Length & Width

My friend told me today she has no control of the length of her life, so she can only try her best to increase the width of life. It reminds me of this song the long distance run of life. I only found the Mandarin Chinese version in YouTube, but I know there is a Cantonese version too. The video quality is not very good because it is a really old song. Easily more than 20 years old. Anyway, I would like to share it here with you.

The lyric says everybody has the same starting point. When you were born, you are at your starting point, no matter whether you like it or not, no matter how difficult life and situations are, you have to start your journey of life. Everybody has the same ending point too. When you come to the end of your life, you have to stop, no matter how beautiful the scenary is, no matter how attached you are to this material world.

Our life is limited, but our capability is unlimited. Time has been wasted in self doubt, hesitation, worries, and fear. It is high time I gone out to experience to the full of life.

Purpose of Life

What is the purpose of life? In the animal world, the primary purpose of life is no doubt to ensure the survival of the species. Once that mission is accomplished, your value drops to zero. That's why you see in the insect world, some males will be eaten by the females after they mate, as the male has no more value to the species anymore.

How about humans? Of course the primary purpose is to ensure the survival of the species too! What do you think the reason behind all that 'pro-family' policies advocated by many governments around the world. Without enough young people, the survival of the nation will be at risk!

Well, other than that, the remaining purpose of life is just to experience life. Try that food you have always wanted to try but never, go to that place you have dreamt since a young kid. The list is endless. As I grow up, I realise that some of my dreams will never come true. Not because I won't be able to afford it in my life time, but because the opportunity is gone forever. Anita Mui is my teenager time goddess, I had always wanted to attend one of her live concerts. I did have the opportunity, but then I never thought that was something urgent. Now, she is gone. I will never be able to attend her live concert, no matter how much I am willing to pay.

I still remember vaguely a conversation in Home Alone 2 - Lost in New York. Kevin said to the lonely lady in Central park, he used to keep his pair of new shoes and seldom wore them. Then one day, when he wanted to wear that pair of shoes, they were too small for him to wear. See, if you have something now but you don't use it, it may become totally useless to you later.

Friends (朋友)

Some songs dedicated to all my dear friends, for their continuous support...

Songs to Share

Suddenly the urge to share some of my favourite songs. A morale booster :)

Aiming Higher

My last post may have made some worried about me. Don't worry, I am doing fine. I am just trying to aim a bit higher. Hui Fang always says "If you aim for the sky, even if you miss the sky, you will land on the roof". But then I always said to her "If you miss the sky, most probably you will miss the roof, and land right on the ground!" :D

Lady Elf had arisen from a simple sales person to director of sales, and soon to become Vice President, if he so wishes. That Elf has critised me for being unambitious for a long long time (from time that I can remember). Partially in response to his critism, partially feeling jealous to his great achievement, I now decide to aim higher too.

Tom says that whatever I do, I will lay down at least 3 layers of safety measures :) There is nothing wrong to play safe, but then sometimes too safe is a danger itself. Humans are bound to make mistakes. The more you do, the more mistakes you make. Sometimes the consequences are minor, sometimes you have to pay heavily for them. The safetest way of not making any mistakes is doing nothing. By doing nothing, it is the greatest danger ever.

Haha, I think I had better stop here before I confuse more people.

I accidentally changed my settings for comments, now it is back to normal. Anybody can leave me a comment now.

Ponder for Life

Today, my colleague just told me some great news. Four of my colleagues had been promoted in the recent promotion exercise. One promoted to Technical staff, one to senior engineer, and two from entry-level engineer to full engineers. Congratulations to them!!

But then at the same time, I realised I had kind of lagged behind. Many of my friends and colleagues had made great achievements both in their private life & at work. People getting married, starting a new family, buying house & car, getting to senior positions at work. After 7 long years with my current company, I am still at best a 2nd fiddle player. Not a single product that is in production. The joy of telling people that 'Oh, I designed that one' has never come upon me.

