Consistency (P3)

Many of us readily admit that reading our daily 'horrorscope' (whether u believe it or not) always makes our day. So the next best thing is (not what we always have on our minds, but too scared to actualise!) the 'special reading' (free, for cheapskates like me) e.g. our Personal Astrology Profile. Call me egoistical or egotistical, but now that "I'm saving all my love for u" (hahah), I'm indulging in a totally safe zone (dig that huh? Certainly NOT gardening, I mean). Section 1: How You Approach Life and How You Appear To Others
Ferociously proud and somewhat vain, you like to be impressive and to be seen as Somebody Special. You are not timid, meek, or self-effacing, and are rarely content being in the background or in the subordinate position. You are a natural leader, and do not take orders from others very well. You must have something of your own, something creative - be it a business, a project, a home or whatever - that you can develop and manage according to your own will and vision. Whatever you do, you do it in a unique, dramatic, individual way. You like to put your own personal stamp on it.
Section 2: The Inner You: Your Real Motivation
You are a gambler and an adventurer at heart, one who loves to take risks, to discover and explore new worlds, and to take the untried path rather than the safe, reliable one. You are an independent soul, freedom-loving, and often very restless. You need a lifestyle that provides opportunities for travel, movement, change, and meeting new people. A steady routine which offers much in the way of security but little in the way of space and freedom is odious to you.
Don't know how far it's true; but I do think that everyone has a double, or even multiple, personality/ies - I am sometimes "ferociously proud and somewhat vain" and other times "timid, meek and self-effacing" depending on the situations and contexts. I do enjoy being the center of attention and bask in the limelight (who doesn't?) yet like to keep a low profile (on bad hair days!) I'd rather be the boss than the coolie, and better at giving than taking orders, or meeting people half way, i.e. my way or the highway (haha!)
So, if u think u are my Ultimate Soul Mate, the Absolute Real Thing*, don't wait for me to 'claim' you as mine, my very own, no one else's in the world, then baby come to me, let me put my arms around you (this was meant to be), and show you the stair/sky/sea (whatever la) way to Haven - Teja of the Clouds
*Give up on me la, AO; after all that u had said about me, it's never gonna be u, soori (to quote Ida Nerina in Layar Lara!)

Consistency (P2)

Talk about being on an emotional roller-coaster! Yesterday, down in the pits, today all bright and cheery, raring to go! Ke Bulan, Ke Bintang Kejora, Ke Kaki Pelangi? (Fly Me to the Moon, to the Stars, Somewhere Over the Rainbow?)
Always, always have this lapse in response to "responses" (?). Just like a delayed response to "let go, move on", hence the cliched: "Sometimes, we are so fixated on a door that closed on us that we failed to register the one that's opened" (i.e. my version) Or fear of being like the "smart cookie" in the popular sitcom Cheers, whose delayed responses and bad timing always landed her in embarassing situations!
Yet, my heart is singing "I Can't Help Believing". Thank u so much for believing in me, even when I have lost faith in myself (low self-esteem and self-doubt being my two worst enemies). Inspite of the countless times that I have hurt u, caused u pain and, perhaps, "lost face" (?), u persevered, u never gave up, u tried so hard to tell me that "Talk is cheap, Action is priceless" but I would not listen; I held my ground - paralysed/immobilised in my comfort zone, stuck to my rigid conditioning, raving and ranting, kicking and screaming in my self-righteous high-ground - arguing, countering, rebutting til I'm exhausted, drained and depressed - then it dawned on me - that u're always there for me like a loyal shadow, following my erratic paths, sacrificing Life & Family (Family Life?), forever waiting in the wings ..... like a God-Sent Guardian Angel? Pls forgive me for my paranoia, my insenstivity, my stubbornness, my pettiness (gotta go hair salon, got old clothes/slippers on, etc). Keep praying for my Soul, my Strength, my Confidence, TQ.
It Will Be, If It's Meant to Be ... InsyaAllah

For Posterity

Here's a msg from the facilitators e-group; anyone keen to see their quotes and names in print, do mail to eric:
Hi everyone,
Would you like to share your experiences and have your name print?
I'm compiling a book called "The Best Advice I Ever Had..." and would love to receive contributions from the members of this discussion group.All you have to do is send me your answer to the question: "What's the best advice you've ever had?" in the context of your personal career development.The format I need is for the piece of advice as a one-liner and then an explanation of who or where the advice came from and why it meant so much to you.
An example of a good one-liner is Richard Branson's answer: "Make a fool of yourself". Or Lee Capps' answer: "Work like you don't need the money; love like you've never been hurt; and dance like no one's watching" (my favourite so far, that).Once I've compiled enough interesting and worthwhile replies, I'll put the book together and, if you've contributed, send you a free copy. Just email your answers to me at mybestadvice@googlemail.com or eric@managetrainlearn.com along with some personal details such as name, email address, and professional background.Thanks in advance. Do it now while you're inspired. All ideas accepted and considered and appreciated.
Best wishes,
Eric Garner
ManageTrainLearn
Manage, to get it right
Train, to stay on top
Learn, to be a success.

