THE SOCIAL MEDIA SONG - OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO!!!

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, presenting....

I saw the RedShirts today....

Photos here: Redshirts on Sukhumvit.

FREEZE!!

A weird phenomenon where a bunch of people suddenly found themselves frozen in place took place this afternoon at CentralWorld, Bangkok.

Check it out:

PEACE

Today I attended Professional Development Day, and left school absolutely inspired.

Dr Art-Ong Jumsai is a man in his 60s who has worked for NASA, has 3PhDs, and yet is one of the most profoundly humble and grounded people I have had the honour to meet.

He gave a talk on integrating human values into education...
(Something that as a counsellor and a teacher who loves her students, I know to be extremely important.)

He spoke in parables and anecdotes.

His lessons were on life, his emphasis on peace and love.



I noted down in my little gem-book (personal not professional) some of the thought-gems I particularly liked.




Let me share a few with you:

How lucky I am to receive problems in my life...
...that I may have the opportunity to
learn,
progress
& find
peace
& joy
in everything around me.


****

If you are sensitive, easily hurt and offended by things people say this one's for you:

What are these words you think will hurt me?
Nothing but vibrations of air particles.

(In other words, we assign our own meaning to what is said, and hence we don't need to get angry if we don't want to -- a sort of detachment.)


****

And my favourite: A philosophy on life:

You say
"I WANT PEACE"
But to receive peace, you must first get rid of
"I"
and
"WANT".
Then will you find that you have peace.

Read:
I is the ego --> the love of oneself.
Want is the desire for needless things,
which if not attained leads to disappointment and disenchantment.
(Yes, these are very psycho-Buddhist teachings... wisdom comes in many forms!)

Oh the Boh-Liao-ness of it All!

One of my favourite things when studying in Polytechnic was listening to morning radio while on the way to school.

There was Joe and the Flying Dutchman, Glenn and Rod... and various other breakfast radio duo combinations.

I'd laugh/smirk/grin to myself in appreciation of inane (boh-liao) jokes, not caring if passers-by thought I was crazy.


Here are some snippets I heard this morning that made me laugh out loud:

**

DJ 1: Apparently 42% of people make new year resolutions.
DJ 2: So few? How come?
DJ 1: Who knows....
Pause.
DJ 1: Anyway, 90% of the 42% have already broken their new year resolutions.

**

"It's a dog's life.
Go pee on a tree."

**


o__O

Investing in the Future

Seeing my two grandmas lately, and even my parents and aunties and uncles who are getting older, has gotten me thinking about old age.

We can't deny certain facts in our lives - we are born, we live, we die.
Some die young, some grow old and die.
Some people, when old, lose control over many things - their physical body, their mental state... it's just a matter of time.

Or is it?


Many of the sicknesses and troubles of old age can probably be attributed to lack of foresight/planning/control in youth.

Let's face it - the great problem of the young is that the young tend to live like there's no tomorrow.
In other words, the young do not usually think,"Oh, if I continue to party every night and sleep late, I will be incurring a huge sleep debt and which might one day lead to Parkinson's when I am old."

Ha.

No, I've been through that blatant blindness, and have passed the stage where I can do something without thinking twice about the consequences.

One of my favourite quotes from this movie called Closer is:
"She has the moronic beauty of youth"
I think it's just so aptly described,
Youth have a kind of beauty that will never be revived - it is a moronic beauty, a kind of beauty that is entirely disrespectful of the reality of life that we live in.
Because at that age, we can still afford to take everything for granted.


Well, here are several articles I came across about how what we do and what we eat affects what kind of old person we will become:
Blood Sugar Linked to Good Brain Health
Brain Malnourishment Triggers Alzhiemer's
REM Sleep Disorder Linked to Parkinson's



So... at the start of this new year, why not start planning:
What kind of old age will you be investing in?

Christmas is near....

Got this is an email.
Heh.


Carols For the Psychiatrically Challenged

SCHIZOPHRENIA: Do You Hear What I Hear?

MULTIPLE PERSONALITY DISORDER: We Three Kings Disoriented Are

DEMENTIA: I Think I'll Be Home For Christmas

NARCISSISTIC: Hark, the Herald Angels Sing About Me

MANIC: Deck the Halls and Walls and House and Lawn and Streets and Stores and Office and Town and Cars and Busses and Trucks and Trees and Fire Hydrants and . . .

PARANOID: Santa Claus Is Coming To Get Me

PERSONALITY DISORDER: You Better Watch Out, I'm Gonna Cry, I'm Gonna Pout, Maybe I'll Tell You Why

DEPRESSION: Silent Anhedonia, Holy Anhedonia, All Is Flat, All Is Lonely

OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDER: Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, ........ (better start again)

PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE PERSONALITY: On The First Day of Christmas My True Love Gave To Me (and then took it all away)

BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER: Thoughts of Roasting on an Open Fire.

The King's Birthday

Today is a holiday in Thailand.






Happy 81st to the King of Thailand!



Last year's celebrations: Lighting candles for the King...




