ASSUME.
I remember back in primary school, I had this maths teacher who used to crackle loud and high-pitched Never ASSUME, or you will make an ASS out of U and ME peering over us with her eagle eyes. Mrs Goy, do any of you remember her? I really liked her.

But that's not the point.
The point is, lately I'm starting to think whatever she said makes a lot of sense. It was never a term that rang itself clear in my head, a fancy jingle of a term that I tucked away at the back of my head. But lately, I'm starting to see how simply assuming things can be so hideously dangerous because it changes perceptions and very easily tips the truth from what it actually is.
Lots of people assume things; they assume it happened this way, they assume this is what you are, they assume and presume and a wall of misunderstanding and shaded perception rears up.
And the thing is, lots of these careless assumptions hurt people.

I was on the bus thinking about this yesterday and God immediately planted this in my head: You are my light and my salvation, of whom shall I be afraid?
Went home and flipped through my bible, trying to figure out which verse that came from and found it in Psalm 27.
I read it and felt like crying because it was such comfort, such truth ringing from those words, I could really feel His hand over me.

The Lord is my light and salvation, whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?
When evil men advance against me to devour my flesh, when my enemies and my foes attack me, they will stumble and fall.
Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then will I be confident.

One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.
For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle, and set me high upon a rock.
Then my head will be exalted above the enemies who surround me; at his tabernacle will I sacrifice with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the Lord.

Hear my voice when I call, O Lord; be merciful to me and answer me.
My heart says of you, "Seek his face!"
Your face, Lord, I will seek.
Do not hide your face from me, do not turn your servant away in anger; you have been my helper.
Do not reject me or forsake me, O God my Saviour.
Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me.
Teach me your way O Lord, lead me in a straight path because of my oppressors.
Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes, for false witnesses rise up against me, breathing out violence.

I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord!

I will wait for Him :)

Anyway, some overdue pictures and some from last night. Today's pictures are all of a friend God really blessed me with: MAY CHIO.
Can't thank you enough for your understanding, relating and prayers :)

I feel like a bumbling sloth all the time and my eyes are always sore and heavy with fatigue. I've overslept twice in a row already, missing two (relatively) important classes and yawned through most of my classes. My heart palpitates with restlessness and I spend most of my time fiddling with things online in an effort to inject some worthwhile activity in my otherwise mundane life, idling precious time away while waiting for something exciting to happen (it hasn't). I have a mountain of things to do that I haven't done. And there is a very irritating group of girls gabbing outside my window while I'm trying to study for my driving theory test tomorrow!

Help, help, help! My mother giggled and said she thinks I'm going to fail so I am on a mission to prove her wrong. I hope the new Queensland driving rules won't apply for me. I'm sleeeeeepy. I want something exciting to happen. The change in weather, although refreshing, is making me moody. Like a displaced dot in the sweeping cycle of nature.

HELP ME, GOD :( Take me out of this sticky pool of inertia! Renew me, sustain me and may Your joy be my strength!! You are my ROCK :)

Who compares to You?
You set the stars in their place
You who calmed the raging seas
That came crashing over me

Who compares to You?
You who bring the morning light
Hope of all the earth
Is rest assured in Your great love

You are magnificent, eternally
Wonderful, Glorious
Jesus, no one ever will compare to You
Jesus

When the evening fades
You call forth songs of joy
As the morning wakes
We your children give You praise

You are magnificent, eternally
Wonderful, Glorious
Jesus, no one ever will compare to You
Jesus

Listening to this song made me realise how beautiful God is :)
As we look around the earth, every hue, every living thing, all things great and small, they are all His.
And every single thing He made is so beautiful.
Really felt His beauty and His comfort and glory through this song.

Such a beautiful song too!
Found this version off youtube sung by some random guy that I don't know; but he does a pretty good job!

It makes me sad to think that some of my best strengths end up being some of my great weakness or downfalls. We were doing personality tests today during CDS before church service and the results I got seemed to highlight that fact.

