Prayer for the Year Ahead

O LORD and Heavenly Father,
I stand at the threshold of a new year.
Small and uncertain of things to come;
I stand in awe of all
that you have in store for me,
of what you are preparing within.

Surely we are destined for greatness in You;
for your Glory demands it.
It is not with strength and power that
I come to You,
But with weakness and tenderness,
and with love.

I thank you for your faithful hand about me this past year-
Each step, firm and secure;
For faithful friends about me,
and Godly men that cross my path
to plant a seed in my life,
And to assure me of Your greatness, favor and faithfulness!

Your strength O Lord, I need;
Your wisdom at my right hand,
Your favor at my left;
Grace before me,
Christ about me,
Binding me to You
and You to me.

Teach me Jesus, to take level paths
Where my feet may be on sure ground.
Direct my thoughts to You
and let my words have its fill of grace;
keep my eyes focused on You
and my hands free from idleness.
Keep faithlessness away from me
and have joy abounding in my heart.
Sooth, O Lord, the weariness within,
but capture my heart again, with Love!

Though the path may not be clear,
Nor the next step sure,
I ask for patience and faith to trust You dearly,
to have an awe and wonder of You.
Keep my heart pure and tender;
To lay down my crowns before Your glory
to surrender my desires and burdens to You,
for it is too great to bear alone.

I need Your Holy Spirit to guide me,
inspire me and to hold me safe from myself
and a broken world.
Direct me to your courts daily;
Here's my heart, take and keep it,
keep it for Your courts above.

Jesus being my all in all,
In His Name, I pray,
"Amen"

GSD

Stable on the Strand 2006 - Townsville, North Queensland

How I got involved
- visited Townsville in August to hang out w Benny Prasad
-heard of the Stable, picqued to get involved
Benny Pics

Townsville the place,
the Strand
Setting Up

Youth Tent
- skate park
- rock climbing
- gigs
- sofa

Main stage
- set up
- closeups
- mixin board

The Stable tent
- general idea
- stable
- the animals!

Pic with Anne Harley

The Quiet

December has now become for me an empty month. A month of nothings, of dreams becalmed, patience tested. A month of waitings, exasperatings, warm muggy nights. Even Christmas here somehow seems unnatural, something to be tolerated, guarded up; lined with fine nails.

O, to hear the call of the sea, the open heartland
To gallop thru grassy meadows
filled with narcissus,
filled with meek little lambs.
For cold winter fires,
like captive suns,
die away til morning comes.

Where are my decembers of incessant activity? of choir practices, luncheons, and dinners. Weddings, concerts, dramas, camps? Overnighters with friends basking in the afterglow warm fellow-ship? of rooftop stowaways a-dancing under starlit canopes. Recitals, rehearsals with the orchestra and choir. Street fests and buskings, carolling unfettered carolingian hymns. Christmasses under stars, aloft balmy monsoon nights, with tea-lights and darjeeling. Cacophony of friends from mongolia, australia, USofA, family and strangers. Peace on earth, goodwill to men? Communion of the saints in faraway Kazakhstan, China, Thailand and New Zealand. Worship gatherings. Wherefore, go the seasons?

Come, won't you come again Lord? Come breathe your breath of heaven, come meet me, on the cobble-stoned streets in the dark, in moments of quiet desperation, in the mourning sunsets that set the world ablaze. Come!

Veni, Veni Emmanuel! O come, O come, Emmanuel,
Captivum solve Israel! And ransom captive Israel,
Qui gemit in exsilio, That mourns in lonely exile here
Privatus Dei Filio. Until the Son of God appear.

Gaude, gaude, Emmanuel Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Nascetur pro te, Israel. Shall come to thee, O Israel.

Veni, O Jesse virgula, O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Ex hostis tuos ungula, Thine own from Satan's tyranny;
De specu tuos tartari From depths of hell Thy people save,
Educ et antro barathri. And give them victory over the grave.

Veni, Veni O Oriens! O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Solare nos adveniens, Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Noctis depelle nebulas, Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
Dirasque noctis tenebras. And death’s dark shadow put to flight!

Veni, Clavis Davidica, O come, Thou Key of David, come,
Regna reclude caelica, And open wide our heavenly home;
Fac iter tutum superum, Make safe the way that leads on high,
Et claude vias inferum. And close the path to misery.

