being the bellhop

As we grow older, every single one of us grows along with baggage - there is no one without excess baggage. So how do we deal? How do we get a big enough closet to hold our own baggage without taking up other people's space? Or how do we show that we have enough room to give to store other people's baggage until they find their own?

Not everyone with baggage is undateable. It’s practically unavoidable since we’re all human beings who carry around a certain amount of unprocessed emotional energy. Some of us carry more and some of us carry less. Some of us have completed the necessary work to remove a great deal of it from our lives. However, as many of us soon learn, there is always more baggage to uncover.

Baggage not only appears in the emotional form, but also in the form of unresolved financial and life issues. Baggage is neither bad nor good. The important aspect of baggage is how we deal with it. Does our baggage rule us or do we look at it, accept it and deal with it as it rears its ugly head?

We need to purge baggage, or manage it, in order for a relationship to work.

Some people consider it baggage- I consider it a blessing. I’ve had to deal with stuff in my past and if I met someone who didn’t have some baggage I don’t think we’d be able to relate to each other.

Life has its ups and downs. We have to carry each other and learn from one another’s mistakes.

“Baggage is a part of life and like anything else; it’s easier when someone gives you a hand with it.”

the shame of the blame game

GREAT article!

It's the old story of the person who claims that the whole world is crazy and they are the only sane person.  When it's everyone else's fault and not your own, you are in trouble.  So are the people in your life. 

The fact of the matter is that all of us mess up with other people-especially those to whom we are closest.  Anyone who refuses to accept their own culpability, or even the slightest acceptance of being wrong at all from time to time, is clueless regarding what it takes to mature a relationship.

Some people continuously superimpose their perceptions of shortcomings on to others.

Do you recall a time when you would sometimes place the blame on your siblings for something you did wrong just to avoid the consequences?  Mature adults should be expected to take responsibility for their own errors.  The sad truth is that there are those who simply cannot see their own faults.  Like a horse wearing blinders, they only see the faults of others and are completely unable to see how they affected those imperfections by their own actions or inactions.

They just won't grow up.

• Stop twisting what others say to fit your own perceptions of why a relationship is struggling. Those who love you are trying to show you something that you are refusing to see, let alone accept and correct.
• If your relationships continue to sour and self-destruct; if good people seem to tire of you once they get to know you better; if you are still single after many years then, gosh, don't you think it's time to go look in the mirror?
• There are many self-help books that are available.  Also, a good counsellor can point out those areas where we need to revaluate our attitudes and approaches to love relationships.
• Instead of repeating the faults of those others time and time again, stop blaming them and begin identifying where you were at fault.  Forgive them and take responsibility for whatever part you had in the failure of the relationship.  If you can't seem to do this, then go back and read the three preceding points again and again until you snap out of it.   

Idealistically, all those who are high-risk relationship destroyers would be pre-qualified and then boycotted. 

However, in the real world, such people still manage to sucker others into their very confused and misconceived worlds.  Only those who are wise enough to allow their better sense to take charge of their hearts will escape such people, thus, minimizing the emotional damage.

Perhaps this article will wake up some of those who are troubling others with their old baggage.

If not, maybe it will help those who are being victimized to recognize the danger signs and remove themselves from what is predestined to end up being a very devastating experience.

happiness is a journey, not a destination...

Stop waiting...

Until your car or home is paid off.

Until you get a new car or home. .

Until you go back to school.

Until you finish school.

Until you lose 10 kg.

Until you gain 10 kg.

Until you get married.

Until you get a divorce.

Until you have kids.

Until you retire.

Until summer.

Until spring.

Until winter.

Until autumn.

Until you die.

There is no better time than right now to be happy. If not now, when? Your life will always be filled with challenges. It's best to admit this to yourself and decide to be happy anyway. Happiness is the way. So, treasure every moment that you have and remember that time waits for no one.

Flying With Chickens

Once, long ago, an Indian warrior found an eagle's egg on a mountaintop, and he put it in the nest of a barnyard hen. When the time came, the chicks hatched, and so did the little eagle, who had been kept warm in the same brood.

The tiny eagle grew along with the hatchlings. After some time it learned to cluck and cackle like chickens, to scratch the ground, to look for worms. And he would thrash his wings and fly a few feet into the air onto the lower branches of the bushes, just like all the other chickens.

Years passed and the eagle grew very old. One day he saw a magnificent bird above him in the cloudless sky. Up there in the bright blue, this bird glided with graceful majesty among the wind currents, with scarcely a beat of its strong golden wings.

The old eagle was awestruck. It turned to the nearest chicken and asked, "Who's that?"

The chicken looked up and answered, "Oh, that's the golden eagle, the king of the birds. He belongs to the sky. We belong to the earth... we're chickens."

