"Twenty-O-Eight" - A Flash Review

"2008 began on January 1st and ends at December 31st at 12 am respectively. "

How about that for concise? Well ... NOT.
Minus everything that has happened in the outside world which has been typically in the brew for the past years; some new things came in and same came out. Typical expected and unexpected stuffings of norm which we have learned to expect.

Learning is the word of the year for me.
The ridiculously loved course, people and insight.

Somehow I have handled things this year with more maturity, independence and dignity (maybe this is a little bit overboard) which have suprised even myself.

LOL.

Anyway I have enjoyed this year in a way uniquely mine and only I can appreciate.

Well good can only get better.

http://www.moneywalks.com/2008/01/02/carnival-of-money-stories-40-one-year-anniversary-edition

Wishing all of you happy new year and many more happier ones to come!

Service! Service! Service! and the Credit Crunch

Can I get some service?!

Seriously. I know that sounds rude but I am probably going to say that next time I get crossed.

Well it is totally weird to go to international franchises with "Service to Smile" tags plastered all over their adverts and the real deal you get is being treated like the stuff that your dog dug up. And its ain't treasure.

This is the very reason we are lagging behind.
I am not expecting for "sirs" and "madams" nor rolling red carpets wherever I plan to set my foot at. But the decency to NOT to keep a customer waiting for 2 whole minutes at the counter while you whilst way expanding your social calendar with delivery boys?! I would have walked out then or even worse wrote a despicable comment in the suggestion box.
I was being "Asian" nice then.

Too bad I will be donning Las Vegas the next time.

http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/news4174.html

In times of the credit crunch, smiles will carry miles!

As it is everything is becoming expensive and shamelessly inaccessible.
Well it is do or die or better...
Stand out or get phased out!

Xmas, NEJM and BMJ

http://www.freecraftz.com/signs.html

Firstly a belated Christmas wish... (I dunno what came over me until I forgot to put this up)

If at all an accomplishment this Christmas would be learning how to make gravy for roast chicken which was not very difficult as people make it out to be.

Meanwhile I have been thrust into an endless stream of boredom which involves opening my e-mail and Facebook accounts again and again. I have taken up reading the NEJM and the BMJ which if you know what I am talking about should realise that I am super free. Sadly the BMJ is only for suscribers which if anyone out there suscribes too; please help me retrieve an article. Just give me a mail so that I can fill you in the details!

So that's about it for now; me parasitizing and scouting for new activities. If anyone has some idea of what I can do to waste my time better like a job or anything, do give me a buzz.

Signing off to more laziness ....

The End of the Too-Much-To-Do-In-So-Little-Time Syndrome

Well since November technically didn't exist for the blog; my humble apologies. I just had a LOT to do then. Tests followed by exams ... hey even to the extent of skipping a religious holiday, I was so caught up with work. Papers, pens, lack of sleep, fast food, coffee, towering dirty laundry with exceptional weather; I wonder why I didn't stew myself in that mess. Though it would be a pretty noxious one.

Hopefully I justified myself there even though I am not convinced. Most of the above could have been avoided if I planned well and more importantly kept to it. My current brainwave is to put that into the new year's resolution.

Speaking of which; the year is coming to an end as another is waiting to begin. Well what a year has it been (a terrible cliche on my part). With a new course, a growing blog (which often gets neglected) and people and my discovery of many new things, 2008 is itself something to be reckoned with. I might do justice to that with a post on it.

Speaking of posts now; I thank all the readers of Truly Home which credits on being my personal favourite. I sincerely hope to bring more good stuff to the blog.

Though there is not much good happening around us to cherish about; to put it simple: a lot of short sighted people out there y'all. And there is not simply that much money to go around these days and even more disheartening is the growing disparity among all of us. Yet life must go on (another cliche and film adaptation). There are still many simple pleasures in life which cause less than a dime and most of the best ones are F.O.C.

Unfortunately for me, food is not one of them. I'm making a mental note to learn to cook better in the holidays along with internet social networking (Facebooking and to a lesser extent Friendstering), researching, reading, bargain hunting, meeting old acquaintances and the general crappiness of my seemingly-dull-yet-exciting life.

With that, I am done with this post. Look out for the coming days; I might come up with something and pray the internet connection gets better.

P/S I am planning to watch the Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons in which the original version is available at the External Links section of the Wikipedia article of the short story.

Truly Home

Knowing me I don't post this regularly but I just remembered something of what I was watching on the tele and the gist of it is as follows:

When doing floral arrangements, after we are done, we tend to add one too many flowers into it on intentions of making it "perfect". Instead this decorator removed a stalk from it citing how his grandmother feels there should be room for butterflies to fly in between.

