Anyhow, am gonna make a conscious decision to make use of my DSLR that I’m lugging to Suntec everyday, but not using it. That’s just weird. But then again, there’s not much to take. Yet. Not many people around. Haha.

Side note, think sometimes I fret too much, or think too much, or imagine too many bad things at the sight of a small little thing. Please assure me that’s normal… I hope I’m not bonkers. I’m just genuinely… Interested and concerned.

Anyhow, am quite brain dead. To a point where I mixed up Starhub and Starbucks (totally different industry and products I know). But similar names no?

Am involved for Valentine’s Day Drama 2011 in TVM. How wonderful is that? First time directing for drama! Quite an interesting experience really. Minus the late lights and early mornings that we have to spend rehearsal and setting up equipment (which frankly I have no qualms about), it’s really awesome. To have crew sacrifice their time to do something that in turn impacts the congregation and the Internet viewers.

So lets see, so far… Friday night’s rehearsal ended at about 2am. Next morning had to report at 8am! That calls for some Starbucks no? And in the new tumbler that I recently bought, which half the people fell for as a real Nikkor 70-200 lens. Lol. Gonna try tmr by throwing it at someone and watch them FREAK OUT trying to catch a supposedly $2K lens. Wahaha.

Okay. Then a couple of rehearsals in Expo in the morning, then rush down to JW with AD (Karen) and Chorus Board ladies (Joanna and Trina). Then another dry run there.. Actual show for svc 1. Then immediately rush down to Expo from JW. And did drama for svc 2 again.

It’s quite awesome really. The adrenaline is quite addictive. Well the rushing from one end of the island to the other is not really a new thing, but having to do it from time to time is really REALLY fun. For some reason. LOL.

And looking at all the drama crew and cast on Friday night. Most of whom had just finished work or school. Even the sound, lighting, TV and Chorus Board folks who were there, it shows the dedication that all of us have in putting a great drama together, whether big or small.

It basically shows how much these people care about the congregation, to want to impact them and their families and new friends, as well as the millions of Internet viewers around the world. The love that we have for every single one of them, it’s just indescribable. Everyone wants to do something better, to have an input to make it look and feel and sound better. Not just some small drama that we had to JUST put together. But it require the efforts of so many people.

I’m glad, proud and honored to be part of the team, of Valentines’s Day Drama 2011.

Another 2 shows to go.

Was handling graphics and media for the Siloso Beach Countdown Party 2010/11. In particular, doing the countdown video for the whole beach and Sentosa to see. You know that one that goes 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 on the video screens as you shout yourself horse? Yeah, that was done by me. The only challenging part was to sync it with the exact correct timing. Cos since the whole to Sentosa was probably there, and the event is also broadcasted live on 987FM! How awesome is that. And everyone is looking to the screens to countdown, that’s one big stress boulder.

The original 50-sec cue failed. Missed it by almost a full-second. Luckily the 30-sec cue was precise and then it went ‘live’. Whoa.

Another eventful thing that happened. While operating the crane camera, almost got burned by the pyrotechnics that went off right behind me as I was craning out of stage, which meant that my ass was facing the pops. Boom they went without warning, and sparks landed on my hair and hand. Well done man.

Anyhow, be glad that 2011 is here. ORD-ing in less than 6mths time. Totally looking forward to it, actually don’t feel like doing any work right about now. Not too sure what they’re going to revocate me as either, or where I’ll be for my reservice. How about having reservist while doing NDP or doing photography, or media consultation? That would be awesome. Woo.

Thanking God for all the great things that has been happening in my life, and of course all the great people that I have around me, in ministry, in church, in zone. :D

Edit: Perhaps I should do a collage of photos from key events in 2010. That’s provided if I have the time to do that to begin with. Bummer NS.

