Topic#333: How do you decide on New Year’s resolutions?

Topic #333:  How do you decide on new year’s resolutions? Have you ever gone back to evaluated previous resolutions, and why they worked or didn’t work out for you? What did you learn?

New Year’s resolutions is something that I started this year.  One of my best friends sent me an email to exchange New Year’s resolutions in the beginning of January and we were to sent each other back the emails and tell each other how we did. 

My resolutions were like big project goals for myself.  It gave me the motivation to work hard and focus on certain aspects.  Subconsciously my mind would run back to the resolutions that I made and amidst a busy schedule, I would find time and set shorter term goals to attempt to accomplish them.  Although, for 2011 resolutions, a lot were only partially accomplished but will be possibly set up to be completed in 2012 and I’m rather happy about that.  It helped me break some bad habits and improve my lifestyle, sharpen some fantastic creative skills and make time for spontaneous challenges (for example, Post a Week Challenge and NaNoWriMo 2011). 

I also learned some valuable lessons from my resolutions this year and the results from them.  When setting New Year’s resolutions, you sometimes need to think of stepping up from what you know but not overstepping it so that it was way overambitious.  One of my goals was really above my knowledge and thats why its not even close to completion and it will probably be the hardest goal to accomplish.  Although, it has lead me to learn a bit more every while that I work on it. 

This year is almost over and I’m rather happy on how my resolutions has made certain changes to my current lifestyle.  I can see these changes improving my life and thats what resolutions are all about. For 2012, I will have a new set of resolutions, which will hopefully be more feasible than 2011 resolutions. This makes me anticipate the new year even more as there will be more adventures, more projects to create, and especially more learning experiences. 

Fun times!  I’m ready to write my resolutions in a few weeks.  Are you?

Finish this sentence: There are two kinds of people in the world, those that…

Topic#326

There are two kinds of people in the world, those that talk the talk and those that walk the walk.  The former focuses their life around talking about doing things that they never do and the latter will do what they say.  The former is one that would be more inclinded avoided meeting most days.  The latter is more appreciated because to be surrounded with people who actually walk the talk is not only motivating but also more energizing to be around.  People who do walk the walk are somewhat potential role models, those who set the example. 

Its always less frustrating to be associated with people who say that they will do something or be there for an event or whatnot, and actually follow through in very simple social scenario.  No one likes the ones who blows you off or just vanishes without any reason.  Those who do that usually will come back and give a very lame excuse.  Mind you, I’m not an unreasonable person.  I understand in life, there are things that occur spontaneously that we can’t control and requires our immediate attention but then there are situations which probably could’ve been just an exit strategy for something that the person regarded as more important thus, not showing the respect for the original planned event.  In the end, maybe the sentence should be finished by: There are two kinds of people in the world, those who are respectable and those who are not.  People who do the positive aspect of certain qualities yield respect from others while the latter would not.

Perhaps in reflection, this sentence should be: There are two kinds of people in the world, those that are respectable (and know how to respect others), and those that do not.

December: End of NaNoWriMo! Start of the Holidays!

December is finally here! Its also the time that we acknowledge that the hectic month of November and NaNoWriMo has concluded.  My first NaNoWriMo brought out a whole new creative side of me.  I may not have won it this year.  I did write 23,147 words of a novel and I intend to finish off the novel in the month of December at a less hectic pace.  I may not have won but the experience was absolutely amazing.  I went into a zone that I never knew that I could achieve.  Also, there were certain lessons that I learned to improve for the next NaNoWriMo challenge.

NaNoWriMo made me learn that sometimes you can’t doubt yourself and just have to let your imagination move you along.  If I had started to write efficiently the 1667 words every single day from the beginning,  just as I had written close to 2000 words every day in the second and third week, the novel would’ve been finished on November 30th.  Those two weeks in the middle of November was possibly the best experience ever.  I literally breathed my novel.  I would be writing everywhere.  Whether it was on the bus to and from work (standing or sitting), on lunch break, at the gym, sitting around relaxing, if I wasn’t actually writing, my mind was constantly thinking about what to write next, what was going to happen after in the novel so that when I sat down, the writing would be smooth.  It felt good to acknowledge that I had such strong motivation in me.  This challenge really changed the pace of the remaining of the year and possibly will lead into next year. Creating a new imaginary world also brought creativity in many other things that I had started but stopped working on, so I’m happy to be ready to get back on track in December.  This challenge may have been hectic and absolutely crazy (at least I thought so when I first started) but it helped better another aspect in my life that I needed, time management skills.  So many lessons learned in one month, I’d say that it was worth it.

