When you feel lost in the rain, hold on to your faith and believe in yourself. Perserverance holds the key to something more beautiful after the struggle you have endured.
Thursday, November 25, 2004
Clearing clutter
I've decided to shift my "things-to-do" list away from the sidebar because the huge chunk of words there are irritating me... so I'm saving there in one of the posts instead.
Write and publish a fantasy story for kids
Concoct my own ice-cream flavours and sell them
Work as a mascot in a famous theme park
Compile my own book of anime drawings
Set adrift paper boats on a pond, each with a tealight, and watch them sail away
Work in Starbucks or Coffee Bean
Enjoy sunrise and sunset with someone special on a still lake
Explore, and volunteer in Tibet
Compile my own collection of animal pictures and put them up on the web
Become a lounge pianist in a hotel or a classy restaurant
Participate in a real barn dance
Run in a field full of beautiful flowers
Busking and singing christmas carols on a christmas eve
Compose a Chinese pop song tune that instantly becomes a hit
Learn sign language, Cantonese, Japanese, French, etc.
Take up african drumming and african tribal dance
Become proficient in salsa dancing
Run a 10k marathon
Write up popular songs' music scores and put them up on the web for anyone interested
Take fencing lessons
Take a pottery class
Bake a rich and multi-layered ice-cream cake
Go the arcade with someone special and play ALL the games
Sit in the ferris wheel with someone I love
Act in a musical
Have a household of dogs and cats (including a sheltie)
Influence everyone on dog ownership basics/knowledge
Have someone win the biggest soft toy in a funfair for me
Go on a spiritual meditative retreat for a week
Own a studio apartment with a skylight so I can sleep while looking at the stars
Take ice-skating lessons
Learn water-colour painting
See fireflies up close
Work at a big animal hospital in New York
See the Aurora Borealis
Spend a relaxing day atop a swiss mountain grassland
Take part in a supermarket contest - the kind where you grab as many items as you can in a given time period
Visit the snow and ice festival in Harbin
Set up a low-carb bakery chain
Sample traditional culinaries from all over the world, or go on a culinary tour
Combine scientific and alternative vet science
Take an animal communication course with Penelope Smith or Amelia Kinkade
Create a large multi-storeyed playground for guinea pigs to live in
Scan every photograph of my family members and store them eternally through generations
Sit in the cockpit of a plane or helicopter
Experience dog sledding in Alaska
Go on a horseback riding trip
Visit greece and explore their mythological histories
Keep a pair of love budgies
Help protect raccoons
Learn tap dancing
Work as a vet in a zoo or wildlife sanctuary
Teach a pet parrot to speak
Experience a full body massage
Wear coloured contacts
Work as a flowergirl
Go fruit-picking of every fruit imaginable
Work in a pet shop or pet grooming salon
Join a karaoke contest and get into the finals
Do high level paper origami models
Pick up squash, tennis and golf
Watch shooting stars alone with someone special
Be able to climb up a rope
Take part in an aerobics marathon
Highlight a lock of my hair just over my forehead a striking colour
Design my own webpage and my sister's webpage
Design icons and create animations
Go finland and visit santa's village
Take up kickboxing seriously
Attend dog obedience classes with my dog
Pick up lindy-hopping with a guy friend so that I'll have a partner to practise with
Get high from drinking without throwing up or getting a hangover
Learn self-defence for women
Go for a past-life regression session
Climb a mountain
Travel to Switzerland and immerse in their culture for a while
Take up a exotic food cooking class
Watch every anime there is
Learn to play the drums
Take up sculpturing
Bake every recipe there is in my favourite baking book
Meet someone who is very similar to me in hobbies and mentality
Go for a makeover
Plant a garden full of flowers that I like
Splash a glass of water in someone's face
Learn to play weiqi and chinese chess
Ride in a gondola in Venice
Sit on all the fastest rollercoasters in the world
Experience the beauty of the births of every animal there is
Try skydiving
See icebergs in Iceland
Live life in Mongolia for a while
Sleep in a hammock
Participate in a rhythmic groups like Storm
Sit in a reindeer sleigh
Engage in a pillow fight
Go for a health spa and try every treatment they have got
Be serenaded with a guitar by someone special outside my home
Have the closest relationships ever with my sisters
Set up my own complementary vet clinic
Have breakfast in bed
Do storytelling to children
Yippee! Now I have my sidebar clear for adding links.
