I’ve always wondered how all these animal sayings came about.

…Busy as a bee…
…Ants in your pants…
…Bee in your bonnet…
…Bird’s eye view…
…Scaredy cat…

Honestly, who sat down and thought these up??

Anyway, life is so busy these days, time just flies by like “whooooossssh”!
It’s already mid October, 2.5 more months till 2012!!! Like, hellooooo??? Time, where did you go??? Come back!!!

Anyway, am still trying to keep up with time… and trying not to get to sucked up in everything around me.

I’m currently reading this book, Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely, in which he challenges readers’ assumptions about making decisions based on rational thought. Just got through a chapter addressing procrastination and his experiment in this area, where he found that his students who were given non-negotiable deadlines to turn in 3 papers during at term, scored higher scores as opposed to those who were given the flexibility of setting their own deadlines for the same papers. He also made reference to how most people procrastinate on their health checkups, resulting in higher healthcare costs and health conditions/diseases which could have been treated successfully if caught early get away unnoticed until it’s too late.

I was thinking this evening, why do people take such good care of their material goods, say, like cars, by taking their cars for regular services diligently but fail at getting their annual health checkups done? Why do people lovingly clean their designer handbags after each usage but don’t make a similar effort in getting themselves checked up?

On the same note, I fail to understand why some people don’t make the effort to eat healthily and exercise regularly for the sake of their health. I’m not talking about eating organic or counting calories at each meal, but eating in moderation and avoiding/minimizing food which can cause lifestyle diseases like high cholesterol, high blood pressure, clogged arteries, such as greasy fried and fatty food. And by exercising, I’m not saying that everyone should join a gym and get a personal trainer to drill them on routines but simple but vigorous exercise like brisk walking or running, or even getting an exercise DVD and doing their own exercises at home.

Personally, I believe it’s MY own responsibility to keep myself healthy, firstly for myself and secondly, for the people who care for and love me. For myself, because I don’t like getting sick (who likes getting sick and having to take drugs??). And for the people who care for and love me, so that they don’t have to worry about me and I don’t become a burden to them should I ever fall sick.

Of course, eating healthily and exercising regularly is not a 100% guarantee that you’ll never ever get sick but I subscribe to the policy where prevention is better than cure. If I can do something to minimize the risk of my being unhealthy, then it’s my responsibility to take the necessary steps to do so.

And I make sure that I get my annual health checkups done. No one needs to remind me or nag me to do it; I will remember when my checkups are due and get them done willingly on my own.

We make up so many excuses to get out of exercising and getting our health checks done… I’m too busy, my muscles are aching, I’ve got other things to do, yada yada yada… I know because I’ve been guilty of this before.

Now, if you can schedule your car service appointments regularly and on the dot, why can’t you do the same for yourself? Why can’t you make a bit of effort to put in some exercise time during the week? Is your car worth more than yourself?

To All, may the Year of the Rabbit bring you great health, wealth and prosperity!

Traditional Lion Dance, just done "eating"

This is the best part of the Chinese New Year for me  Chasing lions!

Today’s not a very pleasant day

Arrived at work and got a sneezing fit, and the nose has not stopped running since then.

We went for lunch at a new place, a residential house cum coffee shop, which served Malay food and as we sat down, this furry fellow was enjoying his/her afternoon snooze on one of the chairs, oblivious to the heat and noise.

I need to learn from cats how to relax and smell the roses

I’ve come to accept that I get irked by a lot of things every day. And I need to vent about them so my brains don’t explode from all the thoughts churning inside my head about what’s wrong with people in the world. So it’s not my intention to project negativity in my posts but more for me to regurgigate my thoughts so that I can free my mind.

Note : Yes I know I’m not perfect and I don’t expect others to be perfect either. But there are some things that you  just know should be done or shouldn’t be done.

So here’s another.

There is one reason why I don’t like to depend on anyone for anything.
Because by having too much expectations on someone else, in the event that they don’t deliver even the simplest thing, the disappointment in others’ lack of initiative is just too draining. And I don’t like to keep repeating myself over and over again, sounding like a broken record.

So when I want to get things done, I resolve to getting them done myself. Waiting around for people to make an effort to lift a finger to do something is expecting too much of them apparently.

I detest top-loading washing machines.