Veni, Veni Adonai! O come, O come, Thou Lord of might,
Qui populo in Sinai Who to Thy tribes on Sinai's height
Legem dedisti vertice, In ancient times once gave the law
In Majestate gloriae. In cloud, and majesty, and awe.

Veni, O Sapientia, O come, O Wisdom from on high,
Quae hic disponis omnia, Who madest all in earth and sky,
Veni, viam prudentiae Creating man from dust and clay:
Ut doceas et gloriae. To us reveal Salvation’s way.

Veni, Veni, Rex gentium, O come, Desire of nations, show
veni, Redemptor omnium, Thy Kingly rein on earth below;
Ut salvas tuos famulos Thou Corner-stone, uniting all,
Peccati sibi conscios. Restore the ruin of our fall.

Tu Presencia

Marcos Vidal, 2005

En mi necesidad In my need
Mi corazón desfalleció My heart failed me
Hasta que en mi desierto Till in my desert
La luz de tu amor me halló The light of Your love found me

En tu presencia, Cristo, In Your presence, Jesus
Descanso I rest
En Ti mi alma encontró su lugar, In You my soul found its place
Tu presencia, es mi abrigo, mi hogar, Your presence is my cloak, my home
Mi sustento, mi paz. My sustenance, my peace

De noche to busqué In the night I looked for You
Desesperado te llamé Desperate, I called to You
Sólo encontré reposo I only found rest
Cuando en la cruz volví a nacer When at the cross again I was born

En tu presencia, Cristo In Your presence, Jesus
Confío I trust
Mi ser se ha refugiado en tu amor My soul has taken refuge in Your love
Sólo anhelo, tu Mirada, tu calo, My only yearning is Your look, Your warmth
Tu presencia, Señor Your presence, Lord

Me he refugiado en tu amor, I have taken refuge in Your love
Yo sólo anhelo tu Mirada, tu calor, My only yearning is Your look, Your warmth
Tu presencia, Señor, your presence, Lord

Evening Fades and Morning Wakes

mid-journey
early mornings
unresolved questions
long for closure

post-op
a brain transplant
carrion fowl
feed on exhaust

grace in season
heat of day
springs in the desert
shade of night

parched paths
dustbowls
longing for
a drop

faith stretched
hope kindled
love remains
walking on

Visions, Vistas and Visitors

OK... I know I havent been updating. Its been insanely intensely busy, and will continue to be so until christmas including a conference presentation, right through till after new year to make measurements on a visiting recorder virtuoso, and then more busy teaching until end of February, where I hope I get a breather, before the new semester plunges right back in. (Womadelaide 07 anyone??)

Been here for two semesters now. I wonder how many more to be before I'm through. I think I have some stuff to write about in my thesis now. Maybe 3 pages. That's alot better than 1 paragraph from july! Grrrr. Oh well. Chugging on.

On the lighter side of things, there've been a spate of visitors and visits, something which I am grateful for. In order of appearance/disappareance
- Clement (lab intern and resident bassist) from my lab who's gone back to france,
- Vincent, hot from Lop-Buri Thailand here to visit a special someone
- Chloe, fr Brissy here to catch our classmate's wedding
- Visited Jervis Bay w Vincent and Judy, with lovely beaches, and lonely cliffs, and migrating humpback whales! According to the Guiness Records, the beach we visited has the whitest sands in the world. followed immediately by
- Terence, fresh from Melbourne after a 1200km drive. After a few weeks' respite,
- Mervin John appears! Both Mervin and Terence are secondary school buddies, and we've somehow kept in good touch since. Wonderful pple.

Clement leaves

Vincent - missionary to Nongkhai
Chloe, Vince, me - chinatown mid-amble

Heh... What can I say?
Booderee National Park, ACT
Humpback Whale showing its namesake hump

Terence visits!
Merv John Visits!

Vincent Visits Sydney


Wassup!

Here we are sitting at some isolated alley way at the Sydney Rocks.

