To Undo our own Undoings

The downfall started in English, my last class of the day. We had to pick a subject for an oral presentation, but I just couldn't find one that pleased me. Ukraine was too complicated, climate change seemed way beyond my hands. And so when the bell rang, I left with a mind full of empty ideas, while my classmates shared their carefully thought out subjects with each other. The preoccupation followed me throughout badminton practice, and before I knew it, I had lost one, two, three games. Including one against the-girl-i-never-lose-to. Naturally, I blamed my poor performance on my English class woes as I sat on the bench, drenched in my bitter attitude.

The Pride in Wrongdoing

*All names in this post have been changed in form of respect and privacy*

Today we had a double bloc of Spanish, and nearing the end of it, you can already guess that our teacher was getting frustrated from all of our little misbehaviours. And so, with Ms. Kayla's mood already in a downfall, one student decided to raise his voice above everyone else's, which resulted in some furious yelling from our teacher's part.

After 10-15 minutes, when the situation was almost forgotten and the class was chattering away, Ms. Kayla grabbed our attention and says, "I'd just like to apologize to Andy for yelling at him. I realize now that he was not the only one that was talking loudly, and singling him out was the wrong thing to do. I know that I'm not perfect and sometimes I do lose my patience, but I really try my best." Looking back it didn't make much of an impact on my classmates and I, but now that I have had a chance to think about it, I now realize just how meaningful what Ms. Kayla said.

A Human's Worth

"Humans' lives are not of the same worth," declared my mom, grabbing another piece of stir-fried broccoli with her wooden chopsticks.

We were sitting around the dinner table, listening to CBS News when the anchor quickly mentioned a suicide car bombing that killed 53 people in Iraq. The news seemed to have left his thought as quickly as it had came out of his mouth. The rest of the supper was a blur; only the remnants of my mom's comment swarmed in my mind.

That was several weeks ago. And yet I cannot forget that day when 53 people were killed in a bombing, and how the brief mention of it was quickly overshadowed by a news report of more value, but lesser importance. If this were to happen in a developed country like the U.S.A. or Canada, it would be on the national headlines, even international ones, for several days in a row. They would have short biographies of the injured and deceased affected by the incident, and segments where experts would analyze the event over and over.

Actually, it wasn't the way-too-brief report on the news regarding that suicide car bombing that thoroughly vexed me. It was the ignorance of social media. If you engage in social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter, you probably came across a few people posting a message that said "Pray for Boston", during the time following the Boston Marathon Bombing. And that was very respectful, being emotionally engaged to an event that shook the whole nation. But those people completely missed the mark. Haven't they ever looked at the world properly? Looked at Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and so many other countries in the midst of turmoil? They should know that these countries experience bombings every day of great fatality. But when has someone ever posted to their Facebook page a message saying "Pray for Syria", or "Iraq Strong"? If there are people who do it, I have yet to have encounter one of them.

100 Followers+ Update!

Hi! Long time no see! Well, I won't drag on with an introduction, so let's go straight off to the points. First of all...

YAY! I reached one hundred followers! When I updated my feed and saw 99 followers creep up to 100, a giant smile just sparked on my face! I honestly feel so thankful to have such great readers like you guys. And even more for those who take that extra couple of minutes to put a comment on my post. It honestly means SO much to me! I love all of you guys so much! (*Kissy, smoochy face*)

And also, you might have realized that I haven't been posting very regularly these past few weeks/month, and as much as I'd like to blame time, I think it's only partially the cause. The thing is, I write when I feel something. I do not like writing with a schedule, because sometimes I just can't connect with the words. And I want each and everyone one of my posts to have a meaning, a passion. So I guess you could say I'm a little spontaneous when it comes to blogging.

And I hope you bare with me and my weird schedule for the rest of your lifetime a little longer,

because I love having you

here.

It's Day by Day,

A few weeks back, during a violin practice, my teacher remarked, "Tell me if I'm wrong, Grace, but are you thinking about what you are going to play next, instead of what you are playing presently?" He said that I kind of looked disconnected from the music.

He was not wrong.

I have always been quite nervous while performing on stage. It's just that I'm always afraid of forgetting something, forgetting the note I am going to play next. I then proceed to think of what I am going to play next, instead of focusing on what I am currently playing. That action then makes my mind to overthink, and quite ironically, I will usually forget the next note, which causes me to completely panic. This is particularly an issue for me, and maybe for many others, because I just can't seem to focus on my performance itself since I am too busy thinking about what is going to happen next.

And then I thought, it's kind of like this in life, right? People are so busy thinking about their futures that they don't even bother paying attention to the present. Of course, it's always good to have a loose plan of your future, and thinking about how you can make it even better, but these kind of thoughts can easily turn too serious, too over-consumming.

The Best is Yet to Come

A few days back, I was trying to build a 3D cell model out of Lego. That turned out to be a failure, which totally crushed my dreams of building a cell out of Lego. But that's not exactly the point of this post.

