April Fools' Day

It's the first of April today; and the day is also known as April's Fool Day where everyone is licensed to play tricks and jokes on others (family and friends) to enjoy a good laugh.

I can't remember the last time I observed the jokes and tricks on this day; as it was so long ago. Perhaps, I have already outgrown this tradition or perhaps age does play a role.

I remembered the anxiety looming my mind during my school days then; where classmates and close friends would be racking their intelligent minds to think of ways to pull of a trick on someone.
Yeah, I worry about being tricked or being fooled, as back then, humiliation is totally out of the question besides being branded a total fool.

I doubted words that came out of everyone's mouth particularly on this day; especially those that seemed too good to be true, and I can be really cautious but not to the extent of being paranoid.
Fortunately, my clique of friends and colleagues are not as crazy as I thought as they would just scare with funny jokes on insects appearing behind you and things like that.
I have seen worse pranks played upon other people; some even tear-inducing.

It may be fun, but I often wonder, what is the fun in making another feel upset or worried for no reason and you are the one behind it?
I probably sound a little serious and one who lacks the fun spirit in life huh?
Well, maybe I am, but smiles and laughter as a result of making another look like a fool (even if he or she enjoys it) does not sound like my idea of having fun.
(Then again, I am just too serious =P )

I have friends calling April Fools' Day their birthday; no jokes, seriously, and it's a pity how some of them are so scared to reveal their birthdays to others for fear of being fooled around by their friends and relatives.
They have slowly grown out of it; although some people really do doubt them when they reveal their birth date and would only choose to believe them when they produce their IDs!

It's interesting to note that countries like UK, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand only allow jokes to played until noon; and anyone playing a joke on another would be labelled an April's Fool! That's quite fascinating and it spared many from the other half day to worry about being fooled by others.

I do not wish to be fooled either way, thank you very much and April's Fool? Well, it has just become another flip of the calendar page to reveal a new month for me.

Happy April Fools' Day!!
No, this is not a prank post =)

How to make Burglars Fear your Dog

I just received this via email, and trust me, it is really a creative way with a Big BANG!

It is based on a true story in Mexico (or so the email states):

A garage owner was tired of those street thugs breaking into his place; stealing his stuffs and causing damage to the glass and his properties.
He decided that he had to do something, and his dog was his salvation.

Woofter, the dog, was then to be given a new haircut and the owner spread out word that he had a new Mexican Lion in his place which would attack anyone who tried to break in or even climb over the fence.

Word has it that the new 'Lion' was quite effective and prospective robbers who caught a glimpse of the 'Lion' fled the scene immediately for fear of being attacked.

This is The new Mexican 'Lion':




Quoted from the email:
The dog's probably trying to figure out why his head's so hot and his butt's so cold.

I think I'll give you 5 minutes to enjoy your laugh! :D
(I took more than that...hahahaha...to stop laughing :)

TGIF folks!~

A Decade of Disasters - is the End Near

The recent 8.9 magnitude earthquake followed by a tsunami in Japan had the world in shock; and some of us are gripping our seats in fear and anxiety as we witness yet another tragedy claiming thousands of human lives.

The worse is, this is not the first to have occurred in the past few years; following the plights of the Haitians, Chileans, Iceland's volcano eruption, China's flood AND earthquake, Pakistan flood, Indonesia's volcano, and shortly before Japan, Christchurch's earthquake.
In fact, the occurrences of these disasters has even branded the year 2010 as the Year of disasters.

These disasters don't just come and take away lives, they rip us of hopes; hopes of the existence of tomorrow and living.

Because we know the cold truth that stares back at us; we are not fighting against nuclear bombs or air missiles which we can run and hide from because we can see them coming, no, this is a bigger force, much bigger than what the universe can contain, we are fighting against our Creator, GOD.

We humans are getting smarter through the ages; since man was first made and developments and technology have advanced progressively, creating the comfort and luxury living for all living on the Earth.
True, we may have surpassed the standards of ordinary living as we evolve from our forefathers who lived in caves and lit fires from sticks to warm their food to become worshippers of technology everywhere to make our lives easier.

The difference?
At the cost of nature; which was part of the design by God to provide sources of food and living for man.

As I write this post, I am also reminded of how I have also fallen for the beauty of technology taking charge of our lives in so many different ways.
The price of technology lies in the sacrifices of the trees and lands which have been our sources of survival for centuries.

