Comics, films, and AWD drift

Hello and good morning! What a thoroughly enjoyable weekend! Had such an epic meeting on Saturday with Dane in producing the graphic novel! So we moved into storyboarding, oh man we got some killer slide for the novel at the moment... Too bad it was cut short coz he had to go do stuff... But we met later on in the day to catch Watchmen... FAROUT!!! That movie kicked so much arse that even Colonel Guile would be struggling to keep up! I knew that Critics either highly rated that movie or highly floored it... I was kinda worried going in to see it as I hadn't been such a follower of the original graphic novel, but I payed due diligence in reading up on it and doing research on it a while ago before the movie was released... WELL payed off! That was by far one of the most full, layered and thoughtful movies I've seen in a long long time! Superb! For those of you who plan to watch it, I recommend you do some background reading on the watchmen story and characters, all can be found on wikipedia.

Sunday, I spooled out to Oran Park raceway in another production assist role at superlap... A drool-worthy contest of Australia's fastest time attack cars (meaning that they're Jap!!!). Heaps of photo's can be caught HERE! Oh man I got to sit shotgun in an R34 GTR!!! That light blue one GTR088... It belonged to Dom and it was QUICK as a sting!! That thing had no problem lighting up all 4 wheels (GTR's are AWD)... He was telling me there's 4 levels of hecticness they tune the car to, and that on that day it was set to level 2... Enough to break loose but still be in control... Oh man it was EPIC!!! I got to rub shoulders with owner, mechanics, drivers and workshoppers who build australia's fastest street and time attack cars. I even chased and R35 GTR and caught up to it on foot! Hahaha it was driving away with one of Andrews camera's... 400kw in these legs man! So epic day, thoroughly enjoyed, am looking forward to getting trained so I can be more involved with camera setting up and running (which also means getting payed).

I got to ride shotgun in this thing!

And I caught up to this thing on foot!
This thing was WEAPON

Tilton Interiors Evolution was off the hook!

This goes out to Brent

Hahahaha so Brent and I have been talking on SMS and email since Monday... We were supposed to have lunch with Biggie, Che, Eugene and Peter at Vanessa's workplace (she works at the food level of the GPO)... Anyways we obviously talk about cars lots seeying he's rebuilding his car AKA the Gypsie coz of the curse that follows it! It's blown 5 motors and has been running for 18 months of the years that Brent has owned it hahaha. With the stuff going into his car I've told him that it's more beast than machine now hahaha How funny because the thing pretty much contains his blood seeing how much it cuts him everytime he puts his hands to it...

Odd isn't it, how our car's become like our own... Made up metaphorically and to a degree, literally with our own blood, sweat and tears... It's not dissimilar to the dragon from Beowulf... Half man... Half Angelina Jolie (grins)... They certainly are entities of the Netherwold... Succubii who drain us of our blood, wild beasts who prey on our flesh, oh how many a knuckle skin I have lost to the preying of my Netherworld mistress... The Gypsie must be satisfied by constant blood offerings, vampires by the trickling of our blood, beasts by the quiver of our flesh... My beast demands my sick love and affection, my undivided attention, sadistic and twisted, much like Akito Sohma... They suck our life essence and eat us out of house, home and sanity leaving us a writhing mess of defeated men... Alas, we'll always come crawling back to this place... For want of such a wild and seductive world...

Fruits Basket is warming up!

Haven't posted so must most... Hahaha Fruits Basket just got really interesting! Volume 17 and some BIG secrets have been let out about the Sohma family... Woohoo, can't wait to go training today so I can read! Hahaha I have a good 10 minute walk from the station to my dojo so I just read the whole way, I look up once in a while to make sure I'm not lost! I wanna say so much about it, but to then I don't wanna be a wet blanket! And check this out, I've never been able to keep up with series, not even a single season of Heroes! And Here I am on volume 17 of a comic!

