Tuesday, December 28, 2004

Liverpool and the Tsunami

Liverpool won 5-0 2 nights ago but i was too sleepy to watch it... sigh... but let's see what they can do tonight against Southampton. Come your REDS!! YNWA!!!

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On to something more sobering.
It was a real shocker that this could happen to Malaysia despite the fact that Malaysia is one of the safest (fault-line-wise) geographically. Oh well. I can only think of all the little miracles that happened; like this one. Just need to say a little prayer for those 20k perished plus many uncounted loved ones affected.

An even more sobering fact: It's black and white (yup, no grey area there) in the bible that as the end times approaches, more and more disasters will occur. Is it a mere coincidence that this Tsunami is cause by a 8.7 earthquake? For the uninitiated, 8.7 is bigger than the one that destroyed Kobe a decade or so ago. That was *only* a 7.2 quake (around that figure can't really be 100% sure). Oh well, let's see what else comes along...

Saturday, December 25, 2004

Merry Christmas!!

This post is in RED to share the Christmas Joy!!...I think...

Well, here I go again, i'm going to rant a while before starting to say something nice. I was walking in shopping complexes the other day and the Christmas songs were driving me nuts!! Ikea was playing ABBA Christmas junk, Midvalley was Jingling Bells and Snowing in the Tropics and Pyramid was having flashing santa hats all over. Not that I don't like Christmas Carols or anything like, on the contrary, I love them... Just that all the songs (not that I didn't use Carols) played as "Christmas Songs" had to do with snowmen, snow, white christmas, santa, rudolph, 7 days of Christmas (they even have a Muppett song for that!!no kidding!!!!) and jingling bells and snow sleds. What do all those have in common? It isn't Christmas, that I can tell you. That's what AMERICAN kids do in winter. Not something that's really universal. Play some real Christmas Carols, will ya? How bout Alone in the Manger? Come all Ye Faithful? What child is this? Joy to the World? Christmas isn't about snow, snowmen or santa. Santa DOESN'T exist, btw. (sorry, kids, it's true) At least not the fat jolly one that people like to show.

In some ways, I do hate Christmas. Only when I have junk Christmas songs blasting in my ears repeating itself. Ugh.. They can't even record those properly. Also, don't like it for what the media and shopping malls do to it. It's totally commercial! Not that it's bad to sell things, just bad to fully exploit the reason to do it. You buy stuff (deco and presents) because it's Christmas, and not, it's Christmas because you buy stuff (deco and presents again). *eyes rolling til eye sockets hurt*

Oh! Guess what?! Heard that CCM (Council of Churches Malaysia??) agreed to have the "National" Christmas Day Celebration with the government (can't really confirm that, i'm not a second person news basis). The things is, they also agreed to play only Christmas "songs" that has Snow, Snowmen, Santa and the like. BUT none that even remotely mentions the words 'Baby', 'Jesus' etc... get the point? Go figure that one out.

After having said all that, however, I have to say (more...hahaha) that I love Christmas in that it does bring out the best in most people. I've seen great charities get done in Christmas. I've seen people spend and sacrifice to get things for loved-ones AND not-so-loved-ones. Also, you get to see PTPTN finally GIVING out the loan monies. *ok ok, will hold the sarcasm*

Merry Christmas.

This are the definitions I got for the word "merry" from Dictionary.com:
  1. Full of high-spirited gaiety; jolly.
  2. Marked by or offering fun and gaiety; festive: a merry evening.
  3. Archaic. Delightful; entertaining.
  4. Brisk: a merry pace.
True enough that this is a season to celebrate and be happy but can we be Merry KNOWING why we are merry? Think about that... Symbolically, it has something to do with a certain lil baby that came over 2000 years ago. That's the gift that you can never 'beat'. I'm all for that! so....

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!

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Special wishes to my Family who i'm not with this time around. Merry Christmas to Mom, Pop and 'chelle.

Also not forgetting my babygirl... Merry Christmas, Jo...

Friday, December 17, 2004

Believing without Seeing?

I didn't want to share this out loud, actually. However, I'm currently listening to a song that goes:

You are my hope,
You are my strength
You're everything, everything that I need;
You are my hope,
You are my life,
You are my hope,
You are my hope.

Those who recognize it will know that this is a song i've sung in church before, it's called You are my hope by Skillet.

