Taking action

So, i know i'm two whole months late in posting this, but i thought that the way in which Mr. Matthias Gelber phrased the message that he wanted to send was really apt and inspiring.

You don't have to take part in a flash mob, or stand for hours in a protest, to take action. Because, as he put it, it's all about individual action on the ground.

"We have control over our own lives. We have control over our own carbon footprint. What is your carbon footprint? What are you to doing to compensate it, to make it carbon neutral, and even more important to turn yourself into a massive carbon sink? If we were all to be massive carbon sinks, then we don’t need to worry anymore about the political decisions out there.

Turn yourself into a carbon sink.

Compensate your CO2 emissions.

Plant trees.

Lets all turn ourselves into carbon sinks in 2010 and make action happen that way."

In other words, go hug a tree. It's not cool to turn your head and shrug at the issue at climate change anymore. It is the culprit of so many disasters that has affected and taken so many, many lives -- it has now become a humanitarian issue.

Simple steps to reduce YOUR carbon footprint --

• going at 90 km/h instead of 110 km/h while you're on the highway

• using a coffee mug instead of disposable cups which can barely be recycled

• unplugging electronic devices such as TVs and media players, instead of letting it go into standby

• cut down on your electricity bill. Save money AND cut carbon emission

• decrease your meat consumption. Domestic animals belch methane, which retains 23 times more heat than CO2. That's global warming, my friends.
  

If 3.5 million people turn off their TV for an entire day, that's 3 MILLION pounds of carbon pollution cut.

Do you see now what you can do?

"We don't have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world."

- Howard Zinn

Sedikit demi sedikit, lama menjadi bukit.

How will you go about in taking up the challenge to fight climate change today?

PS22 Chorus -- Empire State of Mind

The PS22 Chorus' take on the song Empire State of Mind by Jay-Z & Alicia Keys.

I already had this song on repeat, but these kids just made me love the song even more. See the way they lose themselves in the music as they sing -- there's something quite so enchanting about the way they harmonize with each other so spiritedly.

Absolute love!

CUP - Click to donate

So a few months back, Nicholas, amazing director of the Power of 10 Sen, told me about their plans for the launch of a new campaign, which naturally got everyone (read: me) excited.

Did you know that in Cambodia, 80 percent of the deaths that occur are attributed to water-borne diseases, such as cholera and dysentery? And the ones most vulnerable to this problem are none other than the children. 11 000 children die every year from diarrhea due to the lack of proper sanitation, and 25% of the deaths of children under 5 years old are due to the consumption of dirty water.

As one of the solutions to this predicament, Communities Unite for Purewater -- CUP -- has been launched. With every hit to their website, corporate sponsors donate 10 cents to the fund that has been set up, and the money is used to provide the people of Cambodia with access to clean water.

The illnesses caused by dirty water cause the children to lose focus on their education and instead take up jobs to earn money after their parents or relatives get affected by the situation. Inadequate education leaves the children with no means by which they can improve themselves, which creates a cycle of poverty.

See how one thing leads to another?

The concept that the Power of 10 Sen is based on is so simple, yet so astoundingly brilliant and effective. A previous campaign launched by the Power of 10 Sen, within the span of a little more than two months in 2009, raised nearly USD 50 000.

All with a contribution of 10 cents.

From each of you.

And this time it is so much easier, because all you have to do is click.

:)

Takin' a step back

"Often times we get caught up in trying to measure worth and analyzing every detail, every tiny piece of a situation that we forget to consider what those pieces can create. Things that look like worthless junk can in fact turn into smaller pieces of a picture that’s leading you to an ultimate happy ending/beginning."

And everything that seems so hopeless and futile and lost right now, is only one tiny part of the big picture. Sometimes we get too up close with certain things that we fail to see how it all contributes to THE bigger story.

But it's quite easy, really. All you have to do is

take a step back

and smile.

Let the Clutterflies free.

(source & inspiration)

Daily Encouragement

"Religious strife must be avoided at all cost; under no circumstance should it be allowed. People may hold different religious beliefs, but the bottom line is that we are all human beings. We all seek happiness and desire peace. Religion should bring people ...together. It should unite the potential for good in people's hearts toward benefiting society and humanity and creating a better future."
-Daisaku Ikeda-

Enough said.

