your cards

Have you ever played the card game, Black Jack? Where you try your luck with a deck of cards to get a combination totaling 21 or anything higher than the dealer of cards. I am sure you have since it is probably the most widely played card game in virtually any casino in the world.

In a nutshell, the dealer gives you two cards. What you do is to look at the total of those two cards and you are given the option to keep on taking cards to a maximum of five cards. Once you are done taking your cards, you'll the pitch your total against the dealer in hope to have a total more than him (assuming you don't blow your way past 21).

I never really liked this game since you place most of your winning chances on luck since you'll never really know what cards you get until you take which most of the time mean it is too late especially when your current total is 16 and you end up taking a 6! You'd be surprised how often this happens with gamblers, always attracting Murphy's Law.

So now, how does this relate to people like you and me who don't usually gamble or not gamble at all altogether?

Forget the money making or the money losing aspect of the game for now but let us really look at how a game called Black Jack can teach us a bit accepting our lives and circumstances around it.

We all go about our lives doing what we need to do, whether it's studying, working, buying groceries and so on and so forth but at the end of the day what and who we are today are sometimes the very result of the cards you and I were dealt with earlier in our lives. Of course I don't literally mean a deck of cards given to us but rather cards that metaphorically describe circumstances surrounding our lives.

I too have had to work with cards that I was dealt with. Many people have always ask me why is it that my older brother studied overseas while I studied locally. As much as three quarters of the population of this country think that studying overseas makes a hell of a difference, I tend to beg to differ. Any place you go to is only as good as the people you know in it, or at least that is my belief.

Anyway, back to my hand of cards I was dealt with. The answer to the question is simple - my parents couldn't afford sending me overseas to study. Not without having to take a study loan. So I decided to simply make the best of what I have, that is to study locally by way of looking for the best college I could find based on the limited budget I had to work with.

In hindsight, I think I turned out alright. I graduated successfully and I have a job (not the best job I can find but it'll help me survive and put food on the table).

I know for a fact that if back then I insisted on studying overseas, my parents would have taken the loan for me and sent me overseas but in my mind it was a really a question of whether it was completely necessary? I studied accounting, which means I didn't have any use for high tech labs or high tech science facilities. All I needed was good books and a library filled with those good books. The rest of it was up to me.

I speak to a lot of my friends who studied overseas and I take a glance and ask myself some of these questions:

1. Does he have a degree any better than mine? Not really.

2. Does he have a job that pays better? Not really.

3. Is his progression faster than mine? Not really.

4. Is he any better at handling stress? Not really.

5. Is he markedly different in work quality? Not really.

6. So then, did I make the right choice in not studying overseas? I would say, yes considering there isn't much difference between me and those who went overseas.

Hence, you can't get everything you want in this short life span of our's but you can get try to make the best of everything you have in this short life span. Bad situation or good situation, that's up to you to decide. If you are going to sit down thinking of your circumstances as bad, that's exactly how it is going to be until and unless you tell yourself otherwise.

You have your own cards, what cards you get is the will of God (if you do believe in one). Work with what you have and God might just decide do deal you one real good card in the near future.

So what are your cards?

sounds simple yet difficult

After three years of pondering and saving up cash bit by bit, I finally made the plunge to get myself a DSLR camera. Braving the attempt to go into photography after having been captivated by the beautiful photos I see monthly in my National Geographic subscriptions. I always ask myself, "How do these people capture such photos?". Some of them being the simplest of a person's smile, or a simple landscape, yet it leaves you staring at the picture for a long time as if the picture reaches out and captures your heart and attention.

So after three years of saving and pondering, I decided I could spare a little over two and a half grand on a DSLR to start off before I venture into getting different lenses and the works.

Starting off isn't difficult once you have read about the camera functions and how you can tweak the settings to get the desired photography effect. The difficult part of snapping a captivating shot is more about knowing when to find that moment - right now, I am still not really getting it yet.

I thought maybe I can start off with the simple pictures - abstract of pictures of objects and then move on to portraits. Abstract and objects are not too difficult as the arrangements and the framing of the shots are all up to me. But portraits are quite different.

Here are some samples of abstract/objects shots that I found quite satisfying.

I wouldn't go as far as to say my shots are award winning but I can at least look at them and tell myself that it looks soothing and it almost tells a story to the viewer.

But when I tried to get my hands started on portrait photos, I just seem to miss the mark and fail to capture the moments. Even if I do, it one way or the other misses out on the X-factor. What frustrates me most is the fact that simplest of things become the most difficult part of photography.

You are probably thinking if I am trying to confuse you but I am not trying to kid you. A simplest of shot like a smiling face can become one of the most of the challenging shots you can attempt to take. I used to think it was all about, "Say CHEESE!!" when in fact it is more than that. Trying to capture one's face is all about the emotions written in the person's face and the image the object wants to project. Most importantly, it's the natural feel I want to capture in the persons' face, yet I keep failing.

