Rain...

Its raining! Just what i wanted to wake up to. No sunlight to disturb joshi's much needed sleep ^___^. Its been a long time since I've seen these overcast days, and smelt the dampish air which nearly always signalled the impending rain. Brisbane's been scorched with heat and sunlight... even in these winter months, and its just a nice refresher to have rain cooling everything down. Its been such a crazy month... I don't really know how it went by so fast... and its gonna be september in a few days~ Been attempting to finish my assignment in the past few days... we have a ctirique (a presentation where lecturers and tutors attempt to criticise our designs and give us feedback) next week. My project was to design a juice bar, toilet block and a bike housing in a part of UQ (the grassy knoll for those who know where that is). Unfortuntately... we have this new lecturer from perth... and she is the worst ever! She treats us like high schoolers... and shouts and us and everything! Ended up staying at uni for only 2hrs on monday and 30 minutes on tuesday. Last night we had our Growth Groups bible study. Talked about stuff and the topic about superstitions came up. I seriously dunno why people believe in those kind of things... Did you know that buildings don't have a 13th floor in english countries (and 4 in asian countries)? About 75% of streets dont have the number 13. Its soooo stooopid... and ironically... we lived at number 13 in New Zealand (it was an old house) and we currently live in no. 4 (because no asian buyers would buy number 4 in macgregor... so we got a dirt cheap price =) ) . All these man-made beliefs -____- and i was told that i have really big baaags -__- luckily i got like 9.5hrs sleep last night ^^ thx to ppl who made me sleep XD.
ok... back to work =(

Blur...

Maybe its the effect of aging? I've heard the cliche "time flies" so many times in the past few weeks... and it just seems to be so true! It feels like its still holidays... yet its almost midsemesters. It felt like figs camp was last week... but it was two months ago. It feels like time is moving way too far ahead of me... leaving me behind with all my memories and thoughts.
So much has happened in the past few weeks... and the one that i want to talk about now is BLT... When i say BLT... you're probably thinking... joshi ish hungry! and yes... that is kinda true =P But BLT in this case stands for Brisbane Leadership Training... which is a camp run by a bunch of asian churches. It was so cool to meet up with guys I met last year, and also to meet new guys, and other guys that I was never able to meet. It was a great experience, learning more about the bible, more about other churches, making new friends all over the place, and being encouraged and encouraging others in their respective lives. I met heaps of new friends, and heaps of people that i knew of, but never was able to actually meet.
Funniest part of the camp was when Ping met his twin... TIM!!! They look SO alike its not funny! (well it is really funny =P) Other funny moments were at night when the guys dorm had their 'man-talk' bench... with their serious discussions about stuff which i have no idea of... because i was trying to sleep/talk on the phone... when i was invaded by the whole dorm on both nights! Encouraging moments was when me and iggy shared heaps to each other about our churches and other stufff... and also when i met jess... who is from the same place as I was born! and she knows my uncle!!??! craziness! Relaxing moments were freetime when we went to the beach, and also on saturday night in the dorms where we all got to know each other better. AWESOME moment was when we got seconds in our meals! I can still remember jeff running to get his seconds hehe. Worst moment was when i woke up at 5am to EVAN snoring his bum off... and then coming back from my hot shower at 7am... still hearing him snore -_____-
Well... what else has happened? the answer is... a lot! but hopefully joshi is still in one piece and ready for whatever life decides to chuck at him!

Rest!

These past few weeks have been so busy~ so later this arvo i'll be going to the sunshine coast for some rest and relaxation! well... its not really all relaxing... will be doing hardcore bible studies and that kinda stuff... but hopefully it will be a good refresher from a mind saturated with uni and other thoughts. The best things about these camps are the free time periods on saturday afternoon. They are always filled with fun sports and games, relaxing quiet/sleep times, and catching up time with people you see once or twice a year. Every camp we've been to, i think we always spend an hour or so down at the beach just sitting around, chatting, and soaking in the sun, fresh air and natural views. This seems so far away from the lives we live normally... stressing about work, running around organising things, and other activities ppl do. It gets u away from all the horrible news about murders, wars, and other things like that. I think theres many people who are really into their lives, that just need to hit the pause button, and take a breather or two, and just really appreciate life, and all the good things God has given us. All the opportunities and gifts that come our way, that we take for granted in our busy lives. *shrugs* hope this blog makes sense ><

Where is the world going? part II

Yes... where is the world going? Part one was talking about the disasters and all the bad stuff happening in the world... Part two is on the same wavelength, except its slightly different... Part two is about architectural disasters! Now you may ask... 'what in the world is that?' but its easy! Look around next time you go down to the city, and ask yourself... does this look right? does everything seem in place? If you rock up in Paris, you'll be greeted with classical archways, and then you will be bombarded with the most beautiful buildings in the world... from all different architectural eras. The only rival to the stunning Paris cityscape is probably the classical architecture in Rome. But back to to the topic.... Next time you look around when you're heading into city... ask yourself what looks wrong? And you will picture this:

Yes, this is the building being constructed at the moment... Brisbane Square. The idea is from the Federation Square design in Melbourne... except the design leaves food for thought. Whoever came up with the colours for this design should be shot immediately. For one, my architecture friends and i shiver everytime our bus passes this 'lankmark'. The colours are bright and vibrant... totally contrasting with the polluted river, stone treasury buildings (and others), and does not look in place. The second reason why I don't like this building is it shields the visibility of the Brisbane city hall from the river entrance. I didn't reaslise this until a few days ago. Was this planned? If it was, I'd like to see the reason why the council/developers would want to hide the 'heart' of Brisbane. I think above the first six levels, the design isn't too bad, but I won't comment too much on the first few levels...

