I took this video during the Casting Crowns concert. Originally, I did not post this on youtube. But when I revisited this video later on, I thought it would be a waste if I did not share it. So I posted it on youtube and it generated 3000 hits in 4 hours! Quite unbelievable.

I thought I will put aside iMovie projects and concentrate on school work, but I had some time to spare and it’s the weekend and I’m still kind of hooked on it and there’s this song that keeps playing in my head and I just had to use it in an iMovie project.

This iMovie project is unique in that it included mostly photo-stitched panoramic scenes that I took in Malaysia. And this might be the first ever video on youtube to show a panoramic view of Farlim (Ayer Itam), Penang. One-of-a-kind!

While I was going through all my digital photo albums, I discovered I’ve lost quite a big chunk of photo files from my initial digital camera stage. I either burned the photos on CDs and lost the CDs or I placed them somewhere and had to transfer them to somewhere else and they got lost in transition. The photos that I lost were mostly photos of Lehigh. I guess when the weather is warmer I could go out and take more pictures.

UPDATE:
Panoramic scenes don’t make good youtube videos. The screen is too tiny and the details are lost

While I was decluttering I came across my old journal which documented my journey towards graduate school in the US:

March 13, 2000

I have this plan to further study in the US, somewhere in the east coast…. Well, it is just a plan. Still a very long way to go, no finances or offer. I wonder if it will really come true.

February 14, 2003

Valentine’s day and I was at home waiting for a long distance phone call from the US. The call came at 10:30pm and from then on, it was 25 minutes of stumbling and ah-eh-ah-eh. I’m so glad that is over. The people at Lehigh seemed interested in me, in their words “impressed with your credentials.” They pretty much accepted me (if I read in between the lines correctly) and even sort of promised me funding. Now all I have to do is wait for the official offer and then I can do some major celebrating. But before that comes, I’d better not jump off any cliffs.

March 19, 2003

Getting the experience and the degree in the US comes with a high price. Once upon a time when it wasn’t a reality, it didn’t seem so hefty. But now that it is almost at hand, I do doubt whether it is worth it….the years spent away from home, family, loved ones. Maybe if I was 18 or 19 or 20, it wouldn’t seem like such a big deal. But at 28, it just seems so BIG because not many of my friends with my background are making moves this big.

Maybe it is the great adventure. The homesickness would be massive and there will be no instant cure.

May 25, 2003

I think Lehigh is an open door but I cannot say for sure that this is God’s will for me. But the way the doors have opened, even though sometimes I feel I have blown it, just points to divine intervention. And now that Chris and Ivan will be picking me up from Newark and the Malaysian students have opened their home to me for temporary housing and all, I can’t help but know that Someone is looking out for me. Besides, I don’t know why I chose and applied to Lehigh. I just wanted somewhere that is not too competitive. And Lehigh ended up being the only one that offered financial aid.

I spent the last two days organizing the clutter in my room and I’m only 1/4 done with the task. Tomorrow will be another day set aside for organizing and decluttering. I don’t think I’m much of a pack rat but how come I still end up with piles of stuff. Paper clutter is the worst - I have print-outs of all sorts going back to don’t know when.

I have set aside the last day of each month as my recycling/decluttering day. I do separate out paper and cardboard “trash” for recycling but because I don’t take them out, the movable clutter remains in the apartment. So starting this year, on my recycling day, I’ll take out all the recyclable stuff and place them into their respective recycling bins.

I have also set a forbidden zone in my room: Absolutely no paper, books, magazines or catalogs on the floor. From my experience, once a paper pile develops, it stays there till the next new year resolution day. And because a paper pile can only go so high, another new one will spawn within a short time. So no more paper pile on the floor this year!

While I was back in Malaysia, I was inspired by the greening the environment section in the local newspaper. Somebody said that he will shower only once a week to conserve water!! Ever since I came back, I have been using my own shopping bags when I go grocery shopping. That has drastically reduced the monstrous mountain of plastic bags in the closet.

And lastly, when I think I need to get more stuff, I should sing this line from U2’s Beautiful Day:
What you don’t have you don’t need it now!

It’s official: Chicago O’Hare airport plus United Express airline and I do not go well together. I missed my flight even though I was standing right in front of the gate 15 minutes before boarding time. I spent the next 2 hours waiting in frustration and working on this last iMovie project of the season and finally completed the project in-flight.

The break is over.

I’m back in Bethlehem and it’s time to get down to serious and intensive dissertation work.

Here’s where I spent my Christmas and New Year break.

During my vacation, I….
1. Slept in 3 different houses.
2. Helped the Cheah family move to a newer house.
3. Took GBs of photos and videos.
4. Completed 12 imovie projects.
5. Shopped for free.
6. Spent some time with a doberman and a cockatoo.
7. Learned some skateboarding vocabulary.
8. Visited the Bridal Cave (the 3rd most scenic cave in the US), the Ha Ha Tonka (the nearby state park) and the Windermere Baptist Conference Center.
9. Enjoyed the sights (especially of the Lake of the Ozarks) and sounds and food of NTM Roach.
10. Experienced what it is like to be with a family again!!

This has got to be my favorite imovie project completed in Roach, MO. Here’s why:

1. I spent about an hour or more in the freezing cold capturing the numerous video clips and then spent many hours working on the clips: (a) reviewing through all the clips and sorting out the good shots from the bad, (b) cutting the clips to remove the nothing-is-happening moments in the clips, (c) selecting which clips to use and where to place them, (d) selecting the music that will give the video more “oomphh” power, and (e) adding the slow, fast and reverse motion special effects.

2. This is the first video that included my “copyright” signature.

3. The inspiring enthusiasm of the star of the video, Timothy aka Timmy Hawk. He persevered through many Ollies (skateboarding vocabulary) and runs up the kids-made ramp. But we had some funny moments: I intended to try out some video-capturing techniques that I’ve read about but his only intend was to go out and play. At the end of the gym session, he was rushing out to join his friend at another place for more skateboarding fun but I needed a clip of him walking into the gym to start my video, so I told him, “Timothy, wait, can you pretend to walk into the gym?” and he gave me the blurrest look and continued to walk out of the gym…haiyahhh.

4. This video consisted of both our best efforts