We ripped them apart piece by piece to build high rise building homes and offices for the city dwellers, then to the ambitious skyscrapers to mark that number one spot in the world. That is not the end of it; as man would have it and they let their creativity get ahead of them (and their greed for money) by building resort homes on vast lands on the outskirts, where mountains and hills used to call their homes, now lay flat on the ground with world class facilities atop them.

Trees were chopped down to make way for development; and to be wasted by the junk we print from our fax and photocopy machines or printers, only to be thrown away. The trees died in vain; as they are torn into pieces and end up in piles of rubbish buried somewhere in the face of Earth.
Plastic bags, fragrant body shampoos and liquids make their way into our luxury list and also into the list of toxins which harm our environment as they are non-biodegradable and are just toxic wastes to intensify the pollution level.

We have now come to be superior beings; proud of what we have achieved so far and complimenting ourselves for surpassing our forefathers in increasing our quality of living.
We had conquered it all; we thought we had it all and we are now the kings on the earth.

Yeah, right, we are just too smart and complacent to see through our stupidity, or so we thought.

When the first disaster strikes, we start to be alarmed and then come the innovations of building disaster detectors, alarms, and putting in extra measures to ensure that construction projects are disaster proof.
It is a way we thought we could contain the problems but no, then another type of disaster strikes, and the same measures set in.
We know for a fact, that we cannot prevent nor control the occurrences of disasters but the freedom enjoyed without disasters had made us so full of ourselves that we thought we ruled the world.

As a Malaysian, I was supposed to be the more fortunate as we are living in a country free of natural disasters but honestly, I am never one to defy God; let alone predict God.
Being a country free of disasters, we were surprised by the unexpected visit of a tsunami hitting our shores and sweeping away homes and lives in a blink of an eye in the year of 2004.

So, I ask, do you still think that God is predictable?
Nobody can say for sure what will NOT happen nor what will happen; and don't you dare go challenge God.
They said "Titanic is unsinkable, even God Himself cannot sink it"
Yeah, freaking right, and where is Titanic today?

Due to the recent disasters happening one after another, it is no surprise that many, especially the religious, are starting to wonder, whether the End is near.
If you are a religious person, you would have read in your Bible or your Kitab, or even your sutras, that there is indeed the end of the world where mankind will be wiped out from the face of the Earth.
It is also known as the Judgment Day, to some of us.

In fact, the Mayans have also calculated their calendars until the year 2012 which paved way for speculations that the end is predicted to be in the year 2012.
Thanks to the smart and creative folks in the movie industry, they happily released the blockbuster movie titled "2012", as the End of the world, hitting the box offices in no time with the incredible visual effects with a WOW factor banging on your screens.

Little did they know, that they are actually making a movie to predict the disasters.
Look at the recent disasters which took place, particularly the scary earthquake plus tsunami which hit Japan; we see the houses and lands being swept away like toy cars or carpet movements just like what we saw in the Making of 2012, that it is hard to believe that this is reality.
(I kept telling myself this is not real, this is just an illusion)

Sadly, it is NOT, and we are left wondering, what is next?
We do not hope for more disasters, of course, but how would we know?
We cannot predict when the next tsunami would hit the shores, nor when an earthquake decide the shake the cores of the earth, or even which volcanoe would erupt; it's freaking scary I tell you when we are just sitting there, not being able to do anything.

We have seen enough disasters in the past year 2010, and we prayed for a better year 2011 but we are only in the first quarter, and the worst earthquake in a century have taken place.
It is no wonder many now fear the prophecy of 2012 being the END; where God will come and take all of us away.

Unfortunately, NO ONE knows for sure, except GOD himself.
Why do we fear?
We are afraid because it is the UNKNOWN, we are UNSURE, we cannot see it coming and hence, we WORRY.
We don't want to leave our lives without doing everything we dreamt of; seeing our children grow up, taking that vacation that we have always saved up for, or making it to one of the most influential people in the world.

Does it really matter anymore?
Yes, it does to most of us, because we don't want to die not being able to fulfill our dreams.
ASK yourself, have you even started pursuing your dreams?

I am not writing this post to tell you that I know when the End is coming, because just like you, I am nobody but a child of God, and I cannot predict nor do I dare to estimate what God will do next.
I am just like you, worried and afraid of what is going to happen next, and I pray that there will be no more losses of lives in masses. It is just too painful and heart-breaking to bear.

Since we don't know for sure, let's just do what we want to, and seize the day.
I always believe that we should live each day like it's our last day on earth, because nobody knows our own fates.

