It's funny how life turns out, one event after another.
With all the ups and downs in life, look at who you are today.
There may be different people around you,
someone who helped you,
someone who hurt you,
someone who cheered you up,
someone who dissappointed you,
someone who understands you,
someone who judged you,
at different parts of your life.
But knowing that these different people will be there for you at any part of your life, bringing you warmth from different aspect, in different forms makes you realise, hey, my life wasn't that bad after all.
Looking back at yourself, seeing how these different people have an impact on your current personality and your interest, how they helped you form the person you are today, it only makes the heart feel thankful and brings a smile on your face. Yes, the process may had been as painful as hell, and it may still hurt, but the result is always worth wild.
So let's look forward for tomorrow, and be prepared for what it brings. As long as you know that you are always ready for it, be it good or bad, I'm ready..
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Friday, March 2, 2012
Coliseum Cafe
Coliseum Cafe, an authentic place to enjoy old school Hainanese dishes and western meal. The first step into this restaurant, time starts flowing back to 1921.
Not just the furnitures and settings around the restaurant was antique, even the captain and also waitresses here are quite aged. But don't you judge a book by it's cover, even though they may be in their oldies, but they know how to make your visit as enjoyable as possible.
The place is a bit smokey because they serve the best sizzling ever. The kitchen is still using firewood to cook the steaks that is served, that's one of the reason why they taste so damn awesome.
Fish
Chicken Turkey Ham..
Find this authentic place and enjoy your meal in a 1920s environment.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Put Down the Glass
a glass with some water in it.
He held it up for all to see & asked the students
“How much do you think this glass weighs?”
'50g!' ....
'100g!' ..... '125g'
..the students answered.
“I really don't know unless I weigh it,”
said the professor,
“but, my question is:
What would happen if I held it up like this
for a few minutes?”
'Nothing' …..the students said.
'Ok what would happen if I held it up like this for an hour?' the professor asked.
'Your arm would begin to ache' said one of the student.
“You're right, now what would happen
if I held it for a day?”
“Your arm could go numb, you might have severe muscle stress and paralysis and
have to go to hospital for sure!”
… ventured another student
& all the students laughed …
“Very good, But during all this,
did the weight of the glass change?”
asked the professor.
‘No’…. Was the answer.
“Then what caused the arm ache and
the muscle stress?”
The students were puzzled.
“What should I do now to come out of pain?”
asked professor again.
‘Put the glass down!’ said one of the students.
“Exactly!” said the professor.
Life's problems are something like this.
Hold it for a few minutes in your head and
they seem OK.
Think of them for a long time and
they begin to ache.
Hold it even longer and
they begin to paralyze you.
You will not be able to do anything.
It's important to think of the challenges or problems in your life,
but EVEN MORE IMPORTANT is to
‘PUT THEM DOWN’
at the end of every day before
You go to sleep.
That way, you are not stressed,
you wake up every day fresh and
strong and can handle any issue,
any challenge that comes your way!
I want to put down my glass, the problem is how?
Sunday, January 15, 2012
The Dragon Year of 2012
Had a great kick start of 2012.
*flashback*
31 December 2011, Tim came visiting me here in Kuala Lumpur, and it's new year's eve, what else can we do? Countdown..! Whee~~ Brought Tim all around Kuala Lumpur, the typical KLCC and KL Tower, and we walked around Petaling Street and Central Market, a place where you'll experience the vibes of life in KL.
Our countdown, hmm.. The tricky part.. We planned to have our countdown in Pavillion or Sungai Wang, the Golden Triangle. The place was packed with so many people that you could barely even move..!! (Thank god that we can still breathe) Everything is everywhere.. Local and foreign artists having their mini concerts in Sg Wang and the DJ was blasting at Pavillion. Seriously the place to be for countdowns.. Yet, Tim was feeling under the weather, hence we headed back to his hotel, Reggae Mansion.