December 1st is definitely a big day. I put a few things behind me and embrace the holidays that are ahead of us.  We start thinking and planning for all the family celebrations and making time for fun times with friends.  We start prepping for the new year.  I walked into December 1st (today) in absolute fatigue, not from NaNoWriMo (but definitely did affect my progress of it) but with an infection which resulted into me running around looking for a walk-in clinic so I could get treated.  Fantastic day it was, right? At least, in the end I got rewarded with a final 3rd clinic that had a wait time of 15 minutes.  If you live in Quebec (or maybe anywhere in Canada), we’d know that this is absolutely fabulous and almost impossible to find especially when I got there in mid afternoon.  Even though I not only had to wait for one clinic for the their next set of appointments to realize that the doctor wasn’t coming in for the night so they had no doctor at all, therefore no more bookings and got sent off to this other one.  I guess the short wait time really made up for everything and made my day.  We learn new things everyday, I guess.  That final walk-in clinic is definitely a keeper for future reference.

As of more than a week ago, I was dying of coughing and fatigue from not sleeping for the last few days due to the all-night coughing fits that I had.  I came home happily with a bunch of medication (3 to be exact).  Whats nice is that its totally lessened the coughing after I took my first pill and after 10 days hopefully, the throat infection will be gone and I’ll be back to normal again.  Another thing I hope for is that one of the medications will knock me out tonight and I’ll finally sleep.  We do realize how much we treasure these little moments of being healthy when we get sick.  We start seeing how much a little bit of sleep is just absolutely amazing.  Especially when we have so many happy times ahead of us.  I know I have so much planned for this month and I’m looking forward to getting better so that I can enjoy every minute of it.

With this, I wish everyone a healthy December and lots of fun times for the holidays.  Another update perhaps will be after the New Year, in the meantime the regular photo challenges and/or weekly blog topics should resume as before the month of November.  I leave everyone with a thank you for those that stopped by to read my absolutely random blog update. While I run off to take my medication and get some rest tonight and embrace yet another joy of December, the end of literary abandon.  I can now pick up a novel (The Night Circus and a few others) that has been sitting on my shelf waiting to be read all November and enjoy them all.

Topic# 300: What do you wish you had 300 of?

As I am experiencing writer’s block on my NaNoWriMo novel and I need to find some inspiration, this topic really linked to something quite relevant. 

If I could have 300 of something, I’d have 300 Spartans.  You would know the reason if you watched the movie 300.  As the producer who made that movie is releasing another similar type of movie called Immortals this Friday, I felt its the perfect thing to desire.  Sounds silly, right? What is the point of writing if not to bring yourself into a world of complete imagination.  300 was an inspirational movies on so many levels.  It held themes that we don’t see that much around, such as honor, trust, courage, law and order, etc.  I never read the graphic novel that it was based on but this movie was absolutely wonderful in my mind.  Spartans’ mentality was great, at least they were the symbol to move forward when it seemed impossible.  For example, right now, experiencing a writer’s block, it may seem impossible to move on especially since I need to work on a few 5000 word days this weekend, but imagine 300 spartans standing behind me poking me in the back and telling me that their law is to never surrender.  Reminding me day in and day out that they fought a war against Xerxes where they were extremely outnumbered. 

Thinking about 300, I think I’m ready to break through this block and move forward.  This topic that sparked 300 Spartans in my mind, just helped give me the courage to move forward. 

To end this blog, I’ll share a few quotes that I particularly liked in 300 extracted from IMDB. My favorite 3 quotes of 300 countdown. 

