still alive...

Busy Busy with Life!
Whatever happened to those days when I had nothing to do!
I woke up in the morning and LOOKED for something to do rather then NEEDING to do!
is this what growing up holds?

Had dinner with my cousin after a long time! It was great to catch up on old times and laugh about the foolish things we used to do! Silly things: Like walking to the window at the Burger King drive thru one late night 6 or 8 years ago! Why: Because my sister got mad at us and wouldn't drive the damn car to pick up our orders!

I am excited for Thursday to come...(more on this later)

Cute little monkeys!

When I was in chinatown in NYC I got these little cute monkeys. I just thought they were adorable and the price was good. I didn't realize what these little moneys stood for until I got home and showed it to my sister.

monkey #1: ears covered
monkey #2: eyes covered
monkey #3: mouth covered

This wall hanging stood for: 'See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil'.


searchwarp

“See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” is a common phrase, usually used to describe someone who doesn’t want to be involved in a situation. But where did the saying originate?

Unfortunately, no one knows for sure how it evolved. Because the saying is typically associated with three monkeys one covering his eyes, one covering his ears, and the other covering his mouth it is believed that the saying may have its origin in a 17th century temple in Japan.

The Nikko Toshogo Shrine, also known as the Sacred Stable, in Japan has a carving of three wise monkeys. Many scholars believe the monkeys were carved as a visual representation of the religious principle, “If we do not hear, see, or speak evil, we ourselves shall be spared all evil.”

Others believe that the saying originated from a Japanese play on words. “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil,” translated into Japanese is, “mizaru, kikazaru, iwazaru.” The Japanese word for monkey is “saru”, and sounds very similar to the verb-ending “zaru”. It is easy to see how the saying may have originated from a fun play on words. The only problem with this explanation is that the three wise monkeys aren’t originally from Japan.

In the eighth century A.D. a Buddhist monk from China introduced the three wise monkeys to Japan. They were associated with a fearsome blue-faced deity called Vadjra. It is believed that the monkeys’ gestures were a representation of a command of the deity to “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.”

Just as there is disagreement about the origin of the phrase, there are differing explanations of the meaning of “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.” Some contend that it is a proverb reminding us not to be so snoopy, so nosy, and so gossipy. Others say that it is a warning to stay away from places where immoral acts are taking place. Whatever the origin and meaning of “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil,” it is one of the most visual phrases in existence.

Wow, who knew there is actually a conference held for those who collect these!
Mahatma Gandhi had very few possessions. One of the few were a set of these monkeys.
Mahatma Gandhi


I love my purchase!

Ambition-Knowledge-Curiosity

Ambitious
having a strong desire for success or achievement : requiring full use of your abilities or resources; "ambitious schedule"; "performed the most challenging task without a mistake"


Lately I have been thinking how important curiosity is to knowledge.
Curiosity and knowledge go hand in hand. You won’t get one without the other. More knowledge—more curiosity.


There is so much information in the world and I am fortunate enough to be able to get whatever knowledge I want. I don’t live in a world that prevents me from exploring…everything is in front of me. So many libraries, professors, EVERYTHING.
No excuses. As Abhi would say “excuses are like assholes…everyone has them.”


I don’t want to ignore an event because I am not interested in it, too lazy to ask questions about it, or no time to wander about it. I want to get interested…and not wait for someone else to do something.

Knowledge: The sum or range of what has been perceived, discovered, or learned.


When I was younger I was curious and ambitions. I would get so excited to bring books from the library, tackle a math problem, know the world. If I had a question I would need to know the answers right away…I would stay up all night to ponder a question.


I would bike to the library and do my own research to get the question answered.
But that slowly declined.


I still have these tendencies but they don’t show up a lot.
But now I want to know the tedious of information.


Curiosity a state in which you want to learn more about something something unusual -- perhaps worthy of collecting


Everything is tied in. By doing the best you learn more and more. By giving yourself 100% to a task in front of you…you get the best you can out of yourself. With doing the best…it’s like a drug… you want this feeling more and more. You refuse to do a half ass job when you know that by applying yourself a few minutes more you can get the best result.


This is going to be a tough challenge...but I'll try it.

