Day 280: Upload Day

So today's focus was catching up on videos I was supposed to upload a while back. I've had videos from The Box in August, and because of busy scheduling, I was unable to post them. Then the Box in September came by, and I recorded most of those performances. So my mission was to upload as many as possible today so that I could not only give the people that performed and their families a chance to see the video, but also to get rid of those video files on my computer for the sake of space. The result? 5 videos, including one I'm waiting to be fully uploaded as I type. I also got to rest some more while waiting for the videos to load, and I also listened to music. I was in a Christmas music mood today, so that's pretty much what I listened to most of the day; it was nice, it reminded me of home. I'm pretty stoked for a couple Christmas concerts back home waiting for me; I'm looking forward to taking my family to see Future of Forestry. There's a few bands that I have deep respect for when it comes to making Christmas music, and Future of Forestry is one of them (the others being Relient K and Family Force 5). Christmas music puts a smile on my face; can't wait to listen to 96.5 KOIT when I'm back in San Francisco!

God bless,
Steven

Day 279: A Day Early

Tomorrow marks the official beginning of the mid-semester break for Hillsong International Leadership College.However, because I am a worship student and Wednesdays are my usual day off during the week, today was my official beginning. It's cool that we get all this time off (well, at least until next week) to rest from the past few packed weeks. A lot of students are either going home to visit or go out to some special places here in Australia; however, my plan is to work on all kinds of projects here at home. I have assessments that need some serious work, practicing bass and piano, the 223 mini series, and cleaning the flat to do; I mainly couldn't do much of these things because of class and church obligations but now I have much more time. When I reflect on my day, I only realize I did very little: I woke up, surfed the web, chilled with Donny while he relieved some stress by playing Guitar Hero, Skyped with my family, chilled some more while Laz watched House, served at Powerhouse, and now I am here. Sure, my day wasn't jam packed with business and mass activity, but that's okay with me. Thankfully, God gives us days to simply rest. Well, I have a plan for tomorrow that involves a lot of waiting for videos to load on Youtube, so I am going to sleep now.

God bless,
Steven

Day 278: Taking Ownership

Last night before I went to sleep, I got a message from my TV oversight Logan asking if I could help with chapel today. Seeing as how I didn't have anything significant to do in the morning, I agreed to help; let's just say it was a good thing I did because I was definitely needed (and I'm not saying that in a prideful way). There was just a shortage of people in the crew, so my assistance was beneficial to the rehearsal and the actual chapel. Today we started our Spirit Filled Living class with Anita; I'm looking forward to see what come next. Chapel was cool; I had a great time serving alongside some pretty cool guys in the studio. After that, I had some time to relax before my last class of the day.
So this praise and worship service my class is working on is by far one of the most difficult things of this year. Considering we're working on songs we've all written, it's tough to get what the original writer of these songs wants to convey through the song. Honestly, our band hasn't done enough dedicated work to make this as awesome as it can be, and that's what we need to work on. I am a musical director for two of the songs, and for the most part I feel very comfortable with that responsibility (mainly because I've learned from my experience as one last semester). We worked mainly on the song I co-wrote and one my friends Breanna and Stephanie wrote, and so far they're looking very promising. Hopefully we can really make this happen to it's best potential.
The rest of my evening was going to Connect Group and working on another assessment; nothing major, but I do need to get these assessments done anyway.) Connect Group really helped me see how far God has taken me since I first got here; I got to open up on how I felt for a while, and that just showed how much God has impacted my life and taken me to a place where I can be closer to Him. I mentioned in a Facebook status yesterday that sometimes He can seem a little TOO good; but just because it seems that way doesn't mean I have a problem with it.

God bless,
Steven

Day 277: Hanging On By the Edge

I'll put it to you nice and simple for the sake of needing sleep:
All day = assessment time. Thanks be to God that I turned in 3 on time (God, you're the BEST!!!)
Relaxed with my flatmates throughout the day
Spent the afternoon using iDVD to finish a video I made a long time ago for a friend's departure from Australia
Got to practice the New Testament analysis technique to decode a couple parables
Filmed the last scene of episode 3 of 223 (and it will be uploading this Australian Saturday!)
and I got to research music (mainly Sufjan Stevens, DM Stith, and Rae Cassidy)

All in all, God was my ultimate strength today. I definitely couldn't have gone through it without Him.

God bless,
Steven

Day 276: The Rearranging Cupcake

Today was more than interesting. So last night we had to move our clocks forward an hour due to daylight savings, so I set my alarm at 6. However, my phone saw it fit to not switch the time, so I got woken up by Donny at 6:38. I wasn't too happy about that... so I got ready as fast as possible and got there just in time for the rehearsal. After our initial rehearsal, there was another rehearsal for the animated children's story (basically a re-telling of a story in the Bible for kids); they had some of us in the choir help out. I got to be a cupcake! It was a lot of fun really; they remade the story of Jesus turning water into wine by putting it into an 80s' perspective. After that, I came home to work on assessments a little more; I got some done, but again not everything. I can only hope I'll get these other two done by tomorrow night (pray for me). My day was really good; I got to hang out with Josh and Laz more than usual, which will turn into a stronger friendship (after all, we are going to live together for the next year 8D ).

God bless,
Steven

P.S. I realize I've been watching House the entire last week. Oh dear...

Day 275: I have an Ikea!!

So today was one of those days where if something majorly important is going to happen, you clear schedule to make sure you stick to the plan. Today's plan was simple: go to Ikea. So us guys of flat 223 have been planning on upgrading our furniture at some point later on, considering there are big plans for next semester...
So I went with Josh and Aaron to check out some deals (that are valid until August of next year. I think that's plenty of time to figure something out). We've decided that all us guys are going to chip in and get some better, cleaner, more inviting furniture (because as much as we love our couches, tables, and chairs, they're not really gonna cut it next semester.) It was loads of fun; one thing I loved about the whole trip is that it gave me a piece of home. It brought back so many memories of going to Ikea in Emeryville with my mom, dad, and sister; even the $1 hot dogs put a smile on my face (however, there was a lack of cinnamon rolls... I wonder why...) Today's adventures will most definitely be converted into an episode of 223, but we'll see how long that will take before it can be released. What I really got out of today was God's protection; like there are so many dangers in the world, but the God I believe in is more than faithful and keeps me moving forward. I don't know about you, but I think that's pretty cool.

God bless,
Steven

Day 274: Dang It, House!

This Friday was different than all the rest; mainly because everyone was at the Encounter Fest (which is the place where United does their album recordings). I, however, stayed behind for the sake of being a responsible student and working on assessments. I can proudly say that it was a good move for me, because I got a lot of work done; the only flipside is that I didn't get as much as I knew I could have. I would say the main reason for that is my short attention span that annoys me. Today in general was great; it's nice when you set yourself up for a win by giving God some extra time. Church tonight was great too; we got to hear from Rich Wilkerson Jr. talk on fishing for men. He gave a great point asking how we can consider ourselves followers of Jesus if we don't fulfill the role of fishers of men; totally got me to the core. Right now, I'm feeling stuffed thanks to my collaborative dinner with Donny; we made a chicken mozzarella risotto and finished it off with a sweet custard danish cake thingy (totally forgot how it's called). God is good; I know I've said that a lot, but that's one statement that never gets old.

God bess,
Steven

P.S. the reason for the title is because the guys have been watching the show House for the past few days. And now I'm hooked.