The Supernatural?

Have you ever come across something that you just canNOT explain? My mom showed me that "something" the other night. "Come, come," she enthused, pointing at the parquet floor, "take a look at this!" At first, I was just staring at, well, the wooden floor, thinking my dear old mother was finally losing her marbles. "Can you see it?" she asked. Then there it was, this very faint but definite dog paw print. Where did that come from? Stranger still, when we dried to rub it clean, we couldn't remove it. The print stayed. We checked those paws of Batman and Bolt but, dirty as they might be, our inspection gave no further clue as to where that paw print came from, it didn't belong to either Batman or Bolt. Later, my mom discovered there were MORE paw prints (same size) leading from the balcony all the way to our first discovery, which is very close to the "bedroom" (a large open cage) where Ding Ding and Dong Dong (both in doggie heaven) used to sleep in. 

Could it be possible that these prints are theirs? Actually, we are not spooked out at all ... because we still miss the pair very much.

Maybe it is me who is losing the marbles because, quite recently, I also noted things were flying off my bookshelf in my bedroom (seriously!) At first I just thought I'd been careless in placing items on the shelf so they, well, fell off ~ in the middle of the night. But when that happened again and again (CDs last time) ... I just said out loud: Stop throwing things around ... because it's really annoying! One night, I told my mom about this and she simply said: "Yeah, last night the TV turned itself on ..." Now, I never knew Ding Ding and Dong Dong liked watching telly ...  

Hip Hip ... Hooray!

Just returned from a "yin" yoga session (for definition, see earlier post, do a "frisk" search below). It's strange. These sessions are really quite painful -- lots of long/deep hip/shoulder/hamstring opening/ stretching poses -- but I keep going back to them again and again. Perhaps I'm addicted to the sensation that comes After the pain. It's hard to explain what that actually feels like but, take my word for it, it feels GOOD. Tonight there were also many twisting poses, which helped exercise/massage the intestines. I'll spare you the details but just say it was a rather liberating experience.

Talk about being liberated. Earlier today, I squeezed in a quick one-hour class during the lunch hour and it was then I realised yoga has really made me a much calmer person. Fifteen minutes before the class was due to start I was still stuck in the underground. I started to feel very agitated and began cursing under my breath. Then I thought: if running late is going to make me lose my yogic calm, I'd rather miss the class. So I thought, if by the time I get overground and there are no taxis, then I'd just let go. I immediately felt a lot more calm, and when I got to the taxi stand, there was no queue. I hopped onto a cab and ~ vroom-vroom ~ I was at the studio just in time for the class.

SCREAM!!! I am SO late !!!

Funnily enough, we were then asked to write down on a piece of paper things that get the fire within us burning ... well things that make us angry and I put down: running late, wasting time, running late, running late ... at the end of the class we were supposed to set the piece of paper on fire and throw it out of the window ~ which, I thought, wasn't such a great idea especially there were construction workers standing directly below the windows and they looked like triads.

     

WikiWhat?

Now, here is an interesting one. When The Guardian first started reporting on these "WikiLeaks", I thought it had something to do with the Wikipeadia (Doh, my ignorance really knows no bounds) ... but when these "leaks" continued to dominate (and stayed in) the news for more than a week, I started to take note. 

Apparently a huge amount of what are supposed to be confidential "cables" (diplomatic exchanges) from the US Embassy (worldwide) had been leaked to this site called WikiLeaks who, in turn, leaked the leaks to various newspapers (inc. The Guardian and The New York Times) -- yeah we are talking about Leaking of a Titanic proportion here ...

Some of which make interesting, even gossipy, reading (The British Royal Family, anyone?) but most are US observations on other countries that had thus far caused huge embarrassment to not only the US Government but the nations cited in these cables. So they include (according to the BBC): US concerns over China's shipment of ballistic missile components from North Korea to Iran (2007); discussions between various countries on whether they would take prisoners released from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility; Beijing's growing frustration with North Korea's behaviour (!); references to Russia as a "virtual mafia state" and - you have to laugh at this one - in 2008, the Moscow embassy described Russian President Dmitry Medvedev as playing Robin to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's Batman.

Well, no one exactly knows what sort of damages these leaked cables are causing - a few red faces perhaps - but I hope no one will die as the result (I think this is also a concern among the international community) ... and there is still the debate going on whether these exchanges should be leaked at all. Oh well, they are. But analysts/academics are already saying there really is nothing surprising about these revelations ... they only look "more real" in black and white when printed in the newspapers. 

I'm not sure whether technology comes into all these but I am sure it does, somehow ... now, think of all those email or IM exchanges you have with your work colleagues (bitching) about other colleagues and the bosses ... what if the IT Dept actually keeps them all (chances are they probably do!) Once a colleague IMed another colleague about me ("that self righteous prig" she said) and, yes, she sent it TO me. I thought that was quite funny - I'd done exactly the same thing before - and it's interesting to know what people really think about me ... but a self righteous prig?!?!

