63 Pages Missing, And A Possible New Book

Oddly enough, 63 pages seem to have gone missing from Project 14, 136 pages into the second draft of it. I was at 199 pages at this point of the story in the first draft… Hm. I wonder if I missed out on a few scenes. I did change the format of it a bit though, which would probably account for 10, maybe 20 pages of loss, but 63 is a bit too much to put on that. Hopefully, the missing scenes will show up when I go through it again.

Writing this post, I just realized that it's my first update on how Draft 2 is going! So far, the progress is smooth, and strangely enough, I like it more now, compared to the first one. I've cut a few short scenes here and there that were irrelevant and basically fillers, and sorted some issues out. One issue I worked on today was my use of the word "cahoots" (I only used it once, in case you were wondering). I remember typing that the first time and telling myself I'd think of an alternative during the second draft…

I'm roughly halfway through now.

On to the next topic I wanted to blog about: a new book that has been forming in my mind. Well, that isn't exactly true, because I have two now. I'm not sure if I have mentioned the first one, but the second is quite recent. It's actually a continuation of an unpublished (and unfinished) short story I wrote a while back, and stemmed off the fact that I really want to write a book as a teen girl, about a teen girl. So far, my characters have been older than me, and my themes fairly serious, spare some of my short stories. This time, I want to try something fun; light.

So far, I have around a quarter or so of the outline worked out, which is more than I can say even for Project 14 before I began it. It feels kind of strange to me to be working on a relatively happy story, and sometimes when I hear sad songs, I find myself thinking about my story, then remembering that my characters don't have to feel those kind of emotions. It will be an interesting book to write, that's for sure.

As for the earlier idea I had, I think I'm going to come up with a full outline, and save it for NaNoWriMo. I want to participate in that at least once in my life, and next year probably won't be the year, so I hope I'll be able to do in come this November.

This post is getting rather long now, so I'll stop here, start typing up my outline (I was doing it in a pretty floral notebook), and look for some names for my characters. I hope you have a great day!

Making Decisions

Decisions are interesting.They can be relatively easy, such as as picking your favorite shirt to wear today, or the new one you got last week. But they can also be serious, such as when you decide on how you want to further your studies, what you want to major in, and which college or university you want to attend.

Decisions can have fascinating results. They can become one of the best things you have ever done, lead to bad outcomes, or change nothing at all. What eventually happens comes down to making the right choices, which aren’t always clear-cut.
We are the ones who have to live with our decisions in the end. So make choices that will keep you happy in the long run, with no regrets.

Life would be a lot less complicated if decisions were straight-forward; if the practical and right things to do were the same as what our hearts want; if bad choices couldn’t damage the future, or affect the people close to us. That isn’t the case though, which is why we spend so much time analysing our decisions to ensure they are the right ones.

Our lives can be described as the culmination of our decisions, both good and bad. They shape our lives, determine the paths we take, and often come to define who we are.

While we want to make the right decisions, it is inevitable that we will make a few wrong ones. When this happens, pick yourself up, and be wiser the next time. Bad choices provide lessons that we can learn from.
Sometimes we get overwhelmed with so much riding on our decisions, but don’t put off coming to a conclusion, because choices don’t always wait for you, and opportunities may slip past if you don’t catch them quickly.

When a decision comes before you, face it head on, and choose the path you feel best; the one you’re sure you can live happily with. You might go off-course after a while, so make sure you check yourself periodically, to see if what you’re doing is in line with what you wanted to do, or better.

Me, Going Vegan?

I've been toying with the idea of this for more than a month now, so it isn't a sudden impulse. I haven't been eating seafood other than fish for about 2 months now because of allergies (though I had my first taste two days ago), and after the epidemic in the pond, I don't feel like eating fish, either.

I haven't eaten much beef either lately, ever since I found out that the production of 1kg of beef creates 37.5kg of carbon, not counting methane. Besides, cows look cute… moo. The same goes for pigs, spare the carbon (not sure about that part). Maybe there's a reason why we say "eating beef" instead of "eating a cow," and "pork" instead of "pig." There's that association with animals and squiggly-tailed piglets. Do any of my readers know about David's infamous Squiggly Pig drawing?

As for other forms of meat, I haven't really been eating much of them lately, and I rarely even want to eat them anymore…

Going vegan isn't very practical now, but I'm seriously considering it. We'll see what happens.

Do I have any vegan or vegetarian readers who can give me some advice? :)

Chinese New Year 2012

*I posted this originally on Fanscene, but edited it a bit here to be more personal. :)

Happy Lunar New Year to all of the dear readers at Fanscene who celebrate it! It's officially the year of the dragon! For those of you who may not know, the Chinese calendar consists of 12 animals, each representing a different year. Last year was the year of the rabbit.

