too good to not to share… (blogs)

2 blogs I'll like to share over here… (maybe I've shared before, but then again… since they're good!)

Well… it's not that these are any of those celebrities' blogs, or those celebrity bloggers or whatsoever…

They're my friends' that I've been following,

One's my cousin,

One's my… err… not so closed, but considered old schoolmate…

Ok… due to the good "training" from my uncle, (my late mother's younger brother)

And of course, my cousin's hardwork,

In my opinion, he writes well…

On top of his writing skill, gosh!!! His illustration (do you call it this way? Or simply… his cartoons, drawings?) is even more impressive,

Needless to say, his photography skill…

He's definitely VERY talented!!!!

I'm pleased~~~ to read his writing… sharing his life, his life being a young doctor, in melbourne now…

Again, in my opinion, it's even more interesting that watching those medical drama…

On my way home

Then, one day, I found my classmate on facebook… (arrgh… you just hate to admit that, facebook's just such a powerful platform, for social networking, right?)

Through her, I found my yet, another close classmate, who I've lost touch… (close, but not keeping in touch on a frequent basis, ok?) who, now, has moved to UK… oh!! How sweet~~~~~~~ good for her… and she's a lovely son, very lovely, very beautiful… (ok, that's sidetrack!! I do get "distracted" most of the time!)

Back to the former, I mean, the not-so-close classmate, (please don't get the impression that we're not in good terms… k? it's just that, I was closer to her cousin sister, ie. the latter…)

Ok… back to the old time, I knew they're kids with very good english, even at that age…

But gosh!!! Look at her blog…

Travel Dragon Fly

Her english…

I've to say, it's just another level, or probably another another level, as for my standard, or, as for my reading standard, even for pleasure…

It's like… she's writing a book…

Her "stories" have pictures… and of course, you can see that, she likes to take pictures, AND I can also see that, she's such a humble person to actually frequently link herself up with the word, "photography"… ^_~

Anyway,

Like the title says,
These, are just too good to not to share…

IN MY OPINION~

this thing about blogging...

I know everybody blogs for a reason,

Some blog for $$$ and some… blog for the sake of writing, or sharing info, or sharing stories, etc…

As for me,

Whenever there're friends, or acquaintences who come confide in me,

And if they need some help, in terms of life… or problem-dealing,

One of the thing that I'll recommend, is to write,

Just like writing diary…

I blog, I blog it's because I write diary, and I just want to bring it to the next level…

Do I think of earning money with blogging?

Yes, I did, I mean, I DID…

In the end, I just don't think much about it anymore,

Well, if there's money, there is, if there isn't it doesn’t matter, I don't want that, to change the origin, and the nature of the way I write, or the way I share my stories…

To me, writing, or blogging, is kind of a self-help thing…

Yes, "self-help" is the term that I'd like to use…

One example, of mine, if not others,

Is that, I rarely blog (I mean rarely, unless, there's some underlying message that I really want to reach out to others!) about bad stuff, yes, I may blog about my mood, being down, or somebody step on my toes, and bla bla bla…

But I don't keep my rant, or "bad mouth" on-going, maybe it's just one-off, or two-off…

In that way,

I see blogging as something… a platform for me to share my happy life, interesting life, and my positive thinking…

It does help me to be more positive, ie. self-help…

Even if I do rant about some bad stuff, for eg. Super dirty washrooms in our country,

It's meant for further improvement, or more social conscience, or…

Yes, to those people who use public facilities, to be a little bit more self-help, rather than still behaving like social etiquette-less idiots!

Anyway… yes, this thing about blogging…

I'm not sure besides those who blog for $$$,

I mean, besides $$$ and business…

If those bloggers do benefit from blogging…

As for me, sure I did, and I still do…

AND I even make some new online friends…

Ah… haha!! Being an at-home mom, I don't really go out and meet with new people anymore,

Even if I do, I don't have the luxury to maintain a "relationship" with these new people, get it??

But yes, blogging does help…

While you're "leaving comments" on other bloggers website, normally you also do want to share your blog sites with them… give and take, and there you go, new friends…

If you ask me, "friends" you call them???

Yes, to a certain extent,

And to a certain extent, you probably really know them better than the colleague, or your next door neighbour, who's just right next to you…

Cos, in their blog, they really share their bit and pieces of life…

Their worries, their thoughts, their ups, and their downs…

And yes, in a way,

I really do admire, and respect these bloggers, for not being too "stingy" in sharing their lives with others…

And sometimes, by sharing… others are benefitted too, then, vice versa…

For self-help?

Yes, write, by writing, we kinda recollect our "congested" mind… arggh… too cloudy, too many things in mind…

Writing, helps…

If you're willing to share, then, blog… ^_^

I got Time!

