Kred's World

Monday, February 28, 2005

choco-lat

Just finished IF Magic.

Great performances by great magicians from all over the world, gathered on one stage to bring their greatest illusions to wow the crowd at the Kallang Theatre!


No, I didn't take that out of the brochure.


Thanks to Cami for keeping me company; but I think it was mutual... hahaha... and for laughing at my jokes... no matter how dumb and silly and cranky it was, especially the ones that were let out past midnight when the brain doesn't work and the tongue loses self control... *think Jar-Jar Binks, that creature from the Star Wars prequel, if it were even considered Star Wars... I call it the half-legitimate, mutant child of George Lucas born 20 years late... (no, not Jar-Jar... the prequels...)

Got some pretty good insights about magic though... that having a bunch of tricks doesn't make it magic, it's how you present it in your own way, with your story and personality that makes it magic... :) knowing that there's a lot of theatrics involved, helped me overcome my disdain for magic somewhat. I never really liked magic cos I always thought, "ok, so, you can make the card disappear and read my mind on which card I chose, but... so what?"

OR "so you can pass through the Great Wall of China and... then...?"

it doesn't quite make sense to me cos there's no story... I'm not impressed...

But looking at the dedication and the passion and the psyche behind each master's performance really changed my mind about magic. I only have one conclusion to make. Good magicians are really smart and they really take their time to play with ideas and concepts and scripts in their minds to make a trick work, and not just work, it becomes a performance, an art.

That's the cool part...

Am I a convert? I don't think so... too much hard work... practise, practise, practise.......

2 nights of MacDonald's. Cos Leisure Dome is closed for reno.

Late night cab rides with Lily and Cami. There was silence... too beat to entertain...

Oh, can't forget the pillows in Boss' car. Oooooh... soft... smooth... oooooh...

Usher, usher...

Meta Fusion guys......and 1 girl.

Demos at the booth... Eugene and Ben...

7-11 people took the main spot... took the attention from our booth, the real stuff...

DBS, Perfect 10... the reserved seats... where nobody turned up...

confetti... confetti... lots of confetti... the guy with the fake smile...

Priscilla... and her fake smile... laugh, laugh, laugh...

www.singaporemagiccircle.com and a girl called Ning. Very Steph Sun.

sponge balls, sponge balls and more sponge balls... in a silk handkerchief... I can do that...

Polish magician cum Vampire cum Stand-up Comedian... very funny...

The man whose wife went through him and she became him in a blink of an eye...

wicked.



Late night cab ride with Lily... Cami's missing... in a Peugeout 206....

At least I got my chocolate bar... I get an out-of-the-world feeling in Mars...



IF Magic.


Friday, February 18, 2005

A Day in the Life...

I wish life would be a lot more simpler than this...

ok, so this is like the most cliche statement for the 20 somethings; young adults hitting the working world with added responsibilities and pressure to build your career, establish your financial stability in this dog-eat-dog world, try to get hitched (some ppl spend their whole life doing that) save up for wedding tables, gowns, and other peripherals that culminate into a bunch of videos and photo albums that you stash in one corner of the TV drawer to collect dust, save up for your car, your E.C. (hey, we can do a Singaporean version of the O.C. with this title! cept it'd be "Sin-GA-PORE... LANG... Sin-GA-PORE LANG..." instead of "California...") Then you plan for kids and retirement... ah... the Singapore Dream...

And... on top of all that, the STILL-growing up to do cos some of us are still stuck in our teens despite our crossing the quarter of a century mark. You grow old... but you never did grow UP!

Tired?... you bet... Weary?... I'm so numb, I can't tell...

Maybe life here is too fast paced for me... but I really don't know... cos everybody's moving at the same speed that you think it's normal. What's slow? What's fast? It becomes RELATIVE. That's why the Aussies have it real hard when they come over here and the Sin-GA-PORE LANGs kicks into 1st gear and cruise when they go over there. I even heard Singaporeans have to slow down their pace of work there so as not to "spoil market" Amazing! You only hear about this in the SAF when everyone stares down the 'Xiao-On' guy in the platoon lest he sets another new standard in rifle cleaning.

Anyway, I digress. I'm not here to grumble about the relentless pursuit of materialism and the neck-breaking pace of life here in Singapore...

I'm here to simply share what would really make my day.

I want to live in Wonderland.

I just want to wake up in the morning where I can play my PlayStation for as long as I want...

Then, I'll spend the afternoon watching episodes and episodes of Gundam Seed... and whatever other anime...

Later, I'll spend my time day-dreaming about new songs, books, poems, short stories, movies, MTVs, short videos that I want to write, shoot, whatever...

