Love Story

I came across a really sweet song by a gorgeous young girl by the name of Taylor Swift who is #1 on the Country charts in the US at the moment. The song tells a story of young love - much like Romeo & Juliet - but with a happy ending. The music video is beautifully made with an olden day court, ball gowns... The whole lot.

Check it out.

Taylor Swift - Love Story

We were both young when I first saw you
I close my eyes
And the flashback starts
I'm standing there
On a balcony in summer air

See the lights
See the party the ball gowns
See you make your way through the crowd
And say hello
Little did I know

That you were Romeo you were throwing pebbles
And my daddy said stay away from Juliet
And I was crying on the staircase
Begging you please don’t go, and I said

Romeo take me somewhere we can be alone
I’ll be waiting all there's left to do is run
You’ll be the prince and I’ll be the princess
It's a love story baby just say yes

So I sneak out to the garden to see you
We keep quiet 'cause we’re dead if they knew
So close your eyes
Lets escape this town for a little while
Cause you were Romeo I was a scarlet letter
And my daddy said stay away from Juliet
But you were everything to me
I was begging you please don’t go and I said

Romeo take me somewhere we can be alone
I’ll be waiting all there's left to do is run
You be the prince and I’ll be the princess
It's a love story baby just say yes

Romeo save me, they're trying to tell me how to feel
This love is difficult, but its real
Don’t be afraid we’ll make it out of this mess
It's a love story baby just say yes

Oh, Oh

I got tired of waiting
Wondering if you were ever coming around
My faith in you was fading
When I met you on the outskirts of town, and I said

Romeo save me I’ve been feeling so alone
I keep waiting for you but you never come
Is this in my head, I don’t know what to think
He knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring and said

Marry me Juliet you’ll never have to be alone
I love you and that's all I really know
I talked to your dad go pick out a white dress
It's a love story baby just say yes

Oh, Oh
We were both young when I first saw you

The Journey Continues...

Breathe in... Breathe out...

Sigh of relief...

My six-year university career has finally come to a close. Is the door still open? Yes... Still slightly open. There are still a few loose ends to tie up and I don't want to close that door just yet. Six years. Six years is a very long time. Same as primary school, same as high school.

Six years. What have I learned in this block of six years? How have I changed in my last block of education... perhaps for the rest of my life? (Unless I come back to uni for another degree...)

It's been a long journey. Transitioning from a teenager to an adult. My life has taken a whole new direction. My path is becoming clearer. I'm walking down the path with so much excitement, passion and joy...

Do I look back? Yes. Learn from the past but don't dwell on it.

What's in stall for me down this path? I don't know. But as long as I do my best in the present, the future shines brightly in the distance.

In my short break to come before I start working... What to do with my time...?

Perhaps I can finally return to one of my long-time passions, which I have neglected for the past few years. A drawing that I began in 2003, at the beginning of my university career that I never completed... Almost forgotten. I have just rediscovered it. Perhaps I will complete this at the conclusion of my university journey. Or not. We shall see.

Belldandy from Ah! My Goddess

I am truly grateful.

May all beings be well and happy.

Alive

Another awesome song recommendation. I have to say, I have never been a fan of Natalie Bassingthwaighte. Mainly because I despised her 3.5-year character Isabelle (Izzy) Hoyland in Neighbours, who was a complete bi@tch with no good reason. Well... Ok, maybe with good reason, but her character was hated by most viewers. So much so that apparently a mother wrote to her asking her to be nicer on Neighbours - her daughter Isabelle was getting bullied at school coz she has the same name as the character! Deary me...

Then her 3-year stint as Rogue Trader's lead singer... Never liked her stuff. Didn't even really like her all that much when she hosted the Australian version of So You Think You Can Dance at the beginning of this year. I like the American host Cat Deeley so much better. Probably the horn effect of her character in Neighbours playing tricks on my mind...

Horn Effect
Individuals judged to have a single undesirable trait are subsequently judged to have many poor traits, allowing a single weak point or negative trait to influence others’ perception of the person in general.