What Could Have Been, What Might Have Been

Like to share this review from kakiseni.com - reminds me of my childhood in Jalan Damai, Kampung Melayu Kaki Bukit, and being taken on visits to my relatives at Kampung Wa' Tanjung, Geylang Serai, Kembangan, Pasir Ris, etc.
Like time in an hourglass, footprints in the sands, that moment in time can never be captured (like a genie or toyol in a bottle, haha!) I cried my heart out over the many, many times that I could made a choice, and took action but hesitated or fled; time is so flighty, it can never be captured, once it's gone, there's only memories ...
So, as my friend Midah like to end her training sessions with "Carpe Diem!" (Seize the Moment), I should learn to be alert to surprises, be spontaneous, expect the unexpected and "go with the flow" (for the umpteenth time, u might say!)
And the Love that we claimed to cherish is actually Self-Love?
BTW, Wa' Hassan was what we called my mother's eldest brother; obviously my mother's family are Javanese from Kendal, Central Java - that much I know from Pak Cik Pom, my youngest uncle, the only surviving one, who religiously organised the annual Kerabat gatherings.
Will try to get pics of my uncles in their prime - fair (somewhere along the line, my great grandparents must have had Chinois and Mat Salleh partners or adopted kids!), light brown-eyed, good looking, sharp in their crisp suits and ties, English-educated, tennis players, swoon, swoon ...
(Anak Bulan Di Kampung Wa' Hassan: More Singaporean existentialism here: Denizens of the last kampong on the island republic ponder their last Raya there in Alfian Sa'at's play (directed and performed to great acclaimed by Singapore's Gene Shahrudyn in 2001). The play, now revised for 13 actors by the Kelab Teater Kota Kuala Lumpur, recaptures the lost village with a traditional Randai staging. Having won the Festival Teater Wilayah Persekutuan in December last year, this play is now competing for a placing among the five finalists of Teater Festival Malaysia later this year. Fri 14 - Sun 16 Apr 2006. Auditorium Taman Budaya Kuala Lumpur.)
Watched the Temptations at MO last nite, compliments of NIA; not as great as the Platters at CP but FOC, so no cause to complain. Gawked at all the Oldies but certainly not Moldies: "Money may not buy love, or happiness, but it sure can buy youth in a bottle!"
Which brings me to this msg from Ummi Shafiq, a dear friend and sister, a well-known motivational speaker who gave up fame and fortune to embrace mysticism:
Facilitators, an activity you can use in class. Thx K Moon.
Forwarded Message From: Maimun Mohd Amin Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 03:33:49 +0100 (BST)
Group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university lecturer. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work life. Offering his guests coffee, the lecturer went to the kitchen and returnedwith a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic,glass, some plain looking and some expensive and exquisite, telling them tohelp themselves to hot coffee. When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the lecturer said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to wantonly the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the better cups and are eyeing each other's cups."
"Now, if Life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality ofLife doesn't change."
"Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it."
So folks, don't let the cups drive you...enjoy the coffee instead.

Consistency

Quote of the Day:
"Consistency is only a paste jewel that cheap men cherish."
– William Allen White
(William Allen White, the American newsman who ran the Emporia Gazette, is known for his essay attacking populism, "What's the Matter With Kansas," and for his eulogy for his 17-year-old daughter, Mary. He was born in Kansas in 1868. During college, he wrote letters to a grocer, a merchant, and a newspaper editor asking for work. The first two turned him down, so he ended up in journalism. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1923 and is considered one of the most influential Kansans in history. He died in 1944.)
Someone asked if I have a recent pic - so here it is - but from July 05 tho.
Been reading The Sandman Companion by Hy Bender, about Neil Gaiman's critically acclaimed Sandman series, and found many interesting quotes, such as:
"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of true art and science" - Albert Einstein
"Nothing happens unless first a dream" - Carl Sandburg
"When stepping into the stream of consciousness, don't slip on the rocks" - Buddha
"It is an anxious, sometimes dangerous thing to be a doll. Dolls cannot choose, they can only be chosen; they cannot "do", they can only be done by" - Rumer Godden, The Doll's House
Sandman is also known as Dream and he comes from a dysfunctional family - the Endless. His siblings are Destiny, Desire, Delirium, Death, Despair and Destruction. It is interesting that Dream has a problem understanding people, and that Death is portrayed as a warm, friendly and sensible person, whose advise to Dream is:
"I just think maybe it would be good for you to see them on their terms instead of yours."
It is also fascinating to note Sandman/Dream's struggle to change, but it doesn't mean he can't change.
To be continued ...

