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the otnaicus daily

Edition 274 – The Weekend

It has been some weekend indeed. One of the busier ones. Church, birthday celebration and a DIY cleaning job on my air-conditioning unit.

Let’s start with church. Pretty much standard service, with the exception of praise and worship being led by Dave Holmes and Andrew Naylor. Had an exciting time directing because I haven’t done production directing in a while. For those of you who don’t know, we have been having two directors for a while now. The TV ministry is in the transition phase between a 4:3 and 16:9 frame size. So half the production is in 4:3 (for recording, or production) and the other is 16:9 for projection purposes. In short, I miss when I have all 8 cameras in my command. That will soon come back when we finally get a full set of 16:9 cameras. So exciting, can’t wait…

Birthday celebration next. It was Debbie’s birthday on Sunday. Instead of going out to restaurants to eat, I decide to open my kitchen after months of it being closed. And I cooked a 3-course meal. And I put the oven in my house to use the first time. So what did I cook. Here’s the menu for the evening…

Special Dinner Menu
In Celebration of Debbie’s Birthday

to start…
green salad served with italian dressing

the main event…
meat loaf with a ketchup and balsamic vinegar sauce

the encore…
warm chocolate lava cake courtesy of starbucks

to wash it all down…
brown brothers orange muscat and flora 2006

So that was the menu. The meat loaf was my first attempt and I must say that it exceeded my expectations. I wasn’t quite sure that it would come out well because I forgot to get cheese (one of the ingredients), and I couldn’t find breadcumbs so I substituted that with wheat germ (thanks to a website). And it’s pretty hard to find fresh herbs in FairPrice, so I ended up using a dried version of thyme for the meat loaf. But thank God that it came out well. And we had fun that night. I hope Debbie enjoyed just as much as I did.

After sending Debbie home on Sunday evening, I decided to remove the front cover of my air-conditioning unit. You see, it has not been producing cold air even though I’ve set the thermostat at 21 degrees Celsius. And half the blower wasn’t blowing any air out. So I removed the front cover and lo and behold, I found the reason why I haven’t been getting cold air. There was a thick, and I mean thick, layer of dust on the condenser (where the air gets cooled, those fine fins that you can see). So I took the vacuum cleaner and gave it a good vacuum. And I also cleaned the blower to get the other half working again. Suffice to say that tonnes of dust was removed yesterday night and now the aircon is working fine and dandy again.

A very busy weekend for me indeed. And I enjoyed it totally, especially Sunday evening. I shall follow up with dinner pics when I get my camera back. So until the next time, cheers… :Þ

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the otnaicus daily

Edition 269 – KL Emerge 2008

I can finally say that I’ve been to all the three Emerge conferences around Asia. And yes, I’m blogging from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Here for a quick getaway after KL Emerge.

KL Emerge was indeed an eye-opener for me. My main job for Emerge was to direct all the sessions. Camera will be crewed by the TV guys from CHC KL. The TV ministry in CHC KL is a 100% guys ministry. Not a single sister in sight. And they are a crew that does a 3-cam live production every weekend WITHOUT any form of communications between the director and camera crew. Yes, no comms. Impressive right?

Anyway, during the 3 days, I was very impressed with the TV crew. A bunch of people who have good attitude and are more than willing to learn and to excel in what they do. They really do have a passion for what they do. One example. On the last night, RDP took the handheld camera for praise and worship and did a lot of walking shots. The camera person who took over in the later stages emulated the shots without needing to be asked. Now that is what I call learning through observation. All-in-all, a fantastic bunch of people. I would love to work with them again soon. Heard that some of them coming down for Asia Conference. Now if only we can ask them to help out……. 😉

Other than Emerge, I’m thankful that I could extend my stay here in KL. Need a bit of break from work. Although a bit boring, the chance I get to spend time with my parents and for me to put some deposit into the sleep bank is more than worth it.

Guess that’s all for now. Will update again soon when I’m back in Singapore. Until then, cheers… :Þ

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the otnaicus daily

Edition 266 – Morning Prayer Meeting and More…

Decided to sacrifice some sleep and woke up early today to go down for the morning prayer meeting that has been happening the whole of this week. Had to wake up pretty early to get to Jurong West by 7am but it was all worth it. Talked to God about one pretty major decision I have to make (more about it below) and it has brought some perspective to the situation. I will definitely go down more often next week for the meets.

For the past few weeks, one thing that was burdening me was a potential job cum career change. As most of you know, I’m in the IT line and the switch is to a event/media production line. The former is my job, the latter is my interest. It seems natural to most that it is obvious to go along with something that interests you. That is when one would actually enjoy working. Working becomes play.

But to me, I tend to start considering a lot of things, most of which relates to the future. A lot of “what-ifs” start flooding my brain. What if I find that I’m not suitable for the job? What is the career path in this line? What if I can’t get used to the working hours? What if this? What if that? I think you catch my drift here.

There was a time when going into the media line was something that I yearned. I remember during one point in my university career that I even pondered about switching courses to mass communication. But as I was about to graduate and this door was opened before me, I balked at the chance. Reality of life suddenly sank in and I found myself asking the same questions that I’m asking myself today. To be honest, the opportunity has knocked more than just that one time.

