To be proactive is to not be reactive. Simple enough?
Not to react to how others make you feel, but to decide how you want to feel.
Not to react to what others make you do, but to decide on what you need to do.
Of course, to the second point, there are always things pulling you down for every decision, but that is another story. The choice itself is yours.
Do not say 'I'll try' but 'I'll do it'
Do not say 'I have to' but 'I choose to'
Most importantly, do not let others ruin your day, because you ruin your own day.
"People are just about as happy as they make up their mind to be." -Abraham Lincoln
Its amazing how a little proactivity in my life has changed my attitude and the way I see things especially during this holiday. Not to be emotional and decisional marionette controlled by everyone else in this world takes a constant reminder to myself. It is a habit for me to train.
"We make our habits. Then our habits make us."
This is a relatively short composition but still...
To be continued...
Monday, December 22, 2008
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Rights for what's right
It is my birthday today! A cute bear given as a present now sits in front of my desk. I told myself to be happy today.
Yesterday, my family attended a violin concert where I was supposed to accompany my brother's violin on the piano and play my violin piece too. I stumbled quite a lot on the piano, probably due to nervousness, and even started dreaming while playing. When I hit an unfamilier part, I struggled to find out where I was on the score. My violin performance was still alright though. We left the concert halfway for dinner at a restaurant in Bukit Timah.
I shall start off with a "joke". Its totally unrelated to what I am going to talk about later.
My father's company wanted a 100% share in being another companies supplier. Finally, after managing to get that company to cancel its other supplier's contract, they realised they had nothing to sell. Make more? Nah, the company does not even have the machine. The products were bought.
Then, my father colleagues lied that the machine was malfunctioning, and some person came down to check it out. As to what happened after is out of my knowledge.
Honesty is simple, yet how complicated things get in its absence...
-End of story-
Sunday, my family planned to watch 'Bolt' the movie at PJ. We entered the car park. As we circled around, we found that one of the parking lot detectors are malfunctioning as it remains green although the space had been occupied. Anyway, we could not find a lot, and the number of cars accumulated. We were so unlucky, or should I say, some people are so lucky, that whenever we saw a space, it got occupied when we were about to reach it.
In addition, we saw a few people standing in the middle of the road chatting with one another in the carpark. If they were carpark attendants, they are idiots, as they did not do anything about the traffic or guide any of the cars. If they were not, they are idiotic for standing in the middle of the road and blocking traffic. Either way, they are idiots. Unless there was a threat behind them! We might have accused them wrongly as they saved our lives yet we scolded them behind their back! But we did not see any black bag so the chances of that would be very low.
After circling for 10 minutes or more, my father was really pissed off. This carpark had no idea of traffic control at all. At MT, there were two entrances and the guards between the two co-operated so as to ensure that there were not too many cars entering compared to exiting, which was better, although there was a long queue of cars trailing behind. 10 minutes in the carpark, that means 'pay-up'. As he drove towards the barrier, he realised his mistake just in time and whisked out his cashcard before the machine could deduct any money, and complained through shouting. The guard let him out free immediately.
He did something different from all the other cars which went out without getting a lot. He voiced out. 2 dollars might not be alot, but our rights do. We did not use the car park, so why should we pay? If this goes on, some people could get too confident in swallowing money and it has to be stopped.
This reminded us about another incident which made my father 'famous'. Our maid went to buy shoes at PL. The store attendants gave her the wrong size. My father went to the store and requested for a change. They turned it down. No negotiation worked and he started shouting at them, bringing in a crowd. The store attendants threatened to call the police, but he did not move. Probably knowing that they were wrong, they gave in. Its not a matter of money, but a matter of principles.
Once again, these triggered up the incident at sentosa earlier this year. I believe it is one incident that would not leave my memory easily. I succumbed to the peer pressure and gave up my rights on deciding for myself, whether to participate in their cheating act. I might be looked down upon, but at least not by myself, which is most important. If you know that what you are doing is right, then build your actions upon it. Be ready to voice out.