Ok, I'm not trying to overrate this place, but this is seriously a place to stay if you are ever in KL and you would like to go on backpacking. It's simply a cozy place, worth every penny you paid, and it doesn't cost much. To be honest, when Tim told me that he will be staying at some backpacker place near Masjid Jamek, I was like gosh~ But this place is way out of my expectation. Recommended..!!
So now back to our countdown.. We headed back to Reggae Mansion and sat at the lobby. It was around 11-ish, was really worried about Tim as he was really feeling unwell. But lucky after resting at the lobby, Tim starts to feel better. Another point to add, this hotel has their own bar on the roof top which is only opened for inhouse guests ( +1 mark) and the hotel is located in between Dataran Merdeka and the Golden Triangle (+1 mark). Ya~ My point is that even though there was no crowd and no DJ blasting, we still get to enjoy the fireworks when the clock strikes 12. Happy New Year~!!
2012
A new chapter of my life. There are so many things I wish will come to an end along with 2011, and there are much more things to accomplish this year.
To start with, I had finished my finals for my masters, and pray to God I will be truly done with it (*fingers crossed*). The moment I stepped out of the examination hall on the 10 January 2012 at 12.08pm, a felt relieved, a happier person. I'm free...!! So now I will be a 'full time white collar' instead of a 'full time white collar cum. part time master student'. That I would say deserves an applause. *clap clap clap* ^^
Moving on, there are a lot of unhappy things, saddening events and disappointments which I will be leaving them to end along with 2011. I need to start fresh, start living my life as I should had, with a smile on my face everyday, not because I have to, but because I felt like it. We only live once, so make every moment count.
So, my new year's resolution. Hmm.. Had put a lot of thoughts in it.. So here goes
1) Graduate from my master
2) Travel more (who doesn't want to right? ^^)
3) Spend more time with my family and friends, making it up to all the time which was lost during last few years and of course my darling snowball
4) Fall in love again, with someone who worth every bit of it
5) Rotaract love~ "Reach Within to Embrace Humanity" --> "Peace Through Service"
6) Perform in my job
7) Finish reading my pile of books while it grows
8) Start to love my life, love every little tiny detail of it
9) To own a smile which comes from the heart
There, I think the list will grow as time passes~ Let it be, as long as it's getting better.. ^^
Here we go, 2012..~~
*flashback*
31 December 2011, Tim came visiting me here in Kuala Lumpur, and it's new year's eve, what else can we do? Countdown..! Whee~~ Brought Tim all around Kuala Lumpur, the typical KLCC and KL Tower, and we walked around Petaling Street and Central Market, a place where you'll experience the vibes of life in KL.
Our countdown, hmm.. The tricky part.. We planned to have our countdown in Pavillion or Sungai Wang, the Golden Triangle. The place was packed with so many people that you could barely even move..!! (Thank god that we can still breathe) Everything is everywhere.. Local and foreign artists having their mini concerts in Sg Wang and the DJ was blasting at Pavillion. Seriously the place to be for countdowns.. Yet, Tim was feeling under the weather, hence we headed back to his hotel, Reggae Mansion.
Ok, I'm not trying to overrate this place, but this is seriously a place to stay if you are ever in KL and you would like to go on backpacking. It's simply a cozy place, worth every penny you paid, and it doesn't cost much. To be honest, when Tim told me that he will be staying at some backpacker place near Masjid Jamek, I was like gosh~ But this place is way out of my expectation. Recommended..!!
So now back to our countdown.. We headed back to Reggae Mansion and sat at the lobby. It was around 11-ish, was really worried about Tim as he was really feeling unwell. But lucky after resting at the lobby, Tim starts to feel better. Another point to add, this hotel has their own bar on the roof top which is only opened for inhouse guests ( +1 mark) and the hotel is located in between Dataran Merdeka and the Golden Triangle (+1 mark). Ya~ My point is that even though there was no crowd and no DJ blasting, we still get to enjoy the fireworks when the clock strikes 12. Happy New Year~!!