I am suddenly at a loss of what to do with my free time before I set off for farm attachment next Monday, and that's so silly. There are options like going to the library to borrow books back to read, but then I'm worried that I won't have the opportunity to drop by the library to return the books after I come back from the farm and before I go back to singapore. And my attention span is still so short, that I cannot sit still to read a book for more than half an hour. Pathetic isn't it? Then I don't relish the idea of sitting at home all day watching anime either. There's nothing good on TV this weekend either... So I started drawing a few anime characters for fun yesterday and thought up of a few tunes plus look for a dvdripper program to download ... but I still felt that I had wasted a perfectly good day. Couldn't sleep even if I had wanted to cuz my body clock has been perfectly tuned to wake up between 6-7am everyday.
I guess I better stop complaining before friends who are still having exams start bashing me up mentally.
On a lighter note, I actually made a fool out of myself again, as usual, just yesterday when I called to make an appointment to service my car. I told the person over the phone that my car needed its "15km" service when asked which service it was. "you mean 15000km" was the response I got before I even realised my mistake.
I just remembered that it was a friend's birthday tomorrow but I have no idea how to send my well wishes to him. What to do? I wish I would stop remembering people's birthdays... heh heh heh. Some dates just stick in my mind forever even though they ought to have no significance to me. If only I remember the dates of important history occurances as well as I remember birthdays. Which leads me to wonder if it's just girls who are 'talented' at remembering birthdays. I never quite figured out why it's mostly guys who cannot remember things like this. All the main differences that I've heard regarding the female and male brain mechanisms have failed to enlighten me in that aspect. My conclusion therefore is that the male species do not think that details like birthdays are important, contrary to what the females believe (most of them, not all), and therefore they do not bother to allocate such dates to memory. The general impression I then get is that guys would only try to accomplish such a "feat" if it concerns a really really good buddy, of if it's some girl they would like to impress. I know that birthdays are not that big of a deal to some and that practically, it's just like any day other than the fact that 365n days ago, one was born into this world. BUT. I believe that just two words can make that much of a difference in someone's life. It can be seen as a gesture of appreciation of someone, and letting him/her know that he/she's being thought of.
I just realised how idealistic I sound, but even though I admit I do not remember ALL of my friends' birthdays, at least I try my best to! Erm. Perhaps I should also add that whether I remember someone's birthday or not does not signify their importance in my life.
It's 2.43am in the morning and I should be going to bed soon. It was a nice ending to the school term following our last paper this afternoon... I went to watch Bridget Jones Diary 2 with Samantha and had dinner with her after that... and then I got so hyped up upon hearing that the others have gone on to sing karaoke at Northbridge that I just had to join them even though Sam didn't feel like it... and I suppose perhaps we didn't want the day to end just yet and we headed to Kelvin's house after that to watch dvds. Almost thought we couldn't decide on a movie that all of us would want to watch, but finally settled on Little Nicky.. and even though it was funny as usual (I would know since I have watched it before more than once i think), hmm I think that not everyone was equally amused, possibly because of religion issues? i don't know for sure, hopefully I'm just being oversensitive here.
I guess I really miss singing karaoke... I haven't gotten so excited for such a long time. The only time I get to sing is when I'm driving alone in my car. Which could possibly explain why I am more comfortable driving by myself and not having company (I am always more likely to get into 'near-accidents' fetching passengers! WHY!??!). Our bathroom is simply too resounding for my taste, and I should know since my room is nearest to it and I could always hear even the softest of bathroom singers, hahaha.
I'm heading off to bed before it strikes 3am in the morning... zzz
My family and I were on a holiday in what seemed like a magical land. We came to this major town information centre, which was also a gigantic toy store. We went in and were gawking over all the kinds of souveniers that they sell. At their counter, I was suddenly handed this package, so I opened it. Out came a soft toy cat, and some instructions dropped out which I didn't notice.... and the cat to life suddenly and was running about. I didn't know what was going on. Suddenly some people were chasing after us and so we had to run out of the store, me scooping up the cat in the process and escaped in our car. My sister who had lagged behind a little, had also turned into a fawn-coloured cat upon reaching the car, and we didn't know why.
We drove up this mountain hoping to find accomodation. I set the cat free up there and it ran off. My sister still remained a cat and was surprisingly quiet about it. A man who turned out to be the owner of the place on top of the mountain came up to greet us. He was very polite but we sensed some hidden malice behind his smiling facade. We tried asking about this hotel that I picked out of a magazine we had earlier, but it turned out to be the most expensive white mansion resort in the area.
