One of my 2012 resolution, which I am rephrasing to a must-do list, is to read at least 2 books in 1 month. That's slow compared to what I could do long ... long time ago before I got too up-close and personal with Mr. Procrastination. However I am very glad that within 3 weeks, I have finished 3 books. One of them doesn't really worth mentioning. Quite a waste of one's time.
Though this book is not really that fantastic either, still there are some gems to be collected from it. What I am going to list down below is the "spoiler" of the book. If you would like to enjoy "the journey" then I suggest you to read the entire book.
The lessons drawn are the following points:
The Power of Authenticity
Embrace Your Fears
Live with Kindness
Make Small Daily Progress
To Lead Your Best Life, Do Your Best Work
Choose Your Influences Well
Life's Simplest Pleasures Are Life's Greatest Joys
The Purpose of Life is to Love
Stand for Something Bigger than Yourself
The Power of Authenticity We are encouraged to live our authentic life, to be true to ourselves which everyone knows, is not an easy task. We can learn this by understanding where we have been and then discover where we are going.
Personal take: As I go through life, I realize being authentic has its own power. You may lose some people along the way, but you will gain more that will resonate with your true self. Speaking from my own experience, I really witness positive changes take place in my life. But the journey to be authentic is a long road and I am still traveling through.
Embrace Your Fears "The more fears we walk through, the more power we reclaim. In this way, we grow both fearless and powerful, and thus are able to live the lives of our dreams."
Personal take: I used to be a people pleaser. I valued quantity and quality (call me greedy or simply naive). I kept on growing the numbers of my friends and thinking they are all of good quality. My fear was losing the numbers, thinking I wouldn't be significant. But after I took the first step in cutting the weeds from the flowers, my life blossoms. I took on my fears and ever since I never looked back. My life has never been better. I let go of the quantity and focus on quality. Once you know how to do it, it becomes a habit and life gets easier.
Live with Kindness "No action, no matter how small, is insignificant - how we treat someone defines how we treat everyone, including ourselves."
Personal take: Pretty straight forward and no-brainer. For this I would like to share one of my favourite quote:
“Treat everyone with politeness, even those who are rude to you – not because they are nice, but because you are.”—Unknown
Make Small Daily Progress "The way we do small things determines the way that we do everything ... Mastery then becomes our way of being." Personal take: Mastery in anything takes time. There's finding that to do well in something you need to put in at least 10,000 hours. If you do it 4 hours a day which means you need 2500 days = 7 years. Imagine. If you don't start something you would like to excel today, then you may need to wait longer. This is one problem I need to tackle, discipline, consistency and persistence are need to be the best. But alas ... I have ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and ... the only mastery I have for now is ... hmm ... I don't even know what ... HAIYA!
To Lead Your Best Life, Do Your Best Work "One of the greatest secrets to a life beautifully lived is to do work that matters. And to ascent to such a state of mastery in it that people can't take their eyes off of you." Personal take: I have a friend who organized a party pretty last-minute-ly and one of the thing I took away from it that even until this moment I am so very impressed, were her cheese platters. I remembered standing there being at awe of the arrangements as if I was admiring a piece of art. By far, she has put in the best work I have ever seen into a cheese platter. I am not talking about fine dining restaurants, some cheese experts, etc. Even so, I don't think I have seen something as beautiful as these. Guess I was so cheese-struck that I forgot I needed to eat more of them. -_-" Choose Your Influences Well "It's a mark of wisdom to choose to spend time in those places that inspire and energize you and associate with those people who elevate and uplift you." Personal take: Out of all of the above, I can 99.9% swear by this lesson. People who suck your energy, pour you with unnecessary negative dramas, should be casted away asap. Unless you are able to transform those negative energies into a positive one, then, good for you. If not, stay away, get rid of them, find yourself new friends, new work environments, or best of all, new perspectives. In the last 4 years, I have been seeing so much impacts just by associating myself with positively happy people. Or even if they are not all the time happy, they are enriching in their own ways. As a result, I am positively happier person too. I believe strongly, the people I know now and the people I am going to know next are going to be awesome. Because if life is not uplifting most of the time, then you will miss out on the views life has to offer. I wonder if the monkey in Sangeh (Bali) agrees with me or not ...
