our secret attraction to picture books

children are so fascinated by the things around them. sometimes i wanna be fascinated by the things around me, and explore, touch, read, smell.. haha i'm saying all this with Borders in mind.

that actually requires effort on my part - to consciously tear myself away from the things i have to do, so that i can just walk around and pick up random books, read bits and pieces of stuff to make myself feel intellectual and hopefully learn something (HAHA) and go over to the kids section to check out all the colourful pages that grown-up books will never have (ok, the cook books do), and go over to the craft section and let my creativity be inspired, try the hand lotion on display, look at the decor in the stationery section and wonder how i can replicated things and make them prettier.

shucks. haha Borders Carlton has nailed it with the experiential shopping store concept. much better than Sportgirl's flagship store. but i suppose they have the luxury of holding a slightly wider variety of products.

so. children are attracted to good-looking things. and i suppose attraction to what you may call "inner beauty" takes a bit of growing up and refining of tastebuds. i'd like that very much. but MAN, do colours and pretty things pull me away. dong would know. :)

*in case you were wondering, that's a picture of me rolling *ahem* trimmed eyebrow hair off the face of a girl who loves loves loves colours :) er. yes with a lint roller.

last chance

hug them like it's the last time you'll ever see them again
and talk to them like it's your last chance.

hm. yeah, i think that never really quite sunk in. it takes effort to not take certain things for granted huh.

team

in picture:lipbalm tub that i repackaged, bible rebound by joel, and fufu- my rice heat pack :)

it dawned upon me as i was on my way home, that that was what group work should be like. we're people, not just resources helping each other get the job done. im very blessed to have that.

if i were like socrates

those great philosophers that have shaped our society in one way or another were not paid to think, surely. it wasn't their occupation yet they did it. how did they feed themselves??



something about the way city life is just makes us think very differently huh. we think about what our bosses tell us to think about, what our clients require us to think about. and when it comes to thinking about ourselves, our thinking seems to be limited to wondering about how to survive the corporate world (to some, surviving means climbing higher up the ladder) and what to spend our money on so that life would be better and who's THE ONE who can make me happy.

aye. im so young luh.. i dont even know what it's like to be working and im thinking about what's it'll be like to work, not with anticipation, but i guess with a bit more caution. just one more year and i'll be looking for an office job, yet where i am right now, the working world does seem to me like a completely different world that's a million times bigger, faster, stronger and it just sweeps you off the ground and carries you away into a rigorous system that is quite scary. sheesh. i look at what im typing now and i find it silly - the way i seem to be painting a picture of a huge monster, when in actual fact, it might not be that bad at all.

i think that's why i feel like young right now. small girl. dunno anything.

we'll see. said women take it slow.

a different world

i did have a pretty good conversation today.
it came completely unexpectedly, and i did not direct the conversa... ok maybe a little bit. i just couldn't help asking questions.

so today, there were three of us at the table, each with very different world views, and probably also different worlds. i think i was just pleasantly surprised that someone else so different from me intentionally decided to become vulnerable, and create a space for us to talk about things that matter a lot to us.

the people day

if i didn't have my marketing assignment to work on, i'd totally be looking forward to tmr.
actually, im not gonna let this assignment bogg me down like that.
i AM gonna be excited about tmr.
im gonna finish my work tonight. heh.

not that tmr's particularly exciting, but i'll be doing stuff i enjoy - basketball with good company in the morning and coffee with someone who is exploding with inspiring thoughts and ideas. hmm.

yes. looking forward to it.

plus the DG's gonna be getting together over dinner and movies! woohooooo.... new faces too.
best.



random side note:

i was just looking through pictures i took last semester. haha. uh.. i think only one person will understand this picture. <3

who is your hero?

when you're so caught up wondering if that guy notices you, when every single eye contact you make with him matters so much to you you just wanna tell people..
yet he's kinda like your hero - or someone you admire at least.

it must feel like crap when you find that he doesn't know who you are, or doesn't see that you're as special to him and he is to you. it must make you feel like a shriveled up plant. not pretty enough to be a flower that people take notice of.

but how wonderful it is huh, to be walking with him, imagining that he really does notice you, or that you're kinda special, in a way. to pretend that.. yeah, you're kinda great too. :) you're kinda like your hero.

the thing about heroes though, is that more often than not, they're so perfect that they're one-dimension. you see only the good stuff. sometimes you dont even know why you crave his attention so much.

who would be my true hero? what is a true hero? i have a feeling a real hero, who is worth calling a hero, is one i know, one i can call a friend, a companion, brother, leader.. and.. honestly, it'd probably take more than a few sentences to explain what a true hero is cause he's not one dimension.

worship with dance

i feel like picking up ballet again.

hah! you got me.