Sometimes, you just know that He is there for you even though you don't even feel it at all. Let me start from a few weeks ago. For the past 3-4 weeks, I've really been making an effort (yup, you who know me know that his IS a BIIIG effort!!) to get up very early and go to the church Prayer in the morning before the sunday service. The few of us there have been praying every morning and slowly things are happening. We pray for things like growth and numbers in church; but the most important thing that Sist Jacs puts on the list (it appears EVERY week) is protection of members. How significant can something so general be?

In short, it all culminates to my "event" on Monday night. I'll be honest, in my mind, it's just "So I flipped my car... big deal." As arrogant as I'm going to sound, I think the song best sums up how I felt. I really do not wish to go into details of how the accident happened; enough of people speculating whether i'm speaking the truth or not. The main point is, as I found out I had no control of the car anymore, I didn't feel scared at all. The car skidded across 3 lanes, faced the wrong way, and ended up on the side underneath high ramp. Yup... still no fear there. All I could think off was getting out of the car. The first, and only, fear that did cross my mind was... "$#!+, what's my mom gonna say?!!?"

Long story --> short = The car flipped yet no glass was broken, the car still looked like a car (though banged up, of course) and the car was 'safely' under a bridge. How do you wanna explain that? To be honest, I can't. Can you? To add to the confounding circumstances, I got off with only a small (2 inches long, half inch wide) bruise on my back. Add all that up with the fact that I wasn't one bit scared for my life and you'll see the equation of what faith does.

The magic of it all is this, there's no reason why I escaped unscratched ('cept for one bruise) other than because that's the way He wants it. Things are always moving in ways that you will not see. What's the point fearing in what's to come when it's all already planned out by the Master Planner?

He is the hope, He is the Strength, He is the life and He is the hope. Some things don't need visible evidence to be proven right; just have the faith to close you eyes and fall back into the protective net that He can provide. The protection, the calmness and everything came from the One source. Check Him out. Sometimes just being a lil close is enough to see what he can do. Admittedly, I'm not as close as I used to be back in my teens but He is faithful. I'm walking proof.

Friday, December 10, 2004

Dedicated to Michelle



Hey michelle, this post is for you.

Enjoy the bananas.

And thanks for all the torturous times as my lil sister.... naaaah... seriously, thanks for good childhood. I never really could put a finger on why we're as close as we are but I suppose that's the beauty of it, eh?

Thursday, December 09, 2004

Current Mood

EUPHORIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This post will be in Red because this is the colour for today. Liverpool won a dramatically exciting match 3-1!!!!!!!!!!!

Words just can't convey how i feel now!!! I'M SHOUTING LIKE AN IDIOT HERE!!!!! YEAH!!!!!

Go Liverpool, go Liverpool go Liverpool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHOOOOOO!!!!!!!
yeah, baby!!!

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Guitar heaven...

I just died and went to guitar heaven today!! haha...

I've just managed to spend nearly 3 hours today trying out and testing out some great guitars. Today was a Takamine day...

I am actually doing a friend's brother a favour, I'm helping him check out guitars to buy. He already half-decided that he wants a Takamine, can't blame him, great guitar! Have one myself!!! Anyway, so i went today to do some scouting and me being a regular at Mahogany's, they just let me browse any and almost all the guitars that i wanted... and they trusted me enough that they let me do it alone...

So did i take advantage of that? OF COURSE I DID!!! Checked out so many guitar and, boy, was I having a nice time. Tried everything from the RM800 ones to one RM19k Martin Eric Clapton Signature Guitar. Found a new dream guitar as well. It's called the Takamine Santa Fe (SF-95). Not only does it sound great, it look like a dream as well. Beautiful Rising sun inlays on the fretboard and exquisite wood and abalone shell rosette inlays... really drooling now... if only i can cough up the cash, eh? HAHA! Until then, i'll just continue dreaming because it's ok RM 4.8k!!!!!!

Another beauty that I saw was a really nice Koa back and sides guitar, very beautiful wood grain. (for the uninitiated, Koa is a rare and beautiful wood only found in Hawaii). Can't remember what the model was though. Anyway, it sounded solid and balanced. The Koa was just.....beautiful... don't know any other way to describe it. All that for only RM6.8k! *rolls eyes* If only... sigh...

Oh well... gotta say that i'm still extremely happy with my Takamine AN-45. That's the best present I've ever gotten. EVER. It's solid cedar top and solid rosewood backs and sides.And that's thanks to my MOM! Love ya, mom.

I wish everyday was guitar heaven.... *dreaming now, please leave a message for when Jeff wakes up*