Saturday, March 14, 2009

Monday, March 9, 2009

Soft spot

Skies of Chingjing (Taiwan) from the farmstead

Another news came of my friend's friend from NUS, who was diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia.

The blog is http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_5f0941430100cgoj.html

I would like to take this opportunity to ask anybody out there to lend a hand. Even if not financially, but perhaps spread the word around...

JIAYOU my friend's friend!

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Wonder if it's age that's catching up. Not that I am extremely old or anything, but people around me start to really pass on. Despite all bright and sunny about what the future holds for young minds like us, people around me are actually really passing away at the prime of their lives.

Used to occur to me that things were hitting a bit further from the heart, Gott sei Dank, that things did not hit near enough. And I would be secretly hoping that people around me remain as safe as possible.

Used to tear when people die in drama series and still do. Secretly thinking that they are just being melodramatic, to wrench those humane hearts, touching us with love and emotions. However, spate of events in the recent years have (finally) supplanted those naiveties, that things are very real, happening to anybody. Exactly because they are real, they are able to touch our hearts...

I am definitely not being fatalistic or morbid in any way here, on the contrary, I am simply feeling more blessed than I usually am; I have always told people about how blessed I am. For one, I have lived for twenty odd years before facing blatantly only the tip of such harshness. I believe more is to come.... Both good and bad, of course.

~~~In the face of death, earthly gains seemed to pale~~~

I was touched by this Japanese movie, 在世界中心呼唤爱. Especially something the female lead said, akin to: "Life is fair. I believe that things cancel off each other when you die. The good, the bad, everything returns to zilch. So when something bad happens, something good of equal magnitude will occur to you as well. Life does not owe."

No matter how tough the road is, I believe things always take a better turn somehow when it's done in a positive light.

For all the inevitability of life: deaths, wars, depressions, illnesses, grief, destruction....

为世界而打气。。否极必会泰来。。

For the beauty of the world still awaits...
Rainbow across Paris from the Eiffel

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Credit Crunch

With all the hype about the economic recession and depression revolving around the credit crunch, I think at the micro-level, that moniker takes up a slightly different meaning - I am stunned at my credit card bills LOLX...

That's definitely an "over"...

OMG! I think it's really time to start conforming to the world and begin tightening that wallet...

Personally I think one of the problems of using credit card is not only the invisibility of the cash you use, such that you tend to overspend unconsciously, it's also the feel-good feeling when u hand that waiter your card cavalierly, and without the unglam hassle of digging out notes and coins... Ok, that sounds a bit wrong HAHA...

Anyway, in a nutshell, I shall oversee my finances more closely from now on. At least until I get a payrise, which is not anywhere near, considering all current circumstances LOLX.

Sunday, March 1, 2009