As you can see from the previous test post, I'm doing 43 things. I used it a couple of years ago, but then priorities changed and etc, so I ended up slacking on it.

I've continued planning my goals and all in my daily planner, but I remembered 43 things, and I thought it might be a good idea to use it again. Right now everything I have there is outdated and obsolete. But I'll update as soon as I get everything organized.

It's a really great way to keep yourself on track. It's not just that it's organized, but there are also many people there who may have the same goals as you do, and they help motivate and inspire you to follow through with everything. And it also motivates you when you keep track of how you're progressing with your goals, it helps you see where you are, and how much further you have to go, and how far you've already gone.

I can't wait to see how far I'm gonna go. =)

I am doing 43 things.

I haven't blogged in weeks!

I don't know what's wrong with me, I'm a little out of it... Just started the next phase of my studies. I'm doing a double degree in Holistic Nutrition and Natural Health now. Whew!

The problem with me is I tend to do things to the extreme. I'm so excited about starting this new phase that for the last couple of weeks, I've neglected *everything* except my studies. The good news is that I'm well ahead of schedule on my studies, and doing very very well. (All in a matter of two weeks!)

The not so good news is that I'm behind on my reviews and my other assignments unrelated to studies. And I've also neglected my blog, my piano lessons, my Chinese lessons... =(

I need to find a balance.

The good news is, I'm trying to get back on track with everything else and hoping that it won't mean slowing down on my studies. I've started another blog where I can practise and learn Mandarin...

It's Lone's idea, coz he's doing it too, to learn his Japanese. As for my Chinese blog, it's pretty boring and embarrassing. I won't be writing anything profound there, it's just for little, simple sentences, and Lone (my Chinese teacher!) will correct any mistakes I make.

我会加油！
wo hui jia you!
I will work hard!
(Literal translation: "I will add gas!" LOL!)

I'm 25 years old today!!

Half a century old! OMG! (Edited: Dammit!! I meant to say QUARTER of a century old! You were right, zza! Took me two weeks to see this, I *am* getting old!)

But still young as ever in heart, I hope! LOL! I sometimes feel that I'm still young in mind though... I can still be a little immature sometimes.

Not that I'm proud of it, but as long as I keep on improving each day.

I have a 'motto' that I live by... I don't like to compare myself with others, because that's never a fair or practical comparison either way, but I do like to compare myself with what I was before...

So my motto is that I need to improve each and every day, be a better person, more mature, more intelligent, wiser, kinder, nicer, more patient, more motivated, successful....whatever. The point is that I need to be a better me everyday that passes.

And I am! I'm not the best that I can be, of course, how could I ever be? That would mean that I couldn't improve anymore, and if there's no room for growth then it's time to die.

But I'm only a quarter of a century old, I have 3 more of these to go. I'm only at 25% of my full potential, I have a long long wayyyyy to go... and it's fun...growing, learning, making mistakes and learning from them, becoming a better me, a happier me...

Everyday I see some kind of progress in whichever area of my life, and I'm happy because this is the life! This *is* the life!

I know the changes I want to make, the improvements I want to make... and I see them manifest, everyday of my life.

Even though sometimes I'm not doing the things I think I should do, or wasting time on things I think I shouldn't do, but I make more and more choices that brings me towards the things I want, and away from the things I don't want.

I have more to improve on, and it's fun. It's like working on a lifelong project, in which you add something beautiful and new everyday, and it only gets better and better. And the thing is, the project is you!

I am so loving every minute of my life.

I don't want to waste a minute having bad thoughts or bad feelings, or making bad choices. Why should I, when I can have great thoughts and happy feelings and wonderful experiences?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

I've come a long way. =)

I can't believe that they killed Sara Tancredi off the show!!!

And by decapitation!

This just sucks...

They said they had to kill her because they needed to give Michael some motivation to make the show more interesting, and Sara Wayne Callies (who plays Sara Tancredi) is pregnant and didn't want to do the show. I guess they had to do it...

But then again, it could just be an elaborate hoax, which I admit could just be wishful thinking on my part, but you never know. Wait til you hear the theory though...

So let's see, they need Michael to be motivated, and Sara Wayne Callies is pregnant. So they pretend to kill Sara Tancredi, to give Michael his motivation, and SWC the time she needs for her family. Then they make a big deal out of it, and release news reports and all that about how Sara needed to be killed, and SWC didn't want to act...blah blah blah.

And then much later, we'll find out... Sara Tancredi isn't really dead!!! Yayy!

She comes back towards the end of the season, or maybe she comes back next season, and we find out that it wasn't really her head in the box. It was another dead woman's head that they operated on to look like Sara Tancredi (they're good with plastic surgery, remember the bitch Senator's brother?). The evil Susan didn't really have Sara Tancredi in her hands to kill, so she sent someone else's head as Sara's to motivate Michael to do as they want.

The show goes on, Michael is motivated, Sara Wayne Callies gets her time with her family and gets to come back later, publicity/ratings for the show soars, and the fans are happy! It's win-win-win-win-win for all!

I only wish it was true...

Well, time will tell, though I'm pretty sure it's just wishful thinking. But you never know... there's always the possibility.

This postcard from Postsecret touched me so much that I just had to post it up here. It's so beautiful.

I hope one day I can do something like this.

I recently reviewed a book, A Secret of the Universe by Stephen L. Gibson, which made me curious about the Bible.