Life's Simplest Pleasure Are Life's Greatest Joys "Most people don't discover what's most important in life until they are too old to do anything about it. ... While society invites us to fill our lives with material objects, the best part of us knows that the more basic pleasures are the ones that enrich and sustain us."
Personal take: 13-16 November 2011, will be when I graduated in this life lesson. I booked myself to one of the not-so-cheap villa in Ubud, Bali, thinking I would like to spend my birthday on my own and pamper myself with the facilities offered by the resort. May I say, I regretted that decision ever! The villa even though it was so big and had all kind of things you need - even a coffee maker - was one of the most horrible stay I have ever had in my life. The first night I arrived at the resort, alone (stupid), I was cursing and swearing on why on earth I did what I did. Because after I have parted with my friends (also thanks to my own decision), then I realized, beautiful places mean nothing without the company of friends. Sure, we need our alone time once in a while, but when something is awesome, it's much pleasurable when we are able to share it. Even though it's as simple as,"Oy! Don't you think this tea is very nice? Don't you see the monkey is so cute! Oh come on, I think you look like the fat one." The Purpose of Life is to Love "How well you live comes down to how much you love. The heart is wiser than the head. Honor it. Trust it. Follow it."
Personal take: Well, well, well ... sure love is nice. I love you. You love me. World peace. That's very nice. I just had a lengthy discussion 2 days ago with 2 of my wise and mature friends over this topic. One is very heart. One is very brain. Personally, I think one needs to balance between the heart and the brain. If you love without the brain, you may fall into dangers as you didn't see it coming before. If you think without the heart, you may miss out on life's miracles. If I could rephrase that, I would say the purpose of life is to live it by loving, thinking and sharing.
Stand for Something Bigger than Yourself "...become successful, on your own terms rather than on those suggested to you by society. But above all else - be significant. Make your life matter - be of use. And be of service to as many people as possible."
Personal take: This .... I have no comment. I don't know what I am standing for. But I know I am learning and slowly creating my terms day by day. I know my life matter but I don't know what service I am able to give to as many people as possible yet. Time to go to my dark corner to reflect or to sleep as the clock is not very friendly anymore.
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I hope you enjoy my sharing from what I have read. The next book will be a brainier one and I doubt I can remember what I have learned from it! HAH! Ho-boy ....
For those who will be celebrating Chinese New Year, I am wishing you a new year filled with love, joy, peace, health and abundance. May all your goals come to fruition and stay happy always.
Then, I didn't recall who he is until my friend shared an awesome post from his blog that's titled 8 Steps to Getting What You Want Without Formal Credentials. I believe everyone should read that post at least once. You may or may not agree with what he said, but I would say 80% of what he said makes sense.
Basically, in this blog post, he shared about an alternative way to combat our own laziness into thinking just because we do not have a degree in certain subject, doesn't mean we can't be a master of some sorts. He also shared about how people tend to find jobs through informal job market than formal job market and in order to do that you need to start build your credential from somewhere.
His 8 steps, which he covered really in details basically comprises of - choose something you want to learn, document/share your journey of learning, start applying what you have learned through networking and offering to work for free, find mentors, learn sales and ultimately you will be independent enough to sell and deliver your knowledge/skill to the people that you have come to know along the way.
No more excuse for saying, "but I can't do this or I can't do that" because everything is indeed learn-able. Unfortunately, even after reading this article, I still can't help but have so much angst towards Excel and Vlookup from 8 different charts. -__-"
Guess the next skill I should be learning is to meditate and calm my mind or how to be peaceful with too many excel charts. We'll see.
