PANANIMA

jo's bday

2007-07-23T22:52:00.000+08:00

20-30 of us went up to kalamunda (hills) to have lunch together to celebrate my sis's 30th!

it wasn't a sun shiny day :( but it was still good! We went to this place called Le Paris Brest Cafe Francais, an award winning french restaurant/patisserie. photos taken from phone camera again...The food:

Started with soup shooters
Then french bread with dips - salmon, some yellow thing..hehe and balsamic vinegar

Mains we had the option of calamari rings (which i had), chic casserole (jimz had that), fish & rice, risotto, sandwich steak...i think the chic was the best...the others were so-so...

then dessert was the birthday cake!

it's soooooooooooo yummy! it's a 3 choc mousse cake...soooo yummy..the best cake ever! my phone ran out of batt, so i couldn't take a pic of the layers in the cake! but it's yummm..

if u want to take a drive....go to this place for lunch/afternoon tea..so yum! there's tarts, croissant etc. In the entertainment book too! it's located in the midst of a shopping area - think broadway for perthians...but i reckon it's worth the drive up there if u have nothing to do...hehe the sweets are yummmmmmmmmmmmm

4th!

2007-07-23T22:07:00.000+08:00

man, what a week!

it's literally wakeup, get ready, go work, finish work, come home, eat dinner/grab dinner out, pick up my couz then head 1/2hr to woodman point campsite for the ROAR camp (church youth camp). We could only go for the night sessions obviously because of work, but it was AWESOME! God really moved and touched lives.

They hired a marquee/tent and had it set up for meetings. The crate up near the ceiling is the projector! hehe how kewlz that?

we had Ps matt from Lakes church to come preach for the whole camp. The message was great! About going deeper, also about speaking in, speaking up and speaking out.

Some people were up at the altar till 2am one night/morning! even though it finished at like 12. that's called hunger...so awesome.

here are some pics/vids from it.

There's a song written by Ps John (youth pastor) in the following video. It's called United. Great song! 1st song before that is Hosanna - nice song too. Sorry, video isn't too good. Taken from my phone camera and there wasn't enough light!

(there was a problem uploading videos to Blogger so here's the link:
pananima.vox.com/library/video/6a00d4141ef2293c7f00cd9742858e4cd5.html)

my 3rd entry!

2007-07-23T22:04:00.000+08:00

(Another overdue post from 11/7/07 by my wife which I am putting up now, sigh... :P)

haha...keep counting my entries on your fingers.
Give it about a year, i wonder how many there'll be.

i bought a camera bag y/day on ebay!
yippeee! cos my current freebee form digital rev broke on me.
the cheap plastic buckles broke off *yeesh*
so i bought myself a 2nd hand - used once only - so hoping condition is pretty much brand new lowepro slinghot aw 200! won the bid at $88 + $10 post, later to realise that they sell it at $130 here. so not bad i guess...it looks like this.

http://www.lowepro.com/Products/Sling_Bags/All_Weather_Cover/SlingShot_200_AW.aspx

it's in the post today from over east..yippee!

another day not at work.
the person i work for is pretty sick, and cos she works from home, it's better that i'm not there..
no work means no pay, as i contract, but it's ok.
it means more time at home and sort out my unorganised life.
i've just designed a temp business card.
i quite like it...so might run with it.
waiting for feedbacks from a few people who are free to email at work :P
then i'll print a few dozen up for now.

leave it there!

shona's 2nd entry!

2007-07-23T21:51:00.000+08:00

Shona (this is an overdue post from 9/7/07):

i'm gona attempt puting an entry in :) here goes....i have a feeling it's gona be long...hehe

transformers....the best. go watch it if u haven't! and i'm not even a transformers fan!! may be it's jimmy's influence, but i reckon it's more cos it's a great movie with awesome CG. amazing...esp after doing multimedia for 3 years, you just learn to appreciate these things.

what else has been happening? i'm not really sure...