But anyway, this is a totally awesome song. I fell in love with it before I found out it was by Natalie Bassingthwaighte. My jaw dropped to the floor when I realised it was her...

Check it out.

Natalie Bassingthwaighte - Alive

Alive, alive, alive, alive

Never thought the day would come when I'd see
My reflection smiling right back at me
It's been a while since I've been happy
Not sure, that I'm ready
I never planned on letting love in
Didn't wanna go back there again

But maybe I could (maybe I should)
Take a, take a chance on you

Tonight, I'm lost in the music and lights
I don't wanna let go but I might
If it's right
Tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight
Is this real? Cause this heart is just startin' to heal
And you're so close to makin' me feel (me feel)
Alive, alive, alive, alive

I didn't ever think that I'd be given
Everythin' that I was missing
It's like somebody out there's listening
Still not sure, that I'm ready
But maybe I could (maybe I should)
Take a, take a chance on you

Tonight, I'm lost in the music and lights
I don't wanna let go but I might
If it's right
Tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight
Is this real? Cause this heart is just startin' to heal
And you're so close to makin' me feel (me feel)
Alive, alive, alive, alive

You're makin' me feel, alive, alive
Alive, alive, alive, alive

I don't know if it's love again
But I'm closer than I've ever been
You're makin' me wanna let you in (wanna let you in)
I can feel your energy
I can't explain the chemistry
All the signs are telling me
Take a chance on you

Tonight, I'm lost in the music and lights
I don't wanna let go but I might
If it's right
Tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight
Is this real? Cause this heart is just startin' to heal
And you're so close to makin' me feel (me feel)
Alive, alive, alive, alive

Tonight, I'm lost in the music and lights
I don't wanna let go but I might
If it's right
Tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight
Is this real? Cause this heart is just startin' to heal
And you're so close to makin' me feel (me feel)
Alive, alive, alive, alive

2 days to go....

7 Things

Just happened to hear this song on the radio today and paid closer attention to it. I just realised how cute the songs is... Reminds me of of the movie 10 Things I Hate About You (1999). Enough about movie references already. Check out the lyrics.

Miley Cyrus - 7 Things

I probably shouldn't say this
But at times I get so scared
When I think about the previous
Relationship we've shared

It was awesome but we lost it
It's not possible for me not to care
and now we're standing in the rain
But nothing's ever gonna change until you hear, my dear

The 7 things I hate about you

The 7 things I hate about you oh you
You're vain, your games, you're insecure
You love me, you like her
You make me laugh, you make me cry
I don't know which side to buy
Your friends, they're jerks
When you act like them, just know it hurts
I wanna be with the one I know

And the 7th thing I hate the most that you do
You make me love you

It's awkward and it's silent
As I wait for you to say
What I need to hear now
Your sincere apology
when you mean it, I'll believe it
If you text it, I'll delete it
Let's be clear
Oh I'm not coming back
You're taking 7 steps here

The 7 things I hate about you
You're vain, your games, you're insecure
You love me, you like her
You make me laugh, you make me cry
I don't know which side to buy
Your friends, they're jerks
When you act like them, just know it hurts
I wanna be with the one I know

And the 7th thing I hate the most that you do
You make me love you

and Compared to all the great things
That would take too long to write
I probably should mention the 7 that I like

The 7 things I like about you
Your hair, your eyes, your old Levi's
When we kiss i'm hypnotized
You make me laugh, you make me cry
But I guess that's both I'll have to buy
Your hand in mine
When we're intertwined, everything's alright
I wanna be, with the one I know

And the 7th thing I like the most that you do ooh
You make me love you
You do

The End is Nigh

20 Days

In 20 days, I will be free.

No more assignments. No more thesis. No more uni.

That fateful day... Friday 24th October at 4pm. My six-year university career will officially come to an end.

