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v3rci0n d0s!1
Monday, June 28, 2004
Ah yes... new layout's up. Let me know what you think. I revised all the sections and finally got around to writing a page about my faith. Some of this was rather difficult... I almost couldn't go on at this point when the greymatter scripting just would not work. And I actually made IE crash a couple times. And the server went down for a torturous five minutes. But... I won! H4H4 �35.
Went to six flags last week, as organized by Chris. That was the most fun I've had in a long time. It even inspired me to oekaki. Imagine -- a theme park that opened at 5am. Imagine the kind of thrill you'd feel at that hour. Indeed... that is what morning coaster is all about. Had a lot of fun with the color scheme on that one ^_^. I did some drawing at six flags too. Here's a guy in a robe.
Ah... the coasters were good stuff, but just walking around and talking was fun too. Weien was awesome as always. Chris looked so much like he belonged at six flags, or something. Him and his innocent, happy mood, and his shades he never bothered to "secure", and his carefree approach to the coasters; it was like straight off of some clich� book character. And haha -- I realized that not everyone understands 1337 -- Chris and Brenden couldn't figure out what my ph34r shirt said. Anna was so encouraging... she listened to me talk about all the stuff in my life at this one part when most other people went to ride the Raging Bull for the second time. Heh, I have like all these things I need to work on, but it's a good thing that God is good, ne?
Around lunchtime, we were eating in some food court-like area, and I was thinking about how loud and rather annoying the live band across the road was getting. The music stopped, and the lead singer began to speak. "...I discovered that He was all I wanted, all I needed, all I wanted to be." It didn't take too long for me to realize that he was sharing his testimony -- it was a Christian band! I'll let you interpret that in whatever way you will ;)... but in truth, I was very excited, and went over to talk to the guys. They said that they knew some inside people, and when a band was needed, they were invited to come in. Ah, I still feel encouraged by that. I mean, even if the music did nothing, they had been basically granted the right to share about God to the crowds in one of the most secular places ever! Yeah! We played Would You Rather as a group on the way home, which was great. And that about concludes it.
I had a good time the day after too. Weien had been keeping in touch with Micah (one of my favorite fellow violists, who I met at Sound Foundations), and since Micah's family was coming to Headquarters all the way from Texas, he wanted to meet up with us. I was told that it would be just Micah and his sister... but to my surprise, when the 15-passenger van pulled up our driveway, it was the entire Behr family AND the entire Fredrickson family! w00h! We went over to the RiverWalk and just walked around there, which is something I had been wanting to do for so long! And what great people to be able to do it with!
Later that night, instead of going to bed, I went on AIM. A mistake. I got into a weird conversation and ended up feeling kind of wounded. But it's ok. I've been taking a little break from AIM since then, and I feel better now. And I know more now, which is good, right? On a happier note, F# to be exact =), I discovered the Icking Music Archive, and I downloaded and printed about 40 pages of Mozart's violin and viola duets (K423 and K424). Weien and I sightread through them yesterday... truly glorious. Another thing we've been working on is an arrangement written by the aforementioned Micah of "O Come All Ye Faithful" and one movement from the K423. That guy is talented. Ha, when I first mentioned his arrangement, he was like, "Have you found any errors?" Oh please. Errors? Man...
Alex and Kash, those were some of the nicest comments ever ^^;. Thanks. And plugs to Weien because he rocks. Lastly, here's a song we sung yesterday at church, one that really spoke to me:
Over all the earth, You reign on high
Every mountain stream, every sunset sky
But my one request, Lord my only aim
Is that You'd reign in me again
Lord reign in me
Reign in Your power
Over all my dreams
In my darkest hour...
(written by Brenton Brown)
t3h first of the summer stuff
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
Ah yeah... the weather is so great these days; it was almost cold this morning. I wouldn't mind if it stayed like that all summer. Had a karate test for advancing to the next belt yesterday, which was cool, but I'm glad it's over ^^. One thing I had to do was break some boards for the first time -- it's neat, because when you're just holding a board of wood, it seems so indestructible. And when you're being called up in front of everyone, and as they're preparing your target, it doesn't seem any less so. But then you just do whatever attack you're told, perhaps having the faith that the molecules standing between you and success are not going to withstand your power >D, and suddenly there is nothing where the board was and you hear a glorious clattering upon the floor!
Of course, then you sit back down and watch the other people break bricks and multiple boards stacked together with attacks that are difficult to pull off normally, even XDD... that would be the beauty of it all.
