Day #19: Write About A Lesson You've Learnt The Hard Way (30 Day Writing Challenge)

Okay this one involved financial reasons. Since I procrastinate a lot and tend to be quite ignorant, I totally forgot about paying my course fees for the first semester. So I ended up having to postpone the payment after the deadline of the payment had passed. I received the withdrawal notice and actually considered that maybe being withdrawn may not be such a bad thing after all. But of course, everything turned out to be okay and I was able to make the payment, which was on the 9th week of my semester.

Back then, when I attended school when I was younger, my parents took care of all the financial matters and everything for that matter. I had no idea how my school fees were paid; I just knew my parents handled it all. Now it dawned on me that I have to take charge now instead of relying on my parents. Of course, I only paid attention to the course I wanted to take up and did not consider the costs. I wish I had done a better and thorough research because now financial matters are going to haunt me all my life. But I guess this may be the intended lesson. To teach me to be more frugal and make sure that I am financially stable. Having debts is not a fun thing, that's for sure.

Haiz. This is probably the first post that makes me gloomy. Talking about finances really dampens my mood haha.

Day #18: Think of any word. Search it on google images. Write something inspired by the 11th image. (30 Day Writing Challenge)

Also known as my longest ever blog post title LOL.

I'm going straight to the topic. To be quite honest, B2ST's Shadow has been endlessly playing in my mind. Actually, it's Doojoon's echo that has been filling my mind haha. So the word I'm thinking of is 'shadow' and this is the 11th image.

(Source: Google images and gunnercooke.com)

Okay so now I guess I have to write a short story or something based on this picture? Okay then...

-

The sound of water dripping echoed through my ears. I clenched my eyes tight before slowly and carefully opening them as the sound grew more deafening each passing second. My vision gradually started to stabilize and I took in my unfamiliar surroundings. It was very dark. Despite not being able to see anything, the feeling of my spine tingling told me that I was trapped and in such great danger. I gulped nervously, the process slightly painful as my throat felt completely dry. My whole body started to shake involuntarily, my hands trembling uncontrollably. I tried to stand but failed as my legs felt numb and weak that I simple fell to the ground. The ground. The tiles felt soft and clean. Even in the darkness, I could see the white tiles glowing, flaunting its spotlessness. 

Suddenly, the sound of a door being opened was heard. I instantly whipped my head upwards. I did not hear any sound of a door knob being turned or the sound of a key being unlocked. Nothing. Everything seemed to be happening abruptly and I was given no time to prepare myself mentally. I simply watched helplessly as the door was opened fully and bright light blinded my vision. As a reflex, I covered my eyes partially with my hands, protecting myself from the bright light but not completely blocking my view from the new presence in the room. 

A long shadow appeared and my eyes dared to gaze upwards. My eyes widened as I saw a silhouette of a tall man with broad shoulders and sturdy frame. 

"You....you are..." I weakly uttered, my hands reaching up towards the figure. The unknown man did not react and simply watched as I gradually fade into unconsciousness yet again, oblivious and terrified to my upcoming fate. 

-

I felt that it sucks but I tried my best to make the story sound ominous. So yeah, I thought it's not a bad effort but it could be better.  

Day #17: A letter to someone, anyone (30 Day Writing Challenge)

To my darling KN...

When I first met you, I did not expect us to become such great friends and to grow so close in such a short time. At first, I thought you would just be one of my acquaintances whom I just don't get the opportunity to get close to and know more about. I am glad that you did not end up to become like. You've become one of my closest friends to the point where I always think of you first when I hear the word 'friends'. You are such an amazing and great and an irreplaceable friend. Like the Beyonce song :)

You light up my darkest days and you are always there for me whether it is during my happy or sad or angry times. You understand me mostly. Even when you don't, you try your best to understand me. You make everything less awkward with your presence alone and you just have that natural ability to lighten a mood or atmosphere. I really envy that.

I am so blessed to know someone as amazing as you in my life. You and I have similar interests but of course, you are much more knowledgeable and experienced than me. I wish you were my sister so bad.

You may changed and became more serious as time passes by as your life burdens have grown heavier. But knowing you, you'd definitely be able to trump all your life obstacles. I believe in you.

A kind and beautiful girl like you deserves the best in life.

Thank you for being my best friend and tolerating all my weirdness haha

From your dearest friend, your other half...Midori

Day #16: List 10 Songs That You're Loving Right Now (30 Day Writing Challenge)

In terms of music, I listen to all kinds of music. Okay let me rephrase that. I try to be open-minded to all kinds of music. The reason why I said that is cos I listen to songs of different languages, including those that I don't understand. The alien languages include Korean, Japanese, Chinese and Hindu.

Back then, when I was younger, I was very into anime. I was very into drawing as a result and would concoct my own stories with storylines that are akin to the anime that I watched. Then I would visualize how the opening and ending themes of my original anime would play out in my mind. I was very fascinated by anime back then. I could care less that I was ridiculed because of that. I had a hobby and it makes me happy. I'm not harming anyone and it's not anybody's business so who are others to condemn my hobby?

That aside, that mini-anecdote is meant to imply that I listened to plenty of Japanese songs back then, mainly those I knew from the anime that I had watched. Unfortunately, now I have sort of outgrew anime and manga so I hardly listen to any Jap songs. The good news is that I have been listening to a lot of Korean songs after getting into the Kpop craze. It's funny how I started listening to Korean songs after listening to a BigBang song 'Blue' from my friend's phone. It all just propelled from there. It's so amazing just by thinking about it.

