Tagged for Charity – Darul Izzah Orphanage

As we all know Bro Idham is planning a noble effort. On his next birthday which is 26th August, he plans to compile and bind the 100 bloggers’ memes, for which every meme, he will contribute RM127 to this orphanage. I was tagged by Fauziah Ismail aka X-Matters, which came from Ruby Ahmad and Raden Galoh.

Remember, we need 100 memes by 26th August. Once this tag is done, please leave a comment on Bro Idham’s blog to inform him that you have done the tag.

Okay, this is the rule. If you are tagged, you need to write an entry related to the meme. At the end of your entry you just need to tag as many bloggers as you like. You will then leave a comment in their blog to let them know they have been tagged. And to include this message, “By doing this meme you are contributing RM127 to the Darul Izzah Orphanage”.

Then please copy and paste this rule somewhere in your entry.The meme is about completing at least seventeen out of the following twenty seven sentences.*These can be copied and pasted to your entry*

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1. A person is only as good as what’s really inside him/her.

2. Friendship is having someone who cares about you, don’t judge you and accept you as you are.

3. To love is to … never having to say you are sorry (izzit?)

4. Money makes me….go bling bling (see $$$ makes me speechless! hehe)

5. I miss … being an S or M size person, where I don’t have problems fitting in those tight jeans and kebaya (confession of an overweight blogger…hahaha).

6. My way of saying I care is by …. asking, “Can I be of any help?” to my colleagues in the office.

7. I try to spread love and happiness by… loving my family members and friends unconditionally.

8. Pick the flowers when … you visit Cameroon Highland and you are spoiled for choices of which colorful roses and carnations to pick.

9. To love someone is to … understand that we may not always like each other but we will always love one another

10. Beauty is … when (or more like IF) I ever get back to my ideal BMI weight and fit those zaman-anak-dara acid-washed denims and cool peach tank tops!

11. When I was thirteen, what I remember the most was … I was sent to boarding school and being a loner that I was (and still am), I did not make friends that easy and how I always look forward for month-end weekends when my parents will come and visit (nak ikut balik..nak ikut balik!).

12. When I was twenty one, I remember …I was in 3rd undergrad year in college and I was so looking forward to finish college and start working.

13. I am most happy when …. I am leisurely shopping, with hubby trailing behind NOT COMPLAINING and he will foot the bills for all those handbags and shoes I pick up (yeah right…more often that not he will always remind me to move fast and that my closet is about to burst and point-blankly say if I insist to buy those things…use my own card lah… aiyah..tak romantic langsung)

14. Nothing makes me happier than … taking a few days off work and go balik kampung! Or go for more rounds of island vacationing where we can go snorkeling, kayaking, sea swimming, fishing and most importantly don’t get sun-burnt when I forgot to put on sun-blocks (but hubby is always busy busy busy can’t even take full weekend off so we can drive to Pangkor or Kuantan, err..not PD please…have enough of it)

15. If I can change one thing, I will change … the world order. No more war, and we can all happily live as a big gigantic family regardless of the belief, skin color, language, social standing, etc.

16. If smiles were…pre-requisites for people manning counters, then I … wonder how many counters we would have…

17. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could … all make the highways toll-free!

18. If you want to … be treated with respects by others, then you will first have to give your respects to others.

19. Money is not everything but … we certainly cannot be happy if we don’t have money, can we?

20. The most touching moment I have experienced is …. seeing my hubby wept openly and uncontrollably after being informed that my late MIL’s had just passed away.

21. I smile when … I feel want to.

22. When I am happy, I … sometimes pretend I am Ziana Zain (she’s my hubby fav singer you see…) and I will sing her famous numbers on top my lung, don’t care whether the neighbours can hear me or not. And most importantly I will purposely sing them out-of-tune (not that I am a good singer anyway) to drive him nuts, and that hopefully will make him dislike Ziana Zain (err…actually, that is my ulterior motive…jahat tak I? Muahahaha! Opps.. no offence to her fans out there!!)

23. If only I don’t have to …pay back my credit card bills then … I will make KLCC, One Utama, Subang Parade, Sunway Pyramid, as my second home…yeehaarrr!!!

24. The best thing I did yesterday was … I stayed back until almost midnight in the office to help a few colleagues resolve their work problem.

25. If I ever write a book, I will give it this title … A Journey Through Life. It might be a compilation of my ramblings I have shared in my blog and most importantly it should include the many good comments my blogger frens left in my blog…

26. One thing I must do before I die is … to consistently be the best person He has assigned me (and each one of us) to be in this world.

27. Doing this meme, I feel like … I have chipped in RM127 to Bro Idham for his noble charity cause. May God Bless you Bro!

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I herewith tag the following bloggers. C’mon guys, let’s do it for charity.