Oh ya, before I forget, do check out his bio page. What he has tried and what he is doing now is simply amazing. Truly, your mind and how you choose to spend your time are your only limits.
And I have been procrastinating for so long ... shame on me!
Yes, you heard me right. A taxi driver in Singapore has been blogging regularly since the start of his career. Though he has only been a taxi driver for 6 months due to an unfortunate event, during those period, he blogged simply to record stories he experienced during his contract. Little that he knew his misfortune made me move my arse and type something here.
This special taxi driver's name is Dr. Cai Mingjie. Yes, he has a "Dr" title as he has a Stanford PhD. He was terminated from his job May 2008 and since then he had so much trouble to find job as either he was overqualified or there were simply no responses to his applications. (He has started to look for job since May 2007!!!!) Putting his PhD aside, he decided to be a taxi driver in November 2008 and the rest is history.
I have heard of him on the newspaper before. At that point of time, I thought the media wanted to show how bad the market was during the crisis that job was so scarce. I pitied him, and many of the Facebookers did too. But few days ago, I was shocked, I saw his book at the book store and without shadow of a doubt, I bought it. Even though it's at quite a hefty price (for local book it is a little bit high, I should have bought it online and I could get his autograph! HAHA) I just thought to myself,"Hey! This is interesting! I want!".
The book - it's an easy read. Simply love how simple the way he wrote it and most importantly the daily life stories stories were intertwined with philosophies and reflections. As most people now, there are good and bad people that taxi drivers may encounter and this book covers both sides. But he focused more on the good sides and even the bad, he reflected on it and they become life lessons. He's my idol.
What I love the most is when despite his unfortunate circumstance of losing his job and being pushed from one of the more prestigious career of scientist to one of the lower one of a taxi driver, yet, he managed to put his pride aside and did what a scientist will do to the whole experience - learn, observe, reflect and share. I know I connect with this most because I used to be a passionate observer and sharer like him through my blog. Then ... I slacked and slacked and .... you know what happened after that long time of drought in actions = NOTHING!
Lots of the stories he shared inside, especially about the sides of Singapore that not many of us will chance upon - lives of the prostitutes, the senior citizens who are struggling, the old men with some "needs", the executives who are stingy and rude, etc. They opened my eyes and heart to learn more about what we have easily missed about our surroundings. I am grateful to chance upon his book and slowly awakening that curious gene inside me. One lesson at a time.
Ever wondered how the textbooks look like for some of the Indonesian students in the 80s? Think most of them are for Primary schools. Someone found some of these here I am sharing them. Geez, they are sooooo old!
Bahasa Indonesia = The official language of Indonesia You will learn phrases such as: - Ini bapak Budi. = This is Budi's father - Ini ibu Budi. = This is Budi's mother
Matematika = Mathematics
Pendidikan Moral Pancasila = Erm ... The moral education of Pancasila (The Indonesian State Philosophy) One of the thing I remember learning was in a multiple choice question: If you found a wallet on the street you should: a. Keep it to yourself b. Return the wallet and keep the money c. Bring it to the police station
Now, I do wonder which one will people really practice nowadays. :D
Ilmu Pengetahuan Social = The Social Education I can't really remember what I've learnt here. OMG ... I do remember a bit of geography in it. Erm .... never mind ...
The next one, I knew it as Ilmu Pengetahuan Alam = The Education of Nature(Biology) I don't really have comments on this. Guess we'll learn that chicken lays eggs and humans don't from here.
Zat dan Energi = Minerals and Energy I don't remember studying this book. That's how old this book is!
So, do you remember how your text books look like and what have you learned from it?
"Having eyes, but not seeing beauty; having ears, but not hearing music; having minds, but not perceiving truth; having hearts that are never moved and therefore never set on fire. These are the things to fear, said the headmaster."
