Staying awake…

I just watched ‘The Invasion’ (which is starred by Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, btw). And on one part of the movie, Craig told Kidman about ‘how one can stay awake for a week’ which I found fascinating since I want to be able to do that in order to finish typing up my undergraduate thesis –not all of them obviously, just the second and third chapter. The problem is everytime I want to do my thesis, I dunno why I always feel sleepy. I normally take a nap in order to recharge. Then after that I thought that I need to refresh my brain by doing fun things so I then watch TV. Then watch some movies which I already watched before. Then web around the internet. Then click the refresh button over and over and over again and feel good about it. Then… Hang on.. maybe the sleeping part is not my real problem. Maybe I should just stop procrastinating and do whatever I’m supposed to do, which is typing up my undergraduate thesis..

wake up and smell the… sms?

You know what makes me feel blessed everytime I wake up in the morning? Well apart from the fact that God has given me another opportunity to live, I also feel blessed when I receive some nice, thoughtful, encouraging text messages from my friends. There’s nothing like a nice text message (or is it a cup of coffee? Well whatever, I love them both) to wake me up in the morning.

So anyway, I just wanna share some of them:

B-egin ur day with
L-ove in ur heart
E-xpect blessing
S-hare goodness
S-hine like a sun
I-nspire some1
N-ever 4get that
G-od is with u all the time

Life is all about choices.
We choose how we react to situation
We choose to be in good/bad mood
It’s our choices how we live life
Make a good one.

Happy moments, praise GOD
Difficult moments, seek GOD
Quiet moments, worship GOD
Painful moments, trust GOD
Every moment, thanks GOD
Jesus is the answer

Guess who cares 4 u 1000000 times?
Hmmm… who could it be?
Jesus?
No! No! No! Definitely not Jesus!
Coz Jesus cares 4 u more than that!

Life is like a bible,
Everyday is a new page with
Adventures to tell,
Lessons to learn,
And parables of good deeds to remember
Have a good episode today!
God bless you.

The ‘F’ Word

Hold those thoughts people.. I’m not talking about the usual ‘F’ word (yup, it is that word that instantly popped into your mind.. and don’t pretend like you didn’t know what word I’m talking about ). I’m actually talking about the new ‘F’ words, which is (drum roll, please) FORGIVENESS. Why did I decide to write this oh-so-serious-not-to-mention-profound topic? Well actually I was inspired (like always) by one of the episodes from the awe-inspiring Oprah Winfrey Show titled “The F Word”. It’s originally aired on May 2007 but Metro TV just aired the episode last Saturday -they might have shown it earlier, but I might have missed it.

So the story that inspired me to write this topic went like this:

In November 1995, while taking a nap at a friend’s house, Jackie awoke to find then 16-year-old Craig Sussek and 15-year-old Josh Briggs in the garage trying to steal her car. The teens forced Jackie inside and told her to lie on the floor. Craig placed a pillow over Jackie’s head and left her for dead after shooting her at point-blank range. The teens fled, and Jackie’s friend discovered her minutes later.

Doctors told Jackie’s family she had only a 2 percent chance of survival. After spending six weeks in a coma, Jackie awoke with severe brain injuries. For the next nine months, Jackie lived in a rehabilitation center, where she had to learn how to talk, eat, walk and even swallow again.

Jackie is now partially paralyzed on the right side of her body, which causes intense pain. “I liken it to a thousand needles on my right side. It is constant,” she says. Her speech is impaired and she is legally blind. Everyday actions, like tying her shoes, are still a challenge for Jackie. “When I was shot, that changed everything. They took away everything,” she says. “But I got it back.”

Despite the physical struggles she faces as a result of the shooting, Jackie says she forgives her attackers. “I think I would be nuts if I hadn’t forgave them,” she says. “I forgave them immediately so I could get on with my life.” (from Oprah.com)

Pretty inspiring right and it did strike a chord in me. I’m the smallest kid in my family. So, by nature I’m the most stubborn. Whenever someone in my family said something that annoys me, I’ll resort to no-speaking mode. I have hard time in forgiving or asking for forgiveness. I liked to nurse my bitterness against that someone a lil longer because I thought by doing that I can make them hurt in the same way that I was hurt (have I mention how stubborn I am?). I felt like I’m empowering myself by holding onto the grudge. But just like what was said on her show: ”Not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die” (Anne Lamott). And that’s exactly what I feel when I hold a resentment. It’s eating me inside. Not only did I hurt the other person, but I also hurt myself.