Sometimes I think I'm too... open.
But yet a lot of the time I think one of the best things I have about myself is that I'm open and willing to share with others and have them share with me as I show them that I trust them and let them grow to trust me in return.
The kind of trust and transparency with friends that I get in return is something I really treasure and it's invaluable to me.
But it seems inevitable that as I throw the doors around myself wide open, I reveal too much. I reveal honesty, but along with that honesty comes the good parts and undeniably, the bad.
And when the bad comes streaming out along with the good, I can't help but feel less of a person, less respected, less... good.

But I don't know how to filter that out. Because how can you be open, but yet shield the other parts of you? Then doesn't that mean you're merely half open, which isn't really open at all?
Then with all that information about yourself and your character all out in the open, I can't help but feel that tad bit vulnerable.

Mmm :(

Today my heart felt really... messy. I couldn't really comprehend how I was feeling because I wasn't bothered about anything in particular, but it was this restlessness within me that made my heart surge and I felt breathless with all that needless effort.
God felt so near yet so far and I kept praying and praying that His joy would surround me and I would be still in His presence, praising and worshipping Him.
He kept telling me to Open up (my) heart and I remember I kept asking how, how, how?!
We sang songs about open gates where His glory would come rushing through during praise and I remember thinking, God let me be in that place where Your glory will come rushing through.

And it hit me much, much later (like... now-ish ha ha) that that place is my heart.
Like the song goes: Open up the gates and let the King of glory in and as the gates of heaven open, His glory will pour forth.
I was reminded yet again of the verse in Psalm 45: "There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells" and that place is my HEART.
It struck me with sudden clarity that that is how His glory shines when I open up my heart to:

1. God
2. Others

Opening up your heart. What does it mean? In Deuteronomy 30:6 it reads: "The Lord your God will open your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live."
God spoke to me through this verse, that opening up our hearts means loving Him from our hearts and our soul. And what does 'loving Him from our hearts and our soul' mean?
When something comes from the heart, it is where our fundamental instinct comes from, our root intention; and our soul is the principle of life, feeling and thought.
So when we love God with our heart and our soul, it means we love Him sincerely, the root intention with nothing beneath it and with every feeling and thought we have translated through our lives.
And as we open up our hearts, His glory comes streaming in!

Better still, when we open up our hearts to others, the glory of God comes streaming out of it into others' lives!
Because as our heart and soul loves Him, it will naturally reflect in our lives.

This was something that hit me so strongly especially when I'd been feeling pretty rotten about being too open and I really pray that I will commune with God in this loving relationship every single day so that His love and glory will come streaming into my heart and out into the lives of others :)

I would love to say that I'm drowning in my work. Because it would actually mean that I'm smack right in the middle of that work-pool, struggling with my whole damn life to keep my head above the water. But as of now, I feel like a passive spectator making non-commital sweeping glances over the deceptively calm pool (it's deep, waaaay deep, that much I know).

I'm such a regular blogger it disgusts me. Harhar.
Especially when I end up having two posts under one date. It disgusts me in the posting-sporadically-in-your-blog-is-cool kind of way because it serves to highlight how woefully uncool I'm being by posting not once, but twice a day on top of regular postings every other day!

But back to the initial topic; the daily grind of uni is settling into an incongruous placidity of procrastination and passivity. Like how I should have bought that extra bar of chocolate and what should I cook for lunch. This inertia fills me with mild disgust, but more so at the bigger picture at how I can feel the once brimming zeal and spiritual fervour petering out into lazy unwatchfulness.

"Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."
Romans 12:11-12

This was under the heading of Love from verses 9-21 and this means, the love in me is dissipating. Fill me once again, Lord! Remind me of that love and keep me brimming with that manifestation of your love as I abide in You. I need the refreshing waters once again :)

I think the thing about people is that they forget too easily and remember all the wrong things. Or maybe we're relational creatures and what defines the remembrance and tales of our lives are the various relationships with people that we have; and that in itself is arbitrary and evanescent.

In poetic and dreamlike ways I think that's the bloodline of life and makes it worth remembering, worth living. That at the end of our dreary lives, all that matters would be the people and fond memories that we've taken with us. Because what's better than intertwining the two highest forms of living matter, building what we'd call a relational experience?
People and relations have always been important to me, knowing them for who they are and what makes them them.