Another thing is that I finally got to visit CFChurch ^_^ and I really liked it. There's something so special about a small family church like that. Last week was the best because Mr. Fredrickson was speaking (it was awesome) and I was on hyper psycho mode as well, almost out-talking Brenden xD. I should mention that he has some very noble dreams for his life which include an interesting contrast to his brother's. Politics, because he wants to reach out to his own country (versus, say, the South America of Kyle); also, being a radio talk show host and I forget what was noble about the latter... haha. Another person I saw for the first time in a long while was Tony-san! Yay! And yesterday, I had the priviledge of playing viola with their orchestra (which is hilarious because it's about as big as the orchestra of my own something-thousand member church) and I got to try Rosalinda's tromboner and Mr. Newby's horn! AHHHH!!! *severe trumpet withdrawal*
I've been working further on version dos of this site -- studiously and repeatedly wacking at the thing to get it to validate, doing some mozilla testing (ickly little orange rectangle loading sign thingy!), trying to rectify the glaring design issues... none of which have been notably successful because eventually I realize that I'd rather have a layout that I like than have to suff3r by worrying about the 5% of anti-microsoft users XD! It's a bit more artsy and less crowded than usual... but I'm still kind of uncertain about how I will have the nav... and btw, if anyone wants to let me know the real way to do absolute positioning on objects within a centered div, that would be great. :) I'd say it's 50% done, kind of dragging... Battlesong post that I'm writing is is 70%... garlic site has 25 members XD (join the madness!)... nothing much else...
I miss the days when I made philosophies and theological musings. I need to be provoked to be inspired :). Well, here is something that I might expand on sometime:
It is disturbing that so many conflicting ideas can co-exist, but I suppose that because Satan is still working in this world, falsities will continue to be accepted and beautifully shaped to appear logical... which must be why it does not indeed sacrifice intellectual integrity to abstain from perusing these falsities.
A good thing for me to remember (critiques on logic welcome). Oh yeah, awesome thing last week was playing some good ol Zelda OOT with Tara-sama and Weien teh Great :D it is still SUCH an excellent game. Another thing was that Shiowei and Shiopei came over! and we did the whole hymn/soundfound singing thing, yeah! and we even played some Bach Oratorium!!!1 And while I'm plugging people, GLOMPOOO for Ka-chan for FINALLY upping her blog again!! Waiiii!! And ELAINE!! So good to hear from you -- ah yes, you will have to come over some time! Not only for Ian, but I AM IN A MAHJONGGing MOOD, ya hear? ^_~ was playing that with el bro and my grandparents the other day... that is one intense game, complete with superiorly intellectual elements and all the skipbo drama.
Finally, I'd like to talk about my dad, as yesterday was father's day. My dad is so awesome because he is a hard worker; he will also do house work and he's not afraid to do TONS AND TONS of it (such as when my mom had to stay in bed after the pregnacy). He's straightforward but at the same time friendly and overall a very agreeable person, readily forgiving people. He is unforgettable because he always has one chinese proverb or another to quip for any issue I have. He has mastered self discipline and will take large amounts of time to work on something. He almost never gets angry and he's always lightening the mood! Love you dad!
baroquen goodness
Wednesday, June 9, 2004
June 4 was Weien's bday; w00h00! I drew the beginnings of a comic in his honor, the working title of which is "Baroquen." It's the story of a small group of dedicated musicians who are doing their thing about 300 years from now, when classical music is no longer appreciated by society. As lack of money begins to be a problem, they'll eventually join another group of people who also "practice the old ways" (namely, some amish-like Christians). Together, they're going to be hunted down by the government and various evils for not conforming. Any bets on how bad this plot's gonna crash ;D? It is somewhat original and the charas are pretty cute *huggles kieus* ^.^. Here's the link: violasong.com/baroquen
Ahhh... it was also Susanna's bday yesterday. We were trying to make it a surprise party, which didn't exactly work out, but it was still cool. Some of the stuff she got includes 17 cents and an overdue library book on western dancing XD, hundreds of dollars in fake money, and a bath and body works soap thing from me -- because um it matches my got soap shirt! haha.
So. Yeah. Because of Ian, I'm home from hq for a month to help out/hang out with my family. The baby is really cute =^_^= and it's really exciting to see him there, though I haven't done much with him yet. Being home has given me the chance to slow down some which is nice. It also opens just about every day to things like quartet practice. Meh, all our upcoming performances are starting to make me nervous, especially the one I still need to get music and another violinist for -- that issue could use your prayers.
I've been getting into megatokyo... except in the wrong order :D and it's pretty good besides some unnecessary yicky stuff. The deepness of the characters is great; I would say my favorite are Ping (a super cheerful PS2 accessory kinda robot girl) and Miho (a creepy, manipulative, gaming gothic schoolgirl who happens to be "friends" with Ping)... hehe a good irony makes my day.
Thanks for your nice thoughts, Kash, Weien, Tara, and Shiowei :D! "Maybe if you and Weien double-team him you could make him an excellent poet and a superior CG artist ;)." -- Haha Kash, maybe if we don't influence him too much, he won't turn out as weird ;)...