A remarkable book that I hope more people should take on to understand the children which we were once one of them and part of them still remain in our present moment.
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.
I have the privilege to know personally by the pure chance of serendipity and Myspace, this great lady who's a master teacher in the area of health and wellness. Her name is Myrna Weinreich from New York. She has shared with me this beautiful e-book, 7 Little Things, which she compiled after speaking with 20 wellness & lifestyle professionals.
These 20 experts will share with you what they think individually are the 7 little tips to live a healthier life filled with abundance. Don't forget to check it out.
Come back to myself, what are my 7 little things to get by in life?
Humour
Abundance mindset
Healthy and well toned body (:p......without injuries, pls)
Love ... love ... love ... (Give love and receive love. Must be balanced
The 3Ps! Parents, Pets and Peers
The 3Ms! Money, Movies and Music
The G-Spot (NAY! Not what you are thinking, ya!) It's the God's spot. What do you think, eh??? -.- HAHA ...
How about you? What are your 7 little things? :-) Don't forget about them ya ...
Imagine: You are in your early 30s. You are happily married to a wonderful husband. You have one young beautiful daughter. Then .... You are diagnosed with cancer. You know you may be dead before your daughter grows up.
What would you have done?
Meet, Erin Tierney Kramp, she's the woman that was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 33 in 1994. At that time, her daughter, Peyton was only few years old.
Image courtesy of www.dcccd.edu What do you think she's done?
Well, for sure she fought her cancer like mad. She flew all over the country to seek for best advices. She even studied alternative treatments and even unproved methods. She fought hard.
Unfortunately, even though she fought hard and adopted the attitude of never ever to give up, she lost the battle 31st October 1998 - 4AM. Yep ... she died. :( ....
But, what makes her story so special until Oprah has included her as one of the people who left "heartprint" for what she's done before she died.
As a mother who knows her time was almost up, with so much to share with the daughter she loved, she started to create tons of videos for her daughter to watch when she's no longer exist physically in this world. You'll be surprised on what are the tapes consist of. They consist of almost everything Peyton (Erin's daughter) needs for the rest of her life until her wedding day.
To mention a few there are:
How to choose make up
How to choose a husband
How to prepare when daddy's remarried
How to pick a career: "When you're picking your career don't pick what you think I would want you to do. Don't pick what you know would make Dad happy for you to pick. I want you to pick something, whether you're schooled in it or not, that you have passion for." - My mom never told me that ler!! -.- Still love you lar, mom :p
And many more
Do you think she stopped there? Nope. She even prepared every birthday gifts for Peyton (nicely wrapped) and also ... wedding gift! It's like she's there for Peyton all the time especially the big events. As for the minor events ... Peyton can always refer to all the videos for answer. Her mummy will always be answering her.
You see ... death has always been such a taboo topic among most of my peers. And most of them live in a way that nobody around them is gonna die but they all will, including your beloved parents and even my beloved Kiky whom I thought will live forever (naive!) ... but she also has left me first. And to this moment I'll cringe thinking about it.
But that's just life. Things will go. They will end. It's what you do with it when they haven't ended yet that makes all the difference. Do you live a legacy or do you simply live deadly? It's up to you. Are you in denial or you face the facts and make the most of it?
Thank you, Erin for your courage and the lessons you live behind. Your loving acts to Peyton has reached to the world and touched many lives. :) and hope your message will be heard by many souls who tend to forget that "death" is a sure thing and life is what you create it to be.
I've no idea why I had the urge to watch Miss Potter alone. So I did and it's been great. :-) Super Short Synopsis
Why is the title called Miss Potter and not Beatrix Potter (her full name)? There's a reason behind it. In that era, when women above 30s are still single, when they were being called "Miss", it's actually pretty sarcastic remark Beatrix Potter? She's actually a famous author a quite a lot of children books especially The Tale of Peter Rabbit and many many more which I'll be sharing later.