So, the eagle lived and died a chicken, for that's what he thought he was.

As Descartes famously put it “I think, therefore I am.”

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
-- Mahatma Gandhi

If you must smoke, take your butt outside!

I got an email from CANSA at 1.30am (why? WHY?) and I thought I’d share their message with you guys. It’s about hookah pipes/okka/hubbly bubbly.

The waterpipe was invented in India during the 16th century by a physician named Hakim Abul Fath, who suggested that smoke “should be passed through a small receptacle of water so that it would be rendered harmless.”

Contrary to this ancient lore and today’s popular belief, the smoke that emerges from a waterpipe contains numerous toxins known to cause lung cancer, heart disease and other diseases.

The popularity of waterpipe smoking appears to be stimulated by the unfounded assumptions of relative safety compared to cigarettes. In reality, a water pipe smoking session may expose the smoker to more smoke over a longer period of time than occurs when smoking a cigarette.

Cigarette smokers typically take 8 – 12, 40-47 ml puffs over 5-7 minutes and inhale 0.5 to 0.6 litres of smoke. In contrast, water pipe smoking sessions typically the last 20-80 minutes, during which the smoker may take 50-200 puffs which range from about 0.15 to 1 litre of smoke each. The water pipe smoker may therefore inhale as much smoke during one session as a cigarette smoker would inhale when smoking a 100 or more cigarettes.

So basically:

• Using a waterpipe to smoke tobacco is not a safe alternative to cigarette smoking.
• A typical 1-hour long waterpipe smoking session involves inhaling 100 – 200 times the volume of smoke inhaled from a single cigarette.
• Even after the smoke has passed through the water, it still contains high levels of toxic compounds, including carbon monoxide, metals and cancer causing chemicals.
• There is no proof that any device or accessory can make waterpipe smoking safer.

Also another very important message. About people who smoke around you:

Breathing in other people's smoke can cause cancer. Second-hand smoke can cause other health problems too, including heart disease, stroke and breathing problems.

A non-smoker sitting in a smoke filled room for 8 hours will breathe as many cancer-causing chemicals as if he or she had smoked 36 cigarettes. Tobacco and second hand smoke contain over 4 500 chemicals.

Smoke from the burning end of a cigarette has more poisons than smoke inhaled by the smoker. Some of these poisons include acetone (in paint stripper), naphthalene (in mothballs), butane (in lighter fluid), arsenic (in ant poison), ammonia (in toilet cleaner), phenol (in disinfectant) and carbon monoxide (in exhaust fumes).

I feel sick just reading all of this!!! Take care of yourselves, you only get one chance.

a few cents

So I’ve been trying to prove this theory I have that, without Blackberry Messenger, Whatsapp, Facebook and Twitter, one will eventually lose touch with everyone they know. Nobody bothers to call or sms nowadays. It’s quite pathetic actually.

Twitter tyrannically wouldn’t allow me to temporarily deactivate my account (it was all or nothing) so I did away with the other three. And… I’ve been tweeting compulsively ever since! Yep, seems that I’m addicted to the cybernetic world and can’t go a day without putting something “out there.” Only about 0.5% of the people I know actually see the tweets but that doesn’t stop me. I think since I can’t deactivate it; I’ll delete the app off my phone so I don’t have access to it anymore.

But honestly, it’s actually not that difficult to be chat-free.

If you really think about it, there are usually just one or two people that you want to be in contact with. The ones you’re constantly checking your phone for. The REAL reason you can’t part with your mobile. If it weren’t for him or her, you wouldn’t really be bothered. Not to say that everyone else doesn’t matter! More like… you could live without. So, there’d be no sense of panic if your cell gives in and has to be sent for software upgrades and what not.

That’s how it is for me anyway. And to be in the actual company of these people, eliminates the need of the phone in general.

I've noticed something quite strange. Sometimes, when you call/visit someone, they somehow have way less to say then what they normally do over text. I think all these chat-apps have thieved us of our ability to interact verbally/on a personal level.

So I don’t really know what the point of my experiment is. It’s quite obvious that I will lose touch with everyone because everything’s so high-tech and fast-paced these days and if I’m not keeping up, I’ll be left behind.

In light of the chat-for-free era, there's a new way to distinguish who your real friends are... Those who make an effort to stay in touch no matter what- even if it’ll cost them a few cents to return an sms/call.

illegitimi non carborundum

Been having a very stressful week. I’m worried about my savings, I have an endless list of things I have to get done, my holiday got stolen away from me and work… I was told to update my Internet Explorer even though I never use it and as expected everything went haywire. My Outlook Express went AWOL and has halted all business activity. After that all other Microsoft Apps crashed and basically it’s driving me nuts. Of course the website is of no help because they’re completely non-user friendly and the more you try to fix a problem the more errors you’re plagued with. I’ve always hated Microsoft and now I hate them even more so.

