Now I understand why Vanity Fair always get the best photos amongst all magazine ... they are innovative and most importantly, they have style. Their covers are always interesting. Honestly I've never read any of them ... HAHA ... but since Oprah ... (erm yes. .. Oprah again) mentioned in her show that she's going to be in 2 of the covers this month for Bono's (RED) Africa project, I have been looking out at the magazine stand and Yeah ... they are OUT!!!! And I get 20% discount haha ... GREAT.
So what's this about? Bono has been this month's issue - guest editor of Vanity Fair. He's created a theme to promote Africa's beauty and also the (RED) project, of course. So, together with the Vanity Fair team and renowned photographer - Annie Leibovitz, they have come up with 20 covers with great people. To name a few: Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Maya Angelou, Iman, Madonna, etc. Each of the pictures are showing one or 2 ppl are trying to pass information to the other party .. chain message. And the message is about Africa.
These are the 20 covers that are available in a snapshot
And ... this is the one that I chose out of the 20 hehe .. guess I don't need to say why. Image courtesy of Vanity Fair - www.vf.com
I'd like to say, great job, Bono! Your passion and dedication for Africa is so great. All the best and hope the (RED) project will keep saving lives through simple means.
To read and view more of this special edition of Vanity Affair, you may check out this slideshow. You'll not regret it. I love the one with Iman too. She looks stunning like Cleopatra or something .... Bbbbbrrr .... And the one with Chris Rock and Warren Buffet. It's so funny. Chris Rock is trying to get some stock tips from Warren Buffet ... I wonder if he really gets some out of it hahaha ...
I know I'm a bit out-dated by now. It's been popular since early 2000 but only now I'm hooked by it. It's a song that will cheer you up and laugh in the most silly manner. I just gotta share this. :-) And .... it inspires me to eat peanut butter jelly for dinner tonight. :p thanks to my "not-so-dear" friend for introducing this song to me. -.- GGRRR! Anyway he never really reads my blog so heck about him. :p ... enjoy!
Buckwheat Boys - Peanut Butter Jelly Time Lyrics
It's peanut butter jelly time, peanut butter jelly time, peanut butter jelly time
(Chorus:) Where he at 4x There he go 4x Peanut butter jelly 4x Do the peanut butter jelly, peanut butter jelly, Peanut butter jelly with a baseball bat 2x
(Chorus)
Now, break it down and freeze 4x
(Chorus)
Now tic tac toe (uh-huh) Tic tac toe (let's go) Tic tac toe (you got it) Tic tac toe (let's ride)
(Chorus)
Now, freestyle, freestyle, freestyle, freestyle, freestyle, your style 2x
Isn't that the question that most of us always ask ourselves or others when we are swarmed by problems?
Why am I the one with the headache? Why is it me who needs to face that stupid person? Why do I have this disease? Why ... me?
Remember Mattie Stepanek, the boy whom knew most of his life that he's at the edge of death and still had the desire to not only live but to be the ambassador of peace to earth? After blogging about him, I straight away went to a shopping-spree-mode. I called every bookstore and CD store to grab hold of any products that they have about him. I managed to get 4 books and 1 CD, but that's not the point.
I discovered one paragraph from his book - Just Peace (which featured former US president, Jimmy Carter) - page 21 and it says ....
"I am not looking forward to death, because I love life on earth so much. I love people and I love nature, and I love being with my mom and I love being alive, even during the times that are so tough or painful that I complain. Like anybody else, I've asked the question, "Why me?" But then I think, or pray, or talk, and realize,"Why not me? Better me than a little baby who cannot understand what is happening. Better me htan someone who already has just too much stress on his or her life." As much as I would like to not be the one living the challenges of my life, I cannot think of anyone else that I would give them to."
And yep .... he was only maximum 13 yrs old when he wrote that. He died before he reached 14. And such wise words could be uttered in his constantly deteriorating body. Amazing ... I asked one of my friend to read that paragraph, at first she read it in a not-so-serious way until the part it says "Why not me ..." and she just broke into tears at that moment.
Mattie ... Mattie ... no wonder Oprah and Jimmy Carter are just a few of your honorary friends ... you are such a great soul. It's an honour to know you and your writings even though you are no longer with us. Hope everyone of us can be like your aspiration - the ambassador of peace throughout the earth.
Thank you, Mattie. You teach me to stop asking "why me" and start asking "why not me". And that is a profound lesson by itself.
The title is a quote by a 13 yr old boy - Mattie Stepanek who has passed away in 2004. I thought I've blogged about him but apparently I haven't -.- ... and now I have to. Why? Because this is my "heartsong", that's how Mattie called his poems even before the movie - Happy Feet has popularized that terminology.
In a nutshell, Amazon's bio on Mattie is as follow:
Mattie J. T. Stepanek lived and died a child, but he had the spirit of a giant. Affected by a rare and fatal neuromuscular disease, Mattie lived almost fourteen years but in that time became a poet, best-selling author, peace activist, and a prominent voice for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Before his death in June 2004, his five volumes of Heartsongs poetry sold more than a million copies.
