To round off the year 2007...

It's that time of the year when we do our reflections of what had happened in the year and what one has achieved or failed to do...you know, those new year resolutions and dreams/wishes. Thus, it has come to me to consolidate & summarise about what significant things this year had brought forth (this might seem like a re-cap of my blog posts though).

As a start, what prompted me to pen this year-end post now was when I attended the last church service for the year (yesterday)...well, I would have did a year 2007 roundup post anyway, but it might have been belated or not structured as so. Coming back to the service...2007 was dedicated as the Year of Victory for our church and we were prompted to recount the victories that GOD has brought us through. (next year is the Year of Sabbath) So you'll probably guess how I'm structuring my post now.

Year of Victory

The most significant & important victory this year for me was my baptism. I waited very long for this day and taking the step of faith was really a step of faith as I've dragged it on for too long. I finally made my stand to my parents and it was really a breakthrough when they did not put up too much of a "struggle"...this includes physically attending service more regularly (feel so paiseh admitting this - however, I did listen to the sermons online). So yeah! Victory!

Career-wise, I'm not sure if this is a victory yet, but I was given the chance to be on a professional development programme. My specialisation would be in the area of music :) (yeah!) Well, I've always wanted to develop professionally although I had a few other contemplations over the year.

Year of Exploration

This year, I decided to try new things, to break out a bit, and make my life more exciting. Did blog about this earlier though.

1) Visual Arts - I never thought myself as someone who would dabble in visual arts as I really can't draw. But in any case, I tried out the Bear Fruit art installation project and amazingly, I won (victory again!)! I guess I am more a "builder" (craft) so my piece wasn't much a drawing thing. And I became more aware that I am a conceptual person and once I get an idea, I usually progress accordingly on that track. Am also a more abstract person (as seen in my digital art attempts).

2) Music - ok, 2 main things. Firstly, I decided to explore new music; listen to other genres besides oldies & classical. I discovered electronica (although I don't necessarily like all types), indie/alternative and country/folk. Previously, I would probably not have paid attention to them or even knew what genre they were, although I discovered that some songs I liked from before were in 1 of these genres. It opened up a whole new world of music to me...some were while scouring through friends' fave artists and songs (thanks to FaceBook) and also http://www.emusic.com/. Really interesting.
Secondly, to do something about my music skills. Well, this ain't really a new exploration, but I somehow became more active in music-making, all thanks to Songcraft. It's really different when you have a support group compared to just yourself...the inspiration and motivation.

3) Fencing - Had given up sports long ago, but this year, I decided to take up fencing as a regular sport and it's a sport that's not so "mainstream". One might think it's a romantic notion but actually, I think it was more inspired by Sherlock Holmes (am a big fan of old-fashioned whodunit mysteries, and definitely not a fan of romance novels). It was more of a gentleman's sport in the old days. It's been fun, though I'm doing it more for leisure and am still a novice at it.

Year of Revelation

1) Sabbath - I was prompted to set aside a day each month from June onwards. It was more like take half-day off per month to just do some reflections and also some personal time. Well, I can't say I've really carried it out coz the past few months have been really hectic, but in the new year, this resolve will continue...after all, it's the Year of Sabbath.

