While I’m not one to impose any beliefs on others, this is just something I would love to share with my friends and to get them to take a minute out of their hectic schedules and think about this. We are mostly working adults, drawing a modest salary and trying to keep up with the ‘capitalistic’ lifestyle we are becoming conditioned to.

Excerpt from the blog post

What if contentment is actually found in the exact opposite place that we have looking? What if contentment is not found in accumulating more, but is actually found in giving more?

We can easily understand how contentment leads to generosity – the less we need, the more we can give away. But could it be that the inverse is also true? That generosity also leads to contentment? That the two collide together in a way that encourages each other to exist all the more?

I’ve been taught to give more than receive since I was young. In fact, schools do try to instill that value into our student population. I’m not sure if they are still as active as they were, but having gone through primary and secondary education in a 1) Buddhist school and 2) Catholic school , the same values of giving and compassion were being taught, albeit in varying manners. We had monthly donation programs (from NKF) , community service and flag days. Pretty certain that flag days and community service programs are still part of the education system now, but I sometime wonder how many will walk away from all these ‘forced’ practices and sincerely want to continue giving to others later in their lives?

I’m not a great philanthropist or generous donor, but I give what I can when I can. I had been on monthly ‘GIRO’ donation programs for a good 1/3 of my lifetime, for NKF and for the Singapore Children Cancer Foundation. A good friend of mine asked me why did I bother with doing this, seeing that I had about $1,000 worth of loans to service every month. I don’t have a good answer to that, I’m not an exceptionally compassionate person and I know that the person I signed up with was a paid marketeer, not a volunteer. BUT somehow it makes me feel better that somebody out there is using the money I could’ve spent on a good meal, for some other more meaningful acts.

So somewhere along the lines, it makes me feel happy that I’m helping out a stranger. In a small way or another. I also donate to wildlife conservations and animal welfare associations. Maybe not as frequently as I’ve liked but I do. Again, it is not about the amount, but the act of giving and it makes me feel slightly better.

It’s not about the money all the time. And it may not be just helping out the less fortunate or disaster stricken victims. In fact, it doesn’t even have to be about finding a worthy cause. Sometimes, just being more easy-going and generous with people around you, can make all the difference to yourself and those you come across. Of course I’m not saying you should be a push-over or let others take advantage of your kindness, but sometimes just being friendlier and cutting others some slack can make you feel better and happier.

In  my opinion, my mother is the poster girl for kindness. She’s always been a humble and kind woman, teaching us about kindness towards people and animals alike and compassion towards the less fortunate. And in very Singaporean ways, my brother and I grew up making those $2 & $5 phone calls to charity shows (with the approval of mom of course), buying community chest lucky draw tickets from door-to-door volunteers, putting that $0.50 or $1 coins into those ‘tong-gongs’ , buying stuff from the thrift shop from the Christian Outreach (she didn’t really like this cos it’s old stuff, but I loved it) and of course, caring for our little pets, which included an extensive list of stray cats, abandoned hamsters, rabbit and my current darling dog who was adopted some 4 years ago.

Mom is always kind to those around her, despite us not being extremely well-off, she would also try to help those who reach out to her. Everyone and anyone who knows her, will tell you that she always has a kind word or gesture for another person. Be it taking extra care of the children when she worked at the kindergarten or offering a place for my distant relative to recuperate during her operation here, not to mention forking out the money for the operation first when they couldn’t make the transfer in time.

While I know I will never be as giving as my mom, I do hope that in my lifetime, I would’ve touched some lives in some minute ways that might have made a slight difference. If that’s true, then I am contented.

You know how some people like to spend their time thinking about the answer to life, while others try to figure out ways of accomplishing world peace or something like that. I like to think about those things too, but today those thoughts wandered off to visit some of my darker recollections of this crazy little thing…

For those closer to you, you know that I’ve been chewing up those Charlaine Harris – Southern Vampires books like nobody’s business (well, it is actually nobody’s business, cept mine) and regardless how others may be skeptical about reading vampire stories, I love it. In fact, it’s the only way I can read anything remotely close to a romance novel.

That’s right – a big part of the story is about the love life of Sookie Stackhouse. And I realise, while I don’t hate lovey-dovey reads like those of Nicholas Sparks’, I really like to read love stories hidden under the disguise of supes and fantasy.

Subconsciously, I don’t believe those Nick Sparks-esque relationships exist in real life. that’s why I find it more believable to read something completely fantastic and unrealistic. And because it’s so unrealistic, it’s the only way to really get me away from the mundane, corporate existence that I am now.

In any case, love is relative. It can be applied in a lot of different context.Not just people-people. Like… my past ‘relationship’ to buying expensive stuff. That made me feel happy, maybe close to the kind of excitement and happiness someone who receives a bouquet of roses from her partner may feel. I just preferred to get my satisfaction from another channel, since I wasn’t getting any from my then-involvement.

My boyfriend now, is of course, a whole different story. I am truly and utterly blessed to have found someone, quite easily and so early in life. Some people don’t ever find the one they’ve been waiting for. And it’s hard to explain, having someone you know maybe too good for you, in many aspects, and all you can do is hope against hope that the man you’re so in love with , will keep feeling the same way you do till as long and as far life will take the both of you.

