17 April, 2012 in Development, Interests, Personal by Aonghas

Aonghas 0.5 Beta Font Released

The 0.5 Beta release for "Aonghas Font" is available for download!

For years I’ve always wanted to create my own font that looked similar to my handwriting but I never had a good way of creating one. I finally got round to doing it recently though, and it’s here for you to download too! Simply click the link of the True-Type Font (TTF) file at the bottom of this post and install it on your computer so you can write like Aonghas as well! Bear in mind that this is still a work in progress, so I haven’t ironed out all the kinks yet. So far there are more than 250 glyphs in the character set, but I’ve still got hundreds yet to complete (and also tweaking current ones as well!). Let me know how it goes and if there’s any problems be sure to tell me so I can fix them up! Hopefully I can create some more fonts in future!

23 January, 2012 in Church, Personal by Aonghas

What Christianity Means to Me

Christianity to Me

Recently I’ve started a bible study course called ‘Experiencing God’ by Henry Blackaby with a few others from my youth group at church. The study involves daily devotion five times per week and a group session where we meet up and share what we’ve learnt as well as watch a sermon-like presentation on a DVD. The course has made me think about my relationship with God, and I’m continuing to learn more as we go. Since several people have asked me about Christianity in the past, I thought I’d share a little bit about how I got to be where I am in my faith today.

Before I get into my thoughts on Christianity, I must warn you beforehand that these are purely opinions of my own and I am not trying to offend anyone in the process! In the past I’ve always felt a little iffy talking about religion with people, especially with those who I haven’t known for long. A lot of people have preconceptions about Christianity and I think many of them are misunderstandings. Unlike some other Christians (often “Christians” are stereotyped as being those people who change every conversation into a conversation about religion and people think their only purpose in life is to convert as many people to Christianity as possible), I don’t believe in forcing my beliefs on any other person in any way. My philosophy, and I think the attitude that Christians generally live by, is that I should live my life in accordance to God’s will and always remember the fruit of the Spirit which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (you can read about them in Galatians chapter 5 if you want ). I think that if I can show other people those qualities in myself, they will see the difference in me and, in essence, God’s character. It’s that difference that I believe leads people to want to know more about God. Simply telling people about God and Christianity has little effect; showing people how I behave differently through my actions will trigger those curiosities. That’s when sharing my faith with others becomes worthwhile because I know their interests are genuine. Okay that was a long disclaimer.

So here we go. My thoughts on religion, and namely Christianity (which many Christians believe is more a relationship rather than a “religion” per se). I’ve taken the liberty of breaking my little rant into a few sections so that I don’t lose track of where I am, since I have a tendency to do so…

The simple idea that a God exists is key to any religious belief system and I think once you make that realisation many other things make more sense. I cannot understand how anyone can deny creation. No matter how you look at it, nothing can be created from nothing. There had to be a higher order or an existence of a supernatural being behind the origin of the universe. So then if we can conclude that God exists, the next question is what religion to believe. One of my friends once told me that he took different things from different religions based on what he liked. The problem with this kind of ideology is that because religions contradict each other, you cannot really believe in one religion and another one at the same time. Truth is absolute, so if Christianity is true, all other religions are effectively invalidated. I know that sounds harsh, but that’s ultimately what it comes down to.

Now I guess you’re wondering what makes Christianity the ultimate truth for me? I guess there are many aspects of Christianity that are unique from the other religions. One of the main reasons Christianity stands out for me is that Jesus provides the link between man’s shortcomings and eternal life. No matter how hard we try, we cannot rid ourselves of sin. That’s why Jesus came to die on the cross for us. There’s a whole background behind that story in the old testament of the Bible, but the whole Jesus dying on the cross story is pretty much the cornerstone of Christian belief and I probably shouldn’t go into too much depth here because it opens up a whole new topic of theology and we can save that for another day. I haven’t really said too much about Christianity itself, but if you’re interested I really encourage you to have a look at this website called www.faithfacts.org because it has a lot of interesting information and it will answer any of your questions a lot better than I can! I think it’s important that you compare the different religions out there. To me the choice was pretty obvious.