Anyway, fast forward to now, I have a number of songs that I'm currently in love with right now. In no particular order (again ^^;), here they are:

1. Good Luck by B2ST

2. Shadow by B2ST

3. We Up by B2ST

4. 12:30 by B2ST

5. Sherlock by SHINee

6. View by SHINee

7. Everybody by SHINee

8. Crazy by Jonghyun ft. Iron

9. Beautiful Liar by VIXX LR (Leo and Ravi)

As you can obviously tell, I am currently in a B2ST and SHINee mood. Well they have really great and memorable songs that I can't help but be addicted. So I present you #10 which is totally in English :)

10. A Thousand Years (cover by Melissa Benoist and Jacob Artist from Glee)

This is a really great cover in the form of duet. The emotions flow really well both singers. No offense to the original singer, I prefer this version. I feel like I'm drowning in an overwhelming amount of feels when I hear this duet version. I've never thought that a song can touch me so deep.

Additional mention - All Of Me (cover by Darren Criss)

A Thousand Years isn't the only cover that's better than the original in my opinion. I love the lyrics in All Of Me. The lyrics are filled with contradictions which are relatable in a relationship, as I have learnt as a communications student.

 

Day #15: Post about your three celebrity crushes (30 Day Writing Challenge)

I am at my halfway point of this challenge. I'm totally proud of myself that I have been committed and am excited that I am actually going to successfully complete this challenge!

Moving on, I couldn't remember clearly but I'm pretty sure I've had my first experience of having a celebrity crush when I was 13 years old. It was during the period when Tumblr wasn't mainstream yet so at that time, I didn't use that social media website to find glamorous pictures of my favourite celebrity and reblog them. The funny thing is that, looking back, most of my celebrity crushes were douchebags, to put it crudely. And the funnier thing is that despite whatever horrible things that they had done that made me shake my head, I still clung to them and defended their actions. It was dumb, now thinking about it. They were quite problematic but I still stan them. I was such a weird person back then. Of course, back then, I doubt the word 'stan' was a popular word usage.

Fast forward till now, fortunately, I've carefully picked the people I've chosen to stan or support. Of course, they are not without faults, but hey not every human being is perfect right? I'll only use pseudonyms cos to be honest, I'm a bit shy to gush about people I like online publicly so I would be more comfortable doing that without photos and real names attached.

In no particular order, for now, my three celebrity crushes are SI, DY and JH. I'll also not be revealing their actual ages and races. But to start, all three of them are quite close in terms of age and they are all in their late 20s. And another trivia, I was into older men back then but now I've chosen to pay more attention to the younger people because it's more relatable that way.

Also, I've only started noticing all of them in the second half of the year.

To begin, I like SI because he is a very good speaker with an impressive English vocabulary and he incorporates uncommon English words into his daily speech which I admire. Not only that, he is extremely dedicated to his craft which is acting and he's quite grounded too. The best part about him is that he is quite well-informed about current affairs and his tastes in say, movies and music are quite classy. Also, I couldn't find a dirt about him so far, so I hope he maintains that. I get shy whenever I see his pictures cos he has this intense smolder which I just want him to stop lol I do sincerely hope he'll get far in his acting in a good way.

Next is DY. So this guy - he is super handsome and gorgeous but at the time, he's super dorky and knows how to liven the atmosphere. He's also super athletic and competitive. Oh and have I mentioned that he has this sharp jawline and basically, he has really good facial features and good proportions. Total dreamboat. Literally, I could stare at his pictures for long hours cos he's just that good-looking.

Last but not least is JH. To be honest, I really like his body. He has really broad shoulders and narrow hips - which automatically gives him a sexy aura, at least in my eyes. And when he starts dancing, WOW. But, his main talent isn't dancing, it is singing and boy, this man has a really wonderful voice. He can belt out high notes really well and the thing I really admire about him is that he gives his 110% in all of his performances. Even when he's clearly exhausted, he still gave it his all.

So, I notice that the male celebrities whom I attracted to are the manly and athletic ones. The mature ones as well. There was this brief period of time where I liked this guy who's the same as me but he's so problematic that I kept wondering why I kept clinging to him. He's so damn childish and basically has a lack of respect for people and women. Thank goodness I'm no longer attracted to him.

SO anyway, these are my three celebrity crushes :) If any of them rings a bell, well...no one's going to know their actual identities anyway...other than me of course :)

Day #14: Write about something for which you feel strongly (30 Day Writing Challenge)

There are quite a number of things in the world that I am quite puzzled about. And the thing that makes me the most puzzled and confused is human behaviours. Obviously, all human beings are different from each other. We all came from different places in the world and are brought up differently so we give different reactions to the same situations. And the thing I just don't get is why is it so difficult so display a simple act of kindness. I'm not talking about elaborate kind acts like helping a stranger to carry his or her heavy bags up a flight of stairs. I'm talking about the simple ones like simply pressing the lift door open. Of course, those are not the only examples.

Back when I was young, I read a number of books and it included reading about doing acts of kindness. Being a naive and simple-minded child, I thought that was the standard and that everyone was doing those acts. However, reality is much more different. Not everyone is all smiles and help willingly in real life. And that's just sad.

When I saw a person dropped his or her books on the floor, it is saddening to see nobody helping that person out. Even when the place is crowded with people. And now I suddenly remembered about 'diffusion of responsibility', which essentially means the more crowded it is, people become less responsible because they think have less accountability. This simply means if there is someone in distress, people around are less likely to help because they expect others to help that someone. But in a way, I could understand why some people are reluctant to help in such situations. Sometimes, we have good intentions when helping people but we are not always met favourably so it is quite a killjoy when we help someone in need of help and they brush off our help like it was unneeded.