Many people come and go, just like a moving foundation. To build your actions upon their requests, everything can just topple once they leave, leaving what you have done in a rubble.
Principle is solid. Principles like "Being Honest", "Caring" are the solid foundations of living a life.
You might say that being petty over money (like in the first two examples) isn't a very nice way to live. Here, if a beggar comes to you and say, "Please give me some money". Sure, any kind soul would give. What if, he said "Please, I beg you to let me cheat off your money." Well, won't that make you think twice?
What's more if no one bothers to fight back when they have been 'bullied', would not that make them even more sure of carrying out such underhand means for their personal gain, and making more people suffer? And sure, this applies to robbing of other's rights for them to decide their own path.
Do not be let others trade off what's yours for their selfish gain, intended or unintended. If unintended, be nice; if intended, 'fight'. If dealing with a bunch of gangsters, retreat.
Yesterday, my family attended a violin concert where I was supposed to accompany my brother's violin on the piano and play my violin piece too. I stumbled quite a lot on the piano, probably due to nervousness, and even started dreaming while playing. When I hit an unfamilier part, I struggled to find out where I was on the score. My violin performance was still alright though. We left the concert halfway for dinner at a restaurant in Bukit Timah.
I shall start off with a "joke". Its totally unrelated to what I am going to talk about later.
My father's company wanted a 100% share in being another companies supplier. Finally, after managing to get that company to cancel its other supplier's contract, they realised they had nothing to sell. Make more? Nah, the company does not even have the machine. The products were bought.
Then, my father colleagues lied that the machine was malfunctioning, and some person came down to check it out. As to what happened after is out of my knowledge.
Honesty is simple, yet how complicated things get in its absence...
-End of story-
Sunday, my family planned to watch 'Bolt' the movie at PJ. We entered the car park. As we circled around, we found that one of the parking lot detectors are malfunctioning as it remains green although the space had been occupied. Anyway, we could not find a lot, and the number of cars accumulated. We were so unlucky, or should I say, some people are so lucky, that whenever we saw a space, it got occupied when we were about to reach it.
In addition, we saw a few people standing in the middle of the road chatting with one another in the carpark. If they were carpark attendants, they are idiots, as they did not do anything about the traffic or guide any of the cars. If they were not, they are idiotic for standing in the middle of the road and blocking traffic. Either way, they are idiots. Unless there was a threat behind them! We might have accused them wrongly as they saved our lives yet we scolded them behind their back! But we did not see any black bag so the chances of that would be very low.
After circling for 10 minutes or more, my father was really pissed off. This carpark had no idea of traffic control at all. At MT, there were two entrances and the guards between the two co-operated so as to ensure that there were not too many cars entering compared to exiting, which was better, although there was a long queue of cars trailing behind. 10 minutes in the carpark, that means 'pay-up'. As he drove towards the barrier, he realised his mistake just in time and whisked out his cashcard before the machine could deduct any money, and complained through shouting. The guard let him out free immediately.
He did something different from all the other cars which went out without getting a lot. He voiced out. 2 dollars might not be alot, but our rights do. We did not use the car park, so why should we pay? If this goes on, some people could get too confident in swallowing money and it has to be stopped.
This reminded us about another incident which made my father 'famous'. Our maid went to buy shoes at PL. The store attendants gave her the wrong size. My father went to the store and requested for a change. They turned it down. No negotiation worked and he started shouting at them, bringing in a crowd. The store attendants threatened to call the police, but he did not move. Probably knowing that they were wrong, they gave in. Its not a matter of money, but a matter of principles.
Once again, these triggered up the incident at sentosa earlier this year. I believe it is one incident that would not leave my memory easily. I succumbed to the peer pressure and gave up my rights on deciding for myself, whether to participate in their cheating act. I might be looked down upon, but at least not by myself, which is most important. If you know that what you are doing is right, then build your actions upon it. Be ready to voice out.