I'm gonna be grading tomorrow, Double grading for the win! I hope I have the stamina to keep up... Oorah... So from green, I'm skipping blue and onto purple... I'm kinda looking forward to the sparring, I think I've been adding a bit of edge to sparring lately, non-contact sparring is as homosexual as aids (taken straight out of the forums hahaha), but I been making it intersting by blocking my opponents attacks and countering with freakishly close blows instead of just hopping and flopping my legs about like a doll... Hahaha last time when I was sparring against 3 opponets, I even grappled at them, threw them at one another and grappled one oppenent and brought him to the ground... Wanna keep this interesting, gay martial arts ftl...

I been modelling a 180sx in Maya during work hours... I need to get a portfolio happening, but I'm soo lazy... Even at work I just forum trawl all day... How on Earth do I become a Saiyan in this area?

I'm gonna be going to Superlap at Oran Park on Sunday to help Andrew out with more media stuff... Hahaha I just got a phone call from Anf Bilic saying hi... Will be hanging out with him on Sunday

Feeling emo

Hahaha I started writing a post on boredom... But gave up... Too emo to continue... I think I'm PMS'ing this month lol...

Let's go to America

EDIT

I'm a lazy SOB... I'm a talented crazy cat in many things I do, but I have no heart, I don't know hard work, I don't know discipline... I'm good by birth, not by work... It's horrible... I don't know how to get heart... How does one gain heart? It's almost like a given quality, u either have it, or you don't... I'm a good fighter coz I have an uncanny ability beat ppl up, not because I want to win... Metaphorically translates into so many other areas... Who can help me? God is silent...

Following on with my finance

Hello again, I thought that this event deserves it's own post. I'm really excited this month. I mean, really, really excited...(!!!)... So a few posts back I had a post called no such thing as my money ... Well this is like a continuation of that showing what's happened between the start of this quest and now... Disclaimer is that all glory goes to God for Jesus is working in my life in answer to a prayer for wisdom and breakthrough in the area of my finance and the way I see and therefore handle it. What I present here is an astoundingly stark contrast in behaviour in comparison to the last three years of my earning life.

So the background is I am in a credit card debt, and am payed by work monthly, I usually blow my cash on the most unbeknownst things. You would think such a liberal spender would be in possession of nice things and be quite comfortable... No... My reality is very different from that picture. You see, without Jesus taking the blame for my evil, I am a horrific spender, I have a very unhealthy attitude towards finance... After push had come to shove (I stongly advise you read no such thing as my money) I finally gave up and sought God for a solution. It's funny how we only seem to seek God in the 11th hour.

So on the 27th of February, 7 days after getting payed... I'm down to $200.82... Where did my money go? My tithe, some bills, some debt, to my parents, some food here and there, and then I notice I'm down to the last $200... 1 week after getting payed... With an another 3 weeks to go before getting payed. With this $200, I'm expected to pay $36 a week for train fare, $70 a fortnight for fuel in the car, food for whenever I may need it, and any other general expenses including a triple birthday party taking place this past Saturday. Things weren't looking good. And to kick start that week off, I met with a friend for dinner to discuss some important issues... But nevertheless, I purposefully and faithfully trusted in God, committing to all the things that I had said I would, and trying to be as best a steward as one could ever ask to be... So I want you to take a guess... Take a guess on how much yout think I currently have left in my account today... Two and a half weeks on from being on my last $200... Guessed yet? Really... Take a guess... After you have... Read on



So moving on, this last two and a half weeks, do you know what's happened with the finances God has left me in charge with? Like with the good stewards in Mark 25 the parable of the talents... They multiplied! Don't believe me? I'll show you a statement! Of course I had to get to work on my finances, but considering I'm not to be payed until this Friday, I think this is fantastic! And praise to the Lord our God!
So the numbers are there... From $200.82... to $802.95! Thank you Jesus! So how did it happen you may ask? Well it was simply this... I stuck to my convictions and my foundations, knowing that although God wanted to bless me with finance, I needed to say and do something for that to happen, so I went about cashing in on things like petty cash on the 3rd, selling my foglights on the 4th, selling my camber arms on the 10th, selling my blowoff valve on the 13th, and depositing all the coins I could find in my bedroom on the 16th... I payed my train fare last week also through some coins I had found throughout my bedroom and filled up only with what I needed on the 16th to last me until tonight so that I have reduced petrol prices for it being Tuesday. Remembering also that I paid upfront $237 from my CC for Eug, Pete and Ray's birthday gifts so that will be coming out of my savings pretty soon. I've also cashed in on my E-toll rebate statement but that hasn't yet come through. THIS is why I'm excited this month. My account statement has never showed this kind of behaviour before.