2012
A new chapter of my life. There are so many things I wish will come to an end along with 2011, and there are much more things to accomplish this year.
To start with, I had finished my finals for my masters, and pray to God I will be truly done with it (*fingers crossed*). The moment I stepped out of the examination hall on the 10 January 2012 at 12.08pm, a felt relieved, a happier person. I'm free...!! So now I will be a 'full time white collar' instead of a 'full time white collar cum. part time master student'. That I would say deserves an applause. *clap clap clap* ^^
Moving on, there are a lot of unhappy things, saddening events and disappointments which I will be leaving them to end along with 2011. I need to start fresh, start living my life as I should had, with a smile on my face everyday, not because I have to, but because I felt like it. We only live once, so make every moment count.
So, my new year's resolution. Hmm.. Had put a lot of thoughts in it.. So here goes
1) Graduate from my master
2) Travel more (who doesn't want to right? ^^)
3) Spend more time with my family and friends, making it up to all the time which was lost during last few years and of course my darling snowball
4) Fall in love again, with someone who worth every bit of it
5) Rotaract love~ "Reach Within to Embrace Humanity" --> "Peace Through Service"
6) Perform in my job
7) Finish reading my pile of books while it grows
8) Start to love my life, love every little tiny detail of it
9) To own a smile which comes from the heart
There, I think the list will grow as time passes~ Let it be, as long as it's getting better.. ^^
Here we go, 2012..~~
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
再别康桥 by 徐志摩
轻轻的我走了，
正如我轻轻的来；
我轻轻的招手，
作别西天的云彩。
那河畔的金柳，
是夕阳中的新娘；
波光里的艳影，
在我的心头荡漾。
软泥上的青荇，
油油的在水底招摇；
在康河的柔波里，
我甘心做一条水草！
那榆荫下的一潭，
不是清泉,是天上虹,
揉碎在浮藻间，
沉淀着彩虹似的梦。
寻梦？撑一支长蒿，
向青草更青处漫溯，
满载一船星辉，
在星辉斑斓里放歌。
但我不能放歌，
悄悄是别离的笙箫；
夏虫也为我沉默，
沉默是今晚的康桥！
悄悄的我走了，
正如我悄悄的来；
我挥一挥衣袖，
不带走一片云彩。
正如我轻轻的来；
我轻轻的招手，
作别西天的云彩。
那河畔的金柳，
是夕阳中的新娘；
波光里的艳影，
在我的心头荡漾。
软泥上的青荇，
油油的在水底招摇；
在康河的柔波里，
我甘心做一条水草！
那榆荫下的一潭，
不是清泉,是天上虹,
揉碎在浮藻间，
沉淀着彩虹似的梦。
寻梦？撑一支长蒿，
向青草更青处漫溯，
满载一船星辉，
在星辉斑斓里放歌。
但我不能放歌，
悄悄是别离的笙箫；
夏虫也为我沉默，
沉默是今晚的康桥！
悄悄的我走了，
正如我悄悄的来；
我挥一挥衣袖，
不带走一片云彩。
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.
I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation.
Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out.
And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Thank you all very much.
Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out.
And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Thank you all very much.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
壹碗冰
Today my friends and I went wondering around SS2 looking for desserts after dinner. Then we came across a cute sign board, a shop called Iced Bowl.
We went in curiously to have a feel of the place. It's quite similar with Snow Flake. The place is cozy and relaxing, there is a nice touch of light green around.
After placing out orders, we sat down and after a small chat, our orders was ready.
They looked so delicious. Seriously can't wait to eat them. I personally like this place more, maybe it is because there was not too much crowd, meaning you will have space and you won't feel the pressure of people staring at you waiting for your seat. I guess that's what made the ice so much more mouth watering.
Love the place..~~
After placing out orders, we sat down and after a small chat, our orders was ready.
Love the place..~~
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)