This movie is about her career, her love life, her passion and most importantly her purpose in life and how she's lived her life without knowing what to do next and yet still go through it with open minds all the time. Though she's brought up in a very well-to-do family, but her perseverance to beat the odds and follow her own path was very strong and in the it bedazzled not only people around her but the world through her paintings and story telling skills. You should watch more to find out how. :-)
D.D.'s A-HA Moments
Miss Potter started and ended the movie with the following quote,"There's something quite delicious about writing the first words of a story." Why? Because the way she lived her life was always in the moment and most importantly, living it in her own imaginative ways. Though there were so many tough times too, she still held on to her passion and imaginations no matter how ridiculous they may seem. And in the end, she has created something greater than her parents could have ever imagined for a girl who only knew how to draw animals.
She could stay with her parents and be pampered till the day she died but she chose to take control of her own life, moved to a countryside, bought her own farm house with no maids around and be totally independent be it emotionally, mentally and financially. How? By drawing and telling stories. Something she has done best since she was a little girl.
With the money she earned from royalties, she finally found a purpose that's greater than life itself. She regularly bid for farmland and preserved it from greedy developers who wanted to steal away those source of inspirations through breath taking views of the nature. For more than 8 years, she had acquired around 4000 acres of farmland and preserved them from nature's vultures.
Even though things didn't go as her wishes, she didn't blame anyone for it. Not even those that we, as viewers, think should be blamed. She took the full responsibility, dusted off herself and moved on. Amazing attitude.
When you believe in yourself so much, the universe will send someone who believes in you as much as you do. And together you'll discover a journey that you'll never imagine even though it may seem absurd at first.
Lastly, doing something you love and good at, can never fail you. Guess almost all great stories have this lesson. :)
Trailer
Beatrix Potter's Creations
and many oh many more .... feel free to check out her complete collection at www.amazon.com. They sell it cheaper in amazon than Kinokuniya, Singapre. Trust me, I've checked! -.- ... Tempted to buy the whole collection ... huu ... huuu ....
D.D.'s Ratings 8.88 / 10 Diamonds (it doesn't need to be stars all the time, right? :p)
What I'm going to share to you next are my learning experience and the graphic may turn you off but it's necessary because I want to: - show off, and also - throw my own ignorance right in front of my face
So, here we go. :)
Once upon a time, when Little D.D. was only 9 years old, she was introduced to Bruce Lee and since then she has never turned back on loving martial art but most importantly the beauty of muscles! ;p ...
Since then, Little D.D. was obsessed with gym. Whenever she went to any hotel, she'll make sure she dropped by in the gym though totally inappropriately attired, she would try to at least use one of the machine before the journey ended. (And till now, she still does that ya .... -.-)
Anyway, in March 2006, D.D. managed to get hold of her long life dream. She signed up to a gym membership! Ho ho ho .... and so far it's the best investment she's ever made and has devoted the gym as her "temple". :p ....
So, how's the outcome so far? (Horrific picture showing soon :p)
Please forgive me for the very bad cropping and editing. I've no necessary software in doing so plus I ain't designer :p ... (Excuses, excuses). So, this is my bicep. I'm proud of it. Some said it's scary but heck, I love it. It's not like Bruce Lee's but heyyyyyy .... it's my hard work.
So am I done yet with this? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ..... Why? Well, well, well ... let's go back to small little D.D.'s story. She saw Bruce Lee's muscles and she thought those are the only muscles in his body (and will be applicable to hers) and forgetting all what she's ever learned in Biology (Honest, I totally don't know what I've learned).
So, she kept training the obvious and forgetting those who are keeping the obvious ALIVE. What on earth I'm talking about here?