In the midst of this, I'd just go through my CD collection and play my favourite songs in my room... and read some fantasy books or sci-fi pulp.

And even later in the afternoon, I'd actually start on one of these projects that I just dreamed up...

At night, I'll just chill out at some beach with my beach bum friends... to cool Bossa Nova music... and some jazz and Big Band sound.

As the night deepens and all I can hear is the crashing of the waves upon the shore, I'll take a walk along the beach and just listen to the silence of the night...

BUT... and here's the catch, the problem is, by the time I finished item 1, which is play my games for as long as I want, it'd already be late afternoon. And by the time I watched an episode of Gundam Seed and just about to begin my binge on anime, it's already time for dinner! SO, before I can even finish my anime and dream about my new projects, it's already time for bed!

So, there goes the rest of my itinery for the day! Sigh... so many things, so little time...

I don't know what phenomenon you call this, but I'm feeling like my day is just getting shorter, and shorter, and shorter... I feel like I'm not getting enough personal time and it seems to be shrinking as I get along in life... which makes me wonder about how I managed to squeeze all that in when I was a kid back in my secondary school days... hmm... time machine? Or is it because Jesus is coming back and He's quickening the days of our lives on this world?

Not enough sleep, not enough rest, not enough recreation, not enough space... it's the curse of the modern man, I say...

Or it just signals that I need a really, really long vacation (of 2 years) to let go and do all the stuff that I want to do before coming back to the rat race again... :P you know, declare a semi-retirement state to the rest of the world and just appear for gala events and commercials, to earn some cash to sustain myself for the vacation...


ala Stephanie Sun.

Sunday, February 13, 2005

Feather Weight

On Saturday, Miki gave me a word she sensed while worshipping during service.

She felt that the Lord wanted to tell me that I am a real man; whole and complete.

Then she saw a vision of a feather floating in the air. She sensed the Lord telling her that I'm made just like the feather, delicate, gentle and soft, yet, still a real man. She also sensed the Lord telling her that from this day onwards, He's going to cut off all the insecurities in my life.

Chim... but somehow it also pretty much summed up the struggles I've been having in my heart lately.

In the beginning of the year, the Lord had surfaced an issue of significance in my heart.

I'm not a typical male-male kind of guy. I'm more sensitive and emotional. But please... don't label me a SNAG. To me that term has an undermining effect on manhood. I'm just more in touch with my feelings that's all.

But in effect, I have been asking myself these questions.

"Am I comfortable with who the Lord has made me to be?"

"Or am I conforming to the pattern of the stereotypical males you see portrayed in Hollywood? You know, your Rambos and Terminators..."

As I write this, I know the Lord is challenging me to be who I am.

And I believe that the Man in a man really comes out when he becomes comfortable with who the Lord has made him to be and lives by those traits. Then he would truly be effective in his realm, in his family, with his children and his disciples and fulfill the destiny that Christ has for him.

"For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made, I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be."

Psalm 139: 13-16

Thursday, February 10, 2005

Re-Imagining Battlestar Galactica

Right, I gotta admit I'm hooked.

Recently I chanced upon a sci-fi series that was a remake of an original 1979 production. It's called Battlestar Galactica. Who remembers the walking shining pieces of chrome toasters called the Cylons? Ok, maybe this will jog your memory. Starbuck? Apollo? Tri-winged fighter planes called Vipers? no...?

No one?... ok... I live in a different era, or maybe even a different world...

I'm not surprised since the original only ran for a season before the Moguls in Universal pulled the plug citing low ratings. But it garnered a cult following and over the years, they're still holding Galaticons and celebrating its 25th anniversary! :) no one can keep a good stuff down, no matter how deep you dig the grave.

Well, these very fans who grew up with it are adults now, and they have breathed a new life into this series. They tore the body apart, keeping only the chasis of what it stood for and gave it a brand new makeover that threatens to break Sci-fi genre on television.

It's grittier, it's edgier and there're no longer the cheesy 70s heroic antics that was so prevalent in the original series. People actually mourn for those who died in battle in this new series. In the previous one, comrades who died only serve to make the heroes look better and when they fly home, everybody just cheers brainlessly for them.

One particular scene in the first episode of the new series that really got my attention and my allegiance to this new series was when one of the heroines walked past a corridor filled with photos of the deceased. Pictures of loved ones and their families with candles that stood virgil lined the walls of the corridor, much like what you see when people mourned for victims of disasters, like 9-11 and the recent Asian Tsunami.

The remake, is not just another series filled with CGI, but it has character and real life tensions that makes it a real sci-fi drama.

ok,ok... still don't get what I'm talking about?

