A Fine Line.....

For a moment the idea of a 'fine line' popped up in my head (another one of those random philosophical thoughts from me).

You see I was thinking that there's probably a fine line between being considerate to you and the fact of whether one cares or not about you.

Let's take an example, if a friend said "It's ok if you can't make it to my birthday dinner". On one side, your friend may be a very considerate and understanding person, knowing that you may have difficulties making to their dinner, but it's ok, they understand your hardship and they forgive you. However, on the other side of the ball, one may think that your friend do not really care whether you come or not. If they do care about you, that they will probably put more effort into asking you to go, persuading you to go, instead of the comment of which I put to the argument here.

sighh....but then I realise......this is probably related to the fact that......

There's a fine line between genuine and fake.
See another may argue that if you can feel that your friend made the comment above in a very genuine, honest way....hence it means they are a considerate person. On the other hand, if you didn't feel any honesty in their comment, you'll probably think they do not care whether you go to their party or not, thus the fact of whether you worth anything in their heart.

But the art of determining whether a person is genuine or not to you is not easy. I don't know at least for me it seems not. This is probably only because I know that I'm easy to fall for fake genuine acts or just that I'm too naive. You start to ask questions of whether one is genuine to you, one is truthful to you, one you can trust and rely on. I know this is all based on life experience and how much you have learnt in life.

But sometimes I just wish I can own a pair of glasses that will tell me whether a person has lied to me or not. I wish I can just tell whether its a lie or the truth straight away. Siggghh although life is not easy and that faith or trust may be lost along the way. But it's ok, I believe that honesty and truthfulness are still out there and that not everyone out there is trying to get you. And some are ready to be there for you for a lifetime.... : ) I still believe.

Rainbow Jello (click on image for reference site)

PS - I think I sound really lost here....but I really I do know what I'm trying to express here.
PPS - I guess tonight is another one of those philosophical night for me.....haha

歌曲分享: 半天假

Wow can't believe I haven't done a 歌曲分享 for 5 months now!!! Let me share one of my all time favourite 'heart sour' (心酸) song,
半天假 by 許志安 (Andy Hui).

Not too sure why, but I remember even since the first time I listened to the song....the first two lines of the song, its melody, is already caught in my head. I actually like the verses more than the chorus. Add on the lyrics of the song, it is simple and direct.

I just love the melody and the lyrics of the verses. Every time when I listen to the song, as soon as I get into the first two lines of the song, my heart will be filled with slight sour feeling. sighhh it's sad! But of course the lyrics in the chorus is actually more positive and encouraging. : )

To listen to the song you can click here.

Have a read of the lyrics below, you may or may not relate to it. Nonetheless we can all learn from it. And we all can be more '化'. : )

半天假
歌手: 許志安  作詞：歐志深　 作曲：雷頌德

和我戀過的每一個她  和每一扎長滿刺的花  
和每一吋戀愛的創疤  還有每次落淚像雨洒
害怕  怕又愛  愛後更害怕  最終孤單一個
為何定要花開不結果  誰人面對分開不痛楚

而每一次戀愛的痛楚  如要給我寶貴的一課
除過加過減過的結果  求到答案就是『別要拖』
聚過  過後散  散後再覓過  世間不只一個
抬頭面對分開不再躲  明白在世間最愛是我

* 聽聽呼吸聲  身心轉化  將一堆的她  放落熱茶
若是悶極了  對鏡說話  多麼的孤單  也不必怕
聽一聽心經  喝淡熱茶  閉上了眼睛  終於消化
放我半天假  若未太清醒  再放半天假

人覺差我不覺得太差  人要醒覺應要有點化
人太真看一看真太假  男女世界就像霧裡花
代價  有沒有  哪沒有代價  最多一些牽掛
流淚為了風中的碎沙  為何問我一個快樂嗎

Repeat *

And here's the original KTV of the song (now I'm interested in the movie this song has been added to)!!! : P

Wa!Wa!Wa! Back on NZ Radio.....!!! Yay!!!

September a month fill with joy and fun, which is my excuse for writing only ONE BLOG post in Sept! >.<"

Finally got some free time tonight and I can feel it's blog time again! : ) Originally I was going to write another one of those emotional post.

