A Fireproof Life

My holidays

Ah that was a nice break. One month of holidays and im loving the no homework, no study feeling. I actually quite like working for a bit, it makes life more interesting, not that it isn't interesting already. And so, here i am in Bendigo again, and have covered 3 episodes of Fated to Love You, 2 movies (Blades of Glory; The Ruins) and countless YouTube Videos >> this was all in the past 9 hours >> sigh, maybe i should actually review what I did today in the Cells lecture...considering my lack of biology knowledge.

Well, before i get started posting other things, I just want to take time to commit the new semester to the Lord and ask Him for His guidance and wisdom as the semester progresses. However, I was thinking just recently, about my current situation in Bendigo. Yes, praise the Lord, I actually survived one semester out here in the sub-wilderness (yes, it is sub-wilderness because there is water around lol). I was afraid of the change even though i always loved challenges...it was slightly difficult to adjust but now that i look back, God has been guiding me throughout the entire time. Am currently chatting to Grace, what a funny coincidence cuz i was just about to write about her.

What i have realised is that God has planned this from far back. Grace and i weren't that close in yr 11, like for sure, i knew her but it was only in yr 12 that we actually became good friends, part of the fact because we both moved to Wantirna South. During bus trips we used to chat about how we would join lifetrax together, go on a missions trip, join the creative arts ministry, somewhat planning our lives after high school. We both wanted to do dentistry yeah we both got what we wanted despite being out here in Bendigo.

Now i realise how God has used Grace to guide me and help me here in Bendigo. He allowed both of us to become good friends in high school and chucked us in the exact same groups here in Bendigo...we have exactly the same timetables, both in this semester and last semester. I mean think about it, it's not everyday that two friends from the same high school, that take the same bus, the go to the same church, that live almost in the same place, that have the same career dream, that both go to the same university and both in the same groups throughout the entire year. Also, i think that despite having Grace here to help me, God has put us in different living environments >>> allowing us to have maximum impact in our surroundings.

So yeah, just to cap it all off. I want to thank God for a very very great and awesome friend like Grace. She has really been my pillar and security here in Bendigo, always a shoulder to lean on, always an open listener and a great pal to study with :P. She's been really awesome and i pray that God will continue to guide her and bless her abundantly. Finally, thank you God for keeping me safe and healthy.

So, now im totally high on caffiene (i think that's how u spell it). Hence im gonna reflect on the things in the past month or so that totally made life worth living, the friendships formed, the experiences encounted and the jokes that will brighten up anyone's day.

- mucking around with Damian and Doey on the Tomato: making funny pictures and reading Damo's very interesting "calculus answers" (all this was on the eve of oral health exam....supposed to be sleeping man)

- Seeing Damo's transformers collection....now i know what "passionate" really means :P

- Taking nature photos with other photo fanatics (i.e. Yan and Doey). ah the sunset, the night lights

- Life group, oxygen and church celebration meetings...my ultimate battery recharger

- Hearing the great news that 'someone' is going to church youth camp for the first time. Praise God

- Hanging out with Nhat, Doey, Damo, Grace, Yan and Mel in Melbourne city after the final exams...Ice Bar (one word, amazing)...movie (cant believe the guys actually watched that movie)...QV (with no one around)

- Watching the Hulk with Damian...no one else turned up and also the movie times were stuffed up...laughing at the Hulk's perfect dentition...p.s. there is an eye in the keyhole

- DFO shopping with Sinwa, Esther and Qian >> wanting that huge carbonated drink now :P

- Oxygen Camp!!! One word...Awesome. Partially conquered my fear of heights, gun fights, poker with Fee in Sam, Isaac, Michael, Jason and Andrew's room, meeting other awesome people. oh and tennis in the rain with Isaac...everyone left but we persisted lol.