Along the rosy way, I think it struck me that I'd always been focussing on the line at which relationships around me travelled that I'd forgotten about the line on which my dreams and aspirations had travelled. Perhaps it's worn thin and barely noticeable at all now.
I had a life envisioned before me, peppered with achievements and fulfilments, a life worth recording, worth remembering, something I could write or tell people about and feel proud.
And it never happened that way I suppose.
Nothing I'd call school-magazine worthy because if I were to jot down the various points in my life there's nothing different to write about: I never achieved golden grades, never worked, never won anything of significance, never lived a life bridled with excitement or at least brimming with a certain difference.

I think I'm too... typical.
But swinging back in a loop, I guess that's why relations become so poignantly important. Because it is the one thing that is different, the one thing that makes one person so unique to another, the one thing that makes one life their own.
That in all our typicality, we share the same qualities measured in different proportions; but we're never the same because we never lived the same life with the exact same people in the exact same way.

Times like these where I ponder at fading dreams and how vulnerable we are to the transience of double-minded and ephemeral beings, I'm glad that God is the absolute, constant and never-changing.
We were talking about trust in God during bible study and how many times we fail to put our utmost trust in Him; trusting Him a little but not entirely.
Well on this night, He has reminded me of the verses in Psalm 139

"For you created my innermost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, 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."

That sense of purpose and direction crafted out by His own hand was ooooooozing out of this passage. The purposes of the individual us and how He made us all relational creatures, building one another up in love because like it says in 1 John 4:7, "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God."
Haha. And that really encourages me :)

Okay I know my thoughts are extremely scattered and all over the place buuuut... you get my drift.

Celene told me today that she only skims () through my blog because there are no pictures.
So here's a picture of the slimbean herself and I hope you're reading this and not merely skimming.
Heh, love you and miss you! So glad we got to talk today :)

Not much to report other than a revived voracious appetite, work to catch up on, CML quiz due tomorrow and breaks at the Pizza Caffe almost every single day this week.
And that I found someone who has mahjong tiles smaller than mine! (May)

It was Careers Fair yesterday and everyone who went scabbed off great things except me.
All I brought back were unnecessary brochures and a deflated beachball; and the only reason why I managed to get that was because May wanted one and made me get it.
Maybe I should have let my kiasu Singaporean side take over (if you don't know what that means, it means scared to lose out) and gone round helping myself to the free pens and maybe I'd have snagged myself something really good like Taiki did with his sticky post-its and, get this, THUMB DRIVE!!

Yesss, I should have been like Angie because this was what happened at the fair.
Angie: yeaaa, I have so many pens already. pfft don't need anymore. (enters the place and five seconds later...) Oooh look! Free PEN! (quickly grabs it)
Me: ... ...
Ha ha!

Okay, I feel like taking a walk but I can't walk anywhere else except to the supermarket and that completely defeats the purpose of taking a walk because I'll come back with biscuits and ham.

-

anonymous: yup I'm studying law in UQ and it's okay not that hard to get in. It's quite alright. Have you checked the UQ prospectus?

Twoooooo posts in a day?? Aww man! But heeeelp because I simply. cannot. stop. eating.
I think the day I bought my cream wafers and hello panda created some kind of chain reaction because in one and a half days I finished the entire box (nine packets) of cream wafers and also managed to buy another two packs of potato chips.

Actually, make that the day we had korean hotpot and stuffed ourselves to the brim (I thought I'd exhale kimchi fumes with every breath I took), which created this ghastly chain reaction!
And then okay, in comes the cream wafers,
followed by the day I watched Billy Elliot and finished my onion and cheese potato chips and hello panda,
followed by stuffing myself silly at Joe's party (the lasagna was really good),
followed by camping out by the refreshments table after church (I loved the mexican dip and crackers),
followed by eating a whole bowl of chicken udon even though I was preeeetty full,
followed by finishing half of Jared's starburst lollies,
followed by finishing a whole bag of barbeque flavoured potato chips,
followed by nicking off one of David's ice creams,
FOLLOWED BY EATING THAT KAYA AND BUTTER TOAST TEN MINUTES AGO.