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Hillsong – The First and The Last
Capo: 4
Key:(B)G

Verse 1:
Em D C
You are the First and the Last
G D
Beginning and the End
Em D C
The promise of wonders to come
G D
The future is in Your hands

Pre-chorus
C Em
Caught in the light
C D G
With all the Earth we will sing

Verse 2:
Em D C
You are the Author of love
G D
Our freedom is in Your name
Em D C
Embracing the cross meant for us
G D
And bought us to life again

Pre-chorus
C Em
Caught in the love
C D G
With all we are let us sing

Chorus:
G D
God our Hope and our Salvation
C G Am
Worthy of all our praise
Em D
Be our light everlasting
C Em
Great is Your name
C D G
Jesus the First and the Last

Verse 3:
Em D C
Show us the way of Your love
G D
Lead us towards the truth
Em D C
Stir up the fire in us
G D
To live out this life for you

Pre-chorus
C Em
Caught in Your name
C D G
Jesus forever we’ll sing

Chorus

Bridge:
C Em D
Every heart every nation will hear the sound
C Em D
As the light breaks through the darkness and Your name rings out
Am Em D
Every distant horizon will meet as one
C
Singing holy is Your name We sing holy is Your name.

Ending: (Spontaneous)
Em D
You are
C
The First and the Last
Em D
You are
C Em D
You’re the Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the End
C Em D
Our salvation You bring freedom God Your grace it knows no end
C Em D
You’re the name above all names the Lamb that was Slain
C
You are, Yeah
Em D
The First and the Last
C Em D
You are the First and the Last.
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Quite a nice song actually. Had fun directing for praise today too, though quite.. messy.

Schedule was pretty much the same for second and third day. A morning opening session, then another mid day session, then a elective in the afternoon, followed by a night session. Of course with all e different speakers. Only thing is that I didn’t exactly get to listen to most if the sermons. So decided to go get the DVDs. Kept thinking to myself if it was the right choice to make. Cos, it doesn’t come cheap either. But okay, since now I’ve already pre-ordered it, there doesn’t seem to be a turn back point. God bless my building fund after this.

Learnt a lot of new stuff these couple of days. Mostly tech related, but also got to try out ‘live’ directing during the electives. Was kinda thinking like since there isn’t one needed, why not just try eh? Not a bad experience too. Playing with side LEDs is definitely fun.

POS was fine I suppose.though, it wasn’t as good as the previous Asia Conference in 2008, but given the time constraints and the lack of rehearsals and proper working environment, I suppose it should be fine eh? I don’t know. Or it could just be another one of those ‘i think I can do a lot better than what I just did’ syndrome. Argh. It’s kinda frustrating actually, lol.

And right now, being all alone at home, the feeling is weird too. Especially with all that happiness in the hall during the night session, somehow just wasn’t able to relate to it at all. Result? Lost and feeling lonely. Again. Not the first time, been kinda struggling with that since young I suppose.

But can it be healed? Then i got reminded by what one Pastor said before. That every successful person always have a weakness that tortures them their whole lives. Could this just be it?

Oh wells. Sometime really love to have some company. But then. Again, I’m picky in the kind of company I want to hang out without too. Irony?

God bless my sleep. Just wanna cry in your presence and feel Your love. Do You see me? I hope You do.

In case I forgot to put it in my blog, I’ll be at Hall 8 every single day of the conference, serving in TVMinistry as tech ops. Cool eh? It’s kinda cool in a sense where there’s a problem that requires attention, someone goes to fix it, and no one else knows about it, because the event or service appears to run perfectly. Awesome.

Day 1 was okay I suppose. Total of 4 sessions in Hall 8 itself. Started of in the morning with a “record breaking” service, *ahem ahem*, (for more information, please ask those around), with Dr Cho. What a priviledge to listen to him, though it went crazily over time.

Second service was by Pastor Phil Pringle. Really engaged the crowd and stuff.

Third one was actually an elective I think. Steve Munsey did his famous Hollywood/Broadway style preaching again. Really love his preaching, presence of God just smacks down instantly. And here’s the cool part, the altar call, like the fastest ever. Within 15secs, the whole front floor area is crowded with people answering the altar call. And we tired folks in the control room were like, “what’s going on”?? LOL.