Whether the End is near or not, the most important is to do GOOD, besides enjoying yourselves and not contributing to the vices that plague the society or to lend a hand to destroy Mother Nature, but be thoughtful and considerate.
Think before you act, and you will find life more fulfilling.

I am no Merlin, nor am I an angel sent from heaven to bring you this message about the approaching end; but what matters most is to stay strong and united in times like these and to help wherever we could to our fellow counterparts in their survival.

Who knows, we could be next...

Why write when NOBODY reads?

I take a glimpse at my page views or visit charts and realize, nobody had really been visiting my blogs.
Although I do tell myself that I write because of my love and passion for writing, it is still disheartening to have that reality slapped right at my own face.

Yeah, I am no power blogger out there who can draw thousands or even millions of readers to their blogs/websites...I am just not there yet.
I am not demotivated to the lowest point to continue writing though, not the least.
Rather, I work on the contrary, I don't write to make others happy nor do I want to FORCE people to come to my blogs just for the sake of elevating the status of my traffic, but I write because it makes me feel happy and it reminds me of my own identity and the strength of words to express my emotions and thoughts.

There are millions of people out there who are bloggers, and the numbers are growing.
Out of all these, how many are really POPULAR with huge numbers of visitors to their sites each day and how many, are just sitting there, looking at 0 comments on their posts and some, even 0 visitors.

It's funny, but blogs have been such powerful tools which make people connect to each other via writing and ideas, and a money making instrument as well, if you know how to use it to your advantage.
I do earn a little from my blogs as well; emphasis on the word 'little' as in really really little, but it did not stop me from blogging.

When nobody reads, it is probably the ugly truth, my blogs are dull and uninteresting or another obvious reason; I had neglected my blogs for a while and my readers and followers have probably lost their interest.
Maybe, but nobody knows.

I know there are loved ones out there who take time to read my blogs, really, and some even people I don't really know but who are kind enough to write me mails or drop me a line or two at the comment section. You guys made my day, and you have no idea how motivating that can be.

One thing about me, I am not one who gives up easily, and since I write to fuel my own passion and the burning fury in me, I will not stop at it.
You can choose to read and like my posts, or you can just take one glance and decide you want to hop to another blog...it is YOUR choice.

I won't force nor beg you to stay, but for those who stayed, I thank you for your time and support, and trust me, I will not disappoint you ;)

The path(s) I have taken and the next step...

We have read about them in psychology books; that phase that most adolescents or young adults go through (even some middle aged or some, for the rest of their life), where we stop to ponder at a point and wonder, What on earth are we doing with our lives?

It is what we called an identity crisis; where you start to do some serious and deep searching into your soul, to discover your true passion or you would even start to question yourself whether your job is something you want to do for the rest of your life.
For some, this phase comes as early as during the adolescence or even pre-teens period - this bunch really mature earlier than the rest, and some, faced a mid-twenties crisis or mid-life (30s-50s) and some, ask themselves the same question towards the end of their lives.

Nobody is perfect; we do go through this at some point or another, even the most famous icons whom we admire and look up to.
Everyone will go through this phase and it is just a matter of time. Some even chose to ignore, but honestly, there is no escaping.

I am going through a phase like this myself; shocking as it may seems as I was always perceived as the perfect girl - someone who had dreams and works to achieve them. I have always been a performer, an achiever, a leader, and the role model for the younger generation among friends and family.
However, I am just as human as anyone out there on the road, and there are also secret dreams I do have, and some were never realized.

One of my earliest dreams was to be a dentist or a doctor, or even at an earlier age, a teacher.
It was of course well-received by the family as these were deemed to be good and approved professions/career paths.

I set my focus on being a doctor, and worked hard but yet in the end, I did not choose the path for various reasons (personal).

Maybe I do have secret dreams of what I want to be, but I do have to do some serious soul searching and it somehow is easier when I narrowed down my list by eliminating what I definitely do NOT want to be.

Since I have graduated from university, I was offered jobs in few multinational corporations but I chose one in which I started my career during the early years.
Due to my qualifications, I was in the software development and applications support field in the beginning and then I moved towards the engineering field.

I started to become a design engineer, and I had to pick up knowledge on topics/things which an average engineer would take 5 years to acquire and I was expected to excel in it in less than 3 months.
Tough, but it was challenging and I did what I was told, fuelling in extra work.
It paid off a little, but still, I did not feel satisfied with myself, as I just felt that it was a path that seemed rather vague then.

I made the decision to leave the job, and that decision alone took me a long long time to finalize, as honestly, I have come to love the place and the people but I know, I have to think for myself, and let go, moving on to the next path offered by another giant corporation.