NYC!

click on the picture for a bigger version:





Clothing bargains for millionaires...would I dare to walk in? NO!
Night life taken from a restaurant that my friends and I were having dinner at...I got to talking to the waiter about his life in New York City...he wants to be an actor..who doesn't in NYC?







New York City was fantastic!
There is too much to tell and too many pictures to sort.
The only time I missed Minnesota was on the plane ride back...which was only about three hours..but seemed like 20. Had SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
loved the city!
be back with more later.






Every block...I had to stop for about 10 times to take pictures..of everything. Beautiful buildings..just normal things seemed like picture worthy.

Before and After

The moment I saw my "before" pictures of my long hair...I missed it.
Even though every morning it was a struggle to managae it, took way too long to wash it, and I ran late all the time...I miss it.

ohh well...I hope it grows longer soon...so I could cut it..and then regret it. haha

Some things, you learn to expect, growing up a girl.

"You expect to confront harrassment as surely as the sun in May and the fog in a Delhi December."

Great post: Check it out

QUOTE

All of our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.

A Delight!

Went out to have dinner at Patrick's. The food is fresh and tastes great! The cafe is so beautiful and SO relaxing. It’s a simple place yet so beautiful. When I was standing to order I wanted everything that was available...YUM!
It's so nice to have a cafe like this close to home!
Check out the site and the gallery of heaven!

I did some shopping today. It was fantastic! I haven't really done any serious shopping for months and today everything I tried on fitted so well!
I was browsing through bags...and every bag I checked out were LIZ CLAIBORNE'S.

I decided I needed a treat... so I got the bag on top, two boots that were 1/2 prized, and some tops.

I deserve it. Work too hard and no play? NO WAY!

Wanted to relax and do NOTHING tonight..so the result is:


My Birthdate: June 15

You take life as it is, and you find happiness in a variety of things.
You tend to be close to family and friends. But it's hard to get into your inner circle.
Making the little things wonderful is important to you, and you probably have an inviting home.
You seek harmony with others, but occasionally you have a very stubborn streak. (I guess so..haha)

Your strength: Your intense optimism

Your weakness: You shy away from exploring your talents ( Not really shy..okay maybe..but lately I am interested in everything...and I am pursuing what I want...)

Your power color: Jade

Your power symbol: Flower

Your power month: June

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

What Your Sleeping Position Says: Sleeping on your back

You have a passion for everything - including sleeping.
Outgoing and brash, you tend to still shock those who know you well.
You tend to be selfish. You are the most likely type to hog the covers.
You gravitate toward comfort and don't like extreme situations.

What Does Your Sleeping Position Say About You?

Your Hidden Talent

You have the power to persuade and influence others. You're the type of person who can turn a whole room around. The potential for great leadership is there, as long as you don't abuse it. Always remember, you have a lot more power over people than you might think!

What's Your Hidden Talent?

thank god it was just a paper...

I sat in horror.
I couldn’t concentrate, I didn’t know how to express my feelings, I just sat in front of my computer without moving.
How could I have done this?

I just found out that I turned in my rough draft as my final copy. How could this be? How could I be this careless? I was shocked. I really loved the way the paper turned out because a terrific writer helped me correct it on a Saturday morning (you know who you are).

I just can’t believe this.
It made me just…………………………………………..sit there……….

Mistakes. Even if you don’t intend it…it happens…or is this accident?

Thank God this was just a paper and I have the option of revising it (I’ll turn in my final) but what if this was something else. I could live with this (for a moment I thought I wouldn’t) but imagine all those people who unknowingly made a mistake that they couldn’t take back.

They have to sit there staring at themselves without any way to correct it.

Sometimes you summit something into this world, thinking it’s your best work, but life plays with you. Silly mistakes, one click, one second of an action, and that’s all.

That’s all it takes. Life is unpredictable.

To step that one moment back and change.

Busy bee...........

busy with school and work. I need a break! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!
One more day...and it's March already. Yikes!
time is flying by.
Wish I had more exciting things to say...but this is it. ohh well...

I do magic at work.

Working for the same company as my sister can have its days. When employers come into my building they’ll stare at me for a moment dumbfounded. When I first started working there this would bother me. Some would not walk through the doors until they are sure of what they are seeing.

What’s their problem: Supposedly almost 90% of those my sister and I have encountered say my sister and I look so much alike… they can’t believe it.


