Adorable Kids Discussing Their Super Serious Dating Woes
By Melissa - Sunday, March 31, 2013
With love...
---------------
"It wasn't nails that held Jesus on The Cross, it was His love for us that made Him pay the cost."
Marijohn Wilkin (1975)
---------------
Hearts.
Need to get (or make) me this space - Plenty of pillows to sink into, a fluffy throw rug and heaps of books. My type of haven.
*
Related post(s):
YouTube Comments - I Should Pay More Attention To 'Em!
By Melissa - Friday, March 22, 2013
I'm an ardent user of YouTube. I love that I get to listen to the latest songs on it, watch my favourite snippets from a series that I am following or a movie I watched, and mostly, to scout for different covers of my favourite songs.
But, I've never truly paid any attention to the comments of the uploads; probably because most of the ones that I have unintentionally glanced at while surfing are either vulgarities, racist discourse or annoying adoration.
Following *this* post, I decided that I should pay a little more attention to comments posted anywhere; because I (and, you too, thanks to me) get to read comments like these (P/S: Click on the images to enlarge them):
and this,
 |
| Proud parent, indeed. |
 |
| Narcissist in action. |
My personal favourite:
 |
| Pitbull's No. 1 fan. |
So cute, that it makes my ovaries ovulate.
For the most part, Facebook has been good to me. It has proven to be one of the best communicative tools to stay in touch and be connected to persons that I care about.
But, there have been instances where the renowned social networking site comes across as more of a liability (instead of an asset) to my mental health.
Let me preface this by acknowledging that I am highly irritable about a lot of trivial things. Tried to be less anal, but it didn't bear much fruit. I decided that it was easier sticking to having an opinion about everything.
So, upon encountering annoying statuses, irritating wall posts or uncalled-for photos, I would normally roll my eyes, sigh and shrug it off; or secretly wish that I did *this* a long time ago.
And then, one of those days will come - The Day of Supreme Exasperation (Frequency varies for each individual). It is the day where you probably woke up on the wrong side of the bed, had a less than average day and the second you log in, a ninny decides to rub you the wrong way by posting something silly.
I cannot recount the times where I have written a bomb of a comment and all that is standing between me and posting it up is the 'Enter' button on my keyboard. Battle of the will at its toughest, right there.
Today, I would like to honour *the valiant men and women who fought on behalf of us all*, whose Will won and made the world a much better place to live in (along with drawing a few chuckles out from us all).
Facebook Comebacks - One day I shall...
Melted in my mouth. Warmed up my heart.
Thank you.
=)
Not to be confused with Mother's Day.
My mother taught me two very important values for life: Give generously and love unconditionally. I can't say that I have lived up to it all the time, but I work towards that every day.
In all that she does, she has always demonstrated compassion and grace. She is not afraid to sow and bless, and I have seen how The Lord has blessed her heart of gold, by filling her cup till it overflows.
Verbal affections and expressions may not be her first love language, but she more than makes up for it with her actions and care.
I am forever indebted to her for instilling those values in me. She's a blessing to many, but I count myself most blessed to be able to call her Mummy.
P/S: Early birthday celebration for my Ma at my uncle's yesterday.
My mother taught me two very important values for life: Give generously and love unconditionally. I can't say that I have lived up to it all the time, but I work towards that every day.
In all that she does, she has always demonstrated compassion and grace. She is not afraid to sow and bless, and I have seen how The Lord has blessed her heart of gold, by filling her cup till it overflows.
Verbal affections and expressions may not be her first love language, but she more than makes up for it with her actions and care.
I am forever indebted to her for instilling those values in me. She's a blessing to many, but I count myself most blessed to be able to call her Mummy.
P/S: Early birthday celebration for my Ma at my uncle's yesterday.
 |
| Home cooked goodness |
I have used this line almost too often, simply because I
believe in being forthright and honest in life. And, I tell it to everyone I
know, all the time.
Somehow, I'm home but not quite.
I don't know if it's because I've been living on my own for too long. Or, if it's just a sudden bout of overwhelming emotions. I think about the 'what-could-have-been'-s all the time and wonder if I settled for second best. Perhaps, I should have pushed a little harder to get what I wanted, go a little further for it and give it another shot, just because.
So, for tonight, my confession is this: I miss doing life in KL.
When I wrote *this*
post, not many people understood the price that came with coming back to family
and familiarity.
Now, after being
back for almost 1.5 months and after working for 2.5 weeks, my confession is
this: I miss doing life in KL.
I miss my rented room, minimally decorated but sufficiently furnished.
I miss having an
attached bathroom.
I miss driving on
highways.
I miss the energy
buzz of the city life.
I miss my vibrant church community.
I miss my evening runs by the lake.
I miss falling asleep to the sound of traffic.
I miss the many tall
buildings and skyscrapers.