I've been telling my friend liz that my life's pretty "normal". Unlike hers - she went for a 1-2hr makeup course thing, planning to go rose prunning classes, cooks and bakes like almost all the time! My days are pretty normal! wakeup, work (well had the day off today cos the person i work for is pretty sick and i dun wanna get her germs), come home, cook, eat, may be a bit of tv/check mail, then zzz. tat's pretty much life for me..hehe but i'm quite ok with it. haven't been fishing much cos there seem to be a lack of fish - may be it's the weather..

but here's a pic of the fishes we caught when we went on a fishing charter for deep sea fishing. we went early June for our aniversary :) The top two were the ones we caught. the longest fish at the bottom was given to us by the skipper. Measure the size of the fish to the lemonade can! fish was yummy too!

woke up at 530am today cos we have prayermeet at 6-7am for the upcoming ROAR camp (youth in church). 6am pmeet started mon and will go on for 2 weeks till camp.

i feel very honoured to serve alongside a magnificent team of people in ROAR.

here's an example of what happens at roar/fuel/nations...this photo was taken at NATIONS - ROAR (upper high school n uni age) and FUEL (lower high school) combined.

Here's our church - South City church...the deco changes EVERY month! how awesome is that??!

Jimz and I are so glad we're part of South City Church. Everyone has a calling and a direction in life, and for us we find that God's bringing us in the same direction as where South City is heading. Their spirit of excellence, and just being seeker friendly as well. Worship is awesome in church...media is the best too!

I think i better end there...cos i can go on and on. I should really do some work!

here's the most recent (crap) photo of jimz n me..hehe taken from my camera fon.

I'm thinking of putting up a blog for my photography work sometime...so stay tuned! - try to anywayz....heh

The Film of the Century...

2007-06-29T11:33:00.000+08:00

This is not to be missed...'nuff said.

Walking Down Nostalgia St Part 3

2007-06-27T14:57:00.000+08:00

This is the final part...

Now, how of those cartoons did you actually recognize from your childhood?

Walking Down Nostalgia St Part 2

2007-06-27T14:55:00.000+08:00

Here's part 2

Walking Down Nostalgia St Part 1

2007-06-27T14:51:00.000+08:00

how many of us remember the cartoons we grew up with? how i miss them...

well, i happened to find something on youtube so we can relive those memories again. Enjoy.

The Time Has Come - Air Drums

2007-06-26T00:37:00.000+08:00

check it out - i nearly died laughing when i saw this vid!

Indescribable - Chris Tomlin

2007-06-20T16:38:00.000+08:00

This is our indescribable God...

Birthday gifts

2007-06-20T15:59:00.000+08:00

I'm blogging again…twice in a single day. I think I'm back online coz I've sorta finished the semester at Harvestwest. The last 2 months have been academic hell for me. Funny huh, experiencing 'hell' in a Bible College. I had assignments due every week, one or sometimes 2 in a week. On top of that I had full-time work in the day. Result is no life whatsoever.

Regardless, I'm back with a vengeance. So to the topic at hand. How do you tell if a gift you've given to someone is not something they wanted or expected? I was chatting to my youth pastor the other day at dinner and he was quite perceptive. He said you can tell by the split second reaction they get after they've opened the present. Imagine with me for a second that I've given someone named John something he didn't want.

Jimmy: Happy birthday John! Here I got you a little something.

John: Oh thanks Jimmy! Can I open it?

Jimmy: sure, go for it.

John (opens present): Oh..a picture frame! Haha! Thanks!

Now, it's probably a little hard to imagine it when written as words on a screen. But the key is when the person actually says out loud what you got him/her. Just having the person say that, you can tell that it wasn't what he expected or wanted. If you watch a person's face, you can also see the tiny moment when their guard is down. There is a split second after they've opened the present when they think, "What the heck! This guy got me a picture frame!" The thought then vanishes as quickly as it came and they regain their composure, thus they try to be as civil as possible without losing it completely.

Blessings From Up Above

2007-06-20T11:20:00.001+08:00

Hi everyone!
It certainly has been a while since we've posted on our blogs. Sorry we've been out of contact for so long, especially to all our overseas friends! Well, I (Jimmy) have got awesome news that I wanna share with you guys, just coz we love you so much we wanna continue sharing our lives with you, haha!