Someone once told me that eating bread and butter is the equivalent of eating carbs and fat.
So doesn't that mean, eating kaya and butter toast is the equivalent of eating carbs, fat and sugar?
You know, I think I let all the Wow you lost weight comments get to my head because I'm going back to my majorrrrrr binge habits.

And one of the things on the list was to quit supper.

Recently, I have taken on the daily drill of spacing out. I'll lie on my bed and think about absolutely... nothing. I'll sit in class and stare at an obscure spot as my mind draws up blank pictures. Sometimes I even feel the need to shut off my music so I can hear the sound of silence.

Okay, maybe I exaggerate; not exactly nothing, but I find that in five minutes, whatever slipped in my mind made it's way out just as easily and I don't remember anything other than wasting time. Actually, I have a lot of things to do. I just don't feel like doing them, haha.
Liiiike, Mondays are always full of checklists.
And so far I've checked accounting tutorial (half), print out criminal code (fiveeeefriiiiigggenhundredpageslong!), cook dinner and... haha I think that's it. Oh yes and do laundry!
I still have do constitutional law tutorial, hang out laundry, buy printing paper, do stats tutorial and finish CML quiz to go.
Funny how Mondays my off day, but it's chucked full with a gazillion things to do which makes me feel like throwing in the towel and hibernating in bed.

You know, I think this is terrrrribly uninteresting. My mind is a complete space out.
I'm happy but how do you record this peaceful, untremulous, uninteresting happiness?
I always find happiness, or at least the feeling of being happy hard to define and hard to record in words.
Because I'm happy on so many different levels and it's either hitting a pitch of exhilaration that becomes almost impossible to record or it settles into a timely unruffled routine of friends, schoolwork and food that is in all honesty, not very different from yesterday or tomorrow.

But I guess on good notes, today was good because I started on my CML quiz and starting from tomorrow I'll have fresh clothes because I did my laundry!
And there was lunch and idle conversation with May, Lisa and Taiki and also Jared who helped me so much with my accounting tutorial, bearing the brunt of my cluelessness.

Haha, maybe it's time to kick out of this bubble because lately in my quiet time it's been about doing His work and being alert and perking up my spiritual ears and this muted pottering probably isn't helping!
But yes, God has been good indeed because in the middle of a huge space out session, a very encouraging email blinked its way at the bottom corner of my screen :)

And I need to stop eating potato chips. I am actually sick of that potato chip flavoured salt.

I absolutely love and hate reading flighty, light-hearted novels filled liberally with descriptions of food. Because on one hand I can picture the lavish displays but on the other hand, I feel so... hungry. Like, now. I mean, read this:

"I'm not trying to prove anything," Georgeanne answered, wedging a tray of salmon asparagus bundles, smoked-bluefish pate and rounds of toast on one end of the table... ... She moved her gaze from the cat to the variety of food she recognized from jobs they'd catered the week before. She recognized the cheese blintzes and the loaf of traditional challah bread from little Mitchell Wiseman's bar mitzvah. The crab cakes and checkerboard canapes looked like they'd come from Mrs. Brody's annual garden party. And the roasted chicken and baby back ribs with plum sauce had been served at the barbeque they'd catered the night before. "Well, it looks like you're trying to prove to someone that you can cook."

I mean, hello?
It makes me feel like slipping on a pretty summer dress, smelling like springtime and flowers and rocking up to an extravagant garden party with flapping white tents and coordinated punch and tableclothes all filled with table after table of foooooooooooood.
Like right now, I wouldn't mind a tall glass of peach-coloured fizzy punch, some cold cuts and cheeses, warm flaky pastries, an array of hors d'ouevres, and reading about that roasted chicken has done me over.
I want roasted chicken. As well as slabs of roast beef! And I want mushroom straganoff. Plus, I really wouldn't mind little squares of nonya kueh; the little colourful ones.

Crap, all I've got with me is a salty pack of cheese and onion flavoured potato chips and a glass of iced water. Stupid book.

Ouch ouch ouch, the tummy pains are back :( But other than feeling like someone has gutted me with a splintering knife, I am actually doing rather well.

