Finally a good meal

The farewell party for Jason and Lih Rui was good. The food was good, the fellowship was good and really had a fun time with the E-side ppl....It was really inspiring listening to what ppl had to say abt Jason and Lih Rui. Jason Chan has been in EB for like 5 years man....wow....amazing...his love for God and OCF must be really great to do that....Tony has only been president of EB for a year and sometimes he feels like quitting...although i know he wont...but the fact that he feels like quitting shows how hard it is to be in EB. Jason *respect*. When tony leaves sydney next year another godly brother is gone...So next time there will be no one to go to for sound Godly advice. Haih.....so sad when i think abt it. I must really learn how to survive without him around. Learn how to draw inspiration not from humans but from the Word of GOd...
Anyway tomorrow morning i wil be going to convention in Brisbane. I dont really feel excited, in fact i havent even packed my bag. And li hwa just sent a msg asking me to enjoy myself and take care in convention...wow....she remembers me...hahah...so touching .....
Ok...off to pack my bags...God Bless u all.....Amen

What the world is becoming!!!!

OK...so what is this world becoming...the smart become smarter....the stupid become stupider. Yesterday in the news...a year 10 kid in Adelaide gambled 40K away in a casino. He used a fake ID to get in the casino. So whos fault do u think it is?? The way the news put it is the casino is at fault for not checking the ID properly...which is partially true. But it was as if the casino was 100% at fault and not the idiotic kid...the mother of that kid came up on tv and cried saying they are very poor...have to loan money from relatives to support the kid here...bla bla bla. So why isnt anybody blaming the kid eventhough he should take most of the blame????? Maybe its because those bladdy lawyers purposely want to make a case out of this to prove thier worth as lawyers....making the obvious wrong look right.
So what abt the capitalists....making use of the vast ppl in the world that dont think much and just buy. For example...Fender....using eric claptons, stevie ray vaughnan, etc...and creating a signature guitar for them..and putting a ridiculously high price for it...and ppl actually buy them just because of the signature and because they have money to spare. The original guitar Eric and Stevie uses are just second hand frankenstein strats which i dont think cost more than 2000 dollars and fender makes replicas of those guitars change the electronics a little and put a whopping 5000-6000 price tag on it....what the crap????

WOW.....*drool*

I nvr realised such a small change could make such a big difference. This has got to be one of the best decisions i have made in my whole life (post exam life actually). I decided to change the crappy speakers that i plug into my laptop to Vincents Creative speakers. Suddenly everything became so clear...every bass note was so clear....my mind was blown away .....by the sound and also by John Myungs bass lines...cooolll. I have been deprived of good sound all these years man...But one thing not that good is the woofer is too powerfull...somehow i feel that the woofer's frequency is approximately equal to the resonant frequency of the juices in my stomach...This is because after sitting in front of the woofer for a few hours i feel like i wanna puke...fortunately i didnt. :-P

Why a Christian shouldnt get in a relationship with a non-christian...