The Eternal Revolution

(chapter seven, Orthodoxy, G.K. Chesterton)

The following propositions have been urged: First, that some faith in our life is required even to improve it; second, that some dissatisfaction with things as they are is necessary even in order to be satisfied; third, that to have this necessary content and necessary discontent it is not sufficient to have the obvious equilibrium of the Stoic. For mere resignation has neither the gigantic levity of pleasure nor the superb intolerance of pain. There is a vital objection to the advice merely to grin and bear it. The objection is that if you merely bear it, you do not grin. Greek heroes do not grin: but gargoyles do - because they are Christian. And when a Christian is pleased, he is (in the most exact sense) frightfully pleased; his pleasure is frightful. Christ prophesied the whole of Gothic architecture in that hour when nervous and respectable people (such people as now object to barrel organs) objected to the shouting of the gutter-snipes of Jerusalem. He said, "If these were silent, the very stones would cry out." Under the impulse of His spirit arose like a clamorous chorus the facades of the medieval cathedrals, thronged with shouting faces and open mouths. The prophecy has fulfilled itself: the very stones cry out.

If these things be conceded, though only for argument, we may take up where we left it the thread of the thought of the natural man, called by the Scotch (with regrettable familiarity), "The Old Man." We can ask the next question so obviously in front of us. Some satisfaction is needed even to make things better. But what do we mean by making things better? Most modern talk on this matter is a mere argument in a circle - that circle which we have already made the symbol of madness and of mere rationalism. Evolution is only good if it produces good; good is only good if it helps evolution. The elephant stands on the tortoise, and the tortoise on the elephant.

Obviously, it will not do to take our ideal from the principle in nature; for the simple reason that (except for some human or divine theory), there is no principle in nature. For instance, the cheap anti-democrat of to-day will tell you solemnly that there is no equality in nature. He is right, but he does not see the logical addendum. There is no equality in nature; also there is no inequality in nature. Inequality, as much as equality, implies a standard of value. To read aristocracy into the anarchyvof animals is just as sentimental as to read democracy into it. Both aristocracy and democracy are human ideals: the one saying that all men are valuable, the other that some men are more valuable. But nature does not say that cats are more valuable than mice; nature makes no remark on the subject. She does not even say that the cat is enviable or the mouse pitiable. We think the cat superior because we have (or most of us have) a particular philosophy to the effect taht life is better than death. But if the mouse were a German pessimist mouse, he might not think that the cat had beaten him at all. He might think he had beaten the cat by getting to the grave first. Or he might feel that he had actually inflicted frightful punishmnt on the cat by keeping him alive. Just as a microbe might feel proud of spreading a pestilence, so the pessimistic mouse might exult to think that he was renewing in the cat the torture of conscious existence. It all depends on the philosophy of the mouse. You cannot even say that there is victory or superiority in nature unless you have some doctrine about what things are superior. You cannot even say that the cat scores unless there is a sytem of scoring. You cannot even say that the cat gets the best of it unless there is some best to be got.

Spring Rains

The weather is turning balmy - one last spurt of cold and that it! But oh, what a bout of cold it is. Gale strength storm system over this last week, plunging the thermometer to a wintry 10 degs, when it was a beautiful 25 degs the week earlier.

Been a quiet last few weeks, mostly in the labs. However, then end of August was marked by a quick weekend get-away up in balmy Townsville, QLD. The main deal was to meet Benny, a dear friend of mine... amazing chap, tremendously gifted, humble and used of God on platforms (literally) closed to the Gospel.

We got to minister together in 2 churches and met loads of his friends. Warm loving people - wholesome families who love Jesus and stand bright and salty. Talented, gifted kids weaned on truth. Was nicely warmed that pockets of solid family and wholesome outlooks still is found in the heartland of the nation. Even thought its a mere 3% of believers... (compare with 14% in spore). The nicest bit about meeting these folk in townsville is how the believers (5000 out of 150,000), will come together and work in unity for a weeklong Christmas presentation, a highlight of the town called "Stable on the Strand", a christmas celebration for the whole town (yes, real camels included!!). With amazing professionalism (my jaws totally dropped watching the DVD of their previous years!) and one clearly sees their heart and unity and joy. Not preachy stuff. Just being real and FUN.

Anyhoo, so we got to meet more believers, meals with pastors and families (real WHOLESOME aussie homecooked meals), did some jamming, chat chat chat, and bugged Benny during his recording appointment. Really blessed. =)

pix to be added eventually.

Mmm this last week had a friend's wedding (AC classmate), and some church friends visiting. More to report later. Research is moving. Tired. Due for a conference presenation end Nov. Not much data to present yet. My proff is sorta egging me to submit a conference paper for the BIG conference in Madrid next year. Lets see how it goes. Stressed. Sept is such a busy time. I need to breath. Grouse grouse grouse... But i'm glad for it. Sorta.

La-Dee-Dah Day

So its now half a year here down under, pursuing the illusion of sound.