But just as I logged into Blogger, getting myself ready to to do some typing, I turned on the radio. To my surprise it was playing the 嘩！嘩！嘩！打到o黎！ jingle!!!!! \@.@/ and yes to my delight I hear the familiar voice of 吳君如!!! w00t! So the programme is back on NZ soil again!!! Immediately after listening to a few minutes into the programme and hearing the laughter of 三姑 makes me laugh straight away! : D hehehe Welcome back 三姑!!! : )

FYI:
Official website on Commercial Radio - 嘩！嘩！嘩！打到o黎！2008

Hmm....I was going to find the schedule of the radio programme in NZ here, but it seems that it's not on the official schedule list...so I'm not sure if this is a one off. But for the record, it was on at 11.30pm Friday for me on Chinese Voice NZ radio channel 95.8 FM. Hopefully it'll continue to be broadcast!!!!!

ps - I remember when the NZ Chinese Voice radio started at first, 嘩！嘩！嘩！打到o黎！ was the programme that I really listened to back then!!! Obviously back in the days it had 杜汶澤. So glad the programme is back now with 三姑!!!

PC Magazine: Tips for Better Computing

Have been reading the June 2008 issue of PC Magazine and it featured an article on "501 Tips for Better Computing". Just wanted to share and bookmark this article as it is available online too:

http://go.pcmag.com/tipsuperguide

Interestingly the number of tips on the page have now grown to 529 (at 1st Sept 2008) : P

A beautiful story from the 2008 Beijing Olympics

I gotta admit I am a "Sport Junkies", I enjoy watching most sports. If you ask me about Olympics, my mind will just sprung up with various images and stories and basically I can go on and on about it. : P (due to my sporty childhood background and one past dream of mine....another day to tell)

And of course I have been following the 2008 Beijing Olympics whenever possible. Here's one beautiful story that I will mark as one to remember for from this year's Olympics game:

Olympic hero loses life savings (an article from New Zealand Herald)

The main point I want to emphasize from this article is not about pitying the great Hayden Roulston about him losing his saving. The thing I want to emphasize lies on page 2 of the article, about the good deeds the "tight five" has done in supporting the athlete. It really does remind one that despite some of the cruelties in this world, there are still tremendous lot of love, benevolence, faith and trust amongst the people in this world. : ) Or in Chinese I would use the saying "人間有情"! Good on you Hayden Roulston for sticking to it and good on the "tight five" for doing the good deeds!!!

The NZ 2008 track cycling team in qualifying race (Sam Bewley, Westley Gough, Marc Ryan, and Jesse Sergent)

Hayden Roulston in one of his Olympics race

Images Reference: http://www.olympic.org.nz

JSTL Core Tag Library: case sensitivity and finding last element in forEach

Prelude:
Have been a really good girl recently after being moved into a new team at work! : P Working with newer technologies and finally getting to apply all the knowledge and details I studied from my Java SCWCD exam!!! Yip it feels pretty good and pretty practical too! : ) I already have noted down quite a few things that I have noted down to blog in the future. Meanwhile let me go back to the wonder world of the JSTL Core Tag Library first........

Case Sensitivity:

Actually this is related to using tags on a JSP page rather than just the core tag library. The case of the tags matter on a JSP page. For example:

If you use write on your page, the tag will not be recognised!
This is because the actual tag is defined as . So case sensitivity matters when using tag library.

forEach and Finding the Last Element in a Collection:
The tag has an attribute varStatus which allow you to obtain information such as the current index the loop is currently at. If you use varStatus.last, it will return true if the current index is the last element in the collection. For example:

<c:foreach var="current" items="${bean.collection}" varstatus="status">
${current.value}<c:if test="${not status.last}">,</c:if>
</c:foreach>

The above code will add comma to the end of every item in the collection EXCEPT for the last one. So the varStatus is actually very useful indeed. : P very handy!

Beijing Olympics Opening

Yeah after 4 years it's Olympics year again!!! Yes this time at Beijing as they said it's "One World One Dream" (realisation of hundred years dream).

Here's a little something I read from Gizmodo (ref: Gizmodo):
The Olympic Torch Transformed Over History



Personally my favourite is the one from torch Sydney (and I seen the real mock one in the Sydney Olympics ground too, it looks awesome)!!!!

Deep within the night.....a moment of sadness....

I finally stopped writing philosophical stuffs in my last few posts, but unfortunately, here it goes again : O .....it's another one of those random post that tries to be deep but probably does not make too much sense at all.....