Still, the world would be a nicer place if more people voluntarily help one another without asking for rewards in return.

Day #13: What are your goals for the next 30 days? (30 Day Writing Challenge)

Obviously, there are lots of things that I have and want to do. However, I tend to procrastinate by excessively using my phone. I am still terrifyingly addicted to my Iphone and still have not learnt my lesson yet. The time I wasted could have been used for something more productive. But, well the damage has already been done and I admit that people procrastinate sometimes. I just have to try to consciously have control over my actions and stop doing things that I don't like and should be avoiding.

That aside, to reiterate, I have many goals for the next 30 days but taking my busy schedule due to my university commitment and social life, I have to make realistic goals and limit them.

So here they are:

-First and foremost, I am going to be productive and work on my assignments as soon as I can. I can improve on this by not underestimating the time that needs to be spent on assignments and tests and exams preparations.

- I am going to do extensive research on my research paper and work on its draft. Since this is going to hold a high percentage of my module, I have to put in a lot of effort and take it seriously.

-I am going to finish reading at least 3 books in 30 days. Hopefully I can do that. It's so simple so I better work towards it and not underestimate it! And I have to keep in mind that I have set myself a 2015 reading challenge. My aim is 20 books and I have read 3 books so far.

-I an going to update my story that has been dormant since August this year. After updating at least 2 chapters, I am going to write drafts for the entire story in 30 days.

Can I achieve these goals? I am going to pray hard and believe and keep repeating these goals to my mind countless times till I remember it.

Day #12: Post your favourite movies that you never get tired of watching (30 Day Writing Challenge)

If you want to know anything about me, I love watching movies. Since young, I love to watch movies. Back when technology was less advanced and when Blu-rays have not existed yet, I depend on the local broadcasting stations to watch movies and I would diligently look at the tv guides every day to know what movies would be airing. On public holidays, since most people would not be working or go to school and would most likely be at home, there would be at least two movies being shown on those days. It was either watching movies on TV or buying CDs and DVDs to watch them. I used to be a huge fan of DVDs since DVDs would have those extra features and English subtitles. I can understand English, obviously since I have written quite a number of posts as evident from this blog. But, I tend to not capture what was spoken really well so I have to rely on subtitles to understand the dialogue being exchanged. Also, English subtitles also show how certain names are supposed to be spelt.

Okay, it seems as if I have been droning on and on and I guess I have to get straight to the point...but to me, such posts would be boring without some background story right? Haha anyway, I would not call myself a movie buff but I do watch a lot of movies. Enough to have a few personal favourites that I watch repeatedly from time to time and would never get bored of them.

In no particular order, here there are:

1. Enchanted

Enchanted is about a singing girl (Giselle) who is in search of her prince charming (Edward) and she actually founds him immediately after singing about him. On the way to her wedding, she is forcefully sent to the real world: New York City, where no happy endings exist (according to the witch). There, she meets a lawyer (Robert) and his daughter (Morgan) who takes her in. At first, Robert doesn't like Giselle because he finds her weird and overly optimistic. Soon, they start falling for each other and eventually they get a happy ending (since it's a Disney movie). 

This movie is definitely one of a kind. I mean, there is not many movies that have this crossover of real world and cartoon world with an enjoyable storyline and well-acted characters. The music from the movie is really nice to listen to and the dance numbers are really elaborate fun to watch. This movie introduced me to Amy Adams and Idina Menzel - both such great actresses who display great performances in this movie. I know Patrick Dempsey and James Marsden prior to movie. At that time, I only know Patrick Dempsey was from Grey's Anatomy but had never seen him act before while James Marsden was Cyclops from X-Men, a super serious guy so it was funny to see play the gullible and charming Prince Edward.

2. The Blind Side

Based on a true story, this movie is about an African-American boy named Michael Oher who regularly switches his foster families because he had never felt attached to any of them. No one believed in him enough so he was always looked down upon. One night, a caring woman named Miss Tuohy took him in and raised Michael like her own son. She believed in Michael a whole lot and he was soon able to play football professionally. 

I really love this movie because it shows how a little bit of trust and plenty of concern would change people's lives, both to the person receiving it and giving it. And the results are amazing. This movie shows how kind acts manages to successfully turn a person's life around for the better. It shows that there are indeed people with generous hearts in this world and it is incredibly heartwarming to see these kind behaviours being displayed.

3. Toy Story 3

Toy Story 2 is the first ever animated film that I have ever watched and it was my all-time favourite until Toy Story 3 came along. I still TS 2 of course but I believe the storyline in TS3 is much more interesting and more well-executed. TS3 continues to show Andy's toys still being in Andy's room even when the latter is going to college soon. Simply put, Andy has outgrown playing with toys so he left them all in a huge box while selling off or throwing away his old toys. Woody believes that Andy holds them all in high regard as Andy held on to him through all spring-cleaning and garage sales. Through some misunderstanding, Buzz and the others believed that Andy was going to throw them away so they escaped from the trash bag that confined them and went to Sunnyside (a childcare centre). But it turns out the place was a nightmare and soon, with much difficulty, they were all able to bring Woody back to Andy before he leaves for college.

This movie is really great and I really love the sequence of events that was being played out. They transit smoothly from one scene to another. Another thing that I have to commend is the three-dimensional villain. As such, I like this movie for the fact that it does not talk down to its audience, even when the demographic is mostly children. The prison break scene is my the greatest highlight of the movie for me. Spanish Buzz was random but I guess they had to make Buzz interesting.

4. Little Miss Sunshine

Last but not least, Little Miss Sunshine is about a dysfunctional family who goes on a 800-mile road trip from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Redondo Beach, California in order for Olive, the youngest member in the family to participate in the Little Miss Sunshine beauty contest. 