Sound - transcient, nascent sense of vibrations, which our minds make out to be pleasant or unpleasant, encoding within the nuances of speech, intellect, accent, culture, emotions, alarm and peace. Mere vibration, periodic oscillations, or aperiodic chaos; harmonic signals, inharmonic characteristics and aharmonic beatings; enharmonic chromaticisms, resonances, turbulent transcients, evanescent perturbations of regularity. Mere vibrations. But it means so much. And so much within to be understood, peeled apart, stripped and boiled down. Deconvoluted?

Sound is one thing, silence another. Degrees of silence? How about implied sound. Impedance spectra that tell me how a system would behave, as if the instrument were an elegant variable source-filter. But what do they mean? do they mean anything? and how do i know if they mean anything? Can i measure meaning?

So stumped, I am - issues of understanding, interpretation and meaning. Epistemological and Ontological cross-roads - existential post-modernism? Absolute truth? Forsooth, physics is a philosophical quest for truth - an absolute in a sea of relatives - self-existing, consistent, and repeatable; above all, Discoverable.

So here, I study truth concerning fluttering air particules and how they behave in a column. Absolutes on the fluffie fluffles. And stumped, I am.

How! Said the Indian chief.

Walk on water, and the full package comes with a-drippin' when you see the wind and the waves. Notice Peter did not walk on water, but rather, walked on the command Jesus gave him to come. Make sense?

Lesson today from the wedding at Cana - the water turned to wine, ONLY when the servants obeyed the instruction to fill the jars with water, and then bring the water to the master of the feast. Presumably, it becomes wine only at the end of the servant's journey. If the servant didn't make it to the end of the table, the water would never have changed, and the promise unfulfilled, wedding ruined, eggs addled. We can only walk on toward the end, where water turns to wine, and the sea becomes sweet; the promise only is that as we wait on Him, we get to soar as eagles, run and not weary, walk and not faint.

Laa-dee-dah. Walk on. =)

Where sky and water meet,
Where the waves grow sweet,
Doubt not, Reepicheep,
To find all you seek,
There is the utter east.
(Reepicheep's Promise, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, C.S. Lewis, 1952)

Stop Press - Weather Report!

This report here writes about a sighting of a Nacreous cloud over the Antarctic. Apparently its considered a "rare cloud", rare enough to warrant a news article, considering the 'extreme' conditions for its formation - water-ice crystals "blown along a strong jet of stratospheric air" more than 10 kilometers above the ground, and formed at an extreme temperature (minus 87 degrees). Apparently nacreous clouds are formed under harsh conditions.
(pic accompanying the report)

What's befuddling though, is that I spotted nacreous clouds while I was in Nongkhai and Laos during the the hot and rainy season in August 2005. They were spotted over Udon Thani and Vientienne municipality on separate days. More here (scroll down towards the bottom). So how rare are they, and how are they really created? By all scientific sources, nacreous accounts are rare events forming only under severe conditions (extreme cold, extreme dry, supercooling, nitric and/or sulphuric acid content!), but I've been told by two separate local accounts in Nongkhai and Vientienne that its regularly spotted over the Mekong during late afternoons that part of the year. Perhaps there is more to this phenomenon that atmospheric scientists haven't bothered with much yet? For all we know, the mekong's probably polluted and giving out noxious fumes right now!

Anyhows, enjoy!
Udon Thani, 5:19, 23/08/05
Undisclosed location, Laos, 4:50pm, 29/08/05
Undisclosed location, Laos, 4:45pm, 29th August 2005
Undisclosed location, Laos, 4:49pm, 29/08/05

July Ends

What alot of stuff. Confessions. Regressions. Impressions.

So I dropped by Singapore for 17 days, and did quite abit of stuff - in fact, I think, just a tad too much. Surprise midnight rendezvous w ol pals, prata suppers, Fire conference, cellgroup chalet (guest appearance for 20 mins), a birthday dinner with shofar blowing, played for service, worship practices, lunches w working friends, family dinner, thursday morning prayer meetings, meet missionaries for tea, wedding, graduation party, amazing worship/jam session w ACSCF friends - thats w dear folks last jamm'd in 1995, slapstick dinner w the ol ACS gang, cellgroup meeting, worship gathering, dinner w two friends and their respective spouses - that makes 4 and a 5th =) arriving, recording session, and a cookout.