To approach this issue i will use the Israeliltes and their journey through the old testament as an example( i guess there are many other ways to approach it...but because i did bibilical theology this sem...the OT was the first to come to mind) . Throughout the old testament from the time the ppl of israel left Egypt all the way through the end of the OT, it can be seen that thier life and thier relationship with God can be modelled as a sinosoid oscilating with respect to time(eg . the sine and cosine function....if still not sure what it is....basicly its just a function that oscilates up and down with a certain amplitude). So what is the reason for these massive fluctuations in thier relationship with God?? One very obvious reason is because of the influence of the surrounding nations on the israelites. From the beginning God has intended the ppl of Israel to be HIS ppl...a sanctified nation whose purpose is to glorify HIM. It is always the case that before the Israelites enter a new phase in thier life God always commands them not to have ny relations with the other neighbouring nations either politically or by marriage. For example before they went into Jericho...the command was to destroy everything and not to take anything. Someone did and he died because of it. Another example...before they crossed the river Jordan into the land of canaan God again commanded them to destroy everything, but they didnt, instead they made a political pact with the king of the amorites. The long term effect of this was the negative infuence these foreign nations had on the Israelites. The israelites start to worship other Gods, lead sinful lives ,want to be like the other nations etc. Another example is King Solomon. His reign as King of Israel started of well, and God blessed him with wisdom, wealth and many other stuff. But his reign started to decay when he allowed his foreign wives and concubines to influence him in particular the Egyptian one. He started to worship foreign Gods, and his focus was no more on God.
So after all these examples i guess it is pretty obvious why we shouldnt get into a relationship with a non-christian. So ....this might be hard to take but...i guess it boils down to where our priorities are....do we give God our highest priority or do we put ourselves higher than God? Do we want it our way or do we want God to have his way in our life?? How can we get into a relationship where the values and priorites are so different. You have a non-christian that doesnt go to church, doesnt care bout God and whos values are based so much on the world....and a Christian that is "suppose" to put God first in everything and whos values are based on GOds word. Well many people will say i will bring my other half to church and make them christian...but hey...bringing a person to church and hoping they will be christian just because it will make it legal for u to be with the person is clearly wrong...If the person does become Christian then God bless u ....but what if they dont. Your whole life could be screwed up.
Emotions is God given and is a beautiful thing. But if used in a wrong way, it will blind your mind and u can easily lose sight of GOD. God gave us a brain to use...so use it...blind emotions is useless...similarly knowledge without emotions is equally useless...Getting into a relationship without God is meaningless becuase the purpose of getting into the relationship(wutever it is) will not last...eg...the "in Love" feeling, nice , good looks, etc.. Love is more than that....love is a commitment...Think about it....y does the bible use the analogy of marriage to signify the relationship between Christ and the church? So u must be saying but thats marriage...i am not going to get married with her. So what is the point of getting into a relationship just to have fun and with no intention of having a long term relationship....wasting money, wasting time, wasting valuable brain capacity. Just because you have the potential to get into a relationship doesnt mean u must. U could use those resources to work on your relationship with God that is far more important than any relationship that u will be in in your life.

What makes a good Bass Player????

I was reading Bass Player magazine today. I dont normally buy mags but this issue was on Rock bass legends. I just couldnt resist buying it. Its really interesting reading on all these great bass players and it was interesting to know the Metallica had more bass legends than any other band and they are Cliff Burton, Jason Newsted and Robert Trujillo. Having listened to Metallica's album during Cliff Burton and Jason Newsted's period, it is easy to see how different these two players were and how thier playing defined how Metallica sound. Havent really listened to Robert Trujillo because the St Anger album sucks. Anyway the most obvious difference in the way these 2 bassist plays, is the pick. Cliff Burton ( & Robert Trujillo)is a finger picker while Jason Newsted is a pick player. Both of them have their reasons for using either their fingers or pick and they were good reasons. The pick gave a brighter more defined sound while the fingers give a fatter, muddier sound. The issue about finger style playing and pick playing is a mojor issue in the world of bass players. There are many famous bassist who argues that thier method is better while putting down the other method. For example KISS bassist Gene Simmons uses a pick...and i quote him..."I want to hear the notes, which is why i use a pick.If you're going to play something that you'll only feel, f*** that. I want to feel it, and i want to hear it."
Some players play simple bass lines, some play melodic bass lines, and some play funky bass lines and all these players are legends in their own right. For example if u listen to Sting's playing, u will notice how simple his lines are and if u listen to John Paul Jones( Led Zeppelin), u will realise he improvises alot over the chords. Flea's ( Red Hot Chilli Peppers) playing is very funky, and u will realise his playing is literally driving the the whole band. RHCP is one of kind because thier music is pretty much oriented around the bass.Michael Anthony( Van Halen) doesnt play very outstanding stuff but his solid bass lines provides a solid foundation for Eddie Van Halen to solo. John Myung (Dream Theater) playing is very melodic, solid, innovative.
So what makes a good bassist?? To me the basic thing every bassist should be able to do is to provide a good solid foundation for the band and to do this is not hard...just play the root at the correct place and try to follow the rhythm. But what makes a good bassist? Well..this is a pretty subjective question...it depends on the each individual bassist. Every bassist has thier own thoughts and principles that they follow with regards to the role of the bass and how to play it. I guess thats what makes every bassist unique. Thats one of the reason why i do not encourage ppl to go to yamaha music schools. The way they teach the guitar/bass is so standard. They give u a song and teach u how to play the song. They do not teach them how to be innovative, to be creative, etc. So in the end the student only knows how to play the song and not how to play the instrument. So when playing bass....just play the bass...define the role of the bass as u please...define your own playing style...learn techniques...try to create your own tecniques...wutever it takes....ROCK ON