Many people come and go, just like a moving foundation. To build your actions upon their requests, everything can just topple once they leave, leaving what you have done in a rubble.
Principle is solid. Principles like "Being Honest", "Caring" are the solid foundations of living a life.
You might say that being petty over money (like in the first two examples) isn't a very nice way to live. Here, if a beggar comes to you and say, "Please give me some money". Sure, any kind soul would give. What if, he said "Please, I beg you to let me cheat off your money." Well, won't that make you think twice?
What's more if no one bothers to fight back when they have been 'bullied', would not that make them even more sure of carrying out such underhand means for their personal gain, and making more people suffer? And sure, this applies to robbing of other's rights for them to decide their own path.
Do not be let others trade off what's yours for their selfish gain, intended or unintended. If unintended, be nice; if intended, 'fight'. If dealing with a bunch of gangsters, retreat.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
A dream in a dream in a dream
Original version from
http://dream-collection11.blogspot.com/2008/12/dream-in-dream-in-dream.html
The plane shook violently.
As it descended at a steep angle towards the runway, passengers braced. I covered my head with one head and continued eating chocolate with the other for some weird reason. If I remember it clearly, I wanted to finish it really badly before the plane hit ground. Finally, I was so scared that I tried to force open my eyes and wake up from this dream, but just as my eyelids lifted a little...
Crash.
I woke up with a start...in the plane. Just then the air turned turbulent, the plane shook violently as I chewed on my chocolate. Ahead was a sea of terrace houses with just a small porch which was about to act as the landing strip. The plane is never going to make a good landing with that amount of space, i thought.
And I was right. Surprisingly, only the cockpit caught fire. Even so, the cabin was in a deep wreck. Fortunately. I pulled myself out of it and did one of those reverse chin ups which lowered my bruise covered body down those seperator walls between terrace houses.
I thought it was quite a good job for me to get out of that wreck before the fire spread furthur as I felt quite contented. Now it might seem weird but apparently I wasn't too traumatized.
I walked along the avenue and saw a house with a gigantic 3 storey tall soft toy lion which was just as lively as me, roaring bound by a gate at a house just across the main road. It was really frightening. I walked in the other direction and found a house in which some of my friends were there. The only people I could remember who were there were hk and jk. The people there said that they had to set off for some place but before going, they had to go to the toilet, and there was no toilet in the house. but I didn't really care. So all of us set out for the place we had to go to.
It was then I realised that we had to walk out of the gate onto the main road where the lion was. I was very scared, but realising that everyone was leaving me behind, I gathered my courage and walked past the lion. It went smoothly and I didn't get eaten up by that soft toy.
As our journey continued, I thought I might take some pictures as a memory. I took a picture of that burning inferno of a plane lying in some distance. Black Fumes rose out of the air and i could see the top of the broken plane. So there.
As we continued walking, I felt myself drift into another realm, but the same people were around me, with the same purpose, to get to the 'place'. But my surroundings were different, it was a green meadow with a pavement leading through it. As we walked, I decided to show cmc the picture of the burning plane. I took out my camera.
He asked if I was sure there was a plane crash, because he did not observe one. Perhaps I was dreaming? To confirm this, I checked if the picture was there. It was not. Alas, I found out that both the crashes didn't really happen. All I saw was a collection of jk's photos and weird postures. Cmc was laughing like crap, and I was reassured, the plane crash which seemed so real was all a dream...
And then this whole dream which contained the dream and the dream in the dream ended.
This dream, is one of the most realistic, and vivid ones I had in these few months. Everything was so clear, I could even describe the interior of the terrace house. It had a few religious statues, and it was dusty and dark. No toilets at all too. And the lion on the other side of the road - stood proudly with its paws together with its hind legs. It was yellow and had a brown mane, which made it look even more like a soft toy. Everything in the dream, it just seemed as if it is really happening in real life...
http://dream-collection11.blogspot.com/2008/12/dream-in-dream-in-dream.html
The plane shook violently.
