Disappointments

Disappointments are like viruses to me; they crept in stealthily, they attack and before you know it, you're down with flu, almost at 50% work-rate, and not wanting to do anything.

Today I learnt of a few disappointments. Already I feel them creeping in, slowly eating my energy away, taking away my joy. Perhaps the way to deal with them is by regarding them as non-existent, along with their hosts. Wave them away like irritating houseflies. No expectations, no disappointments.

Or I could keep them in boxes by representing them with $1 coins. Everytime something depressing happens, i put in a dollar and let it grow. Once it reaches a suitable amount, I take it out and give myself a treat. And then I prep myself happy, to be disappointed once again.

Whatever the case, this year, I take a pro-active stand. I'm gonna conquer my fears, conquer my disappointments and conquer my goals. Only then will i be happy. And perhaps then, the only disappointment would be not to have thought of this earlier. :)

A time for herculean trials.

There are some great people who excel in what they do; they sing well, they make great music, they are great doctors, they solve great mysteries. And they have that one ability that sets them apart from others like us: they have an unforgiving personality to resolve the task at hand.

It sets them apart from mere mortals like us, who wake up, go to work, come home, have coffee with the wife, play with the kids and sleep in preparation for the next day. They have that tingling feeling which tells them they can do more; they have more to give, more to offer, more energy to pursue, more results to affirm their belief.

Today I set out in search of that. Maybe I'm wrong; maybe I don't have it. Maybe I am a mere mortal, destined for the simplicities of life. And maybe if I just try, I can re-shuffle the hand fate dealt me. Today, I will begin to try.

Happy CNY to me, my ego and anyone else reading this. It's time to try.

It's been too long...

Yup, it's been a huge while since I blogged. Partly due to the fact that my hp brokedown and I can't take any pics anymore, and also cos' i've given myself a (retirement) break.

It's 2009 and a fresh start. I hope I do better this year, and finally give myself a well-deserved birthday celebrations as a reward. And of course, hopefully i live up to my resolutions and expectations; which is simply a holiday every quarter.

Peace to all, and a good year ahead!

Less is More

As I flipped through the various pages of Facebook, scouring familiar faces, I find myself skimming past many people that I recognise and even talked to previously, but have no eagerness to contact. Not because I want to avoid, but simply because there is no "want" to meet.

The feeling is that of "bubble tea". You see it around, you know its popular, and you know people would want to have one. But I don't. So I leave without buying one.

Not adding headcount is SO not friendster or Facebook. But strangely, it makes me feel much closer to the ones I do add.

I miss my friends

Today I had a thought. I suddenly had the urge to meet a friend. But I lost his number. So I went on Friendster to find him. Along the way, I saw a few other friends that I havent met in a while. So I took note. And then another few, and another few notes...

As time passed by, I realised I had lost contact with so many friends, I do not even know where to begin. And it dawned upon me while I was planning on how to earn more money to have a better life, I lost so many precious friends.

Will I be rich eventually? Probably. Will there be many to share my joy? Probably not many. How many of them would still be interested to sit down and spare me 2 hours for a cup of coffee I wonder? Am I even worth their time anymore?

So right here, right now, I make a solemn vow. I will meet every single friend I intend to keep before the next year is over. Even if I have to fly overseas, (probably Aussie and US, the way it looks like now), I will do so. Just so that I know everyone's nice and dandy, living life the way it should be.

Which means I need to plan my time and start earning money instead of planning to earn money. And it starts now.

Discernment of Internet Information is Important

I just read a post (link) by Public Education regarding cruelty to animals, and a choice to change that by going vegan.

The link talks about animals being cruelly handled/tortured/bred before being turned into food/profits. The video shows exactly that and leaves me with a tinge of sadness, making me seriously consider being vegetarian.

That is, until I consider the fact that my Grandma has an actual farm in Thailand, and we have NEVER manhandled chickens that way. Or the fact that my Uncle used to have a cattle (cow) farm and we have never branded a single creature alive.

Which brings me to the main point of contention; information on the internet is often skewed to support the perpetrator's point of view. They show only stuff relevant to themselves and leave out un-supporting documentation.

Animal cruelty is a reality. But it is the handling which is wrong, not the consumption of meat. These are 2 separate issues. We can consume old meat, or selective young fowls. Not every animal has to be hormone-induced; in fact not any should be. The video shows cruelty because it is unscrupulous farmers at work.

This leads to my next point: profits. Why do farmers get so little for so much? Why does rice cost so little compared to oil or diamonds? Is rice not an essential but gold or diamonds luxury items? The skewing of economy forces the farmers to be hard-hearted and earn a living, when the actual fact is that they are the ones producing life-giving goods. Yet they are given so little in return. Add to the fact that the 401k policy in US is failing because of a flailing economy and weak stock growth, which the 401k policy heavily depends on, you wonder why the farmers work so hard and so cold-heartedly.

So to me, information is often a half-truth and discernment is important. Which is why, the internet should and must always be taken with a pinch of salt.

Fair discrimination please!!!

I was just relating the post about Corruption of the Catholic Church by Sicarii, to my friends when it hit me... why do christians only target the Catholics? Why not Muslims or Hindus or Buddhists? Shouldnt it be across the board? Boy, do they get it easy...

It's like they have some hidden agenda when it comes to evangelism. Save the christians, Save the world!!! It feels like some extended propaganda rooted deep within the system aimed to rid the world of Catholism and not just "spreading the Real Truth".

My muslim friend then related that Islam has similar issues, like the Sunni and the Sufi, which led us to conclude on a singularity; internal cleansing.

Yes, that is what it has always been about. Internal Cleansing. Cleaning up the family before messing around with other people's heads. Which is all wrong to me... World Peace!!! We should all have our own freedom to choose our own faith and act how we want to, no?

So to all the evangelists out there fighting the nonsense war, Christian and Catholics alike, STOP IT!!! Stop wasting your life trying to prove your denomination above another because it is just a leftover agenda passed down from generations ago to prove they are MORE RIGHT than others. Just like how "all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others"

Afterall, if only Christians go to heaven and buddhists & muslims go to hell, then maybe I wanna go to hell too... :)