"Kung hei fat choi" is the Cantonese version of "gong xi fa cai," the most popular well wishing that the Chinese say during this time. I've been waiting for a while for this tweet, hehehe.

The Lunar New Year is the most important festival in the Chinese calendar, and lasts for a grand total of 15 days. That means two whole weeks of celebrating, and delicious food! One of our customs is the "hong pau," red packets filled with money. Married adults will gives these to children to wish them good luck in the coming year. Designs vary, but a lot of the packets follow the theme of whatever animal the year is, and almost all are red and rectangular.

The Chinese have lots of delicious food during this time, and my family usually has hot pot (called steamboat here) for the reunion dinner, which occurs on the eve - last night. All kinds of food goes in - meat, noodles, vegetables, fish pastes, dumplings, wantons, and the highlight is the seafood. The picture below is what my family had in 2010! Everything goes into the pot.

More food! I had these last night at my uncle and aunt's place hahaha. There were some other stuff, but I didn't upload them all.

Siew yok - roasted pork

Spring rolls!

Lou sang/yee sang! It isn't practiced everywhere, but it's been gaining popularity. People usually shout "lou!" as they all put their chopsticks in. I'll let the pictures talk now…

Before. Isn't it all organized?

After we "lou"

I saw a family doing the lou sang on TV a few days ago, and one man lifted up the whole plate HAHA. It was funny, not to mention messy. I liked the lou sang. :)

Video from Beijing:

PS. If you want to see more celebrations, you might want to check out CCTV's special. It's quite spectacular!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Happy Chinese New Year everybody! Hope everyone has had safe travels so far, a safe trip back, and a great time celebrating with your entire family. Gong Xi Fa Cai! May the year of the dragon bring you good health, prosperity, joy, and love.

Today is also International Hug Day, so pair your wishes with hugs! ;)

Chinese New Year is really close to Christmas and New Year's this year, isn't it? I remember going out just a few days after Christmas and hearing all of the dong dong chiang music already… I like it haha.

I wanted to post my favorite song here, but I can't find it even though I know the melody… The chorus goes "gong xi gong xi gong xi ni, ah gong xi gong xi gong xi ni."

My parents and I went to Petaling Street last night, and found this adorable shop near it… It had all kinds of cute little knick-knacks (Chinese New Year decorations too, of course), including flowery stuffed animals. Guess who I saw there, along with his two friends? Totoro!

I have a picture with Totoro now. :D I was ridiculously excited when I saw him.

Lesson Learned, Spam Box

A long time ago, I sent out an email, but didn't receive a reply to it, or so I thought. When I sent out an important email earlier, I checked my spam box, since I was expecting a reply ASAP. Guess what was hidden there, beneath the emails telling me I won the jackpot? The reply to the email in my first sentence.

Sigh.

So the lesson for the day, my dear readers, is to always, always check your spam box, at least once a week.

Chinese New Year Traditions

During this time of the year, people go home to be with their family and celebrate the New Year. There are performances everywhere in the country – in the streets, malls, hotels and restaurants – featuring live bands playing traditional music in addition to the famous lion dance, also known as the dragon dance.

If you’re going to be in Kuala Lumpur this festive season, the place to shop for the New Year is Petaling Street, also known as Chinatown. It’s a treasure trove of fashion, decorations, food and just about everything else. Bags, shoes, clothes, flowers, sweets, and delicacies – you name it, they’ve got it.

One of the best-known traditions of the Chinese New Year is the “hong pau”, which literally means red packet. These packets are filled with money and date back to the Sung dynasty. According to legend, a young boy defeated a dragon-like creature and the villagers presented him with a red packet filled with money. Nowadays, everyone from newborns to unmarried adults are given “hong paus” by married couples to wish them prosperity in the coming year.

A lot of preparation goes into the Chinese New Year. New red clothes are a must, and a lot of food has to be prepared beforehand. There are some rules to follow on the first day, such as not to clean the house. In the days before the Chinese New Year, people clean their houses thoroughly, and all the cleaning equipment must be kept away before the New Year. It was believed that if the house is swept, then the family’s prosperity would be swept away too.

Chinese New Year has a lot to do with bringing in the new and expelling the old. Other than cleaning the house, a rule was to have all debts paid by the New Year, which is actually a practice that we should follow nowadays as well. We should finish homework, projects and other tasks before the New Year rolls around. Make sure that your New Year starts with a clean slate, and you’re set to go!