Stargazers

“Pure logic is the ruin of the spirit.”

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

I believe that when we are born we are all essentially dreamers. We create dreams, and we carry hope, and we form ideals that we hold precariously in our hearts. We start off as visionaries, overflowing with bubbly anticipation and excitement, fully prepared to jump into the future and seize the skies with our bare hands. Somewhere along the way, however, some people lose it. Dreams fall apart into worn out pieces and ideals get crushed.

The world that we live in now demands that we conform to a set of rules that "adults" should live by. As it turns out, there are "rights" and "wrongs" in the cars we chose to drive, or the jobs we take, the words we say, and the things we do. Their cutting glance or scornful word will sear at you, and soon you find yourself letting go a little, simply to comply and to accomodate their expectations.

But really, who are these people to determine the validity of the choices you make? What gave them the right to place value on the way you chose to live your days? The very grounds with which they decide right and wrong is based on their views, their perceptions, their opinions, and there's no one who can truly say that they are "right". Not everything in life is just in black and white, and there is no right or wrong. Everything just is, and from my point of view, all you've got is right Now, so why not just enjoy the ride?

Don't be a burnt out star. Believe in your dreams, because you're the only one who can. There's nothing sadder than a person who loses his own ideals.

Be amazing because you can.

I believe in you.

Gratitude Journal : Loving Melbourne

So i landed in Melbourne on Friday afternoon. Prior to our departure from KL, all we had been hearing of the weather here was how ridiculously hot it was, even at night. As awesome as Awesome goes, however, a great thunderstorm hit on Thursday, and on Friday, it was 21 degrees C!

I love the weather right now. My brothers and i find it a tad bit too chilly, but everyone else just walks around in their dresses and shorts and tube tops enjoying it, because the weather right now is perfect. Can you imagine -- we're already feeling cold when it's 20 degrees, whereas during winter it could drop to as low as 0 degrees!

This is only our third day here, but we have had the amazing fortune to have met a few locals who took us to the city today :) so not only have we made new friends, we also had a few of the funniest tour guides show us around.

The best mindset to put into use is one of a tourist. I constantly find myself amused or intrigued by everything around me, from the random structures i come across in the city, to the street names and the people and performers they carry, to the road signs. I just love looking at each of the buildings and houses here, all so incredibly quaint. Absolute love! We should never let ourselves slide into a blindness that prevents us from seeing the beauty in everything around us.

~You have to ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste.~
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Always stay fresh, lovely people ♥

P.S : I almost forgot! Happy Chinese New Year, and Happy Valentine's!

Interesting facts (for laughs)

1. If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.

(Hardly seems worth it)

2. If you fart consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb.

(Now that's more like it)

3. A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes.

(In my next life I want to be a pig)

(How'd they figure this out, and why?)

4. Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.

(Still can't get over that pig thing)

(Don't try this at home...maybe at work?)

5. Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.

(Is that why Flipper was always smiling?)

(And pigs get 30-minute orgasms? Doesn't seem fair)

6. The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.

(Hmmmmmmmmm........)

7. Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people do.

(If you're ambidextrous do you split the difference?)

8. The ant can lift 50 times its own weight, can pull 30 times its own weight and always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.

(From drinking little bottles of...?)

(Did taxpayers pay for this research??)

9. Polar bears are left handed.

(Who knew....? Who cares? How'd they find out, did they ask them?)

10. The catfish has over 27,000 taste buds.

(What can be so tasty on the bottom of the pond?)

11. The flea can jump 350 times its body length.

It's like a human jumping the length of a football field.

(30 minutes...can you imagine?? And why pigs?)

12. A cockroach will live nine days without it's head, before it starves to death.

(Creepy)

13. The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male's head off.

(Honey, I'm home. What the....)

(Well, at least pigs get a break there...)

14. Some lions mate over 50 times a day.

(In my next life I still want to be a pig ... quality over quantity)

15. Butterflies taste with their feet.

(Oh, Geez) (That's almost as bad as catfish)

16. An ostrich's eye is bigger than it's brain.

(I know some people like that.)