As it descended at a steep angle towards the runway, passengers braced. I covered my head with one head and continued eating chocolate with the other for some weird reason. If I remember it clearly, I wanted to finish it really badly before the plane hit ground. Finally, I was so scared that I tried to force open my eyes and wake up from this dream, but just as my eyelids lifted a little...
Crash.
I woke up with a start...in the plane. Just then the air turned turbulent, the plane shook violently as I chewed on my chocolate. Ahead was a sea of terrace houses with just a small porch which was about to act as the landing strip. The plane is never going to make a good landing with that amount of space, i thought.
And I was right. Surprisingly, only the cockpit caught fire. Even so, the cabin was in a deep wreck. Fortunately. I pulled myself out of it and did one of those reverse chin ups which lowered my bruise covered body down those seperator walls between terrace houses.
I thought it was quite a good job for me to get out of that wreck before the fire spread furthur as I felt quite contented. Now it might seem weird but apparently I wasn't too traumatized.
I walked along the avenue and saw a house with a gigantic 3 storey tall soft toy lion which was just as lively as me, roaring bound by a gate at a house just across the main road. It was really frightening. I walked in the other direction and found a house in which some of my friends were there. The only people I could remember who were there were hk and jk. The people there said that they had to set off for some place but before going, they had to go to the toilet, and there was no toilet in the house. but I didn't really care. So all of us set out for the place we had to go to.
It was then I realised that we had to walk out of the gate onto the main road where the lion was. I was very scared, but realising that everyone was leaving me behind, I gathered my courage and walked past the lion. It went smoothly and I didn't get eaten up by that soft toy.
As our journey continued, I thought I might take some pictures as a memory. I took a picture of that burning inferno of a plane lying in some distance. Black Fumes rose out of the air and i could see the top of the broken plane. So there.
As we continued walking, I felt myself drift into another realm, but the same people were around me, with the same purpose, to get to the 'place'. But my surroundings were different, it was a green meadow with a pavement leading through it. As we walked, I decided to show cmc the picture of the burning plane. I took out my camera.
He asked if I was sure there was a plane crash, because he did not observe one. Perhaps I was dreaming? To confirm this, I checked if the picture was there. It was not. Alas, I found out that both the crashes didn't really happen. All I saw was a collection of jk's photos and weird postures. Cmc was laughing like crap, and I was reassured, the plane crash which seemed so real was all a dream...
And then this whole dream which contained the dream and the dream in the dream ended.
This dream, is one of the most realistic, and vivid ones I had in these few months. Everything was so clear, I could even describe the interior of the terrace house. It had a few religious statues, and it was dusty and dark. No toilets at all too. And the lion on the other side of the road - stood proudly with its paws together with its hind legs. It was yellow and had a brown mane, which made it look even more like a soft toy. Everything in the dream, it just seemed as if it is really happening in real life...
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
In memory of a two year journey - Part 2
This year, things have turned for the better, for some reason I can't seem to fish out at the moment. More unity, more acceptance, probably almost everything among the whole class. At least it seemed so on the surface.
It is amazing how it took one whole year for some interaction between certain groups of people in the class. Having experienced some of it, I should say that although some people are still not very friendly to each other, some invisible force, possibly one of the results of the theory of 'The friend of my friend is my friend', it just came forth as a chain reaction and the class just became more lively, especially in the second semester (which is maybe a little late).
It had been a great year, with all those times spent together during lessons, or going out. Even so, sometime ago I still feel like I am not fitting very well into the class. My opinions are really different from others, and this leads to some problems.
Firstly, it plonks me into a position to wrestle between conscience and peer-pressure. Take the sentosa trip for instance.
Secondly, it gives people a great reason to argue with me which is the last thing I would want, based on the experience I had last year.
Perhaps I should settle myself down and just hang on and spend more time with a smaller group, but nevertheless, this has probably taught me the greatest lesson I have learnt in my two year experience in this school.
Be proactive.
To be continued...