I love this movie because the movie is so heartwarming. It is such a great story where a dysfunctional family whose ties were so bad with each other discovers that they need each other during this trip. Aside from Olive, each of them had their own problems but in the end, they were there for each other at every step of the way. I think the greatest idea is having the family bus broken because it becomes a symbol for all of them to gather and work together in order to get the bus moving. 

All the movies I have mentioned I recommend. 

All images belong to their respective owners. I got them from google images to put it simply.

Day #11: Something you always think "What if..." about. (30 Day Writing Challenge)

Whenever I have time to think deeply, I would either think of what happened in the past or have my personal thoughts in general. The latter would often consist of my opinions on shows, people and issues. At times, I have a sudden burst of ideas about a story plot! I particularly love it when that happens because I could not wait to turn those thoughts into written form.

That aside, whenever I think about what happened in that past, for some situations, I thought of why I did not react a certain way and thought 'what if...I had reacted differently?' and to that question, 'would that have changed anything?'. I am a person who zones out, even when talking with other people. I have a hard time giving my undivided attention all the time so I only do so in situations where I have to be absolutely focused. Even so, I am an introvert so I have a limited time on how much time I am able to socialize before my battery eventually runs out and I have to recharge. So there are times where I wondered if I had been fully attentive back then, I would have been able made a better quip and shut the other person up. You see, there are times in the past where people uttered some incriminating comments towards me that I did not accept but I just tolerated because I did not want to escalate the issue and also could not come up with a smart comeback on time.

So, as a result, these particular memories would come rushing back to me from time to time and made me wish that I had snapped back at those people. That wish would grow so intense and strong that I automatically frown and even forgot about the music that I was listening to at that time, if I was listening at that time of reminiscing. But thinking about it, maybe giving some sort of comeback at them would indeed satisfy me, obviously the other party would not be feeling too happy about being sassed at and consequently, they would start blacklisting me and badmouthing me every time they got. And those situations happened when I was currently studying in school so I could not risk such saying such sassy comments without suffering some consequences like having people rolling their eyes at me and spreading slander about me. It would be a childish thing for them to do but it would become troublesome and irritating to me as time lets on. So, in a way, I'm glad that I didn't lose my composure but at the same time, I still wondered what would be the consequence if I had stood up for myself.

Day #10: Post five things that you make you laugh-out-loud (30 Day Writing Challenge)

One thing about me - I laugh easily. From the right jokes of course. On top of my head, I can't readily name all of the things that made me laugh. I would obviously miss out on some of the most epic jokes known to mankind. So, here are the funny things that made me laugh out loud recently :)

In no particular order...

1. SHINee Hug from Oppas

It's just hilarious how the little girls hugged Onew, Taemin and Jonghyun in that order, leaving poor Minho alone. One would think Minho would get hugged first since he's the visual of the group, so he's supposed to be the most eye-catching person to anyone new to the group. Then the next girl was asked to hug her favourite oppa and she went to hug Onew! Shocked by the girl's choice, Minho was left frozen and when he was shook by the other guys, it seemed as if his soul left his body (funniest part). Finally, the last girl hugged Minho and the latter carried her and spun her around multiple times. It did seem as if Minho was more excited about the hug than the girl herself. LOL.

2. Troublemaker ft. Doojoon

This is one of my personal favourites. I've recently become a fan of B2ST and Doojoon is quick to cement himself as my bias from that group. And here, he's presenting as someone who's totally enthusiastic about performing the Troublemaker song, more so than the actual performers themselves. At the start, when Doojoon was shaking his hips in sync with the beat, that was hilarious and sexy at the same time. Doojoon really brought a lot of laughs from his impromptu Troublemaker 'cover' of his. 

3. NTU lecturer feedback

This is a classic. As an undergraduate now, I can totally relate to the environment in universities and classrooms. What more the life of an undergraduate with lengthy lectures and tests and examinations to intensively study for. And the most relatable one is having lecturers or professors with a very distinct sense of humour and quirky nature. Of course, it is the smartass students who help bring up this entertaining personalities of our lecturers and professors :) But the lecturers' and professors' reactions - those are the epic ones that bring out the loud laughs! :)

4. One of Ramsay's funny moments during Masterchef US

Chef Gordon Ramsay has a reputation of being frank and crude with his comments. As in he seriously has no filter and does not mince his words. Usually. Until he met a contestant who presented a meal that is one of his personal favourites as it reminds him of home. So I just find it funny that Gordon actually went for more of the sausage roll because it tasted so delicious and fulfilling. Kudos to the contestant for bringing out this side of Gordon. :)

And just any Honest Trailer, really. But I think the funniest Honest Trailer is this one...

5. Honest Trailer: The Walking Dead

Honest Trailers can be so on point, really. And the one for TWD is no different. Having watched TWD until its 4th season, I was able to catch on on all the references presented in the trailer and had such a good laugh out of it too! The funniest part of the trailer is the 'Starring..' part because some of the things pointed out were things I believe only the most attentive person would pick up on themselves. 

Day #9: Something that you miss (30 Day Writing Challenge)

I am born from the 90's. Back then, life is so much fun. From television shows to games to making friends to school, everything is exciting to me. I miss it. I miss the time when technology was not so advanced and when my area was only a small population. Now, technology has become very much involved in all of our lives and my area has become very congested with a lot of people. 