I pray and believe that this attitude keeps up and that my mind becomes renewed to the world of finance and takes on the form and shape that God intended for me to live by. I really hope that this pleases God and can't wait to see what the next month holds. Looks like Japan is getting closer and closer withing reach after every dollar!

This goes out to Jesus.

Fantabular meeting with my teachers!

Hi blog!
So I took a day of leave from work yesterday and headed into TAFE to visit Vincent my old 3D teacher, hahaha man was it good seeing him or what! Also got to see Eric Knight, my old graphics and flash animation teacher, and David Perez, the old tech guy... Was amazing to see em all after more than 4 years! It's funny what I remembered while walking through those halls, ahhaa the ground still squeaks on that little ramp on the floor heading towards D101 (The 3D animation classroom). The smells of that corridoor, ahhh... Memories easily forgotten, but not easily unrecognised. What a great catch-up it was, talking about our experiences and observations on TB and the 3D animation industry... In short, it was as I was leading to believe... TB is crap, the place treats it's employees badly, it burns young prospective artists and is full of itself. It's time to forget past offences, and not hold the offence to the current industry... I got dealt a rotten egg, it doesn't mean the whole hatchery is rotten. Hai... sou desu ne... SO! I've got to work on another reel! I will attempt to get in contact with recruitment agents (maybe Khang's one who understands how shibba TB is!). Names I must remember are The lab, Ambience, flying Bark, Animalogic, Plastic Wax... Stick with the big names Eric says!

Was fun having lunch with the guys too, we got to talking geek talk hahaha, about memory allocation code, the whims of Microsoft, and about old school original programmers who used to program off punch card systems hahaha!! Old school programmers who diss out anyone who calls themselves a programmer today ftw! So programmers are born, not made aye? Vince and Dave are most definitely the coolest geeks I know... David's into boxing, and Vince is a 3D artist/compositor/teacher! Hahahaha...




So we have 1. The corridor leading up to D101 The 3d room 2. The corridor off D101 3. The cafeteria 4. The 3d animation staff room 5. D101

Actually, in pic 1. Where I'm standing is pretty much the position where the floor squeaks as u walk past hahahaha.... Man that place brings back alot of memories, I can't believe its been so many years... It's eerie.

I just realised... DANG these guys are freaking good

Hey guys, that last post may have felt short, that's coz I got really distracted... I'll show u why

Raining hard... I don't take enough photo's!

Hello! I'm bored at home... Eugene, Pete and Ray's birthday party was on today, Hahaha 25, 26, 27 respectively! Hmmm... I don't think I ever imagined myself as a 25 year when I was in my teens... It was a cool party! We were at Maroubra beach and the weather was perfect ALL the way till the end! THEN it started raining in TORRENTS... I rode with Mick today, although we finally got my car back up and running... Hahahaha here's an embarassing one. So dad rings me yesterday while I'm at work saying my car alarms going ballistic, I say coz it's the battery on it's last leg, so I explain to him how 2 switch it off, and he does so... Today I take the battery out and charge it off dad's car for about 10 minutes and reinstall it into mine, I try turning my car on and it won't even click over, so I call the NRMA and the dude get's here and is sussing it out. turns out my battery is fine and actually received charge from dad's car, I've just forgotten to turn the immobiliser off!!!!!! MUAHAHAHAHHAHAHAA.... Yeah yeah blonde moment.

