I hope none of you are vomiting by reading the title yet. And nope, you are not reading it wrongly, I can't believe it myself too. :-) I am proudly "crowning" myself (and with the help of Library@Orchard) as a citizen reporter for my one and only beloved library - Library@Orchard.
What is it all about?
Image courtesy of www.wikipedia.org Library@Orchardis one of the greatest gift this country has given me since 21 October 1999. It's the best public library one can ever wished for. With great and best location and not to mention after all these years it still looks good, sounds good, smells good and ultimately FEELs GOOD. (Go figure):p and personally, with lots of lots of memories. LOTS!!!!! (I really mean it!!!!). It even has a page on wikipedia, it's the COOLEST library ever. (Well, of course I'm comparing those library in my schools in Indonesia where I could count the number of books with my toes plus my fingers plus some of my hairs). Since the recent hike in property market, Library@Orchardis closing down and ultimately moving on to not only one but 2 better territories (don't think this library is scared of any challenges yaaaaa .. we'll beat it and come out better!!! Watch out you, rental hikes!)
So, to commemorate this big event, Library@Orchard is calling the citizens to blog about this event in whatever way we want (with some very common-sensical guidelines, of course. You can't really write about things like this - Once upon a time, I went to Library@Orchard at level 5 of Takashimaya and then I went to toilet and then I went home. The end.). Once I saw this big opportunity to embrace one of the biggest love affair in my life, I took the chance and give myself a vote to be involved romantically and passionately by being one of the citizen reporter. (Yeahhh baby yeahhhhhh!!!)
So, here I am, trying to gather pieces of my memories and feelings, coupled with recent facts and findings of Library@Orchard. I'll be sharing regularly till the farewell of this piece of monumental altar of mine will take place on the 30th of November 2007. Through all these "mini reports", I hope all of you will enjoy a piece of me (ok this sounds quite wrong -.-", but you know what I mean), a piece of the library, a piece of Singapore and a piece of knowledge.
I've been using the above quote for my MSN Messenger for quite a few days. If you allow, allow me to have some self-praising moment, :p .... after a great chat with a friend, that quote came into my mind. I was so happy and thought I can finally have quotes of my own, so I tried to list it in some quotes sites but ... my hope was beaten. Why? Because I don't fall into "somebody famous" category. Haha ... Guess for now, this quote will just stuck in my blog first :-)
I realize most of the people around me are so caught up with the "doing" and "joining" ... participating in anything .. be it a conversation, an outing, an activity, an opinion being heard, something ... to show someone that they've been there done that. They know something. They participate and contribute.
Nothing wrong with that seriously. But I found it meaningless when the activity has no soul, no essence. I believe everyone has experienced something like that in a few occasions. I can't speak on behalf of everyone but personally, I did that many times. And honestly, I may have been doing it for the most part of my life!? Hmm ... worth contemplating.
I remember when I was in those few "activities", I joined for the sake of joining. I joined because I was trying to please someone. I joined because I thought I'm a flexible person and I can choose to have fun wherever I want. I joined because it seems to be cool, next time it can be the topic to talk about when I'm in another meaningless participation. And most importantly, I ignored my gut feel. And there and then I wasted a few hours of my life ... putting up smiles and cheesy lines or "smarty" comments ...
Then I've also been to the other side of the spectrum ... I stopped joining ... I stopped communicating ... I did nothing ... literally ... it doesn't feel that good either when it's too much of it. :p ... It's actually as bad as joining without meaning. It wastes your life in the way you don't even realize.
I finally found some kind of balance between the 2 extremes. I checked my gut feel before I embark on another activities and so far it has saved me from things which are not meaningful, life waster I supposed. I also found genuine observation and thoughtful contemplation can be much more rewarding than clogging your lives with activities that are forgettable. No wonder prayers and meditations are highly recommended to have a better quality of life. Well, I ain't a meditator (just can't sit still), nor I am a great prayer (yes, the same reason as I'm not a meditator ... yet), but I found out when you are in silence or in conversation with something you just can't comprehend (be it your mind, the tree, the dog, the wall, the sky, God, angels, the fish, the monitor, the air, the water, etc) ... life gets pretty interesting. In a strange way ... I enjoy those seem to be pretty "weird" time ..