Maybe, maybe, it's really the simplest things in life that become difficult. After all, we are so caught up in the fast paced motion in our lives that it gives us the notion that everything else doesn't matter. And we finally get to seat ourselves down and do the simple things in life,something like eating breakfast on a Saturday morning can end up being difficult. I don't mean eating becomes literally difficult but you find yourself so used the fast paced routine that you gorge your breakfast so quickly that within a time frame of 15 minutes, you find yourself staring at an empty plate and realise that you had plenty of time of time to enjoy your breakfast yet you got into the routine of chucking it down your throat.

From the camera experience to the life's experience, I came to a conclusion that as much as something can sound simple, most of the time it is the things that sound simple that end being difficult..............

small people in a wealth of knowledge....

See the little guy in the picture? Don't you think we are like him?

We are small people living in this big world filled with infinite knowledge and experiences! Every day we live in this world is like opening the pages to the infinite series of Encyclopedia. We feel new things, we taste new things, we hear new things and it's like blowing our mind away with a whole lot of knowledge.

Of course, if you look at it from the little guy in the picture, it's like swimming in a wealth of knowledge.

Although we are surrounded by all the knowledge around us like all the encyclopedias surrounding the little guy in the picture, but the little guy won't obtain any knowledge. Not until he pulls out one of the books and starts flipping the pages. Like us, we can either be happy sitting down pretty enjoying the status quo in our lives or lift our hands, and start doing something to experience something new.

Sometimes by watching National Geographic channel during my free time, I learn a wealth of general knowledge which can really open my mind to what's out there in the big world of our's. At the end of the day, how much we know is really dependent on how much we see, feel and hear.

So don't sit down tight in your comfort chair and be a couch potato but go on out there and try doing something different!

When you least expect it~

Not everything can go to plan because plans can sometimes fail and more often than not plans to fail. It may not necessarily be plans but sometimes you may set out do something only to find yourself doing something completely different and achieving an entirely different result altogether.

Friday night I saw a beautiful crescent moon in the clear night sky and I quickly grabbed my camera to capture the beauty of the moon. All in all I spent a good 30 minutes out in the compound of my home trying to get a good camera shot of the moon. So there I was shooting away and at the mercy of the mosquitoes to have a night meal at my expense.

I tried moving around, playing with different angles, camera settings in trying to get a successful shot of the moon. I just kept snapping and snapping away in hope to get a good moon shot. Then as I was happily snapping photos of the moon I turned to my right to look at a nice frame of a flower pot and the night lamp shining down on it, creating a very interesting frame and so I snapped a shot of it.

After all that, I uploaded all the photos into my pc to start the filtering process. To my surprise, after all the effort trying to capture the moment of the beautiful moon, the best photo happens to be the picture of the flower pot! Take a look!

I know if you look at it, it's just going to be a flower pot and a shadow but when I look at it, I simply get a very soothing feeling when I look at it. Maybe it is the soft lighting and the shadow cast by it.

And if I try to go through the moon photos, I think the best photo I can choose is probably this one here.

Personally, I think the flower pot photo seems more captivating.

But my point throughout all this is that I set out first all gung-ho to capture photos of the moon but I ended up with a more satisfying picture of a flower pot and its shadow. If I look at it from other aspects of our lives, there are and there will be times when we set out do something - home decor, car modification, fitness goal, etc. only to find that we end up with completely different results and sometimes the results can be far better than expected.

Sometimes, we can't grip too tightly on trying to "stick" to the plan but we can sometimes take it a gear down and look at things objectively and tell ourselves, "if I can't walk on the line I set, I can at least walk parallel to it".

When you least expect it, good things can come to you rather you having to reach out for it! ;0)

the bitter taste

I wonder how many of us out there still remember the anatomy of our tongue? Remember where the bitter taste receptors are located on our tongue? It's at the back of your tongue just before our throats. When I was a kid I used to wonder why we have the bitter receptors at the back of our tongues. I mean it always made swallowing medicines or herbal soup difficult because no matter how hard I tried, there was simply no way to make the bitter stuff go around the bitter receptor area. You just have to taste whatever bitter stuff that you put in your mouth.

I asked my mom once about it and I guess she didn't really know how to answer such a question, especially when the one asking is only 5 years of age. What she told me was really interesting.

"I know how you dislike eating bitter stuff and drinking the bitter ginseng soup I always make for you. Remembered the last time I caught you trying to pour away the soup I boiled? I remembered no matter how hard you tried to squeeze your nose, you'd still taste the bitterness and start going, 'YUCK!' right after drinking my soup.

But there is a reason why all of us taste bitterness on theback of our tongues."

"Why's that?"

"It's God's way of telling us that everyone of us cannot escape from bitterness. As you grow up into a big boy, you will always face difficulties. You can't escape from life's challenges just like you cannot feel happy everyday. Sometimes you feel sad, sometimes you are happy. When you are happy is like when you eat a candy that puts a smile on your faces. And when you are sad is like when you pout every time I make you drink the bitter soup.