- City chapel st shopping with Janice, Sinwa, Esther and Qian. And then oxygen, which Karleen came too!! Then fun fun movie sleepover...went through 6 movies, i think

- Jamming with my bro

- Talking with parent for hours about life and all

- Watching Narnia...then intersting dinner/supper afterwards (ah Dave...the cake was a killer). Then Michael's Chuck Norris jokes...funny as (for the people who understand them). Sam ordered this very interesting drink. Then Karaoke in Andrew's car...Me and Jenn singing backstreet boys songs. (btw thanks to Anthea for organising it and to Andrew for bringing me back home safely)

- Damo and me drawing dango pics on msn

- Hanging out with Grace and Ki at Orde House - then nice catch up and talk in Grace's room for ages...even trying to sleep and still talking

- Study session with Grace before the Dent Sci exam...well worth it

- ROAR kids...love em sooo much

- Reading the Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth (B.I.B.L.E) - simple as that...the truth

Just finished Code Geass season 1...aiya...so many cliffhangers (just as Damain warned me about)...not i just need to get hold of season 2

lol i think i better sleep...or else i'll miss badminton tmr.

Whao...just amazing...mine are nothing compared to this ...

Well, oxygen was last night and i feel compelled to write a blog entry on the message that Dan Lian preached. It was an awesome message...one that really hits the nail on the head, very blunt and straight forward. Ok, even though i havent been to oxygen much, namely because of my current uni situation (Bendigo), i really enjoy oxygen. Despite missing the mosh pits in Epic, i find that the sermons in oxygen are waaay more applicable to my life...mostly in the way that it is delivered. In camp i already experienced the straightforward messages that really dig deep into issues of the heart and of Christianity in general and i found yesterday's message doing just that.

Dan Lian talked about Jehovah-jireh, the Lord will provide. This very word enables us to see that our God is one awesome God that will provide for our lives because we are his children. Using Abraham and Isaac's story Dan emphasised that God desires that we form a relationship with Him and rely totally on Him to provide for us. He is not some kind of "cosmic vending machine" that we can just use to get the 'particular' things that we desire but rather a loving God that wants us to grow and rely on Him to survive. Yes!! He will pull you through no matter what but the one thing that we have to realise is that he wants us to grow rather than just get everything we want. Here are a few points i learnt/realised from Dan's message:

- Subconsciously, a lot of people, including myself, use God as some kind of vending machine. I loved Dan's "cosmic vending machine". Yes, i did used to think that if we did something the right way we would get exactly what we wanted. But now i realised that God wants us to grow and mould into a more Christ-like figure

- God will provide when He thinks it is the right time. He might want you to wait and grow in your faith rather than just give you what u want. And His solutions might not come in the way that you expect it to be. He has your well-being in His mind and whatever that He does will definately allow you to be more Christ-like.

So. yea...there are a few things that have happened recently that i can really praise God for, not that i don't thank Him everyday for keeping be alive and joyous :P So...will do a post again soon...

Okay so...yes...Damian got everyone into Dango. I reckon if Damo ruled the would, the national anthem would be Dango and there would be life-sized dangos everywhere. Dango = sweet dumpling, from the ending of Jap anime Clannad. Here is the video off youTube:

And so, despite needing to study for psych exam, Damo and i started drawing Dango pictures using the handwriting facility in msn messenger, after a while, here's what we produced:

Lol...have fun guessing who drew what....hehe....

Currently in dire need:

- Blog update
- Dough/Cash/Money/Ka-ching
- a pager that keep reminding me not to stop eating lollies
- a faster internet
- Insight

Ok...the new Planetshakers album is playing on my computer now!!! Its awesome...especially since i was there when they recorded it ... much more significance XD.

Cuz it was all for LOVE. w00t - currently super happy :)

I look up vermilion border on the net and here's what came up:

vermilion border
The red margin of the upper and lower lip that commences at the exterior edge of the intraoral labial mucosa ("moist line") and extends outward, terminating at the extraoral labial cutaneous junction; a thinly keratinised type of stratified squamous epithelium deeply penetrated by well-vascularised dermal papillae which show through the translucent epidermis to impart the typical red appearance of the lips.

More than half the words need to be looked up in the dictionary o.O

Also on Thurs night, i went to Anthea's lifegroup. It was nice catching up with the regulars as well as meeting some new faces a.k.a. Jason and Jenn. It was nice to pray and talk about Erwin McMannus's message...of which i missed ><. We also split into prayer groups and had a nice game of mafia after XD.

Friday nite: Adeline, Kristy, Sam and Isaac came over for LG. After an ice breaker >> provided by Isaac's glowsticks haha, we went straight into discussion, even forgetting to open the food. Our discussion was fruitful, i reckon, as we talked about the works that God wanted us to achieve, a bit on the end days and did some searching into our own lives as we revealed and discussed our purposes. Well, Kristy and Adeline had to leave early, but Sam and Isaac stayed. We ended up taking pics of Isaac in glowsticks and just general chatting. Overall, a great night.

