Dreams are made of these...

I had to come online just to jot this and remind myself and anyone who reads this.

You can't just give up on your dreams, your passion and your love.

Just finished watching Project Runway and Chloe won. An Asian winner in an American reality show. Definitely a first and truly deserving.

Don't give up. You just cant afford to lose your dream and passion to other fluff that can never take that same place in your heart.

Nice-ness

What's wrong with being nice?

For one, I believe that nice-ness goes a looooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnggggggggg way. Really. Yet somehow, un-nice people just don't see the whole point of the nice-ness thingy.

What's nice-ness? A simple smile is nice-ness. An offer to help is nice-ness. Damn it, even the willingness to want to help with a smile is nice-ness.

Let me show nice-ness. When I was at Thai Express @ City Link to have dinner, Rahman the manager offered to take care of my cake - bring the box in, place the cake on a plate, gather a couple of colleagues to sing the birthday song - and was really helpful and friendly throughout my meal. That's nice-ness.

But there's this whole bunch of un-nice people who make nice-ness really precious. I left my money clip at Cathay Cineleisure cinema 9. Went back to look for it but the guy cleaning up said he didn't see anything because the area I was seated hasn't been cleaned. Alarms. Where did the empty cup that I left behind go to then? When he said that, I kinda knew my money clip was gone. And his supervisor who came in slightly later didn't help by saying "You can't accuse him of taking it" when all we asked was did anyone else clear that area if it wasn't that guy. Goosh. Nice-ness people.

Is this about getting what we want in life? Un-nice people climb over the species of nice and get ahead in life? I can see people nodding already. Seriously, I don't think un-nice people get the whole being nice idea. Seriously. We should all be nice and want to be nice. Shouting or being hostile doesn't get you anywhere. It doesn't speed up anything and you just look bad.

I have this thing for spotting nice-ness. Usually I can tell quite easily if you're genuinely nice. Haa in fact I think everyone can. So seriously, start being nice. It's just sick to see pretend-nice. Oh wait, isn't that what I do for a living? ... ... ...

For every one Rahman, there're probably five Cathay Cinema cleaners. So please, help turn that ratio around. I still believe in nice-ness and that it will still get you ahead in life.

It will! It will? It will.

The thankfully good stuff

I'm thankful.

Really sleepy now but thought I need to do this or else I'll forget bits by next week...

Ok, I passed! Thank you very much. Bloody IPPT? I passed. 10 pull-ups, 36 sit-ups, 9.8s of shuttle run, 245cm of standing broad jump, an eternity of 12min 12s of 2.4km run and a whole load of perspiration later, I passed. So, thank you very much.

Saturday's dinner with my family and my sister-in-law's parents was good, Sorry gal you had to witness cruel people gulping down the fins... heh... but it was good! So I'm thankful for the spread.

The same night I got invited to my ex-student's birthday get together. Seeing the crowd of young people was breathing fresh air. Haven't been around that many young people for a long time. So, thanks. And for my gift too!

Then, today was a whole day of being thankful too.

I ate food that you rarely want to eat. Thank you.

I sang some crazy songs and had fun doing that! Thanks.

I got my first car! I'm thankful I have a wild and ambitious imagination.

I watched The Break Up!!! It's really not because JA's the star or showed her tush in the show but it's a really good and real show! All the bad reviews anyone saw - all LIES. I'm thankful I got to catch the show the first weekend it was out. Please go catch it. Seriously.

I got a good surprise. My gift was a iPod nano! Wow. Never saw that coming. Even for a non-tech guy like me, that was a good one. It just looks too good to resist. Even if I don't learn how to operate it, I'll just look good carrying it around. Heh...

I'm thankful I have someone whom I'm thankful to have.

When I got home, I got a durian cake waiting for me. From my brother. Totally thankful.

Top that with my sister-in-law's old phone, which really looks brand new to me, I became the most gadgety I could ever be in my entire life in just one night!

So yes. Thank you very much.

Mind your body

This was a really healthy week... well, quite.

On National Day, I did something really revolutionary. At 6pm when the NDP started, and every telly was turned on for viewing those poor uniformed souls marching on the field, I went for a run.

Seriously. I went for a run. If you don't already know me, I hate running. I can't run. And it's really the last form of exercise I want to do voluntarily. But I kinda had to. Damn, I gotta book for the bloody IPPT in less than a week.

Between the end of my O Levels and the beginning of my JC years, I spent a couple of months transforming my appearance. That was the time I regularly ran around the neighbourhood and the hills. Haven't done that in a while. On Wednesday when I ran, I didn't make a decision which route to take. Somehow, I ended up running to and around my primary school..

Weird huh. How things turn out when you don't try to take control. Felt slightly healthier after breaking out in perspiration... Did I mention that I've got a bloody IPPT to pass this weekend? Seriously, can't they figure out that guys who don't sign on have lives to lead after NS?

Anyway. Then sometime during the week I got a call from True Yoga inviting me for a trial session. Why not, since my gal took it previously in school before. And it's bloody free. So on Saturday, I had my first Yoga session. And I must say Yoga isn't really meant for guys. It's all good and Zen and Ohhhmmmmmmm and all but I just don't think guys dig that as much as gals. And that coming from a not too typical guy.

So the sales guy who invited me for the session tried to sell me the membership but I was totally not into it. Sorry dude. It's good for relaxation once in a while but if you need to fork out a lump sum to get someone to tell you to go Ohhhhmmmmmmm, it's really not worth the sacrifice.

I'm pretty determined to stay healthy. Or try to. I even ate sandwiches during lunch this week. But after all the run and yoga and healthy diet, the week ended with a sumptuous seafood spread to celebrate my mum's birthday on the 15th.

Won't mind giving up my health for hers anytime.

Know my priorities

I caught two movies over the weekend - Helen The Baby Fox and Click.

Sorry gal, fell asleep for parts of the Helen. The other movie, Click, was somewhat unexpected. *Warning: spoiler ahead, read at own risk.

For an American film to have a line that went "Family comes first" was just not the norm. In their society that prides individualism over collectivism, family never ever precedes self. Well, for most of the time.

And the story was very true. Guy gets lost in work and misses out on the important moments with loved ones.

And then I got sad. Partly due to the fact that the storyline was really touching at some points, and partly because that could happen to me too and I soooooo don't want that. I'm tired.

Hmmm, here're some of the things I should start doing on a regular basis to keep myself sane:
1) Read something inspirational. Think I'll get Anderson Cooper's book soon.
2) Maybe try picking the keyboard again. It's sitting there after all.
3) Paint. Or create something beautiful. That's always very therapeutic.
4) Actually as I'm typing away, I think I'm gonna be a survivor. That's what I've been for the most of my life. I think I'm pretty strong in that sense. Yeah... I really do think that way.

I mean, after all, I would know what to do when all else fails. :> Nah, drinking is just a bad leisure. :>