Last one, night session. Managed to grab some time to go out to the queues to meet up with some folks, mad hot out there actually. Thank God I didn’t have to queue up out there, otherwise I might just melt, cos I was wearing blazer and stuff. Pastor Kong preached. Pastor John Avanzini shared about financial prosperity when collecting the offering. (Oh everyone pretty much jumped awake during the offering. Oh you know why…..)

Anyhow, time to sleep, gonna wake up in 4 hours to go Expo again for Day 2!

Anyhow, managed to go down for much of the prep, setting up of all the tech stuff, running of videos, creating POS videos etc etc. Test  this test that. And not to mention, we have Hall 7 to set up from scratch, and Hall 10 as well?

Testing testing the video, color balance all.. Oh did I mention we have a new crane? Fantastic stuff. Now can dutch roll all. Had fun playing with the crane man…

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Remember you guys saw the American Idol-like stage last weekend? Remember this on the floor?

Just guess what it is. Just make a big guess.

And no, it’s not going to open up and reveal Pastor Kong or Pastor Cho or Sun being elevated up. Though that would be quite cool too.

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Went over to help set up the TBN News Studio at the conference rooms. Really nice right?

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Helped set up the editor’s workstation at TVM’s control as well. These workstations weren’t there before today. Like, they were only there at around 1am in the morning?

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Oh and guess what I got myself at 1am in the morning?

Woo! City Harvest Church’s new album REIGN! And see that whole rack behind me? Awesome!!

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Really cranky after that. I mean, left expo at like 3am, and there were still editors editing the videos for Asia Conference. Finally reached home at like 3:30am after a nice cab ride. But then, gonna cab back to Expo at 6am to be there for the first session. Man, this is gonna be fun.

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Interesting sight.

glow in the dark portaloos! at 3am in the morning! hahaha..

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Happy Asia Conference all!

My tags and all access pass. woo!

My tags for Asia Conference and Church Growth International 2010. Will be serving TV throughout as tech for all 5 days, anchored at Hall 8.

Gonna be fun, really looking forward to it. Especially Dr Cho’s sessions.

Come find me if you can!

Anyhow, good the weekend is here again. Best time of the weekend as usual, but this weekend with a difference.

I’m being transferred to serve in S2 instead of the usual S1 in preparation for Asia Conference. Cool eh? It’s a wonderful experience I suppose. Don’t really get the chance to serve in Expo often except for times like Easter or Christmas.

Luckily, I’m not the only one being transferred there. Zining also came to S2 to serve too! Learning how to use Cam1 and Cam2. Nice!.

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Me and Zining early at Expo to help with the set up. Especially since we just shifted back to Hall 8, there’s bound to be teething issues.

True enough, there were issue by the time we got there. The lobby plasmas weren’t showing anything, and the Nursery’s sound feed was cracking like mad.

So went to troubleshoot the cracking sound first, but initial adjustments didn’t really help the issue, in fact, think it got worse.

Anyhow, went over to the lobby where Attributes was, to troubleshoot the plasma TVs. Turns out the first converter’s adapter was loose. So tried to fix it. But in the process, tripped a switch that turn off power to Attributes too. Whoops. My bad.

Managed to get it fixed eventually. Haha. And get the plasma TV’s to show something other than noise and black. Cool eh?

Then something struck me, of all the people who come to service, how many actually think about the folks who spend so much time setting up the place, troubleshooting problems and stuff? Even though I may not be the one to fix the lobby plasma issue, but someone else would anyway. But it’s still someone who did the job, so that people walking in didn’t see a blank screen instead.

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Anyhow, went to set up the rest of the cameras for services. Played around with Cam 1 and Cam 2, teach a bit of the operations to Zining, since it’s her first time serving at Expo. Haha. Quite cool.