Sam and Isaac

Isaac lolz

Sat: Kid's Church :) I was a little nervous, as always, up there doing praise and worship but whenever i look into the kids, the leaders were smiling and that relieved my nervousness a bit. But still, i love it when the kids go crazy for God XD. I shud get the dvd to practice....


Sun: Went out for lunch with family and ate chicken rice.

Overall, the weekend was a good balance of work and fun. Can't wait till the exams...as they pass quickly and then HOLZ!!

We need each other - Sanctus Real

A beautiful song talking about our need for friends and how we need each other. For yourself, it shows how we are cared for by friends and how much we rely on friends. Also, it is a challenge: to be a FRIEND XD.

I think I caught a glimpse of
Life without friends
Bitter, empty, hollow, dark and lonely
We never meant to hurt each other
So can’t we trust again
And take it as a chance
To keep on growing

I don’t know why it doesn’t come easy
But I know that we could be happy
If we’d only learn to love

Oh oh we need each other
So what’s the fighting for
Oh oh we need each other
Please don’t close the door
Oh oh we need each other
Through all the highs and lows
Oh oh we need each other
Cuz no one’s meant to live alone

Life revolves around the need
Of having someone
Causing every complicated feeling
Oh and I don’t want to loose you
And there is nothing wrong with
Telling me what you need
To keep our love strong

It’s just a part of being a family
Taking the good with the bad and the ugly
If we could only learn to love

Oh oh we need each other
So what’s the fighting for
Oh oh we need each other
Please don’t close the door
Oh oh we need each other
Through all the highs and lows
Oh oh we need each other
Cuz I don’t want to be alone

Oh Oh we need each other
Fathers and Mothers
Oh oh we need each other
All your sisters and brothers
Oh oh we need each other
We need friends and lovers
Oh Oh we need each other

Well I need you
You need me
Cuz that’s the way
It’s meant to be
I need you
We need each other
(I don’t want to be alone)
(x2)

On top of that, its an awesome song...by Santus Real ~ a sincere band with positive lyrics and awesome riffs =]

Ah so...the procrastination spot. Hehe. Perks of Bendigo life during the short week:

- playing Stay with Me on guitar while Yan sings

- rocking out to Chiisana koi no uta

- loving the growth of GREEN grass

- laughing during Peter Wilson's lecture ("the copper....um... thing" lawl)

- everyone playing the electric keyboards all at once

- playing tangles and asking people to jump through extremely tiny holes

- watching people's reaction when they walk past our tangled mess

- getting addicted to Starlight by Muse

- watching the dango video soo many times ~ even tho Damo had seen it heaps of times

- watching Clannad on the train and all its exaggerated bit ~ i.e. 973 hit + COMBO!!

- Damo thinking that Ken screamed when he jumped down

Well...i am currently procrastinating. Just came back from oral health lecture. So, i spent the weekend in Bendigo. So most of saturday was spent watching taiyou no uta, a jap drama Yan recomended ~ very nice drama. It incorporates music and guitar into its romantic storyline - a perfect fit for a romcom and music fan like myself. And yes...in the end i did cry and secretly hoping Mel wouldnt turn around to see me bawling lol. The drama was inspirational but kinda bought up some issues that I discussed with Mel. For example the question: would you give up your life to pursue your dreams? There are pros and cons for both arguments ~ i hope i am never stuck with that dilemma. But it was a nice story despite the sad ending. Well, Yan and I are currently loving the songs in that drama and trying to play and sing it XD.

Dinner on saturday night was yummy. It was interesting trying new dishes and i love the simpleness (if that is evena word) when we sat on the floor and ate and talked =] Another enjoyable part was following the heater around as we attempted to warm up or feets. That night was spent youtubing...a lot of youtubing.