When I have shared my faith with friends in the past, they have usually been interested in hearing my story, but they haven’t yet made that decision themselves. One comment I got once was “the difference between you and me is that I’ve never let myself go”. I think I kind of understand what she meant, in that she was afraid to take that leap of faith because she still wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to do. Maybe she felt like she didn’t know enough to make an informed decision yet, or perhaps she was worried about trusting in something that seems intangible. I think it’s normal for people to feel like that (I think I did too at first). Like, you cannot see God so how should you be able to rely on Him? That’s a fair question to have. For me personally, I wouldn’t say I have “let myself go”. Instead I like to think I have made a conscious decision to “grab on” to God to become more stable. It’s interesting to hear from some friends that they felt that “throwing yourself out there and believing in everything” would make them feel vulnerable and insecure, whereas I can only imagine vulnerability and insecurity in a life without God. This reminds me about another conversation I had with a friend where we were talking about what we value the most. My friend said the thing we value the most is our greatest weakness. I value God/Jesus Christ the most in life, but what if He was taken away from me? How would I cope? Well, the simple answer to that question is that it’s impossible for that to happen. God is the constant in my life and I know that He will be there always. I’m reminded by a Bible verse we learnt years ago in Sunday School class. In Deuteronomy 31:6 Moses said to Israel, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” And that verse is so true. God is with me wherever I go and will never leave.

My illustration of how we are connected with God

When I was talking to a friend a while ago, she was telling me how she relied on her family and her friends to get her through the tough times. I told her how I relied on God first and foremost and used an analogy of a baby mobile hanging over a crib to describe my situation. Basically God is the backbone (or the hanging bar on the mobile) and I am one of the hanging objects. Although I can interact with others (the other hanging objects) and have relationships with them, everyone goes through difficulties and can fall if they’re not careful. If I was to completely rely on another person and he or she fell down, I would not have anything else to support me and I would also fall. However, having God is like wearing a harness (which can also be thought of as Jesus, who took away our sins and bridged us directly to God). It’s that safety that keeps me afloat and also provides support for others around me. Ideally in future, my whole family will be attached with their own harnesses, and together we’ll stay strong together under God’s care and provision.

Since becoming a Christian, I feel like my life has changed. Pretty dramatically actually. I used to wonder what the purpose was in life. I think many people in the world spend their whole lives trying to discover the answer to that question and end up going round and round in circles. Believing in life after death (which is in heaven) adds a whole dimension to the way I think and how I approach my everyday life. I’m not scared about death anymore. Money and financial wealth isn’t everything. I thank God for everything good that happens, and I’m storing my treasures in heaven rather than on earth. Why satisfy myself with worldly temptations just to enjoy my short time of earth and sacrifice an eternity of paradise after I die? That’s not to say you cannot enjoy an enriched and fulfilling life as a Christian. I remember a Bible teacher at primary school telling me how she always prayed for a car park when she went to Bible College and God would always provide her with one even when it was really busy. I’ve never forgotten that story, and only recently have I realised that behind the scenes, God has REALLY provided for me over the years. I know this might sound cheesy or lame or whatever, but I honestly feel like I can always turn to God for anything at all and I know He’ll be there for me. It truly amazes me how many things happen by “coincidence” to the point that I cannot put it down to chance anymore. Some call it fate; I call it God working in my life.

So there you have it. I don’t think that was fully comprehensive but it’s a start at least. If you’re not a Christian yet but you’ve considered God or wondered what your purpose is in live, I strongly encourage you to have a look into Christianity. Find a Christian friend or ask me if you have any questions. I don’t have the all the answers but I’d be happy to help by sharing what is true to me and what can be true for you as well. I know this topic can be a sensitive area sometimes. I just wanted to be open about it because it’s a pretty important part of my life and I wanted to share it with you.

4 January, 2012 in Personal, Thoughts and Reflections by Aonghas

2012 Has Arrived!

Happy New Year everyone. Yeah woops this post is about 3 days overdue now but the partying has just finished… no I lie, I’ve been working at Cotton On for the last 2 days because I’ve been appointed acting manager while our company tries to find a replacement. Over the last few weeks I’ve learnt several things about managing people and dealing with others. The Christmas period was hectic as predicted, and I was given extra responsibility to lead my co-workers at Cotton On. It’s definitely a change from working by myself normally on Sunday afternoons. I’ve thought a lot about this coming year as well and it’s going to be an important one. My final year of my degree (if all goes well), as well as new responsibilities and my first proper year of “adulthood” – it won’t be easy but I’m excited to see how it will unfold.

I just thought I’d start the year fresh with a blog post but it’s not very long! My deeper thoughts about this year will come out in a later post perhaps

21 November, 2011 in Personal by Aonghas

Summer is Just Around the Corner!

It’s been just over a week since my last exam and it’s been so refreshing to have some spare time for a change. The semester just gone sure did have its moments of stress, and at times I wondered how I’d ever make it through to the end. Thankfully I survived three exams and, fingers crossed, hopefully I managed to pass them as well. Now that I have three and a half months off before uni starts again next year, it’s that time of the year to plan what I want to achieve over the summer break. So straight off the top of my head, let’s see what I can think of:

• Finish all the video projects I had to put on hold
• Start cycling again; go to the gym regularly
• Sort out all my paperwork from uni this year
• look into setting up a green screen studio
• find a summer job for engineering
• revise everything I learned this year at uni

Summer is just around the corner so don’t let it pass by without achieving what you set out to do! Hopefully I can listen to my own advice!