Been having these unbelievably good conversations of late with various people in the past week which simply amazes me! Excuse the over-excitement, but there's something about a really good conversation which exhilarates me.
Sort of like finding a longlost earring or finding that perfect dress, if you know what I mean.
Ha ha, finding that sliver of humanitarian chemistry amidst the drudgery of schoolwork and idle smalltalk, I like :)

Some ittle bittle things hanging like loose threads above my head, but nothing that I can't use my God-sized scissors to snip off!
Anyway, David and I were having a little discussion over whether it is:
1. This is a melancholic song which makes me feel melancholy (mine)
OR
2. This is a melancholy song which makes me feel melancholic (his)
And yeayea, I was adamantly insisting my correctness in the whole issue but don't you find that after you play the words and sentences and let them roll over your tongue for too long, you start to get confused?

So yea, now I've no idea whether I'm right or not hahaha.

I like today's weather; a cool slightly ruffled breeze, perfect for walking around. The weather should be like that all year round! Never teetering to extremes because I loathe both the cold and the sweltering heat.

Classes today were very good save for the one hour space out I drifted into during my 8am accounting tutorial. Other than that, today was the kind of day you want to happen everyday; a general pleasure derived from class, chatter which slides in and out of heartfelt to nonsensical, good company and last of all, pictures to capture all the gooooooood times!!
We got bored in between breaks and decided to.. well take pictures. Ha ha















My favourite picture of the day!
















With Angie and CC before my tummy rumbled with.. pain.














Holt Room randomness














With Lisa, the sweeeetest girl ever














HAHA. I like this one.

If you can't read what it says, it says LAW.


Everytime insecurity takes over, God plucks me swiftly out of it.
Every Wednesday, I get the usual early morning dosage of trepidation: how I'm going to trawl through accounting, how I'm going to contribute to crimlaw tute, how I'm going to stay awake during crimlaw lecture, how I'm going to feel all day.
I think about these things right before I leave the house because fatigue does me over.
Anyway, this morning I was praying before I left the house and God led me to Psalm 23:

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Ha ha, truthfully, when I felt God's prompting to Psalm 23, I was thinking Bleaa, God, I don't like this verse very much. And that's because I was thinking how overused this verse was and it made me feel like it wasn't of much use.

But as I read it this morning, it hit me with such clarity and such comfort and I felt almost ashamed of my prior scoffing.
I realised everytime I let insecurity and fear take over, I'm not trusting in the character of God, I'm not trusting His all-encompassing role in my life; and in that instant, I was not trusting God my shepherd.
A shepherd - the man who guides the dumb sheep who often goes astray.

That as I claim that God is Lord of my life, I should also trust Him in all areas of my life.
And He is a good God, a loving and perfect Father, who'll provide me with green pastures, waters and keeps me on the right track because I am His.
And as I was plodding through the lines of the Psalm, especially when I reached the 'through the valley of the shadow of death' part, I envisioned myself as a dandy clueless little sheep keeping close to my shepherd because as long as I stayed close to Him, 'I will fear no evil' and His rod of discipline and staff of protection will comfort me.

And then, my favourite parts of the Psalm! Hee, cause it's where all the good things come :)
Anyway, reading about how God's anointing is on me, how His providence is more than enough for me, how His holiness and love will be with me always, made me so happy that I am dwelling in the house of the Lord!

Many times we claim of God's goodness, we call on Him to help us; but along the way we forget who He really is, we forget the character of God, and we try to gain control.
And this Psalm really reminded me of how I so often say I trust Him and I surrender all to Him, but yet I let myself be taken by fear and insecurity, which is so silly.

His grace is sufficient for me.

I am sitting in front of my laptop watching my printer spit out sheet after sheet of ... work and just gathering them into neat little stacks is enough to put me off doing my tutorials and poring through the compulsory readings :(
I don't know why but there's something I don't like about crisp hot sheets of paper fresh from the rolling printer; maybe it's that clinical papery smell exaggerated by that unsoothing warmth.
Or maaaaybe... I just don't like doing work! Ha ha! And seeing the printer roll out sheet after sheet of fresh, new work makes me feel sick.