We use a front-loading machine back at my parents’ and I’ve never had to iron my t-shirts. Until now. Now, I have to resort to ironing my t-shirts! So not only does it use more water, it makes my clothes come out so crumpled that I have to use additional energy (i.e. electricity) to iron even my t-shirts. I can’t even shake out the crumples like how I can with clothes I wash in my old front-loader.

And I find that my clothes seem to get worn out faster with the top-loader. So I guess this means in the long-rum, I’d have to spend more to buy new clothes.

The most recent finding I made was that my clothes don’t come out as clean! Isn’t that ridiculous, my clothes don’t come out clean after being washed. Hmm…

Aside from being cheaper than a front-loader, I don’t know why we even use top-loaders, when in the long-run, I don’t find it cost effective because :

• It uses more water, which translates into a higher water bill and ultimately, doesn’t help in conserving one of our few natural resources.
• It makes laundry come out really crumpled, which translates into higher electricity bill because now we have to iron clothes which we’ve never had to iron before plus more time spent on laundry doing to ironing when it could be used to do something else.
• It wears clothes out faster, which translates into more frequent upgrading of wardrobe, resulting in more money being spent.
• It doesn’t clean clothes as effectively as front-loaders (I encountered a problem which I didn’t encounter using front-loaders).

The only downside to front-loaders is that they’re more expensive than top-loaders but heck, I’m willing to pay the extra amount to avoid all those things above. As soon as I save enough, I’m getting myself a front-loader, since one’s not gonna materialize magically in our backyard.

Happy New Year All!!

Here’s to a great year and may you all live your lives true to yourself

Hmm… WordPress themes are pretty boring (those that I’ve browsed through, that is).

The current theme I’m using is the most interesting one I’ve found thus far (I love the squiggles and non-linear lines!). Unfortunately, there are a few things that I can’t seem to work out, like how to change the Archives tab to read something else or get the page to display my archived posts by month.

Currently, I’ve pointed it to my photo gallery (quite old photos because I haven’t had time to upload the new ones) but the tab still reads “Archives”. Apparently, I need to edit the image file and re-upload it, all of which I am too lazy to do even if I knew how to, so if you wish to see some not-so-new photos, do go to the Archives tab on the top of the page I’ll try to upload new albums, one fine day, hehe.

I really really like this song…

One by U2

Is it getting better
Or do you feel the same?
Will it make it easier on you now?
You got someone to blame

You say one love, one life (one life)
It’s one need in the night
One love (one love), get to share it
Leaves you darling, if you don’t care for it

Did I disappoint you?
Or leave a bad taste in your mouth?
You act like you never had love
And you want me to go without

Well it’s too late, tonight
To drag the past out into the light
We’re one, but we’re not the same
We get to carry each other
Carry each other
One…

Have you come here for forgiveness?
Have you come to raise the dead?
Have you come here to play Jesus?
To the lepers in your head

Well, did I ask too much, more than a lot?
You gave me nothing, now it’s all I got
We’re one, but we’re not the same
Cos if we, had each other
Then we’d do it again

You say
Love is a temple
Love is a higher law
Love is a temple
Love is the higher law
You ask me to enter
Well then you make me crawl
And I can’t keep holding on
To what you got
Cos all you got is hurt

One love
One blood
One life
You got to do what you should
One life
With each other
Sisters and my
Brothers
One life
But we’re not the same
We get to
Carry each other
Carry each other

One…
One love

From Wiki (this is funny) : The band have been told by many fans that they played the song at their weddings, prompting Bono to respond, “Are you mad? It’s about splitting up!”

Right is right, wrong is wrong. Like the binary system. Zero and one.

I don’t understand the concept of “giving in” or “admitting” when I am accused of something that I didn’t do or something I am not. Nor do I expect others to just keep mum when the same happens to them. 

If I’m wrong, I will humbly admit it. I am not afraid of owning up to my mistakes; I have admitted my mistakes plenty of times. Just as I am always mindful not to take credit where I do not deserve and try to direct it to the deserving party.

Now what’s so difficult to understand about this?

They don’t call me Miss Compliance at work for nothing. The compliant nature in me does not accept things which are wrong.

Life is already complicated on its own without us insisting on leaving some things fuzzy and grey. It gets a tiny bit easier when there are clear lines drawn and ambiguity is minimized. Call me boring or rigid, but that’s how I’ve been living life. How many lines I put up depends on the subject matter but there will be at least 2 lines, just so I can at least segregate the matter into one or another “pool”.