The Purple Cat

The Blueberry

Typhoon Sue

Mama Sarah

Helena

Mama Beas

Lesson in Life Journey – Story of a Donkey

Life tends to shovel dirt on top of each of us from time to time. Don’t let the dirt cover us, shake it off and take a step up!

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One day a farmer’s donkey fell into a well. The farmer frantically thought what to do as the stricken animal cried out to be rescued. With no obvious solution, the farmer regretfully concluded that as the donkey was old, and as the well needed to be filled in anyway, he should give up the idea of rescuing the beast, and simply fill in the well. Hopefully the poor animal would not suffer too much, he tried to persuade himself.

The farmer asked his neighbours help, and before long they all began to shovel earth quickly into the well. When the donkey realised what was happening he wailed and struggled, but then, to everyone’s relief, the noise stopped.

After a while the farmer looked down into the well and was astonished by what he saw. The donkey was still alive, and progressing towards the top of the well. The donkey had discovered that by shaking off the dirt instead of letting it cover him, he could keep stepping on top of the earth as the level rose. Soon the donkey was able to step up over the edge of the well, and he happily trotted off.

***Author Unknown

Lesson in Life Journey – A Carrot, An Egg and A Cup of Coffee

Everything happens for a reason! There are lessons in everything that happens to us, and around us. There are lessons to be learned in every encounter we have with another person. Knowing and accepting that everything happens for a reason, that the detours are part of our life journey, it should enable us to better accept the things we perceive as adversities that may happen to us daily.

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A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling.

It seemed as one problem was solved! , a new one arose. Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil, without saying a word.

In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl.

Turning to her daughter, she asked, “Tell me, what do you see?”

“Carrots, eggs, and coffee,” she replied. Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg. Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled, as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, “What does it mean, mother?”

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity … boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. ! After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

“Which are you?” she asked her daughter.

Think of this: Which am I?

Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity?

Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

***Author Unknown

Diary of a Pathetic Blogger – June 2007

I am always awed at how some bloggers can manage to churn out many interesting, immaculately written and not to mention superbly shot photo postings in their blogs without fail all these years. They seem to have it all i.e. endless interesting stories and photos to share, discipline to maintain consistent writing, superb time management in finding time to blog amidst their busy schedule.

As for me, maintaining this puny page seems to be a struggle. Maybe I started my blogging venture with no-so-right intention. Maybe I don’t really have good and strategic objectives that serve as a guide on why/how I should blog in the first place. Maybe I was just jumping the bandwagon to be another blogger because it seems to me blogging was/is an in-thing nowadays, and I might risk being called a ‘katak bawah tempurung’ or ‘cakap tak serupa bikin’ if I don’t have blog on my own. I am after all an employed IT professional whose unwritten yet expected role is advocating seeing IT spending as an investment and not merely an expense, yada yada and all those mumbo jumbos. Wait the minute, what does blogging have to do with all that? What the heck, I am not writing this to plead for money from my employer to sponsor new projects, so it is my own turf of not making sense here, am I?

Maybe that explains why it is increasingly hard to find stories and keep up with the demand (I mean my own pathetic personal demand) of keeping this site alive. Hmm, maybe if I dramatically keep digging into the closet, I would be able to produce a long list of excuses on why I did not update my page for about a month, and it might help lift this subtle guilty conscious I am having, and it might make a great blog post which garners many comments. Hahaha…Yeah right!

Anyway, to possibly help minimize my pathetic blogger reputation, I better crack my head now, yes now think..think..think.. to find a real story with substance worth scribbling here. What juicy and interesting encounters have I done for the past 1 month?

Err… come to think about it, I better leave the juicy, intimate and spooky part for later, when or if I decide to blog about them that is. Hmm…I wonder how great writers and story tellers manage to coyly preserve the suspense part of their work

Professionally it’s been 3 months since I have this new job, and surprisingly why don’t I feel happy and more satisfied as I earlier hoped? Granted, we the global team managed to launch our latest project within the deadline and budget, and yes we have had a few rounds of celebrations to commensurate our success. Granted too that this new job warrants slightly more perks, more chances to rub shoulders with some pretty intelligent Janes/Joes, more chance to step outside the country on paid expenses, but again, why am I still not that happy? Why do I sometimes feel powerless technically, and that all the important decisions I used to crack my head are all done by the Janes/Joes? I should have known better that this is how MNCs are structured to operate globally and locally.

Somehow my old workplace with all the perceived deficiencies seems shining back now. I never thought I would use, even subconsciously, the old place as a benchmark on how I should feel satisfied professionally. But as a principle (call me stubborn if you wish), I don’t think considering to go back to where I left, is a good idea.

It’s gonna be another interesting life journey to look out for professionally. In the meantime I better enjoy spending my working hours here, what more with a cool Italy-imported coffee-making machine that supplies endless and most importantly free Cappuccinos, Americanos, and Espressos throughout the day. It does make the cool views outside this office much more relaxing and enjoyable!

Adios, till next time Diary.