Must Read.

You have to read this. Please, read. The end is near.

Earphones & Conversations.

Random rant alert! Do not continue beyond this point if you dislike Reading random rants. Haha.

I just don’t understand why some young people I see around Singapore choose to carry out conversation with each other, both ears stuffed with earphones; it’s not only rude, it looks silly, and besides, with earphones in one ear, it’s already hard enough to hear a friend talking, so how are you gonna hear your friend with two ears stuffed? Makes no sense to me.

Rhema08: A Preface

This is just a precursor to my actual Rhema Conference post.

Rhema was a time of many things: happiness, sadness, busyness, the list goes on.

At the end of Rhema this year, I can say I feel tired (and that’s an understatement), happy, sad, blessed, and loved.

Okay, watch this space for more (:

Eye Opener.

Thought I’d drop a small random update from Rhema Conference. This morning’s shower was a real eye opener, no joke.

The moment I was assaulted by the icy cold water (after an icy cold, rather sleepless night), my eyes were opened, literally. Haha.

Okay that’s it for random updates.

Free Time Is A Scarcity.

Argh. Rhema is in ONE day! So many things left to do, so little time.

Free time during this stretch is unheard of. To say it is a scarcity is an absolute understatement.

Pray for me. I need strength. I need to rely on God for strength, not my own physical strength or ability.

I’ve been having very irregular sleep timings lately. I go home exhausted, but, having work that has to be done, I nap for awhile, then get down to work proper, sleeping again only at around 2, if I finish fast.

Argh. So tired, and Rhema hasn’t even began.

The Year, Ending.

The Year, Ending.

The sun sets on a year that’s ending so soon.

This year has really flew by. It’s been a year of walking (seemingly) alone, when I was really not alone all the while. It’s been a year of highs and lows, emotionally and physically. It’s been a year of much building up and development.

All in all, a good year, a year that God felt so real to me.

Learn To Love Small Cymbals.

Woah, I haven’t written anything much on music for a long time.

In the span of the past two days, I’ve been having a pretty intensive stretch at the drums, having three Rhema rehearsals in as many days.

The drumset here in GII Sanctuary rocks. In fact, I’m writing while sitting at it now, cos I’m having a lull in rehearsals. There’s double kick pedals, which I have been (ab)using, and the drum seat has this really good backrest that’s doing wonders for my back.

But, because of the excellent acoustics of the Sanctuary, and because I’m quite a hard hitter, any cymbal bigger than a 16″ is bound to cause a headache to my good friend, the sound engineer, as well as worshipers.

So, I’ve been learning to love small cymbals. It’s a bit of a necessity, more than anything, but the assortment of cymbals here have been growing on me, honestly.

There is this lovely pair of Ks – a K Zildjian 16″ dark crash and a K Custom 16″ dark crash, both of which are fast becoming main cymbals.

There’s a sweet Paiste 18″ Signature fast crash that works great for times when you want a loud, dark crash that’s not too unmanageable, though it’s bigger than 16″.

I love the Mastersound Hihats. Crisp and warm without that overly metallic ‘chick’. The 20″ Paiste Signature full ride also is growing on me. Amazing versatility and a good, warm cutting sound.

I’m a big fan of splashes, and the hardware available means I can have up to two splashes (but sadly one will have to make way on the actual service): a 8″ Sabian AA (or AAX. Duno. The print is faded.) splash on my left and a 10″ Paiste Signature splash on my right, both giving me explosive accenting on either side of the kit.

Undeniably, my favourite has got to be an unexpected one – a 16″ Sabian HHXtreme crash. Trashy, dark, almost like a china but keeping some of the tonality of a normal crash. I love it.

Sorry for my equipment rant. Haha.

Death.

Today, I was thinking of death (but not in a morbid way), mainly because I was reading Mitch Albom’s For One More Day.

Like it or not, we as humans have to embrace death as a part of life. While it leaves loved ones here on earth in pain, death, for some, is really a relief, an end to pain.

Slightly over a year ago, I lost my dad. I never really got over it totally. Maybe I never will, and maybe I just don’t want to fully get over it. I can’t help thinking of that day in the High Dependency Ward, where he was in coma and I held his hand and told him ‘I love you’. I didn’t even know if he ever heard me, or if it ever registered.

What would I give for one more day with my dad in healthy state again, just to be with him again, to appreciate him for all he’s done in my life to shape me into the person I am today, to say sorry for all the times that I did not stand up for him or appreciate him for what he did, to bring closure to all the times he hurt me and didn’t know it.

To just say ‘I love you’, and make sure he hears me.

God Provides.

God truly provides.

Yesterday, I had two tests. As some of you are aware, one is on Media Law and the other, on Regional Cinema.

The Media Law test is an open book format test. You’re allowed to bring in any amount of lecture notes, tutorials, case notes and whatnot. You may also prepare your own notes, as an alternative to the provided lecture notes, which is what I did (as some of you are also aware. Haha.) over the weekend.

So anyways, fast forward to Tuesday. Because of the open book nature of the Law test, and because I was quite confident of my understanding of the topics covered in the test, I felt well prepared for it. I headed to school about an hour before the test to print my notes, and found, to my absolute horror, that two print shops both had their computers down. That meant no printing of my notes.

Thankfully, God provided, in the form of Jueyi. He was kind enough to lend me his notes for photocopying.

The tests were also quite manageable, which I’m really thankful for. I was quite worries cos I felt very unprepared for my Regional Cinema test, but it wasn’t as hard as I imagined. Thank God.

God also provided buyers in the sale of two of my underused items. That, of course, means more Christmas shopping money. Incidentally, I haven’t started on that =/

Oh well, gotta go.

Tests.

Pray for me, please.

I’ve got two tests coming up, one in just under an hour, at 2, and another at 4.