Also had to deal with crappy people once again. I don’t think anyone has the right to make you feel bad about yourself. Even if you did something wrong, the most they’re allowed to do is correct you. But no one should make a judgement about you and then label you as if they have done no wrong and are flawless. Because nobody’s perfect and most of the time the judgements they make are based on their own insecurities. So… illegitimi non carborundum...

"There comes a time in life when you have to let go of all the pointless drama & the people who create it, and surround yourself with people who make you laugh so hard that you forget the bad and focus solely on the good. After all, life’s too short to be anything but happy." ~Karl Marx

"When people walk away from you, let them go. Don’t try to talk them into staying with you, loving you, calling you, caring for you, coming to see you, or staying attached to you. Your destiny is never tied to anybody who leaves you, and it doesn't mean that they are bad people. It just means that their part in your story is over." ~Tony Collum

5 Wisdoms

1.

If you are right, then there is no need to get angry.

And if you are wrong then you don't have any right to get angry.

2.

Patience with family is love

Patience with others is respect. 

Patience with self is confidence. 

3.

Never think hard about past, It brings tears.

Don't think more about future, It brings fears.

Live this moment with a smile, It brings cheers...

4.

Every test in our life makes us bitter or better. 

Every problem comes to make us or break us.

The choice is ours, whether we become victims or victorious.

5.

Search a beautiful heart, not a beautiful face. 

Beautiful things are not always good, but good things are always beautiful.

putting the wo in men...

Have men picked up on the habits of women?

From hearing the endless complaints of my girlfriends about their boyfriends and from some of my own experiences, I’ve begun to realize how difficult it is to read men nowadays.

For as long as I remember, men were simple. If they liked you, they’d shower you with attention and if they didn’t, they wouldn’t. Easy as that. I’ve mentioned the six magic words before (“He’s Just not that into You”) and as harsh as they were, they made life simple. You knew that if he liked you, he wouldn’t be making excuses, or acting weird, or saying one thing and meaning another. The bottom line is that men were not complicated and there were no mixed messages.

But. It seems all of that has changed. Talk about unleashing horror. Men are becoming trickier to understand. They say one thing and do another. They send mixed messages and confuse the mess out of you! And apparently it might be because women are becoming more independent and “masculine” and men’s behaviours and attitudes more and more resemble women's.

So, now, whatever women are feeling, men are now free to feel it too. They’re in touch with their sensitive sides. They want praise for what they do right and acknowledgment that they are great guys who are loved and appreciated.

I also read somewhere that men are quite complicated creatures, and have secret wish lists of emotional needs. To top it all of, not all of them are like this, so sometimes what he says is what he means and other times you have to read between the lines!

Basically the roles have been reversed. We might think we won the gender war, but looks like men are getting their revenge.

gender stereotypes be damned…

Girls, look at what I came across:

It may be time for us to stop complaining about how men are such commit-o-phobes and women are all gunning to get hitched and make babies. A recent survey found that more men are looking for attachment and commitment than their gender stereotypes would lead us to believe. Men reported experiencing love at first sight and wanting kids more often than their female counterparts. So, what do the women want? We want our independence, dammit! Women value good jobs, separate bank accounts, and girls-only vacays more than ever before. And motherhood? About half of the women surveyed did not believe that women should be primary caregivers for kids. In short, women are becoming more like men.

More on this tomorrow...

simplicity

"When we’re born we see the world in an uncomplicated way. We know what we need, and we ask for it. We like nice people, and we don’t like mean people. We sleep when we’re tired, we eat when we’re hungry, and we stop eating when we’re full.

As we grow older, we eat and drink to console ourselves, rather than addressing what’s bothering us. We overwork to avoid close relationships, rather than finding people we can trust to form strong bonds with. We hold grudges, play games, spend more than we make, want things we don’t need, and we get too far away from our basic human needs. In other words, we complicate things." ~DeeAnne

Here are some ways to uncomplicate your life internally...

