goods


aren't freebies nice? :) even better when they're unexpected, hehe. alas, while i don't mind my nuts (cashew, macadamia and pistachio being some of my more favoured varieties), i don't feel particularly motivated to spend money on these "gourmet" ones (even the plain ones aren't that cheap...), but feel free to keep sending me samples :D

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related posts: it's official - i'm a nutter!

the dreary and the idolatrous

it rained lots while i was in singapore, i think unseasonally so. made for sometimes cooling, and sometimes extra humid weather.

it's been raining in brisbane too, apparently. today was a wet and drizzly day... dark, and cold.

spent most of yesterday sleeping and lazily unpacking (read: most of the stuff has been moved out of the suitcase and onto the surrounding floor) and deleting lots of emails. the spam is getting out of control... maybe it's time to adopt a new email address. what a pain.

got a few hours off the phone this morning to sort through my work email... lots of deleting there too, but also lots that i should read/catch up on, and not enough time. and i got moved, which is another pain. but i should get used to it...

thankfully it was a relatively easy, if not somewhat boring and really-wish-i-was-home-in-bed first day back. lots of changes going on... but i guess those of us at the bottom of the food chain just keep plugging along until the carpet beneath our feet gets changed. the only interesting bit of "news" was a non-official entry in a weekly bulletin - the daughter of one of my colleagues has made it through the first round of the next series of australian idol. apparently she has a good voice... there's a short video clip of her being interviewed (and singing), but it's not enough for me to conclude whether it'll carry her through. not that i watch the show... but this might be an excuse to tune in next time :p

a love story not worth pursuing

no i'm not talking about my own life ;) but a movie i watched yesterday. it was a case of fronting up at the cinema, and trying to pick out something to see. of the few options which were deemed watchable, 'love story' was the shortest wait by a few hours. i had figured that it's been some time since i watched a chinese movie, and since i'm in a country where access to such films in the cinema is more readily available, why not take advantage of the opportunity? even when i was informed that it is a local production (which i did not initially realise), i was still hopeful for something passable in the form of a mildly entertaining or touching romantic drama.

how wrong i was.

from the opening sequence to the closing credits, i was lost. and frustrated. so much so that i could not be bothered trying to figure out what was going on in the screen in front me, and at one stage i almost fell asleep -- a rarity in my cinematic outings, overnight movie marathons not withstanding. i really can't even be bothered trying to explain why this movie sucked so much, other than to say "arty farty" (which is so not me), and to quote from the review linked above:

Unfortunately, Tong [director]’s own lofty ambitions in his script, punches a large dent in this curious and often erratic film. His insistence and overuse of highly derivative, metaphysical and experimental story-telling techniques leave much to be accomplished. The plot meanders too much midway and it starts to become a chore just to keep up with the writer’s own extremities in dealing with the abstract boundaries of fact and fiction. It becomes arrogant in its self-consciousness and is devoid of a personality.

yeah. don't bother man. the closing statement speaks thus: A brave and exciting new direction for local cinema, but becomes too much of an effort even for the most willing. i really don't know whether i would use words like brave and exciting if this is the direction in which local cinema here is headed... but i can certainly attest to the "too much of an effort" for this rather unwilling viewer.

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speaking of unwilling viewing and falling asleep, i caught 'perhaps love' on the flight over here. well, caught some of it at least. i had heard about this movie when it was showing on the screens at a local eatery back home. this place (coffee square) is a place i tend to avoid, because it feels too honkie for this non-chinese speaking chinese person. i almost feel some sort of reverse discrimination whenever i'm there. the place does not have an english-friendly feel (possibly different if you are/look non-chinese), and i only went this time to follow the crowd, which included two honkies :p

they stuffed up my order (my theory being that the waiter's english wasn't up to scratch and thought i meant "portugese" when i actually said "mexican"), which meant i had to wait extra long for my food. anyways js gave a brief synopsis of the movie as we waited, and so i saw a few scenes and had enough familiarity to be able to recognise it when i saw it in the inflight movies lineup.

another arty offering with bigger budget and more famous actors. didn't have as much trouble following the plot (which was still somewhat confusing), though it certainly didn't help that the small screen meant rather hard to read subtitles. i tried with this one... but tiredness got the better of me and i gave up halfway in, opting to try for some sleep instead.

didn't manage much success with that either, and i'm slowly trying to catch up this week. oh it's nice to be able to sleep in!

travelling crocs

i've been wearing my crocs more and more since i first got them about half a year ago, more recently they've become my footwear of choice for the office (i love being able to dress casually for work!). they draw comments from the odd passer-by, with some who have seen them before, and many who haven't. some of my friends thought the shoes were funny, but i think the novelty factor has now worn off. someone in the lift asked me about them, saying that they looked really comfortable. a few other people have asked about them, wanting to know where they could get a pair. i should become the australian ambassador for crocs. spreading the word about a product that you personally use and genuinely endorse -- that should be the way for all salespeople, no?

one troubling thing i've found is that as the winter season approaches, i seem to be a lot more static-y when i'm wearing my crocs. they're made of neither rubber nor plastic, but something the manufacturers have termed proprietary closed cell resin (PCCR). i don't know what this means, but in practice it does appear to have rather good (electrical) insulation properties. so much so that i'm getting zapped multiple times a day.

no such problems in singapore, where i'm planning to put said crocs into much use. they're a lot more widespread here, and seen in their full spectrum of available colours. i've even seen some fake crocs... though i really shouldn't be surprised that a good and successful idea should be copied...

having caught all of about 1 hour of sleep during my overnight flight, i'm still battling weariness on top of my usual and chronic lack of sleep. but i'm enjoying the break from work and life as i know it, feeling the relative freedom of going with the flow and not having too much planned. not to mention the plentiful and cheap food :D having said that, it's always a struggle for me to choose when confronted with so many options at your typical hawker centre. sigh... spoilt for choice, and dunno what is good. been snapping away a bit these last few days - selection of photos below:

unfortunately picasa does some undesirable things with cropping in the collaging process, so some of the photos are missing bits... can't really complain about a free product and a collage function that takes but a few mouse clicks though! anyways will post pics in full aspect ratio online sometime down the track. for now, it's time to head out again :)

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related posts: yes virginia, i do speak english