You should see them: They would have just visited my sister’s building and coming to mine. When I see them approaching me…I’ll simile…and they’ll give me this look and stop in their tracks. I would laugh but will not say why. They’ll stay a little further than usual and ask me “Do you have a sister at the next building”. Yes, I do…she’s working there right now. They’ll come closer (verified I wasn’t a ghost) and tell me that I look just like her. They’ll walk away still staring at me with their confusion.

This is same story my sister tells me.

This is surprising to both of us because we don’t look alike. Maybe we are so focused on the opposites that we don’t notice the similarities we have.

no thanks..

I thought I wanted to buy some clothes this weekend…since a lot of the stores have their winter items on clearance. It didn’t occur to me how much clothes I have until I started to clean my closet. Once all my clothes were out of the closet it was a massive pile of brightly colored shirts, skirts, and jeans. I am completely turned off from buying clothes…for at least a month if not shorter…HA!.

Random post..

--Brrrrrrr (is that how it sounds) when is REALLY REALLY cold! My car wouldn't start for like 30 seconds and it completely scared me! I would hate to have car problems right now...so much money! I miss snow..we haven't really had any.

My photography professor keeps telling the class "When it snows, go out with your camera,adjust the shutter speed, and you'll be amazed how the pictures turn out". I am waiting to try this.

My first project in this class I got 91/100. I was completely shocked! Compared to my classmates pictures..I thought mine were just average. But my professor thought otherwise.

I am really excited about my next project...I will write more about this in the upcoming week.

I am so excited about the new Oprah mission "America's:Debt Diet" or something like that. I caught their first show on this and it looks really educational. Families work with money experts...while the expert actually live in their houses. Ohh how fun!

Thanks for calling Montel.

Early morning I woke up to my cell phone going off.
It was The Montel William Show calling me about the tickets I requested.
I was excited about them calling me but now I am wondering
do I really want to attend?
I guess it’ll be exciting to be on TV.
If I could get couple of us interested in attending then it may be fun.
How fun can Montel be..really?
haha. We will see.

Roses are red....Violets are...

I was looking through the Star Tribune and found this article on how to lengthen life of a bouquet. I used to put Aspirin in vases but the writer says that it doesn’t work! It surprised me that Aspirin doesn’t help at all not to mention pennies, soft drinks, alcoholic beverages. Nada.

------------*Here are some suggestions to prolong life of a bouquet.*--------------

--Floral preservative that comes with almost all flowers does extend life for several days.
--Scrub the inside of the vase so it’s squeaky clean
--Recut stems while holding them in stream of warm water so air doesn’t plug tiny vessels.
--Make cuts on an angle so doesn’t sit flat on the bottom
--Place flowers in cool location out of sunlight
--Replace water when they start to look cloudy and cut stems again

Article written by Deb Brown

Hello Gorgeous!

Has anyone seen those Dove commercials? Especially the commercial with this woman…who is absolutely gorgeous by the way! Dove, global beauty brand, recently started a campaign to raise self-esteem in girls/woman all over the world. By doing campaigns with real women who have real curves they hope to widen the definition of what it means to be beautiful. It’s a great start and I am sure is going to get people talking about the stereotypes placed on women and their beauty.

great dinners-courtesy of my dad

I been having great dinners the past few days. We had the usual sunday dinners...Sundays are the days my dad cooks about 5 curries, rice, baked chicken and whatever else we are craving for. But on monday and tuesday of this week he has been making dosas and wonderful sambar.

The thing about making dosa and sambar is that is a lot of work...atleast it seems for us because there's barely anytime to cook and would be a lot easier to just order something. So when my dad makes Sri Lankan foods it usually will last for atleast two days if not more. Taste just as wonderful though because we cook it everyday..but have everything prepared days in advance.

Instructor:

You might walk into New York museums or any museums and think…I could have done this…a monkey could’ve done this…

And that’s art.

Me and the guy that was sitting by me:
(Uncontrollable laughing)

where is the party? I need one.

These days I feel like the most exciting thing I have done is.....buy this hat! I know..How boring is that?!? Must work on getting out more. Monday to friday worry about classes. Once Friday hits worry about getting to bed on time to get to work on Saturday and Sunday...