Just like right now ... I'm blogging ... I'm communicating with my inner self .. and ... erm .. I've no idea who else I'm communicating this as I'm typing -.-" ... but I am finding it more meaningful than if I'm with a bunch of people talking about,"wow, so you have an american express credit card, that's so cool" or "hey, what have you been doing lately? wow that's so interesting" (when I don't find it interesting) ...
It may be a very confusing post to some of you, if yes, I apologize. But ultimately, my message is to be very aware of what you are doing and BEING at every moment ... it's not easy but the awareness is the first step of having a better life.
Recently I watched Sicko, another daring and controversial production by director Michael Moore. I recommend anybody that cares about their health to go and watch this show, especially if you have an insurance. It's a look at how different countries are managing the health care of their citizens.
One of the remarkable country that amazed me was France! Ooh la la ... Yes, it's full of tourist attractions such as
Eiffel Tower Musee du Louvre
and their wines and their river rides ... their cheap hotels and those love birds surrounding the city with the very sexy accent ... but is that what France is all about? No no no no .... There's something more charming about this country.
It's ranked by WHO in 1997 as the first in the world. And ... it's entirely free for people who are affected by chronic diseases. Amazing. That's not all ... from the documentary, you'll also learn that they have 24 hourse emergency house-call doctors. also for free. If that's not enough to startle your brain, when someone's pregnant and they have no time to take care of the their house hold chores, you can request for government's assistance to send a helper in assisting you with dirty laundry, preparing food, etc. Unbelievable. No wonder they have so much time to be romantic.
Well definitely it's not all Cinderella story. Everything has two sides and currently I only know it's beautiful side. The citizens may need to pay very very high tax but ... for what the government has done, I think it's quite worth it.
For now I can only surf some of these websites like this or this and be a tourist .... but who knows one day I may get to enjoy the benefits too? Hmmm -.-" dream a little dream about France ....
I was losing my steam ... and I am still a little bit. When I told my friend, the cooking pot, about it, she's so inspired to draw me this piece of art.
So, you see the train ... yes, that's me, with the open-book hairstyle. I have 3 of my great friends behind me .. the queen, the cooking pot and the pig. As I lost my steam and the train can't move anymore, the queen and pig tried hard to push and motivate me ... and I was still struggling. So, in the end, according to the artist, the smart the cooking pot managed to save the day by getting me the Energizer bunny batteries. Ah ... she saved the day :p ...
If only life can be energized by batteries hmm ... may be it can? Hmm .... It makes me wonder :-)
Thank you, cooking pot for the great effort and artwork. I hope one day it'll make you lots of lots of money through auction. :p
It's not a very new song - Little Wonders by Rob Thomas - Soundtrack of Meet the Robinsons, but it's something I gotta share. Listen to the words, for those of you who are weary I hope this song can lighten you up. It did to me.
I simply love the words when Rob Thomas said ...
Let it go ... let it roll right off your shoulder ...
Let it in, let your clarity define you in the end, we will only just remember how it feels....
Yes ... these small hours ... these little wonders ... those seconds that we tend to take for granted because we keep thinking of the big future ... the big miracle that we tend to forget that in these small hours, little wonders do exist.
And in the end ... those achievements ... those belongings ... in the end, only the feeling remains ... the thought ... and the essence of every single thing in our life that matters.
So, Enjoy .... Don't let the little wonders slip away.
Let it go, Let it roll right off your shoulder Don't you know The hardest part is over Let it in, Let your clarity define you In the end We will only just remember how it feels
Our lives are made In these small hours These little wonders, These twists & turns of fate Time falls away, But these small hours, These small hours still remain
Let it slide, Let your troubles fall behind you Let it shine Until you feel it all around you And i don't mind If it's me you need to turn to We'll get by, It's the heart that really matters in the end
Our lives are made In these small hours These little wonders, These twists & turns of fate Time falls away, But these small hours, These small hours still remain
All of my regret Will wash away some how But i can not forget The way i feel right now
In these small hours These little wonders These twists & turns of fate These twists & turns of fate Time falls away but these small hours These small hours, still remain, Still remain These little wonders These twists & turns of fate Time falls away But these small hours These little wonders still remain
Some of you may have watched this ad but I'd like to put it a special place in my blog because every time I watch it, it still brings me laughters that's like being induced by laughter gas (if there's any).