Stan walker's Choose You lyrics are a refresing change from the typical love songs on the radio. i like the commitment expressed in the lyrics :)

I'm so mad at you right now
That I can't think straight
And I should shut my mouth
So I don't let out the cruel things I say

Cuz when love starts out
It's all peachy
I love you, you love me seems easy
It's like a walk in the park
But sometimes it takes an act of my will
And a walk in a park turns to uphill
But I promise to give you my heart

I will choose to love you, yeahh
Even though I wanna stay mad
Even though I wanna get angry
Though it may be easier to walk away
I will choose to stay & love you

Love is just so beautiful
sometimes it takes work
And the ones you love
At times can leave you so hurt

Cuz when love starts out
It's all peachy
I love you, you love me seems easy
It's like a walk in the park

But the picture of love some try to paint
It's a contrast to the real landscape
But I promise to give you my heart
I will choose to love you, yeahh
Even though I wanna stay mad
Even though I wanna get angry
Though it may be easier to walk away
I will choose to stay

I choose you, I choose you, yeah
I choose you
I choose you everyday
I choose you

Some people think that love is just a feeling
So they fall out of love as quickly as they fell in
Some people think that love is just a game
But they the ones who always seem to end up getting played
Though everything around might change
One thing will still remain

I will choose to love you, yeahh
Even though I wanna stay mad
Even though I wanna get angry
Though it may be easier to walk away
I will choose to stay

not mine to keep to myself

the day flew by without me having a minute to spend doing nothing

animal orchestra seems to be mine and yao yun's catch up place.

conversation over home made toasted ham and cheese sandwich with yos was good too.

had some time alone to do some housekeeping before jon lee picked me up.

somehow all that was very refreshing. so much seems to have happened that breakfast with yao yun feels quite some time ago.

i like.

supper with half the dg after girls/guy's night.

i actually also wanna give thanks and praise to God, who's amazingly provided for me in a way that is probably insignificant to other people, but is a big deal for me. God is good. on a separate issue, im reminded that even maturity in thought is a blessing that i should and want to give thanks for, because, simply because it is God who gives this knowledge. do i let it stop here? hmm.

fill up

one of the questions that spun off from discussions with tim today was:

how do you bring love where there is none?
(i'll spin off more questions from here)
is there really no love? or is it a lack of expression?
perhaps the lack of expression arises from how love can sometimes be very trying, and tiring because it involves the giving of yourself, and maybe sometimes even the giving up of certian "rights", where you go "im supposed to have this, you're supposed to do this, but.. it's ok. i'll let you have it"

would trust lead to love?
how do you build a trust with someone?
what would trust be based on?

time for bed. before the questions start keeping me awake.

it's flying past you

someone said this: "In this stressful age, getting together with friends has become a luxury than a daily routine."

you reckon time with friends is a luxury? yeah actually if you're working it'd be a luxury. cheers to singapore that opens hang-out places till late at night no matter the day! :D

worse come to worse hang out at changi airport :) haha fave!!

imagine you and your closest circle of friends set up a business together and it grows in terms of revenue into a medium sized company. then you can work and hang out at the same time! it's like how students study with their friends, workers work with their buddies. :)

so now, say instead of starting with a circle of close friends, you have a circle of work friends. how possible is it to make that group of people your friends? i've seen it in a pretty decent firm before, and it was special. i'd like to work in that kinda environment.

come through

writing a bible study took a lot of brain energy today. picking the focus as well as trying to understand the material were both quite a heap. it was refreshing to see how God took what i had and multiplied it. this is kinda like my five loaves and two fish, just in a different context.
it's hard to remember that ultimately, it is the Holy Spirit that teaches, and you're kinda just the one helping to build a bridge. i mean, i reckon even the quality of the bridge depends on how much freedom to control you give to him.

H told me before that he didn't understand why some christians always "depend on God" when obviously, whatever they do is still doable even if they didn't have God. it just hit me that.. well.. to a certain extent, i suppose he's right in saying that there are some things people were created with the ability to do. Perhaps we're meant to do more than just the do-able. Perhaps we should be stepping out more, or pressing in more - especially in the little (important) things that tend to be overlooked, yet are so hard to do just because they're so easily overlooked and discounted.

jl said something that reminded me once again how cool it'd be if people notice something different just from the way we live. hmm.. Jesus led a radical life.

mmph. i should be sleeping now. gnite world.
happy birthday little brother - not that you'd see this...... i dont think.

small

im glad im not doing law, even though i find it really interesting and i quite enjoy my law subjects.

the bit of law that i've been exposed to (just a little) seems to be all about covering your ass, locking up your rights and possessions in a safe with a million locks so no one can take anything from you. it seems to paint the people as parasites that wanna get as much out of you as possible. it comes from a perspective of "you can't trust anyone, arm yourself with a loophole-proof contract and black and white documentation of every single thing that you do signed at the end of each sentence".

doesn't that itself drain you??

i should qualify though, that not all areas of law are like that. law's important.