Just recently, I managed to get a new job! Woohoo! This new job pays so much better than the last one, AND I get a company car with petrol all paid for, my own phone and PDA! How sweet is that!? This is really a blessing that God has just given us, coz we're looking to get a house soon and with this new job it'll be so much easier.
Now, the perks of the job is not as fantastic how I actually got the job. I don't know if I actually shared about how I got my first job on our blogs before, so I'll start from the beginning. As most of you know, my first full time job is with Rocky Bay as a disabilities support worker, the job which I am working at now. Before that, I was just working casual jobs to pay the bills. It had been about 6 months since we got married, and I had not found a “proper” job yet. It’s not that I wasn’t trying, but I just couldn’t seen to secure the jobs I applied for. Then, one Sunday our senior pastor preached on giving God our tithes. I was fully convicted by that message and decided that day to commit 10% of my income to God, regardless of whether we were able to save any left over. This was a step of faith for me, as we had barely enough income to survive each month. At about the same time, I made a job application to Rocky Bay. I was praying so hard that God would come through for us, coz times were really tough. The craziest thing was, 2 days after I prayed to God to commit 10% of my income to Him, the call came through that I got the job! Praise God! Obviously, God was trying to tell me something here. That if I honour Him with my tithes, He would definitely make sure we had enough to live. This was a huge lesson to me about giving to God what is due to Him. Before this, I had never tithed properly. It was always a “see what’s in my wallet and I’ll give whatever’s there” kinda thing. This was the first time that I was making a deliberate choice to give God a monthly tithe. I also learned that God wants us to get serious with giving. We cannot have a casual attitude about tithing, we must be very deliberate. If we are laid-back about giving to God then He will be laid-back about blessing us. But if we make giving a deliberate and purposeful action, then God will be deliberate and purposeful in blessing us.

So, I accepted the job and I have been working in it for about 5 months now. It was a good job for someone just starting out, but of course the pay wasn’t very high. It was just good enough so that we could pay the bills and still have some savings left over. On an annual basis I would have earned about 28,000 if I stayed. Then about a month ago, I started praying to God about finding a better paying job somewhere else, because we wanted to start looking for a house we can call our own. I felt God convict me again about giving: that He wanted me to give Him more. I struggled with it for quite a while. All this time, I had been giving God just my base 10% every month, nothing more. We just could not afford to give any more. Anyway, I finally gave in and asked God how much more He wanted from us. I heard 2%. So, now God wanted 12% of our monthly income to go to Him. I thought to myself, 2% isn’t all that much more. I think we can do that. So, I committed to give an extra 2% every month to God. At about the same time, I heard from one of my church friends that a job had opened up at this new place, Edge Employment. I made my application as I had done dozens of times before and sent it in. I prayed to God He would give me the job. A few days later, (surprise, surprise!) I got a call from Edge, asking me to go in for an interview. Of course, I was thrilled. I thought this is it, I’m gonna get it! Little did I know, it was only the first of two interviews. I also found out there were 16 applicants for 2 positions. My odds were not looking very good…probably about 12%. 12% chance, 12% tithe, coincidence? I don’t think so! Anyway, a few days later I got called in for a second interview! Yes! Once step closer! Once there however, the interview did not go as smoothly as I had hoped. There were things I said that upon retrospect, I wish I had said something else. I left feeling a little deflated. Days passed and still no news of the job. My hope was fading fast. By this time, I had stopped believing I would get the job. I just surrendered to God’s will, hoping that whatever happens I could trust that God has the best intentions for me. By this time, I had committed my first 12% to God, and even if I did not get the job, my promise was 12% and I would stick to that.

Anyway, yesterday (Tuesday) came round and still no news. I went about doing what I always do, yet with the job nagging at the back of my mind. Everytime it came back, I just surrendered it back to God, just trying not to think or worry about it. Then all of a sudden, a call came on my mobile phone at about 2:30pm. It was Edge Employment! They called and offered me the job! I was simply ecstatic. I fully wanted to jump around and sing and dance! I could not believe it! God has come through for us yet AGAIN! Until now, sitting here typing this out, I still cannot believe I got the job. Truly, God is the one who provides for us, there is no doubt about that. Once again, God is teaching me about giving Him what is due to Him, and He will bless us through that. This job pays so much better than the last one. My starting salary is 35,000, with potential to earn up to 55,000, and it comes with car, phone and PDA. On top of that, I can salary sacrifice (meaning lower my taxes) up to 30% of my pay. I really could not ask for better than that! I did my calculations (I like to see the details), and for my extra 2% in offerings to God, I got back an extra 25% increase in income! 2% investment, 25% returns! Now, all you investment/financial types out there KNOW that THAT is a good investment, no doubt about it!