So after watching the show, it was like a wake up call for me. I normally got upset just because something that someone said or did to me (often, jokingly). Or complains about small things, and aches, and pains. But this woman, she instantly forgave the man who nearly killed him and left her in the state which she is in now -which is incredibly inspiring.

So, the most chin-strokingly questions that kept poking in my mind.. How to forgive people who’ve wronged you? I mean, It’s easy to say ‘I forgive you’, but how to ease that bitterness that is still lingering in my heart even after I’ve said that I forgave them? Is there some kind of step-by-step program that I can take in order to do that? Well after doing some meticulous research (actually I just type the word ‘forgiving’ on the invicible Google), I have to say that I did come across some interesting articles regarding this matter. One of them imposes me to write a letter to the person that I’m angry at but not sending them. So what do you do to the letter if you don’t send them then, you ask? Well, there are several things that the article suggests:

1. You can burn it. Although if you are a walking disaster like me, I would not recommend this option. I mean judging from my antics I might ended up setting fire to my house, burn it down, and then wind up blaming the person I wrote the letter to, thus hating the person more, and that’s not in the spirit of forgiving, isn’t it?

2. You can bury it. Although it’s kinda risky because there’s a teeny tiny possibility that the person that you wrote the letter to might found it, and therefore she/he will wind up hating you for writing such letter after you said that you forgive her/him.

3. You can shred and then eat it. The article didn’t really suggest you to do it, it’s just me trying to take the options to the next level. I mean, shredding and eating thing, it’s just so top-secrety, you know. (notice: not recommended for kids and people with digestion problem).

Whatever option you choose, it doesn’t matter, because the bottom line is you’ve channeled your feelings through the writing and thus help you ease those bitter feelings. That way, you’ll be able to let go and move on with your life.

So is there someone that you haven’t forgiven yet? Don’t wait any longer. Stop drinking the rat poison. Stop looking back at the ‘small’ things that they have done to you -compared to nearly being killed by some stranger, some of the wrongs that someone did to me look pretty trivial now . Just forgive that person. Alleviate those bitter feelings. Then you can let go and move on with your wonderful life . I have. And it felt good .

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” –Mahatma Gandhi

Review: National Treasure: Book Of Secrets (2007)

Hello world!

Man.. The title of this topic reminds me of the Basic of Programming Classes that I took when I was a freshman/freshwoman/TPB student/whatever you want to call a first-year student. Yup. The good old days. Back when I was still eighteen and fresh faced and didn’t have any cares in the world (which is such a complete waste of time for anyone in their eighteens). Damn those physics’ orientations thingy for ruining such a wonderful episode of my life..

But anyway back to the topic, I finally decided to start writing a blog… woohoo! (come on everyone, put your hands up for me, and urm your feet too.. and yeah, you’re gonna fall). I finally pick up the courage to start a blog. It needs a lot of courage since I don’t want to be one of those bloggers who start their own blog and leave it after their first posts. I want to be able to maintain my blog and updating it as often as I could.

So why did I decide to start a blog? I dunno really. To make me hip? -as nicely put by wordpress. Maybe. But I’m not intending to try to be hip, I am hip already. Really. Or maybe because I want to learn on how to be a better writer. At least by starting my own blog, I’ll practice to record my thoughts which then help me to think them through, rearrange, and re-organize them. Therefore I can make my ideas clearer, my thinking stronger and more easily understood. And why do I have to publish it in a blog? To make me hip? -please, dont make me go through all of this again. Maybe because I want to share my thoughts. By publishing my writing, I’ll be challenged to convey them in an understandable way. I hope that by writing this blog I will improve my ability to craft interesting writing that can make people want to share. I hope that when someone responds to my blog, they will add value to my ideas (whether they change them or not, it didn’t matter). But enough with all of these serious reasonings. The real reason that linger deep deep down in my heart on why I want to write a blog is because at least, I can express my thoughts, opinions, and ideas in bright fuschia with purple highlights and (hopefully) still be taken seriously

So here I go. I’ll try to write some more stuff in here. Just be patient all of you people who read my blog. I know there at least one of you who had kindly share you thoughts –yes I’m talking about you Mr WordPress . Ciao!