MY THOUGHTS! I don't take enough photo's anymore! I missed out on taking photo's of the nam nuong patty that DT made today! and also, what really drove the thought home was this... I was looking for photo's of a cage calmp camera mount, I worked with one at powercruise but failed 2 take a photo of it so now I have no idea what I'm looking for! In the past I had always taken pics of the cool stuff i came across so would always be able to find reference for cool stuff i had come across. Oh wells... Anyways, I realise this topic is kinda boring... Well I want a cage mount so I record myself when I'm at the drifts... I'd like to try video and photo stuff on a dynamic car... So yeah, I'd like to get a cage mount.

So! Have I mentioned I'm off to see my 3d animation teacher this monday?!?! I'm so excited!!! Imagine they ask me 2 be a 3d teacher?! I WOULD SO WANT THAT!!!!!!!! So anyways, let's see what goes on, I'd love to get a heads up into industry.

Oh! and I know I haven't posted anything about martial arts, but yeah, part of my dojo is gonna be on Australia's got talent, please vote for them! let' me paste their vid here for u



Hakan, Lincoln, and Eleni... I train with these guys on Wednesdays, farout, I gotta train harder!!!

Stuff happens, blogs get written

Hi! I was meant to use this title 2 posts ago! but I realised I was gonna talk mainly on finance on that one! so I renamed it! Today... It's gonna a be a bit more light-hearted hahaha...

So my car's run outta batteries... I washed it on Saturday before Helen and Dennis' birthday party (It was a Cosplay party!!!) and I carelessly left the key turned to the ON position meaning the dash lights were all sucking at the power. When I clean my car, I CLEAN my car, I took hours doing it, inside and out, vacuuming, Armor-alling, rinsing, washing, cleaning the WHOLE rim of each wheel, tire shining, and after the whole job, I left it sit just being all cool, a couple hours later, the alarm goes off! Oh no not a good sign, she only does that when someone unlocks the door if she's locked (which she wasn't) or if the batteries died... So I ended up getting a ride with Daniel to the party, I drove coz he dressed as Barrett Wallace and thus had a bazooka strapped to his arm, hahah that bazooka came complete with real firing action! The party was awesome, I was dressed as Marshall Law, Bruce Lee looking kinda guy, but it was so mad to see everyone put in an effort! Perhaps I'll get off my rusty dusty and stick some pics up on my lunch break!


OK! Pics, I did it!

SO! Anyways, it decides to rain the very next day and has been raining consistently since then! I had no way to get to connect group coz Brian took mum's car, and mum and dad took dad's car, and I'm left with a clean car that has a flat battery! Jane was kind enough to lend me hers... Oh! If you're wondering why I couldn't jumpstart my car, it's because it's parked in my driveway


That's my room you see there and it's at the end of the driveway, and the driveway can only fit one car at a time, so it's basically cornered! So anyways I'm gonna have to take the battery out, charge it up, then reinstall to get out of this situation...

NOW... Check out this thought that I had while chatting to Khang today... I can't go out with a 19 year old girl! I'm fast approaching too old! It would be frowned upon! Since when was a 19 year old girl too young to date! Let me paste an extract to an email chain that a few of the guys/gal and myself were involved with a lil earlier.

?Hahaha What brought up this thought? Well Khang and I were talking stereotype AZN's in cabra and how the guys date ridiculously younger girls... I got to thinking "Why don't they go out with 19 year olds at least? What do 19 year olds get up to that make them so hard to hook up with?" Then I realised that if I hooked up with a 19 year old, she'd be like... epically, totally young... 19 year olds, like... do uni and stuff... I'd be the old guy picking her up from uni and driving her out as her and her friends wave "bye" to each other... I'd be that dude that isn't part of the crew but comes to take her home or drop her off or seldom goes out with all of them to the club and just sits by himself why they all talk about 19 year old matters... Hahaha... Check this out... Her uni guy friends would look up to me as the guys that owns the drift car, does up cars and worked for PS3 before it got released... I'd totally be "UNCLE" status!!!"