We chose to inspect this darker looking accomodation, and for some reason after checking out a particular room, the rest of my family decided to run out suddenly, leaving me to gather up on remainings and follow. I had major problems dragging everything out of the room, and my sister being a cat wasn't able to help. We were taken prisoners and I tried to feed my sister some liquid which would likely turn her back but she wouldn't comply and kept jumping out of my arms...
Suddenly we were back at the toy store where the trouble began. This bunch of old ladies were nearby looking ominously at us. One of them spoke up, only to tell me that it all was a quest, or to put it more simply, a game. I only had to notice the instructions that came with the first cat I was presented with in this town to be able to piece together the mysteries but because the instructions fell out and I didn't have time to read it, we got into this mess. My sister then walked in smugly as a human being again and I was so relieved, but I had this burning question to ask her, as to how it felt to be a cat. She said that she completely forgot, but I wasn't satisfied with her convenient loss of memory.
I thought the dream I had was interesting enough to compile into a short story in future, haha...
That's right... I just massacred a troop of ants using insecticide and a vacuum cleaner. Apparently they entered the house from the toilet and invaded my room since it was the nearest room they could find. Half an hour ago when my suspicions were confirmed when I found a few lone ants crawling around on my desk! I was so geared up that I immediately went to eliminate them. I HAD to. It just made my skin crawl when I started looking on the carpeted floor of my room and found more ants...and so I went berserk. on the killing spree.
I'm feeling a little guilty about the ants though. Actually I've reminded myself not to kill any living thing for no reason. But that policy is really hard to follow when it comes to insects.. I just cannot co-exist with them peacefully in this world. I wonder if it's an innate fear that has always existed. Could be, I've never failed to make anyone incredulous when I tell them about my "one ant for one ten-cent coin" story from the time when I was young. The memory is slightly fuzzier now, but I still vaguely remember that I was so afraid of ants when I was young that my mother offered to give me 10 cents for every ant I kill. I don't remember having as much fear with ants after that. Guess that showed how mercenery I was even back then huh? Also, back then, there were always those "big flying ants" after a heavy rain at night, which would be attracted towards the light... there was once I was eating dinner out with my parents and their friends and I couldn't eat normally because there were those ants flying right above our table. When I felt one drop right onto my head, I jumped and started crying... It was a hopeless case from the start.
I guess I never got over my fear of those creepy crawlies... it's just that I forced myself to kill them whenever I see them so that I won't have to worry about their existence later on. I know that I still cannot sleep in a room in which I know there lives a cockroach, or a big spider. As a result I'm terribly alert towards anything that flies and crawls at an astonishing speed.
When I have a kid of my own in future.. I will not show him/her any scary movies or books involving insect populations. I can't tell if that was a cause of my fear. For I remember a horrifying children's book that told the story of how some man-eating termites ate up the dog and that the children were only saved in a nick of time. And there was also the movie of the killer bees causing the death of children and a teacher on their field trip (if i recall correctly i think that movie was shown late at night during one particular chinese new year!)
I've seen enough animals for........... just a day
One down, two more to go!
Frankly, I think that the feeling of finishing an exam is blissful enough to become addictive! But I guess that depends on one's expectations of performance as well. Considering I spent a few hours yesterday getting hooked on a "few" episodes of Fullmetal Alchemist, I really don't deserve this sense of satisfaction and happiness that I'm getting now.
But oh well, that's over and done with for now! Looking back I'm really glad that somehow we were given a breed recognition test for the animals that we've been studying... it was stressful while studying for it and thinking "wait a minute, doesn't that breed of sheep look exactly like this one, but they're DIFFERENT??" but when you've stared at it long enough, something new catches your attention and soon everything falls into place. Kinda. For our breed recognition test today we were flashed slides of different breeds of sheep, cows, pigs, cats, dogs, goats, all for a minute each and then we had to write our answers down in our exam sheet. There's no moving backwards so one chance was all we've got. I thought how well one performs for this sort of tests really depends on the main method of studying one uses. Those who study visually, of course, are the ones who will score for this part of the exam. Personally I'm still trying to discover which method works best for me. Secondary school material was alright for reciting over and over again out loud, but the amount in university for reciting will probably result in throat cancer!
Exactly one month from the day I step on the plane headed for home.....