Fast-forward to today and the opportunity presented itself again. Do I take the plunge? Is this really God’s calling for me in my life? Seriously, a lot of thoughts are swimming in my mind. Praying about it this morning helped a bit but it still left me with having to take the courage to make the decision. My friends have been advising me to not think too much and go with your interests. What can I say, I have an “adventurous” mind that likes wandering off. At least I can say that I enjoy working with the group of people and the work. (My wandering mind just asked me: “Will the interest be long term or will it die out?” See what I mean….).

But it’s crunch time and I have to make the decision soon. Not nice and not fair to ask for the person to wait for my decision forever. So do keep me in prayer as I keep myself in prayer. Pray that God will lead me in the right direction (I think I kinda know what direction that is).

Until the next time, cheers… :Þ

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the otnaicus daily

Edition 261 – Festival Of Praise 2008

So here we are again. That time of the year when we have Festival of Praise, an annual praise and worship festival held by churches in Singapore. Took the day off work today to complete the setup at Singapore Indoor Stadium. At first it seems that the set up is more or less done. But as the day wore on, seems that more and more things need to be done. As of this moment, we are short of some video cables to send some video via CCTV to some rooms.

Sent my Nokia N80 for repair today. When the slide is open, some of the keys couldn’t work. They quoted a repair charge of between $60 to $120. I almost ended up buying a new phone without contract. But praise the Lord, the service centre just called me and told me that the repair cost only $30 plus. So at least the phone can last me till the iPhone 3G makes its debut in Singapore.

Time for the service is drawing near. Gotta sign off now first. Will update again soon. Until then, cheers… :Þ

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the otnaicus daily

Edition 256 – Hectic Weekend

I’m sure most of you have seen my post saying that I’ve been feeling slack since I came back from Taiwan. Not anymore. Suddenly, a torrent of work unleashed itself towards the end of last week. I even had to do some work over the weekend. But all is well and managed. Just good and bad to have the rush feeling again.

Let’s step away from work for the rest of this post. Had an exciting weekend with the Father’s Day drama that my church put up. This is a drama that goes into the CHCTV record books as one with the least number of rehearsals and full-dress runs. For the JW team, it wasn’t so bad. They had 4-5 runs before the actual service. For us in Expo, all we had was Saturday morning to finalize our shots, and 2 full-dress runs and we were supposed to be all ready to run. Thank God the drama was relatively simple. Still missed shots during the actual service, but I think it wasn’t too bad.

My boss just told me today I need to make a short trip up to Taiwan to conduct training. He asked me to schedule it and go. So when’s a good time? But at least it’s just a short trip of a few days.

That’s all for this post. Will update again soon. Got to get some work done before knocking off. So until the next time, cheers… :Þ

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the otnaicus daily

Edition 252 – The Long Weekend

First week back in Singapore is almost over. Not too bad of a week. Although I was still busy with work, it felt less stressful as compared to when I was in Taipei. Work was at a more peaceful pace, peppered with situations where I got whipped into near panic attacks. But all is good and the week has ended for me. Yup, I’m going to have a fantastically long weekend. My parents are coming in too, so that’s a bonus.

Going to see my cell group members after such a long time tomorrow. Yes, two weeks seems like a very long time. Frankly speaking, I’ve missed cell group and now that I’m back for good, I’m looking forward to those cell group meetings. A after-cell-group fellowship has been planned and I’m so looking forward to that. It’s going to be great, being able to fellowship together.

I finally did what I’ve been trying not to do. And that is to buy a PSP. Yes, I’ve finally succumbed to the temptation and bought one at the Taipei airport as I was waiting for my flight. Trying to find some puzzle games (things like Puzzle Bobble, or something similar) for Debbie now so that she can have some games to play as well. Seems like puzzle games are hard to come by on the PSP.

I’m going to stop here for now. Looking forward to the rest this weekend. Desperately need sleep after Taiwan. Haven’t exactly recovered from all those late nights and early mornings. Hope this weekend I can get some decent sleep hours in. So until the next time, cheers… :Þ

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the otnaicus daily

Edition 246 – Back To My Second Home

It was a fantastic and busy week back in Singapore. Really thank God that the timing was such that I could be back in Singapore for Easter. And thank God for the time off to recharge.

Easter was great. Two separate dramas for Jurong West and Expo. I was involved in the Expo drama with the freshest set of drama crew I’ve seen in a very long while. By fresh I meant that a lot of the crew was doing a drama production for the first time since joining TV ministry. One crew was even placed on a camera that he had never been on before. I’m just proud to say that everybody performed admirably. Even though we didn’t have a lot of rehearsal runs, the crew remembered most of their shots after a run or two. Simply fantastic. Concept of the drama was fresh and good and enjoyed every single moment of it.

So right now, I’m back in Taipei. Flew Eva and I was surprised at the load of the flight. The flight was practically empty and you could get a whole row to yourself if you wanted. Boarding was completed in 15 minutes, and in-flight service was quick and efficient. Simply enjoyed the extra space that was afforded by the low-load flight.