Sometimes it's funny, you know during those late night hours when you are lying on bed, getting ready to go to sleep. Random pictures or images emerges from the past. All of a sudden your heart feels heavy. You think about the things you have lost or the things that have changed.....you sighed....and probably while you breathed, a slight pain is aching in your heart.....while the moments and images of the past flashes before your eyes.

It's funny, nothing happened today or of any significance at all that would led up to such thoughts at night. It's funny how these feelings just suddenly pops up, when you least expected and for no reasons at all. Life after all is a funny thing. hehe

I just listened to a song while writing this post, incidentally the "feel" of the song perfectly described the sort of night / mood I was trying to describe. (Luckily for me it's nothing related to the lyrics of the song, but it's sad lyrics tho!):
星期六的深夜 - 王力宏 (for lyrics click here)

Although it seems sad, but I just wanted to capture the feelings I have on the blog here. For the sake of remembrance. Life goes up and down. I'm sure I'll enjoy the up times more if I also remember the down times.

As for those who I've lost, I sincerely do hope you are doing well in whatever you are doing.
For those who I still have a hold to, remember to enjoy the present as each second flies past you, because I won't take anything for granted, including all usssss out there. : )

Picture ref: www.strapya-world.com/products/4175.html

IE "Friendly" Error Pages

A few days ago, I was trying to create a small error page for 404 error for testing. The funny thing was the page showed up in Firefox but NOT in IE. I was pretty sure I edited the section of my web.xml properly (yes I'm sure I remembered how to do it correction from my SCWCD!!!). I was VERY VERY CONFUSED!!! : (

Luckily one of my colleagues came across this problem before. Apparently on IE5 and IE6 if a 404 error is thrown and the error page is LESS THAN 512 bytes...IE will try to be smart and use it's OWN "friendly" error page! -.- Wait...this does happen on IE7 too...because I was using IE7!!! (And IE will be smart for any error codes I think...not just 404).

The resolution of this is very simple (yet lame), I increased the size of my error page using a comment block. Note, if the error page is a JSP file, you MUST USE HTML comment block to make this work. If you use JSP comment, IE will not recgonise it as increasing the size of the file.

For the official detail about this "feature":
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294807

Tomcat Root Context and Blank Page

Prelude:
Arggh have been bad and not updating the blog (while I have been busy with UK visa application...more abt that later...as well as taking on a new project at work recently). So there have been a lot of learning done over the past month or so! Anyway let me document one of my great (and painful) discovery that I have made during work over the past week or so!!! : O

Tomcat and its Root Context:
For the past few weeks or so I have been moved into a new project at work where I get to work with new technologies and some really talented senior people!!! It's exciting yet scary (coz I know I'll be doing crazy stuffs)!!!

Yip that's right, in fact, over the past weeks I have already got myself involved in the craziness as I had to poke around the SOURCE CODE of Jakarta Tomcat to see how it sets up its exception page!

Anyway after days of investigation I finally found out the why a root context is important!!!

• With a Root Context:
  A Root Context is the context that Tomcat serves when you type in http://localhost:8080/ (assuming tomcat is setup to use port 8080), i.e. context name is an empty String "".
  
  If you have a root context, not only will tomcat return the 'welcome page' when http://localhost:8080/ is requested. Also, if you request for a non-existing context e.g. http://localhost:8080/foobar, it will return you with a tomcat 404 exception page.
  
  
• Without a Root Context:
  However, if the tomcat server DOES NOT have a root context, the result is that not only will you get a blank page returned if you type in http://localhost:8080/. You will also get a blank page if you request for a non-existing context.

Now I finally realise the importance of having a root context. Not only does it affect the pages that get returned to the user but also if you want server-wide behaviour, you will need to edit the deployment descriptor (web.xml) inside the root context. For example, if you want all 404 exception to be redirected to an error page, you will need to define the tag inside the root context's web.xml. : )

I agree.....I really cannot stay put

Have been spending the last few months studying for the Java SCWCD 5.0 exam and I finally did it last Monday and passed "satisfactory"! : P Ok more about this one later once I have received my certificate!!!!!!

Anyway back to the MAIN POINT of this post...so after my exam I had about 1 week+ of rest (lol more like crazily indulging myself with "endless entertainment" and a lovely relaxing trip over the long weekend!!!)