Actually, I meant that I'm done with my animal handling practical exam, which I have been dreading all semester! phew! Am I happy or what? Even though there's the written paper tomorrow afternoon I finally feel a huge sense of relief... I didn't know that I had been THAT worried till it was over. So relieved that I almost left my notes behind after my last shift.
Such a memorable day, I must certainly etch it into memory, hehe. Not that I thought I did exceptionally well, but I know that I did all that I could to have prepared for it. Theory wise, all good, but I certainly wasn't prepared for the animals' unruly behavior!
Okay, the cattle wasn't that bad. I got this great docile Angus-Hereford cross who was very sweet. Other than the fact that it kept "pawing" with its right forelimb through the head bail which made me worried that it might kick, it didn't struggle much at all. I should have given her more pats, though I'm not sure that she would have appreciated it much. I was given this dirty old halter, and that got me confused as to how to put it on the head. I think I was just too nervous to begin with, never a good sign, but I can't help it! Went through all the necessary routine, got a few unexpected questions which I think I managed to answer, and then! the most embarassing thing happened... I was the last to leave, and I guess I was still nervous and perhaps, even run away, so when Eric Taylor told me that the exam was over and held out his hand, I shook his hand!!! ARGHhhh he only wanted to get back the equipment from me. That was simply mortifying. I just hope I had amused him enough for him to give me a good grade on the cows. After all it's not every day that you get someone to do something silly in front of you isn't it? I heard him telling someone else that there were people before me who were so nervous their hands were shaking as they tried to draw blood from the jugular vein. I'm very glad that I have not yet fallen into that category.
After the cattle came the pigs. My first task then was to rope snare a pig, with the help of Sam. After locating the pig I was assigned to, I thought it would be an easy task, after all, haven't we done the same routine all the time? But this pig #5 was CRAZY! It was really the worst pig I've ever come across... did the pig purposely give us a hard time knowing that we were having our exams?! Anyway that wasn't the best start to the exam, and I got really desperate and upset after the stupid pig slipped away again and again and even went through my legs twice. For a few minutes I really thought that snaring that damn pig was to be an impossible task. I hope Ross Buddle doesn't penalize me for taking such a long time to snare the pig! But eventually it was done and then Sam's pig was not as jumpy as mine, but it was still bad. After that we had to estimate the weights of Sam's pig and hurray I got mine within 2kg! That was actually the trickiest part of the pig exam because we were only given one chance and I found that my gut feeling was always wrong during practices. Luckily I didn't give up on it in the end.. hehe... I still trust my instincts after all. I guess that lucky estimation made up for the misbehaving pig after all. The last task for the pig was to restrain the grower pigs. I was slightly shocked by their sizes frankly.. i had thought they would give us smaller pigs. Times like this, it pays to have a bigger and not-so-slim arm... hehe. Under those stressful conditions, give me a pig of ANY size, I "die-die" also would struggle and do whatever that's needed. That's how badly I want to do well for this unit. I guess that is the same for everybody else.
Then came the horses. *big big sigh* Today was one of the worst attempts I ever made at catching a horse. Even though I was the second one to enter the pen and thus should have some advantage to choosing an obliging horse, somehow my luck ran out a little there and one by one I see the rest bringing their selected horses out... and I got terribly desperate. Perhaps the horses could sense that and for so long, they just kept turning away from me. Was it me, or was it just that they are in a bad mood? I guess by the time I finally was rescued by this horse that would stay still long enough for me to put its halter on, the rest had already completed half of their tasks. I was putting on the bull bit on the thoroughbred and she kept bringing her head higher and higher such that I couldn't reach... and then came one of the helpers who told me I was doing it wrong blah blah... and then showed me a way that wasn't how it was taught to us during our practices as well... I felt that she didn't give me a chance to defend myself before showing me HER way... anyway, it was a good horse in the end.
As for the sheep, Helen Chapman, the lecturer in charge of the sheep, didn't turn out to be as intimidating as I had thought her to be. It is high time that I lose my fear of teachers like her... there were so many before her, like Jennifer Tan in JC, Stella Lee in primary school... with whom I just become dumb when questioned. Anyway I had been worried that it was going to be like that, but nah, nothing happened. Tilting the sheep was more efficiently done than usual, and I guess that's because during the exam you KNOW you have to get something done and then you just go ahead and do it. Did all the other required routines without much of a problem and I drew blood within few seconds of insertion! Sooo happy. The only slightest trouble I had was in finding the sheep that matched the requirements I was given, from a mob of 10+ sheep. I think luck played a huge role again... I was beginning to think that I would never be able to find an unmulesed four tooth ewe with them running around all the time, when suddenly I just grabbed hold of one! And I was even going to let it go because I thought it was mulesed... luckily Kim told me in time that nope, it's really unmulsed. Tada! mission accomplished.
