不是我不明白 - 超級星光大道 version [ 林宥嘉 & 曾沛慈 ]

Introducing this one song that I've been playing over and over again with for the whole of last week, (I think I'm addicted to the song). This is a shorter live version of it by 林宥嘉 & 曾沛慈 in 超級星光大道 competition. Check out the original version by 梁靜茹 [Fish Leong] & 卢广仲 [Lu Guang Zhong]. Loving it!

曹格 [Cao Ge] & 梁靜茹 [Fish Leong] - PK

Here's a song that's light and easy, by two of our very own local artistes who've successfully hit Taiwanese shores! Enjoy.

New Year's Resolution...?

Year 2008 will be over soon, in no time, and a new year's coming! [I put an exclaimation mark to signify the excitement of a coming new year, and NOT the excitement of another ending year. It only means I'm getting older by another year! :-( ].

As we all welcome & usher the new year, this could also be a great time for us to take a stroll back and ponder on the highlights that had made our 2008 wonderful! I personally think, I've experienced yet another good year with lots of learning opportunities, by both strokes and chances of luck, and also hard-put effort. Many of the things I never thought or expected myself to achieve, yet I made it somehow. Lots of growing, insights, learning, realisation, thinking, experiencing, etc etc. For one, I started my very own blog, eh? Haha. I guess the one thing we shouldn't look back and feel is 'regret'. Even mistakes are meant to be learned of and improved upon, so we definitely gained from them. All of these, and all the effort put into making your 2008 great, deserves a good year-end party & celebration!

And after all the party-ing is done and over with, comes the 'time of the year' where people asks the big question - "So, what's your new year's resolution?". It's such a commonly-asked thing that even wikipedia has a dedicated page for its definition! Danggg. I, for one, am a person who's not so sure of the new year's resolution trend. There are plenty of reasons that supports such a 'claim'. To start with, I don't think I'm such a disciplined person. I may have a list of resolutions in the beginning of the year, which may go *poof* (vanished in the thin air) by the mid of year. That's if I'm being good. Sometimes, they don't even last half a year, haha. It's not that I don't welcome changes throughout the year. And it's definitely not that I hate resolving or improving things that have room for improvement. It's just in my whole year, there could be so much of changes happening, even in our daily lives. I guess what I mean to say is, I think it's best to stay adaptable and flexible. You may have a list of resolutions in the beginning of the year that you might think not at all that necessary by the 1st, 2nd quarter of the year. OR, you may also not have something in your list in the beginning of the year, but feel necessary to work on by the mid of the year. Say, you just landed a new role in the company, which requires a total shift of skills set. You don't just go by the existing rule in your initial list, do you? But all in all, I guess there isn't any harm to have a general rule to go by. Here's an example (where I think most applicable for me) - 'This year, to save more money & spend wisely!'. Oh, and I think I better add at the back of the statement, 'You better stick to it, Sher Lin!!!' (*Note : 3 bloody exclamation marks! And that's a warning to self!).

Here's wishing all my readers (you know who you are) a Blessed, Prosperous & Successful New Year Ahead! And here's to thank all of you for making my 2008 wonderful! Cheers!

今生今世 - 曹格 [Cao Ge] & 側田 [Ze-Tian, Justin]

I really love this version of the song by Gary Cao Ge [曹格] & Justin [側田]. It's originally by Leslie Cheung [張國榮]. Both of them sang this rendition when Justin made a guest appearance in Gary's concert in Malaysia this year.

Being a Half-Banana

On my way home today, in the monorail, I stood in front of two gals. One of them chinese, quite tomboy-ish, and another, a mat salleh (a caucasian). What stood out was that, both of them were conversing in mandarin, and man, they were not only conversing in mandarin, those were China accented mandarin! I'm impressed. There you have it, a caucasian gal, with her bluish eyes, blonde hair, fairly freckled-face, speaking my supposingly native language, because, by all means traditional, I rarely come across such scenarios here in KL. Well, maybe it's a common trend in China, in bigger city places like Beijing, or Shanghai, where quite a large number of expatriats live. For all you know, they not only speak mandarin, they also read and write perfect chinese! And that calls for a session of pressure to people who's as half-banana as I am. Hmm... I'm already starting to feel ashamed of myself [*pout*].