That’s Zining with Cam 1. Compare the sizes of the two of them! HAHA!

But then again, everyone pretty much looks the same way too. Lol. Even me.

Moving on to other cameras.

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Helping to troubleshoot Cam 3′s tilt issue.

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My head looks dislocated in this photo. Haha…

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After the tilt issue was fixed, I had the chance to have a go at the crane.

Tried small slow shots, trying to get accustomed to the controls, counter-panning against a fixed object from a distance while craning as well. Quite challenging, but a good one.

That thing is huge… Beats the jib I used to use hands down.

And the jib didn’t even give me the effect I wanted.

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Swung it over to the other side…

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Ooh, Bryan helped us take this pic.

And Karen says Zining looks like she’s being hung from the crane. LOL. Didn’t even realize it. Haha…

Hung on the wrong side of the crane though. LOL!

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After finishing everything, went back to control booth to FINALLY have my lunch. Haha. Subway sandwich again. Long time no eat.

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And Zining spotter the DSLR! And started to play with it. Haha. Interesting piece of technology it must be for so many people to see it, and get interested in it. Cool.

Control room, the same way it was in Expo Hall 1.

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Anyhow, after that went for service, was on Cam 8.

And during sermon itself, went around the hall to take B Rolls. Random shots of people listening to the sermon, reading the bible, writing notes etc etc. Think many people would have saw me. How not too right? Some lone fella with a camera, tripod and media tag going around the hall, planting himself at odd locations to take a couple of shots? Haha.

You DEFINITELY saw me.

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Anyhow, after service, went back to control, debrief and stuff, then went off with Zining towards town.

While on the train to town, can’t resist some camwhoring eh?

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If I remember correctly, Melvin did suggest that the two of us push the train back to JW. Not sure how we’re going to do that though.

But we’ll be back with ES1 after AC.. Come on, that’s not that far… LOL.

But we miss you people at ES1! Does that help? HAHA!

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More camwhoring. Here’s a very good profile photo for a fashion designer eh? Really natural look.

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And that classic “two hands outstretched holding a heavy camera” shot. Doesn’t really work well on guys though I realized. Perhaps I’ll try it next time. Haha.

Anyhow, gonna post on Easter first. But gonna separate it into two posts. One from ministry side, another from CG side.

LINK IS UP!! CLICK HERE FOR PART 2 of EASTER POSTS!!

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Easter was an interesting experience this year. Thankfully it happened over the public holidays and weekend (like it always does every year), but that was good because I didn’t need to take leave from camp do I? Awesome.

Spent the most part of the Easter serving in TVM. Feels great to serve especially during big days, to stand in the gap to ensure that the production continues running. Where there were gaps, just fill it!

I wasn’t part of the drama crew though, didn’t have time to go down for rehearsals and such. But supported the services at both JW and expo. Awesome time I tell you.

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Drama rehearsal before the first (and last) Easter service at JW.

And meanwhile, the rest of us service crew outside,

Playing with iPhone games. LOL!

And of course playing around with my DSLR as well. Trying out a couple of super close up shots. Came out pretty well. Note, not all photos are taken by me though, we were all playing with the camera.

Me, clearly.

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One of the other crews.

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And just before service starts!

Look at the hall. This was like, before the service started. Never seen a hall so packed BEFORE service starts, not for the longest time that is.

Kindly just ignore the person in front. It’s just super bad timing. LOL! But man it was packed. People sitting on the aisles and floor etc etc.

Anyhow, after the first service on Friday, went to join CG for post-service games and stuff. Gonna do up another post on that.

LINK IS UP!! CLICK HERE FOR PART 2 of EASTER POSTS!!

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Anyhow, move on to the next day, Saturday. Woke up like freaking early in the morning, then drove down to Expo. Call time was like 7am man, but that ain’t a surprise, considering this ain’t the first time I’m been at Expo that early. LOL. Prayer meeting to start the day, and off to work, set up and stuff. First thing up in the day, Children Church’s (CCH) Expo service.