Since there is not Internet back then, life was very mysterious back then. Everything seems to be a first experience, as in there is little amount of people who you can ask in order for you to better prepare yourself for something like your first theme park experience and your first restaurant experience. When contacting with friends, it was either through phone which is calling or texting (where you have to pay monthly) and the occasional meet-ups. When finding entertainment, we switch on the television and change channels to see what's good or we would just watch a movie from a DVD or CD. We spend our spare time reading books or painting or drawing or whatever our hobbies are. You can life was simple back then.

But now, life is very much different from back then. As I grow into an adult, there are more responsibilities to shoulder and more pressing issues that we are now in charge of like study loans. There are more residents staying here compared than before and it has become so congested that it has become more suffocating to live in, what with the crowded buses and trains. And now there is a problem of addiction to technology like smartphones and computers. Don't get me started on the lack of face-to-face interactions between people who meet each other directly now. Yes, being connected is good but sometimes it can be a bit destructive and it strains on familial ties. 

So yes, I miss it when life was simple and there were hardly no worries. Just have fun and don't worry about the future. 

Day #8: Bullet-point your whole day (30 Day Writing Challenge)

I think so far my day today was eventful. Like all days, it passed by really quickly. And of course, I'm happy that the day ends without any major setback or unfortunate incident. Such things like health and safety are grossly underestimated these days.

So today...
-12am - 2am - Still working on powerpoint presentation from the previous day for that day itself. It is an individual presentation and even though I have a fear of presenting, I still think that I can perform my best if I do things to the best of my ability.
-2am - 6.15 am - Sleep. Used phone to read fanfics before falling asleep again. Woke up with difficulty, which always happens whenever I sleep late. Prayed then fell asleep again. I was supposed to contribute to my group's literature review in the morning but I was tired so I slept but not after creating an alarm clock.
-8.54 am - Woke up. Somehow slept thru the alarm clock
-9.15 am - 10.15am - At home. Had a painful stomach ache. Had breakfast. Drank hot milo. Did a trial run of my presentation to my mom who had a good impression of it.
-10.15 am - 11.15am- Journey to school. First time in a long time I headed to sch without listening to music and it was a peaceful experience
-11.15am - 11.30am - Went to the library to work on literature review but most of the time was used on booting up the laptop and waiting for files to load
-11.30 am - 12pm- Headed to the classroom. It was very crowded and I had to wait for the second lift to go up since the first lift was fully packed. Before lessons started, we asked questions to our professor about our presentation and some qns regarding our assignments
-12pm - 1.30 pm - Did a role play on a chapter that we are learning that day and it was quite fun! After that, did our presentation. I think I fidgeted a lot during mine but I think it all worked out in the end! :)
-1.30pm - 3.30 pm- Break time. Ate and drank. Fiddled with the com. Other than that, I can't rmb what I did.
-3.30pm- 5pm - Next lesson start. Suddenly lecture is easier to follow when using a laptop.
-5pm- 6.15pm - Journey to the Home
-6.15pm - 6.35pm- Rested in bed. Left shoulder ached. Watched some videos on Youtube. In the mood to watch documentaries
-6.35pm - 6.50pm - Wanted to stay on bed a little longer but decided against it and went to shower instead
-7.33pm - 9pm - Ate dinner which includes rice and ice cream (not eaten at the same time!) with FN orange while watching Jurassic World and The Blind Side- my favourite movies! My parents watched with me and enjoyed them as much as me
-9pm - 11.40pm - Prayed. Watched some videos. Edited my group assignment. Finally submitted it 19 minutes before deadline. And currently working on my writing challenge. Mental note: Always do things of high urgency and priority early. But as always, I think I'm going to continue to stubbornly forget. But I shall look at the bright side and continue to improve myself!

Day #7: What three lessons do you want children to learn from you? (30 Day Writing Challenge)

When we are all young, we tend to learn some lessons the hard and painful way. Sometimes, it takes a long time to realize that we have been doing something wrong or adopting the wrong attitude and no one in our lives actually help us to address them. In short, we tend to learn some lessons by ourselves and by the time we learn those lessons, we already lose something valuable like time or friendships.

Of course, there is an unlimited things that children can learn, but here are the three lessons that I want children to learn from me:

1) It is perfectly fine to make mistakes.

Some parents tend to be quite strict on their children and some of them tend to punish their children when they do something the parents believe are incorrect. For example, when a child makes too many mistakes in their homework or has difficulty trying to speak eloquently, their parents tend to be quite hard on them and scold them for their excessive mistakes and slowness in grasping knowledge.

I believe punishment is not the right way to teach children to learn from their mistakes. Parents may not be fully aware of this but when young children are dealt with harsh punishments, it actually affects them psychologically and mentally. Children may develop insecurities about themselves that they are not good enough due to not meeting their parents' high expectations and fear about making mistakes.

To me, it is the attitude towards those mistakes that matters. Children should be taught that life is a lifelong learning experience and that mistakes help us improve on ourselves. Mistakes do not define them, neither do they attach a stigma to their very being.

Everyone makes mistakes. There is no such thing as a perfect and flawless human being. As a helpful and concerned community, we help each other out by pointing out each other's mistakes and always allow a huge room for improvement.

2) Ignore your haters.

Unfortunately, everyone has haters - that is people who totally dislike you for who you are. Not everything that you do is going to be well-received by everyone. As you present yourself to more and more people, your likelihood to have haters is going to increase and there is no stopping the number of haters.

What you can do is to embrace all the positive comments and ignore your haters. It is a simple thing to advise but it is rather difficult to execute especially when the hatred towards you is on such an unimaginable level. Sometimes, it is as if your haters are so deeply affected by your actions and attitudes that they just cannot seem to erase you from their memories. It is as if they are in love with you but are too proud to admit it. You don't have to change yourself for these haters if you think what you are doing is you being true to yourself. Change only for yourself, not others.