Yippee.. now I have to go study for the theory exam tomorrow. But it feels like the "worst" is over.
I decided to do something drastic to my bedroom layout last night, and switched my study table 180 deg around to face the wall. So much for the feng shui tip of having my back against the wall so that I feel more secure. I forgot that by doing so I, who is ever so easily distracted, have more access to the rest of the room and it's no wonder I haven't been able to concentrate for the whole semester. And it took me 4 months to come up with that conclusion. Sheesh... Well, it seems that I have been just a bit more able to concentrate, but I don't know if it's because the exams are REALLY near by now.
As I was studying for my Animals and Society exam, I realised that I don't like Australia for a very silly reason - its seasons. Not that I have much complaints about it being too damn sunny and hot all year round, but why must it have its "winter" and "summer" topsy-turvy as compared to the rest of the world? It just takes me those extra few irritating seconds to think about just WHEN is it winter in Australia everytime I come across those notes in my book that states pasture growth and rainfall and thus the optimum periods of calving and lactating.. blah blah. To make it worse, Australia seems to be divided into three different climatic and agricultural zones... ranging from dry to wet weather. Why on earth is the country located in such an arkward spot?!?!?!
ARggghHH.... just one more day... I'm getting cranky and I don't wish to talk to anybody.....
Argh. Exams are here in less than a week, and I'm feeling rather unprepared for it. Unfortunately, that doesn't stop me from procrastinating. I wonder when it was that I picked up this bad habit. At CMU perhaps?
Not feeling in the best of health today. Went to bed at 2am, woke up at 4am to do throw up for some reason and couldn't sleep for long because I wanted to get an early start on revision today. Here I am, wasting my time blogging still. I discovered this wierd phenomena of doing all the things that I shouldn't be doing when I am at my busiest. When I'm studying for an exam, the million and one things I could do to occupy my time pops into my head at the most inconvenient times. But when holiday comes and I don't have to do any work, I'm bored to tears. Is that a normal human reaction?
Sigh. I should get back to studying. But my head can't cram everything in. It used to be able to in secondary school. Those were really the days that I can proudly say I memorise ALL my notes and was able to apply them where needed. Haha.. I was so proud of my history then. But one month later, all forgotten.
Let the exam period pass as quickly as possible.... but then comes the farm attachment! Buggerz.
Keeping my head in the right direction of the string quartet performance I was at, I peeked at the lady on my right, out of the corner of my eye. Couldn't really see what was causing all that noise.
But wait, was that the smell of chocolate? The rustling sound of the aluminium foil would make sense then. Not to mention the munching sound afterwards. But who on earth would eat a chocolate bar at a classical music concert? Indeed, before the concert had started, announcer had failed to mention "no eating and drinking" in addition to the usual "please switch off your handphones".
It didn't really bug me that much, since my mind was already wandering off to how I should plan my week for exam studying, even though I really ought to be paying attention to the quartet.. they are good.
Unfortunately for my hungry neighbour, there was a neurotic lady sitting just right in front of us. Her huge head was quite an annoying obstacle throughout the concert and I was forced to shift my position till I could see at least 2 out of the 4 performers. It's either that I'm really short, or the seats are just not designed properly. Eventually I decided to sacrifice my view of the cellist and the violist in order to be able to stare at the first violinist.
Anyway, so the neurotic lady got visibly upset by the rustling sound caused by the chocolate. How tiring it must be for her to turn her head round to glare at the lady on my right every time she touched the aluminium foil to break off a piece of chocolate! She must have done that every minute or so, for a quarter of the concert. The neurotic lady's body language showed how disturbed she was over such a small issue ( in my humble opinion). At one point of time she covered her right ear, and scrunched up her body as if to get away from the disturbance. And she turned back and hissed twice " Can you stop doing that !!!! ". When the concert eventually ended, I knew that she was definitely going to express her annoyance, and lo and behold, she did. "I really didn't think that it was necessary to bring food to a concert. It's really disturbing. Really not necessary at all " was what she said, with a disdainful look. I don't know who to feel sorry for... the eating lady ( perhaps she was really hungry and needed to eat something to prevent a gastric upset? ) or the neurotic woman ( she might develop neckache tomorrow), or ME! I just couldn't concentrate on what was in front of me when somebody keeps turning their head around, PLUS the fact that I was able to smell the chocolate breath from my neighbour?!
