Lazy Wednesday

Good day! How is everyone doing?

I've fallen sick again.. blocked nose.. bad throat.. Hate :( But but..... this hasn't stop me from doing the things I enjoy. Heh. First of all, I've finally mastered the beautiful piano piece, 'The Swan' by Saints Saens!! This was indeed a challenging piece for a self-taught student like me. It took me ermm.. more than three months to get it right. But it was all worth it. ^^

Here's one version of The Swan. I hope one day I'll be able to play as beautifully as him..

 

Besides some private time with my beloved piano, I've been caught up with a book I recently got from the library. 'Changing Your Course (The 5-step guide to getting the live you want)' is a great book I want to recommend to everyone especially those who are looking for a change in your life at this moment. All of us go through changes, big or small, at different point of our lives and this book could be of great assistance. Bob and Melinda Blanchard share their own stories about how they'd transformed their dreams into reality and step-by-step guides on how, we too, can achieve that.~ ^^
 

‎''Don't let fear keep you from following through on your dream. Stop imagining the worst. Instead, think how great you'll feel once you succeed.'' -Bob and Melinda Blanchard

2010 Resolutions And A Heartwarming Story

I hope your holiday was great? I've finally completed my list of resolutions for 2010 and I'm so EXCITED to get it started! Right... I haven't start on it yet. -.-

**Resolutions for 2010**

For myself

1) I will learn to be brave when making decisions (no matter big or small).

2) I will learn to be more patient with myself and others.

3) I will sleep before 2am (applies from Mon to Thurs only).

4) I will not curse under my breath when I run into inconsiderate people on the street. I will do so loudly (kidding!).

5) I will learn to be more assertive when comes to 'chasing' late payments (from some shops). Actually I hope I don't have to do this in the new year. Oh give me a break~... zzzzZZz.

6) I will continue to go for my weekly jogs and workouts.

7) I will try not to buy clothes that I'm sure I won't wear more than 3 times.

8) I will snack less... :(

9) I will commit to learning my piano well this time. Yes I WILL make it to... grade 2 this year (See I even make a blog banner to remind myself. Heh!).

10) I will.... erm.... learn to drive again... (shudders ..cold sweat.....).

11) I will touch up my nail polish more often.

12) I will shave my legs hair more often (what!? They're not as thick or long as you imagine okay!).

13) I will learn to ask for help when I need one (I don't mean shaving my legs hair).

14) I will not squeeze my pimples or blackheads even if I find them annoying.

15) I will tidy my room more often.

16) I will always be trueful to my feelings and voice out how I really feel.

17) I will not try to 'act tough' when all I want is to cry.

18) I will learn to say 'NO.' 

19) I will learn to improve on my social skills.

20) I will continue to norish my soul with great books and music. Yay~

21) I will continue to count my blessings and say my affirmations everyday! :)

Family and friends
22) I will continue to spend more time with them.

23) I will visit my grandparents more often.

24) I will cuddle Nono more more MORE.

25) I will be patient with Nono even when he pee and poo all outside the newspaper.

26) I will stop pretending that I didn't see Nono's pee or poo and leave the mess for my brother to clean up (Ssssshhhh...)

27) I will stop forcing Nono to go for a walk if he doesn't feel like it (he is getting lazy).

Work
28) I will continue to share nice stories, photos and interesting stuffs in my blog (with people who bothers to read).

29) I will continue to come out with art pieces that inspire people.

30) I will conduct art classes for children this year (already in the planning. hee. excited??!!!)

31) I will continue to do my bit for SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), ACRES (Animal Concerns and Research Education Society) and WorldVision. Last year I didn't manage to adopt any child.. I hope I'm able to do so this year.

Okay, I'm sure the list is long enough to last a whole year. You may ask why are some of them in pink and others in purple? Pink = I'm sure I will be able to accomplish them. Purple = I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

As I was doing this post, Nono tested out point 25. Guess what I did? I cleared it up and responded with point 24! (not 26). Heehee.

Before I go, here's a video I've been itching to share. I'd watched it the upteem times.. and it still make my eyes watery each time. This is a powerful (true) story about love and... detachment.

''In 1969, two friends, Ace Berg and John Rendall, purchased and adopted a lion. At the time, Christian was a 35 pound cub. He had been borned in a zoo. The friends raised Christian in their London home. All three became great friends.

Within a year, Christian grew too big, Rendall and Berg realized they couldn't keep him much longer. The two decided to release Chritian back ino the wild. Christian was released into a conservation system in Africa.

Almost a year later, Rendall and Berg decided to visit Christian one last time despite a friend telling them that it was too dangerous because Christian might not even remember them. The two friends flew to Kenya, anyway. When they finally arrived at the reservation, Christian showed up for a heartwarming reunion:

"He ran towards us, threw himself onto us, knocked us over and hugged us, with his paws on our shoulders.'' said John Rendall."






Full story can be found at HERE. :)

Your Dreams And What They Mean

Do you know that an average person has about 3 to 5 dreams per night? Some may have up to 7 dreams in one night and I am the latter. What some of you may not know is that EVERYBODY dreams! Even though some people claim they sleep through the night without dreaming, it is scientifically proven that all human beings in a study showed brain activity during their sleep. Just because you can't remember your dreams doesn't mean you don't dream.