The coming three weeks will be extremely hard. As usual, I wish I could just skip the hard part and get to the end already. But just like Adam Sandler's character in the movie Click (2006), I realise you cannot afford to miss out on the process to get to the "good bits" because that is what makes the journey worthwhile. The hard work, the pain, the frustrations... Still... I can't wait to finish.

Every so often, a familiar sense of fear and anxiety creeps up. But instead of indulging in the fear, I acknowledge its existence and that it will pass. Then I turn my attention on how I have managed to survive the last six years working under high pressure and tight deadlines. At this crucial time, I need to believe that I can do it.

Believe baby. Believe.

Butterfly Effect

Butterfly Effect

The phrase refers to the idea that a butterfly's wings might create tiny changes in the atmosphere that may ultimately alter the path of a tornado or delay, accelerate or even prevent the occurrence of a tornado in a certain location. The flapping wing represents a small change in the initial condition of the system, which causes a chain of events leading to large-scale alterations of events. Had the butterfly not flapped its wings, the trajectory of the system might have been vastly different. Of course the butterfly cannot literally cause a tornado. The kinetic energy in a tornado is enormously larger than the energy in the turbulence of a butterfly. The kinetic energy of a tornado is ultimately provided by the sun and the butterfly can only influence certain details of weather events in a chaotic manner.

If you've ever seen the movie The Butterfly Effect (2004), starring Ashton Kutcher and Amy Smart, you would know that a small change in the system can lead to massive, irreversible changes through a series of flow-on effects.



What does this mean in everyday life?

I remember an anecdote told by one of our Psychology professors at uni. As a young boy in high school, he was one of those class clowns, trouble-makers. Call him what you will. One day, as he was being his usual mischievous, obnoxious self - his teacher reprimanded him:

"When you go to university, you cannot behave that way."

Let's backtrack a bit. This was a boy who was not performing well academically and never in his wildest dreams even contemplated going to university. These words changed his life forever. How?

The key was in the word "when". The teacher said "when you go to university", not "if you go to university". At that moment, it was as if a light that the boy didn't even know existed had been switched on inside him. He never realised until that point that his teacher believed in him that much, despite his poor academic performance. His teacher saw something that he didn't see - that he was a bright boy underneath all the disruptive behaviours.

From then, he went on to do his PhD, became a professor in Psychology, had many successful publications, and the rest is history.

Profound isn't it? How that one word can have so much impact.

I can recall a couple of turning points in my own life to illustrate. Not one-word-changed-my-life stories, but more actions that perhaps people didn't realise would have such an impact on me. Although temporally spaced quite far apart - they were indeed defining moments that have made me who I am today.


Primary School
When I was little, I loved to draw but I never thought I was that good. I took sketching classes in Hong Kong with my older brother and I was by no means the best in the class.

I was initially placed in a year 4 class when I first arrived in Sydney, even though I should have been in year 3. My teacher immediately took me under her wing.

In primary school, you often do art classes or have to draw for exercise book title pages. My teacher saw something special in me that I didn't see. She always encouraged me to draw and told me how beautiful my drawings were. My work would always grace the classroom display boards.

Coming from a culture where teachers didn't often give praise and encouragement to students, at first I thought she was lying. But after a while, I started believing her words and... believing in myself.

From then on, I continued to develop my art. At the age of 14, I probably produced the best drawing I have ever done (although a little sad... peaking at 14 years old). The following is a drawing that I did of a picture of a model from my Dolly-magazine diary back in year 9.


Amazing things happen when someone believes in you.


Winter Retreat 2008
The treacherous four-hour bush walk in the Sunnataram Forest was another defining moment in my life. As someone who is not keen on outdoor pursuits, it was an immense challenge - both mentally and physically - for me to climb rocks and dense bushes in the depths of a forest. I struggled and complained endlessly for the first half of the journey. I wanted it to end in a hurry and wished I was back in my comfy home, rather than getting myself all dirty in the wilderness.

However, during my times of struggle - many kind people lent their helping hand. They guided and walked with me to make sure I was safe, they recalled their first bush walk experiences to draw parallels on what I was feeling at the time, they encouraged me to keep going...