Contrast this to one of the beautiful buildings in Guang Zhou, China at the moment:

Guang Zhou Museum (The "Swan" by night)

Where is the world going?

The 21st century has been marred with many human tragedies... terrorism, war, famine, drought, flood, air disasters... just to name a few. But i can safely say that the world at this very moment in time is in total chaos. I remember the day when there was no such threat of major conflict or terrorism... but now, its evident left, right and centre.
A chill goes by my spine everytime i hear the words 'breaking news' on TV... it usually means something disastrous has happened. I was shocked when i heard about the 'conflict' occurring in Israel and Lebanon. I guess some wars can be justified..... but where do these governments draw the line between 'going to war'? Then a few days later... the whole breaking news about the terrorist plots in London appear. It already is a risk to get on a plane to US/UK, but now its almost like suicide. My thoughts of going to france/italy etc. to check out the architecture around there have vanished by travel fears. This new escalation in terrorism is a depressing and chilling reminder to the world of the lengths these people will take to achieve their purposes.
This leads me to the question... why do people seek war/conflict/pain? There is enough loss of life as it is from natural disasters... yet, people still have this vicious intent to kill. Personally.. I can't even stand conflict with any one of my friends, yet these people gain pleasure by hurting people. It just goes to show how mucked up the state of the world is at the moment...

Sick.

It started on Sunday arvo... it was the 'jam session' or music practice for the muso's. Usually I get paid out heaps for singing really really softly... so on sunday, since I'm now a worship leader, and one of just 2 guys singing, I decided to sing with more confidence... It was good and stuff... but at the end of the session my throat/voice was just dead. Then after that, had badminton at griffith... was probably one of the best badminton i've played... had to verse all these crazy people... 8 games in a row... at the end i was totally dead. Monday was a 'paniccy' day at uni. Had a competition due in on tuesday at 2pm... and I was the only one in my group at uni until the afternoon... so i was like o___o for 4 hours. then in the arvo started crazily drawing on the computer, and continued when i got home. Then on monday night... started coughing... didn't think i was really sick... but it just got worse. Tuesday was more paniccy than monday. Was running around wasting money and stuff until the 2pm deadline. by then, my voice was gone, i was sniffling, and dead tired. As soon as the presentation finished, I jumped on the bus home. Then at GG on tuesday night at e's place, it just got worse. I was fully feeling the fatigue and loss in energy. I was like a living zombie -_____- wednesday i slept for about 18 hours... and now i'm wagging uni and reting at home. It just sucks that sickness just interrupts every part of your life. I didn't really want to miss uni today since thursday we do the most work... but i don't really want to get sicker... so here i am bumming around... Hope no1 else is as sick as me... and if you are sick... hope u get better soon!

Continueing analysing asian things...

Firstly, I played badminton at UQ with some of the international architecture students and other archi friends... and this guy who told us he hadn't played in ages... he was actually matching it with me and peter! We're both pretty decent badminton players... but he was matching us! It just shows the level difference of these type of things around the world... It's like how the substitute bench of the brazilian team would start in any other national team in the world. Also reminds me that Queensland Roar (the soccer team...) bought this chinese player dubbed 'the chinese beckham' ! Everyone should watch this team being asianised... now with two awesome asian players (also the 'korean guy'). Maybe in 11 years... they will have 11 asian players... who knows :P

Anyway... secondly and lastly, last night went to singbattle (kinda like aussie idol but in 1 seating) with some friends. Some of the people singing were actually really good, but then a few literally made me fall half asleep. I dunno if it was coincidental or anything... but all 16 songs i heard were all depressing love songs... some examples are "jian jian dan dan" (simply), "May I love you", "Wo bu ming bai" (i don't understand), "Ge Qian" (stranded), and others... It seems that the asian music industry is infatuated in portraying this image of 'helpless love'. I mean... yes its better than all the swearing in the english industry... but its not a good image to portray to the millions of asian kids.

This week I set a record of the most hours in uni in a week for me... mon 9-4, tues 10-5:30, thursday 9-3:30, friday 10-4:30... thats like 27.5hrs!?!?! closest I've ever gotten to the supposedly 28 contact hours i have :P Been reading heaps lately... staying up to like 1amish... probably should stop that *sigh* Can't wait til tonight though! night games :) hope heaps of people come... then it will be crazier than last year! This coming week is getting busier and busier though >< hope everything works out~

Late Figs Camp Addition

A beautiful sunrise that kick started FIGS camp 2006 at our beautiful new venue!

Our small figs Group (minus MC)... which is pretty big compared to previous years, but I think is just right for a 'homely' youth group.

The whole circle formation reminds me of the Lord of the Rings III Return of the King scene where the fellowship and all the 'good guys' are in a circle as the black gate opens and all the orcs and stuff come out... makes me have the feeling of comfort and encouragement that everyone will be there for you whatever happens in life!