I was so suprised how my picture turned out with my instructor advising me to use 200 speed film. I haven't used 200 for 10 years...we usually spend a bunch with 800 speed. 200 worked wonderful and I can't wait to go into class to show my pictures! One thing about digital camera is that there is no excitement to see how your picture turns out..because you could see it the second you take a picture.

Had a fantastic time tutoring.

I was the only one who showed up and 5 kids with math problems! It was awesome to go from teaching 3rd math to 12th grade math all in 2 hours. The 12th grader asked questions that would take me one hour to figure out...but with so many others waiting I wasn't able to spend that much time with her. All of them asked if I came every day of the week...I wish! It made me think as I was walking out of the library that everyone should volunteer at something! Most of the kids know what to do but like most in math they need assurance that they are going about a problem correctly...
I am staying away from pop as much as I can. When the day is long and I need something SO GOOD..this is what I been getting...SNAPPLE juice drink! so good!

fortune anyone?

I am getting so annoyed with fortune cookies that are not telling fortune. Like today I opened my fortune cookie and got "Finally, it is accepted as self-evident". What is this mean?
To anyone else... is this fortune?
Who is making these non-fortune cookies?

I was ready to put these babies
on and go out of the house...
but they HURT so much...
what's the deal?
Maybe today was not a day to try on new boots.
Shall try again tomorrow. :-)

What will we do without lines?

What will we do without lines?

This morning when I parked to go to class the parking lot was covered with snow. So I parked in between two cars and walked to class. When the day was over I came out and couldn't stop laughing at seening my car. At first I thought someone moved my car or hit my car. The parking was horrible! It wasn't even close to the box. Then I realized a lot of the other cars were parked like mine. With snow we couldn't see where to park...WOW. STRANGE feeling to see the car almost in the lanes of oncoming traffic.

Rain in January? What a strange and very gloomy day. A perfect day to sleep all day and watch old movies. But I have way too many things to do. My photography class is driving me crazy, yoga class is painful (in a good way) and karate is hard and funny at the same time.

But all three are something new and rewarding.

More about these later. I better finish my paper.

"Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they will not be here tomorrow. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again."

This is just too hard to do...

Busy week! Running back and forth from home to school. I don’t even know how the week went by so quickly. Finally had my New York trip meeting where I got to meet everyone who is going. Picked my roommate and the group I’ll be in. We have a very diversified group so we’ll all have different ideas to contribute to the trip. Excited but I don’t want to think about packing till’ few days before. My coordinators arranged it so the group will have plenty of free time to do whatever we want. YEA! I am really looking forward to visiting the Empire State Building at 8:30 p.m. This is arranged so we can see the nightlife of New York. And everyone knows I love staying out late at night!

color of love?

In class we were talking about perceptions. So my professor asked these questions to the class:

1. What color is today?
2. What is the texture of your favorite music?
3. What color is love?
4. What does your childhood sound like?
5. What is your idea of a really good time?

So we all had to share our answers. For question #3 I said the color white! Everyone was a little suprised at me describing love as white! I thought of white because it didn't have any need to try to get attention, is simple, is there without needing to be in your face all the time.

I could never forget my dad walking me to the bus stop the first day of 4th grade. Assuring me time after time that this is my bus and it was okay to get on it. I kept watching him from inside the bus to see if he was 110% confident that this is the right bus that will take me to my first day of 4th grade.

He was right.

How time changes so quickly. Now I am the one assuring him time after time that this is the right highway to the store. I just hope most days that I could respond as lovingly as my dad did when I was 11 years old and afraid.

We also went shopping for school with my dad. I would pile so many things...usually 10 of each...I still have some things I bought for school in 4 th grade. ..so sad. My dad would patiently wait for me to make up my mind about my big once a year purchase. I remember one year we had to take the bus back home and I felt so bad that I made my brother and my dad carry all my stuff. Bags and bags of school supplies.......*heaven*.

Teacher Says...

One of my professors came after class and asked me if I ever thought about broadcasting. I said What?! Why?! Me?! Are you kidding?! He said that I had a great voice for speaking and he was impressed with how I introduced myself to the class. He said I had a powerful voice..ahhh isn't he sweet. I still can't believe it. Here I am thinking I sounded extremely uncomfortable and I get a compliment like this.


Still can't help thinking if he was speaking to the right student?


I am always a little suprised how people perceive me.