2) The Word - It was an amazing time of reading the Bible this year. One couldn't help but be amazed at the richness of the Bible and the revelations it has...it's positively dripping with wisdom. It's been a while since there's been so much revelation...in the past it was only an occasional "Oh!" but this year seemed "action-packed". Think this was partly due to my 40-day fast exercise. All I can say that it was heavy reading for me this year...I haven't yet been able to complete my 1 Corinthians 13! Each chapter I read was so deep that I needed to rest...which I have been for too long :P Think this chapter will spill over to next year.

~~~
What other things?

I've learnt to appreciate my supervisor. Although I've heard "horror stories" (ok, that's an exaggeration), but I think she's not too bad except for the physical presence part (she's sort of like not around a lot). She's at least able to and will fight for staff. Also, she has that "helicopter thinking" where you know her perspective of things is really on a mgt/higher level. On a personal level, she's quite supportive of me and my development (ok, there might be some bias here on my part as a result). Never thought I'd say this, but I would miss her when she retires March next year. Hope the rumours of a certain person who might be coming to take over is not true coz that person is totally not on par in her way of thinking with my supervisor.

Of course, what's reflections of this year without checking out last year's? I think I've done some of the things and my thoughts on certain matters have in a sense "matured". Well, there's just too many things to say but since I've already done the reflections on different matters in earlier entries, I'll just leave things here. Here's to the new year & new plans!

The music artists I like

I was just reflecting last night that bands/groups/duos are the ones that usually don't last...even if they are a hit. Somehow, 1 day, they get disbanded, whether due to circumstances, they lead their own lives, someone dies, etc.

So, what does this have to do with the music artists I like? Sad to say, besides those solo artists, I somehow seem to like those bands/groups/duo that seem rather shortlived or have split or are not in existence anymore. One of the genres I like is the oldies, so as expected, some are no longer around. Like The Beatles and The Carpenters. I recently discovered The International Submarine Band (country/folk) but they were disbanded even before their 1st album together were released...so they only had 1 album Safe At Home :(

Some other more recent ones are Mono (remember the movie Great Expectations with Ethan Hawke & Gywneth Paltrow?), Plus One and Savage Garden. Fortunately, there are still some that I like that are still around. Recently discovered this new band Fauxliage...not sure about this though coz their recently released 1st album has Leigh Nash as the lead and I'm not sure if this would just be an 1-time collaboration...I like the way she brings out the songs.

A cover of my song All I Want is to Live For You

My friend did a cover of a song that I wrote some time again, which I presented at a recent Songcraft session. It's a Christian song. I had composed it using the guitar (just chords) but he has done it with melody on the PC I think (electric organ/piano?). You can listen to it here.
http://jerronlee.wordpress.com/2007/12/27/all-i-want-is-to-live-for-you/

About the song:
I wrote it back in 2002. I had learnt a few more chords by then (initially I only knew "C" "D" & "G" which I used for my other song Dear Child) and one day, this phrase "all I want is to live for you" came into my mind as I felt convicted to really do this for GOD. So the song came. It must have been GOD-given for how would I have written a song simply based on a phrase? I was also inspired by the song Lover of my Heart, a worship song which starts with the lyrics "All I want, is to see your face..."

I do hope I'll be able to write more worship songs...especially a Chinese one at least.

Anyway, have finally completed my song Loner in a Crowd after a lapse of 2 years. Had done the verses some time in Nov'05 and only recently managed to get a chorus. However, as expected, it might a bit mis-matched coz I can't loop the tune of the chorus back to the verses! So yah, after the chorus, can't repeat the verses, only the chorus.

Splurge?

Was at Isetan today, tasked to shop for a birthday present for my nephew (cousin's son) who was born on Christmas day. It happened that there was an Agnès b. sale on, up to 80% off! Thought I'd just take a look. There wasn't anything much, but I still ended up buying something!

Ok, I was looking for a nice cardholder (My wallet can't seem to close properly with all those discount cards I have) and this was the only piece left of this design. It was selling at a discount of 60% which came to about $50. I'm usually not an impulse buyer but this was leather, and a nice pinkish orange colour, not to mention I liked the brand (hee...was influenced by a friend while in Japan this year). Now feeling like it's kind of a little splurge, but they do have simple clean-cut designs which I like.

Anyway, this plus the gift for my nephew came to about $100, which let me redeemed a $10 Isetan voucher, which wasn't too bad.

Consider it a present for myself...ok, now to focus on getting that MacBook which I've been planning to get for ever so long...

Christmas baking 2007