But I really got to ADMIT that "I agree.....I really cannot stay put"!!! Yeah I really do agree that I am person that needs to be continuously ON THE MOVE!!! There were numerous times where I found myself having the feeling of 'wasting time / feel abnormally lazy' when engaging myself to my entertainment activities. I guess this is the POST-EXAM symptom where you feel weird that you are not reading / studying for something!!! However, further signs have showed that even though I am enjoying the entertainment (with no studying), my brain is always constantly moving, thinking up ideas on the next 'big successful goal I should aim towards', any tasks I need to do urgently, any that needs to be done soon!!! @.@ yip my brain just have to keep running all the time! haha : P (i guess this is where my motivation comes from)

Yes, I guess I truly am a person who is constantly moving, unable to stay put, both physically (as my friends said so) and mentally (see above : O)!

There's a reason to everything...

There's a reason to everything...seriously, I swear....there is, there is!!! : O

You see if a wise wise wise person tells me that "there's a reason for everything", I'll probably give them the "raise-up-eye-brow" look, half wondering about what they have just said. But many a times when I think back to the past, to actions leading up to an event, everything just CLICKS just like that. And you go 'ah hah', everything, every move, they suddenly all make so much sense.

The even more funny thing is you usually don't realise it until when you look back or reflect upon the event. All the prior unexpected actions leading up to the result suddenly fits perfectly into the picture.

Ok may be NOT EVERYTHING has a reason to it (I'm sure someone will bound to be able to think of some examples here). But I guess my main point is that I've always find it funny (in the interesting way) that when I look back on something, the sudden rush of realisation, how everything fits in together and that you are able to explain each step leading up to it. You know like the joy and sudden "clicks" you get when you solve a murder case (in TV or puzzle book or something). It's like 'wow' and you can't help to realise how life can just be so powerfully amazing! At least this is my thought anyway.

So just remember this when you are down / lost / wonder about something / questioning WHY WHY WHY:

"Things don't happen for no reason at all, there's a reason to everything"

You might say I'm too optimistic, but at least, this is what I believe in.
ps - I happened to find the above via a random web search (while trying to find appropriate images for my post). It's a very popular piglet's quote. It is very sweet indeed!!! (luv piglet!) And I think the above can be somewhat related to my post content...hehe : )

Text Images from: http://annieslittlefootprints.blogspot.com/2008/05/piglets-turn.html
Piglet Image from: http://www.poohfriends.com/piglet/modules.php?name=gallery2&g2_itemId=80

Hibernate - The Basics (Part 1)

Have been working on a new project recently, finally get to really deal with the basics of Hibernate. Here are two basic things that I've learnt so far:

1. The concept of "Persistent":
   My intention is to insert two new rows into a database table.
   

   Bean bean = new Bean("Hello");
   session.save(bean);
   
   bean.setName("Bye");
   session.save(bean);
   

   But this isn't going to work!!! With the first save action, it has already 'persisted' the bean. Hibernate remembers that you have already saved the bean, so with the second save action, it will think that you are trying to save the same bean and rather than something new that represents a new row.
   
   So in order to insert a second row into the table, I MUST create a new instance of Bean before I try calling the save action again.
   
   
2. The concept of "Dirty" data:
   Let's say I have already persisted a bean. I then update the bean and try to get the same type of bean from the database.
   

   Bean bean = new Bean("Hello");
   session.save(bean);
   
   bean.setName("Hi"); // updated the bean with new value
   Bean retrievedBean = getBeanFromDB(bean.getName());
   

   You would've think the "get" method will only execute a SELECT query. But WRONG! Hibernate is smart enough to realise that the bean that it persisted is dirty (i.e. its data has been updated). In the "get" method, Hibernate goes "ah oh...need to retrieve some Bean objects from the table. I know some data is dirty, I must write it to the DB first, so I can return the latest data back to the user".

歌曲分享: 可不可以

Another song I would like to share and to bring back your memory to (of course only if u are like me, one of those who grew up in the 90s in HK). Yes the days of the 四大天王 (The Four Heavenly Kings).

Today I would like to bring back the song 可不可以 by 劉德華 (Andy Lau). Recently this old classic has been flowing back to my mind every so often. haha Whenever this song is being played in my head, I can still see the the image of the 1990s 劉德華 singing this song in his "orange" jacket and singing the song to the audience with his very own "劉德華 style" (hah I wish I can find a picture of his orange jacket on the web, it should be the one he wore in the 1990 劲歌金曲 or in other HK awards ceremony).