3) King Leonidas: Children, gather round! No retreat, no surrender; that is Spartan law. And by Spartan law we will stand and fight… and die. A new age has begun. An age of freedom, and all will know, that 300 Spartans gave their last breath to defend it!

2)Queen Gorgo: I am not here to represent Leonidas; his actions speak louder than my words ever could. I am here for all those voices which cannot be heard: mothers, daughters, fathers, sons – three hundred families that bleed for our rights, and for the very principles this room was built upon. We are at war, gentlemen. We must send the entire Spartan army to aid our king in the preservation of not just ourselves, but of our children. Send the army for the preservation of liberty. Send it for justice. Send it for law and order. Send it for reason. But most importantly, send our army for hope – hope that a king and his men have not been wasted to the pages of history – that their courage bonds us together, that we are made stronger by their actions, and that your choices today reflect their bravery.

1) “Daxos: I see I was wrong to expect Sparta’s commitment to at least match our own.
King Leonidas: Doesn’t it?
[points to Arcadian soldier behind Daxos]
King Leonidas: You there, what is your profession?
Free Greek-Potter: I am a potter… sir.
King Leonidas: [points to another soldier] And you, Arcadian, what is your profession?
Free Greek-Sculptor: Sculptor, sir.
King Leonidas: Sculptor.
[turns to a third soldier]
King Leonidas: You?
Free Greek-Blacksmith: Blacksmith.
King Leonidas: [turns back shouting] Spartans! What is your profession?
Spartans: WAR! WAR! WAR!
King Leonidas: [turning to Daxos] You see, old friend? I brought more soldiers than you did. ”

Encouraging quotes, no? Now I’m ready to grit my teeth, work that imagination and bring forth some inspiration. Nothing is impossible, and if it is, at least I gave it my best shot without  backing down!

November = NaNoWriMo 2011 Challenge!!

Its November 1st finally! The times that a lot of writers joining the challenge for NaNo WriMo 2011 has been looking forward to.  Its my first time doing this challenge and I have no idea if I can tough it out.

I decided to participate in this challenge amidst my crazy busy schedule, so I really hope to find the motivation.  Perhaps advertising it now to everyone that I know, whether friend or acquaintance or family will keep my pride going and I’ll work really hard to finish it.  Over the last 2 weeks, I’ve been making various outlines.  Started so many and brainstormed so many ideas, just now is the big question, how to make it flow well enough?  No matter what form of writing, thats always been my problem, finding a way to make good transitions.

I’m not a writer, although I always enjoyed writing.  I’m hoping this challenge will motivate me to challenge myself and exceed even my own expectations of myself.  So to say, I don’t expect to ever have a novel published, its simply enjoying the process of writing  a novel.  The whole idea of opening up my schedule and making time to write a 50,000 word novel.  I’ve been honestly looking forward to it.  Even my laptop decided that it would be ready to come home all empty and repaired last night ready for me to write this whole month to my heart’s content.  I spent all last night setting up the computer so that it would be ready.  As midnight approached and the updates for Vista was endless, it felt like maybe it was a sign to not do it.  to write 50,000 words by hand is something I haven’t done ever, but unfortunately I’m not the type that gives up that easily.  I worked 2 weeks over so many outlines that I don’twant to give up just yet.

So here I am.  After lunch break and I have started writing and at a word count of about 300 words.  The beginning of it is totally not what I had outlined but who knows, maybe it will bring better things.  Lets hope when I get home tonight, I will be able to write another 1000 words or more.

Inspiration! Please stay with me this November!

Good luck to all for the NaNoWriMo 2011!

P.S. To all that read my blog, I will probably be participating more in Weekly Photo Challenges now rather than writing.  Do check in and give me some comments on the pictures! There should be another one coming soon for last week’s challenge once my laptop is up and running again!

The Value of Facebook

I’m not a big fan of Facebook personally but I use it to share things with my friends such as pictures from gatherings and parties and travel, etc. You get the idea, right? I think its still very impersonal, when I  no longer need to call my friends to see what they are up to, but rather, everything thats going on in their lives I can see via wall posts.  There was a phase in my life,  Facebook was an addiction.  No, my addiction was not stalking my friends and their friends, but yes, Farmville.  So, I’d say, Facebook hasn’t really been much of a good influence to me.  Its giving me reasons to have other addictions and not have actual physical or verbal interaction with my friends.  Yesterday, I suddenly felt like I found some worth for Facebook though. 