And then coming back to a frigid Sydney, to be picked up by friends (quite the nicest thing, really), tossed back to life 'as usual' (whatever that means for me). Been back in the lab chugging away and cranking up to pre-break levels. Takes sometime for the momentum and adrenaline to pick up, but pick up, it will. It Must!

On a side note, last sunday was the Sydney Coffee Festival - a wonderful collective of some 30 gourmet coffee roasters offering cuppas for $1! Well, I had great coffee, and great company. But I think my best spent buck for the month went to an unsuspecting cup of Second Flush estate grown Darjeeling (Margaret's Hope 2005). The stuff to wafte on. It was strong enough to wash down the lingering coffee taste from my previous two mochas and cappucino, and leave a rich, lingering taste on the buds. Clean, clear, and delicate enough to be classic darjeeling. On the market, a typical 1kg pack (if you can find it at all) of such darjeeling would go for some 140AUD. To contrast, my cuppa tea was a lovely one buck =), and I went back for hotwater refill as well! Great company too, I might add.

August, Sept, Oct, Nov, Dec, remains five more months of the year. What alot will happen, must happen. Breakthroughs in research, in lives, in ministries, in nations. How I need more grace, how we need more favor. Oh Lord, will you move, stir us afresh?

Seasons: Morning by Morning

Friends. Life-story-community. We live in an oral fabric. Experiences are transmitted through sound and images. Community: collective experiences and fellowship. Community and meta-narrative is inextricably bound for that is the framework with which we understand the world and what we take to be reality.

Filters. We suffer a 5-degree level of separation from perceived reality as shared in community stories:
0. an event occurs, perceived by the source speaker
1. the source speaker experiences the event through a filter dependent on his senses: perceptiveness and subjective perspective.
2. he process the sensorial information shaped by his values, culture and perspectives he's internalized - the second filter
3. Third filter: he shares this experience aurally and visually, relying on his ability for precision and clarity
4. the receipient receives aural and visual account through his senses - another filter
5. Lastly, he processes the received information against a worldview shaped by values, culture and perspectives

Can we know anything at all? Who am I? What am I doing here?

Still, meta-narratives, the Myth is important. It provides a sense of belonging in the scheme of things - our place in the network, our walk that goes ever on, Mr Gamgee and Mr Frodo. Our Hero that has come for us, dashing through the clouds, crashing walls to rescue us. Issues of existence and purpose.

So we live in the moment, for the moment. For it is the present moment which seems most tangible. Sort of. Tanglibly fleeting. We pass through an infinite number of miniscule moments that hurtle us inexplicably through that one-sided dimension which is Time.

Teach us to count the days; teach us to make the days count. Time is our currency, and spend, we must. How we spend is ours, but once we spend it never comes back.

For as characters in the meta-narrative, that eternal Storyboard, we must walk out our roles, our days, our choices - both freewilled and proscribed. Yea, we are no mere random product of butterfly wings, but we are the very created will and purpose of a transcendant Creator, yet the choice is ours to walk away. We know so very little, and so trust we must, for there can be no other way. Only His goodness and grace can sustain us.

Oh, for strength for the seasons! Oh, for grace to hold us. Oh, for assurance to keep us through the changing tides. Thank You, thank You, thank You!

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;
As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be.

Refrain
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Refrain

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

Refrain

Humid Spore

Keywords: Ywl, shwpr, commanded blessings, community, promises

So I'm back for abit, on assignment. Glad to be back, and glad to be gone in a way. Things to do, people to meet. Weddings, Mongolian reunions, Levitical unction, bbqs, Thai greetings, daily scoops.

If you're around in town and free on the 14th July, do drop by for The Worship Gathering at Boy Brigade Headquarters. 8-10pm. Free! Soak, rest, minister, intimacy with the Father.

Winter Solstice

Bo dang-zhuei, ai soh-ee!
("To roll rice-flour-balls when its not winter solstice" - minnanese proverb)

The shortest day is past; no longer now fast falls the eventide.
The days fly by, and it is time now.
Time for rest, time to reflect.
Grow, dig deep
Abide.

The world seems to go by,
forgetting you exist, you
sit by the side
and watch it fade

Tensions, tremor,
fleeting evanescences
moments, transcience
philosophical waxings and mathematical exactness
I grow, yet defined; He flows, and He abides.
I tarry some, yet I am arriving
He is, ever present, emanating.

Cushions and Closure!