I've come across a remark, a few time lately…

That mircoblogging's killing conventional blogging…

Well… I guess, mainly the reason is, people do not have time anymore…

And the easiest way is to tweet… which I find it interesting as well…

I mean tweeting…

Blogging, or tweeting, both I like…

A lot of famous bloggers out there, have started to tweet more, than to blog…

Yep, blogging takes time… and to make your blog interesting.. Which is as opposed to my blog definitely, is to have loads of pictures…

Yep… if I were to look at blogs for leisure purpose, I need visual!!

Anyway…

Since big mama has GOT TIME!!

I blog,

And I tweet…

Kekekekekeke…

Side track:

Besides twitter itself…, tumblr.com for eg. Is a microblogging site..

And just yesterday, I found out that, typepad's launched a microblogging feature…

Maybe they can't resist the wave…,

Typepad's a blog (and maybe others) provider which actually does not come free…

Like I said, they can't fight the wave, cos, MOST PEOPLE GOT NO TIME!

So, since most people are into the trend that they've NO TIME, therefore, typepad need to adapt to their taste, ie. microblogging site…

At least, now, for free!! You can have something to do, with typepad…

^_^

Ps: and that's why I still like multiply (though, their site's not within 100 of alexa ranking), cos, I can tweet, and I can blog all in 1 place, AND then, I can post photos and videos, all in 1 place… I don't have to actually combine TWITTER, BLOGGER, FLICKR, YOUTUBE… what more to say, of these FOUR, twitter's on its own, blogger/youtube owned by google, and flickr owned by yahoo… oh!! Come on!! I don't care, just let either Google, or MS buy all of them… and that I can have all in 1 place, till that day… me@multiply...

(No Subject)

I like festive season, I like traveling out of the city, ie. Then, I'll not be at home, and then, I'll have the excuse not to do any housework, or cook, or whatever, not to say I hate them though... but then you know, when you're at home, you just can't sit tight, and not doing anything about your house (that also spells out that, I'm not a “tai tai” material) and since I'm away, I have all my own sweet time, to blog blog blog and blog till I drop and to tweet tweet tweet till the sun rise!! it seriously is fun and thrilling to me, if you ask me... call me weird!!

Sharing: Life ... Love it! Hate it!

Wa haha!!! today I have just read another friend's blog, I like it, so, I thought I'll cross-refer it here...
I want to stress that, it's not mine, it's my friend's blog!! (^__^)V don't want to be 'sued' for plagiarism, or copycat!!

I told her, I want to kiss her after reading this (^ 3 ^) keke!!

Half full or Half empty? ......

Life with half full or half empty
"Hi, how are you?" “How is life?”

The most common courtesy we normally greet people we just meet or those we have not met for quite some time.

Life – from whichever angle you see … always brings a lot of stories. Some interesting, mundane, sad, hilarious … with the entire unknown …

Does “Life” mean only by the minutes, the hours – days we spend, with all the surprises, the interesting stories, conversation, interactions we develop with others?

How would we look at somebody’s “Life”? How would you call a “good life”? Would that be based on people’s achievement in their career, wealth, contribution to the society, religious life … - is it a process of how somebody lives his / her years, how they influence others, what they leave behind when they reach their final destination? What matter the most in one’s life?

In a way – I am thankful for all the stormy moments that have visited my life up until now. All the sweats, tears, fights – which in the end give me the courage to stand up and brought me to where I am now. Think about it ..when we were younger, in our school days, uni days, no matter how tough things were, in school or at home, they were always within reach. We could plan on it, work on it, gave them a bit more determination, and they were more possible than ever …

Then, we moved on with life. Started our real working life, met more people, and faced different challenges. Success no longer depends on how hard we work, or how determine we are – but there’re just too many factors contributed to it. The wheel of life starts to rotate based on reality, our plans, many times, do not get along very well with the results. We may get frustrated, or amazed with what we get, life is going up and down interchangeably.

Today - I feel very little or no regret with all I have, with where I am and what I am doing. Looking back, I am quite happy with how I passed my bumpy roads – I can put my smile remembering my past tears. Feel thankful and blessed for all the special people who have crafted deep and sweet moments – even those who were there for very brief minutes – hours or days. There are a lot of encouraging moments, or enlightening times when I can say nothing …else than … “Gee, things could not be better …” – “I love my life”

BUT – even without my regrets – there were (and are) still moments, when I feel so low – sometimes, even for no reason, and I feel so lost. Waking up empty, do not know what I am doing – walking aimless, do not know where I should go. Those are moments when I would say – “God, what happen … what I have done to deserve this?” Why, why me? …