Life was different in the new company; and I could not help comparing the place to the earlier work place (it's unfair, I know). My job scope was totally different although it was still highly technical and relevant to the engineering field.
In the new job, I have to learn new engineering stuffs which are different from my previous job and this requires technical and practical skills.
Furthermore, besides the technical part, I had to incorporate the sales and marketing aspects into the job, as I had to propose and sell the company's products.

These products are not your average pick-off-the-shelves-in-Carrefour but big technological products which cost more than thousands in dollars and our target customers are those big factories sitting in the top industrial areas as they are the ones with the big bucks.
One does not just walk through their doors and tell them to buy the products, but I'd need to prepare a whole convincing "buy me" prep talk to face those with the power to make me walk out smiling or browse for new opportunities again.

I've never imagined that I would do well, but I did unexpectedly, and I had a lot of bright opportunities lighting my path and I even had the support of the management.
However, I have found myself wondering whether this is the path I really want, or if I liked all the strings that came with the tag.
And I realized that it was a No, and again I struggled with the decision.

I am a stable and sensible person, but at the same time, I have a raging passion for what I believe in and in what I truly enjoy doing which may not deem so in the eyes of everyone else (who cares).

I know the paths I have taken; I have been there and done that, and looking forth, I want to do something different, something that puts a smile on my face and I can wake up telling myself (instead of just plain psycho-ing myself every morning, "I Love my Job" and all that crap).

I KNOW I LOVE writing, absolutely, it is what I enjoy and want to breathe and I just have to figure out my way to work on it and not just sit there telling everyone (myself included) that I love writing and yet do nothing about it.
I dared to dream big, and that includes being able to be a published author, an established writer AND blogger.

I even dreamt of being able to freelance or write/work for big names like
1. New York Times
2. Reader's Digest
3. International Herald Tribune (part of NYT)
4. Wall Street Journal
5. Washington Post
6. Time Magazine

It's a BIG dream huh, but well, they always teach us to dream big.
Aim for the galaxy, even if you can't reach, you will still land among the stars...and you may not necessarily failr to reach, rrrrright?

How to manage 10 blogs (or more) and be sane!

This is a question I was asked by almost everyone I know, or even those whom I do not know after clicking on my profile and finding a long list of blogs under my name.

"WOW, ten blogs, how'd you do that?"
OR
"Why did you choose to have ten blogs, rather than have one stop portal and categorize them?"

There is just a whole list of FAQs I get (I'm not even famous!), based on the curiosity of people who just cannot comprehend how did I manage my blogs and keep them updated and yet not be frustrated by it all!

It is NOT easy, of course, but it is not THAT difficult either.
I may be busy at my day job, but trust me when I say that I am MORE busy with my blogs and yet, I actually enjoyed the latter.

It boils down to ONE word, PASSION!
Some would say that this is crap and yet majority would applaud this theory that passion is what fuels us to do and excel at something.

1. PASSION - I am passionate about writing and reading, and I enjoy sharing my thoughts with everyone I know (or don't know).

The second question comes, yeah, you could still have just ONE single blog rather than multiple blogs on diverse topics.

2. SYSTEMATIC/ORGANIZED - yeah, cheesy as it sounds, I am just someone who is annoyingly organized and I like to keep my stuffs that way (especially when it comes to books and my belongings).
It helps to keep me focused and be free with whatever I write and share, and jump from one world to another. In this blog, I am sharing all about my life and what I see in general.
When I move to my food blog, I go into the mode of thinking of what feeds or satisfies my taste buds and stomach!
I just love to categorize; BY blogs :)

After being able to answer this question, next comes, "But, which blog should we follow? Which is the main blog to keep us updated on your life?"

3. Honestly, this really depends on your preferences, on what you really like to read (which is why I categorize my blogs in the first place!)
You could be a food lover or a travel enthusiast, or even a dreamer who loves faraway land/mysterious stories but the point is to find your interests.
Of course, ultimately, if you really really want that anchor blog to feed your curiosity on what mainly goes on in my life, then THIS is the blog.
Yes, bookmark this blog as it will bring you to the rest of my blogs and it is the NEWEST blog.
(linked from my old main portal: Angelstar Blog Haven) - you can find old posts from my younger days in that blog

4. MY Preferences
Yes, I love to write and to own multiple blogs, and it just makes me happy. I love to share my thoughts and to pen what I have in my mind and with all the reasons above, you can choose to bookmark/subscribe/follow me on my blogs or just ignore me :)
I can't please everyone in the world, but I can please MYSELF :)
After all, we need to make ourselves happy to spread happiness around the world, right?

