Discussion: Blessing or Curse

One's natural ability to do something not many would be able to is a gift from mother nature and written in our gnome or DNA. Is this natural gift a blessing or a curse?

Let me start off by being my usual self, objective and open-minded.

It's a blessing for the following factors:

• Ability to achieve something extraordinary and perhaps for the greater good - For example Ian Thorpe who is very gifted the ability to swim well and attained the glory. He has also used that fame for the greater good in channeling his efforts in charity work. Others include Michael Jordan, Jet Li, Richard Gere, Angelina Jolie and the late Princess Diana
  
• Ability to scale greater heights and attained personal growth which may have a domino effect to those around the person - For example Stephen Hawkings, Albert Einstein, Alexander Bell and the Wright Bros.

It's a curse due to the following reasons:

• Complacency due to snobbishness and subsequent downfall- A person may consider oneself to be unique from others and lead to exploitation. Hence, that person may look down on those unfortunates. The obvious example I can think of is Adolf Hitler.
  
• Side effect/Overdo of the ability that turns into a weakness/backfire - A gifted athlete who relies to much on his/her gift lost out others who may not be as gifted but are determined and diligent.
  

Some personal experience I have accumulated over the years:
One obvious gift that I have (very much like my dad, my uncle and, I know of, a cousin) is my memory.
Advantages - Ability to BS in exams by linking logical factors (which I aced thru the History paper in the public exams, to my surprise), to remind others on their schedules (friends and family), walking telephone book/share market info (that's my dad and/or my uncle)
Disadvantages - Having a wonderful memory can sometimes be frustrating and/or vengeful due to past events, conversations and news that may hurt someone's feeling at best and ruin a friendship/relationship at worst when blurted out unintentionally (I had been thru that myself, so had my dad and uncle of which I have seen it materialised).

In sports, I know of a few of my friends are gifted in some ways or another. They were complacent and lazy while the unfortunates who gave their best in training and improving themselves technically and physically, were able to give them a beating or at least a worthy challenge! I'm not gifted with height and the abilities to glued to water and being "floaty" for swimming. I made up by giving my all in training and striving to perfect my techniques. If a swimmer could put in 7 sessions a week, I'll put in 9-11 a week and spent additional days figuring out the little things like at the reaction time on plunging block, turnings, finishings and even strength-building.

So, what's your position in this issue? As for me, I guess a good balance with self-control may minimise, but not eliminate, the cons.

Another Day, Another Coming Weekend

Just finished dinner! All satisfied and filling..........and yummy....

For the past 2-3 weeks, work has been really slow. I am either surfing the net, chatting, reading news, finishing up a post-course assessment (and btw aced it), assisting others, making claims from insurance and shopping for my new pair of Julius Marlow. It's been a while since we have our slow season of which the peak will pick up again from next week. So, I must as well enjoy it while the opportunities exist.

So, what happened today? I went shopping but this time for Canon ink cartridges. I had to visit 3 different chain stores to get a black and a colour! Gosh.....It's astonishing that 3 huge chain stores have limited supplies for specific cartridges! Had char koay teow for lunch which doesn't come with koay teow but egg noodle!! It still tasted good......

Hit gym around 6pm for my usual cardio workout that involves cross training machine, multiple sets of chin-ups, crunches, dips and leg extensions/curl. Wondering why it's considered as cardio? I don't take long rest between each exercise. The rest that I take is by working on other muscles eg Chin-ups then Crunches then Dips then Leg Extension and the exercises are being repeated. However, the difference this session is that I did Dips with additional weights of 8kgs. Now, that's >10% on top of my body weight! My target is to hit 25% for both Dips and Bench-press while 15% for Chin-ups which were my during peak swim days few years ago.

Got home before 8pm and started cooking my leftover pork with mushrooms! All done and washed up before 8.30pm!

Can't wait for tomorrow to come as I'm looking forward to another show, Hunchbax, which a friend of mine won on eBay (<$15 each). Dinner comes with the comedy play which originally cost >$40. Wondering why she and my other friends are so damned lucky while I'm always down with luck - gambling, games, career, r'ship etc. However, I'm very fortunate to have wonderful friends around me and supporting yet loving family.

Weekend is just around the corner. There are cleaning and tidying to be done, chiro to go to on Sat midday, squash game to run about on Sun and perhaps squeezing in another session of cardio and power training!

Most likely, I'll bring my baby out for the fireworks by the Yarra river once again. I'll just need to fix her on my other legs and start fondling her parts & squeezing her button! LOLz.........See the photos here and you wouldn't be able to see her cos she's facing the fireworks!!

Life-long Learning

I cooked tonight after heading to gym and grocery shopping. Looks like this will stay so long the workload is light.

Tomorrow the partner will be meeting some of us (lateral hires) over lunch for some discussions. Wondering what's on his mind. With a few seniors left over the past few weeks, probably he is trying to fish for some information. Who knows? We'll have to see tomorrow.