• Don’t try to read other people’s minds
• Get 8 hours of sleep per night so that you think more clearly
• Don’t try to be friends with everyone. Cultivate closer relationships with fewer people.
• Before getting angry, ask yourself if it will really matter in 20 years
• Focus on being a good person, not on pleasing others
• Kiss and make up
• Get an annual physical examination
• For just one day, imagine everyone’s intentions are good because most people’s are
• When you have a conflict with someone, talk it out. Don’t let it turn into more than it is.
• Know what your priorities are in life, and act as if they are your priorities
• Tell the truth
• Don’t cheat
• Don’t steal
• If you’re holding on to a ridiculous grudge, let it go
• Do your best at work
• Be yourself
• Say “no” unapologetically
• Don’t try to keep up with the Joneses
• Spend your time with nice people
• Avoid drama
• Don’t engage in office politics
• Refuse to gossip, or talk behind other people’s backs
• Never go to sleep angry
• Ask nicely for what you need and want
• Do 20 push-ups before speaking in anger
• Leave work at work
• Don’t befriend anyone that isn’t trustworthy
• Don’t envy others
• Don’t work more than 8 hours per day
• You don’t need to be best friends with work colleagues, but build respectful partnerships
• Don’t look for reasons to be angry or sad, look for reasons to be happy. You’ll always be able to find plenty of each.
• Be friendly with your neighbours
• Don’t procrastinate
• Do what you say you’ll do, when you say you’ll do it
• Be more flexible when you’re able to be
• Forgive and forget. End of story.
• Take care of any health issues or concerns
• Don’t let your imagination run away with you
• Let go of perfection in others
• Let go of perfection in yourself
• Don’t try to help those that refuse to help themselves
• Have an allotted amount of worry time per day/week, that you strictly abide by
• Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill
• Finish what you start
• Slow down
• If a relationship is over, let it go
• Prioritize people in your life
• Ask others for advice

adapt or die.

As many times as we've heard it, the lesson doesn't get easier.

Putting yourself back together again. Pushing for the finish line. The real healing is not a team sport. It's a solitary distance run. It's long. It's exhausting. And it's lonely as hell.

The length of your recovery is determined by the extent of your injuries. And it's not always successful. No matter how hard we work at it. Some wounds might never fully heal. You might have to adjust to a whole new way of living. Things may have changed too radically to ever go back to what they were. You might not even recognize yourself. It's like you haven't recovered anything at all. You're a whole new person with a whole new life.

It's all anybody wants, right? Clean slate. A new beginning. Like that's gonna be any easier. Ask the guy pushing the boulder up the hill. Nothing's easy about starting over. Nothing at all. The problem is we're human. We want more than just to survive. We want love. We want success. We want to be the best that we can be. So, we fight like hell to get those things. Anything else feels like death.

People are really romantic about the beginnings of things. Fresh start. A world of possibility. But no matter what adventure you're embarking on, you're still you. You bring you into every new beginning in your life, so how different can it possibly be?

~Grey’s Anatomy

when the horse is dead...

When the horse is dead, get off.

Don’t try dragging it along as you try to move forward. You wont get very far or fast doing that.

Think about why you are holding on to something. Is it because you wont know who you are without it? Do you like who you are with it? Do you have a hard time imagining yourself happy or whole without it?

Whenever you think “now” do you find yourself seized with fear and saying “later”? Do you realize how not letting go sucks the joy out of all your other pursuits? 

So ultimately, if the horse isn’t dying, your soul certainly is. 

It doesn’t matter what other people think. You can’t hold on AND try to move forward. You can’t be both positive and negative at the same time. It has to be one or the other. So take a quantum leap and choose happiness, even though you’re not sure how things will ultimately work out.

“… never be bullied by other peoples’ demands or opinions of you. Never let money be a reason that you do or don’t do anything. Forget your story, and whatever “reality” you think you’re stuck in. Don’t waste a single day of your life being unhappy. Listen to your gut. Acknowledge when you feel peaceful, and let go of anything or anyone that doesn’t make you feel that way. Wake up and be conscious of what you’re thinking, saying and doing so that you don’t create any more unhappiness for yourself. Accept conditions as they are, and then decide what you want to do about them. But mostly, be true to your Self, the higher self that comes forward when you’re not looking anywhere but here.” ~Robin L. Silverman

communication comparison

So, say you just bought a cellphone. And it was a mission to get it. Lots of stories and excuses and disappointments and waiting around. But now you have it, finally, and you’re excited because it’s new and somehow makes you feel so good. 

It’s great for the first few days, but then you notice some glitch. You brush it off thinking its no big deal; it’s still a great phone. But then, the more you use it, the more faults you notice. You keep shrugging them off because, hey, the phone still works fine and there’s no way you’re going to put yourself through the hassle of repair/replacement. You disregard the malfunctions, overlook blips and take no notice of defects. Ignorance is bliss.

Eventually there are so many problems with it that you want to cry just looking at it and all the convenience and joy it brought is overshadowed by the unprofessed flaws. Yes, eventually you’re going to reach your limit and throw it against the wall or perhaps the phone itself will overheat and self-destruct.

My advice? Endure the inconvenience and send it for restoration. Or let it go and wait for something new.