I don't need to go to the typical TOP 10/Top 5/Top3 or the generic count to prove my point =)
Hope this clarifies your burning curiosity about my insane number of blogs under my profile!

Oh ya, and HAPPY READING!~

Most popular (posted) on Facebook/Twitter

Social networking sites have been taking over our lives; especially those who were born in the 80's onwards and have continued to grow over the past decade.
No one born during this era would be walking around telling you that they don't have a Facebook/Twitter account.
Yep, even grandmothers and grandfathers (especially those hip hop ones) will tell you, "Add me on Facebook!"

Some of us have witnessed the storm of Facebook as it swept away Friendster, Multiply, Zorpia, Hi5, LiveSpace and continued to be one of the strongest dominating network in the world.
Twitter is just the same, and for work, some of us are also networking professionally via Linkedin.

Have you realized how dependent we are on networking sites these days?
Nobody does the good old way of sending letters via handwriting, stuffing them into the envelopes and dropping them into postboxes (with stamps affixed of course!) to send their invitations.

The funniest thing is how everyone seems to have the time to go online to update their status or comment on others or even upload new photos, but then they would be telling you that they are busy as hell at work.

I mean, how contradictory is that?

I have seen friends updating their statuses; "Busy at work", "Very BUSY today", "It's a super crazy day", "I haven't had time to go to the loo"...and the list goes on, you get what I mean.

Yeah, updating statuses seem to be the MAIN hype in Facebook and sometimes, I think it is just a little over the top; in fact, this is a serious sign of narcissism/deprived of attention.

Everyone is just constantly updating their statuses on Facebook, and trust me, what they want is just the comments, which translates to attention with a capital A and popularity with a capital P.

It is just that simple!

I have seen people changing their statuses so fast or even uploading photos of themselves in the hope of receiving comments and it just pleases them to no end when the list of comments just grow.

I find it ridiculous how people are just updating on their every moves or thoughts, as if they couldn't wait for the whole world to know them better via their pages.
I mean, are you guys really serious?

There are people who always say they are just so busy with work these days that they are frustrated and yet, they are the same bunch whom I had seen updating their Facebook so often that you could have gotten a lot of work done then.

Anyway, I have compiled a list of funny or even contradictory statuses which just tickles my funny bone whenever I see them appearing...just hilarious!

1. Crazy day at work (yeah, and you're updating on your work and your colleagues AND your boss, even what you had for lunch every few minutes!)

2. Sick...not feeling well/MC today
Hahahahha.....seriously, your boss should see this man!
You're on MC and you are so enthusiastic to update on Facebook to tell the whole world you are sick?
Maybe you are sick, but you are definitely not sick of 'working' on Facebook.

3. I am going for a vacation soon/I am looking forward to my trip to XXX soon!
How thoughtful of these bunch to be telling everyone where and when they are about to enjoy themselves when some others out there may not be able to go/cannot afford/had their leaves cancelled at the last minute.
Oh, and also, I am sure the robbers and thieves would be delighted to see those statuses.

4. I am Promoted, finally all my years of Hard work paid off
Hello, the whole world does not need to know how hardworking or how competent you are. We are your friends, not your potential employers. I am happy for friends who were promoted, but not someone who just wanted to boast online on how great they are.
There are some out there who may not be promoted for a long time, think of what you have done to their pride.

5. Depressed/Upset/Frustrated/
These are the expert and popular one lines that is sure to garner attention by the rest of the people on their facebook friends list.
Trust me, you will get comments in no time or faster than you can say "Peace"!

6. Stuck in Traffic Jam
The only people who need to read this or need to know that you are stuck in a traffic jam are your bosses and clients, or if you are on your way home for dinner, then your mothers/parents or your wife!
What the rest of us are interested in is the location where the traffic jam occurred and why, so that we could re-route our journey to avoid getting stuck like you.

Oh, there are also those albums and photos they can't wait to share on Facebook to tell the whole world where they have been or how good their photography skills are.
Yeah, it seemed like the WHOLE world is full of photographers-wanna-bes these days or just making their way towards this field.

Top reply of all time to all these statuses or narcissists, would be
GET A LIFE

Yeah, that way, you'd be able to step out of your door and enjoy what you used to do before the days of Facebook or Twitter.
That includes me, to stop blogging.....

Have a Great Day folks!~