By the second half of the journey, despite my growing tiredness, I was coping much better with the rough terrain. And finally, we reached pot of gold on the end of the rainbow - The Cliff. I had my doubts about this Cliff - who cares about some stupid Cliff anyway? But seeing the world from mountain-top, the view took my breath away. This is what I achieved. I had reached the top.


Something I took away from this trip was that there are always obstacles in life. But with the support and encouragement from people around you - you can achieve what you initially thought was impossible.

Words cannot express how grateful I am to my fellow bush walkers for offering their support.


Flowing On
Just as the butterfly does not cause the tornado, but rather, changes the trajectory of the tornado - others' speech and actions towards you do not create the path in your life. Rather, they act as a catalyst. Then only if you are receptive and proactive, can you find the strength within yourself to change your own destiny. But indeed, those catalysts are necessary ingredients to provide the impetus for change.

How many hearts do we touch by our kindness? What impact does that have on those individuals whose hearts you touch, who then go on to touch others' hearts? This is the Butterfly Effect.


One word...

One gesture...

Can change a person's life forever.

What impact are you having on others today?

Breaking the Trend

While I really should be sleeping right now since I got up at some weird-as hour this morning (i.e. 4am) to finish off the third last assignment of my university career, I am blogging instead. This is completely and utterly a break from the trend. What trend? Well, apart from the most recent entry of my post-BN speech, my posts have been almost devoid of personal references. Why so? I have issues. Privacy issues. Who reads this stuff? Why break my silence now?

The answer is: I have no answer. Once upon a time I would have kept a regularly and faithfully updated personal blog to detail every major (or minor) events of my life. After a while it became a total drag. Blogging for the sake of blogging, with no real content. It was somewhat like a shopping list... Who really cares about what I had for breakfast? Just kidding, I didn't actually talk about that. But I probably would have recounted things that are just as trivial.

Blogging is a dangerous fad. You do it just because everyone else is. You can put your foot right in where it doesn't belong and burn yourself senseless with scalding hot water. Watch what you say coz it could get around the web-neighbourhood faster than you can say "boo". If rumours travel at the speed of a bullet, then stupid things unskillfully posted on blogs travel even faster and can come back around and bite you on where the sun don't shine.

As a self-protection strategy, I wisely chose to be silent - or relatively silent. Sometimes things are better left unsaid and untold. Knowledge can be burden, and knowledge that others have too much knowledge about you can be even more of a burden. Are you really ok with people knowing more about you than you know about them? Is this emotional exhibitionism in the age of Blogs any different to exposing yourself in public?

Just like what TV-show police say when they make arrests, "You may choose to remain silent but anything you say can and will be held against you" (or something like that) - the same can be said for Blogs. Or any written communication for that matter. How many times have you shown personal emails or MSN chats to your friends. How many times do you think the same thing has been done to you without your knowledge? Scary.

Anything documented in written form can be a double-edge sword. While they do provide records and evidence of things that would easily escape our faulty memories, they are in fact also records and evidence of incriminating information that you may have unintentionally let slip because at the time you did not realise what impact it could have. Or fallen into the wrong hands... I shiver at the thought.

This is precisely the reason why professionals try to communicate (in written format) as diplomatically as they can in the business world. Just in case they get served. Let's try not to leave room for any alternative explanations of the words, phrases, sentences, and emoticons you may have included. But of course, nothing is fool-proof.

Humans have this incredible ability to read between the lines, the dots and even the spaces between letters. Admit it, you're guilty of doing that at some stage. "Hm... That capital letter there... Is he mad at me?", "Wow.. that emoticon there, she's in love with me now" and etc, etc. Sound familiar? Nothing is straight-forward with online communication these days. Misunderstandings are rampant, much worse than face-to-face communications...

After my little rant, I have realised that I still have not really made a lot of personal references i.e. events in my life. More so about my current views on the world of online and written communications. So hah, I have not broken my "silence" still. So this is not really breaking the trend.

Now is it?