Did some Christmas baking which I planned to give to friends, like I did 2 years ago (I made fruit cake then, which wasn't too bad). However, it didn't turn out too nice...looked nice, but didn't taste nice.

They were supposed to be some variant of snickerdoodles, but think my experimentation didn't turn out too well.

Think I should stick to more conventional stuff and casseroles.

Good Samaritan

There was a really nice lady I met yesterday.

I was waiting for a cab after cellgroup outside her place (outside HP) and this lady was standing on the opposite side waiting too. After waiting for quite a while, she flagged one down and guessed what? She called me over to take that cab! (I had already been waiting before her)
She said she had already called a cab, so she flagged the cab for me since I've been waiting so long. So nice!

Thanks lady!

Digita Art Workshop (26 & 27 Nov)

I attended a digital art workshop these past 2 days as part of another Bear Fruit workshop programme. Besides interest, it was also partly because I had some spare leave from last year which I needed to clear (or else it would be forfeited). Why not spend it on something useful & enriching? It was interesting; something new to me.

The theme was like expressing heritage through digital art, so we went for a visit to the Children Little Museum on Kandahar Street. It's a private museum of games, toys, etc. of the olden days.

These photos were eventually used as something to work on to create some form of digital art. So this was what I got from my photos.

Of course, there was another piece we were asked to create which required us to draw something on our own. As I am quite bad at drawing, mine was one of those "abstract art" kind of pieces. Well, I guess I work as the thing comes about and takes form on its own...more conceptual stuff.

It was fun to experiment with stuff like kaleidoscope effects, layering, etc. to create my pieces.
We used Corel Painter to do our work, but unfortunately, after conversion to jpeg (from RIFF), you can't really see some of the effects, especially layering, hence some of the texture is lost. But oh well, better than nothing.

My 1st fencing suit

Finally got down to getting my own fencing suit. Chose the Hungarian brand PBT instead of the China one coz it's supposed to fit better. And fitting it is!

Anyway, we're supposed to have a friendly match in Dec. Hopefully I'm up to it.

Baptism (2)

A lot of people asked me after I got baptised today "how do you feel?"
Strangely, I don't know. How was I supposed to feel?

It was a joyous occasion with some old friends and colleagues around. After waiting so long, everything seemed to be over too fast (so yes, please get baptised a.s.a.p. when you have committed to the faith). The full immersion was done in a second and I was like "you mean it's over?"; it happened so fast that it left me thinking "I'm really baptised already?". Haha...But then again, it made me wonder: how could I have waited so long to do this act?

When I got home, while looking in the mirror, I was wondering: how was I different now after the baptism? Somehow, a voice said to me "you are now without blemish". And yes indeed, for the baptism signifies the dying to self and sin.

"We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life." ~ Romans 6:4

The Spirit must have spoken to me then, concisely telling me the simple truth of what this verse means. Just as a newborn baby, we are now without blemish. We were cleansed of sin by His blood when Jesus died on the cross for us.

Even though I have committed myself to this faith for so long, the transformation is not complete without being baptised. And one learns "new" truths every day. There's a difference between knowing it in your head and experiencing it in your soul/heart.

Ok, to end off, I shall share with you what I shared on stage today (everyone got a 5-sec chance to say how Jesus was special to us). "GOD is amazing in creative ways; one can always expect the unexpected".

(heehee...me always slow reaction...from the point of baptism to going home then got something)

Baptism (1)

This Friday, I'm getting baptised.

When I submitted my form and since then, waited for this day, I found myself getting nervous during this period. I couldn't explain why coz I've been planning for this for 8 & a half years, so why this anxiety? Cold feet?...of course not!

I guess that when I submitted the form, I knew that there's no turning back. Not that I'm afraid I would regret (another "of course not") since I've actually gone through 8.5 yrs of waiting, pondering & fighting for it, proving that this decision of mine is not a rash thing or influenced by others (contrary to my parents' belief).

Maybe as my cell leader said, it's like I'm a "bride" meeting my "bridegroom" (this is a common reference used in the Christian faith). After all, it is making an eternal commitment, like a marriage to Christ. As I reflected more, I realised the nervousness is actually due to me taking the step of faith by making this commitment to GOD because like I said, there's no turning back. What would be in store as I now "officially" become part of the family of Christ? Also, this step of faith is like breaking free from "chains" that were previously holding me back, regardless of what would happen because I am obeying GOD's command; the sudden surge of freedom. It's like an escape and I guess when you first break free, there's always some anxiety, like when a caged bird is suddenly presented with an open door to be free. Mine's slightly different as I'm "forcing" the door open.