Candlelighters surround the palace.







I like the current version in the movies theaters better, but this is the one before - in movie theaters in Thailand, just before the movie starts, they play a short clip like this, and everyone has to stand to pay respects to the King.

Sighs...........

So.
Was chatting with a new friend on my new widget (THAT YOU ALL NEVER TRY USING) on the right hand side of my blog --> the chat widget..... and he mentioned that I sigh a lot in my blog posts.

Funny cuz I know I sigh a lot in "real" life.... but I never noticed I do it often in my blog posts too!

Go ahead - scroll down and see how often I sigh in my posts!
Freaky!

I guess it shows that I blog very true to life - the way I talk/think! ;)

Just another normal teaching day....

Today, the First Graders had a discussion about Christmas:

Teacher: "What is Christmas about?"
First-Grader: "Jesus is dead. So he can't give out presents."


****


Marking exam papers can be VERY amusing:


Social Studies: Label a map of the world with the corresponding continents and oceans.

According to some of my students...

• Africa is a body of water east of Australia.
• The mass of land where North America used to be is the Atlantic Ocean.

Heh.

Christmas at home, or not....

So the PAD got their way.
They say they will leave the airports tomorrow.

And yet...
Like any spoilt child who gets his way upon throwing a temper tantrum, all Thailand has done is to reinforce the PAD's idea that they can get their way simply by seizing the airports.



Sigh....
Whether my Christmas will be here or in Singapore is yet to be seen.

PAD - An Inside Look...

I came across this blog entry while surfing for info.

Very.... interesting....

Early Morning Thoughts...

I slept at an amazing 9:30pm last night... and proceeded to wake up automatically (read: NO alarm) at 5:30am.

Sighhhh..... I'm REALLY a teacher now, aren't I?

*****


Blog-Hopping

Lately I've been blog-hopping randomly by clicking the "next blog" button on the top of blogs.
It's pretty interesting to find out what the average blogger writes about.
Thanks to technological advancements and the widespread availability of good cameras and photoshop softwares, I've also noticed that most bloggers post some pretty awesome pictures.
I don't feel so special anymore in the photo department. HA.

You should try it too (if you haven't already) - blog-hopping yields some pretty cool blogs.

(Although, I must admit I did come across some pretty wEiRd blogs, and many blogs in languages I could not read. Heh.)

Book Game

Since I seem to actually be reading a little more these days... came across this Book Game on Mr Brown's blog.... and decided to do it:

Rules:
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 57.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence along with these instructions in a note to your wall, and post your sentence in a comment here as well. Include the title of book and author.

My book:

"Where is the bathroom, please?" she said.

~Tanglewreck by Jeanette Winterson.

Random, yet not random thing...

I uploaded the 3B video onto YouTube and also Facebook.
(cuz I can't embed fb video onto my blog)

After watching the video on both, I noticed that the picture quality is a LOT better on Facebook.

What do you think?

(You'll have to log in to FB to watch THIS version.)

Cry Me A River

In doing "research" for my upcoming gig (this Sat eve), I came across this video.
I've actually never seen this movie... have heard this version of the song of course, but was pretty amused by this video. Heh.

Restores my confidence in men, it does!

Go see for yourself!

A Rose By Any Other Name....?

Nicknames...

The first that was given to me... as far back as I can remember, was by my parents and family.
As a wee little girl, I was called Na or Nana....

Then in Primary 1, a little boy in class started calling me Banana for no reason, making me quite conscious of my unconventional name.

Years have passed since then, and I'm pretty proud of my name now, but Lerie's right - for posterity, I should blog about the numerous nicknames I've been given.

So, in chronological order, they are....

0. Na / Nana
1. Banana
2. Mona Lisa (yup, the famous painting)
3. Shit-the-Mona (not so nice, I know... but was used endearingly by a secondary classmate)
4. She-mo-na (in Chinese this meas "what??")
5. Mimosa (genus of about 400 species of herbs and shrubs) OR (a cocktail)
6. My Shimona (you know... like the song - my Sherona or something...)
7. Shimano (the fishing and cycling brand)
8. Shimomo (utter nonsense)
9. Shikaka (more utter nonsense)
10. Shimmy (like the movement you do with your arms and chest. By Donny Dee, my ex-producer/publisher)
11. Shizz (courtesy of friends from MC) - also the one I like the best.
12. Shi-shizz (only Dael calls me this, and it's quite cute. I like!)
13. Shizcake (coined today by Lerie thanks to our Sugaroma craze)


That's just the ones I can remember.


Just fyi...
My parents named me Shimona out of a baby book.
In it, they claim that the meaning is of Hebrew origin, meaning Little Princess (thus my blog moniker). However, upon doing some research of my own, I have come to find that it possibly means more towards...

... To hear and to be heard.
That I like.

Laughed Out Loud Reading This...

From Bryani.

Freebie??

I'm skeptical, I must admit- I hardly ever win lucky draws.
But I figured, what the heck.

Got the link from Aim's blog.




I like these.