Now… imagine the cellphone is the person you’re seeing/in a relationship with. 

I think you know exactly what I'm trying to say.

Take care my loves.

be kind with an open mind...

Make an effort to understand people before you judge them. We’re all weird in our own ways and that’s what makes us normal. No one has the right to condemn or label people. Not even if you’ve walked a mile in their shoes. Because no two people are the same. What’s bad for you might not be bad for me. When I’ve reached a limit, you might be able to push on much longer. 

Think before you stereotype. People are not shells. There’s always something deeper- a reasoning behind everything. And so much we can learn from those we perceive to be different from us.

We’re all onions in the vegetable patch of life.

Just because you don’t agree with something, doesn’t make it wrong. Just because you’re unhappy, it doesn’t give you the right to attack. Put your ego aside and realize the consequence your every word and action has in relation to other people.

We can be so nasty and not even be aware of it. Guys, everything we put out there comes back to us. So be kind and considerate. And enjoy the endless benefits it brings. 

“Some of us run in the middle of the night.  Some of us strum acoustic guitars and smoke joints.  And others go to church.  Or sip expensive wine.  Or surf on dangerous waves.  Or jump out of perfectly good airplanes.  When we try to understand people by personally relating to the things that they do, we usually can’t make any sense of it.  Because it’s easier to see weirdness in a sea of normality, than it is to decode the logical methods behind one’s madness.

But when we look just a little deeper, by making a noble effort to understand people by truly listening to why they do the things that they do, they never seem quite as weird.  Actually, they begin to seem…

Almost normal.”

paradox of our time

I know many of you have probably already read this somewhere before. But have you done anything beyond nod and agree with everything?

We have taller buildings but shorter tempers. Wider highways , but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too rarely, and hate too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbour. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things. 

We've polluted the air and polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

 These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill.

How much truth to this do you find in your own life? And what are you going to do about it? If this is what your life is like, you’re going to wake up one day and realise that it has all been meaningless. Don’t let that happen.

Learn. Live. Laugh. Love. And let’s make something significant of our lives.

Having a Coke with You

by Frank O’Hara

having a coke with you

is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne
or being sick to my stomach on the Travesera de Gracia in Barcelona
partly because in your orange shirt you look like a better happier St. Sebastian
partly because of my love for you, partly because of your love for yoghurt
partly because of the fluorescent orange tulips around the birches
partly because of the secrecy our smiles take on before people and statuary
it is hard to believe when I’m with you that there can be anything as still
as solemn as unpleasantly definitive as statuary when right in front of it
in the warm New York 4 o’clock light we are drifting back and forth
between each other like a tree breathing through its spectacles

and the portrait show seems to have no faces in it at all, just paint
you suddenly wonder why in the world anyone ever did them

I look
at you and I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world
except possibly for the Polish Rider occasionally and anyway it’s in the Frick
which thank heavens you haven’t gone to yet so we can go together the first time
and the fact that you move so beautifully more or less takes care of Futurism
just as at home I never think of the Nude Descending a Staircase or
at a rehearsal a single drawing of Leonardo or Michelangelo that used to wow me
and what good does all the research of the Impressionists do them
when they never got the right person to stand near the tree when the sun sank
or for that matter Marino Marini when he didn’t pick the rider as carefully
as the horse

it seems they were all cheated of some marvelous experience
which is not going to go wasted on me which is why I am telling you about it

Came across this poem by chance and how crazy cool is it? Well, if you don't know your art or Spanish cities you won't really understand it but then again it's never too late to learn. But more importantly, the poet wrote this for someone he was madly in love with. And that's exactly how you have to be in order to appreciate it to it's fullest :)

autonomity

To be self-reliant one must more or less be a jack of all trades.  Contrary to what you may have learned in school, a jack of all trades is far more equipped to deal with life than a specialized master of only one.

Here’s is a list of some things everyone should know how to do.

Build a Fire 

Operate a Computer 

Type

Use Google

Perform Basic First Aid 

Perform CPR and the Heimlich Maneuver 

Drive a Manual Vehicle 

Change a Tyre 

Jump Start a Car 

Parallel Park

Give driving directions

Navigate with a Map and Compass 

Do Basic Cooking 

Select Good Produce 

Tell a Story that Captivates People’s Attention 

Deliver Bad News 

Handle a Job Interview 

Manage Time

Speed Read 

Remember Names 

Travel Light 

Handle the Police

Swim 

Handle a Hammer, Axe or Handsaw 

Make a Simple Budget 

Speak at Least Two Common Languages

Give a Compliment 

Negotiate 

Listen Carefully to Others 

Paint a Room 

Smile for the Camera 

Flirt Without Looking Ridiculous 

Be a Respectful House Guest

Make a Good First Impression

Sew a Button onto Clothing 

Remove a Stain 

Hook Up a Basic Home Theatre

Detect a Lie  

“Self-reliance is a vital key to living a healthy, productive life.”

marriage woes

Once again I was on the receiving end of a lecture on marriage. I can’t seem to make these people understand that marriage is not just something one does at the snap of their fingers.