Yesterday, I woke up and my computer decided that its had enough so it gave me a very nice message saying, ” Operating System not found”.  Please note, I’m not a computer saavy person and honestly, sometimes I feel like computers are cursed around me as most of them really just break down without warning.  In my opinion, I treat my computer quite decently.  The first thing I panick about is not whether I need to get a new computer but whether I can save all my data in there, especially my pictures.  I brought it in for repair yesterday evening and today it turns out that my data is all gone but good news is, ONLY my hard drive died. 

Now everyone thats reading this is thinking, so what does this have to do with Facebook? The difference between yesterday and today is that even though I know that my hard drive has died, and its very much confirmed as my laptop is getting a new hard drive installed, I’m not so worried about my pictures anymore.  Sure I lost a lot of pictures, some permanently, but the majority good ones, I realized that I posted it up on Facebook.  Now you see what I mean by Facebook’s value?  It became my backup drive without me even realizing.  

Sounds rather stupid to admit this, but I have this horrible habit of not backing up my stuff and Facebook has been there to save me possibly the second time already.  Facebook may be a bad influence to me but like many things, its proven to me that it has its own value of keeping my precious memories that I captured on camera safe, even if its only partially. 

Thank you Facebook!

Do we live life forwards, but examine it backwards?

Topic #273:  Do we live life forwards, but examine it backwards? This is something the philosopher Kikergard pointed out long ago.  Do you agree? If you do, isn’t this odd? It seems we’re likely to make many mistakes in basing our future, which is forward thinking, entirely on the past, which is looking backwards.

I absolutely agree with this.  I’m a person that loves to analysis my surroundings and environment and the situation but something I tend to analyze a lot is myself (as does a lot of people too).  I believe in the concept of reflecting on your past, living in the present and looking forwards optimistically.  To me, all these things conflict each other.

It may be odd to do that but I would ask you this: How can one not examine the past when in reality, it has made us the person we are today? Of course we have our nature but at the same time, if you think back to 10 years ago compared to now, I can say that even in the last 5 years, I’ve changed immensely as  person mentally and physically.  Our mindset changes our motivations and our mistakes poses as criticism that helps us to improve ourselves.  In the end, we are affected by our past. Everyone, whether they like it or not, will subconsciously think and reflect on their past. Is that a bad thing, to be engaging in “backward thinking”?

I actually think that living life forwards is right. To look forward to the future, to plan out what we want to do and motivate ourselves and plan ourselves in the right direction.  I think that’s absolutely the right thing to do.  We need to stay motivated to be ambitious and attain our unique goals.  It gives us hope for the future and helps us stay optimistic to what is to come in our lives.  Can we just be in “forward thinking” mode though?

I think life works in a way that backward thinking and forward thinking are things that work well together.  At least for me, it works where I reflect on my past (backward thinking) to improve myself for the future and push or remind myself that I can be a better person and achieve what I want.  It helps me position myself in the right direction to my future (forward thinking).

Okay, does that mean I only look backwards to examine the bad things in life? Absolutely not.  Today is Thanksgiving (in Canada) and this whole weekend (and every other day), I remain thankful for everything that I have.  I do reflect on the past to see how much more thankful I am of everyone and everything that has happened.  The mere fact that I’m still alive to live through all every moment is something I’m thankful for.  I’m thankful for all my great friends that are there for me when I need them (with and without being asked) and who let me be myself without judging.  I’m thankful for having a wonderful family.  I’m thankful for having my boyfriend and because of that, having a second family who loves me and makes me equally loved as my own.  How can not examine my past to be thankful for what I have today? Almost everything is what it is from what we’ve done in the past.