This is my camera! Or at least the camera I was working on for CCH Easter Service. Like this camera, minus the weird carpeted flooring and weird drainage locations.

Just gonna let the photos do the talking.

CCU panels. Which Bryan had the privilege of working on. LOL. Eh, not easy also ok?

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Director’s screen. 8 cameras. And this is just 1 of the 3 screens in the control room, aka fish tank.

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Another shot of Cam 6. Like those starry stuff created by the cross filter. Super nice.

But also super weird when shooting stuff like spitting fire, just doesn’t look nice when a fire spurts out, and a star comes out with it too. Just weird.

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And a group shot of all CCH Media Crew! All who helped out with the service that is. Haha.

Cool people man.

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Bryan went round taking a couple of shots (not the best cause a bit blur, but nice profile shots for some of them).

JKoh with the tech side.

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Lifang…. Low lighting condition la ya? Haha.

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Paulyn… Cheerful and bubbly all the time man.

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Clear me, probably updating my Twitter or something.

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I LOVE THIS SHOT THE MOST!

Tony! Like teleporting or something… Cool shot.

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Ah poon!

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After that went out for lunch and stuff, and back for 2 more English Easter services!

Supposedly, I was rostered as Cam 6′s grip for the first service on Sat. But then the roster changed, and I was on Cam 7. The one way up at the top. Then because of some *miscommunication*? At least I think so. I got to do Cam 2! On Easter service! Goodness.

A bit panicky cause quite last minute. But glad that I could stand in the gap when needed. Really felt awesome. Luckily I had some experience doing Cam 2 before, otherwise, I would probably really freak out. LOL.

Can’t be that hard right? Just flow with the Spirit, find the right shots, track Pastor on stage steadily. Quite shiok ah the feeling.

But also freezing cold without a jacket.

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Took this photo before service.

Cam 2! Woo. Super happy. This like super huge, heavy camera. Okay I know the thing says it’s “live”, and I’m taking a photo of it too. LOL!

Good experience nonetheless.

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Oh, someone found my DSLR and started taking photos when the service was in progress, found them in my camera after I imported them. Haha.

Wei Ming checking out the fish tank. I can see my Cam 2 shot of Poh’s guitar right there too! Cool!

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KK…

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I like this shot. Nice perspective of the TVM logo. Perhaps can put it on somewhere. Haha.

Also served for the second Easter service on Sat. Was on, Cam 6? Yeah man. Awesome!

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Random shots from here on.

Oh look! Jesus came to visit us in the control room! Making sure the production is running smoothly. Sweet!

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Think these photos were from Sunday’s services.

Went out with Wanxia to pack lunch for the whole crew! Since I wasn’t doing anything during the first service on Sunday. Haha.

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Group shot of the TVM drama crew.

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Another group shot. With some of them “devils”. lol.

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Suci and Debbie! Sweet eh?

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And the ladies, right at Radio City Music Hall!

LOL at Huiyun’s reaction. Super classic.

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With Mabelin and Yuxin! Recognize the set? And don’t be fooled! That’s not wine!! LOL. Shan’t say what is it. Ask me!! Muahaha…

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Oh, found this rather interesting.

Paparazzi man! So many cameras!

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After that went off to find my CG already man. Not before another couple of shots.

Poor photographer…

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Here’s a nice clearer shot of Cam 2! Super huge right?? Compare with that A4 paper or that Starbucks cuppa in shot! Goodness. But damn fun operating this thing.

Next up crane?

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Lol. Last shot. On the way out.

Know where this came from? LOL

Apparently there was so much breakfast ordered in the morning, that they came delivered in 4 boxes, and the delivery guys had to take cab. Whoa. Dunno whether they earned anything from this sale actually. Maybe just a small figure, considering they took cab.

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Really enjoyed myself during the Easter weekend. Serving TVM, serving God, availing myself during my time offs to be in church. Really feels good. Awesome time.