This isn’t something you can change your mind about later. It’s not a career choice, where you can get the feel of it and then make a sound decision. Once you’re in, you’re in.

And please don’t say divorce is an option. If you go into something already thinking of a way out, it’s never going to work. So let’s do away with that.

It’s not that I’m closed off to the idea. It’s just about finding that person to make the commitment to. I most definitely will not rush into anything because “some” people are pressuring me to do so. And I also believe that love is not a good enough reason. Trust is number one. And compatibility and the ability to communicate easily. And it really isn’t easy to find someone you can honestly and wholeheartedly have all this with. .

Giving in to pressure from family, friends, society will only cause you unhappiness. So yes, they can complain all they want. In this situation I think I’ll put myself first.

And might I also add, that I haven’t even reached my mid-20’s yet. So they need to keep their judgmental, one-dimensional, narrow-minded opinions to themselves!!!

The first step is to be the right person and then the next step is to find the right one.

to infinity and beyond...

I’ve taken a liking to exploring new places lately. Nothing too excessive. Just taking different routes to the same old places. And running the same old errands in different places. It’s actually been so refreshing. I feel like I’m in a foreign place. All independent in the unfamiliar… Love it!

So you see, it’s not always about drastic changes. Sometimes the smallest tweaks can have the biggest effects. It’s all about getting out of your rut and mundane routine, so that the monotony of it all doesn’t knock you out.

“We must go beyond the norm, go out into the bypaths and untrodden depths of the wilderness and travel and explore and tell the world the glories of our journey.”

Google Maps has become one of my favourite and most useful tools. But even without it, I would recommend exploring blindly. Getting lost is and finding your way back is one of the most educational things you can do for yourself. You’ll realize very quickly that it’s all way less intimidating than you originally thought.

It’s all within your reach. Happy travels. Mwah.

make it a good one...

Yesterday is history and tomorrow is merely a figment of your imagination.  So if you think about it, today is the only day you’re truly alive. 

Work on something that’s meaningful to you.

Complete an important piece of unfinished business.

Spend time with positive, friendly people.

Do something nice for someone else.

Be present. Focus on where you are, what you’re doing and who you’re with right now.

Do one thing at a time.

Listen to your self-talk.  When you hear negative thoughts, think about the positive side of things.

Smile, even when there’s no pressing reason to do so.

Go somewhere new.  See something new.  Meet someone new.

Do something that makes you laugh.

Challenge your mind.  Learn a new skill.

Challenge your body.  Exercise for 30 minutes. 

Let someone help you.

Clear a little clutter by getting rid of something you don’t need.

Be honest with yourself and those around you.

Don’t compare yourself to others.  Instead, let them inspire you.

Spend a few minutes alone in silence, just thinking.

Focus on solutions.

Keep an open mind to new ideas and information.

Handle important two-minute tasks immediately.

Stay out of other people’s drama.  And don’t needlessly create your own.

Say, “Please,” “Thank you,” “I’m sorry” and “I love you,” when you should.

Don’t try to please everyone.  Just do what you know is right.

Eat a healthy breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Savor the natural joy of simple pleasures.

Notice what’s right with the world.

Focus on all the things you already have, think about them and appreciate them.

end of the world.

OK I was totally having a bad day until I got the following email. I’ve summarized it from EIGHT pages to a few paragraphs. Hilarious!

“Bad news from NASA.

This is going to be the most extraordinary communication so fasten your seatbelts; we are in for a rough ride. I have known in my heart for months that I would have to make a communication like this but had no idea it would be this soon. Back in January I put the puzzle together and came to the conclusion that a planetary event was in store for us in 2012.

What you are about to read and see is happening. Last night, looking at a NASA mathematical model of comet Elenin, I found out that a large celestial body has already penetrated the solar system and is on course for a near and possibly horrific encounter with the earth in the fall of 2011.

Every time a celestial body comes into alignment with the earth and sun we have a huge earthquake. The last three alignments produced the Japanese 9.0 quake, the one in New Zealand and before that the one in Chile. When the next alignment happens it will be devastatingly close.

We have to acknowledge and accept that there is a danger and a possibility that part of our civilization and the people in it will be lost. This is not a time to deny anything or a time to hold back the tears. It is not a time for fear; rather it is a time for love and cooperation in the context of preparation on all levels for what is to come.