Hahahaha! It's totally true! I never realised, and I can't rememember when I rolled-over into the segment of males who should not date 19 year olds hahaha... I just had a chat to Leanne about it and wethinks most of the ewww comes from the fact that we'd be at different stages of life, I'd be a worker and she'd be a student... Perhaps if she's 19, working fulltime, know where she's heading, then it wouldn't be so bad? But then another though... She's nearly the same age as my lil bro hahaha... I'd be so a cradle snatcher.

Hello to Passion City Church!

Today's marks the day where for the first time I left a comment on someone's blog! It was Louie Giglio's blog from Passion City Church... Who heads the Passion Conferences which spread world wide... My comment reads as follows

Good day Louie. My name is Phillips, yes that's right, with an S, I last saw you in 2008 on the final leg of your Passion Conference in the Sydney Entertainment Centre.... My friend recently sent me a link to a youtube video which shows your presentation on laminin. Wow, it really took my breath away, that amongst the smallest building blocks which form our bodies, lies the cross of Jesus Christ our Lord... I then remembered your presentation 'Indescribable' at Hillsong conference in 2006 I believe it was, and remembered that more than 20 million light years away, lies the Whirlpool Galaxy M51a, again breathtaking, to think that beyond the farthest reach of human will, lies the the cross of Jesus Christ our Lord, radiant, brilliant. Jesus really is everywhere! Beyond what we can naturally see, larger than we can imagine! But He is also everything we're made of, everything we need.

I also had a question! It's quite silly but my friend Sarah now writes on her emails, LOTI (laughing on the inside) instead of LOL (laughing out loud), after explaining that she learned that from you at Passion Conference Sydney (You're name is coming up alot here in my world!) I asked if the line "kick butt" (apologies if it's vulgar) can be considered a lie? My argument was as follows

"Hahaha I just realised Kick butt is a lie too... When we say something
kicks butt 99.98% of the time, it doesn't actually kick anyone's butt
(that statistic may be a lie, but I think it's quite accurate)"

It was out of light hearted humour of course but she dared me to ask you, I couldn't find your email so here I am on your blog!

Oh did you know that people nowadays actually verbally say LOL? I think in an American accent, it'd be pronounced 'lawl'.

But I think that's enough from me... Thank you so much for the impact you're leaving around the world! Thank you for preaching the Gospel without withholding! Thank you Passion City Church! I look forward to seeing you again!

Love Phillips and the Hillsong Burwood Extension Service Gang

I guess that does most of the explanation! Thus why I posted it... Don't you think Louie looks a bit like Richard Gere? That's what I've always thought anyways hahaha...



This here is the video to Laminin. It got passed to me by Danny "Sarge" Chau... I only watched it today before I blogged to Louie, coincidence or not that the molecule holding every living animals body together is shaped liek the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, I think it's still a really interesting video.











And these 5 videos are from Louie's presentation "Indescribable"... It's like a full sermon, well worth watching... I remember the atmosphere at the Acer Arena that night... It was so majestic... Eveyone was holding their breath... You could hear a needle drop amongst the thousands of people...

no such thing as my money

Eeek... I haven't posted in so many days! I was actually at the urinal today thinking 'gosh I haven't posted in a while, is this gonna be one of those forever type things? Well alas obviously not! Hmmm so what's been happening lately... Well I guess I've been trying to manage my finances! Oh! and I took a day of leave next Monday so i can go visit Vincent, my old teacher from TAFE. I've also killed the battery to my car, all these things amongst other things, well I guess LOTS has happened, hahaha.