Picture courtesy from http://www.flickr.com/photos/dornickdesigns/2725228609/

I somehow extrapolated this to life in general on how it should not be overcrowded and trying to be made picture perfect. After all running after so many superficial things ruins life's beauty and happiness until we tend not to pause a moment to allow the good things that are to happen to actually happen. Imperfections are what that make life beautiful and non-monotonous to say the least.

On a more cheerful note and not to be dampened by the rain now or the frosty mutterings going about in the country; is a truly beautiful moment of being in our country. One of our Chinese neighbours gave away her excess homegrown produce of bayam and kangkung to all of us (being different in race and creed). It was not something shocking to us living here for the past decade or so to witness such things which are of norm here in this quaint neighbourhood. There was no nonsense of being untouchable or uneatable since ... forever, we just know life that way. Our Malay neigbour today passed us a bag full of cookies and savouries before they left for their kampung. The same of which all of us do in time for our ethnic festivities.

If only things can go back to the way they used to be in other places, life would be so much better and newspapers much pleasant to read. After all we who never did change in the first place, never knew of it.

Just Passing ...

Anyway since my posts recently have lost a lot of informational content and more self wallowing pity, it is high time to spruce things up while I have the time (which I technically don't have).

First of all, wishing all those who enjoy festivities a:

Courtesy of http://ecard.home.net.my/images/hariraya/aidilfitri3.jpg

Next for those who are up with dealing people as I had been recently, the following inspirational quotes from http://www.inspirational-quotes.info/people.html can be of help:

You must look into other people as well as at them.

Lord Chesterfield

A good deed is never lost: he who sows courtesy reaps friendship; and he who plants kindness gathers love.

Basil

A man's own good breeding is the best security against other people's ill manners.

Lord Chesterfield

To rejoice in another's prosperity, is to give content to your own lot: to mitigate another's grief, is to alleviate or dispel your own.

Thomas Edwards

Hear the meaning within the word.

William Shakespeare

Charity, good behaviour, amiable speech, unselfishness — these by the chief sage have been declared the elements of popularity.

Burmese Proverb

Kind words are the music of the world.

F. W. Faber

We are far more liable to catch the vices than the virtues of our associates.

Denis Diderot

Arguing with a fool proves there are two.

Doris M. Smith

Be courteous to all, but intimate with few;
and let those be well-tried before you give them your confidence.

George Washington

Look to be treated by others
as you have treated others.

Publius Syrus

Success in life, in anything,
depends upon the number of persons
that one can make himself agreeable to.

Thomas Carlyle

Never part without loving words to think of during your absence. It may be that you will not meet again in this life.

Jean Paul Richter

Let us believe neither half of the good people tell us of ourselves, nor half of the evil they say of others.

J. Petit Senn

The more you say, the less people remember.

François Fénelon

Never lose a chance of saying a kind word.

William Thackeray

The soul of conversation is sympathy.

Thomas Campbell

It is always good to know, if only in passing, charming human beings. It refreshes one like flowers and woods and clear brooks.

George Eliot

Every man is a volume if you know how to read him.

William Ellery Channing

If evil be said of thee, and if it be true, correct thyself; if it be a lie, laugh at it.

Epictetus

In many things it is not well to say, "Know thyself"; it is better to say, "Know others."

Menander

The less people speak of their greatness,
the more we think of it.

Lord Bacon

He who sedulously attends, pointedly asks, calmly speaks, coolly answers and ceases when he has no more to say is in possession of some of the best requisites of man.

Johann Casper Lavater

A good word is an easy obligation; but not to speak ill requires only our silence; which costs us nothing.

John Tillotson

It requires less character to discover the faults of others than is does to tolerate them.

J. Petit Senn

Well, that is about it for now and happy holidays!

The Suprising End to the Never-Ending Laundry

I was very much surprised on how I managed to squeeze weeks of laundry into two plastic bags and sort it out for good (at least 95% of it).

Thankfully I did it two hours earlier than I normally would as the cab arrived half-an-hour and I spent the other hour and half complaining to a friend about an ex-friend and eating. Typically, the usual mad rush was not there. In the bus station, I met a friend's friend who now is a friend and talked away about an hour and half while eating KFC. Then, the bus came and I had a great surprise to meet yet another friend and made a new friend who gave me a chocolate bar. The only fly in the ointment was the person sitting next to me with a slightly noxious smell, but thankfully I slept well and arrived earlier than I expected back home.

So, it was reasonably nice 12 hours I had and I feel this just goes to show that it is not emptyness that had been left behind but more room to move around and forward.

Cool, eh?