Galations 2:20

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (ISV) ...Galation 2:20.....This particular verse is very familiar to me, thanks to Raj last year for encouraging me to memorise some verses although i have to admit i have forgotten most of them....only remembered the ones that really encouraged me last year. Galations 2:20 is not particulary hard to understand but i guess its implications are hard to follow. It expresses the extent of Pauls conviction towards Christ( i hope the structure of the sentence and choice of words is correct). As humans we are all destined for death, but as Christians we are destined for eternal life because of what Jesus did on the cross for us. God using Jesus as a perfect sacrifice reclaimed us from death..giving us eternal life if we put our trust in HIM. We as Christians belong to God and the purpose of us living is to glorify HIM. And to do that we are to ...and i quote,"sign a death warrant of the disposition of sin, to turn all emotional impressions and intellectual beliefs into a moral verdict against the disposition of sin, viz., my claim to my right to myself." ....pretty hard to do???...Has your pride been challenged??? In this verse Paul says "I have been crucified with Christ and no longer live, but Christ lives in me. "(NIV)....I, me, myself ...RIP. The next part of the verse..." The life i live in the body, i live by faith in the Son of God ,who loved me and gave Himself for me." Eventhough we are still physically alive....our ruling disposition should have been radically altered from "I ,me, myself" to "Christ, Christ, Christ"....only then can God mould us the person HE wants us to be....Hard....of course....i am contantly struggling with that...but hey....noone said following Christ is easy.
1 year ago....
scenario) James looked at the minutes of the comittee meeting and saw
"DJ - James"
reaction) "Wah...crazy ar...how can u put me in there!!" Agreeing to take up the job
as music director/coordinator to me was a struggle...now DJ leader.

So y was there a struggle....For those who knew me well since last year, i was quite laid back...didnt really want to do anything...my priciple (which served me well in the past ) was "no work dont find work " and also the fact that being a so called leader would put in a position where people would observe me...so i was afraid i might stumble other ppl ...which i think i did a few times....unfortunately.The weight of responsiblity was suddenly put on me...The point is, i was suddenly taken out of my comfort zone and was placed in a position that i didnt want to be in at that time.I guess one thing we have to reflect upon is "what is our purpose of living " and for "who are we living for". We as Christians belong to Christ and we are suppose to be living for Christ and not ourselves...so who are we say where our comfort zone is...our comfort zone is to be in Christ...knowing that in every situation God is in control and he will be there for us if we would go to HIM...Now after a year do i have any regret....i can say with absolute certainty ...no regrets at all. This year God has used many situations....pleasant and unpleasant...to change the way i think....the way i do things...priorities and many others...Amen
Time for dinner...wow...and i woke up just 5 hours ago...