Ku Jejak Bintang-Bintang (Star Trek, NextGen)

Quote of the Day:
"I searched through rebellion, drugs, diet, mysticism, religion, intellectualism, and much more, only to find that truth is basically simple and feels good, clear and right."
– Armando "Chick" Corea*
It could be nothing much, or it could be a lot to note - finally made the BIG MOVE (in the Physical and Meta Physical Sense, I hope), got to communicate on a totally different level with SRT (keeping my fingers and short-sighted eyes crossed that we'll finally break new ground), got my comic book concept (starring SRT & WS), and worked on the proposal for an Amazing Race with SS, ZU, D and N last Saturday night at Bukit Pantai KL
Sure need sponsors, and will update.
Salam!
* About Armando "Chick" Corea
Armando "Chick" Corea, the American jazz pianist best known for his composition "Spain," epitomizes experimentation in jazz, incorporating sounds from classical, rock, and flamenco traditions. He was born in 1941 in Massachusetts. Son of a jazz trumpeter, he began playing piano at age four. He dropped out of Julliard to learn by doing. He played on the seminal Miles Davis Bitches Brew recording, and formed his own jazz fusion group in the early 1970's. He founded his own record label in 1992.

I Dare U, Chicken Licken*

"You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result."– Mahatma Gandhi

Today I will dare myself to summon my courage, dispel all fears and negativity, and see what happens.

* From Wikipedia:
The Sky Is Falling, also known as Chicken Little, Chicken Licken or Henny Penny is an old, classical fable of unknown origin about a chicken who believes the sky is falling. The phrase has also become used to indicate a hysterical or mistaken belief that disaster is imminent.
There are many versions of the story, but the basic premise is that a chicken called Chicken Little, Chicken Licken or Henny Penny believes the sky is falling down because an acorn (or in some versions a pebble that falls from a roof) falls on his (or, sometimes, her) head. He decides to tell the King, and on his journey meets other animals who join him in his quest. In most retellings, the other animals have similarly rhyming names (See Characters). Finally, they come across Foxy Loxy, a fox who offers to guide them all with the King, but taking them instead into his cave. At this point, there are many endings. In the most famous one, Foxy Loxy kills all of Chicken Little/Licken's friends, but the last one survives enough to warn Chicken Little/Licken and he escapes. Other endings include Foxy eating them all, them being saved by a squirrel or an owl and/or getting to speak to the King, and even one in which the sky actually falls down and kills Foxy Loxy.Depending on the version, the moral changes. In the "happy ending" version, the moral is not to be a "Chicken Little" and have courage. In other versions the moral is usually interpreted to mean "do not believe everything you are told". In the latter case, it could well be a cautionary political tale: Chicken Little jumps to a conclusion and whips the populace into mass hysteria, which the unscrupulous fox uses to manipulate them for his own benefit.
The Sky Is Falling has been taken into children books many times, having both Chicken Little and Henny Penny as main characters. Some of those books are in print today.
Walt Disney Studios has adapted this story into animation twice. The first adaptation was an animated short released during World War II. It tells a variant of the parable in which all the animals are eaten by Foxy Loxy, and uses this as an allegory for the idea that wartime fear-mongering weakens the war effort and costs lives.
The second Disney adaptation is a feature-length computer-animated film which bears little resemblance to the plot of the original fable. It focuses on Chicken Little's disappointment that no one believed his claim that the sky was falling, and follows his story of redemption as he shows that something strange did indeed fall from the sky.
The animated series Garfield and Friends adaptated the story for the U.S. Acres segment "Badtime Story", in which Bo, Lanolin, Roy, and Wade all fill in for a sick Orson to read the story to Booker and Sheldon. Throughout the story, the characters (played by regulars on the series) blame the sky's falling on "all this tampering with the ozone layer". The episode also manages to poke fun at the story's extensive use of rhyming names with a scene in which Wade lists the names of everyone involved in Chicken Licken's quest, among them Catty Fatty (portrayed by Garfield himself) and Beaver Cleaver (a reference to Leave It to Beaver).
The fable is refered to in many modern shows and movies. One of which is The Suite Life of Zack and Cody episode, Hotel Hangout, on which Carey Martin says to Marion Moseby, "Mr. Moseby, every little problem with you is like, 'The sky is falling! The sky is falling!" Then a satelite dish falls from the roof and Marion Moseby replies, "Sometimes Chicken Little knows what he's talking about!"

Theme song for the day: "Kalau Engkau Berkalau" by Anita Sarawak.

To be Not/Nought!

"Feeling stuck in a rut or mired in some habitual ways of thinking? You know you need to break out of this stagnation, but you're not sure how. It's an ideal time to broaden your sense of possibility via travel." How I wish - the last sentence that is!

But here I am again - No Action, Talk Only - kicking myself for not having the guts for the zillionth time! To do or not to do or to do NOT/NOUGHT? Aaarrrggh (followed by tearing my hair) ...

Gotta see that Wiz at the end of the yellow brick road for vitamin Courage! Hey, Dorothy, wait up ... Can you lend me your red shiny shoes pls?

And can Oz make the challenge chicken-friendly too? Cluck, cluck! Trick question: Why didn't the chicken cross the road (or choose your fav dare, hehe)?