Therefore, backward thinking is simply a tool to help with our forward thinking, to make us better prepare for our future. Although I have fallen into the trap sometimes of falling down that black hole, where I do my backward thinking a bit too extensively and all I see is the crazy flawed life I’ve had in the past, all the bad decisions I’ve made and it made me lose track as to what to do next and whether I could improve myself.  There’s always something that makes us be happy with who we are.  For sure, life is not going to be all joy and happiness but the least we can do is try to change our mindsets to be that way.  After all, I don’t know what will happen in the future, what God or destiny (whatever you believe in) has in store for us.

On a side note, I slightly deep topic for Thanksgiving but I think that it matched it so amazingly.  Along with the fact that I had drafted something reflecting on the past summer but never posted it.  Today is a day that I especially  am thankful to everyone and I can tell the people I love and care about instead of just doing things that show my appreciation. I think back and remember all the great things (good and bad) that has happened and all the people who has been there to share my happiness with me and to support me and has been there when I go through my rough patches.

If I may add, if you are reading this right now, I’m thankful to you because you just gave me that little extra motivation to keep writing and the extra push to keep myself in the PostaWeek Challenge, no matter how busy I am.  Thank you!

 

What 5 Movies Have Influenced You the Most?

Topic #264:  What 5 books have influenced you the most?  P.S. Or if you prefer, what 5 movies, 5 albums, or travels.

I’ve been wanting to  write about movies (and believe me, there are at least 3 drafts sitting around that I started and never finished) so here’s my latest attempt.

The 5 movies that influenced me the most (and also making them some of the few that frequent my DVD player the most than others in my  movie collection) are the following:

1) Freedom Writers (based on a book: Freedom Writers’ Diaries): Very strong movie based on a true story of integration of teenagers affected by gang violence and brought up to protect their own race when a teacher lets them know that they can learn how to tolerate others and also grasp their own future.

2) Eat, Pray, Love (based on the book by Elizabeth Gilbert): How it is important to find yourself and learn to be comfortable with yourself

3) 12 Angry Men: This movie portrayed very nicely how everyone has different opinions and views based on how we were brought up and personal experiences can sometimes cloud our judgments with discrimination and prejudice and and as a result, make people forget the big picture.

4) August Rush: The power of music and how family are so strongly tied together no matter how far apart they are

5) Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants: Friendship!! Reminded me the importance of friendship with good friends

 

What does “home” mean to you?

Topic #261

 Home can be anywhere as long as I’m with the people I love and it gives me the feeling that I’m very relaxed and content.   Life brings a lot of stress and negativity and problems, both emotionally and physically but a home is somewhere that can help you forget about it or put it aside, like a little protect barrier.  Home is somewhere that brings you comfort for your own lifestyle.  Some people feel at home in a space by themselves, while others feel at home when they are with a group of people. 

“Home” is somewhere that I feel the sense of belonging, where I can be in absolute comfort, where I can be myself and not be judged and somewhere my heart and soul truly relaxes. With certain people in my life, I feel at home in a few selected people presence such as my best friends and my boyfriend and of course, my family.

I remember reading a book when I was a teenager by Jean Little called “The Belonging Place”.  I thought it was a wonderful book for coming to age where you understand the whole idea of dealing with belonging to somewhere amongst growing up faced with the issues of loss and loneliness.

Top Ten Favorite Songs (Part 2: Chinese)

Took a while but here is part 2 with my top 10 favorites for Chinese songs.  If I can find the Youtube video, I’ll put it on the side just so anyone who hasn’t heard it can listen to it.

1) 我的愛-孫燕姿 （http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOJpI9Ju26o&feature=related)

2) Fly Away-梁靜茹 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3CSHgiKWZA)

3) 流沙-陶喆 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvoe0eHKEVs&feature=related)

4) 來讓我跟你走-彭羚 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLMGfXv6Ezk)

5)一首簡單的歌-王力宏 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PihQffGOL54)

6)無聲仿有聲-謝霆鋒 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kfvx31rYNN0)

7)舊日回憶的山丘-容祖兒 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkhS5VSc2uA)

8)火熱動感LaLaLa-鄭秀文, 梁漢文，郭富城，許志安 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2amZHs7yJVY)

9）原來你什麼都不想要-孫燕姿Version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWMp5a7gKw4)

10）望月-張學友 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N1i2BeTGJk)

Enjoy!!