I miss everything about my life in KL.
Somehow, I'm home but not quite.
I don't know if it's because I've been living on my own for too long. Or, if it's just a sudden bout of overwhelming emotions. I think about the 'what-could-have-been'-s all the time and wonder if I settled for second best. Perhaps, I should have pushed a little harder to get what I wanted, go a little further for it and give it another shot, just because.
So, for tonight, my confession is this: I miss doing life in KL.
Location:
The Office
Me: What's this?
Colleague A: It's antelope meat.
Me: No, thank you.
Colleague A: Why not?
Me: Because, it's antelope meat.
Colleague B: *smiling endearingly* Try it, it's really delicious.
Me: No, thanks.
Colleague A: Come on, just try it.
Me: *takes the smallest piece, tears away a SMIDGEN and puts it in my mouth* YUCK!
Colleague A: *guffaws* HAHAHAHAHA. Look at her face (to Colleague B). HAHAHAHAHA. Great, all the more for me. I'm gonna take it home and make sandwiches.
This *points above* is why I only eat chicken and fish.
In case you're wondering what antelope meat looks like...
.
.
.
.
.
Sliced kudu meat, from South Africa.
I have a penchant for naming the items that I spend the bulk of my time with. For instance, Evie is my iPhone, my treadmill is Bertha, and no, you should not know my favoured names for my pillow, bolster and bed. Oh, and The Bible (Can't possibly top that name, The Bible. Coolest name in the history of cool names.).
So, it's only polite that I honour my latest babe with a fitting name and after some thought, I have decided on Seanna (pronounced as 'Shaw-Na'). It is a Gaelic name and it means gift from God. There is a story behind that name, but I'll save it for another time.
Good folks and readers of Chatty Lass, meet my two weekday essentials…
Seanna and Cammy (my mug of chamomile tea).
Two weeks and loving every second.
- Sleeping in
- Nuff said.
- Staying up late
-
Keeping up with series and re-watching old
movies are essential for my mental development, and is best done late into the
night.
- Hating 8am morning classes
-
Throughout my 2 years at Taylor’s University, I
was incredibly successful in veering my original timetable (set by the
university) to suit my liking. That means a maximum of only ONE 8am class per
week. Once, for one of the semesters, I managed to get Mondays AND Fridays off.
Big time win.
- Long lunch breaks
-
60 minutes is an hour too short.
- Ample free time
- College and university students
get loads of free time, LOADS.
- Brunch and shopping time with Tinki Talks.
-
Numbers 4 and 5 will usually mean quality time
with her. I miss our sharing, dissing and shopping sessions.
- Assignment deadlines
-
I miss meeting assignment deadlines and staying
up till wee hours of the morning (or pulling an all-nighter) to complete
‘em. My friends often say that I put the PRO in procrastinator. I miss the
adrenaline rush that comes every time I punch Assignment Deadlines in the face. *victory fist in the air*
- SOME KL food
-
I have a course mate who dedicates his time to criticising Penang, to whom I would always retort: “KL has been giving you so much fake stuff, especially where food is
concerned that you forgot what real looks like. Poor soul, being delusional is
a condition that needs attention.”
Don’t mess with me when it comes
to the food in Penang. It is THE best. PERIOD.
However, I do miss some of the
food items and joints I frequent when I was living there: Jojo’s Little
Kitchen’s spicy pan mee, Sri Nirwana Maju’s banana leaf (fried and crispy gourds
FTW!), Red velvet cupcakes from The Upstairs Café, Tiramisu from Alexis,
Nasi Bojari and Banana Fritters with Ice-Cream at Madam Kwan’s, Snowflake’s
Soya Ice with lotus seeds and grass jelly and Murni’s Triple Cheese Naan (!!!).
- Instant noodles or bread marathon
-
Done in a bid to save up for an opulent item
(read: anything that costs more than half of my monthly allowance) or after I
have performed the sinful deed (got ahead of time and got that expensive item
at the start of the month).
----------
The thing I miss most about life as a university student?
The thing I miss most about life as a university student?
- Being a university student.
Yup.
And it only took a mere 1.5 weeks upon entering the working scene.
I shall not go into details, but all I will divulge is: Burnt smell, thick cloud of smoke, gagging, choking, coughing, more smoke, and now, the smell permeated the entire office because of the centralised air-conditioning.
Don't get me started on the laughter that came with it, after the furore died down. It is almost 4.5 hours after the incident took place and my colleagues are still sniggering about it.
I'm just really thankful that no sprinklers and evacuation were involved.
If anything else happens this year that can top this, I am going to buy myself a crown. On it will be written, 'Queen of Epic Embarrassment - 2013'.
More accurately, time spent doing nothing.