Back to the battle zone tomorrow. As of now, I feel a lot of changes coming up that I would need to implement, judging from the emails that I’m reading. But we’ll see what the PM has to say. Going to take a little time catching up over the next few days. Been totally out of the picture the past week and I’ll have to get up to speed before the PM heads back to Singapore.

As for now, I’m going to relax a bit. Watch some TV, surf a bit and sleep. Until the next time, cheers… :Þ

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the otnaicus daily

Edition 239 – Home!

Feels great to be back. Touched down yesterday afternoon at around 11.45am and was home by around 1pm. Got a haircut to get ready for Chinese New Year, spent some time with Debbie and came home to, wait for it, WORK! Thought I could get some rest in but made the mistake of powering up my work laptop and checking the email. Ended up with a tonne of email that required my attention.

I’m looking forward to Chinese New Year. Headed back to Penang for about a week to spend time with my family and to get away from work for a while. Taiwan has their CNY holiday from 6 Feb till 11 Feb. So at least for those days, emails should be kept to a minimum. Work or no work, emails or no emails, I am determined get some rest in and to just relax in Penang.

If you’re wondering why I’m up so early in the morning blogging, trust me, I would rather be still sleeping at the moment, or be on my way to Expo for the rehearsal for a drama that’s happening this weekend. I’m up early trying to get some work in, to show our “commitment” (as my PM put it) and try to get problems solved. But here’s the catch. I have no clue as to what else I can do and I need to communicate with some engineers in Taiwan, whom might have a clue to what is happening, but we’re doing it via email which can get frustrating. Want to call them, but they don’t seem to want to give me a phone number. But to be fair, maybe I did send out the email yesterday night a tad late. Nevertheless, I shall wait around for a bit till around 1pm. Then I’ll just report back to my PM and go off to church. Hence I’m playing the waiting game.

I’m going to stop here for now. If I don’t blog again before Chinese New Year, here’s wishing everybody a Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year!! Until the next time, cheers… :Þ

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the otnaicus daily

Edition 232 – Long Overdue Edition

And so I’m back in Taipei. And plenty of things happened since my last entry and this one. Well, okay.. Not that many things. Just a couple worth mentioning and I shall mention them in this entry.

The CHCTV Expo Christmas Drama Team 2007

First and foremost, here’s the picture (above) of the Christmas drama team that I promised. Long overdue. I want to post more but then the fact that I’m in Taipei and the photos are not with me prevents me from posting more. Anyhow, there’s the fantastic Expo Christmas drama team, the one that I’m very proud of…

 CHCTV Appreciation 2007

On to the next event. The TV Ministry had it’s appreciation on 2 January 2008 at Settler’s Cafe, Holland Village. It’s a different kind of appreciation that the ones we’re used to. This time round, we gather, short speech and then it’s free and easy till the end. Lots of noise made as Settler’s Cafe, for the uninitiated, is a place where one can sit down and play various board and card games. One of the noisier games played that night: Taboo!!! Not many pictures taken. Just that one group photo I have and that group is not the TV Ministry’s full strength. We had a simple lucky draw at the end. 3rd prize was a $30 Takashimaya voucher, 2nd was $50 and 1st was $80. The amazing thing: all won by Saturday team members. It was pretty unbelievable though. But important thing was that we all had fun fellowshipping and making plenty of noise.

And that weekend, I flew back to Taipei. Week 1 of 4 is almost over and I’m looking forward to flying back for CNY. Productive week, I must say. And the next two weeks is going to be challenging because my PM will be away for In-Camp Training, a.k.a reservist. Hope nothing major crops up.

FL and WX in Taipei for the weekend. So going to hang out with them a bit while they’re here. It’s such a blessings to have friends coming up to Taipei while I’m here. Get to hang with them. Makes the time I spend here that much more bearable.

Sheesh, I make it sound as if I’m dying here. But I really am praying and hoping that it’s really going to end soon. I want to be back in SG permanently for a while and not just one month. I miss home. I miss church. I miss Debbie. I’m missing my friends’ weddings. And this time round, I’m missing my anniversary with Debbie. Argh!!!!

Okay, I shall stop complaining. It’s getting late and I shall head off to bed. Until the next time in the near near future, cheers… :Þ

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Edition 230 – It’s Over!!

It’s over. 7 English services. 17 services in total. 5 good drama runs in Expo. One final show that is almost perfect. All in all, a very good drama production and excellent Christmas services. Tiring, but definitely fun and fulfilling. And I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

It has been a tiring week with late nights and early mornings. I shall leave this post short and sweet. We did take some pictures after the last service so I’ll post them up somewhere when I get them.

Before I sign off, a shout out to all the TV crew that helped out in the drama. They’re more affectionately known as the Drama Team. The best bunch of people. Sacrificed their time, leaves and sleep to help out. They even persevered through difficult situations that arose during the rehearsals and drama productions. You know who you are. Just want to thank you guys from the bottom of my heart. It was fun, and I hope we get to do it all over again. You guys ROCK!!!

A late Merry Christmas to all! Until the next time, cheers… :Þ