A Live Mix

Long ago, I mentioned in a post about what I spend most of my time doing in church... I wish it was praying but it is not la. Hahaha.

Occasionally, I lead a team of volunteers to do live audio visual work. That includes sound, cameras, live multi camera mix and lyrics/powerpoint. Most of the time I do audio stuff - which is either stage i.e. ensuring the band/speakers on stage can hear themselves or FOH which controls what everyone else in the audience hears.

Sometimes I wonder why I'm so intrigued by this particular work. :-p I mean there are many areas which I can serve God every week as well, but maybe I fell in love with it since having the opportunity to learn something so unique (at least i think so) compared to what most of us do at our day jobs. I am one of those who are a bit more (okay, it' waaaayyy more) enthusiastic and excited about doing this then my paying job. :-p

Maybe it is the "live" thing. Getting it right at one go, on the spot and getting adrenaline rush because it's LIVE! Maybe it is simply because I love music. Maybe it is an opportunity to express whatever little creative juices I have.

Maybe it is just the bunch of ppl that I have worked with so long that I've grown overly attached with. Love them so much! We used to serve for 4 sessions of celebration back in DSP, the older building. Currently at Dream Centre, there are only 2 sessions but with many other events around the facility. I think sometimes we see each other more often than we see our family members. We have currently expanded our live work into lighting even more with the purchase of the new Robe moving heads and Avolites mixer. More cool stuff to learn!

Loud Concert 2009

Last Sunday, I had the opportunity to be part of team in supporting DUMC's annual youth event - Loud 2009. On top of the indie bands and other activities, we had a main concert with percussion group – Junkyard Invaders, Cheer team, dance team – Real Ink Crew and of course a live band as part of the evening concert. All very impressive work by the young people. Great job especially by the leaders who put this whole thing together - Leroy, Jon, Ben & Daryll.

Of course as usual, we cannot resist not having a picture the live crew. :) Love serving the Lord with you cool & fun people.

Who is Yasmin Ahmad?

I do not know Yasmin Ahmad personally but I do know she is a director who has done excellent work in film and tv ads. Not sure why she was often accused of producing controversial work but maybe most of the accusers were just "sesat" case. Her works were very moving and thought provoking. How often do we come across someone like her, who voices her mind even as we are surrounded by people who are in constant denial.

Malaysia lost one of her most precious gem yesterday. I heard the news from radio this morning. It was 2 days after she suffered a stroke.

As the news spread, there were many testimonies about her work and her life. Newspaper reprinted interview and tributes to this amazing, inspiring person. Many blogs also have featured a post on her. Here's one with a recent video by a friend. Just google her up for more.

Vaccines

My understanding of vaccines are jabs you take to prevent ourselves from diseases. I remember taking quite a few when I was younger – rubella, BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guerin) and chickenpox. I remember the first 2 pretty well because it was compulsory in school. Unless we have a letter from our parents that we will take it at our private clinic, we have to take the jab. Honestly, I had no idea what were the jabs for until I read them online. I’m sure I had lots of other vaccination that I can’t really remember but was probably adviced as necessary by our family doctor.

A recent visit to another doctor’s clinic (company panel clinic) opened my eyes to the many different vaccination available. At the clinic, there were numerous posters promoting the various vaccination.

Just last week, my company offered free flu vaccination to all our staff. It was optional but most people took it because it was free. I was skeptical so I opted not to.

Why? Well, there is no guarantee that one fully immune to flu. I wasn’t going abroad and putting myself at risk to the H1N1 anyway. So, it didn’t seem necessary to get the jab. Like any medicine, I feel that we don't need to take them unless we really really need to.

I remembered watching Oprah with Jenny McCarthy as her guest on the show. It was actually the first time I heard of vaccination issues. She believes that her son’s autism was the cause of vaccination and was raising awareness on this. She also mentioned a lot on how she is bringing up her son with special diet and even wrote a book on how her son is recovering from autism.

Today, if we search online, there are numerous information/debate/findings about this. There is no widely accepted/proven case of major negative side effects of vaccination. I haven’t done a thorough research about this but my current stand is not take vaccination unnecessarily. To be rational about it, our parents and their parents lived many years probably without any vaccination and are healthy and well. I’ve read somewhere that our body develops immunity against the disease that we get. That’s why we don’t get stuff like chickenpox twice in our lives. By preventing the disease, we sometimes prevent our body from generating such immunity.

Creativity, Passion & Making a difference

As I watched Chopped on Asia Food Channel, it reminded me about how creative food can allow a person to be. This show is about 4 contestant (who are normally executive chefs) challenging each other to prepare a 3 course meal within a given time with secret ingredients that will only be revealed right before they start cooking. Instant creativity required!

Cooking/baking is really a fun and creative thing. It is improvisation that makes a dish unique and memorable. So much can actually be done in cooking as the slightest additional amount of a single ingredient or the adding a teaspoons of ingredient or the smallest differ in method of mixing can greatly change the taste and the final look. I would love to spend more time in this and work my right brain.

Jamie Oliver is probably one of the most famous chef around today. It is really a joy to watch him cook for the people around him (ya, i know he gets paid to cook for all his shows) He always look like he is having soOooo much fun! It's amazing to do so many shows on cooking and write so many recipes. Seems to be a never ending of ideas and possibilities.

Passion take people to great extend. He left school to join catering college at 16. Most Asian parents would probably faint at the thought of it. But just look at what he has achieved today! Because of his campaign to ban unhealthy food in schools, he got the government to spend more on quality food. I thought the idea of training the fifteen disadvantage young people was great because it was definitely life changing for them. What a difference he has made in those young lives.

That's real passion doing what you love...oh and making a living out of it!