Who makes the best concert audience?

I think the audience of a symphony orchestra concert is the best.

They try their best not to make any sound when the orchestra is playing so much so that you can hear people start coughing once the piece or movement is completed.

They clap only at the end of the piece, never in between, and do it continuously as long as the orchestra is on stage, but stop immediately when the conductor rise his baton to start the next piece. Such discipline!

The applause is generous and always with shouts of "bravo" and standing ovation at the end.

Stumbling on Happiness

It was a surprising pleasant read. It helps me to understand why people including myself, make choices and regret later. Why we always yearn and regret for things we couldn't get or didn't do?

Chance upon this book when I saw the video by the author Daniel Gilbert.

Stumbling on Happiness is a provocative read. Not meant for the faint hearted.

Up the Kilimanjaro mountain

Almost 2 years have passed since I was up the mountain. Writing a post only at this point of time serve as the chance to reflect and just tell what was still enact in my memories and how these memories made me feel now. I want to wait till the pain and joy I went through at that time are diluted. I think these would be my real learnings.

Speaking now with additional years of growth and thoughts, the emotions and experience that have passed through me at that point of time now gave me a new perspective to my life and aspiration.

Trekking up the mountain was a training of the mental strength and releasing of the potential of one's body and mind. I could still remember when I was moving up on the summit climb, I could only push on by focusing on the success story I could tell if I have done it. What a show-off I want to be, when I think about this now. I'm not a story teller who can leads anyone to feel how I felt at that time.

I started to read some stories from mountaineers who survive the worst ordeals in the mountains. Under the titanic forces of nature, it is easy to understand how vulnerable humans can be and how naive I have been. But at the same time, human can only tap into the deepest wells of potential when it is for survival.

If ask how I truly felt about being on top of the mountain, I felt just what those authors did. After being at the highest point, when you look back in time, you can feel a sense of almost emptiness in the heart. Like you lost something and you know you can never get it back or replace it with anything else. And you can only feel its presence in the way it had influence and grow you.

Boracay Wreck Dive (May 08)

After 2 years, I finally get to dive again. This dive is quite deep, up to 30m. At this depth, air get used up pretty fast.

Nothing very spectacular. It's a vessel sunken 7 years ago, so not too much coral yet. This is my second wreck dive after the first one during my advanced open. Nevertheless, it's still enjoyable. after all, it's scuba diving.



So much fun down the water.

Work Harder, Play Harder

I'm definitely working harder. But not playing harder. Shit.

Precious - Umizaru 2:Test of Trust OST

This is the MV of the OST. I loved this song when I watched the movie earlier this year, but I didn't know what's the title. But somehow, I chanced upon it and there was a moment of deja-vu. A search on Google revealed to me that it is the theme song for Umizaru 2! Cool find!



And Yuno Ito is a really good singer. And she had a duet with Celine Dion, A world to believe in.

Searching for answers

A question on morality.
If the only way to get food and medical supplies to a refugee camp is to smuggle arms along with those supplies, will you do it? Forget about the risk of getting caught.

A question on longing.
Do we miss the people we don't get to see more or do we miss those we get to see everyday more? Do we remember the people more for the happy moments they have brought us or do we remember them more for the misery they have brought us? Sometimes we tend to miss those things we have lost more than those we have around us. And it's just a thin line to cross from missing to forgetting. It's weird how our hearts and minds can play tricks on us.

Thoughts after Beyond Borders.