30 June, 2011 in Personal by Aonghas

A Coughing Start to the Holidays

I was really looking forward to the beginning of the holidays. After I finally finished my last exam (which just happened to be on the last day of exams!) I thought things were going to get better, but unfortunately for me it was just the start of what would become a downward spiral of health. I should start from the beginning though…

My last exam was on Monday 27 June in the morning – hardware design programming. Seeing as it was my last exam and I didn’t want to fail, I thought I could probably stay up really late and study into the wee hours of the morning. I figured if I could just make it through the 3 hour exam, then it wouldn’t matter if I was completely wasted afterwards because I’d be on holiday by then and I could just sleep it off for the rest of the day (or even week for that matter). so after falling asleep close to 5am and then having to wake up at 7, I didn’t really get much sleep and I was feeling a bit woozy in the morning. Nothing that a cup of green tea couldn’t fix, I thought to myself. In fact the exam turned out to be not as bad as I thought, and I think I probably answered most of the questions adequately. When the exam was over, I was exhausted. I just wanted to go home and hibernate. It wasn’t until then that I realised I was fostered on to work at IC that night from 7pm till midnight! Uh oh… Either way I still needed sleep so I decided to catch the next bus home and I slept until I had to catch the bus back into town. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to make it through the whole shift awake, but because it was the last day of exams, there weren’t many students still at uni that night thankfully. At 7:45 I had to go downstairs to cover the break for short loans. It was probably the quietest 45 minutes I have ever worked at uni. Not one person came in the whole time I was there and I ended up giving my eyes a rest without realising. Near the end of my shift I started to feel lightheaded. I didn’t feel nauseous as if I wanted to vomit, but my head felt like it was taking longer to move than the rest of my body. I didn’t want to be a nuisance so I tried to press on, but it was quickly becoming apparent that I needed sleep. Luckily the taxi ride home was swift and I managed to get to sleep before long.

The next couple of days were not much better. In fact, Tuesday was probably the worst. I ended up lying in bed, restless with a headache and cough. Not exactly the best way to start the holidays. I’m starting to feel a bit better now but I just hope I’ll be fit enough to go to the V20 Conference tomorrow.

9 June, 2011 in Development, Personal by Aonghas

Introducing PicStream

PicStream is a new initiative for photo sharing

I often take random photos on my camera, phone or iPad whenever I see something interesting, but I never knew how to organise or categorise them properly into albums. As a result they always ended up stored in memory somewhere and I’d never look at them again. I wanted some easy way to share these moments and memories with everyone, so after some thought and quick brainstorming I created the PicStream initiative. Similar to photo blogging in some ways, PicStream is a running stream of photos that I plan to add to everyday which basically displays things I come across in my daily life journey. Whether it be people I meet, places I go to, random signs or symbols I see or friends sleeping in lectures, PicStream will hopefully one day become quite a unique album of photos. I’m planning to extend PicStream in future, but I hope you enjoy browsing through the photos in the meanwhile. You never know, you might end up in the PicStream yourself one day!

Note: Initially you will only be able to see the 8 most recent photos on the homepage. In future there wil be a gallery where you can view all the photos in PicStream.

5 June, 2011 in Personal by Aonghas

Getting Sick

With the winter colds and flus making their rounds, it was only time before I was bound to catch something. A couple of days ago I started getting a runny nose and I hoped it wasn’t the start of something more serious, but it turns out I may have caught something (possibly from my brother who also got a cold recently?). It started with teary eyes and a runny nose but now it seems my throat is itchy and I’m coughing a lot more.

This sickness couldn’t have come at a worse time either, two and a half weeks out from my first exam. At work today I mentioned to my workmate that I was starting to get a cough, and a customer overheard me and quickly exclaimed,

You know coughs are most contagious when they’re first starting out!

I’m not sure if that’s true or not, but I was careful to cover my mouth every time I coughed just in case. I guess if it’s any consolation, I’d rather have a cold now and have it clear up before exams than to be sick during my exams. I remember last year I was sick during my exams and it looked like I was crying all the way through my exams, not to mention the abrupt nose blowing every five minutes. Let’s just hope the cold symptoms don’t last long. I’ll have to get Calum to formulate some magic cure at the pharmacy!

29 May, 2011 in Personal by Aonghas

Burger Fuel Treat

In March this year the website Treat Me was launched by the same company that runs Trade Me and planned to run daily discount deals online, similar to existing websites like 1-Day and Deal-a-Day. When we heard that their first deal was going to be $1 burgers at Burger Fuel, we jumped at the chance to get in on the action. It wasn’t until yesterday that I actually used my voucher though, because it was expiring on the 29th of May so I didn’t have much time.

