the truth shall set you free.

What happened yesterday? I was thinking of going to the Fungus "Crazy Sex Rally". I was also invited to watch a few mates practice their break-dancing (I'm not into that stuff though I reckon if you can do it you're hardcore.) And I didn't really feel like going to any of these. I was still contemplating this when i signed onto msn and Josh popped up. "Wanna come to my church for trivia night?" Perfect! I felt like trivia... and meeting new people.



Let's start off by explaining: why I didn't want to go to Fungus. First of all, I was deterred by the name "Crazy Sex Rally". That's a disgusting and horribly suggestive name to be using when naming an event that is supposed to glorify and honour God. The design for the cards was equally as offensive as it was made to look like the entrance sign outside a stripclub. Glamorous and dazzling when in truth, there is nothing glamorous and dazzling about pre-marital sex. OK, so that's not the real reason.



I didn't go to break-dancing because I thought I could make it after trivia-night but I ended up feeling too tired. Yeah but trivia night was fun. Met new people. I felt like in this small Chinese community church, my connections were spreading like the branches of a tree.



On Friday night we watched this awesome video sermon by Louie Giglio from Chris Tomlin's "How Great Is Our God" tour. It was about science in short, but this science was fascinating. It was emotional as well and apparently a few people cried. Hehe, another video. It's part one of the sermon. Look the rest up on www.Godtube.com.

John Williams scoring Memoirs of a Geisha

Absolutely beautiful and captivating. A must-see for music lovers.

I have a dream

Barack Obama is quite the character as he makes his dream speech in front of thousands in Colorado announcing that he will run as Democratic nominee for president. I was watching this today on SBS and it was brilliant. He had the crowd absolutely captivated, they hung onto each and every one of his words as he sympathized with them.

America has become a very poor country in recent times. The price of basic necessities have gone up while the living standards have gone down and it seems that when all is going downhill Obama is the solution. What makes him such an attractive candidate as president? Simple, he understands how we feel. No doubt he would have felt the pain of racial differences having a Kenyan as a father and a white american as a mother. He dislikes George W. Bush and his policies and he has said this in public. He believes that America can do better than that because he has a dream. Remember those famous words: "I have a dream" uttered by Martin Luther King Jr as he stood in front of a congregation of thousands in front of the Lincoln Memorial? Is Obama not a spitting image of King? He provides hope to the most powerful nation on earth.

But is he the solution America is searching for?

Grrr... I'm talking about politics again. Thought I'd leave you with this random video of another Broadway musical: Legally Blonde.

Pointless

Is there ever a point in life where all that exists to you suddenly becomes boring, cumbersome even? Something seems to make you feel down, and especially after the news I heard today. Mike Guglielmucci's fight with cancer finally ended. After he confessed that it had all been a hoax. Around the two to three years since it was announced that he had terminal cancer it was big news. I first heard him preach in 2005, he was amazing but just really was going through his mind when he fabricated that story? I am interested to find out the psychological impairments he suffered in order to make such a blurred desision; shocking. There HAVE been hundreds, even thousands of people who were touched by his story who now have NOTHING to hold onto because they have fallen victim to a cheap trick. However, the question now is, was he in it for the money or was he simply someone in dire need of a psychologist, someone who understood what he was going through and could help him overcome.

Well what's happening in Tim's life. Well I'm going to Youth Alive soon. As expected Guglielmucci will no longer be speaking there. It was on their website. I just came back from Yum Cha with family friends which was fun, I am pooped, I don't know if I'll be able to stay awake tonight. Tomorrow I have to do drums so that means I'm going to be super tired. Tiiiiiiiiiiiired. And then I think I'll just rest instead of going to Deakin Open day.

Next Sat is the Crazy Sex Rally. What is Fungus thinking calling their rally THAT? It really deters people I reckon. I mean I'm deterred already. Well I can't go anyway because coincidentally on the same day is the Carlton v. Hawthorn game. I do love watching the footy. It's so fun. And anyone who has never been to a footy match should do it at least once. It's an experience money can't buy... well actually it is but, well you get my groove.

AND MONDAY is VISCOMM! I am really looking forward to it now, I can vent my creative anger heh.

How can I stand here with you and not be moved by you?"

Wicked Night

I was dead even before the day began. On Friday night I stayed up past 1 watching opening ceremony then having to wake up and get to Jap school by 9. I should've taken an afternoon nap but instead stayed up writing the blog entry before this.


We left early so that we could eat dinner and we went to this lovely place down Liverpool St called Little Malaysia. That's us (below) eating chilli prawns, curry with rotti and beef and broccoli. Caus we didnt make a booking we were at the table right next to the door which meant everytime someone came in the cold would enter but the food was fantastic.




and here we are in front of the Regent about to go inside. Yes it was cold.