The famous quote from Forrest Gump’s mom says that “Life is like a box of chocolate ….” - That means – “expect the unexpected” – we never know what is ahead of us, we may plan, but we need to put some reservation for the worst thing that may happen to us. We do have our lowest moments for many reasons, we may be in our super sensitive mood for a reason that we can’t control – or, we may really face many unfortunate situations that hit us one after the other – without giving us any chance to breathe at all. People may block our way, things may end up not as we plan, we may even do silly things with or without we realize. We may say or do something that we regret in the end, out of our emotion, our anger, that in a very brief moment trigger our very evil thought to hurt others – unintentionally perhaps. We may humiliate ourselves – subconsciously perhaps. People may just treat us unfair, or do something that breaks our heart. “Kindness” I found … is getting more and more scarce recently … some people do not even know what that “kindness” means … sadly, but true …

Often when we are thinking about so many things that we discontent about – our conscious mind tends to lead us thinking of another way or looking for options – and we may create an expected or unexpected intersection in our life. We do not know what decision to make. We may, na?vely make one decision – expecting some good results. But, when things do not go as we like, we are dreaming about the other way that would never ever happen, dreaming how well it could have been …

Long ago, I read somewhere, a good reminder that our past success does not determine our future achievement …. It’s not that, all sweet life, all sweet achievement in the past – guarantee our future success! Also vice versa … I believe, every moment in life, is an independent time, that need to be worked on – and unfortunately, in most stage of our life, time does not really care whether we are in a good mood, whether we are ready to face them well … We just need to face everything, we just need to be ready. End up, we may feel happy when things are aligned with what we like, or we are slashed into pieces and full of tears – when we are facing many disappointment. Like it or not, we just need to be ready for either miracle or disaster … Life can change in a second … or even a fraction of second ….

In essence – What is in our life? How can we live the life to the fullness? Do we love our life, or, do we hate it? Let’s do some exercise, answering these questions:
§ Can you easily name some regrets in your life?
§ Can you proudly list a series of success stories that happen in the past …?
§ Name your – happiest moments, most memorable moments …
§ Name the moment(s) that become the turning point(s) in your life ….
§ List down, people who influence your life in a positive & negative way – and life could have been different without them visiting your life …
§ Name things that you would like to do, but you either do not have the courage or time for it
§ Are you still being “haunted” by some past horrible experiences? Or,
§ Are you –most of the time- worry about what will happen in the future?

Well – there are a lot of aspects in this topic that we can dig further and further – as people’s Life is full of stories, happiness –Love it!, and sadness –Hate it! But for now, after writing for so long … for the interest of your time J there are just a few humble personal opinions I would like to share here …

• For me, - people – friends, family (not the dysfunctional ones, of course) – are those we should treasure, they are the strength of our life that give us water to drink, share our tears and laugh with
• Even so, there are very few points in our life (or almost never ever ….) when we would be able to depend our life, our luck to others … mostly, at the end of the day, we are still the source of the strength, who will experience the tough time and find a way to get out of it, or just being buried dead or alive
• In any situation, I found that, “courage” is everything – courage to make mistakes, to try & fail, and keep trying, courage to make a decision … to admit our mistakes, to say sorry, to say thank you, to show our passion, to show our affection, to step out, to grow and learn – it is just almost everything …
• We all (or at least …me!) do stupid mistakes all the time; speak stupid things a lot, but none of them should stop us from moving on. The important thing, we should be able to forgive ourselves, to give us some moment to stop & breath, and most importantly, LEARN from it … look forward, and being in the PRESENT …
• Work, achievements – I don't know … I guess, for me now, they are not everything – what we do for people around us – how we share and us our life and make differences to people’s life – is all that matters …But wherever we are in any stage of our life, it will be much easier if we know where we want to go … (that’s my friend, is what we call “define our objectives”!)

Life – it’s very common that we love or hate our life every now and then … But take a deeper look, Life is full of possibilities, opportunities, energy and all the unexpected, we should use the positive moments to give our best, see the good things in others, make their days... Things, good and bad, miracle and misfortune, take place within second, in any case, we just need to be ready.

Lastly – this is may only be applicable for me – the Footprint story … I love this story … the story about looking back to see my footsteps on the sand and flash back the moments in my life. There are always 2 pairs of footprints on the sand, one of mine and another one belongs to our God. To my surprise, I notice that, during my difficult times there are only one pair of footprint! In my despair, I cry to God, and ask Him why he leaves me when I need Him the most? His comforting answer is … “those are the moments when He carry me” – When we believe, miracle does exist … but for whatever reasons, Miracle should not be our last resource in which we are hanging our life on …

Well friends, keep in mind …

§ “Everything that does not kill us makes us stronger ….” = Friedrich Nietzsche =

§ "It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are." = E. E. Cummings =

§ "Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content." = Helen Keller =

§ Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. = Marcel Proust =

§ See this too ….

For everything there is a season,
And a time for every matter under heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
A time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to seek, and a time to lose;
A time to keep, and a time to throw away;
A time to tear, and a time to sew;
A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate,
A time for war, and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8