Well a quick follow up on the sofa-saga, after 3 weeks of it sitting idle outside my apartment, wondering if
- to sell it off and hunt for another sofa that'll fit the door (that also means figuring out the transportation), or if
- somehow the door could expand (I even considered removing the door! but , no, it'd still be 3 cm short), or if
- the sofa could somehow shrink to fit!

After two weeks of wishful thinking hoping some people would buy it off, I decided to study the internal structure of the monster couch. In order to do that, I had to remove a panel of upholstery - this involved a saturday afternoon of quiet meditation: a rather therapeutic, repetitive, coaxing and removal of about 250 half inch industrial staples, the sort shot from an air gun, embedded with such force it sits squarely deep inside the wood. Therapeutic indeed!

Anyhow, I discovered one of the beams was redundant, i.e. not structurally critical, and if I could somehow remove that, it probably would fit the bill, so to speak. However the beam was embedded in a sort of "traffic junction" of about 4 other beams coming in from other directions - a definite no-no to disturb. A slightly out of the box brain wave hit me (read: mad, out-of-my-mind, hit-in-the-head, doodle-in-the-oodle): if I could surgically remove that plank (i.e. extricate without disturbing the structure), it might just work!

Borrowing a micro saw from the lab (it has an absurbly thin and narrow blade with a height about 2mm max) I slowly spent the next half hour liberating the beam, detaching it at 3 critical (but structurally non-critical) locations. The saw, btw, has this fascinating attachment head that allows you rotate the blade and cut acrobatically in 360 degrees! Designed for craftwork I think. Anyhoo, the rest is history - the couch made it through the door without a squeak, the beam was replaced with connecting braces (I'm proud to announce that as a result, the sofa is probably stronger than it was before!), the upholstery duly tacked back (with vengeance!) and, voila! the miscreant sits happily in my room - of course that refers to the furniture, not the dilettante on it.

Mayhem: End of May

(pre-amble about the weather, in aussie fashion)
(red maple leaves at the sydney botanic gardens)
So now it ends - autumn fades and winter starts. The last time I experienced this was when I was in Mongolia and Siberia for the month of October - warmth and light making one last ditch attempt before fading quickly. But living in a proper city, the weather is almost incidental - just pop indoors where there's almost always some form of heating (annoying to remove your layers, only to pop em on again...). One's almost aghast w the heating (or lack of) in chinese cities, where most commercial buildings are frigid (except the poshest hotels and restaurants and malls), and your breath frosts indoors! I guess providing heat for 1 billion people would be logistically impossible. But yups, I'm thankful for simple stuff like heating, and layers - having said that, Sydney winters are mild by any standards - it was even COLDER in Nongkhai Thailand when I was there last christmas.
(sunset at UNSW)

Anyhoo, back to updates and musings, thus far, i've
- made a furniture fiasco (still to be resolved): make sure your furniture can get through your door!


- had a good friend visit, and had loads of great food and drink and fellowship and prayer. Thank you Paul!
(Ernest Hill - with the Owner's son Jason and wine dog yoshi)
(fresh olive oil and balsamic vinegar for tasting!)
(Aussie fusion food at a new high!)
(hyper-glorified char-siew! Roasted to perfection and melts in mouth!)
(more tastings!)
(in praise to Him who made that which makes the heart glad!)
(booty!)
(pelican sunset over Tuggerah Lake)
(hello paul... aul.. ol... ol...ol..)
(visible thought bubbles)
(three sisters)
(wet autumn day)
(whistler's mom!)
(misty misty misty eyed - travel at LESS than 40 in this sorta conditions)
(me and paul)
(c.f. MC Escher
(Jenolan caves - fabuleux!)

- caught the REAL SSO - the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, a gadzillion times better and worth every cent. Also, the symphony hall at the Opera House has pretty impressive acoustics too! Brahm's Piano Concerto no 2 + Varese + Ravel. Float float float away !
(turtle shells at night)

- had a breakthrough in my research - things are FINALLY moving (thank GOD!), and what alot of things are happening on various fronts. More and more loose ends are coming up, and loads more reading to catch up. The struggle is realizing that as research progresses, exponentially more and more and more issues will crop up, and I've gotta realize that I can't solve them all, and I've gotta live with (hopefully) and equilibrium of finding solutions, understanding issues, and having MORE loose ends... I can only tie a few at a time, and some I'll never resolve. Gotta live w this unsettling for the next coupla years. Grrr. But really, I'm glad for the tiny breakthrough. At least things are now moving, albeit mildly. I'm still figuring out the best method to calibrate my equipment, what other design changes are necessary, and other issues before i can finally make serious measurements - and that's merely the tip of the ice-berg. The mayhem begins!