One of my favourite quotes, if I may - "Time you enjoyed wasting
is not wasted." (John Lennon)
While it may seem to the rest of the world that we (writers) are letting
Time slip by without accomplishing anything (read: procrastinating), the
conversations that we have going around us (instead of writing), the hours on
end that we spend browsing through social networks and sites, the many moons we
let slide whilst staring at images; it is not done without a thought and for no
reason.
In fact, that is what we do: We look. We search. We hunt.
What is it that we look, search and hunt for? Inspiration... ONE image,
word, colour, emotion; to chart the course, set in motion and soon enough,
watch as that spark burst into a kaleidoscope of flames, and therein lies… What
I call, a stroke of genius.
Some of my best work while I was in college (diploma) and university
(degree) were done at the eleventh hour. Not because I wanted to (Alright
alright, I procrastinated just a little
because I wanted to have some fun before getting into the humdrum cycle), but
mostly because Inspiration hadn’t made her grand entrance just yet.
If there is one thing I’ve learned, it is that you can't rush Inspiration.
She’s a coy one. You need to gently coax her, tease her a little, tend
to her every need - all without rushing her - before she engulfs you with
passion, a passion so deep that it renders you powerless and unable to do
anything else (not eat, sleep or stand) until you give in to what she wants:
Write, and not stop till you feel completely spent and breathless. Other times,
she lingers around you like a sweet scent; dancing alluringly, waiting for
you to lean in and inhale deeply, and then… She whispers in your ears, softly, bewitching
you - mind, body and soul.
I can't speak for all writers, but for most that I have spoken to, the lot of us are all in the same boat regarding this.
And, this post was inspired by this quote...
I can't speak for all writers, but for most that I have spoken to, the lot of us are all in the same boat regarding this.
And, this post was inspired by this quote...
Because, I've been waiting on it all week... It marks the end of the first week of my first job (Yay, me!) and it also means that I can NOT wake up at 6:30am tomorrow.
P/S: If anyone wakes me up before mid-day tomorrow, I'm gonna rip their pretty little heads off. Don't say I didn't warn ya, this blog post is proof that I did. :p
P/S: If anyone wakes me up before mid-day tomorrow, I'm gonna rip their pretty little heads off. Don't say I didn't warn ya, this blog post is proof that I did. :p
As I am writing this, I am digesting all that had taken place and developed over this past one and a half weeks.
Everything had moved at a pace that was so swift that it felt faster than grains of sand slipping through my fingers. I realized that if I didn’t (intentionally) take some time to sit down, process and journal snippets of it, all of it will fade with Time and when I muse over it a couple of years down the road, I wouldn’t know how far I’ve come.
The initial plan was to stay on in KL and begin my career there. I never imagined moving back to Penang after living on my own for two years. I wanted to be away for a little longer, to pursue my dream of being a writer and live in a city.
However, ever since the first day of my internship commenced, my prayer was and has always been this: “Heavenly Father, open only ONE door for me. I don’t know what the future holds for me, but my will I entrust to you. Confirm Your plans for my life with this. Amen.”
In the mean time, I sent out my resume to various organizations (in both places) and juggled some freelance work on the side.
Four weeks after I returned to the island, I received information of an opening in a reputable company and known brand, and along with that information, a phone number was attached. I made a call, emailed my resume and the very next day, was called upon for an interview. That was last Wednesday. The day after, the interviewer (now, my manager) rang me up to inform me that an employment package was already confirmed and sketched the necessary details out. On Friday, HR called to ask if I would be able to begin working on Monday itself. As I was conversing with the HR personnel, I was en route to KL to pack up my room (the day was planned months ahead before I had any inkling of where I would be settling down at) as my room tenancy was up by the end of February.
The timing couldn’t have been more impeccable and I would be completely ignorant if I fail to see His hand at work, setting things in order for my life.
But, as I packed my things, loaded them into the car and cleaned up my room (my home, safe haven and personal sanctuary) for the past two years, I couldn’t help but feel incredibly wistful.
I took lengthy showers in my attached bathroom and stood beneath the showerhead for a long time; letting the water soak my body from head to toe and wash away the silent tears that flowed freely from my eyes; coming to terms with the inescapable fact that one season had passed and a new season is well on the way for me.
It is still the early days and I dearly miss my life in KL for now, even the traffic madness as much as I loathed it (Driving a stick and being caught in traffic at the Federal Highway for 2.5 hours is definitely not for the fainthearted.).
What I am doing right now and will be doing is never what I imagined myself doing a year ago.
Instead of stories and columns, I now write copies and press releases. Instead of building connections and bridging rapports at media events, I will most probably be doing presentations in front of clients. Instead of being desk-bound and laptop facing, I may have to travel for business.
A new season, truly.
But, as it is every season – in and out of season, He is still God; forever is and will be assuredly good, eternally faithful.
And with that, my heart summons up Hope (in His promises) and overflows with thanksgiving for this new season.