Haters simply do not have the right to tell you how to live your life.

3) Always look at the bright side.

It is really hard to maintain positivity when you facing so many obstacles in life. Even if the good things in life are too few to count, be grateful that you have them and appreciate them for the happiness they give you. Of course, when you focus on only positive things, I do not mean only focus on them and ignore the negative sides of your life. At time, these sources of negativity are temporary and sometimes serve as tests to achieve positivity. So, always persevere and aim for ultimate happiness!

Day #6: What are you excited about? (30 Day Writing Challenge)

What am I excited about? This writing challenge of course! I have a strong feeling that it is going to go very well and that I'll say committed throughout the entire 30 days! And I will definitely improve my writing stamina and my fear to write will diminish eventually that I'll always be raring to write!

Another thing that I am excited about is writing out stories. I have a lot of ideas roaming in my mind lately and I really can't wait to express them through an organized story. And of course, I can't wait to see people's opinions about it!

Day #5: What are your top three pet peeves? (30 Day Writing Challenge)

Everyone has pet peeves. Sometimes, we don't realize when something irritates us because it happens so naturally. Usually, it's other people who notice them and tell us. Then after that, our pet peeves become more apparent to us.

For me, my top three pet peeves is reading a piece of writing that is rife with spelling and grammatical errors, when people arrive later than planned and when I can't find my hair tie.

I love to read fanfictions. I don't think there's a day that goes by where I don't read at least one piece of fanfiction. But, the thing about fanfictions is that not everything is going to meet your expectations. There is plot development, characterizations and the thing that bothers me the most: excessive spelling and grammatical errors. I know some writers do not have English as their first language which is why they struggle with writing English. They are so determined to share their writing even if their English isn't up to par. I try to understand that but it still bothers me whenever I read a piece of writing with so many spelling and grammatical mistakes that I feel like slamming my head on the table to ease my suffering. It's just that I wish more people would take advantage of the spell check function or at least have someone else with a better command of English proofread their work. Most of the time, I'm pretty patient so if the story is really interesting to me, I would close one eye on the poor command of English.

I like to think myself as a pretty patient person but I admit I explode when people arrive later than planned. The thing that irritates me more is when said people lie about being on the way when they have not left their house yet! If they are late by a mere 10 minutes, I find that that's okay. But if it's to the point where it exceeds a half an hour, I would flare up and throw a tantrum.

My third pet peeve may seem trivial but you don't know how not being able to find my hair tie irritates me so much. Of course I blame myself for not placing the hair time at the same place every time I take it out so that I won't have to waste my time searching for it. Still, it's hard to adhere to that since as human beings, we are lazy. We just place our stuff at whatever place we are at that time and then get annoyed when we can't find them when it's obviously our fault. lol

Day #4: Write something that someone told you about yourself that you never forgot (30 Day Writing Challenge)

There are plenty of things that people told me about myself that stay in my mind forever and some of them get triggered randomly. I'll only discuss two of them aha ^^;

Firstly, my brother always make a comment about my 'artist of the month', meaning the celebrity who I'm obsessed with for that time. The thing about me is that I have too many celebrity crushes and I get them easily too. When I have a person to obsess over, whether the person is fictional or real, I'll devote an insane amount of time researching about that person and social media websites like tumblr, twitter, instagram and facebook help with the obsession. If the person is hugely popular, it's going to be a breeze and relaxing. But usually that's not the case for me. Usually, the person who I have a crush of tend to be one who does not have that much of a huge following. And I like it that way. It's uncommon for me to obsess over the most popular group member, for example. So I get happy when I become a fan of a person because I can occupy my time with watching videos of them or reblogging Tumblr posts of them. Sometimes, reading fanfictions about them and writing about them too. It's just sometimes I get self-conscious to show my celebrity crush because I know my brother is going to tease me about it. I'm never completely committed to a single person haha. That's why I admire people who are devoted fans of some celebrities for years. I just think it's amazing.

Another comment that someone made about me that I could instantly recall when I read the prompt is what my teacher said about me. I'm not sure if this happens to all schools but in my secondary school, at the end of the year, we have to file in all our assignments, test and examination papers neatly with a filled content page and hand in. I pride myself as a conscientious student who writes down the dates of all the assignments done and I am particular about the organisation whenever I file something. So I did just that and handed in my Maths file. And when I placed it on the teacher's desk, my teacher smiled at me and told me that she was pleasant surprised that I was neat person after seeing how neatly stacked my file was, I guess. I was definitely shocked when I heard that but I hid that well and simply thanked her. To think that there were people who actually thought that I was a messy and disorganized person! I guess it just means that I don't display my inner self well to others.

Day #3: Share something that you struggle with (30 Day Writing Challenge)

I think I have more or less mentioned one of the things that I struggle with in my previous post.

Even though I say that I love to write, and I really do (lol), it doesn't mean that I don't experience difficulty whenever I want to write. For me, since I was young, I am scared to make mistakes even though I've heard the saying 'learning from your mistakes' countless times, it's very hard to heed those words of wisdom when you're actually doing it.

Currently, I have two fanfiction stories: one published since 2013 and another from 2 months ago. Not to mention I have like at least 4 story ideas right now. I think for every writer, once you have the plot in your head, it's wise to quickly jot them down before you completely forget about it. The thing is, I think most people have the false belief that writers magically vomit out the whole story from the first page to the last page in one sitting. That's definitely not true! Writers experience loss of inspiration from time to time and it's quite hard to sustain the excitement for the story felt in the beginning, especially when you experience severe writers' block. Even though it's only a draft, I still feel reluctant to start writing cos I know that I'm going to make a number of mistakes on my first try and even though I know I'm going to edit it later on, I still feel afraid to write.