On the whole, I enjoyed the string quartet performance more than I expected. It made me realise how much I missed playing the violin, even though I never thought I would ever feel that way. My appreciation for the music tonight stem largely from imagining that I'm the first violinist playing all those notes. Sigh. Now I wish that I have the opportunity to continue violin lessons, but it's just impossible. I don't see the point of bringing my violin with me here to Perth because 1) I'm going to annoy my housemates A LOT and 2) there isn't any string ensemble or orchestra here in Murdoch. Unless I try to join the one at UWA since there is at least a music department within the university. 3) I really shouldn't be spending time on improving music... I should be reading more on animal-related information! Being overly practical, I just can't see how playing the violin would help me in my future career. It's just one of the million and one things that I hope to do, but probably won't.
And listening to the music tonight made me feel quite nostalgic. I started to remember the good (and bad) times in SYO, and also the period when I was taking lessons from Alexander Souptel (I just feel tickled when I remember he kept telling me to just get married with some guy and live happily ever after... despite that mcpish remark I know he means well), and all those mornings I always wake up to the sound of my eldest sister practising her violin. It made me miss my family. I still think that my eldest sister's violin playing is the best. :)
A million thanks to Kelvin for taking the following pictures! This photo was taken at our most recent prac session... where blood must be drawn at all cost! I'm sure never did anyone of us think that one day we will be so glad to see blood sloshing out of a living thing. Sigh. It's our survival or theirs.
The highlight of my day was watching the De-Lovely movie starring Kelvin Kline and Ashley Judd. Isn't that just lovely.
De-lovely was great... but I found the love relationship between the two main characters a wee bit too intense for me. So I heard that it was based on the true story of the American composer Cole Porter and his wife Linda Lee Porter? I find it hard to believe such a romance existed. How could Cole Porter unleash his undeniable bisexual preferences in such a disturbing manner? I squirmed in my seat each time they showed him having physical contact with yet another new guy. The first half of the film depicted his wife's unwavering devotion and trust in him, giving him the freedom to choose his actions, but I was already constantly anticipating the moment that she reaches her limit and leaves him. For I believe that it's impossible to give, and not expect anything in return... that no matter how sweet the beginning is, things will eventually turn sour. Is that being too cynical?
Anyway I really could not make up my mind on whether I think his wife was just being plain silly, or truly admirable. Perhaps she's the embodiment of the saying" behind every succesful man is a (what?) woman"... she helps him in his career, and cleverly knows when to release her reins on her man to keep him coming back to her ( despite all those flings.... urrrrgh) oops.. did I just make Cole Porter sound like his wife's horse? His wife's 'blind' devotion to him is truly what made the film a romantic one. What elements must a romantic film have? To me, there needs to be unbelievable devotion, sacrifices and possibly death at the end, separation, heartache, tears... it's no wonder that after watching years of movies like these, people start to believe that sadness and loneliness are all part and parcel of romance...that without the negative elements, something's... just not quite right. The more we strive to reach for the same type of relationship as depicted in movies, the greater the chance of setting ourselves up for despair and heartache due to unrealistic expectations. No?
Romantic films like this can bring about two kinds of emotions. One, it leaves u feeling hopeful that love is out there within your grasp and that it just simply isn't your time yet. Two, it results in loneliness from not experiencing the kind of relationship as depicted in the story. What happens if you encounter both emotions at the same time and you end up battling and wondering what it is that you truly feel? I think, that's when you end up with a very twisted-minded girl who doesn't know what she wants.
I'll like to share this quote that I found on the web...
"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes."
Ai ai, it's the last day of the semester tomorrow, and I'm still procrastinating over my assignment due then. :(
I went fundraising again today with Kelvin and Sharon.... by delivering the yellow pages to residential and industrial areas. Gosh. The last time we went delivering the white pages, we had the help of more people so the job was kinda easier, but this time I guess everybody was more concerned about studying with the upcoming exams, so less people were available for the job. Luckily, there were no mishaps. I remembered the last time another friend of ours was complaining about leery guys from the industrial areas when she walked in with the phone books alone. I commented then that perhaps she was too attractive to the workplace men ;P as for us, we just looked frustrated and dishevelled, with hair flying all over the place, so as if such a thing would happen to us! There was this guy who thought that I was selling some product though, so he "wrinkled up his nose" and shook his head apologetically when I walked up to him with the yellow pages. Funny. I wonder if he really knew that I was only trying to deliver the FREE bks.