But you know, I'm going to throttle headlong into those debits and credits and criminal law problems, trawl my way through and emerge victorious!
Because I was at prayer meeting earlier and it was half-night prayer which means it ends at 11 and I desperately needed to get my work done before the 8am tute tomorrow, so I was praying that God would make a way home for me.
And just so happens Melissa was heading home early so that means I get transport home!
She dropped me off and now that I've got that extra time that God has so graciously blessed me with, I ought to make good use of it and finish my tutorials.

Which I will do... .... now.

Aww, I miss everyone terribly; will make time to call/email all of you once I settle back into the groove of uni.

I'm supposed to be poring through my constitutional law tute right now, but then I've been pinched by the shopping bug!
And now I really, really, really feel like shopping.
In the meantime, clicking through pretty things online would have to suffice :)

Like this!


And this one is pretty cute


Or hmm maybe this one


I love this colour and cut


Aww, I love this cardi !!!


I liiiike


Oh heeelp.
I think I'll go shopping this Friday.

So it's been a great weekend to bag but with only seven hours of sleep in total and that's making me feel really, really tired.

But okay, weekend update with NO PICTURES because my camera very conveniently died on me after I took two disgustingly unglamorous photos that look too... well, ugly to be posted up.
Okay, so Friday was my second time playing keyboards for cell and praise God!
Because He really saw me through despite me being quite the rhythm impaired, unvaried keyboardist and encouraging brothers and sisters in Christ are always such a comfort :)
I also invited Karen and Sean to cell that night and was praying reeeaaally hard that they'll enjoy themselves and I'm glad they did.

Then Saturday was Angie's post CNY gathering and it was great!
Lots of mahjong, cards and food and some major photowhoring on GY's new macbook too.
I even discovered that they play a different Speed from what we used to play in primary school and also sat down to a game of Memory with this pack of jumbo poker cards which I've never seen in my life.
Ended up sleeping over where May, Lisa and I had a long warm sesh of sharing and praying together which was really great.

And the best part about it was that Saturday leading on to Sunday was just such a great testament of God's amaaazing goodness that I tripped through Sunday with such gladness in my heart!
Because May and Lisa were really worried about getting to church in Sunnybank at 9.30 from Mt Ommaney; and the first bus leaves Mt Ommaney at 8.30 which would make them really late.
So we were praying the night before that God would make a way for May and Lisa to arrive in church on time and I even went to the extent of calling Sean and Liwen at the very unearthly morning hour of 7.45 asking if they could send them to the city.

And before we were gonna leave the house, because Taiki woke up and could send May and Lisa to the city, Mr Seeto was asking where we were headed because he was going to Sunnybank.
That was such a WOW moment because we fretted and planned like crazy, asking God to make a way for May and Lisa to get to the city, when God had better plans by making a way for May and Lisa to get to Sunnybank straight!

I don't know why, but after seeing God's hand move in our prayers, I just felt so happy and despite fatigue threatening to take over through most of the day, there was this immense gladness and thankfulness in my heart :)

I'm starting to think that excusemeplease is becoming dry and increasingly I can't think of anything I want to write.
Perhaps it's the grind of uni settling in and stealing time away from me but replacing it with neither exciting nor memorable moments, leaving no room for displaced thoughts and the like.
But on the upside things have been running smoothly, things are looking good :)
My engine's been up and running, I've been concentrating in class taking down notes, having lots of great conversation and I even did my accounting tutorial before the actual tute itself and got most of the problem questions right!
Achievement indeed :)

Anyway okay, since there's seriously a dearth of any practical line of thought or even anything remotely interesting, I will just do the usual and post up random pictures from my mobile.
As much as I hate the quality of the pictures, the convenience does me over.

Angie, CC, May, Lisa and me at lunch before class














Angie Tracy and meeeeee.










































Oh, and before I found out the sad thing had occurred, Angie and I went to the UQ art gallery to kill time and LOOK AT THESE PAINTINGS.
This one freaked the hell out of me; imagine it hanging on your wall, looming like a.. ghost.














And check this one out, WHAT WAS THE ARTIST THINKING?!



















Oh dear, it's so sad how I really can't think of anything substantial to write but yet it pains me thinking of closing this blog down cause I've had it for way too long.
You know, this semester is taking on a ;strange optimistic hue and I really wonder how it'll pan out; such beginnings lead to a funny guesswork of expectation proportion.