I feel like I'm finally getting somewhere with the stewarding of finances, I've been living off $200 since the 20 somethingeth of last month, considering it costs $36 for a weekly train fare and $70 a fortnight to fill up my car, I think I'm doing pretty well (that was for a bit of my background, it's not THAT related to good stewardship - thought I'd clear that up hahaha). I've been making bits here and there by selling some car parts I've got lying around. Today we put a big crack in the big rock of 'bad spending - borderline addiction' that has weighed me down for my whole life. This is something that I've prayed for in the past and have been ramping up as of late. I've got another 2 grand from my CC to go, and a trip to Nippon scheduled for October... I've been in debt now for more than the last 2 years of my life... It's a ravaging cycle, and has never ceased to exist since it showed it's ugly head. It behaves kinda like that monster in the Goosebumps volume 'It came from beneath the sink'. It started off small, petty, then, not noticeable, passable... It got balanced with not much more than a whisper of a thought and disappeared... It came back bit later, slightly larger, but not frightening, but alas, at a command it disappeared again... The next time it came back, it was quite cumbersome, noticeable... But still, got dealt with after a bit of shooeing away... Eventually, this thing grows into a monstrosity that hovers over me and follows me everywhere I go, sometimes I notice it, sometimes I don't, but I'm ALWAYS in it's shadow... ALAS I stand here today with a new hope... Not the kind of hope I had everytime the monster seemed to be ready to dissappear, but a new kind of hope... Fresh, alive and eternal.

My tangible goal is to get out of this CC debt, and save enough to go to Nippon without relying on the CC or a loan. My foundation is Jesus.

So... It's not about saving up money for a holiday, it's far greater than that, it's about changing an unchangeable mindset and unhindering lifestyle to one that lines up with God's original plans and purposes for me. This holiday, the holidays to come, my future cars, houses, my future wife's engagement ring, and all that jazz will be fruit of what this is about.

Psalm 24:1 The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;

² for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.

So God created it all so it's all His, everything that I've ever owned, known, or seen all belongs to Him. All the pennies I've ever spent or thrown away, or the purchases I've made, they're all His. So if it's all His, then why do I have it? If it's all His, and I have some, why can't I have ALOT of it?

Genesis 1:26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, ^b]">[b] and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

²⁷ So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

²⁸ God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

Ahhh! Thank you Mr. Jesse Duplantis! It seems that everything we've ever owned, and will ever own has been given to us by God to watch take stewardship over. Hey check the web definition I found for the word steward! Someone who manages property or other affairs for someone else. That sounds pretty good! If God owns EVERYTHING and he's called me to manage His things, that means I have access to HEAPS of things! Alas, why does it seem that I don't have all these things? Check out the parable of Talents.

^{Mark 25:14}"Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them.

¹⁵To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey.

¹⁶The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more.

¹⁷So also, the one with the two talents gained two more.

¹⁸But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.

¹⁹"After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them.

²⁰The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.'

²¹"His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'

²²"The man with the two talents also came. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.'

²³"His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'

²⁴"Then the man who had received the one talent came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed.

²⁵So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.'

²⁶"His master replied, 'You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed?

²⁷Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.

²⁸" 'Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents.

²⁹For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.

³⁰And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

Argh! Did you know that a talent is more than a thousand dollars? SO... It looks like this is what is required from me! I long to be fruitful! I long to be abundant! I long to be living according to the design, plan and purpose that God created for me! So anyways, how does that look?

Well I think alot of it has to do with my mind and my thinking, the money I earn isn't mine, but it's God entrusting it to me, so I have to be wise, diligent and purposeful in what I do with it. Sure this may seem logical enough, and one can argue that the principles (of wisdom, diligence and purpose) can be samely applied in my past circumstances before this revelation and would have resulted in the same outcome. I think the difference lies in the understanding that finance belongs to God and is ENTRUSTED to us to steward. So instead of wanting to be wise, diligent and purposeful with our finance for a secure future (or whatever else), we are wanting to be wise, diligent and purposeful with our finance to please God who created all things and who is generous and able to do superabundantly, far over and above all that we dare ask or think infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams (shivers up the spine). Also, disrespecting another person's property is not very nice, so I must respect what I have been entrusted with.

Oh I still haven't mentioned how this all looks yet... Well I'm now committed to a set offering for every connect group and youth night which goes above my tithes and offerings... I'm in the mindset that these finances are not mine, so will be generous when the time call's for it, yet not reckless with it. I will also continue to honour my parents with my monthly offering to them.