So I had this plan, and that plan required a lot of 4x2 gray bricks. And so, I started looking for those specific bricks out of the huge pile of Lego that lay in front of me. After a few minutes, I thought I had picked out all of them, and set off to work. Of course, I misjudged my plan, and it turned out that I didn't have enough gray bricks. So out of hopelessness, I took another look at the pile of Lego to see if I might of had neglected a couple of gray bricks. And it turns out that I had. So I went back to work with a fresh new pile of gray bricks, but after a while, I was out again. I took another quick glance at the pile of Lego to see if I might've missed out on some gray bricks (like last time), and hey, who knew that I had! And so, this pattern repeated during my whole process of trying to build a cell out of Lego.

More than a Cruise

What I love about cruises is that they have awesome food 24/7, a great selection of activities, people from all around the world and a fantastic vibe. Sure, I've only been on one cruise in my life, but I'm certain that many other cruises have all the great stuff I listed above.

Yet it's also more than that. When you're on a cruise, you have the freedom to roam around everywhere, you can get ice cream whenever you want, and if you feel like dancing, you can just head on over to the DJ's place and have a blast! It's like an endless amount of possibilities to have fun.

Suddenly, my worries don't seem like much

This Saturday (so tomorrow), my family and I are heading on a cruise to the Caribbeans. ^^

But one of the major things that have been preoccupying my mind for the past few days is the size of our room. Yup, I have been worrying about the size of our room, and how apparently it is twice as small than a average hotel room. I have been pondering as to how I will survive sleeping in such a small room for seven days.

But then I thought...

If the Jews could survive concentration camp, if the less-fortunate people living on the streets could survive the winter nights, why can't I survive a seven day cruise in a small room? I will be fed, I will be visiting great monuments, I will be swimming in the pool, and yet I am still complaining of a small room?!

Suddenly, a lot of my worries don't seem like much anymore, and for good reasons.

If we pause for a moment and reflect on all the great things we have in our life, we will realize that we should be grateful for many, many things, and we should not always complain about the things that are "downgrades".

So, on that note, I will not be posting anything for about a week or more, because there is no WI-FI (Cry of total despair!!!!!) on the cruise...

Wishing you guys a very happy holidays!

The Spirit of Childhood

Just a short little post a decided to do. This song put me in the mood.

I've been quite busy these past few months. Sometimes, I feel like I barely have time to breathe. Time is passing at such a rapid rate that I haven't even settled on the notion that Christmas is soon approaching. And every time I find some time to read, or to blog, my mind is always a little elsewhere, thinking about other works, other events that are soon coming in my way.

The Good Old Times

Ever since 6th grade, there has always been two distinct girls I have hanged out with in the school bus. Let's call them Bea and Em. So, at school, we aren't really in the same group, occasionally striking up a conversation in class or at recess, but not anything that went beyond that. But in the bus, we were like three good friends, talking, eating (although we aren't supposed to), and having a good time. It felt nice to have two girls to talk to, and to share laughs, even if it didn't go beyond the bus. Well, these past few months, we've had a few new additions to our school bus, and along with the fact that Bea and Em don't take the bus so often anymore, I've seen a whole new dynamic change in the bus. Gone were the days of chit-chatting and sharing food with my friends, and in came a whole new group of people who talked about explicit subjects and insulted people. They weren't like Bea and Em, they did not make me laugh or smile, they just made me frown in disagreement.

Food, and the different emotions it evokes in us

Food. An essential of life, an accompaniment of my journey. It is always there, something that I often time take for granted.


Food. Oh what a lovely, lovely word! I don't just eat it, I savore it. It is a delectable little taste of heaven. It is the light of my day, it is my passion!


Food. Possibly the most complicated relationship I have ever had. An ongoing battle between my good conscience and desires. It brings joy to me and my taste pallets, but not to my waist line. I gorge myself of it, yet always regret it.

Operation: Eliminating the Unnecessary Sugar

A video on YouTube entitled "The Real Bears" helped inspire me to write this post, click here to check it out.

Remember those days when the only kind of sugared drinks available were honey-flavored water?

Or when treats consisted of apples and oranges and not artificially flavored candy and licorice?

Well, I sure don't.

These days, so many people have come to rely on artificially sugared stuff that soft drinks have become the number one source of calories in the American diet (and possibly other countries' too). A scary fact indeed. And even though most soda drinkers know that sugared drinks are bad for their health, some choose to keep an ignorant eye on all the health scares that can be caused by these sugared drinks. And not only soft drinks. Candy, lollipops and similar can have equal effects on the body. And you know what's even more depressing about all this? These kind of food have no nutrition. I mean, grapes and strawberries are pretty sugary, but at least they hold amounts of vitamin and antioxidants and other good stuff in them. Soft drinks are empty calories. There are no benefits from drinking them. Only harm will be brought to your body.

Would you judge a person like you judge a book?

When I was young, I used to judge a book by its content, not by the number of praises it had. I always looked at the synopsis, and I found books with snippets of positive reviews in the back rather annoying.