Woke up late on sunday morning. Watched 2 episodes of one of the best tv series ~ Jericho!! All my tv shows always gets axed, im always in the minority lol. Nevertheless, Jericho is an awesome show XD. Later, i went to orde house to visit Ki and Grace. The orde house people are very nice and tight-knitted. I loved it how they spent that afternoon sitting around in the backyard playing with the frisbee and just talking with one another. I thought it was a very nice group activity that strenghtened the bonds of all the housemates there. So i hanged out with them, trying to chuck the frisbee properly, piggybacking Grace and getting "gerlick" (hokkien for ticklish/itchy) by Grace's scarf. Later Ki painted my nails bright pink...i hardly, more like never paint my nails so it was an interesting new change for me lol. I'm still slightly scared by the pink nails, but i guess there is no harm to try new things.

Dinner last night was soup and bread and crackers with dip ~ yum :) After dinner we watched P.S I love you >>> it wasnt that good, a bit boring >> us three kinda slept a little...the massive amount of snacks that we had prob kept us awake for the rest of the time hehe. After that we took photos with Ki's and my laptop as we danced to hip hop songs blasting from our computers hehe. I must say, inside all of us there is an inner dancing person lol. Other activities included playing pool and crowding around William (an ex-orde house resident's baby) ~ Aww sooo cutie. For the rest of the night, me and Grace were singing along to Hillsong and Hillsong Kids songs and loving every moment of our heart to heart talk. Its been ages since i talked with Grace about everything ~ thanks soo much for being an awesome friend s2 u heaps. At midnight we got hungry so Grace and I cooked noodles. And I didnt know u can "tahan" noodles lol. More talking followed and when we got sleepy we decided to have a prayer ~ and whao....awesome man >> the power of 2 people praying!! Kept trying to sleep but kept talking until very late.

Well, its monday now...i think i should go back to study ~

I finally got the uploading thingy to work...here's the pictures from the last post

Outside the Gym

The money shot!!

And so...today is Saturday and im in Bendigo ~ this is a strange feeling cuz i would normally be in Melb at this time maybe jamming with my bro or eating (wha ~ hungry now XP). And so when i open the computer this morning i went to read the verse that Ng gave to me:

Love is patient, love is kind. it never envies, it never boasts, it is never proud. it is never rude, it is never self seeking, it is slow to anger; it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth. It aways protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
1 Corinthians 13;4-7

Its an awesome verse to read to start your day >>> sets the direction of the day XD

So, i decided to stay in Bendigo for the weekend, the first time i have done that since the first aid course. Yesterday was a pretty interesting day >> Morning was spent watching drama then prac class in the afternoon (sigh...moulding teeth with wax is hard). After prac sth happened with Grace but i was glad that we could get some feelings out and discuss about our being in Bendigo. I will keep it at that but I was glad that she's here in Bendigo with me esp after being close friends last year =]

So Grace came to my place and, along with Yan and Mel, we baked choc cookies and orange and poppyseed cake. It was fun, especially since we didnt have many utensils and our cookies were so not round. Also we decided to have pizza for lunch seeing as we were taking ages to bake the cookies and cake. I kinda kept the operator on the phone for too long >> couldnt remember my address (had to run outside to get my house number lol). So after watching Pride and Prejudice for a while, we ended up chatting about uni life. Walking Grace back to orde house was pretty ok, the bushland was scary but we all linked arms and charged thru it!! Also we took photos of the uni at night. They were very nice actually, esp in night mode on my camera...the colours and lights were beautiful =]

At orde house, we ended up taking photos on Ki's laptop as well as meeting orde and housie, Ki's fishies. The walk back was a combo of walking and running lol. That night was spent playing guitar, singing along awesome jap songs and talking. Yan slept at about 1am and Mel and I stayed up playing games and facebooking until about 3:30am. And now here I am...at about 12:17pm wondering how come i slept sooo long last night. Its a rare occasion that I sleep until 11:30pm >> have this feeling i wouldnt be able to sleep 2night ~ too much energy.

So, i shall leave with some pictures from last night:
okies i cant seem to upload pictures so no pictures>>> go to my windows live spaces to view the pictures when i put them up later (http://raesim.spaces.live.com/)

Well...im gonna watch more drama now ~

edit// we had pizza for dinner // walk back was combo of walking, running and skipping (thanks Yan XD)

小さな恋のうた by MONGOL800 (はる)

What: addicted to Jap drama - Taiyou no uta

Where: Online

Who: recommended by Yan

When: the past 2 days

How: started yesterday and hooked by its fast pace

Why: sucker for romantic dramas - esp. ones that have music/guitar element

Well, today there is no uni ~ due to uni cancellation of dental science lec and personal cancellation of public health tute lol XD.