** Disclaimer
1. The Malaysian-ised term 'banana' refers to a chinese who doesn’t speak, read and write chinese.
2. A half-banana (or semi-banana), in my terms, speaks chinese, but doesn't write or read the language.

Whitney Houston - Try It On My Own

Heard this song (after such a long time) while I was shopping with BC the other day. It was quite a hit back then. Enjoy!

Thoughts for the Day

Here are some random thoughts I've gathered for the day.

1. How being rich transforms a person.
(And I mean this in a good and bad way)
Do you see how datins or siu lais (referring to wives of rich men who don't have to work, and is still rich) shop in branded outlets like Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Prada? That's the good thing. They walk into the shop, with an average of 3-5 shop attendants serving them, they pick their luxury items, swipe their platinum priviledged cards without much hesitation, and walk out with their new goodies. That's the good thing. They feel good about themselves (still a good thing), they pamper themselves (I'm not there yet, this is still good), and they feel they're a class higher than the rest (here! Stop right here). Now, that's the bad thing about it. So if you're flaunting an LV bag, parading a designer Gucci dress, and strutting with a pair of Prada heels, does it really make you a class higher? What does it buy you? Style? Maybe. A fashion statement? Maybe. Respect? Not necessarily. So exactly how high-er in class does that make you?

2. How having hundreds of friends don't beat having only a few TRUE friends.
At the thought of this, I really feel glad knowing I have my few true friends whom I can count on. They're the ones who had picked up my calls in the middle of the night of a working day, and still patiently listen to me nag (or cry). They're the ones who's always reminding me how great a person I am when I'm in one of those bad days. They're the ones who's stuck by me when I needed encouragement. They're the ones who shop crazily with me (I really mean it - the crazy word). The ones who offer a ride home on late nights. And the list goes on. Here's a roll call to all of these great people whom I'm proud to have around as friends. I don't need a list of hundreds of friends appearing in my Facebook account to tell me this. I'm glad I don't need this as a measurement.

3. How different kinds of people are necessary in the community.
As I jam-packed myself in a crammed monorail every ordinary evening of a working day, I come across various kinds of people. The kinds who block the entrance of the trains, the kinds who push you in like it's the last train to heaven before the end of the world, the kinds who take opportunities of the crowd to harass (in my own term) people, the kinds who sneeze, dig their nose, scratch their butts and hold/wipe on the only bar that is supporting tens of commuters at that same time, enough said... all kinds. And as I observed them, I thought to myself, even as impolite, annoying, or disgusting as they are, we still need them. Else, there wouldn't be any 'spice' added into our everyday lives, and I wouldn't have had the 'inspiration' to be writing this in my blog now. In all compliments, they add colours to our lives! (although I can do with less of the public nose diggers).

Making Headlines..

I came across this news on Yahoo!News today. Couldn't help but give credits to this piece of article, for it has somewhat made my day. This is what it reads :

***

Headlines : Gay penguins given own eggs to care for

"Penguins caught stealing eggs from straight couples in an attempt to become fathers have been given their own to look after following protests.
Zoo keepers moved the male birds away from the rest of the penguins to avoid problems as hatching season approaches.
But angry visitors to Polar Land in China complained it was not fair for the males to stop becoming surrogate fathers.
Following the protests, zookeepers gave the pair two eggs laid by an inexperienced first-time mother.
"They've turned out to be the best parents in the whole zoo," on zoo keeper said.
"We will try to arrange for them to become real parents themselves with artificial insemination."
Despite being gay, it is understood the three-year-old male birds are still driven by an urge to be fathers."

***

I'm not kidding! Click on link to this news!

I sent a friend of mine this article, and he asked me a pretty valid question : "How do they even know they're gay?!"

Enough said for now. I hope it made your day! *grin*

王力宏 [Wang Lee Hom] - 心跳

[Dec 16th, 2008] I know someone (yup it's you, Sean, haha) has been debating on how youtube videos don't count as blog entries. But when it comes to my idol himself, I can't help it. I've just gotta share this! [*grin*] The MV isn't out yet, so just make do with this sneak preview at the moment, and do watch this space!