Anyway, back to the song, this was probably one of my first favourite out of all the Andy Lau's songs. Lyrics is simple but sad and definitely very easy to remember (lol I can seriously verify this as I remembered I could sing most of this song off by heart back when I was still 7!!! haha).

I can't really say more about this song, it's just a lovely old classic in the HK pop history. Enjoy! : )

可不可以 - 劉德華
作曲：TONY TAM 作詞：簡寧 編曲：杜自持

黯然記起　那日黃昏
含著凝眼共妳分手
此時這刻　妳在何方
為何埋沒了柔情千縷

輾轉深秋　讓愛意再等候
只想妳又再與我再一起
儘管分開千里　仍然懷念妳
無奈冷風裡痛悲

如清風可告知　如天空可告知
懇請妳萬里送上我心事
曾寫的千句詩　萬個愛妳的字
交給妳可不可以
.......

To listen to just the song / view song lyrics:
http://www.imeem.com/iamtso/music/3LDraLBl/andy_lau_would_you_please/

The following is the ancient mv of this song (and back in the days when smoking was considered cool!!! 0_0 And you see a lot of Andy's style already visible back then in this video too!)

The Ultimate Dream Home Theatre

This article was featured on a common regular site that I read a while ago (which I forgot which one I was looking at...probably gizmodo!?) ! But I think I really need to add it to my blog, as I consider myself a lover of music and at times can be picky in sound and music quality.

So perhaps one day (in the near future) I might get something like this (wait I'll get something BETTER than this as we are talking about the future after all! : P hehe).

Meanwhile....we can all just dream on!!! : )

Jeremy Kipnis Amazing $6,000,000 Home Theater

P.S. - On a side note, actually NO I wouldn't pay so much money to create such an extravagance home theatre. I will just invest in something that fits my home with near top-notch sound quality and I'll be happy! : P
P.P.S. - I remember I was once told by my good friends...I'll get this for my next b'day! hehehe Yes time to go to bed again, drifting off into the far far away land....heheheh

Updating Java JRE with Daylight Savings Patches

Recently I had to update the daylight saving data on the Java JRE due to the recently NZ daylight saving changes. Updating the daylight saving changes wasn't as hard as I thought and the process went very smooth too! : )

Here's a quick summary of my findings and what I did:
The Java SE platform uses its own private repository of timezone data. Therefore patching your OS's timezone data will not update or change your Java's timezone data.

Inside the JRE the timezone data is maintained inside the folder: jre/lib/zi.

The list of timezone data version can be found in:
http://java.sun.com/javase/timezones/tzdata_versions.html

The easiest way to do it is by using the TZUpdater available from this page:
http://java.sun.com/javase/timezones

You can first run a test on the JRE to see what version of the timezone data it is using by (where tzupdaterXYZ.jar is the name of the TZUpdater jar):

java -jar tzupdaterXYZ.jar -t

In the printout you should be able to tell the version of data it is using.

Finally, to update the timezone just run the jar without the "t" flag. Run a test again to verify that the timezone data has been updated.

Viola your JRE timezone is now patched! Easy as that! : )

Reference:
http://java.sun.com/javase/timezones/DST_faq.html#tzupdater
http://java.sun.com/javase/timezones/

Java error: Unsupported major.minor version

If you see the following error popping up (or something similar):

Unsupported major.minor version 49.0

It means that the one of the classes you are using / referred to when running / compiling your source was previously compiled with a version of Java that is different to the one you are currently using on your machine. In particular version 49.0 is Java 5 while 48.0 is Java 1.4

For example the class was compiled against Java 5, but you are currently using Java 1.4. Obviously the best way to resolve is to change the version of Java you are using, or if you can recompile the class file in a different Java version.

Reference:
http://www.artima.com/forums/flat.jsp?forum=1&thread=108274
http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=722374&messageID=4165690

歌曲分享: 兄弟

Arggh haven't had a post about Music for a while now! So just to take a break from all the serious blog posts I had abt LIFE.....here's one for my passion for music!