It's an ad by one of the mobile operator (M1) who's promoting their free IDD call to 15 countries. I'll try my best to write down what the man said below the video.
Enjoy.
hello, mr india curry house yes we have chicken kebab, butter ... ok one butter chicken yes sir we deliver everywhere no restrictions on the area ah, ok i repeat your order one butter chicken one spicy bryani acha give me your address can you repeat that S-i-n-g-a-pore another country? eh, mumbai lar India!!! Singapore -.-" Butter chicken -.-"
And this one is the Director's cut with a bit change on the text:
hello, mr india curry house yes we have chicken kebab, butter ... ok one butter chicken yes sir we deliver everywhere i repeat your order one butter chicken one spicy bryani your address please S-i-n-g-a-pore? Is it a suburb? another country? eh, mumbai lar India!!!
Have you heard about the sub-prime issue in the US recently? Based on Wikipedia, subprime lending is the practice of making loans to borrowers who do not qualify for the best market interest rates because of their deficient credit history. Simply put, based on your track record, if you are not a great $ borrower, they'll give you a "lousier" loan with higher interest. Since most of the people need it, or think they need it, they fall for sub-prime loans and most of them are stuck with it now to the extent they can't afford to pay for their house and need to force sell it and even forced some mortgage companies to shut down. That's such a pity.
Though there are lots of pointing fingers being done at the moment. The home owners are blaming the mortgage lenders, and vice versa, to my opinion there are only yourself to blame. The lack of information and greed have driven them to their own misery and terrible loss.
Hence I stumbled into this site where people are free to post their tips in order to prevent or save people from losing their home or other properties. It's something like wikipedia where the information is from the people and to the people. Hope it'll be beneficial to someone you know or when you are making the decision for yourself in the future.
You may hear about the term "Assume" can mean .... making an "ass" out of you and me. What it means is that most of the time when you assume instead of find out about the facts, you will mess out the situation for yourself and the other party involved. But anyway, I'm not here to be so philosophical. My friend sent me this video and I think it's worth sharing. This guy is very very talented ... not only that, he teaches as not to judge before we see the complete picture. I guess life works like that too. :-)
Enjoy.
Just found out in Portuguese, Os Seminovos means "the newbie or semi-newbie". And ao mestre, com Carinho means "to the master with love".
My laptop was stolen ... well not exactly mine ... it's my office. But still it's "my" property ... so thanks to my nice boss, we got a new laptop. And as I'm typing, I'm trying to configure things out and preparing all the lost documents again .... Then I discovered a feature that I've never tried before ... (yes, I'm so old-fashioned) ... it's faxing through my laptop. To see whether it works or not, I ask for a help from the cooking pot (my nice nice friend). She asked me to draw something ugly for her (well, she's an artist and I'm not), so I said ... "nay ... no images ... I can't draw."
So, instead, I send her this document .... I didn't know she enjoys it and she intends to upload it to her blog. :| ....
Erm .... but anyway ... the event in the message did happen in real life. She really forgot to wear shoes to work and instead wear the house slippers ... only to realize it when she's already on board on the bus.
Seriously, without a friend like this, I think my life will be duller. So ... I pray to God to send more "interesting events" through her :p ... such as ... she forgot to eat her Ginko Biloba which was supposed to make her memory better. :p .. Ah .. what a friend.
Hi everyone Surprise ... surprise ... Yes, it's been quite sometimes since I let my creative juice flows effortlessly in this platform. I've been "stung" by the lazy-bug which only cure lies within myself ... and I'm still recovering slowly.
First of all ... I would like to thank all of you ... my subscribers and also my readers who've been faithfully checking into my blog regularly though in the end found nothing was updated. I apologize for the trouble you've experienced ...
But to all of you who've been faithfully waiting ... and to especially 2 souls who've been screaming and yelling at regular basis and asked,"why is there no new post on your blog??" ... I dedicate this post to all of you ... I know who you are ... and I may not know a few of you ... but whatever it is ... this poem which was written by legendary (and one of my favourite poet) E.E. Cummings ... I hope you'll enjoy it and I promise ... I'm on the path of recovery to revive this blog.
i carry your heart with me by E.E. Cummings
i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart) i am never without it (anywhere i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling) i fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true) and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows (here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide) and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