Also, writer's block can definitely be depressing that it's not even a joke. Your mind feels completely blank and it scares the heck out of you. It makes you feel as if you're worthless and doubtful of your writing ability. I know it may sound dramatic but I'm sure some writers can relate to what I'm saying. So, yeah, this is one of the things that I struggle with in life:writer's block.

Another thing that I struggle with is stage fright. It's really funny that I still experience stage fright even after acting in front of hundreds of people in a national play. I extremely dislike giving presentations where I have to speak in front of a lot of people. It's just that I dislike having the attention focused on me and my problem is that I tend to get nervous easily and as a result, unintentionally speed through my lines to get it over and done with as quickly as possible. I'm still trying to improve on that. For me, I can't present spontaneously. So, I always have to prepare myself mentally and come up with a script cos my mind tends to go completely blank when facing the audience.

Finally, another thing that I struggle with is waking up early in the morning everyday. Admittedly, I'm a lazy person by nature. Ever since I've gotten an Iphone, I've been lazing around more often and using my phone to do a lot of random stuff from watching videos to visiting certain websites and checking out some forums. Owning a smartphone can be completely destructive to your life and I'm not even kidding. Yeah so I'm trying to reduce my usage of my smartphone and spend more attention on my studies and focus on completing my assignments with the best of my ability and get amazing grades and make my parents proud.

I know that I cheated by giving two more things but hey, it feels really therapeutic to actually type out my problems. So, I'm thankful for this writing challenge. And, it has already been three days and I think I've been doing a great job so far!

Day #2: Put Some Words of Wisdom that Speak to You (30 Day Writing Challenge)

As of late,a lot of things speak to me, mainly the ones involving productivity and happiness. Most of the quotes are from the good quotes instagram account.

Among them are:

"Worrying is a waste of time. It doesn't change anything. It messes with your mind and steals your happiness."

"Train your mind to see the good in every situation."

I try to see the best in everything, as in always look at the bright side. It's useless to dwell over something negative, not to mention it wastes a lot of precious time. So I try to be optimistic and not be affected by negative comments and feelings.

"The littlest things in our lives - are the biggest blessings that we overlook. I'm thankful to be healthy, happy and well-fed."

THIS. People tend to take everything in granted, especially those who live in such good conditions from birth till now, without having to worry about a cozy home and daily meals. There are people who lack these two things. There are also those who do not have good terms with their own family from young. We are lucky to be happy, healthy and well-fed. We should not treat these privileges too lightly. 

"I'm a work in progress. I'm still under construction. Whichever mistakes I make today I pray I learn and grow from but I'll never give up."

"Instead of worrying about why someone doesn't love you - focus on why you aren't doing whatever it takes to make sure that you're happy."

"Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn."

This speaks volumes to me. I am a person with low confidence so I tend to procrastinate doing certain things because I fear making mistakes and making myself feel bad as a result. I expect myself to do everything right on my first try without ugly smears that reflect my mistakes. This is the reason why I delay writing out drafts for my stories. Obviously since it's a draft, I'm free to do as many mistakes as I let myself to do. It's always hard to carry out an advice. It's not easy. There are always insecurities inside that prevent yourself from trying to improve yourself. What if the advice doesn't work? What if we stay the same and become sad forever? Well, the thing about us is that we have to be brave and get out of our comfort zone. It's hard at first but slowly, we'll start to improve and become the new 'me' that we have always envisioned. 

Day #1: List 10 Things That Make You Really Happy (30 Day Writing Challenge)

From today, I'm going to try the 30 Day Writing Challenge in my blog in an effort to be more committed to writing. It's not easy to write. There are plenty of obstacles that come with it like fear and lack of confidence. Fear that the quality of the piece of writing is not going to be satisfying and beating yourself about it. Well, at least I tend to face these problems. Also, writing requires a lot of stamina. I tend to get mentally tired after writing for some time, leaving me almost brain-dead but I try to pull through regardless.

I easily got the challenge from googling it. However, I'm going to change some of the writing prompts cos I find some to be quite personal.

Anyway, let's proceed with the writing challenge ^^

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I don't know for anyone else but for me, it's hard to be happy these days. It's hard because there are university deadlines to meet and exams to prepare for. Not to mention, poor time management and procrastination would lead to delaying the assignment till the last minute which in turn leads to poor quality of work which consequently leads to dissatisfaction with oneself.

THAT ASIDE.

I'll start on listing 10 things that make me really happy since that is the point of this prompt lol

(1) Eating delicious food - To put it simply, I LOVE TO EAT. I appreciate food as long as they are edible to my standards and does not consist of excessive vegetables. I lighten up whenever I get the chance to eat delicious food. My favourite is Tom Yam noodles. Some people see food as a necessity. I see food as a privilege that we should not take for granted.

(2) Going out with family - Most of the time, whenever there is a chance, I go out with my family. The thing about going out with my family is that we can stay out for as long as we want and I just have to follow my parents' lead unless I have to take charge when it comes to situations where we have to navigate to a new place. My parents are not well-versed in technology so they don't know how to use the GPS well so they count on me to properly lead us to our destination and it makes me happy to be able to do something useful and helpful to my family.