So I got tagged by Grace…and I am so into procrastinating mode now so I’m gonna do this. Here we go:

Instructions: Remove 1 question from below, add in your personal question, making it a total of 20 questions. Then, tag 8 people in your list, list them all out at the end of this post. Notify them in their chatboxes that he/she has been tagged.

1. At what age do you wish to marry?
- at about 25. But of course it all depends if I am ready to get married and if fits into God’s plan. He will make everything happen in due time. I’ll just let it play out, not looking atm, just enjoying life!!

2. What are your 3 main priorities in life?
- God
- Family
- Friends
lol grace…exactly the same =]

3. What's your favorite thing to do?
- playing planet shakers, hillsong united and switchfoot songs on my guitar with my bro on drums
- sit on top of a cliff as the sunset and watch the tides change
- sit with friends around a fire and toast marshmallows
- play a board game with my family

4. Do you think money can buy happiness?
- nope. I know that’s the “cool” answer but I definitely reckon it cannot. It cant buy you true friends (cheap ones yeah sure but never the ones that will be true to you) or health. Sure it is needed to meet your daily needs but beyond that, happiness and joy is found in P&W-ing God, times spent with family and friends. You can’t trade that with anything else money can buy. Be simple, “chin chai” and always live life max. Never dream about what money can but you, but rather spend your time with the people that matter =]

5. If you can have 1 dream to come true, what would it be?
- to go on a missions trip to Tanzania!!

6. Do you believe you can survive without money?
- probably not ~ need food lah

7. What are you afraid to lose the most?
- myself (i.e. lose sight of God’s plan for my life)
- family
- friends

8. If you win $1 million, what would you do?
- give some to the church
- give some to my parents – they’ve done sooo much for me
- go on a missions trip
- go on a trip around the world
- organise a super holiday for my parents
- pay back debt to parents
- put some in bank

9. If you meet someone that you love, would you confess to him/her?
- I would confess eventually but definitely have to think about it. Ask God for advice and help. But if it’s the right time, well yeah.

10. List out 3 good points of the person who tagged you.
- for always being there with me, literally – we have done so many things and been thru life together. I enjoy our bus rides and talking about Lifetrack, church ministry etc. Being there for me always :)
- Grace is so persistent and enduring. No matter what happens in life, she get through it and comes out stronger. By faith she trusts in God, relying on Him totally and that’s awesome!!
- She’s always joyful…whenever and wherever, making others around her smile. Making me smile XD

11. What are the requirements that you wish from the other half?
- has to have a sense of humour
- loves God- share my ethics and values in life
- loves watching movies and sporty
- loves travelling and going places

12. Which type of person do you hate the most?
personally I really don’t hate anyone ~ what is there is to hate about aomeone?

13. What is your ambition?
- live life to the absolute max not regretting anything
- and also travel: everywhere, but especially korea, Europe, USA and New Zealand (again!)
- to go on a missions trip to Tanzania

14. If you can teleport once, where would you go?
- Korea during winter

15. What do you think is the most important thing in your life?
- live according to the word of God

16. What did you do earlier today?.
- prac class, bummed with mel, singing

17. What do you wish for now?
- my bro to jam with

18. Who is the person that you can share all your problems with?
- my bro

19. How do you see yourself in 10 years time?
- whatever God wants me to do

20. what else are you doing when you are writing this tag?
- talking to Trinh on msn, looking at mel’s old pics and singing along to walking on sunshine =]

People that I tag:
- Yunn Lim
- Mel
- Yan
- David Trinh
- Janice Ho
- Rangoli
- Dave Ng
- Sam Wong

Wha~ that took longer than expected

Ah man....so i'm just listening to Mel practicing notes on my electric at the momomt...she seems to love the intro of chasing cars :) So i guess i'll take this time to reflect/summarise the events of the past week:

Overall the week has been good...slightly stressful cuz of the psych assignment (very tiring and boring). As i've probably mentioned, psych is the most boring of my subjects...maybe its the boring lecturers or how it can's seem to apply to my life but anyways, i always procrastinate when i try to do psych, i dunno why...it messes with my mind lol. I think its more of the fact that there are no straight answers that you can research. It seems like i have been programmed that way, i don't like subjects that i can't research or read about the answers, you know, like the open ended subjects...i prefer to stick to the facts lol. Well, Mel and I actually stayed up all night on wednesday to do the psych, however, it was mostly mucking around with a bit of psych. Well, Mel's been at my place for much of last week cuz of psych and stuff but we have done some strange things. For example: riding a bike at 12am down the street and eating cup noodles on the street at 2am whilst we walk to Melissa's house. lol

Talking about food, it seems im eating more and more junk nowadays - a lot of cookies, lollies, cake etc. Less running and more eating - not really a good equation for a healthy body but i try to play table tennis a lot (as if that will work up a sweat!!). Well for dinner, i have been confined to chicken schnitzel, a bit of vege, green peas, luncheon and rice. Except for the time i went to Mel's place to cook pasta (and learning all the names of the pasta - ravioli, linguini etc). We had the penne type and it was quite nice with brocolli and chicken inside lol.

In terms of work, almost all the dent gang has caught up with the work cuz of the oral health test and recent dental science assignment, which required us to actually read up and study the slides that were presented. However, the majority are still behind (including me) the actual work load expected of us. Prac classes have been fun once again ~ this week pracs have had a bit of a twist i reckon. During clinical prac we had a surprise assessment that on PPE and hand-washing techniques...luckily i had Doey with me or else i would have not done too well on Colleen's questions but at least we passed with full marks!! Also, whilst waiting for Yan and Anji to do their assessment, a bunch of us, namely Doey, Nhat, Damian, Radika and I did a movie that showed people how to "properly" brush their teeth (http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=17746522663). It was awesome fun especially Damian that kept rolling around in the back ground. Then friday's prac class was spent carving a model tooth out of wax. At first it was i was a tad lost but then after a while u get the hang of it. My carving, actually it was Kyle's (out lecturer) handiwork, came out pretty good and i felt proud. =]

Friday night i went to lifegroup. Two words...awesome discussion: i loved the way our LG is so in depth and exploratory (hm is that a word?). We discussed Greed, one of the 7 deadly sins and its effect on our lives. We concluded that is ruins other people's lives as well as having control over yours. Furthermore, it can lead to dishonest gain, such as stealing money from the bank to get attend to your greed. We also pigged out on junk food and played a bit of basketball, hoops and stuff. It was Grace's and my first actual LG discussion and it was nice to drink hot milo (thanks to Kristy) and hang out with our LG. Also, church on sat was nice. The worship was powerful and as i said to many people, church is like my battery charger that fuels me throughtout my week in Bendigo. It was just so good to praise God and soak in his presence =]

Yesterday was mother's day...I took mum out for a movie: "what happens in vegas" which was surprisingly quite entertaining. Despite the cliched storyline, i loved it. It was just nice to spend time with my mum who i love sooo much and to be able to thank her for making me the way i am (not the way i are...such bad grammar lol) today. And also that night, Mel came over to sleep and we went with Sam, Michael, Isaac, Josh and Andrew to watch Ironman. It was a good movie, not as good as transformers but not too bad.

So here i am now. I think i should wake Mel up...or maybe not.

- Bringing luggage to oral health lecture

- Hiding at the library all night (Halls people - to escape "Shi Bang") and getting hardly any work done

- Melissa getting attacked by a fly

- Walking back from maccas in a very drunk manner (despite having only half a cup of fanta)

- Blasting "The way i are" from my phone all the way down Keck street and singing loudly

- Playing with Damian's foxit reader thingy - drawing random red lines all over his computer

- Nhat naming is computer "the Juicer" - as in opposition to Damian's Tomato

- Me and Yan waiting for people to finish chess >> its almost midnight and they are still going...

- Midnight bike ride with Melissa

- Building Mel's table and then forgetting to put in a piece

- "secret" dancing at the Dent Party

- learning the 'soldiers' dance from Nhat

- Requesting for "the way i are" to be played many times

- Heating up the dance floor with "the way i are"

- "the way i are" craze

- chucking MnM's at other people - namely Mel

- Visiting Grace at Orde House

- Almost midnight laughs at Hall's computer room with Damian and Mel