You know there are some songs that will always make your heart feels "sour", some that will always make you happy. Well this is a song that will always put a grin on my face, lift my heart, boost up my energy level and make me jump up + down:

何韻詩 - 兄弟

Of course not only do I "nod" to the music; the lyrics I sincerely "nod" to it as well! : ) ROCKS ON!!! : P

不理上世　不顧下世  抬頭與你去立誓　互相關照這一世
不信命理　不靠上帝  時時有你作後衛　誰要別人來造勢

做什麼　一聲照辦　統統無計
有需要　７秒經已到齊
慾望的楷梯太大　即使我細
至少我於你　心裡面有位

不理上世　不顧下世　與你稱兄與道弟  情誼比親友更珍貴
不信命理　不靠上帝　原來信你最實惠　情人也未曾能代替

For link to the rest of the lyrics click here.

Here's a link to the song (if u don't have the song on your computer right now) and I hope it does the same for you too! : )

Summary of 2007: Accomplishments & Achievements

Here comes the 2nd part of my summary for 2007...accomplishments and achievements of the goals that I've set back in my 2007 resolutions post.

Lets see......

• Completed the Competent Communicator programme in Toastmasters (as blogged in this post) - woohoo, I"m a CC now!!!
  
  
• Completed my RX-93V SD Gundam! woohoo x 2!!! (as blogged in this post)
  
  
• I completed the SCJP 5 exam!!! woohoo x 3, I'm now a Sun Certified Java Programmer!!!
  (This I didn't blog abt...and I was meant to, so here goes a small paragraph on it)
  
  Getting back into the studying mood was tough, making the studying progress more arduous than expected....but none-the-less I made it!!! : ) Finally completed my scjp 5 exam before my end of year trip!!! woohooo! Haven't been so scared about an exam for quite a while now (as i failed miserably in the mock exam)....but yeah I MADE IT and passed with a mark I'm "quite" pleased abt!!! : P woohoo........so yippy...and here just to show off my little badge and certification card! hehe it's MINE!!!!
  
  
  
  
• I learnt to play G-tar aka Guitar. woohoo x 4!!!
  
  This was a totally unexpected and unplanned achievement! But I've always wanted to learn to play the guitar. Just so happens last year that I saw a course for it and just so happens my pals are into it too. Although can't say I've really learnt it well but at least I can say I can play at least ONE song now with performance grade! mwhaahah : P (the song is esp good when looking at fast moving cars too!)
  
  
  Me and my good good g-tar mates aka "The Unknowns" in our rehersal (& see my awesome looking black g-tar too! : P)
  
  
• I made it to Japan!!! I went to Tokyo before the year ended (my first time there!) and I even went with my friends AND my parents too!!! woohoo x 5, It ROCKS!!!!!! : P
  
  
  This was never really a goal that I set for myself but it was a mix of wishful thinking x stubbornness x determination x a bit of convincing...!!! : P Result in a trip to Jap with the ideal people! arggh I should really blog about my trip and previous trips tooooo... ...always been wanting to do that.....but always lacking in time! >.<
  
  But yeah the pic below features Mt Fujiyama, taken by me at around 6am inside the Prince hotel room (which has a natural thermal hot pool too....very relaxing indeed)!!!
  
  
  Aii sigh~~~!!! So pretty! Ooh and I realised my dream of singing 富士山下 under Mt Fuji! lol : P

Conclusions:
On the whole although I didn't complete every single goal/wish that I set for myself. But I have to say all the ones that I've really been meaning to do it.....I can proudly say I've done it and I am happy of the results too. Well apart from that I've also been able to add in a couple of surprises for 2007, which really puts on the "icing on the cake" and ending my year on a high! : P

So overall I'm really happy of my achievements in 2007....did (mostly) what I set for myself...really got the ball rolling in 2007 yet enjoying it with fun & play at the same time! woohoo!!! \@.@/

Summary of 2007: Review of Life's Lessons Learnt

WARNING:
This is one long winded piece of personal post where I just continue on and on..........if u do dare to read it......apologies on the degree of boredness and 'long air'-ness (long long winded) this piece of post will sound!!! : O
(And I actually started this post on 21/01/08 23:13!11 >o<)

Overview of 2007:
Before I embark on my goals for 2008, I MUST first summarize my 2007 year, as a closure to a year of 'Growth'.

It was a year where I've learnt "lessons", both academic and for those lessons about life. Perhaps I can probably describe it as a year of "Lost & Found", where I've learnt, experience, discover and most importantly (I hope) have grown to be a wiser person.

Of course with that being said there are a lot of flaws in me that is yet to be patched up and hopefully I will be able to do that as I continue "walking along".


