Shhh! Secret Life of a Princess

Random, provoking thoughts from a self-confessed princess :: with focus on motivational learnings from the media. I hope to inspire everyone to be the best they can be

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

What's Negativity Gotta Do With It

I was sitting at my lunch table today hoping to take my mind off my financial woes when I was thrown into a discussion about the bosses and some other staff of my current work place. Had I been in their position, I would have been drawn into joining in the conversation that range from bad-mouthing some unproductive efforts from a staff to the inflexibility and irrational demands of some bosses. However, as I was there as a voyuer, I could not relate to their difficulties and thus find it really unproductive to get involved in those negativity. In my opinion, everyone has their style of working and so what if some do not work, you just have to adapt since you are working under that boss right? Also, what good would it do to complain. I keep stressing that we should take action rather than just talking about it. Also, I feel that noone is perfect, thus my inability to conform to their train of thoughts. I feel that noone is perfect and thus whining about other people's little mistake will not do any good to any parties. Yes, perhaps it makes people feel better so after that take action. How would you feel if someone is to talk about you behind your back like that.

Well, who am I to talk about my friends like that?! I just realised that I did the exact same thing they did. I just complained about them complaining :P Just be mindful that I did it with a moral behind the story. Yeah...that gives me the reason (aka excuse) to complain :P

Here, I end by giving you a related quote: 'When we use our minds creatively and constructively, it doesn’t matter what we haven’t done, what we haven’t said or where we haven’t been. The only thing that matters is how we engage our mind by telling the conscious what we want to do.'

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Show of Creativity - Thinking Out of The Box

I attended the KL Writers' Circle in MPH 1-Utama last Saturday and was blown away by the show of creativity presented. Even though the topic was about Print On Demand, I was taken away when 2 of the presenters presented their books and how they got about doing it.

One was Ooi Poh Yew who presented her book "How to Use Magic to Teach Mathematics." She is now selling thousands of books on this topic and travelling all over the word to talk on this topic. I liked how she used creativity to help people understand something so logical and how she could merge something so logical with something creative. Sometimes, our mind does not work according to our rational mind, thus we need some right brain activities to jump start the left brain. This is exactly what she had done.

The second speaker was amazingly creative. He had been the most ardent follower of this talk, as I observed from my various attendence to this class and finally today I got a chance to listen to his work. For someone who had been in the legal industry for years, he displayed no inclination of those sorts. He was extremely creative, showing his stories written for the book "Hauntings from the Heart" followed by his artwork for another book he will be working on. The story revolves around a few kids who have lost their parents and their journey in Hell to look for their parents, thus their encounter with various weird creatures he had drawn. Scary but interesting enough to make me continously turn the pages.

Finally, there is one guy who impressed me with his amazing creativity. He wrote a book entitled: "Behind Every Frienship, There is a Story." for his school project. Instead of using the normal concept of writing on each pages, he used cards which are stuck on the left side of the pages of the book and drawings on the right pages of the book. The cards can be turned to reveal the story behind the friendship at the front of the card. I can't wait for his book to be published so that I can take a peek at his thinking out of the box book. It would be such a joy to read.

There, impressive show of creativity. And all to be found in a small group of aspiring writers. :)

Sunday, May 22, 2005

I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet A Woman - Mind Over Matter

I used to have my heart on my sleeves all the time. Thriving on being sensitive enough to understand the emotional aspects of every situation, I relished in the glory of being emotional to the point of arguing over petty things and claiming guys to never understand me enough to be with me.

Years passed, responsibilities abound, work commitments increased and a few heartbreaks later, I am proud to announce now that I am no more the petty sensitive girl I used to be. I have blossomed into an elegant beautiful princess (ahem!) who is able to bear responsibilities as they come and make decisions based on my mind rather than my heart. However, I still hold true this important quote "Follow Your Heart".

Just the other day, I was went to this amazing spa, Andana Spa in Pan Pacific Glenmarie and was amazed at my ability to control my mind. I believe that with training everyone can do that, just a matter of time. I soaked myself into this excruciatingly hot jacuzzi that with additional time, I managed to spend at least 20 mins in there basking in the heat of the water and the tranquility of the steam enveloping me. As I was told to go into the chill bath right after that, I did just that and to my amazement, I soaked myself in there, steadily without having to come up for a breather. My mind was controlling my body, telling my body to forget about the coldness and I counted till 90. 90 seconds in the cold water is an achievement for me. especially when I could actually get up and soak myself in there for another 60 seconds. Phew....I could imagine the pores in my body are all closed after that.

I remember taking the roller coaster when I did not tell my mind to forget about the speed and I was so immensely shocked by the sheer speed of the roller coaster falling down. Compare that with the time when I told my mind over and over again that it will be gone in a jiffy and I just need to conquer my fear, I felt less shocked.

The human's mind is a very powerful tool. It absorbs the thought we implant it with and believes it to be true. Thus, use your mind to its highest potential. And you will thank yourself for the achievements it can bring. However, trusting your gut instincts should be the core of your decisions. You just need to rationalise it with your head.

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Propensity to Dream

"Dream as if you’ll live forever…live as if you’ll die today." - Quotes related to dreams are not uncommon in our daily lifes. Who could blame us when dreams are what maketh a man. It builds us, inspires us in ways never imaginable. Dreams are aplenty but how many of you realised those dreams?