Well, D.D. is currently injured. Despite the growing biceps, my forearms are weak! -.- ... (So ... no .... face!) Why? Because D.D. never trained the forearms laaaaaa .... So when I tried to lift up that 7.5 kg dumbbell, everything falls apart. La la la la .... And D.D. ended up going to physiotherapist and being mocked at too -.-! Bleh! (Need to give that doctor some good spank but can't ... still need him at that point of time)
What went wrong? Did I forget to hire that personal trainer? May be ... but mostly it's because I was pretty ignorant about the fact that ... (argh, this is totally embarassing) I was:
not stretching properly
not starting from the correct muscle group
not heeding the signals that my body has been giving
not reading exercise books properly from start to finish and skipping to the part where they teach you how to focus on the most-obvious muscles.
and ... many ... more ....
So, what's next?
D.D.'s currently recuperating and go to the temple, less! (ARGHHHH ..... CRYYYYYYYYYYYYYY ... God of gym don't forsake me) ... and couldn't perform certain exercise :( :( :(. Cringe!!
So what have I learned so far? I learned that some not-so-obvious things in life are actually more crucial than those can be seen. It's just like how we think some people visible material possession and achievements are so grand and enviable, but at the back of it, those that we can't see, like their heart and soul, may be deteriorating at the speed of light. Who knows?
When it's all finally crumbling apart, then we'll know what those invisible players are and how important they are to us. Never ever take anything for granted. Including your Flexor muscles & Flexor tendons. (Those are the 2 invisible parts on your forearms ... which for mine are having mini-protest session now. Should have paid more attention in that Biology class. Ouch ....
And lastly .... Bruce Lee ah ... how you got all those muscle one? Aiyah .... I'll just copy your signature pose for now and figure out about your amazing abs later. :p
I'll be sharing all in this blog but for now I'd like to start with Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, because ... it's the last one that I watched :p.
Super Short Synopsis Based on the best-selling novel, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind, about a man, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, whose olfactory (smelling) sense is the strongest of all and his quest in preserving those smell that captivated him, forever.
Tips for those who hasn't watched the movie:
Be there with open mind. I can't stress how important and crucial this is. There are some stuffs that most people who just can't accept especially morally. Take it you are watching a piece of art and sometimes, art just doesn't know boundary. If you think you can't take it, don't watch. It's pointless to bitch and be so unhappy about a show after you've paid money for it
As this is a movie about scent and smell, it's definitely to capture its essence and experience through our visual and auditory elements. But try to feel which ever way you can. Be creative and most importantly, be imaginative. Including those which looked super gross ... it's an interesting experience if you just let it be
There are few creepy scenes. Though it's not a horror show but it still gives you the creeps. It's fun though haha ... Better than lousy horror movies for sure. :p ...
(WARNING: Spoilers may be lurking but not to the extent it'll spoil your enjoyment if you choose to watch the show)
The Super Short Flow The first scene, Jean- Baptiste Grenouille, was announced to be sentenced in front of the public by destroying all his limbs on the cross. What happened after that, was his journey towards his goal in creating the ultimate perfume and the continuation from the gruesome announcement.
My Take I haven't read the novel before but it's so acclaimed that the novel is really good. So I took a look at the last chapter of it yesterday. :p .... And the words are so profound and captivating. But the movie has done it a justice (at least for the last chapter) though there are a few sentences that I think should have been included in. But oh well ... you can go to any book store and read about the last page. As it sums up about the moral of the story.
So what do I learn from this movie:
Even though you have that invincible power that may allow you to control the world, it all will fall apart when you don't have the ability to love and to be loved
Self identity is another important message this movie trying to tell. You've to know who you are in whichever way you are defining it and not based on others' definitions. Because when you are not, when even a dog can't sniff the essence of you, you are just another lost soul.
Beautiful Quotes I may not have captured it correctly, but it says something along the line of ... "The soul of every being, lies in its sense."
Trailer:
Related Link If you are interested in how the perfumes are being made, I've found a website that went back to Grasse (where the movie took place) and followed the footsteps of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille.
... brilliantly written by 
by Patrick Suskind, about a man, 