ZZzzzzz

What an exciting day this has been. It just feels so good to be out of the house, in the city, aimlessly roaming around townhall with the guys from wesley after spending 2 days just sitting at home. Unfortunately I was really too sleepy to fully enjoy the day. Last night slept at around 2 and got up at 7 this morning cause was playing in church. I planned to sleep early, but unfortunately roopesh kept me awake...actually i shouldnt say unfortunately...we spent some quality time together talking about Rock music...OCF...FOCUS..and the ,OCF executive council...discovered so many things bout him. I was esspecially suprised by his liking of Rock music....I was like...."Prophet Dhar"....likes bands like Guns & Roses,Metallica,Nirvana, Van Halen ....he was even singing to the Guns & Roses tune when i was playing it on my laptop...i would expect him to warn me bout listening to the "devils music" as some people call it...but he didnt...so it was cool. And he even tried to intro some classic hard rock chrstian bands. And we had a lame discussion on whether evanescence was a christian band or not.
Todays worship in wesley.....dunno what to say....we made some pretty major and obvious mistakes but also played quite well. The mistakes were caused mostly by Christo not signalling us(the musicians)... so we were like caught off guard so many times. Well i guess christo aint used to leading without the keyboard in front of him yet...normally he plays the keyboard while singing, and and dunno why does he want me to play the D on the 5th string....the 5th string to me feels too fat and has very little definition...all u can hear is its excesive hum . Well he is the sound engineer...so i am not in a position to comment...all i can do is play wutever he wants. So if the 5th string has so little definition and i dont really like to use it,y did i get a 5 string bass. Looking back i guess i wanted something that the other bassist in my church didnt have which was a 5 string. I would have gotten a 6 string if it was available at that time. So should i just get a 4 string next time...I dont think so ...after trying our sern li's 4 string i think i am not used to a 4 string anymore...the neck feels too small....what i would say on this issue is...the 5th string is just there to be there....eventhough i do not use it much....the knowledge that the 5th string exists and that i have an extended lower range and i can use it anytime i makes me feel secure...just in case, i need it i have it. I guess this is just the nature of humans...wanting to be secure. Thank God we have the most secure thing which is salvation that came by Jesus death on the cross ....Amen...:-)
After church was cool also....went over to kwan du to eat ...as usual....but unfortunately i couldnt eat cuase wesley is doing a new promotional video and the musicians had to stay back and pose for the cameras....in the end....they couldnt make the video coz the chinese congregation has to use the hall...cei..wasted my time....in the end had to starve until 3 ...then only went to hungry jacks to eat...i was so hungry i couldnt even walk staight....i only had yogurt and muesli in the morning. Hungry jacks was good...wernz and clarie was with me...as usual when mat rock brothers get together talked on Fenders...Gibsons...and hungry jacks is a really good place to do that cause they have a tv showing classic mtvs....ohh and today they were showing eric claptons "I shot the sheriff" mtv....it was so cool man...Blackie ( eric claptons guitar) sounded so good...and his solo was like WOW....it wasnt fast hardcore shredding but it was so good...Eric claptons known as slowhand...i guess that says alot about his playing. And we also went over to Myers...so cool....we went to the video games department and played the video games there for like more than an hour...The Incredibles game was fun....looks alot like hulk....i think all they did was change the animation....but the underlying code is the same....they are all from XBox anyway.
Reached home around 4....it was so hot....can feel the sun burning my skin....so i decided to take a bus instead of walking back home. Was so sleepy when i got home...unfortunately when i reached home ...roopesh, julian , brian wang and the jap guy(forgot his name) came....so cannot sleep...haih....but nvrmind the time of fellowship with them was good is worth far more than sleeping. Found out so many interesting stuff about them..like roopesh and julian likes to watch south park and Fat Pizza.Wow and i thought "holy ppl " like them do not watch all these kind of stuff. How did i get this idea ??? I think it might be because all my life my father has been really resticting what i watch. He-man cannot, teenage mutant ninja turtles cannot, power rangers cannot.Julian said i was really deprived man....I guess i was deprived of alot of things...I had the guts to venture out into the world of ROck when i got here thanks to clarence and wernz...discovered so many cool bands like metalica ,rage, limp bizkit,dream theater, RHCP ,etc. I feel even my bass playing is getting darker (of course not in church) which means every riff that comes into my head uses alot of minor scales which kind of has a dark aura associated with it unlike punk rock ....I only got some sleep at 9-11...after waking up i feel as if my day has just started...hahhaa.
So any interesting happend in my life today...not really....in a few hours time i wil be sleeping again...i must really keep and account of how long i am awake....i feeel like my days i really short and wasted away...
Ohh ..and aunty shirley( my neighbour in Malaysia) is in brisbane and she is going to send some free subway vouchers for me...cool...

Yamaha or Ibanez

Well..i was trying out sern li's bass guitar in sams place. His bass is an Ibanez SR 4 bass....made in Japan. It sounded quite good even when it wasnt plugged into an amp...the resonance of the bass was good. But i think i would prefer my Yamaha BBN5...i think i am biased since somehow i became a yamaha fan...but then ...i think i just dont like the setup of his bass....the action is too high...my bass action is lower than his....and its also a 5 string...my bass easier to slap coz of its lower action ...hmm...mebbe i should take his bass and try it out in church...anyway sern li gave me permission to use his bass anytime...ohhh...and his string so old...hmm...mebbe he likes old strings...i prefer new ones...gives a twingy sound when slapped...coool....wut the crap am i writng this here...not like anyone cares bout basses.