[Dec 29th, 2008] I've promised you to post the MV earlier. It's out now, so here it is. Enjoy!

The Joyous and Solemn Occasion

Over the past week, I've attended two weddings, and a funeral.
I've seen how two lovely couples come together and devote their lives to each other, and I've seen how daunting it can be to have lost someone dear to you.
I've partied and celebrated together, in the name of love, with the couples starting new journeys of their lives together; I've also mourned together, in the name of love, with family and friends at the sudden loss.

And all of these, had made me thought of the very few things that has been so clichéd-ly said over and over again, yet have always been taken granted for.

Life could be short. We really wouldn't know.
I've never felt this deeply that if one day I were to die, I would want to have lived my life meaningfully. Age really is just a number. Whoever could guarantee you that "As long as you stay healthy, do your part in the community, play all the rules safely, and you'll live up to a hundred years old", is lying. Even God doesn't promise you that. What we can do, is to make every living day count. So whenever we have the urge to think "We'll always have tomorrow to do that", we really wouldn't know if we'll live up 'til tomorrow, would we?

After the one week throughout, I'm even more reminded to treasure people who have closely surrounded me throughout my lifetime. And I've never felt this grateful for even the simplest things and slightest gestures in my everyday life. I hope I'll carry this mindset with me for the longest time!

Kids Don't Lie...

There's an unproclaimed fact, that kids don't lie.
To quote this from a real-life example, let me just recall a scenario I've seen first-hand.

Years ago (and I really mean, many, many years ago), an aunt of ours came visiting over.
Back then my youngest sister was just over 2 years of age, she was cute and adorable. The following dialogue took place.

Aunt : "Girl, aunty's (referring to self) hair (she's just got a new haircut & perm) nice or not?"

Sis : *Hesitated* *Thought for a few seconds* and said "I don't dare to say" (innocently truthful).

This remained a classic family joke for years!

This also got me wondering. As we grow older, we tend to adapt to filteration of speech. We say only the nicer things, and many a times, we learn to polish the truth in the name of fear, fear of repercussions. Come to think of it, we can learn from kids sometimes. In their world, they see and draw a perfectly clean and flawless line between black and white (and we were the ones who taught them to), unlike us with extremely vast grey area.

Hence, if you ever caught me bluntly speaking, do spare me a thought, I'm only trying to learn from the kids! *grin* (Nah, I'm just kidding, I won't be blunt, I'll try, haha)

Saying Thank You & You're Welcome

In our world (working world), we are taught of two skills to groom on. First being, technical skills (in my case, Microsoft Excel, Cognos Queries, and various systems & databases). Second being, soft skills (in my case, logic, pro-activity, learning to increase visibility & leveraging good relationships with the other teammembers).

One simple soft skill I've picked up from my job/career is learning (or should I say revising) what we've been taught from our younger days, by our parents, by our teachers - to learn how to say 'Thank You' & 'You're Welcome' (and graciously mean them, off course).

Rewinding to my younger days, I recall the occasional little treats or gifts from an outstation uncle or aunty on a holiday visit, my parents have been instilling "Girl, you should say thank you ok, don't be impolite". I would nod my head and obey. So at every chance that was given to me, I proudly (proud because, I thought I was being the most obedient and clever daughter any parent could have, haha) say 'Thank You Uncle", "Thank You Aunty".

Now, fast forward to the now I'm in. Saying "Thank You" means so much more than just that! My 'Thank You's now are actually more of tokens of appreciation. So yes, I've now learnt that thanking someone should not come to be seen just as polite or good manners, but a show of heartfelt gratitude!

Here's another thing though. Learning the true meaning of Thank You was not all. I actually did learn how to say 'You're Welcome' for the reason aside from courtesy alone. I've learnt that in the working world, many a times, sweeping the value you bring under the carpet isn't such a smart thing to do either. So, do make yourself seen for the contributions and effort you've put in, and be generous with 'You're Welcome' instead of smiling sheepishly after receiving a 'Thank You'!