Wow, the musical was extravagant. The stage was lavish with this beautiful set that just encircled it entirely. I was slightly dissapointed when they announced that it wouldn't be Amanda Harrison and Lucy Durack performing but their standbys Jemma Stevenson and some blonde chick. However, they weren't bad though Jemma's voice I thought was just not strong enough as Elphaba and during "For Good" Glinda's voice was much more powerful. Maybe she was a bit sick as well. Below is the showstopper song, Defying Gravity.

and my favourite piece "What is This Feeling?" perfromed by the original Broadway cast.

Overall it was an awesome show but fell short of my expectations, probably because I had watched too many videos and listened to the songs too much, prior to actually seeing it.

Then today I was supposed to go to RMIT Open day with Reuben but last minute he realised that he hadn't finished something like 4 assignments. It ended up alright because Jenny was going as well but last minute her friend has also bailed on her so we went together and Charles came as well. It was tiring, not overly interesting... but we bumped into tonnes of people from church and school.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go study methods.

My WEEK

Sometimes, the sun just shines and you can't help but smile. The rays touch your face, your cheeks warm and you sigh, a big sigh, a bigger sigh, and then a sigh of content. Fresh.

I've had a lazy week. Monday I went with TAFE group to NGV to look at the Art Deco exhibit. There was one part where I couldn't get the song out of my head. "One Short Day" from Wicked the musical as I looked as this huge exhibit of an entrance to a hotel from the 50s. It was so bright and dazzling I had a sudden urge to do a Broadway dance up the steps to the rotating doors except that the entire thing was roped off. And they did a presentation for the school groups whcih lasted for God knows how long. I fell asleep and was only woken up by the drool hanging from my mouth.

Tuesday there was no school. We went to School of Creative Arts at Melb. Uni to watch a performance of Macbeth. The only words that could be use to describe how I felt: Bored To Death. But went out afterwards with mates to watch Batman... again. Batman is a boring movie, don't watch it.

Then yesterday growth group was at Caleb's house. He has a pool table and his room is so retro, hip. All along his walls he has pictures cut from back-copies of NG and in his wardrobe he has a stack of ancient Archie comics. Arrived home just in time to see elimination on sytycd. On a side note, America finished the 4th season today and the winner was ????? (mouse-over and look at bottom bar to find-out). Can't believe it! ???? was my favourite to win!!!!! And then opening ceremony came on. I kept on watching, waiting... for Australia to come out. Pffft, as if put them as 3rd last team. Their flag finally came marching out around 1o'clock and as soon as they had come off the screen I went to bed.

TONIGHT: WICKED NIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I'm heading off to regent theatre soon and will be watching the biggest Broadway musical I have ever seen.

Musicals I've watched:
- Sound of Music
- Oliver!
- Beauty and The Beast
- Mamma mia!
- Les Miserables (Melbourne High/ Macrob production)
- Priscilla: Queen of the Desert
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand NOW WICKED!
Who's in it, Amanda Harrison as Elphaba (aka Wicked Witch of the West), Lucy Durack as Glinda (aka The Good Witch), Rob Mills as Fiyero (later known as the scarecrow), Anthony Callea as Boq (the munchkinlander who later becomes known as the tin-man), Maggie Kirkpatrick as Madame Morrible and Rob Guest as the Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Tabidachi

The above map is the proposed route for this year's summer vacation Europe trip! We'll be missing out on the hottest part of Summer and instead, experiencing the coldest part of Europe. Brr...

From Melbourne we'll be going to London via a Malaysian stopover. 7 days there then onto Finland for skiing for another week. St. Petersberg and Moscow are next and then by train we'll be going to Ulan Baator in Mongolia. Then Beijing, Xian and Hong Kong! We might also be going to Germany, Netherlands (Holland) and France but not quite sure.

Last night Surge was on Rewind. Everything was backwards. We had the worship song first, then altar call then sermon, praise and announcements. It was about outreach and it really got me thinking, just how much can I outreach to friends at school? Boy, let me tell you that it's HARD in a Christian school. Jaya got up and did her awesome stuff about being loving, not being judgemental and everything. She absolutely kicked-ass up there. I do love Church :)

Enjoy the new layout by the way. It has a lovely Japanese poem but I won't even try translating it because it just destroys the beauty and the raw emotion behind the words.

君は知っている

一人で泣く「さみしさ」を

同時に抱きしめてもらう

「ぬくもり」を

君は人に涙を見せたくないと言った

だけど君はどんなに強がろうと

君が「さみしく」て「ぬくもり」を

求めてることは言わずとも

伝わってくるよ僕も同じだったから

君が何を言おうと

次に君が涙するときは

絶対に横に居て抱きしめるから

Photo and words by きむ (Kimu)

copyright Iroha Publishing Company

I changed the layout because I thought the one before was just a bit too creepy for my liking.