The whole solar system seems to be heating up, the sun is becoming active and earth-changing events are becoming more frequent and intense with beyond-worst-case-scenario climate changes hitting around the globe. We have increasing geo-activity, volcanoes, earthquakes, rogue tides, sinking islands, magnetic pole migration, mass animal deaths, huge unexplained whirlpools in the Atlantic and so much more it would make anyone’s head spin.

An approaching brown dwarf star answers a lot of questions about what is happening all around us that others simply cannot begin to answer. No one really knows what will happen in the fall of this year as this celestial body approaches. If we are lucky, nothing will happen but humanity is not looking or feeling lucky these days.

Safe Zones:

1.   Move 150+ miles from the coasts.
2.   Move 600 feet above sea level.
3.   Move away from volcanoes and super volcanoes.
4.   Move away from earthquake/seismic/avalanche/fault zones.
5.   Move away from dams that will break.
6.   Move away from nuclear power plants that could become compromised.
7.   Move away from high elevations where radiation levels will be highest.
8.   Move away from large population areas where food riots will escalate into chaos and mayhem.
9.   Join into survival groups with people of like mind that have survival supplies, gear and guns to protect them.

Dr. Mark Allan Sircus, Ac., OMD, DM (P)
Director International Medical Veritas Association
Doctor of Oriental and Pastoral Medicine”

ROFLMAO!! Look, there’s a slight chance he may be right and I’m being ignorant, but either way, it really made me laugh. Thanks Dr Sircus! (Sircus like circus? How can I take him seriously with a name like that? Haha!)

easy peasy

It's not difficult to make a woman happy.

A man only needs to be:

1. a friend

2. a companion

3. a lover

4. a gentleman

5. a romantic

6. a master

7. a chef

8. an electrician

9. a carpenter

10. a plumber

11. a mechanic

12. a decorator

13.. a stylist

14. a sexologist

15. a protector

16. a psychologist

17. a pest exterminator

18. a psychiatrist

19. a healer

20. a good listener

21. an organizer

22. a good father

23. very clean

24. sympathetic

25. athletic

26. warm

27. attentive

28. gallant

29. intelligent

30. funny

31. creative

32. tender

33. strong

34. understanding

35. tolerant

36. sensible

37. ambitious

38. capable

39. courageous

40. determined

41. true

42. dependable

43. passionate

44. compassionate

WITHOUT FORGETTING TO:

45. give her compliments regularly

46. love shopping

47. be honest

48. be kind

49. not stress her out

50. not look at other girls

AND AT THE SAME TIME, YOU MUST ALSO:

51. give her lots of attention, but expect little yourself

52. give her lots of time, especially time for herself

53. give her lots of space, never worrying about where she goes

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT:

54. Never to forget:

* birthdays

* anniversaries

* arrangements she makes

HOW TO MAKE A MAN HAPPY

1. Show up naked

happy mother's day

The sweetest sounds to mortals given
Are heard in Mother, Home, and Heaven.
~William Goldsmith Brown

...All that I am I owe to my mother...For all the ways you've helped me grow I want to say I love you so....

on a red couch somewhere...

Not going to write much cuz I’m mentally and physically exhausted. Day started off early and painfully and I didn’t get any chance to rest it out. However, it did end in six hours of comfort and bliss.

Thank you :):)

Early morning again tomorrow. Ouch.

Appreciate the moment. ~Isamu Noguchi

Ooooh nice nice. Met up with friends that I haven’t seen in a very, very long time and watched the MOST randomest movie everrrr: Arthur!

Spent the first 15 minutes laughing at Russell Brand’s voice and the next 95 laughing at how strange the movie was. I def recommend :) Good comedy. I’m such a fan of his now!!!

That was followed by midnight supper at Michael Angelo Hotel. I don’t know why but there’s something very thrilling about ordering from the “late night” menu.

Do you know how they say a watched pot never boils? I totally agree. If you want something badly and you want and want and become consumed by it, it’ll never happen. Things are going to transpire only the way they are meant to transpire, whether you stress or don’t stress about it. Once you learn to accept that and in the meantime appreciate everything else around you, you’ll see that it will all fall into place.

Don’t waste precious time and energy obsessing over what you want and don’t take for granted what you have. Live in the moment but live gratefully and happily. And in the end you’re going to get everything you will ever need. You’ll see. :)

decisions decisions

Wonderful night. Divine pizza. Great company. Thanks again.

Now… I’m left with a lot to think about.

Ever experience those moments when it’s like you feel nothing. Or actually. You feel too much so it becomes so confusing that you don’t know whether you’re coming or going. Its like everything within you is being tugged in ten different directions and the line between what you want to do and what you should do is extremely blurred.