So, I start 2nd July. I am so looking forward to it. It’s going to be so awesome! Our God is SUCH a good God! I just want to encourage you guys, friends or otherwise (if you just stumbled onto our blog), God will NEVER short-change us! He is the great God, Creator and King of the Universe, and He has limitless resources at His disposal. We just need to ask of Him and He will bless! Honour God with what is due to Him and we will never have to worry! God will provide for all our needs.

Philippians 4:19 And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. AMEN!

And if you’re not a believer in Jesus Christ but would like to know more, send us an email or comment with whatever questions you might have, and we will try to answer them as best as we can!

Until next time, seeya on the web!

Yamakasi/Freerunning

2007-04-20T10:03:00.000+08:00

i saw a documentary on SBS the other day. it's about these 4 guys who invented a new sport called Yamakasi or some people call Free Running/Parkour. these guys are simply amazing. if you think breakdancers are the most wicked thing, these guys blow breakers completely out of the water. their moves are so fluid you'd swear they could levitate. they eat breakers for breakfast (ok that last sentence sounded lame, but so what, these guys are so cool!) seems these guys train their guts out to get where they are; they're incredibly strong, and they can make moves that would snap a normal human being's legs in two. I went onto Youtube and found a couple of videos on this new 'sport' and found some vids on the 'original' 4 Yamakasi founders plus some guy called David Belle (and no, there are no special FX)

My new (sorta) haircut!

2007-04-16T23:08:00.000+08:00

i had a haircut a couple of weeks ago and i wanted to post some pics of it up but haven't found the time until now. a good friend of mine also wanted to see it coz she was the one who recommended me the hairstylist. anyway, here are the pics:

i had it highlighted and cut in a mohawk kinda fashion. this is the front view.

side view

back view. i wanted the back to have the highlights just down the middle so it emphasises the mohawk. My previous hairstylist refused to cut the style i wanted coz he thought it wouldn't look "nice", but this new one did what i asked and made it look really good!

My First Entry!

2007-04-16T22:51:00.001+08:00

shona:

well not exactly my first entry. i typed up everything (one day when i was at work *shhh* but i had nothing else to do! was waiting for the dual layer DVDs to burn - which took like 40 mins/dvd!). duno why but i think cos it was a Mac(!) it just shutdown Safari when i pressed "save" to post it up!!!! grrrr

so don't say i haven't tried!

life's been bzbzbz recently. lots to do at work and finding that there's not enough hours in a day to do stuff. thankfully i've got a day off today! didn't sleep in but got out of bed at 730ish and been on the computer since (happy with myself!). It's now 9:26am and i haven't done't anything i've planned to do! checked my emails, read like 10 different blogs, checked out some photoshop courses offered at Plaza Imaging and i'm trying to put my first entry up!! argh..may b that's y i don't have enough hours in a day??

list of "to do's" today: edit and process 5 big photo shoots (3 church events and 2 portrait shoot), do up new business cards/stationary, design cd label (i recently bought a canon pixma iP6600D printer that prints on DVD/CD! at bargain price too! was orig $199 or there abouts, but cos i found one at the bargain desk i got it for $138! it was a "returned by customer" thing, perfectly ok but just not suitable for whatever the person needed it for). so now i can have "nice professional" looking DVD/CDs - not dumb stickers labels stuck on it that looks so unpro!

next thing on my "list to buys" are - Wacom tablet (minimum 6x8inch), laser colour printer, projector, new camera mobile phone, 4wd, boat, house...hmm the list is getting pretty big and expensive!

ok i think i better leave it here for now. Just incase IE want's to shutdown on me and not let me post this up.

tata n u'll hear from me soon...depending on what "soon" means!

Giant Cuttlefish!

2007-04-14T19:46:00.001+08:00

We went fishing today at North Mole in Fremantle. Didn't catch anything though. We were hoping to catch the salmon school as they were migrating north to Exmouth but i guess we were there at the wrong time. Just as we were packing up to leave, there was a commotion. Apparently, some old guy caught a giant cuttlefish. Here's how it looks like (sorry the camera i had on me was pretty lousy):

The thing was huge! it must have been at least a kilo or more. That alone made our trip. :)

testing new multiposting software

2007-03-23T13:04:00.001+08:00

i'm testing out this new software for posting to multiple blogs. it's called zoundry. let's see how it works out. btw i've setup another blog at pananima.blogspot.com. it's really for all my friends on Blogger, but you're welcome to check it out. at the mmt it looks pretty bare though.