It is amazing how it took one whole year for some interaction between certain groups of people in the class. Having experienced some of it, I should say that although some people are still not very friendly to each other, some invisible force, possibly one of the results of the theory of 'The friend of my friend is my friend', it just came forth as a chain reaction and the class just became more lively, especially in the second semester (which is maybe a little late).
It had been a great year, with all those times spent together during lessons, or going out. Even so, sometime ago I still feel like I am not fitting very well into the class. My opinions are really different from others, and this leads to some problems.
Firstly, it plonks me into a position to wrestle between conscience and peer-pressure. Take the sentosa trip for instance.
Secondly, it gives people a great reason to argue with me which is the last thing I would want, based on the experience I had last year.
Perhaps I should settle myself down and just hang on and spend more time with a smaller group, but nevertheless, this has probably taught me the greatest lesson I have learnt in my two year experience in this school.
Be proactive.
To be continued...
Friday, December 5, 2008
Back from Hong Kong
I'm back.
Reached home at 9 yesterday night.
My lips hurt.
Weather in Hong Kong was sunny and dry, yet cold. It was really uncomfortable when my lips were very dry, yet were unable to absorb the water molecules when I drank water.
My family and I followed a tour group, and for the next four days were sightseeing, ocean park and disneyland.
As the plane started landing, my ears were unable to relief the pressure due to the change in altitude. It was a lot worse than the last time and it was just 15 minutes of torture to my ears...
Sometime after we landed we embarked on a long journey to the hotel. After some rest, we took a boat ride across half of hong kong to Llama island at the extreme south of hong kong for dinner. The boat trips lasted around an hour and it just caused me nothing but sea-sickness.
The next day, we went sightseeing in kowloon (九龙）and hong kong island. Though interesting, it was not very nice to walk in a chilling, yet sunny environment. Each time we alighted the bus, I was in mixed feelings - interested to explore and see things yet so excited to get back onto the bus.
Following was a day at the ocean park and the last two days were disneyland, check out and departure.
I tell a more detailed recollection in my next posts, but this is all for now.
Its weird. Before I left, I was so enthusiastic about going overseas. Yet on the 3rd or 4th day, I started missing stuff back home. Well, to list some are chatting with my friends, a nice weather, my blanket...
And so now, I'm back, but I still feel that something isn't very right. Something has changed. Are people being cold, or has it always been this way for me? Or is it just because of my exceedingly high hopes I had of everything back there?
Its back to that plain life I always had.
But its a good thing that my wound finally sealed after a week. :)
Reached home at 9 yesterday night.
My lips hurt.
Weather in Hong Kong was sunny and dry, yet cold. It was really uncomfortable when my lips were very dry, yet were unable to absorb the water molecules when I drank water.
My family and I followed a tour group, and for the next four days were sightseeing, ocean park and disneyland.
As the plane started landing, my ears were unable to relief the pressure due to the change in altitude. It was a lot worse than the last time and it was just 15 minutes of torture to my ears...
Sometime after we landed we embarked on a long journey to the hotel. After some rest, we took a boat ride across half of hong kong to Llama island at the extreme south of hong kong for dinner. The boat trips lasted around an hour and it just caused me nothing but sea-sickness.
The next day, we went sightseeing in kowloon (九龙）and hong kong island. Though interesting, it was not very nice to walk in a chilling, yet sunny environment. Each time we alighted the bus, I was in mixed feelings - interested to explore and see things yet so excited to get back onto the bus.
Following was a day at the ocean park and the last two days were disneyland, check out and departure.
I tell a more detailed recollection in my next posts, but this is all for now.
Its weird. Before I left, I was so enthusiastic about going overseas. Yet on the 3rd or 4th day, I started missing stuff back home. Well, to list some are chatting with my friends, a nice weather, my blanket...
And so now, I'm back, but I still feel that something isn't very right. Something has changed. Are people being cold, or has it always been this way for me? Or is it just because of my exceedingly high hopes I had of everything back there?
Its back to that plain life I always had.
But its a good thing that my wound finally sealed after a week. :)
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