I always feel that our dreams are unique to us. No other individual can share the same emotions or experiences. A dream unifies the body, mind, and spirit. It provides us with insight into ourselves and a means for self-exploration. By understanding our dreams, we can have a better discovery of our true self. Try googling 'dreams interpretation' and you will see 4,030,000 results. However there is one site I visit in particular everyday, the 'Dream Moods'. This dream interpretation site allows us to key in a specific key word to get the meaning. Sounds interesting? Last night I had a dream..in fact I had several dreams but this was the one scene I could recall; I was waiting for a bus back home. I waited for a long time to realise the bus I was waiting for will never arrive because it has changed its route. I typed in the word 'bus' in Dream Mood and this was what it said, 'To dream that you are waiting for a bus, indicates a temporary setback in achieving your personal goals. If you miss the bus or get on the wrong bus, then it indicates that an aspect of your life is out of control. You need to slow down and map out a new plan.' I have a feeling it was referring to my career path so I reckon it's time for me to slow down and get my life into perspective again. What have you dreamt about lately?

If you are keen to know more about dreams, you got to check out this website. I hope you have fun. Oh wait a minute. There is one more which you may be interested as well on http://www.cainer.com/dreams/dreamarchives.html. You can find loads of funny dreams some people experienced, eg. 'Losing teeth at my wedding', 'Uncovering the corpse', 'Madonna's red suit', 'Running After My Boyfriend', 'Film-star boyfriend'. Don't be surprise to find a few similar dreams as yours..I dreamt about celebrities on several occasions (I shall keep the details to myself). Lol. Hold on, I hope your thoughts are not running wild? Well, typed in 'celebrities' in Dream Moods to find out more. ;)

Lastly.. animals dream too.

I Have A Winner!

The winner of my giveaway goes to.........

The 5th person who commented in my blog ----> JAC JEWELRY!!!!!!!! Congrats, Janna! I will be contacting you soon. :) I think this is really funny. Last Sunday I was the winner of her giveaway ( I got a $10 gift certificate to her etsy shop) and exactly one week later, she was the winner of mine! Ha!

Everyone who has taken the time to participate, I hope you had fun. Thank you for sharing your dreams with me. Click here to view all the entries. I wasn't surprise to see a number of similar dreams - To be able to travel around the world to experience life, owning a company.. etc. However, I was deeply moved by two people in particular:

Holly (my blog buddy!) from Hollyrocks says:  ''My dream is to be an awesome teacher who touches the lives of countless children and to never lose touch with my creativity, no matter how busy my life may be. I would also love to travel all over the world, experiencing cultures and lifestyles that are as different from my own as possible so that I can fully understand how small I am as compared to the rest of the planet.'' And Joyti from Indie.Tea says: ''My goal would be to start a school for intelligent yet unprivileged children in India. It would near the ocean, and I would live in a small yet dreamy cottage right near it.....''.

Their dreams have reminded me of why I wanted to be an artist.

1) I hope my art will inspire people from all around the world, in one way or another.

2) I want to travel around the world to bring love and hope to the less privileged children; to let them know that no matter which country they're borned in, how bad their lives 'may seem', everyone has the right to dream. In fact, I think everyone (yes, I'm talking to you) should be brave enough to dream and live their dreams.

3) I enjoyed drawing and listening to music at a tender age. My favorite musical instrument is the classical piano. I remembered having a music teacher in my elementary school who could play the song, 'Right here waiting' by Richard Max so beautifully that I'd always imagined I was the one playing. Sadly, the financial situation at home didn't allow me to take up piano lessons (I was fortunate enough that I get to take up art classes still). Seeing how badly I wanted to learn the piano, my mom said, ''You will have the money to learn it when you are old enough to go out to work.'' Now many years later, at the age of 27, I got my very own piano and is on my way to fufilling my dream! A friend actually asked, ''But, why now?'' My answer was, ''Then when?'' You see, the problem with many people (I was a victim too) is that, we have never taken the time to ask ourselves, 'What would I truely love to do with my life?'' I'm not saying what you can do, should do or must do, but what you would LOVE to do. See the difference? Often times, when asked why can't we do what we would love to, 99.99% of the answers would be ''Oh, I don't have the money.'' or ''I don't have the knowledge/ qualification...'' or better still, ''I don't even have time to sleep!'' You may be laughing at these answers now but seriously, think about this, if you are not going to do what you enjoy starting from now, what do you intend to do with the remaining of your life then? If it takes me 10 years (worst scenario) to master my piano skill, I'd still get to enjoy it for another 50-60 years. So, why not?

A few books I'd HIGHLY recommend to help you through your goals are, 'The Breakthrough Experience', 'How To Make One Hell Of A Profit And Still Get To Heaven' and 'Count Your Blessings', all by the great mentor, Dr John Demartini. (He's my hero!) For more info on these books, pls visit his website here.

Other of my dreams include: Living in a swedish/ cottage-style house with my beloved. Having lots of money so I can help more people/ animals...and the list goes on. For now, I hope I've set you thinking.. All the best. :)

''The purpose of life is a life of purpose.'' - Robert Byrne.