Fish Epidemic

The past few weeks have been tough for my koi… If you're following me on twitter, then chances are that you've seen my tweets about my fish… First Nemo got sick with Dropsy - kidney failure - and died, then we got 6 little babies. I was excited about them, but they slowly died. :( At first I thought that maybe the first one or two couldn't adjust, but there was more to that. They didn't have wounds, so the bigger fish didn't attack them.

Then I noticed the last baby koi nibbling at the bigger fish, along with the guppies, and that's when I knew something was really wrong. The first few times I saw this happening, I reasoned that perhaps the guppies were cleaning off the dead cells. The problem with that theory though, is that they had never done that before, and they seemed aggressive at times.

One morning, the back half of Dory turned red - he had been completely yellow before - and by lunch time, it was much worst. It was a blood red. I tried to find out what was wrong to no avail. Dory died in the afternoon. :( He was the fish who kept Nemo afloat when she was sick…

On Friday, Mango died. :( He was definitely more then 7 years old - probably around my age (most of the fish, spare the little ones, are old). He used to love to dig at the rocks with his lovely yellow tail splashing out of the water, and eat too much. I would like to think he died of old age, but he looked sick. Yesterday, the last koi, Simba, died...

Now I have 2 plecos (Ikan Bandaraya) named Kitty and Katty (the big one is Katty… lol I was young when we got them from my aunt and uncle), and a lot of guppies… We originally started with 20 but they kept breeding lol. I miss my koi. :( I still can't find any diseases that match the symptoms my fish had. Ich is pretty close, but it doesn't explain why Dory turned red.

Do any of you know what is going on?

Carpe Diem, & Viking Burials

LIFE – SUCH A BIG WORD packed into four tiny letters. It isn’t just a word, rather an entire experience. It is also volatile. In just one minute, a mistake or bad judgment can lead to an accident, and a life can be taken away, just like that. A car crash, cancer, even food poisoning - there are countless ways it could happen.

While we are alive, we should try to live with no regrets. That isn’t to say we should go completely wild because that too isn’t the right thing to do. Instead, seize the opportunities as they come. We only have one chance to make an impact on this world – change it for the better – so live life with an intention to do something important.

In a book that I was recently reading, one of the characters talked about how no one really has the energy to live each day as if it was our last, and even though it would be nice if we did, the statement is true. Some days we’re sick, some we spend doing less than enjoyable things, and on others, we may be too exhausted to do anything exciting or worthwhile. Well, the most important thing is that whatever we’re doing, we make the best of our time on Earth.

Time is fleeting, and sometimes feels like an illusion. Last week may seem like years ago, while we might remember something from last year vividly, as if it had occurred the previous day. In this sense, time can pass all too quickly, and one day when we wake up, we will realize that months have passed without us even knowing it.

So, with that in mind, we should try to be our happiest all of the time. Love people, don’t hold grudges, forgive easily, be optimistic, and carpe diem – seize the day.

Vikings, also known as Norse or Medieval Scandinavians, often had elaborate funerals. Of the most popular of these were ship burials, where the deceased was placed into a stone ship, along with other items said to help them in the afterlife. Tools of trade were sometimes placed with men in accordance to their work, and jewelry, along with household items, were part of women’s funeral ceremonies. Another notable item is not really an item at all. Slaves, called thralls, especially the females, were sometimes sacrificed and buried along with their masters.

This kind of burial, however, was only for the higher castes. People belonging to the lower ranks, especially slaves, were often just put into holes that were positioned so they would be helpful to their masters after they, too, passed away, and also to guarantee that they would not “return” from the dead.
Additionally, cremations were fairly common, and the temperatures used in the fires reached far higher than they do in modern cremations. The point of it was to make the smoke reach as high as possible, to raise the dead into the afterlife.

The “sjaund,” also called funeral ale, was one ritual that took place seven days after death, and people consumed alcohol during this time. It was only after this occurred that the heirs of the deceased could claim their inheritance.

Death was something that was feared by the Vikings, and they were very superstitious about the circumstances under which a person died and how the body was dealt with. A lot of their rituals had to do with preventing the dead from coming back to haunt the living.

Lastly, there are many tumuli, raised mounds to mark graves, of important people found throughout Scandinavia, and one of the larger ones is the Morre Mound Cemetery, located in Norway.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norse_funeral

Postcard David

Made this for my friend Song, who is even more awesome than her name, and who requested the largest picture. :) Size is 1920 x 1080. I might make a 1280 x 800 one later on.