Is she brilliant or what

“You let me in but then you slam my fingers in the door”–All love

By Ingrid Michaelson, the amazing singer song-writer who writes simple, sometimes funny, but always heartfelt lyrics with gorgeous melody.

Please…?

My body clock has gone haywire ever since the semester is done. It’s disgusting, really. Late nights spent working on projects are now replaced by late nights just trying to fall asleep. I need to get back to normal, acceptable sleeping time. To sleep at a decent hour so that I can get up at a decent hour.

I’ve always admired morning people, who by 5am are already up, out of the door, walking  in the park. and those who consistently wake up before the crack of dawn to do prayers and do productive stuff. 

Things that I’ve tried, but didn’t work:

1. Avoiding coffee during the day.

2. Getting myself physically spent, so that by night time I’m tired enough to hopefully ease into sleep. 

3. Read a boring book. 

4. Listen to slow music. 

5. Switched off the computer and shut out all lights at a decent hour.

Things that I have not tried:

1. Force myself to wake up and stay awake in the morning and throughout the day.

2. I’m not going to take sleeping pills, so forget that.

3. Avoid running late in the day. 

4. Stop thinking when trying to sleep.

I hope there’s some chance in number 1 , 3 and 4.

This blog is now kid-friendly

I was doing a little house-keeping for this blog recently and I came across a few posts that contained some expletives. These were  texts that I’ve cut and paste into the posts as excerpts. I didn’t black out the expletives. I’m really sorry about this. I’m happy to say that this blog is now curse-free and hopefully will stay so in the future. I intend to maintain an overall positive vibe for this blog.

Life lessons from tennis

1. It’s a mental game

The match is not over, until it is over. Some players manage to stage a comeback when they are just a few points away from losing a match, when it seems impossible to try to bounce back. Usually at this point, the crowd will go mad, things are intense after hours of exhausting play, and I’d imagine that it’d be hard to focus in such circumstances. Some players show expressions of their confidence fading away fast. Some manage to stay really focused mentally and get their act together to save the match. Top players have that mental tenacity and razor sharp focus.

Some players get irritated very easily and somehow that affected their concentration and their game eventually. It’s a pity, especially if it is a big event like a Grand Slam, and the player has every chance to win the game but partly because of his temper he sort of gave the match away.

It made me think, sometimes, of the things and situations in my life that I have ‘thrown away’ or didn’t fight for by losing my confidence, by losing perspective or by letting myself get too irritated or whatever.  It also made me think of the times in my life that I have fought for the things that matter. You and I both know which one we should do more of. 

I think people don’t get penalized for not winning or not succeeding, people get penalized for not trying hard enough, for giving up halfway. and people regret the things that they don’t try.

2. If you try one thing and it doesn’t work after numerous tries, try something else.

If a player is behind in a match playing his usual game, one thing he could do is try to do different shots, like come to the net more often, or try to play more agressive or whatever the situation calls for. You could almost see from a player’s expression that he’s actively thinking of something that could earn him winners or break his opponent. Well, at least the good players do this. They have many tricks up their sleeves and they know which one to use and when. 

Problems=Opportunities

1. How to stay out of trouble: Keep yourself or your people occupied

In order to make himslef more favourable to the Southern Chinese scholars who were still somewhat loyal to the previous Ming dysnasty, Emperor Kongxi of the Qing dynasty asked the Southern Chinese scholars to compile various writings, literary works and support their scholarly endeavours.  Hence, the scholars were too busy to think of rebellions against the Emperor. At the same time, a significant amount of scholarly works were made during Emperor Kongxi’s time. 

Side-note: The Asian Civilization Museum at Empress Place is having an exhibition on Emperor Kongxi until 14th of June 2009. The 1-hour guided tour of the gallery gives more interesting stories and juicy details behind key gallery showcases.  

2. Take negative elements and turn them into something great.

Avril Lavigne hates doing interviews. She once said she channeled her annoyances having to do boring interviews  into writing her songs, some of which became hits and earned her millions of dollars. 

Some people see problems as opportunities to make something better.

Adulthood: Just freaking deal with it

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How is reading similar to dying?

Reading is a necessarily solitary experience—like dying, everyone reads alone.

…..over the centuries readers have learned how to cultivate that solitude, how to grow it in the least hospitable environments.

-from In Defense of Readers by Mandy Brown

O sweet & beautiful Madani

A man asked the Prophet s.a.w about the Hour, saying “When will the Hour be?” The Prophet s.a.w said “What have you prepared for it?” The man said, “nothing, except that I love Allah & His Apostle”. The Prophet s.a.w then said, “you will be with those whom you love”.

bits and pieces

1. A classmate said this while presenting today: “Hello Anyone….I mean, hello everyone.”

2. Why do some tennis players like to do this when serving: ask for 3 or 4 balls, stare at them for a good 2-3 seconds, and then in the end only keep 2 balls and return the rest. If they need only 2 balls, why ask for 3 or 4? and why do they stare at the balls before choosing one?

3. The way trees and plants GLOW after the rain is truly amazing. Subhanallah.

4. When you hear the word make-up artist, what image do you have forming in your mind? Is it that of a middle aged, bespectacled man with fair hair and medium-large build? No? Neither do I. Interestingly, the make-up artist who won the Oscars this year basically fits the description above.

5. Saw a man wearing a dark green shirt with the words “Greening the world” holding a cigarette and smoked.