Positivity

At the end of one recent yoga class, I was telling my instructor that I couldn't do this pose and that pose, blah blah then he said (calmly): But think of all the poses that you can now do that you couldn't a year ago. He was right. The other day, as I stepped my foot forward between my hands from down dog, I thought: Oh, I couldn't do that when I first started practising. I used o have to use my hand to lift my foot forward before placing it near the top of the mat. In fact, I can now complete a "power" class without feeling completely exhausted; I can keep my spine (especially my lower back) relatively straight when sitting down with my legs crossed or in dandasana (legs straight); I can do quite a deep forward fold/bend; I can do headstand ... the list goes on.

Eww, the beer colour...

We often focus too much on the can'ts

we foget about the cans,

we are obsessed with the haven'ts than the haves ...

time to take a look at that half full/empty glass of beer
again and, err, well, just drink and enjoy it!!

PS I had an awesome class with the Perfect Human Specimen today; we had to go upside down and worked our Core from that position ... it was tiring but most satisfying !!!

A 99% Recovery

Hurrah!!! Hooray!!! And no, I'm not cheering about the (still flagging) American or European economy (which, of course, isn't showing ANY sign of a recovery) ... no, it's my left hamstring! After, like, a couple of months, it is Finally not hurting. Now I must remind self, whenever I'm doing a stretch in a forward fold/bend - I must Engage, Engage and Engage those thigh muscles - it's the only way to protect those hamstrings from being over-stressed/stretched. The fortnight-long rest also helped.

Oh, and here is something that had never happened to me before:  there I was, doing whatever when my mobile phone went off. "Dun-dun-dun," it rang. "Dun-dun-dun-dun" ... and it just kept ringing. "Okay, this is getting REALLY annoying," I thought ... "Dun-dun-dun" ... *scream* "Where is the battery? Where is the battery?" I lift away the phone battery cover and quickly yanked the battery out the phone... Phew! ... "Dun-dun-dun-dunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn" ... OMG!!! What is WRONG WITH THIS BLOODY PHONE and WHY IS IT STILL RINGING!!!???

Then I woke up ~ and my alarm was still going off.

Honestly, is it age? Or is it these dark winter mornings? I've NEVER slept through an Wake-up Call alarm before!

PS Number of my pageviews has DOUBLED since September!! So if you like what you are reading ... come back and visit again!!!  

Me and Others

But First, the (Super Duper) iPad. Which I upgraded (to iOS 4.2.1) the other night. Well, morning. What happened was when I clicked on the upgrade button at around 11pm, I thought I'd just lie down  and wait for the computer to do whatever it needed to do ... but faster than I could say "sync", I was, like, unconscious until 6am the next morning. I got up and looked at the iPad, expecting it to be upgraded and completely drained of battery power. Well, it was neither. I was pleasantly surprised to find it still had, like, 70 per cent battery strength but it was waiting for me to sync various files. Anyway, having fiddled a bit more and - viola - the upgraded version! With the new interface, it looks exactly like the iPhone 4. In fact, it now functions like an iPhone 4, having the ability to multi-task, organise things into nice little neat files and locate things... oh wow, my iPad has, in fact, been upgraded into a Woman!

Studies have found women can multi-task better than blokes (even on a yoga mat)

Back to today's entry: Me. And Others. Have you ever found yourself doing things not for yourself, or for your own good, but for other people (family, friends and colleagues) that are not necessarily in  your best interest?? Perhaps it has something to do with the way some of us were brought up, or it's just our nature, but many of us (me included) have this tendency of doing things that please others. Perhaps we just care too much about what other people think of us: according to social psychologists, we apparently build our self identity/image upon how/what other people percieve us. Okay, I can see this happening when we were teenagers (remember how we all desperately want to be popular at college?) but as we grow older, we should have a better and stronger sense of the Self than to need others' approval of who we are.

So, I've decided to be more "selfish" in the future. Life is too short, right? And if We don't do things the way We want, when and where we see fit, then why live at all? Why should We live our lives just to please the Others? Of course, we should be considerate (to the Others) but I think for those of us who have forgotten who We are because We have been spending too much time thinking about how the Others think, it's time to be considerate to Ourselves. 

It's okay to be who I am. It's okay to put Me first. It's okay to look after my own self interest before that of Others. It's okay to stand up for Myself  and tell Others to piss off. It's okay to be ... Me.

A Flock of Flamingos

Isn't this the weirdest? (From The Guardian Web site)

(Flamingos gather in the shape of a flamingo in Yucatan, Mexico. Photograph: Robert Haas/National Geographic/Caters News Agency)


"Flamingos have many extraordinary qualities, but until now they have never been considered to be performance artists. Now, thanks to this amazing aerial photograph of a flock of Caribbean flamingos in the Mexican province of Yucatán, we may have to think again. Some believe that the birds' ability to arrange themselves into the shape of a flamingo (albeit a rather inelegant one) is evidence of divine intervention. But like all flocking behaviour, it is simply the best way to avoid predators and to find the best place to feed. Still, a once-in-a-lifetime moment for photographer Bobby Haas, who managed to grab just one image before the birds dispersed." The Guardian's Stephen Moss