The Hashius Clay caught my eye.

Yesterday after class I walked down to Burger Fuel on Queen Street and had a look at burger choices on the menu. It was my first time eating at Burger Fuel, and after looking at the original prices I could see why. $10+ for a single burger?! cRaZy. Thank goodness I had my voucher, I thought to myself. The most expensive burger on the menu was the wagyu beef burger at $14.90, but there was a special (maybe for a limited time only?) burger called the Cashius Clay that attracted my attention. Piled with two pieces of chicken, two hash browns, bacon, egg and lettece, the burger looked like a beast! The guy at the counter told me the waiting time would be 8 minutes so I sat patiently and enjoyed the free water that was on offer.

Shortly after, my order number was called out and I was given a brown paper bag that contained my mammoth meal. I unwrapped the bag to find a larger-than-usual bun that was struggling to stay upright without spilling all its contents out. I had high expectations. For a regular price tag of $13.50, you’d expect to be satisfied. And satisfied I was! I could barely open my mouth wide enough to take a bite out of the burger, but by the time it was finished, I wished there was more! Not because I was particularly hungry, but because it tasted pretty good! If only they cost $1 every day, I’m sure I’d be their #1 customer. For now though, I think I’ll stick with my mum’s sandwiches if I want my bank balance to stay positive.

27 May, 2011 in Personal, Thoughts and Reflections by Aonghas

Winter Weather

It's hard getting up in the winter.

For the last couple of weeks it has been increasingly more difficult to get out of bed in the morning. Whenever that starts happening, it’s usually a sign that winter is on its way back. Usually I set my phone alarm to ring at 6:30am every morning (except on the weekends!) but to be honest, I usually sleep right through it. I’ve tried different approaches to waking myself up, like having my phone just out of arm’s reach so I have to turn it off by getting up, setting multiple alarms at random intervals after the first alarm and having my phone close to me so it’s louder. Although some of these methods work at times, I find myself becoming used to the same routine until it’s ineffective. For example, when I tried to set multiple alarms, I’d start half-waking up just to turn off the alarm subconsciously before going back to sleep. All of this is made harder during the winter months when it gets colder! I like to blame my reluctance to get up out of bed in the morning on the fact that our house isn’t insulated enough, but I probably shouldn’t be making excuses for what ultimately is more likely just laziness.

Once I pull myself out of bed to get ready for uni, there usually isn’t enough time to eat a proper breakfast (terrible, I know!) so I’m out the door and on the bus in a matter of minutes. Waiting at bus stops in the rain can be annoying too, depending on the wind direction. If the wind blows the rain towards the bus stop, I’m left huddling to the back wall of the bus stop because I’d get wet if I stepped out any further – not to mention that the seats would be all wet too. Luckily most of the time, my bag is packed with an umbrella so it keeps my head dry. What I always worry about though is that when I am holding my umbrella, all the rain will run off the back of my umbrella and on to my bag that’s sticking out the back! I usually feel safer strapping my bag to the front of my body so that I can see if it gets wet or not, but then I end up looking like a weirdo. In the rain.

I never know what to do with a wet umbrella when I finally reach uni because I can’t exactly put it back in my bag, but I don’t want to have to carry it around all day either. Thankfully most of our lecture rooms have air-conditioning so I try to find a position in the lecture theatre that has a bit of air flow so that my umbrella can dry as it lies by my feet on the floor.

Puddles forming everywhere is another product of rainy winter weather. Especially those massive ones on the curb near intersections. Whenever I approach a large puddle, I make mental calculations in my head as to whether or not I think I can jump it. Usually I chicken out at the last minute, mainly because of the embarrassment I’d bring myself if there were others around who saw my failed attempt at jumping over a puddle.

Ironically, as I’ve been typing this post, the weather has gone from being overcast to being somewhat sunny and clear. Good one, God. I like Your style!

17 May, 2011 in Personal by Aonghas

Daily Doodling

Late last week I was at the Engineering cafe while staff and students were getting their heads shaved to help fundraise for leukaemia. Although I wasn’t brave enough to do it myself, I watched on as the students and staff sacrificed their hair for a worthy cause. I was clutching my iPad at the time so I thought I would take the opportunity to try out one of the drawing apps on it. Ten minutes later I had drawn my first masterpiece. That’s when I got the sudden idea to do daily doodles and post them online. AonghyDoodle was the result of this initiative! For the record, I have never claimed to be a good artist even in the slightest, so please excuse the poor skill and just try to appreciate the sentiment

Enjoy!