Kindness

Don't ever make the mistake of thinking kindness is a weakness, sometimes it takes great strength to just smile and say kind words...

Mobility - Yay or Nay?

We live in a frantic world where speed is everything. Combine mobility, interactivity and speed...life becomes a whirlwind that we try to avoid. I am not like others who thrive on speed and living an adrenaline-charged life. There is simply no Yin-Yang balance in that. Try having kids and tell me you enjoy speed five years down the road.

But that's the life we have to adapt, I guess.

We usually take evening walks in the park nearby and that was we, me and the boys, did yesterday but I was behind in some work so, as we walk laps on the paved path, I was on the internet on my phone looking up stuff that I can post and write later that night. I almost walked into a boy, a tree and an unripe starfruit that had fallen onto the path from the tree on the side of the path.

I can't deny the fact that technology is amazing and this has mobilized work for me. It's incredible because with the internet, I can literally work ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.

Read: looking forward to some traveling time. =))))))) Maybe.

Seems like we have forgotten that we need to be present, to be doing what we are doing without a million things going through our heads. And there are times when I wish I still owned a phone like this. Don't you miss them sometimes although we would be less effective and less efficient?

But long live smartphones...
XOXO,
Marsha

Of Pet Puppies

I have always had a thing for cute things, people and animals. Don't we all? When I was younger, I brought home one of the cutest puppies in the world and even had a hand in naming the pup, Nikoe. The puppy was from a friend I knew from high school, his dog just had a batch. So, when choosing the pup, I chose the nastiest, naughtiest and most rowdy one. LOL.

Oh boy.

Anyway, once I brought the puppy home, that was the end of the story because raising the pup-turned-dog was HARD. It was hard work because the damn dog would just run out of the house and come home with his coat of hair caked in mud and...I don't know what else. We didn't have dogs like maltese or toy poodles back then. It was either a dog....or a dog.

If you have had a pet in the past, you would relate to the fact that if you found it difficult to deal with the dog's behavior, you would tune out. I did. But that was when I was a teenager when there is so much more out there to have than taking care of a dog. So, everyone else had to deal with the dog that I brought home.

Having kids is different but more or less the same. The commitment is so much bigger and heavier, of course, not that the life of a dog is of less magnitude. My heart broke for a couple of days after finding out how Nikoe died. Wasn't very nice way to die, honestly speaking.

The thing with kids and dogs is this - if you are in it, you are in it.

And that is why, despite falling in love with so many puppies along the way, I have refused to commit to a single puppy. I tried things out with my friend's dogs and OMGGGGGGGGGG....the dog scared me half to death by running out of the house. My thought was HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO ANSWER TO MY FRIEND IF I CAN'T FIND THE DOG BACK? hahahaha

But the dog is safe and sound.

Anyway, whether I will have a pet or not in the future, I don't know. It depends on how much the kids are willing to lend me a hand in keeping the dog happy and well-fed. It depends on how much everyone else is willing to chip in in keeping the new family member.

This is me and my friend's dog, Mika, one of the most well-behaved dog EVEEERRRR

She is such a LOVELY LOVELY LOVELY LOVELY LOVELY dog!!!! Me and my kids are absolutely so in love with her. She listens to your every word but according to the owner, she has a diva attitude. I don't know, I have yet to see that side of her. =) My friend brings her over once in a  while.

The whole school holiday has been marred by Immigration issues. Been to the Imigresen four times todate. Seriously, and so far, I have only managed to make MY, yes, ONE, passport renewed. I have yet to bring the kids over to renew theirs. I don't understand why it is so difficult to just RENEW the passport, not make NEW passports. Sometimes, I am inclined to think that some quarters are trying to make it difficult for us folks to get out of the country. What, didn't someone once ask us to GET OUT if we are not happy? LOL.

Yes, yes, yes....I will yet spend more time here, waiting and hoping to actually get a number.

Anyway, as far as a pet is concerned, I MIGHT get one, not sure....it's a whole commitment thing, you know. Still thinking, actually. Waiting for a dog to completely capture my heart and send me catapulting backwards with love. XD

XOXO,
Marsha

What Makes Humans Different

Every human has four endowments- self-awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom... The power to choose, to respond, to change. By : Stephen Covey

Teamwork Requires Selflessness

I recently experienced a very disturbing, unethical and disheartening experience with a friend. It has been more than a month now and till this day, I have great difficulty saying anything about it. Only the friends that I am close with or working with know about this and even then, I have avoided naming the person who have hurt me.

I have trust issues and if there was anything I could derive out of this episode, it is that I have found a way out of this issue.

This person have communicated to me that there are friends who are not friends...they are feeding their ego even when you are genuine in helping them. He was in a financial rut (so he says, I have no way to confirm this) so, I genuinely hired him. It was all genuine and I had no idea what was going through his head.

In my profession, the worst thing you can ever do is to plagiarize. This is a huge NO for me! I mean, it is wrong to copy from anyone in ANY industry, no?! Please correct me if I am wrong. Unless your job is to copy, that is. But in this case, I did not hire him to copy other people's work.

It was a huge letdown mainly because I trusted him. I put aside all the uncomfortable things that he have said to me and entrusted him with my work. But he thought it was OK to sledgehammer me to the side of the head.

For the month after the confrontation, I have asked myself where I went wrong. I can't fix his laziness and unethical beliefs but I want to know what made it easy for him to karate kick me. I want to fix that. I want to fix me even when he does not want to fix his attitude. So, while fixing all the damage that he has done to me (trust me, all the stuff that went out, I had to go after them and fix all of that), I reflected and asked myself if I should stop trusting people.