And I think I'll start taking out my real camera for some decent photos next time; all my pictures look smudgy, faded and.. lousy.

I'm so sad, so sad, so sad :(
But I can't write down the reason why because if she is reading this, she will come after me with a chopper.

Heeelp me God.

I don't know why but I'm feeling pretty lousy about tomorrow, with tutes starting and whatnot. I'm not really in the mood to step into a class full of nameless faces having to battle through numbers and concepts that always seem so foreign and hard to grasp. I don't mind anonymity but I really hate it when I've to struggle through a subject I don't particularly have an affinity with all by myself. Plus the added pressure of having to smile and be friendly and talk about things that no one probably remembers anyway.

Mooooody :(

Half of a killer monday is passing...
I've no class today but this first day of the week seems to be propped full with errands and, ugh, work.
So far I've checked laundry off the list, checked meeting Michelle for lunch, checked buying shampoo, checked constitutional tutorial (kind of, I did half; some of the questions were simply... unanswerable), and all that's left is a gaping
do accounting tutorial 1
cook dinner
hang laundry

And everything seems mildly pleasing to the eye, except accounting - the bane of my existence.
But, plow through I will because I'm mustering up an early semester's cough of energy and self-discipline; and before this zesty optimism and sheer will peters out, I will make the most of it!
I will pass accounting on my own! (Not like last semester where I had so much help, I felt so bad)

Ha ha, but it's really days like these that I smile at God's grace and His hand that moves over my day :)
Because this morning while formulating that uber long and intimidating checklist of mine and watching my printer spit out sheet after sheet of tutorial questions, readings and cases, I could feel dread looming over me and it was enough to make me want to runaway, curl up into a ball and sleep. Escapism! Yeh, indeed.

But little things like how David was heading over to Coles and I could get him to buy my shampoo instead of clodhopping over to the supermarket myself saved me oodles of time and I could actually start on my work and throw one load of clothes into the dryer!
And little things like how He's reminded me all the way on the walk home from lunch that He will honour those that honour Him (1 Samuel) and Psalm 121 which has been ringing out loud and clear about He who is watching over me.
Not forgetting too the things we learnt on Ecclesiastes during YF about these earthly gifts and opportunities God has given us and how we should make the most of it.
All these little pieces of the puzzle are fitting together and how encouraging it is!

So I really pray that one of the things I committed to Him this year (to use my time fruitfully) will be blessed and answered and that I may manifest the spirit of power, love and self-discipline that He has given us.

Okay, time to... hang out my laundry.

My room has exploded into a frenzy of scattered clothes, random pencils and scraps of paper again in a matter of days!
And I don't know how it happened!
It's extremely perturbing when your room seems to take on a life of its own and starts to wreak havoc with such unnoticeable subtlety; because it makes it seem so... uncontrollable :(

Anyway, first week of uni has rolled along in relatively smooth fashion; I've procured almost all my books, made time for friends and printed out my notes!
Okay, nothing more to say except life in Brisbane rolls along like this:



































































































And if you noticed very carefully, you would have seen the I cut my hair!

This week has shown me that indeed, God is our provider, our Jehovah Jireh.
He reminded me last night of His great great love and awesome power in Psalm 121 and as I reflect on this past week, He has waved His hand of protection over me even in the smallest things like when I committed my haircut into His hands.

Let the joy of the Lord be our strength :)

My brain is floating around and I can't think more than beyond the surface. Like how I'm so sleeeeepy and tired but I can't will my body to sleep any longer than what I've had. Toooorture.

"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Romans 8:38

Been burning in my chest ever since I read that absolutely riveting book David lent me and it's one of those verses that was written with such conviction and power it just makes you go wow. Was reading it in the context of the chapter and about the persecutions and all that and for that not-so-brief, terribly long, ponderous moment, I was err.. half-reeling from the fear of well, everything.
But then you know, I prayed again and the enormity of this verse, this proudly proclaimed statement hit me right smack in the middle of my head and I realised this is all needless fearing and needless cowering because nothing can separate me from this all encompassing love!
Vicccctory! :)

Gonna meet Jas in a lil so.. toodles!