17. Starfish don't have brains.

(I know some people like that too.)


The funny part is not so much from the facts, but the wise cracks.

Have an awesome day!

(source)

You Can't Help It

The key to my heart forgives and trusts.

The key to my heart has hope that is indestructible.

The key to my heart knows it will one day be found.

(source)

Daily Encouragement

From Daisaku Ikeda, the president of the Soka Gakkai International, a Buddhist network that aims at promoting peace, culture and education through personal transformation and social contribution. Awesome!

"Unless we live fully right now, not sometime in the future, true fulfillment in life will forever elude us. Rather than putting things off till the future, we should find meaning in life, thinking and doing what is most important right now, right where we are -- setting our hearts aflame and igniting our lives. Otherwise, we cannot lead an inspired existence."

One of what i constantly crave to be, other than Love, is to be Inspired. Inspired people see light in everything. Inspired people are passionate, and it doesn't matter in whatever, really, because what it all comes down to is this -- the moment that you become impassioned is the moment that you come to life.

Inspired people don't get bored, trapped in their own mind-constructed cages. They explore their environment for everything amazing that has yet to be experienced, and then they go ahead and experience it all.

Do lead inspired existences! After all, that's what we were all meant to do :)

Reminder to myself

Today, in complete innocence, I pulled on my one and only Beatles tee and walked out of my home, mind and spirit still very much asleep. Halfway throughout my class though, I got a well-timed awakening.

Call it an epiphany if you will, but I've been going through some down times recently, and very much needed some Awesome reaffirming in myself. Maybe it was the caffeine rush that helped boost this, but I am truly grateful to say that I (right Now) embody the spirit of Living In Every Now Moment.

This equates to what you have now, what you have been going through recently, all your rough patches, everything that didn't work out, all that you want, all that you cannot get -- it all constitutes your Now moment, and it is all perfect.

Because you're here now, and everything must have fallen into place perfectly.

Are we riding the same wave, here?

There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be.

• It's easy. •

Please do surround yourself with love today. ~

<3

Taking it easy

When i was younger, i had this circle of girlfriends who probably weren't the most sincere ones around. Yet they were the only friends i had, and i was terrified at the idea of them hating me. Paranoia struck when i'd see them talking amongst themselves. Fears would escalate should they shoot me a look out of the corner of their eyes, amidst the brushing shoulders and conspiratorial whispers. Then i would walk over, shoulders stiff with posed nonchalance, only to experience knotting insides when they would fall silent, staring at me with a challenging eye. Why are you coming here? What do you think you're doing?

Then i would go home, thoughts stretched out like tight covers, stifling and icy cold. I'd get so worried, it felt like my nerves were fried. Maybe i shouldn't have said that earlier. Maybe i shouldn't have made that joke. Maybe they're all bitching about me right now. Maybe they hate me.

What is wrong with me?

The only way i knew how to dealt with it was to confront them straight out -- probably not the wisest idea. I can only imagine how being asked "do you hate me?" or "do you find me annoying?" or something else to that effect, every day, could be so annoying.

I moved on to another school after that, to another circle of friends who didn't huddle up with hushed tones and cold eyes. They never fell silent when i walked near, and even if they did, i knew it was probably because they were playfully scheming for something in good nature. My insecure habits from before did trail into the present time then, and till today they still remind me of how i used to ask so earnestly, "Tell the truth okay... Do you hate me?"

In hindsight, the old friends were probably not insincere. The idea of them hating me was, after all, just an idea that grew into something that haunted my every thought, action and spoken word. It turned into a belief that was based on nothing but the workings of my frenzied mind. If i had just relaxed and been myself, everything would've been so much better. Less time spent being worried about whether or not people like me, more time spent HAVING FUN. Hello?

So, today's lesson can be summed up in a very apt post from Bushwalla's blog.

It's all in your mind :)

You don't have to pretend to be someone you are not. After all, your most amazing self surfaces when you are being yourself, and not who you THINK you should be. You, yourself, are awesome enough as it is. Why are you messing with the flow?

Chill out.