So! I am believeing that these are the steps I have to take in order to see myself released from this monster!
BTW, do you wanna know how that monster from goosebumps was defeated? Hahaha how coincidental... The monster was deafeated by love... The more love you showed it, the more it shrunk and became weak and insignificant... Eventually, with a sigh, it disappeared. Hahaha God is love...

Bland thoughts? Or am I afraid of not being understood?

Hello, perhaps my thoughts have been bland as of late, or perhaps maybe I just have been keeping them to myself! I guess it may be like the principle of one person's trash is another's treasure, but just reciprocated so more like one person's treasure may be another's trash hahaha. Well this is a public blog after all and writing down all the thoughts that are dear to me will just end up confusing everyone but me. I guess it's the same for everyone, every person. We have thoughts and we have communication, communication really doesn't encapsulate much of our thoughts at all, be it speech, song, art... It sometimes saddens me that we will never experience the thought that an author or artist experienced that drove them to complete a piece of art. Maybe that's what makes me such an oddity when it comes to communicating ideas, thoughts, emotions. Hahaha it can be really confusing for the poor receiver, but it's only because I really love them and want them to share in a treasure that I came across. It sometimes get's quite lonely because I know no one else get's it... But you know what's really awesome? That there is a God that created us and knows everything about us, all our thoughts, all our dreams, all our desires, all our experiences, all our evils... So even when it feels like there's no one I can communicate effectively to, there is a God that understands 120% of where I'm coming from... hahaha even moreso than me! After all, He created me and put all these things inside me... So this goes out to Jesus... My God...

Sometimes all we ever want is to be understood... To be validated... To be recognised... It's easy to feel selfish for want of such things as there are so many other things commanding our attention and focus... But like Mary and Martha:

Luke 10:38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.
³⁹She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said.
⁴⁰But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"

⁴¹"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, ⁴²but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

Jesus validates me... Jesus knows me... Jesus loves me in that way which I need... You know those moments when you're with a best friend and have this innocent moment of 100% pure understanding of each other? Isn't that just a most validating moment! Those life-validating moments flow out of just being friends, it's not a trying in chasing those things that make 'special' moments that is gonna make us best friends... Jesus wants us to be His friends, all these things that we crave for so much just follow...

Jesus just wants us to sit by His side and to be in a communion with Him... Not worry about all these things that that command us to a task no matter how righteous they may seem... He wants to validate us, show us that He understands us. Make us feel filfilled, accepted, understood, loved, appreciated... Like we are the Kings and Queens of this world... This world is our Oyster and we have command of it as far as Jesus is concernced!! Oh what a passionate guy He must be! Everything else is peripheral and we are no longer a slave to these worldy-task-oriented things, but instead, we become stewards of it...



This is Elizabeth, by Michael Hannah... I came across this song by a happy accident during my dreary time at Team Bondi on internet radio, I haven't heard it since and was elated when I came across it again by eventuality thanks to youtube! First comment on the vid is mine!

Production Assist at Powercruise

So... What an unforgettable weekend... I've spent the last 2 days, immersed in the haze of burning rubber, the aroma of burning petroleum, with the taste of gritted sweat on my palate and incessant ringing of combustion in my cranial dome. Yes it was Powercruise EC.

It all started with a post on Nissan Silvia forums from Andrew who was looking for a couple of volunteers to help him out with a production assistant role for the Powercruise EC DVD... Free shirts? Free caps? Free entry? I'm in! There was a catch though... You had to be prepared to go on-track, meet and greet high profile motorists in person, go for rides in insane cars, rig expensive film equipment and get involved in the production of a DVD. Alas, prepared to face the challenges, and keen to grow my experience in production and media, I put my hand up and got accepted as one out of two volunteers.

So I rock up to Eastern Creek Raceway, sweet talk the wonderful dear lady at the front office to pass me a media staff vest without having to put a $50 deposit, get to the marshaling area and meet Andrew the producer and Pat the cameraman for the first time.