The story goes. Humanity's children, the machines, known as Cylons, rebelled against their masters and were exiled from the 12 Clonies of Mankind in another sector of space. They were driven away after a long and bloody battle between Man and Machine. However, after 40 years, they have returned to seek their revenge bent on totally destroying the human race.

The Battlestar Galactica, with a handful of civilian ships, survived the holocaust because it was the only Battlstar that was not affected by the virus which the Cylons had used on the human's Defense Mainframe, since it had technology so old, it wasn't linked to the Network.

Now, chased down by their enemies, they have warped out of the boundaries of their planetary system. Their only hope for survival is to look for the 13th colony of Man known as Earth.

Well, I guess, we're gonna be in trouble some day... thanks to our "brothers" who will be bringing a bunch of man-killers into our very own backyard...

Anyway, genocide aside, let's look at some Cylon fashion.

This was how they looked like 40 years ago.

Hosted by Photobucket.com



This is how they look now.



Hosted by Photobucket.com

Well, what can I say, I'm sure the Cylons did a great job with Extreme Makeover. Look at the hair! Look at those eyes! Look at the nose job! And look at those... ok, shall not go there...

Yup, they made themselves look human so they can infiltrate the colonies and destroy the human race. But, nah, not all of them are human looking, the rest are still metal tin cans walking around (robots in background, in case you're too focused on what's in the foreground, dodo...) But, I must admit, they still look menacing and insidious, thanks to modern CGI.

So, here's how it all began. Out of my curiosity, I downloaded the 1st epdisode of the series, which was a continuation of a 2-part TV movie, and watched it. Since then, I never looked back. I tried looking all over the place for the 2 parter on DVD but can't find it in Singapore. It turned out, that they didn't import any copies into Singapore.

Thankfully, my friend Troy who worked in New York, managed to gets his paws, on my behalf, on the last copy that was selling at Virgin records just below his office. Everywhere he checked, it was all sold out. And now... the last copy, probably, is in the hands of a Singaporean... wha hahahahaha.... Ahahahahaha... HAHAHAHAHA.... stupid Americans!!

First, it was Creative on the Nasdaq, then it was Singtel buying out Optus Australia, and SIA takeover on ANZ... whaddaya know! the Singaporean invasion is beginning, and I'm following the Government's call for globalisation... wahahahaha...

"I bought your last copy of Battlestar Galactica 2003, stupid Americans..."

"Damn you, Chink!" (background cursing from stupid American...)

Alright now... let's not get hostile here.

Whatever it is, when the series is out on DVD, I'm gonna get my paws on it as well.

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

"Compromise is NOT an Option"

Headship is always "giving up" one's self. Headship is never "lording it over" another. So, the Christian husband, your kingly crown is a crown of thorns. In describing the headship of the Christian husband, C.S. Lewis said:

"Christian law has crowned him in the permanent relationship of marriage, bestowing-- or should I say, inflicting?-- a certain "headship" on him... The husband is the head of the wife just in so far as he is to her what Christ is to the Church. He is to love her as Christ loved the Church -- read on -- and gave his life for her (Ephesians 5:25). This headship, then, is most fully enbodied not in the husband we should all wish to be but in Him whose marriage is most like a crucifixion; whose wife receives most and gives least, is most unworthy of him, is -- in her own mere nature -- least loveable. For the Church has no beauty but what the Bridegroom gives her; he does not find, but makes her lovely. The chrism of this terrible coronation is to be seen not in the joys of any man's marriage but in its sorrow, in the sickness and sufferings of a good wife or the faults of a bad one; in his unwearingly (never paraded) care or his inexhaustible forgiveness; forgiveness not acquiscence. As Christ sees in the flawed, proud, fanatical, or lukewarm Church on earth that Bride who will one day be without spot or wrinkle, and labours to produce the latter, so the husband whose headship is Christ-like (and he is allowed no other sort) never despairs..."

Think about it. Christ did not come to earth for Himself, but for you. Your marriage is not given to you for you; it is given to you for her. Your marriage is not a gift for your satisfaction; it is labour for her development. She is not a gratuity to you; you are a sacrifice for her. You are not drawn to her for her beauty; you are to render her beautiful through your own pain.

The Christian husband works at great length to actually produce a beauty in his wife. He prays, "Lord help me to make my wife the most beautiful woman in the world to me." And he puts the feet of mature, humble sacrifice to his prayers.

excerpt from "Four Pillars of a Man's Heart" by Stu Weber


Just something I thought I'd like to share cos it really touched my heart when I read this.

Need I say more?