Wasted Day

Well officially my day started at around 2.30 in the afternoon...today has literally been wasted bacause i would have to sleep early today or risk having to fall asleep on stage while playing in church tomorrow.So i approximate my saturday would only last 10 hours...Wow....where did my other 14 hours go...i only sleapt for 6 hours ????...hmm...i guess since my days now are pretty odd, the best way to get an accurate account of how many hours i am awake is to calculate the average over a certain period.
Anyway what did i learn from todays QT...todays keyword is FAITH...well the example given by the QT book was Abraham...which is not suprising, Abraham is very commonly used as an example by many ppl when speaking about FAITH...why...because just imagine how much faith u must have to move out of your comfortable nation to some other place that u dont know just because GOD says so.The Qt book started out by saying ...and i quote(hopefully i wont get sued for plagarismn and for not sighting)..."In the old Testament,personal relationship with God is showed itself by separation" and this is where the example of Abraham comes in and if u studied the old testement u wil c that this is an important command which is emphasized throughout the old testament and which the israelities breaks over and over again and in the end brings them to the fall of their nation. In modern day context, this separation is more of a mental and moral separation from the world and its values... So how do we lead a life of faith...but first leading a life faith is not knowing what is going to happen in the future , where are we going to be led....etc etc (read on the life of abraham to know more), but a life that loves and know the ONE THAT LEADS. Leading a life of faith is not living by intellect and reason which most of us do. I guess this leads to a very important keyword...KNOWING...How would u feel if u are just following a stranger to unknown places?? i personally would feel insecure and would rather not follow.The root of faith is KNOWING who GOD is...knowing GODS character....and having a personal relationship with HIM.Only then can we with all our heart and soul follow HIM. In many churhces these days the motivation to know God has been perverted... "If we follow God he will lead us to success".... In a way its true...success in our spiritual walk, our personal relationship with God, and success in finishing the race God has put us in. Unfortunately many mean it as success in the earthly LIFE...secure job...financial stablity. In the end the focus is no more on GOD but on their own selfish desire to have a good LIFE. Anyway back to the QT book...The final stage in living a life of faith is the attainment of Godly character. One thing that really ..........(fill in the blanks again) in this QT is "The life of faith is not a life of mouting up with wings, but a life of walking and not fainting". Well many times and i have to say many churhces in Malaysia the call for revival is very strong. Many revival services held day in and day out...many people feel the "touch of God"and get into a spiritual high ( mounting on Wings ). After everything is over...thier wings tire and in the end land back on the ground. So in the end thier spiritual displacement is zero and no spiritual Work is done...ie....Work = Force*displacement (In this case assume its only in one dimension..which is vertical) .I would rather "walk slowly" and consistantly with God trusting that God will be with me wherever he leads and knowing that thru HIS strength i will finish this walk. But what does being separated got to do with living a life of faith...This i am not really sure....but according to the QT book ...and i quote "living a life of faith is not a question of sactification; but of something infinitely further on than sanctification, of faith that has been tried and proved and has stood the test.Abraham is not the type of sanctification,but a type of the life of faith, a tried faith built on a real GOD." So what can i get out of all these:-
1) The importance of doing QT
2) We are being moulded by HIM through circumstances and experience
3) Being certain that everything God puts us through is for our own good

On point number 2)...Many times i have seen people when, put through tough circumstances, desert GOD. Who is to blame...the individual...the church...GOD for putting them through these tough times ?? i guess i am not in any position to comment on this...everyones situation is unique. But what i think is the important thing is not the situation we are in but do we respond to the situation whether is in a GOdly manner or in a worldly manner. Being a kid without a mother is not easy...and i really must Thank God just pulling me through all these years eventhough i nvr really thought of it b4 coming to sydney. So how did i respond when my mother passed away...thinking about this i didnt really respond to it in a positive way...and noone in the church was comforting me...most of them were comforting my older brother..:-(...but its alright...Well...lesson learned...we shouldnt expect much from anyone(i realise i have been re-iterating this) the only person u can fully trust is Jesus and not humans and for this i am truely grateful to God for guiding me thru life with hardly any human support (pre sydney days...eventhough i wasnt really that good but at least i wasnt not really that bad either)...Maybe thats y HE brought me to sydney...so i can meet so many Godly brothers and sisters especially Raj and Tony which has been a great inspiration to me personally. So to those ppl out there...cherish your parents no matter how bad u think they are. So back to our response...i feel how we respond to circumstances is the real test of our faith....but there are many ppl out there who needs guidance or else they would respond in a negative manner...so i guess this is where Brothers follow upper comes in...haih....God help me in this..its going to be tough...results might drop...but God first....
Ok....it took me nearly 3 hours to finish this blog...i hope its time well spent...

Last night

So what actually happened last night??? since this is public domain i will not post it here...All i have to say is forgive me for the sudden outburst of anger and indecent vocabulary....i will not justify myself. I am wrong for responding to the situation in such a manner. God forgive me...and Thanks felicia for being so understanding...

What a way to end a day

What a wonderful day(actually night) it was....got a free hair cut and got it highlighted....first time in my life. Thanks to the remaining few ocf girls....just hope my grandmother wont scold me that much when she sees me,anyway the color is quite faint. But how the night ended was pretty F!@# up...dissapointments...destroyed expectations...anger...biterness...wtf ...better go to sleep b4 i blow up