But the area was still too big for us to cover in one afternoon! Arghhhh... and as a momento, I just discovered scratch marks over my forearm which must have developed due to our wonderful experience this afternoon. :(
I guess, looking on the bright side, it just means that we could now go to the half way day (the event we were raising funds for) with a clear conscience, and drink our full share of the alcohol we helped buy!!! (Yikes, beer, here we come....)
It was far much better than the SPCA in Singapore, just as I had expected. The version in singapore is crap, as agreed by most of the vet students I know. But why hasn't anybody done anything about it? Why can we only complain shitloads about how the SPCA in Singapore is way too small with a lousy administration unit? It doesn't seem like a situation that can be improved on. The fact that there are land constraints mean that SPCA probably isn't going to be able to expand the number of animals taken in. The last time I visited, there were less than 10 spots for dogs, and they looked miserable. According to Val, the dogs were fed a pathetic amount of food too, and they ate like there's no tomorrow. Ironically, this is true, since most of the dogs there are put down soon after. Seriously. Who would want to adopt a dog from such a poor environment? There is no indication to anyone interested in adopting a pet that these dogs are healthy, friendly and playful - assuming these are the usual qualities that people look for in a dog. Unlike here in Perth... there are rugs and toys in the kennels, and they are fed good quality dog food. Anyone walking by will be able to see dogs playing with their toys, and one's heart would melt when the dog walks up to the barrier with a ball in its mouth, wags its tail, and then drops the ball while looking at you with anticipation. Here, you can bring the dogs out for a short walk while you access their suitability for you as a pet. The cats here are also immaculately groomed and you can't help but wonder why they are abandoned by their owners. They do not look anything like the stray cats you tend to find in Singapore at all.
General idea is, Singaporeans need to buy less from pet shops and adopt more from animal shelters. But to achieve that, there has to be a shift in the mentality of Singaporeans who think that a 'bought' and brand new animal is better than an 'abandoned' one. Frankly in my opinion, if you're an irresponsible pet owner, no matter how good a pet is in term of its genes, it's still going to turn out misbehaved and unmanageable, and this increases the number of pets abandoned and thus continues the vicious cycle. Singaporeans need to be educated more in this aspect, and more publicity for the animal shelters ought to be carried out. I cannot think of any way to increase the number of animal lovers in Singapore though. More educational talks in primary and secondary schools might be able to target young minds. But the resistance of the older generation might prove to be a barrier to having what they deem as "worthless" animals around the house.
Unfortunately, nice as these ideas sound, there already are so many areas that needs to be improved... so when would animal welfare ever become an issue important enough to be noted by the general public?
I finally came up with the list of things that I would like to complete in this lifetime. Making up the list is no joke. I wasn't really planning to finish it, but because the activity itself is so addictive that after a while I was determined to list everything I can think of...
Now I'm going out to check out the RSPCA in perth!
The scene kind of unraveled in my bedroom where I was trying to hide a cardboard box under a pillow with a male friend of mine X, as a sort of serious prank. My mother came knocking on the door, and I panicked because I was afraid that she was going to find it. After making sure that it was securely hidden, I opened the door and she just handed me a cordless phone, her hands shaking, unable to disguise her anger. The call was for me. I took it, and heard a voice telling me that I have the right to remain silent... a few canoes had landed adrift to the beaches of China, and I'm being charged with the crime of letting that happen intentionally. I was speechless, as I didn't know what was happening, and I certainly wasn't responsible for the "crime". So I went to find X, and demanded an explanation from him. X confessed that he had been using me all along. I felt really, really betrayed. X then left. His younger brother, who for some reason was mute, was left alone with me. He brought out a big book where X had kept records of who in our canoeing class wore safety jackets and who didn't. Apparently he had been noticing who has been slack and careless enough in class in order to select a suitable target for his plan. In the end, he chose me, and my friend K. I was terribly angry with myself and at X. His brother continued to show me X's diary where he wrote how his plan worked at gaining my trust worked out perfectly. I couldn't take it any longer reading his diary, and went back to my room. X had removed the cardboard box in my absence. My table in my room was in a mess, and I didn't know what to do.