Pretty amazing eh!!! -.- I first knew him from Oprah's 20th Anniversary DVD Collection (where else haha), together I've discovered Jacqui Saburido and Erin Tierney Kramp. And I seriously thought I have blogged about Mattie Stepanek and can't believe I actually haven't done it. So ... heaven has its funny way of knocking my head ... by introducing a "coincidence" yesterday when I was in the library. (There's no such thing as coincidence, btw ... not in my dictionary, at least). I was looking for books on Oprah and suddenly this book came up. It's called "Heartsongs". At first I ignored it ... as it didn't seem relevant. And actually I ignored it more than 3x ... but guess what ... heaven knocked so hard and made me look the fourth time and I was stunned and quickly went to grab the book after realizing who the author is.
So who's this boy? What's so special about this 13 yr old boy? Well, a little bit of background from his own website, Mattie Stepanek suffered from Dysautonomic Mitochondrial Myopathy which affects Mattie's autonomic, or automatic, functioning (for example, breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, digestion, utilization of oxygen...) and that basically are the essence of what our bodies can do. He also knows from the moment when he got this illness, that his days are counting down pretty rapidly. But did he give up? No, to the contrary, he aimed for the stars and the moon. His ambition was to be inspirational speaker, ambassador for peace, writer, and a daddy. An old soul in a young body, indeed.
Here we are complaining about our lives when we are still living and Mattie knowing he's dying and yet he still focused on creating and contributing. You may enjoy his poems from his website. Not all though, as they are copyrighted and need permission to be put on.
I've managed to find a video about him. You'll get to know him better from this clip. He's a dear soul whom had ever existed in this earth. No wonder even Oprah called him "my dearest friend". BTW ... before I forgot .... Mattie's mom has always been on wheelchair ... she had four kids and all 4 of them had the same disease ... and now all of them have passed away too (2 brothers and 1 sister and Mattie). Haiz .... What a strong woman she is and she's been continuing in spreading the words of peace inspired by Mattie.
Anyway ... like Mattie always says - remember to play after every storm ... no matter how tough things are ... remember to take a moment to be happy and find peace.
That's the title of the page I visited. You may have seen some of them before but when you see all of them together, it's really hillarious. I'll paste some of my favourite below but for more pictures, you may visit this link.
I know ... I've been absent for a while ... though there are just so many things have been discovered and needs to be shared but .... I've been in such a hibernating mode that my friend called me "Donnuah" .... Nuah because I am super slack ... Nuah ... Nuah ... Nuah ... and that's all I've been doing ... mentally and physically. Euww ... -.-
So, thought of dropping by and leaving a short note and encourage everyone to watch .. Ocean's Thirteen. This is not a movie review post ... and FYI, I didn't have any intention to watch that movie.
Why?
I watched a very bad quality Ocean's 11 ... and didn't have the mood to watch Ocean's 12. But oh boy .... I'm glad I didn't miss Ocean's 13!!!! Not a single blood cell of mine ... Was intrigued by the preview because George Clooney was tearing up and Brad Pitt was teasing him ... Clooney was trying to hide his embarrassing activity that caused him to tear up but Pitt discovered it and oh well, it's Oprah that caused Clooney to have teary eyes. So, that's what I saw in the preview but I didn't expect anything more than that short simple scene.
Who knows, surprise came in such a nice package :-) And for me, Oprah's fan, it made hell of my day. I was high till the next day ... my friends couldn't stand me ... still.
:-)
So, dropping a note to share that hehe ... will pop by when my "nuah" mode has gone ... hopefully soon. Thank you for still having your eyes here once in a while. It means a lot to me. :-)
Before entering the property industry and actually rolled up my sleeve and get dirty with it, when it came to the word "shower", I'll think about water and ... drying myself up. But now, I've opened up my eyes to more details than I've ever had. And that's the world of bathroom accessories.
Haha ... yes! Bathroom accessories!!!! I didn't give a damn about them before. But now, whenever I see a bathroom, I look at the details. And this is what this job has taught me, to appreciate the details even on the toilet seat cover.
Recently, my boss (whom I respect and admire a lot), just finished renovating his house and oh boy ... it's nice ... though the contractor only did a 99% job (as usual, most not-so-professional contractor will do that), it's splendid. The choice of the walls, are unique ... and if I'm going to depict it with words, it won't be nice. You don't believe me? Well ... the living room walls are shade of grey .... (yep -.-) ... the ceiling is also shade of grey, different from the wall. Then the bedrooms .... (my favourite), another grayish .. purplish ... maroonish ... hahaha -.- well I shall give up the way I describe his room. -.- Think I may have spoil the image of it totally.
I do remember one of the tap he used. It's like this. Wow ... what a costly investment for tap. But I guess, when you are an investor like he is ... you pay more to get higher yield in the future, whether it's for capital gain or rental yield ... as the difference between big bucks and small bucks, is in the details.