I'm not a Christian, and I've never actually read the Bible, but I do know about the stories of the Bible. You know, like Noah's ark, Adam and Eve, Moses' 10 Commandments, etc. And I enjoy those stories, it's just that I've never read the Bible to see what the Bible actually says.

I've known for a while that the Bible contradicts itself many times. What else can you expect from a book which was written by dozens of different people and translated from dozens of different languages? Something was bound to get lost in translation somewhere.

I meant to read the Bible for myself one day, so I could read the stories, and the contradictions, for myself (better to argue theology when you know about the other's points), but I wasn't interested enough to do it.

Stephen L. Gibson's novel A Secret of the Universe has made me so interested that I have now started reading a chapter of the Bible a day, starting from the book of Genesis.

Already I've found something which many Christians conveniently ignore;

If Adam and Eve were the first people, and they gave birth to Cain, Abel, and Seth, then who was it that Cain took as a wife? Where did she come from? And why was he so afraid that other men might judge him for killing his brother? Where did those other men come from?

It's just the first in a long long list of questionable statements in the Bible. This is why, though I enjoy the Bible stories, I would never really believe them. I take them the way I would take any other fantasy story.

Even with fictional books, readers question certain things that don't make sense in the story, why should we do any less with the Bible? Especially with the Bible, in fact. If it doesn't make sense, I'll pick at it. It's fun! =P

But it's really interesting too, you know.

OMG! I haven't blogged in two weeks?!

I didn't even realize!

So sorry! But I've been really busy (yeah I always say that). I spent the week before finishing up the final assignments in my course, and this week I'm busy with a new member of my family.

We got a new puppy! He's a Pomeranian, born on 7/7/07! We had to do the obvious; we named him Lucky. =)

Sorry I haven't got any pix right now. They're all on my brother's camera and I haven't had time to upload them just yet. He's the cutest little puppy you could ever imagine, though taking care of him has been taking up a LOT of my time this week. I hardly had time to do anything else, except play with him, train him, feed him, hold him, clean him...etc.

Poor Baby is so jealous, she hasn't been herself lately. She's been really morose and anxious that we don't care about her anymore. But of course we do! Baby's the best! It's just that you can't pick her up and carry her around coz she's so big and heavy, but we still give her the same amount of attention we normally do. In fact, we give her more, because we're worried that she's getting so sad.

Hmm... maybe she's just acting sad so that we'll give her more attention. Smart dog, that Baby...

Well, anyway, I'm so glad I finished all my assignments before we got Lucky, else I probably wouldn't have the time at all to do anything! I haven't done anything productive at all this week!

I need a puppysitter! Who wants to volunteer?!

It's always obvious when I haven't had a life...

My blog posts consists of mostly opinions or quizes or whatnot, instead of pictures of the places I've been and the people I've met.

Sighz...

It's not fair! I wanna be happening too! *wails*

Oh, whatever, I actually don't really care if I'm not as happening as others because I really do enjoy my work and studies and hobbies, but honestly...sometimes I just need to go out and stretch my legs, you know.

All the things I do, like studying, or writing for the web, or reading, requires that I sit at home at the computer. I'm taking an online course, so there's no college to go to. I'm freelance, so there's no office. Reading is a hobby, so obviously I read at home too.

I enjoy it all, but I'm seeing the same scenery all the time. If I had a college or an office, my days would be spent in first in college, then in the office, then I could go back home. But now it's just, home, home, home. And no people!!!!

I don't have classmates or colleagues!

Well, actually I do, but none that I can actually see or go out for drinks with...

It's a sad, sad, lonely life. =~(

But I'm enjoying every minute of it! LOL! =)

I was having a conversation with Lone about communication and the roles of body language, tone, and words in communication. I don't know the exact figures, but I think it's something like 70% of your communication is your body language, 20% your tone of voice, and only 10% your words. I believe most of us have heard that, though I'm quite sure my figures are wrong.

So anyway, we were talking about that, and the fact that with internet chats, text messaging, and emails, 80% of our communication (body language and tone of voice) are effectively lost. Smiley faces help somewhat to communicate that in real life, we're smiling when we say what we say, which might have been construed as something negative if there wasn't any smiles on our faces. But take away the smiley faces, and you'll have to be very careful of what you write and the way you put your words together.

For most professional writers who write articles or reviews for newsletters and magazines, or bloggers who write for company blogs, the only form of communication they are able to use is words. No smiley faces allowed, no "=)", "=P", "=(" or stuff like *grin*, *LOL*, *smirk*, and etc. All they have are their words.

Some people say that personal interaction is best, so you can read other people better. You can understand them better because you can see their body language, hear their tone of voice, and the words they say.

Well, of course that's true. But there's something special about being able to communicate using only words too. I kind of likened it to a handicap that makes your other senses stronger, like the blind man whose sense of hearing is extra-sensitive (DareDevil comes to mind...).

When you are 'handicapped' to only be able to communicate with words, you do tend to develop sharper skills with forming your words and sentences carefully to communicate what you really want to say. Of course, it's not a real handicap, coz you can go back to using the rest of your 'senses' anytime, but while you are communicating via writing only, your sharper 'sense' of words turn on, and you use different words and sentences from what you might use if you were talking to someone face to face.

It is a skill, and now that more and more communication are going digital, we should all develop this skill, and make ourselves better understood with only words to help us.