Well, times have changed, and so have my perspective on the world- and books. These days, I am more attracted to books with plenty of praises in the back, or that have received many awards. I still look at the sypnosis, but the praises make up a bigger part of my decision to whether or not I should borrow it.

Ordinary Miracles,

Note: Listen to the song Ordinary Miracle while or after reading this post.

People can search far and wide for the miracles of miracles. Maybe it's a girl that survived a terminating cancer, or the feeling that God has communicated to you. Or they can stop the searching, and look in front of them. And they'll see a miracle.

How so?

Will we ever be Satisfied?

So for Labor Day weekend, my family and I headed to the States to do some shopping. Of course, the purpose of this trip was to get new clothes, because I think we were all pretty bored with our old ones. But then I thought, we will eventually get sick of our new clothes, and thus we will have to buy new ones the next year, and so on. It's like we will never be satisfied with what we have, as we are always expecting more.

Rewinding Time. . .

You know that feeling when you're so excited for something, you can hardly wait for it to happen? And when that day does come, it goes by in a flash, and suddenly all you can think of is: Wait... It's already over?

I guess, it's just another way that life is telling you to not take things for granted. I know I say these things a lot, but I feel like it's so important to make yourself  believe that you don't have all the time you think you have.

Appreciate whatever life has to offer you.

Whether it's good,

or bad.

Because every second on Earth is precious.  

                                  Because at the end, time cannot rewind itself.

. . .Wait, I Have School Tomorrow?

Well, one moment I'm enjoying my first day of summer vacation, and then suddenly I'm already buying supplies for the next school year. That's how fast this summer went by. It almost feels like every year is just passing faster than the previous, up to the point where I have not fully digested the fact that I Have School Tomorrow. I mean, what happened to summer? I had set so many goals for myself, yet I have completed only one. I thought I would have all the time in the world, but I guess not. The thing is, I always underestimate time (if that makes sense), as I always think that I have enough time to do what I want. I guess, as I'm writing this post, that I am learning new things myself. Do not take time for granted, as it just might be your downfall. (I think it's already mine...)

On another note, since I am starting school, along with other extra-curricular activities, my number of posts will most likely drastically decrease. I will try my best to write at least 2-3 posts every week, but it might vary from week to week, depending on how busy I am and if I actually have ideas for new posts.

Well, I'll try to enjoy my last day of summer vacation to the best of my capabilities, and to those that are still going to school, I hope you guys will have a fantastic school year!

Reality TV is Brainwashing our Society!

Why do people watch reality TV shows? The question has lingered in my mind for several weeks now, yet each time I just can't get put finger on the true answer.

For years, humans' thirst for entertainment has made us strive for something even better than the last. We always want a show that will make us even more captivated than the previous one. And the producers will go to extremes to make the audience satisfied.

What is the point of reality shows though? At the end of the day, we're just invading other people's private life. We watch them fight and make-up and then fight once again. We share their laughs and joys and pain, yet, all of this through a TV. We know them, but they don't know us.

It's basically an invasion of privacy, but we don't seem to care, and neither do the reality stars. They most likely do it for the money, and the attention, and sometimes that just really sickens me. I'm not saying that they are bad people, but I just find it pathetic that they earn their money by partying and arguing all day.

Plastic is Invading our Lives (and Environment)

Yummy...

I love drinking DanActives. You know, those mini pro-biotic yogurt drinks? So, a few days back, I discovered a little fun fact on the bottle: "More than 120 bottles of DanActives are being consumed each second around the world!" And that fun fact soon becomes into a pretty horrifying fact. 120 bottles of plastic used every second! Now, if this fact proves to be true, that'd be 10 036 800 of DanActive bottles consumed every day! To put this into perspectives, it'd be roughly equivalent to 49 127 of those water cooler jugs! Or it also means that all these bottles of DanActive could fill roughly 140 Olympic sized swimming pools each year! I know that may not sound like that much, but think about it, this is only DanActive bottles we're talking about here. Milk jugs, yogurt cups, frozen meal trays... They are also thrown in the garbage.

Human Laziness (Is this the Faith of Humanity?)

Every time I think of human laziness, I think of the movie Wall-E. Those who have watched that movie know what I'm saying. For those who don't know: Humans are forced to live in a spaceship because the Earth is too polluted. In the spaceship, the humans' mode of transportation is not walking, instead they're in these mobile chairs with screens to chat with people and stuff. Here's a clip to show you what I'm talking about.

Humans have become more and more lazy over time, yet a lot of people don't seem to realize it because sometimes the signs are very subtle. Remote controls, frozen meals, lamps that turn off with the sound of a clap; all of these things are factors in why humans are so lazy. Now I know what you're thinking: these items are just making our life easier, and that doesn't mean that we're lazy. Yes, I know what you mean, but think about it, humans are constantly finding new ways of making life easier, and if these things are only step 1, what will be step 2, 3 or 4?