No matter how hard you try, there will be days when you are sad and down. That's the bitter part of life and there will be times when you have sweet happy times.

And that's why you have the bitter taste at the end of your tongue just before your throat!"

planting the correct seed

About 9 years ago, when I was still undergoing intensive squash training, I remember how much I used to get so much problems even learning and getting the drop shots right. It either I hit it one inch below the tin or a whole one foot above the tin. Either way, no one could call it a good drop shot.

Calling it was frustrating would be an understatement because I used to put in back breaking hours after back breaking hours to try to get it right. It reached a point when I got so fed up with getting it wrong so often I used to break my racquet by smashing it on the ground or the wall out of pure frustration and anger. Thank God, racquets at that time were either free or subsidized.

There was one evening when I just threw the racquet on the ground, looked at my coach and said, "I don't think I am ever going to get the damn drop right!".

He let out a sigh and then said, "That's probably why you are not getting the shot right."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Before you have even taken the shot, you are already telling yourself you are not going to get it right."

"That's just what's going on in my mind. Doesn't necessarily translates into my actions."

"Really? What part of your body sends the signal to your hand to control the racquet then?"

"My brain."

"So now do you think what you think translates into what you do and who you are?"

I kept quiet and bitterly knew he made sense and was probably correct.

He broke the silence and said, "Look, I know you are frustrated with learning the drop. Its never easy for someone like you has a natural upper body swing for squash because that means you naturally put in a lot of power into your shots, which is good for drives but then becomes unnatural for drop shots simply because your follow through is too strong.

But at the end of the day, no one is perfect. Even professionals make mistake at their level but they probably put in double the time you are working on your drop shots to get their drops inch perfect. Jonathan Power, the former world number 1 had a 2 to 4 hour sessions specially to work for his drop shots.

At the end of the day, you have to keep telling yourself that it can be done. If pros can do it, I can do it, other people can do it, why can't you? There has to be a reason - technique. And that's the very same reason why I am your coach - to correct those mistakes no matter how long it took me so that I can make you a stronger player.

You have all the power needed to hit the ball hard and straight but you still need a soft side for the game if you are going to win games without putting too much strain on you body.

But right now, before I can start fixing your technique, you need to change your mindset. Right now, even before you play the drop shot, you are already telling yourself that it is going to go wrong and trust me, it will go wrong because the very seed planted in your mind is for it to go wrong.

If you want to your shot right, you going to have to start planting the right seed in your mind. What I mean is that you have to start imagining yourself lunging for the ball, feet planted solid on the ground, imagine the feel of the ball bouncing of your racquet face and seeing the ball bouncing of the front wall inch perfect!

All you need is some believe in yourself....... plant the right seed and eventually you'll get it right..."

I took it all in, continuously trying to believe in myself. Eventually I got it right..... Now, I ironically find myself telling some of my colleagues the same thing in the context of work and to those who ask me to coach them at squash.

Simple as it seems, planting the right seed from the beginning can make a hell of a difference.

rainbows!

I remember when I was a kid, I used to wait impatiently for the rain to stop so that I could search out a rainbow in the sky. It was a beautiful sight to see the red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. AS a kid, it was something really worth waiting for and when I finally spotted the rainbow, I'd go "waaahhhh......." from its beauty.

Then as I grew up, I never even took notice of any rainbow. Not until a little boy showed me a rainbow that could be found in a place I never knew could create a rainbow. The best part about this rainbow is that you don't even need it to rain for the rainbow to appear. I hope I have piqued your interest! =0)

This rainbow appeared in the place you'd least expect it to appear. The rainbow appeared one morning when my friend wanted to feed his 3 year old son some cereal. As he was about to spoon feed his kid, his son suddenly looked at time wide-eyed and went, "Pa Pa, rainbow! Rainbow!" while pointing at my friend's forehead.

The rainbow the 3 year old was referring to were the wrinkles on my friend's forehead as he lifted his eyebrows to keep his spectacles from falling own as he spoon fed his kid. That's when I knew rainbows don't just come out after the rain!

It was funny and cute when I saw that little kid go "Pa Pa, rainbow! Rainbow!". It wasn't just about a little kid imagining a rainbow on his dad's forehead. It showed me that even the simplest of things like lines on skin can become something creative.

It was refreshing because it goes to show how differently a little kid like him views the world around him. Looking at something that is already beautiful and saying it's beautiful is merely stating the obvious like telling me A B C is A B C. But to look at something ordinary and to find beauty in it. That's something out of the ordinary.

I guess that's how famous painters paint a simple subject that is yet beautiful and eye catching. The same can be found in photographs taken by photographers, where you find the simplest of subjects like a man sitting on a walkway or a bird on a tree but yet when you look at the picture, it tells a compelling story.

It's about looking at things from a different perspective. You can still find rainbows even if it doesn't rain!