If you can't be good, be good at it

According to "Rate My Life" quiz that a fellow blogger Lx recommended in his blog "Phases", my life is an 8 out of 10. Not as bad as I thought, really.

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	8.9
Mind:	8.4
Body:	8.6
Spirit:	9.2
Friends/Family:	6.1
Love:	7.7
Finance:	8.4
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

In retrospect, life is like a coin, you can spend it any way you want but you can only spend it once. Think what you want of me, I don't really care because I know about myself more than anyone else does.

The Red Indians used to say, never judge a person before you walked in his moccasins for two moons. Errr correction...I dunno if the Red Indians actually said that. Hehehe I just made it up :)

No matter! The point is, you may never ever walk in my moccasins. Neither will I be walking in your moccasins, ever in my whole life. Talking about life, I just wanna share with you some profound lessons that I've learned in my 35 years. Setahun jagung, maybe to some of you. But I think I've earned some rights to crack a few nuts here and there :)

First lesson that I've learned is, that we must never ever judge another person against our own set of values. If you really have to judge a person, be fair. Judge him or her against their own set of values. Practically, human beings have a strong tendency to become ethnocentric and egocentric. Even animals do. But unlike animals, human beings are blessed with a thinking brain. Use it well, as my mom used to say. Hehehe probably the reason why she started me reading at four years old!

During reunions and get togethers, I've heard old friends complain about not being happy and content. Especially when their friends are doing much better than them. I think, as much as we sometimes think that our lives is worse off than other people, or otherwise, we never know for sure until we live other people's lives.

Keeping up with the Joneses is very tiring, as you would be in the rat race, perpetually running life's treadmill. I would rather keep up with my own pace, I may not be the best, the richest, the most successful, the most beautiful, the most intelligent, the most whatever!

The race is against myself, not others. I'm improving so that I'd be better today than I was yesterday. Then I'd be happy and content. Sometimes, it's better to be hated for who you are than to be loved for who your not.

To recap, the second lesson that I've learned, is to be happy and content with your life, be grateful for what you have, rather than complaining and pining for what you don't have. On that note, we either make ourselves happy or miserable. The amount of work is the same. If we can actually open our hearts, there's no difficulty in being happy. Laugh all you want while you still can, because laughter is the shortest distance between two people. I'd say, frown not, unless it is for a very worthy reason.

How simple it is to see that we can only be happy now, and that there will never be a time when it is not now.

English novelist and essayist Aldous Leonard Huxley (1894- 1963) once said, "most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted". On that note, I think you should value the people who you have in your life, and not the things that you own. Life is too short to be worrying about things which have little meaning. As one wise old man told me, "the real measure of your wealth is how much you'd be worth if you lost all your money."

Having survived a bitter divorce and financial struggles that ensued such a tragedy, it is true that God would never give us something that we can't handle. From my experience, I have also learned that we can keep going long after we can't. Just keep telling yourself, just another step, just another step. Before you know it, you've arrived!

Be not afraid to live but be not foolish with it either for we get but one chance. But don't be afraid of making a mistake. It is not the end of the world. Unless you end your life, then it would be the end of your universe. But the world goes on, with or without you in it, until armageddon. I have learned that if you have made mistakes, there is always another chance for you. You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call failure is not the falling down but the staying down.

Like I said, life is like a coin, spend it any way you want but you can only spend it once. We are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel. If You Can't Be Good; Be Good At It. At living your life, I mean :)

Play the melody, Happy Birthday...

Oprah Winfrey said, "The great thing about getting older is getting your priorities straight. You can stop tap-dancing to everybody else's tune and focus on perfecting your own routine." I couldn't agree more - I think my mind becomes clearer as I age.

I turned 35 today. So it's "Happy Birthday to me!".

Do you know that 35 is a prime age where a woman reaches her sexual peak and sexual confidence? Oh boy, don't I wish that I am either married, engaged or at least have a steady boyfriend. Anyways...

Now that I have reached a new plataeu in my life, I should be wiser to embrace a "Play The Melody" philosophy . As Jackie Gleason, puts it, "It means don't over-arrange, don't make life difficult. Just play the melody—and do it the simplest way possible."

Just for the benefit of your knowledge, Jackie Gleason, nicknamed "The Great One", was a rotund, Brooklyn-born comedian famous for brash humor and fast ad-libs who immortalized his Chauncey Street neighborhood in The Honeymooners, playing bus driver Ralph Kramden alongside his pal and upstairs neighbor, sewer worker Ed Norton, and their wives Alice Kramden and Trixie Norton. The foursome were later transplanted into the Stone Age on the animated cartoon series The Flintstones, the entire show being a tribute to The Honeymooners, albeit with both couples eventually having children (Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm).

Surprisingly, I don't feel any different at 35 as I was at 30. Turning the Big 3-0 was more frightening than turning Prime 35, really. Age is, indeed, just a number as you grow older and learn to accept that aging is inevitable, and is part and parcel of the deal you made with God before you were born into this world. There's no point freaking out and worrying to no end about getting older as it will only make you wrinkle faster than you should. Everybody grows old and will eventually die anyways. So, I will just enjoy my moments while I'm still alive. Just be as happy as I can be.

Live life to the fullest!

I think 35 is a good age to be, especially after reading this hilarious observations I received from a friend yesterday. This is really funny!

Read on, people!

People over 35 should be dead

Here's why ............

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 40's, 50's, 60's, or even maybe the early 70's probably shouldn't have survived.

Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets,

... and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets.

(Not to mention the risks we took hitchhiking.)

As children, we would ride in cars with no seatbelts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.

Horrors!

We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes.

After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day.

NO CELL PHONES!!!!!

Unthinkable!

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, videotape movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, personal computers, or Internet chat rooms.

We had friends!

We went outside and found them.

We played dodge ball, and sometimes, the ball would really hurt.

We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

They were accidents. No one was to blame but us.

Remember accidents?

We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms, and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live inside us forever.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and knocked on the door, or rang the bell or just walked in and talked to them.

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team.

Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.

Some students weren't as smart as others, so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade.

Horrors!

Tests were not adjusted for any reason.

Our actions were our own.

Consequences were expected.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of.

They actually sided with the law.

Imagine that!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever.

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

And you're one of them!

Congratulations!

People over 35 have had the luck to grow up as kids, before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good !!!!!

People under 30 are WIMPS! (Hehehe...I didn't say that :)

Selamat Hari Raya!

The holy month of Ramadhan has come to an end. For a whole month, we fasted from dawn to dusk. After abstaining not only from food but also from all sorts of temptations, we will celebrate our victory of sorts. Today, Muslims all over the world celebrate this occasion Eid-ul-Fitri as they call it in Arabic or Hari Raya Aidil Fitri as we call it in Malay.

Today, after our morning prayers, the whole family will eat together in perfect harmony. Then we will visit our ancestors' graves. Tomorrow we will visit relatives, friends and neighbors.

To all Muslims around the world, I wish you Eid-ul-Fitri!

Anyways, I have digressed, now back to fasting. Fasting, as some of you may agree, has myriad benefits. Spiritually and mentally, it teaches you patience, perseverance and self discipline. Physically, it cleanses your system, and for a majority, it will trim your body line, or at least makes you feel a lot lighter and healthier.

After a month of fasting - less non-fasting days due to menstruation and gastric attacks - I have lost just 3 kgs. But just one week of feasting during Eid-ul-Fitri, I gained back 2 kgs!!!! Arrggghhhh....

Anyways, don't let this stop you from indulging the goodies. Enjoy the rendang!

Selamat Hari Raya Eid-ul-Fitri!