All I know is that I will continue to be a PRACTICAL person with a PRAGMATIC approach in charting my life. I have personally experienced a number of incidents over the years. Most of the time, I am the person putting in the effort trying to make things happened like gathering and keeping in touch with friends. What is more hurtful is that there are some who couldn't confirmed their participations/decisions even with ample time given. To me, such attitude is so very disappointing and frustrating due to the efforts and time being invested in on the planning and organising. If these efforts are not being appreciated, why have them linger in my life?

Everything takes 2 hands to clap. Successful relationships and friendships are based communication by both/all parties (but communication is only one of the main factors). How would this work out if only one party (or a handful) is putting in all the efforts while the rest are asking questions, giving instructions and/or just sitting back idling? I guess once, twice and 3 times would have been sufficient.

It's very mentally draining and I'd rather give up playing those games. I believe I should start cutting off/giving up certain attachments of which I used to consider them close in my heart. The lesser disappointments and frustrations I get, the happier I will be!

More interestingly, I have recently came across an article by Steven Covey on 90/10 Principle. 10% of life is made up of what happens to you while the 90% is decided by your reactions. We have no control over the 10% but we determine the remaining 90% which are made up of our reactions to the 10%.

I suppose this 90/10 is a very good principle to live by. It's up to us to decide on how we react to those occurrences around us. How those reactions impact the hours/days ahead depend on the decisions/actions we made earlier.

Being practical and living by the 90/10 principle may complement each other. I hope to get these drilled into me but it's not like it's a switch that can be turned on instantaneously. It may take some time but I will attain them with my determination and my mental strength.

Wish me luck then.....

Fireworks

Friday and Saturday finally came and gone!

Crown Casino celebrated its 10th year anniversary with fireworks for 5 nights (Fri, Sat, coming Tues, Fri & Sat)! Obviously, I went out to grab some shots after a disappointment during the last fireworks display that was canceled due to poor weather (Moomba Festival in March). I am a HAPPY man with the shots I took! Some are posted below while more on Who ALSE site. Comparing to my previous shots during Commonwealth Games, they seem to be better but I may be biased! This time, these are taken with the beasty 28-70 while the older ones are taken with the kit lens 18-70 loaned by my uncle.




Saturday (today) was spent working out in the gym in the morning and doing my laundry. After that, it was off to the Imaging Tech Expo! Sat in for Steven Dupont's session on Photos on the Edge at Nikon's corner! It was a nice sharing of his experience and photos taken in East Timor, Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel etc. And of course, I went to the Flickr corner where some of our photos are showcased on digital photo frames!

Had a movie marathon at a friend's house just then over pizzas for dinner! Man, Saw III is gory and shocking!

What's the plan for tomorrow? I guess another visit to the Expo for some talks and perhaps meeting up with other photographers. O yea, ironing and cleaning my place too!

Peace out

Photo Exhibition - Excitement

Well, it has just been confirmed that I will have 10 of my photos taken in Melbourne exhibited during the Photo Marketing Association (PMA) show in Melbourne this weekend. A total of more than 1000 photos by 165 Melbourne-based photographers will be showcased on the LCD photo frames.

The 10 photos are:











I can't hardly wait! It's my first exhibition of any sort. YEAH.......I tried to contain my excitement and am still trying.....

Magnicent Experience It is

Master Yoda, I am not trying to be!

Wondering what Varekai is? It means "wherever" in Romany language of the gypsies. However, this is actually a circus performance by the renowned Cirque Du Soleil. For more info, please have a look at the site http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/. Saltimbanco and Alegria are the other famous productions.

I had the opportunity to enjoy this time around after missing the Saltimbanco few years ago. It is a 2-hour performance with a 30-min break in between. Honestly, I have to admit the costumes and stage set ups are extravagant. Here are some of the very few photos taken without realising that no cameras are allowed! I guess Ignorance Is Bliss after all!

How were the 2-hour performance? I love the juggler who juggled the balls and the hats on the move. Frankly, I have seen better acrobatic performances. However, the combinations of the astonishing set ups, exquisite costumes and the performances made the show very entertaining! Moreover, it's the nearest I have ever been to any show. From the pics above, I am sure you would have guessed that. The seat I was in was 2nd row from the stage itself!

A circus would not be a circus if there is no clown! In fact, there are a few and they are dressed both simply and extravagantly!

Photos were taken with my baby Nikon D200 and Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D which has been considered a cheap yet captured great results. Wondering why I took the lens along rather than the proven beasty Nikkor 28-70mm f/2.8D? Firstly, I didn't expect I would be sitting so close. Secondly, usually in these shows flashes are not allowed due to distraction. So, a faster lens is more conducive in low light environment. Besides, it's so much lighter and smaller with the 50mm f/1.8D!

It's definitely a well-worth 2-hour entertainment that is relaxing. For those moments, we were taken to the mystical realm of fantastical creatures!

Other photos are on Who ALSE?!.