- did I mention I caught Steven Curtis Chapman in concert? Well, strictly speaking, it wasn't a concert - it was Hillsong's ministry night, a quarterly get-together of the Worship and Creative Arts department (an impressive 2-300 people!), and while it's mostly house-keeping and direction setting for the ministry, Chapman was invited to share, teach some, and lead worship! Quite extrodinary.





- My prof invited us at the lab for a sail on his boat around sydney harbor... interesting experience, speaking in nautical terms!
(LtoR: Emeline - france, Andrew - egypt, Clément -la Guadaloupe, JM - spore/msia, Bettina - germany)
(my prof, aye aye capt'n!)

- Met up w a few old friends who've moved here - one who's married w kid, and another who'll get married later this year. Listening to their life is inspiring, and one see's how God leads pple sovereignly, and His faithfulness. Glad for such fellowship and company. How's not seen each other for 10 years, and popping up? hehehe. But yups, visiting them is great, and finding them in their churches is even more wonderful. And, oh, i've got another friend who's in town these two weeks exploring if to move over here. Hmmm....

- today marked the end of one semester of 12 weeks' lab tutoring! Whew!

Inter Alia - Where You Lead Me, I Will Follow

So, amongst other things, I did a survey to generate this map (go here). And although it might look like alot of red, its a mere 10% of the world's nations. To be fair, in most cases its merely means one tiny fraction of the geography (e.g. one city only). (updated Mar 2009)

(W to E: Tofino, Victoria, Vancouver, Seattle, Davis, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Sierra Nevada, Salmon Arm, Banff, Jasper, Dallas-Fort Worth, Montreal, Richmond, New York, Halifax, London, York, Huddersfield, Sterling, Edinburgh, Inverness, Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, Rome, Frankfurt, Munich, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Salzburg, Dubai, Dushanbe, Chimkent, Bishkek, Almaty, Zharkent-Panfilov, Shangri-la, Dali, Lijiang, Kunming, Chengdu, Irkutsk, Khuzir, Ulaan Bataar, Terelj, Medan, Phuket, Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Kluang, Bangkok, Kuantan, Vientiane, Nongkhai, Singapore, Batam, Sapporo, Adelaide, Kangaroo Island, Coober Pedy, Alice Springs, Melbourne, Hobart, Launceston, Sydney, Orange, Invercargill, Queenstown, Dunedine, Christchurch)

Of Harps and Eucalypts, Mountains and Caves, Wine and Cheese!

Its now 10 weeks, and April has been a busy month. I'm gonna summarize it and share the pics:
- research work finally looking like it'll move forward! hooray! Though immensely much more to come. Please continue to pray for wisdom and breakthrough in understanding!

Impedance Curve

Random shoes on a power cable... sorta feeling like that sometimes...

- Visited hunter valley, Australia's prime wine producing area, specializing in shiraz and boutique varietals. and Oh, cheese too. =)

Vineyard Panorama

Fermenting Barrels

Olive Oil and Vinegar at the some sorta apothecary

A Wall-full of Wine Awards

Su-ann, Judy and Julie leaving Ernest Hill estate

Pretty Skies that day

- Taronga Zoo: animals need no introduction!





- Good Friday + Easter: my church did a processional and musical re-enacting the events of Good Friday, right in the heart of downtown Sydney. The media came out in droves. The musical presented the Jesus story set in colonial Oz, where Jesus is a bush preacher from the outback, turns swamp water into beer when the wedding barbeque runs dry, upsets the stuffy clergymen, and gets executed on grounds of sedition and rebellion against the Queen as the crowd cries "kill the king of the bush!". It was an interesting study into the relevance of the Gospel contextualized.





- Easter Sunrise Service at the Sydney Opera House, live telecast on national TV



sleepy head, right after the service, while sound crew pack up

- Blue mountains + Jenolan caves: blue eucalyptus haze gives the mountains the name











- OCF Retreat (after all the retreating, where are we advancing to, I wonder?)






- Harp Visit: acoustics lab on a magic mystery tour! Solving acoustic problems.



- Concert at the Conservatory- Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto 2 + Brahms Symphony no. 4