What I've Learnt & Found:
So far in my life I've been very very fortunate indeed because life has been quite a smooth ride for me for most part of my life (and for which I'm very thankful for!!!). Hmm....so I guess (only) in comparison, 2007 has been a year of unexpected surprises and a slightly more emotional year for me as I go through and take in some important lessons in life.

Let me list out some of my foundings:

• My parents will always be my Best Friends
  Even though you might hear people say that your parents will always be your best friends because they'll always be there for you. And despite the fact that you and I both know about it........actually being able to 'feel it' is different!!! Because once you experience it, you'll finally not only realise it but 'feel' how much they do love you.
  
  Throughout the harder times that I've been through this year, my parents have really been there for me. Helping me and guiding me when I feel lost; giving me a hand to support me and lift me back up when I am down. It is because of this that I not only know but I now also FEEL that I can ALWAYS truly trust & count on my parents. And to this I really do thank my two folks!!! Love them heaps!!!
  
  (Plus the fact that they even came to my b'day party & travelled with me and my friends too.......hahah wow...what can I say about them!!! I just want to salute them and say "They are so cool & awesome"!!! Becoz they are!!! : P)
  
  
• The Importance of Trust
  In 2007, I've found out that the value, Trust, is a value of great importance in any relationships between people. I've always known that it's important, but I just never realised how important this is to me and how it is can affect a situation.
  
  My thought:
  "Trust is the root of a relationship, it is also the door to a relationship"
  
  This quote that I've just made up pretty much sums up my thought. Trust is the base to any relationships. It is also the door such that when you trust; you'll open your door to welcome them. Vice versa when you distrust a person, you will keep the door shut to that person or kick them back out and then shut the door in the hope that you'll never see them again.
  
  Funny enough I never realised the cause and effect of Trust. For example, your level of trust will greatly affect your decision during a situation. May be it's just me....I don't know....but Trust is definitely one value that I found is important to me!
  
  
• Learning to Take on Changes
  Being the stubborn silly old me....I am the sort of person who.....is just STUBBORN.....and reluctant to changes. But during the year of 2007, I've gone through a period, which could be considered as confusing and somewhat painful. Although getting through this period was tough but at least I was able to take in the lesson and found that perhaps"Change is not that scary after all"!
  
  As long as you are changing to improve yourself....to become a "Better Man"....it should be a thing to celebrate for! : ) haha I don't know may be this is a sign of me going soft / haha maturity from me......but just happy to know that I am now a bit more comfortable in taking on changes now I think! (Compare to what I did...haha wow 7 years ago.....'may be' another story for another time).
  
  As Lee Hom song (改變自己) goes "一點點改變, 有很大的差別, 你我的力量也能改變世界". The important thing is to know when you are at the bottom of the hill and know that you need to pick yourself up now and act up on it!
  
  
• New Friendships with Old Friends
  I only realised this when reflecting on the year 2007. Funny enough I think I've made some new friendships with friends I already know. And "new friendships" here means getting to "know them more" and forming a "stronger bond".
  
  Thinking back seems weird...but it's actually amazing how you can make 'new' friendships with people you already know. But then I'm sure you know what I mean...you can always learn about a person MORE. Should I dare to say there's always something new you can found out from your surrounding good friends! hehe
  
  I'm just SO SO HAPPY that I got to know some of my friends more : ) No matter how 'long air' this will sound...I don't care, here it goes....!!!
  "Thank you for hanging with me, thank you for listening to me, thank you for being there u r needed and thank you for sharing yourself with me (and allowing the vice versa!!!)" u guys rock!!! : )
  
  (I might have thought I lost it....but don't worry Friendship is still the same old shiny golden key in me!!!)
  
  

THANK YOU 2007! : )

(Source: http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/4333/arminvanbuurenthesoundort3.jpg
& Who is Armin Van Buuren)

2 Months of Break....& I'm Back

Arrggh sadly this blog has stop being updated for 2+ months now!!! argggh >o<

But yeah after a month of 'dedication' and a month of 'vacation' and a couple of weeks to catch up with my life........ LemonTz is back in town!!!

Over the last couple of months I have definitely thought of a lot of stuffs to write and in particular a few things that I MUST write about....and now that I had my time to recover (and got off my lazy bum!!! hehe).....yes I'm finally energized to start blogging again!!!

So there'll be more posts to come, hopefully over the next couple of weeks!!! And I better start on my FIRST ONE now!!!