The other 'attempts' that I made to try to be 'successful' are not progressing, either. The passion in photography is dying. I picked up photography more seriously in 1997 with the purchase of my 1st SLR; 10 years later, I am still very much an amateur, if not beginnger. I am not making as much progress as someone who maybe just took up photography a year or two ago. One reason I know very well is my being stingy in investing time & money in it. Photography now is more of a frustration, rather than an enjoyment. The fire has come across a fire extingisher ;P

I tried microstock photography, thinking it might be a good avenue for me to share my 'prodcuts', so that they don't sit in my harddisk waiting for the crash time to come. It did give me some sense of fulfillment for a while. It was exciting to know people actually vote for your pictures with their money! Soon I realised again I am at best a 2nd class, if not 3rd or 4th or any other lower class, in the microstock community. I got excited if I can get more than 50 bucks a month, while others are talking about thousands. The contrast is big.

There are other attempts that unfortunately also failed terribly. To make things worse, I discovered there is a pattern in my failures. In other words, I always make the same mistakes, regardless what kind of attempts that I make. This is serious.

I seldom feel happy anymore. Nothing that can arose my interest or passion. The goddess of joy seems to have forgotten about me, or had been offended by me. Or, maybe God has answered my prayer for strength, wisdom & glory. He kindly gave me difficult tasks, laid down obstacles, to provide me the opportunity to gain the strength, the wisdom and glory.

I am feeling tired and lonely. The desire to return to my family is getting stronger and stronger everyday. A break from my daily routines.

A Singaporean motivation speaker, Adam Khoo, once said, you will be successful no matter what you do, as long as you are the best. How true it is! I am always the 2nd best, or 3rd, or lower. That makes me a perfect candidate to be an under-achiever :)

It is high time I pondered about my life and made changes. Hanging on to my unpromising job is not going to get me anywhere.

Life is a transient

Buddha said nothing is permanent. The only constant in universe is change. I had heard of these saying hundreds of times, but understanding these sayings is no easy task. Nothing in this world is permanent. Photography is to capture "the moment", make the transient in life eternal. Easy said than done.

I like to photography buildings, landmarks, statues, sculptures. Why? Because they are "permanent". They don't change from this minute to the next. But do they? Look at the Duomo in Milan. It has been standing for more than 6 centuries, but is it always the same? No, it has been in constant change. Change of the architectural style, from Gothic, to late Gothic, to even Baroque. Generations of builders left their mark on this monumental structure. Has that change stopped? No. Change is still happening every single day on this monumental structure.

Life is a transient. Don't worry about tomorrow, don't regret about yesterday, because today is always the most beautiful day. :D

幸福

中学的时候，李竟写了一篇名为<<幸福在山那边>>的文章，钟思明拿来在他教的几个班都读了一次。从此，总有一种幸福是在山的那边，可追，可永远追不到的感觉。

十多年后，当当初的少年郎已变成了大人样，才发现其实幸福就在你的身边。幸福就是当你拉着你心爱得人的手，慢步闲庭的时候；幸福就是当平淡无奇的风景在你的眼中也变成诱人美景的时候；幸福就是当再无聊的人在你的眼中也变成有趣的人的时候。

幸福不在山那边，幸福不在海那边，幸福就在你的身边。幸福可追，也可得到。遇到你的心上人，一颗心砰砰的跳，那是幸福在敲门；挽着恋人的手爬山涉水，再苦，再累，心中却是如喝了蜜糖一样，是甜甜的， 那是幸福来你家作客了。

幸福的人特别有冲劲，幸福的人特别有好运，因为他们有着不断的原动力， 要成功么？先找到那幸福的感觉吧！：D

Please drop by when you are free, my dear friend...朋友有空来坐坐

Feeling tired from work, from the radio, I heard this song by Jiang Yu-Heng 姜育恒 - Please drop by when you are free, my dear friend. Here I share with you all my friends this song. Do reserve some time from your busy schedule for your friends and family. They are the most important people in your life.