Having said that, I think love generally makes me sick. Not love-sick, but bad-sick. The idea of love, to me, is more often associated with the negative feeling than those warm and fuzzy thoughts. It makes me want to gag and throw up a little in my mouth when I see lovey-dovey things happening. And no I’m not being emo, it’s just that even when I’m watching a romantic movie or reading a love story, all it ever does in the end is make me really depressed. More often than not, the ones that reduces me into a teary monster, are the ones which are my favorites!

Please don’t think I’m some masochistic lovelorn girl, whether it is the hormones that’s inducing all this random word-vomit, or the books i’ve been reading, or the songs I’ve been hearing, I just thought I’d feel better after throwing all of this out since I probably wouldn’t be able to say all this to someone who wouldn’t judge, and who could understand what the hell I was talking about.

If you managed to read through the entire piece without laughing or feeling lost, thank you for your time. If you’re Lucas Lau, you are my life. <3

Me: ” You know how they make them?”

B: “??”

Me: “For each party balloon, they kill a small child. Then they trap their souls in each. It stays afloat because the tiny soul is trying to reach out to heaven. “

Come on, I write better background stories for fictional characters in a fantasy 2D game. I’m sure the creative minds behind these two should be able to do a lot better or at least put in the effort to continue ‘selling’ the story beyond just marketing campaigns.

The “epic-est” part has to be reasons on why Merly has legs. I did a screencap below before anyone updates it.

Full article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyo_and_Merly

Ah, the memories. Seems like a long time ago when we were in school.

Qoo in a tub

Is that a gingerbread monster?

Yes, the slides were so boring that my stickman had to shoot himself in the head. Anyone remember this paper conversation?

And I swear I have no idea why scrying came up in the exchanges. I think it was for the pop quiz. We didn’t have any die with us, so perhaps another method.

Then YOU gotta present in short tongue and extremely oz accent. Sorry, but if you remember who you are, can you let me know?

For this portion, I’m pretty certain the other party is JOEY HO! Here’s teh super sian look again -__-”

Here’s the original breakfast club – Bread, Milk and Butter

It is never complete until…Plankton shows up. And some random anime looking guy.

My happy Murakami flower and TKDK poison apple. No idea why there was the worm. There’s a mind map about plots and breakers too.

That shooting star was definitely for Joey ; Feather is my name.

It was meant to be a doodle of my name, then it got out of hand and grew into a Burtonesque monstrosity

Please dial ‘M’ for murder

Anyone wants to claim this Hedgehog?

The situation was weird, as with most dreams. The location was at some sort of dormitory and both Dave and Becky Barnes were there. I knew it was a school, but I also knew that the other people there were all super heroes of some sort* (i.e. people with abilities). But there was another bunch of teenagers there who were doped up and then there was a raid.

So it was kind of a sticky situation, where you have ‘heroes’ a.k.a the good guys, who were in a place with doped out people and in possession of substance. And jeng jeng jeng, the raid was led by an ‘anti-hero’ character. Not sure who.

Then everything else just became fuzzy and the only other thing I remembered was the open-air toilet seat.

Gonna lay off the tea before bedtime.

This game from reddit is awesome!!! Click here.

So when we got there, we were greeted with a whole lot of people. If I was right, most of them were from the company. The event started only around 7.30pm when we were told to be there from 6.30pm onwards. (Yes, we should’ve gone for dinner first, instead of trying to be punctual and then starving the rest of the evening away)

Sure there was finger food, but an odd combi + obviously not enough for the number of attendees there.

Was handed a gift pack, I’ll share pictures of the content in a bit.

We were all handed tags too. Apparently, there were some TEAM games that was in the program, which I didn’t know of. I knew there were games, but didn’t expect that I had to participate. Contrary to what my profession’s stereotype entails, I am not a very public / outwardly friendly person.

Anyway, the teams are split according to the brand’s tagline, “Don’t just moisturise. Repair, Rehydrate, Revitalise”

My phone is a major fail device for self-camming pics, so we resorted to taking turns. Had to take photos to remember this by alright.

It was an ALMOST all girls event, with a talk given by dermatologist Dr. Mark Tang from National Skin Center on skin care, etc.

According to the recommendations, you should moisturise ANYWHERE, ANYTIME.

Like after you wash your hands, after shower, any time you’re breathing – just moisturise. It’s also a myth that a young child doesn’t need to moisturise. Because there is no age limit for dry skin – you can get dry skin even if you are young. JUST MOISTURISE!

Oh, and they had $3,000 devices to test your skin’s hydration level, mine was fail. Only 46 out of a passing mark of 70.

So if you want to know more about Physiogel’s wonderful effects, click here now.

THE LOOT

I have no idea how much it costs for the lotion though, but do head down to an outlet near you to check them out.

Look out for their bus ads or TVCs that will be up from August. Fun fact: The silver globe in the TVC cost them $2,000.

Apart from being able to straighten my hair quickly, I only managed one successful attempt at curling hair.

P.S. if you have any hair curling tips.. please share!

That sweet girl sent me a mix tape too… and its literally a tape.

When was the last time you played a tape? (or even saw one) It’s awesome! Luckily mummy still has a tape player at home.

Ssshhtereo!