Yes? No? It could just be me. I don’t want to hurt anyone and don’t want anything to be final incase I regret it afterwards. So I guess I’m in limbo? Coward!

If I had to be really honest with myself, the answer is quite obvious. But the answer is what I should avoid at all costs. So now what?

Take it as it comes, see how it goes, the decision doesn’t have to be made right now.

Yes. Everything always becomes clearer with time. But I wont deliberate for too long…

“The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.” ~Elbert Hubbard

“Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.” ~Napoleon Bonaparte

“Indecision brings its own delays and days are lost lamenting o'er lost days.” ~JW von Goethe

To the left, left, to the right

OK so I did this test to deduce whether I’m left brained or right brained. And all the tests produced the same result: Left-brain dominance.

But now… I’ve read the characteristics of both and I most definitely exhibit 100% right-brained traits. Does anyone have an explanation for this?

RIGHT-BRAINED CHARACTERISTICS

• Prefer visual instructions with examples
• Good at art
• Enjoy clowning around
• Like to read fantasy and mystery stories
• Like to write fiction
• Fun to dream about things that will probably never happen
• Enjoy making up own drawings and images
• Good at geometry
• Like organizing things to show relation
• Can memorize music
• Occasionally absentminded
• Like to act out stories
• Enjoy interacting affectively with others
• Enjoy creative storytelling
• Read for main details 
• Solve problems intuitively
• Dreamer 
• philosophical 

Fall seven times, stand up eight.

Another wonderful day! I just can’t have enough of them :P

I think I should just take a moment to acknowledge and appreciate the amazing new friends I’ve made recently. They are seriously contributing to my current state of euphoria. Thank you!!!!

Was thinking about returning my two-minute Saturday purchase. Went to the mall and everything and then decided that I actually love it and deserve it. Anything that makes you feel like a million dollars is worth two million. That’s what I reckon anyway ;)

On a side note: To the person reading this (you know who you are), who feels like they’ve hit rock bottom and have nowhere to go, I just want to tell you that when they say things will get better, it’s so, so true.

The only way to go is up. Just hang in there.

“Rock bottom is good solid ground, and a dead end street is just a place to turn around.”

“The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning.”  ~Ivy Baker Priest

P.S. Thanks for the visitations my people :)

:)(:

Fighting is just ugly. Amongst friends. Or within family. Strangers. All ugly. And even though today was peppered with such spitefulness, the day wasn’t as bad as you’d think. Perhaps that’s because I was just a witness to the above and partially involved in one. But still, it’s unpleasant to see others in the situation.

Why cant the world be happy-go-lucky like Cadbury adverts? Instead all people know how to do is take advantage of people’s kindness and act ungrateful.

But I learnt something today. Not everything is as it seems. Sometimes you need to step back and look at a situation objectively. Cuz you need to stop fixating on your own feelings in order to realize there’s an explanation for the other person’s behavior. They may be going off their rocker and upsetting everyone around them but all they need is someone to talk to and make them feel at ease with whatever's setting them off in the first place.

So I guess what I’m saying is sometimes no matter how people treat you or how you’re feeling, you have to be selfless and be the better person. Don’t stoop to their level by disregarding their feelings cuz they’ve disregarded yours.

A smile cost nothing, but gives so much. It enriches those who receive it, without making poorer those who give. It takes but a moment, but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever. A smile brings rest to the weary, cheer to the discouraged, sunshine to the sad, and it is nature’s best antidote for trouble. Yet it cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen, for it is something that is of no value to anyone until it is given away. Some people are too tired to give you a smile. Give them one of yours, as none needs a smile so much as he who has no more to give.

shame on me... but just for a second

Well today was yet another case of trusting and believing the best in someone only to have them once again prove me wrong. I mean… really??? I’ll be first to admit that it is due to my own stupidity that I continue to have faith in scum that don’t deserve it. You know how it goes… fool me once shame on you, fool me twice… yeah!

And I don’t want to be all repetitive and stuff but “a half-truth is a whole lie” and “a single lie destroys a whole reputation for integrity”. So yes, I’ve lost all respect for said jerk.

But anyway, I didn’t waste a lot of precious time being upset over it. Life most definitely DOES go on :)

The world has yet again proven to be small. First with friends and now with a weird girl and her apparently hot brother. I don’t want to get into all the details but my point is that we are ALL linked. By someone or by someone who knows someone. It’s fascinating. Ever come across the 6 degrees of separation theory on FB? It’s kinda like that. Love it!

Had some sisterlove time again tonight. Simple and good moments :)

Seems all’s well since the trash has been taken out…