(3) Spending quality time with close friends - This goes on without saying. Friends are the diamonds that sparkle during your every darkness. True friends are the ones who stick by you through thick and thing. True friends are the ones who have seen us in our best and worst. Having these kind of friends makes you stronger and want to try harder in life. I feel thankful for my friends! ^^

(4) Reading comments on my stories - Other than posting on a writing blog, I also publish stories in an another website. After I uploaded a chapter, I look forward to getting notifications about story comments. The hardship about being a freelance author is that readers tend to take your piece of writing that you spend hours and hours to perfect for granted. Most readers see you as a writing machine with no personal life. Even one sentence of a comment makes me happy. As long as it's not negative of course lol

(5) Accomplishing something - THIS so much. Having a sense of achievement makes me so happy such as successfully climbing to the summit of a hill and actually completing a thick novel. Accomplishing something raises my confidence levels and motivates me to do even more and better.

(6) Being productive - In this case, this applies to school matters. Actually completing my assignments on time with a decent quality of work makes me happy. Being productive also gives me a reason to rest and relax after spending so much effort completing an assignment.

(7) Buying new things - This should be self-explanatory haha

(8) Getting money - Money to spend on stuff. Who wouldn't be happy about receiving money?

(9) Listening to music while commuting - Thanks to the inventor of headphones, I am able to drown out the noise around me whenever I commute. And it makes me happy.

(10) Receiving gifts from others - Again, self-explanatory lol

Yay I manage to publish this before midnight (B2ST song lol) Anyway hopefully I can commit to this writing challenge!

Short Story #27: Dealing with Distractions

Ever since his parents had bought a new computer, Jack had been playing computer games non-stop. Literally, he would spend the whole day playing computer games. Everyday, he would wake up at 9 a.m., take his shower and have a quick breakfast before making a beeline for the computer located in the living room. Without realizing it, day had become night and it is time for bed. And the cycle would repeat.

Jack admitted to himself that he was crazy addicted. But the problem was that he just could not seem to break that unhealthy habit. As such, his addiction had cost him to perform badly in school. So, his parents had to step in.

One day when Jack got home, he was shocked to see the computer gone. In its place was a shelf filled with books - thick school textbooks that Jack had never touched. He later found out that his mother had kept the computer so that he would not spend too much time playing on it. Since he had no access to the computer, he spent his time finishing his homework and doing revision.

In just a few months without playing computer at all, his academic performance tremendously improved. He became the top pupil in his class at the end of the year. Everyone was shocked at the drastic improvement that even his teachers and the school principal praised him. When asked how he had managed to improve in such a short amount of time, Jack simply answered, "It's all thanks to my mother."

Short Story #26: Invitation

George could not wait to return home from school that day. The thing was...he had just received an invitation card from his classmate, Simon for the latter's twelfth birthday party. He was eager to share this exciting news to his mother.

Once he arrived home, he hastily toed his shoes off and ran excitedly to his mother as if he had not seen her for many years.

"W-What's the matter, George?" His mother nervously asked as she involuntarily took a step backward. She had not seen her son with a huge grin on his face since the time when he was about to score the final point for the tennis match against his own little sister.

Without sparing her a response, the enthusiastic boy shoved the birthday invitation card to his mother. She glanced between the card and her son who was giving her an expectant look. The twinkle in his eyes was so precious and his mother smiled at that since seeing her own son so happy was so rare these days. George was an introvert who had difficulty expressing his feelings to others so he always had this default gloomy face on his face. As such, he did not have many friends and his first crush unfortunately did not end well.

Patting her son on the head softly, she opened the card and gasped in surprise. "Wow, George! You've been invited to Simon's birthday party!"

George vigorously nodded his head and his Cheshire grin grew even wider. Laughing softly at that, she could not help but feel happy for her son. Since he had trouble making friends, he had never been invited into any birthday before. Not only was he invited to a birthday party, this occasion was actually to celebrate the birthday of the most popular student in the school. This would be an opportunity for George to mingle with other children his age and hopefully make some friends and in turn, hang out with them.

Praying silently, she hoped that this party would be the best thing that ever happened to her son's life.

Short Story #25: The Disappointing Meal...Or Not?

Looking around the restaurant, Lily's heart ached in jealousy as she watched people joyously conversing with each other while enjoying their meals. She wished she had similarly excited friends, not the gloomy ones sitting around her right now.

Why was it so hard to break into a smile, even if it was a fake one? Lily wondered. At least pretend to be happy since she was already treating them to a meal. And it was not like the meal was inexpensive. They were at the one of the most expensive restaurants at the town with a long waiting list to boot!

Lily's thoughts were briefly forgotten when a waiter arrived at their table with their piping hot meals. Trying to salivate on the spot, Lily suppressed the urge to instantly devour her food as the waiter carefully laid the plates on the table. Once the waiter smiled at them and told them to have a good meal, Lily thanked him before turning to her friends who had yet to crack a smile, even when facing directly a tempting feast before them.

"Come on, guys! Let's have an enjoyable meal together, shall we?" Lily faked a huge smile, hoping her two friends would comply but to no surprise, they just pretended not to hear and grabbed their utensils with a lack of enthusiasm.

Sensing that the situation would not magically change for the better, Lily smiled sadly and grabbed her own utensils before digging in to her large bowl of Tom Yam noodles. For a while, Lily had forgotten that she was in the company of a pair of depressed friends. She slurped her noodles noisily without a care in the world. The sensation of the hot food combined with the spiciness of the gravy filled her with utmost satisfaction. No doubt it was the most delicious meal that she had in a quite a long time!

In a matter of minutes, the bowl was empty, not even leaving a trace of soup left. Lily hummed in satisfaction before she turned her head up and gave a death glare to her two friends.

"Next time, don't ever rely on me to fix your relationship again!" Lily huffed before storming out of the restaurant. Another thing that ached her heart was seeing a couple kiss each other directly in front of her. She really needed to find a boyfriend soon!