Who could forget the admirable creator of Disneyland, Walt Disney who had practically built a whole new wonderland by dreaming like a child. I even read an article about the favorite past-time of my favorite celebrity singer, Sammi Cheng saying that her favorite past-time is day-dreaming. How could someone so successful relish in doing something so idle, you would ask. But that is exactly how people could dream big and went on to achieve bigger things in life.

My inspiration to blog about this came from reading an article in The Star in the section of "Malaysians Abroad." It is about Irene Ng, a Malaysian who dreamt about being a lawyer but her journey to United States had pathed her into areas less than what she dreamt of. From acting in "The Mystery Files of Shelby" and "The Joy Luck Club" to attending Harvard to being a top banker in Merrill Lynch. At 30, she had achieved far more than a typical Malaysian could achieve or even anyone triple her age. And that was because she lived on a dream and was not afraid to take various paths to achieve it. I for one have been dreaming of going to the United States as this is a country where you could live an American dream. I just love Amy Tan's quote about the meaning of an American Dream: is the American freedom to create your own identity. I think that's uniquely American. In no other country do you have that opportunity. It's not to say that everything will happen fairly and the way that you want. But I think that this is a country where that opportunity -- to be as wild as you want, as generous as you want, as crazy as you want, as artistic as you want, that all of that, the whole range -- exists. And we have a Constitution, a tradition, a culture that supports that. I hope it continues to support that. I hope it especially continues to support the arts in that direction. It is that self-determination of your identity, to define what it means to be an American, and that nobody defines that for you.

Is dreaming country-specific? I think not. Have you ever heard of a Malaysian dream? If no, let's make some. After all, MALAYSIA BOLEH, or am I just being too naive?

Sometimes life takes us on a merry-go-round; our duty is to go along the journey and decide the animal to ride on that will bring us to where we are destined to go. And in the end, it is the journey that matters, not the destination. So good luck to all of those dreamers out there, whether you are a writer dreaming to be an international author, a saccharine sweet pretty girl dreaming to be an established model, a corporate worker dreaming to be on top of the ladder or a mother dreaming of a blessed future for her children. All of us have the propensity to dream and to realise those dreams. Never give up! Same goes to me.

Thursday, May 12, 2005

Tentang 'Tentang Dia'

Nothing like a good movie to pick my emotional saliva to flow with some creative juices again. Have been longing for the longest time to catch this movie and imagine the turmoil I had to go through just to get the tickets at the cheapest day, a Wednesday none the less. Well, call me a cheapskate, I don't care. The tribulations aside, I enjoyed the concept and meaning the movie was trying to convey but I find the movie a tad slow-moving. Comparing apple to apple, I would have opted for "Ada Apa Dengan Cinta" anytime over this one. However, the twist at the end (if u call it a twist) was worth the whole 2 hours of sitting through the movie.

The message was simple: "There are two certainties in life: Love and Death. If you find it in your heart to accept both, you can accept anything at all in life." I do agree but the other messages I preferred were "Life is to short to not love the person you are supposed to love." and "People are lucky that they have all the time in the world to search for the only thing that give their live a meaning. Just think: what if you don't."

A the twist of the movie, I actually heard sobs from many of the people in the audience. I felt a tinge (just a tinge) of tears forming in my eyes. NOT! :P

After watching the movie, you will know what I mean. At the meantime, I will leave it at that."

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Journey Through Times

Wow! That was my exclamation the moment I stepped into the Times Warehouse Sale. Mountains of books stacked on top of each other with unbeatable prices from RM1. Imagine some books can even cost less than a newspaper. Anyway, I took this sale as a great opportunity to stock up on my collection of books that i feel have not completely run out but do not mind a restock. I was zealously looking through piles and piles of books, some screaming for attention, some forlornly sitting at corners hoping to be adopted into a warm home. Testimonials like "Suspence to the very end!", "...has turned out a debut novel fit for a king.", etc can be seen at every corners.

I picked up some amazing books. Books I never thought of getting and even books I thought of geting but never did due to its exorbitant price. The sale privileged me to obtain those award-winning books at almost half the market price. Yippeee! I torn between getting this book called "The Gods of Small Things" by Arundhanti Roy that wons a few accolades but decided not to as I could not comprehend the meaning of the book by skimming through it. The ever-fickle-minded me stocked up on books by the its variety of genres: I even bought some chick-lits that I would never consider buying had it been sold at its original price. One is called "The Berdgolf Blondes" which I heard will be turned into a tv show starring Meryl Streep. I am excitedt to see how someone like her churn out a character as blond as that but I will read the book prior to the show.

Hey, I don't mind exchanging books and even discuss on all. Among my prize possesions are below:

1. A boxset of Amy Tan

2. Classics like "To Kill a Mockingbird", "A Catcher in the Rye"

3. Chick Lits like "The Berdgolf Blondes" and "One of Them"

4. Self-help like "The Tipping Point", Azizi Ali'z "mExcel" and Joey Yap's "Bazi"

5. Slef-help comics like "The Dilbert Principle"

6. Other fictions like "If you are Afraid of Heights"

This is a great time to stock up on books that you have not even heard of but just want to give it a try. Hey, I found some diamonds in the large minefield. I was imagining the books like orphans and nowI gave them a warm spot in my room to sleep till I pick it up again. :)