A brief rundown of what to expect of the weekend, meeting up with Rick my fellow assistant, we then set off into the abyss of roaring motorblocks, spooling turbo's and shredded tires. The job was easy enough, mounting and unmounting cameras to panels, windows, rollcages, making sure they get taken to where they need to be, and just odd runner jobs... Sure this coulda just been another voluntary job to check out something cool and score freebies, but beyond that it was filled to seam-bursting capacity with opportunity for one who wanted to get involved in the scene! Rubbing shoulders with such names such as Luke Fink, Anthony Bilic, the Driftmob team, Trick & Mansweto not to mention working with Andrew Hawkins (ex Ignition DVD, Blood Sweat & Gears now Jet Multimedia). There was plenty of time to wander around, get to know people, check out some crazy rides and having a camera and mount in-hand was license to jump in any car you wished in the open cruise sessions. It was such an insight meeting people from all walks of life, witnessing them come gather together for a common passion in motor vehicles. From young Matt, powersliding in his 2nd car, a Datsun 1600 running it's 2nd FJ20 block, blowing second gear and redline clutch dumping third to initate heart stopping drift, to down-on-his-luck unemployed pensioner Brad in his SLR5000 Torana that he bought and built as a 17 year old, it was unforgettable meeting such a diverse range of people sharing a common passion.

What really dropped my clutch was getting to know the guys in and around Driftmob. So I rock up to the martialing area and all around me I'm surrounded by muscle cars... Loud... Proud... Metallic... Bright... And commanding attention, but then I look through the crowd and find one, two, three, four, five Silvias, lined with a few Skylines... Just chilling out minding their own busines... 'I'm going THERE!'. So in short, I get to spend the next 2 days hanging out with some of Australias finest drifters. Being the production assistant guy, I get to go in-car and on-track to witness up-close, these guys in action!


Here's an in-car shot of Anthony 'Hectic' Bilic as he's getting ready to head out onto the track for the days drift demo, we rigged up a cage cam on his rollcage and my job was to make sure that it was rolling when he hit the track to catch his action. Down to Earth and friendly, Anthony really shows his finesse on the track.


This is the lineup of the drift demo guys... Heading the pack is Andrew's S13 driven by Victoria's Luke Fink... One of Australia's finest... These cars shredded through countless tires over the weekend and Andrew's car ended up blowing a tire and breaking a gearbox!



These are on-track shots of the drifters starting grid... Uwaaaaa! My job here was to make sure that the camera on the blue GTR was running. Basically the cars weren't allowed to be released until I gave the all clear that the camera was on and running! Coooooooooooool!

But of course it wasn't just the drifts that took place... There were plenty of cruises, off street races (drags), burnouts, dynos, show 'n' shines and powerskids! Enveloping the entire raceway in plumes of vehicular madness!


Even a Nissan GTR made it's way to the show... This is the first time I've seen it in person and I got close enough to see the dust that had gathered on it from all the skids everyone was ripping on the track!


The powerskids had my jaws drop to the tarmac... I've always appreciated the deafening roar of high powered big blocks... But to be so close and to smell the combination of methanol, rubber, octane, blood, sweat and gears made it an unforgettable experience! It really was a weekend to remember... It had really ignited a reappreciation in me for the range of motor vehicles that get built and forged a respect and appreciation for those who craft them... These people are just like you and I, some hold day jobs, some don't, some go to school, some like partying hard, others like fishing! Boys and girls alike! Motoring enthusiasm really is alive and well!


This is Trick and Mansweto's Ford Capris, the fastest street registered vehicle in Australia... A-NI-MAL... Trick and Mansweto really are just really loving family guys, it was heartwarming to see 2 honest, hardworking men who's family were all there to support them and have a fun family day out...

All in all, I had an unforgettable day at Powercruise EC... I'll definitely be making a few of the faces familiar ones, and look forward to future events. I'm definitely down for more production assistant work! Thanks to Andrew Hawkins of Jet Multimedia for this amazing opportunity and a truely unforgettable experience... Thanks to Rick for returning my phone and wallet when I ditched em in the suite... And for all the crew and drivers for making the weekend what it was!