Being a Leo, loyalty is very precious to me. It will take me forever to commit to anything (it used to be easier to earn my loyalty. Life taught me well) but when I do, I want to know I am in this for the long haul. I want to give you everything I have to give without asking anything back in return except for your genuine commitment and care.

What this has taught me is that I need to be more selective, base my decisions on ability and sincerity, not just sympathy. I am not the charitable organization that I sometimes can behave like. I need team members and not people who talk cheap, are egoistic and manipulative. I need team members who can communicate openly with me.

Team members who understand, can see, and have the same desire and concern for the well-being for the team. Team members who see me not as a 'boss' but a leader who is in the same boat with them. Team members who will not bail on me, will admit mistakes, nor will they compromise the work of the other team members.

Team members who sees the whole big picture.

So, should I stop trusting others? Nah. I have learned this lesson well and know what to look for when recruiting people into my team, not just because you are in a hard place and I am here to offer you a rope. You are in a hard place, so am I! Who isn't?! I am not going to allow you to jeopardize everyone else with your selfishness.

Teamwork requires, if nothing else, selflessness.

Image Credit: http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-14186302-hands-in.php

Been Living In the Land Of Don't Know, Don't Have Time

After a hectic week plus, I am finally ready to blog. I don't like to reveal too many things when I am emotional. Anyway, emo over. I think.

It's the long weekend over here in Malaysia for most folks, not for me. I go on working regardless. And also because of some issues I prefer not to reveal here, I have been going on writing to the point that I no longer know what I am writing. Bad thing. You should see the quality. It's the kind of stuff five year olds write....short of writing ba ba black sheep, Mary's lamb is ugly and needs a haircut....wool cut...

See? I don't know what I am writing about.

Heading out for 'Epic'. I don't know what the movie is about so, I have just asked the movie to surprise me when I am there.

I live in a land of don't know, don't have time, come what may.

As things slow down, I might blog more. LOL. Then you will get sick of me.

LOL.

Going for Epic,
XOXO,
Marsha

You Do Not Have Kids

You don't know what it is like, I Forgive You

Chicken + Orange Juice = Yummy

Once again, I have run out of ideas about what to cook for dinner. Teehee....but I do have a market quite literally down the road and I get my inspiration from there. So, today, it was a lot of bell peppers, carrots, celery...and other remaining juice that I have in my fridge.

 I don't get it. I keep getting more and more juice. We keep opening the new ones leaving the half empty ones still rotting inside the fridge. So, have to make use of them la.

Today, it is orange juice. =)

I spotted some nice juicy chicken breasts in the market and made a grab for it. I know how it is, I prefer the thigh too if given the choice but I think we have had many nights of chicken drumsticks already.

Marinated the chicken breasts in orange juice, sea salt, pepper and mushroom seasoning and into the fridge it goes. A couple of hours later, the chicken breasts goes into the oven. I want it crispy and intend to use breadcrumbs later but you know how breadcrumbs burn easily when you cook it over the pan or wok? Popping it into the oven first cooks the breasts down a bit so that you don't get uncooked middle parts.

See ya later, chickens!

I made the chicken separately from the er....vegetable stew? LOL. See how I don't know where I am sometimes going with this whole cooking for the family thing? Tembak. If it goes wrong, tapau! (Takeaway). I have been cooking for the family for countless years, right? And still, the instinct and tembak method seems to work best.

I know it doesn't look appetizing, right? Hahaha but it is.

1. Cook onion
2. Garlic
3. Bell pepper
4. Tomatoes (Kids don't like chunky tomatoes so I got to bleed them to death from the beginning)
5. Celery
6. Carrot
7. Orange Juice
8. Oyster Sauce
9. A little more seasoning
(Taste as you go along. This is where discretion is used for salt, sugar and pepper)
10. Balsamic vinegar (a splash will do la, for me, cos kids don't like SOURRRRR)

The chicken got cooked right down to about 70% maybe in the oven?

The chicken breasts got covered up in a layer of egg mix and then a layer of breadcrumbs and then into the pan. Fry till it looks about like this.

I tell you it is super yummy. Served it with rice and the chicken got bathed in the 'orange vegetable stew'.

Don't ask me for measurements, I don't know. =) You got to experiment it out on your own. It's fun. Thankfully, this round it is definitely a GOOD TO GO!!!

My Religion Too =)

"My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness." - Dalai Lama

Flags Up, Flags Down

When talking about elections and posters, flags, banners, buntings, and whatever it is that people put up, it is OK for them to SPAM our place with those promotional stuff. Doesn't matter. Happens every time there is elections, isn't it? That was one of the grouses I have heard from people who prefer their communities clean from these things.

I agree.

After elections is over, those things must be removed.

So, this morning, as I was driving my kids out to school, I saw this guy taking down flags and banners....but only for a particular party only.

After dropping the kids off, I stopped and asked the person to please remove ALL flags and not just a particular party's flags. 

His response was this 'Oh, itu bukan kita letak punya'. I was a little pissed off because if you are going to remove these flags, might as well remove the other flags as well, right? So, I told him that he should remove ALL flags. 

But he explained that he wasn't instructed to do that. He was instructed to place the flags and then after the elections is over, to remove the flags that they have placed. That was his job. He is not authorized to touch any other stuff that other people have put up.

Oh, I see. 

So I said 'Terima Kasih!'

At this point, this is still all over the place. 

Especially this huge ass all-of-a-sudden-it-is-so-huge-and-it-is-in-your-face 'billboard'.

When are you going to get someone to remove that ah? Very eye sore la.