From a friend : good life philosophy

1. Mistakes are temporary regrets, and missing the opportunities are forever regrets! Don't be afraid of mistakes and miss the chances.

2. Rather forgiving others yourself, than letting others forgive you.

3. The world doesn't belong to you originally, so you don't need to abandon it. What you want to abandon is all stubbornness. All is what for me to use, but not for me to own.

4. You have your view of life, I have my view of life, and I do not interfere with you. If I was able to influence your view, then I would reform you. If not, then I would resign to fate.

5. If you are going to get married, tell you a very important philosophical saying: "You must be patient with each other's shortcomings. There is no absolute happiness and perfect marriage in the world. Happiness only comes from unlimited tolerance and mutual respect.

6. My wealth is not that I have a lot, but that I ask for very little.

7. It's not that someone annoys me, but that I annoy myself with someone's words and deeds.

8. Living in the applause of others are people who can't stand the test.

9. If you can shout "I don't need to worry about this little thing" 21 times a day, you will find that there is an incredible power in your heart. Try it, it works.

10. If you can let go of everything, you’ll be a free human in the world.

11. Thank God for what I have, thank God for what I don't have.

12. Coming is accidental, and going is inevitable. So you have to let it be if things stay still and stay still to let it be.

13. A stupid person always wants others to understand him/her. Wise people try hard to understand themselves.

14. To tell a lie, you have to make up ten lies to cover up, why bother?

15. You don't have to look back to see who is cursing you? If a mad dog bites you, do you have to lie down and bite it?

16. Arrogant people could be saved, inferior people could not be saved.

17. Whenever you let go, whenever you’ll have no trouble and worry.

18. The reason why people suffer is due to pursuing the wrong things.

19. It is better to say that your own self-cultivation is not strong enough than saying that the others to make you suffer.

20. Fate is responsible for shuffling the cards, but it is our own choices to play the cards!

21. If you live one more day, you are blessed and you should cherish it. When I cried and complained that I have no shoes to wear, I found that someone in the world has no feet.

Parenting and teen celebrities

An inspiring article about teen pop stars, media influence, and the importance of parenting. This explains why young talents tend to commit crimes and do immoral things. Is it because they have improper value towards money and life as well as too much freedom? (Purple Highlights)

Mom and Pop Culture

By Martha Brockenbrough
Special to MSN TV

You have to feel sorry for Billy Ray Cyrus, who just emptied the entire contents of his achy breaky heart into a long interview with GQ magazine. Among other things, he said he regrets ever letting Miley star in Disney's "Hannah Montana" franchise. And he likens her unto Kurt Cobain and Anna Nicole Smith, both of whom met sad and early ends.

But you kind of have to wonder what took the guy so long.

Almost three years ago, MSN Movies ran a Mom and Pop Culture column I wrote that asked whether she was the next Britney Spears. At the time, her sexy image and public proclamations of virginity seemed at odds with each other -- or worse, a crass marketing ploy that made her seem safe to parents (she's a virgin!) while thrilling to kids (so shiny and pretty!). Britney had made the same virginity pledge and just a few years later, was living another kind of life entirely. And things only got worse for her from there.

About a year after the first Miley column, I wrote another piece outlining the many reasons she wasn't a role model: the cell phone panty shots; the YouTube video where she made fun of Disney rivals; the arguably racist slanted eyes she made in a photograph; her threat to "ruin" Radiohead after they opted not to meet with her at the Grammys; and somehow most offensive, parking in a handicapped slot when she was on a milkshake run.

A normal teen might do any one of these things. But all of them in rapid-fire succession made for a portrait of a teen out of control -- and this is just the stuff the public found out about.

Fast forward to today. Miley has turned 18. Her TV show is over. Her parents are splitting up. She's the subject of a running gag on "Saturday Night Live." She was caught on video smoking a legal hallucinogen, and now the people who love her most are starting to worry?

In Billy Ray's defense, he admits he made mistakes as a dad, especially in trying to be a friend to his kids. As he said to the magazine, other parents would warn, "You don't need to be a friend, you need to be a parent ... I'm the first guy to say to them right now: You were right."

Anyone who has kids takes after-the-fact realizations like this as a gut-punch. Every one of us makes the best decisions we can, and then spends the wee hours of sleepless night worrying about them. It must be a nightmare to wake up after all of that and realize that the central tenet of your parenting philosophy has taken your child to places you don't want her to go.

But he still doesn't get it. Not really. He also told the magazine that he performed on "Hannah Montana" "for peanuts." "I went from $12,000 a week to, after four years ... $15,000 a week. Hell, yeah."

It's of course true that the franchise and his daughter made a whole lot more money. But anyone who scoffs at $12,000 or $15,000 a week isn't living in the real world.

This point matters -- a lot.

When you forget that most people have to work a lot harder and be a lot more careful about their choices because the margin between survival and ruin is only as thick as the next paycheck, you also forget that actions have consequences.

This is also the kind of thinking that lets you excuse your child's bad behavior and bad decisions as youthful indiscretions instead of as big, fat warning signs. If parents aren't there dishing out actual consequences, how's a kid supposed to learn anything but that the normal rules of life don't apply?

Writing this stuff off as the folly of youth almost entitles kids to do things they know are wrong. What does it really matter as long as they can keep working and making millions?

And those millions do matter. We live in this strange time where young talent is dis-proportionally revered.

If you're 15, great-looking, and can sing and dance, there's a chance you could become a megastar before you get your driver's license.

But if you wait too long to reach for the brass ring, you might miss your chance. Heck, look at "American Idol." It took the show three years to raise the age limit from 24 to 28 -- as if the moment you turn 29, no one could possibly idolize you? And 30? Forget it.

This is crazy. And it's terrible for teen stars, who can reach the height of their earning power as they're sliding through the depths of their impulsive years.

It's no wonder so many of them end up with addictions, shaved heads and criminal records. If the entire world tells you you're the best thing ever, and if you're surrounded by people on your payroll who let you do whatever you want as long as you keep the paychecks coming, this is the most likely result.

What's unlikely to change things for Billy Ray Cyrus, though, is talking to magazines like GQ about all this business. Michael Lohan, who seems to send out weekly press releases about his daughter and her travails, hasn't managed to keep Lindsay Lohan from self-destructing. At various times, she even blamed her dad for her troubles.

There's a time and a place for parenting. The time is when your kids are kids. The place is at home -- not in the media. The media are not friends to celebrities, especially the young ones. The fawning press, the Barbara Walters "most fascinating" interviews, these are part of the problem. Same goes for the entertainment companies that create these publicity machines that shoot stars into orbit with little thought of keeping them in something resembling an atmosphere of sanity.

Here's hoping that whatever Billy Ray Cyrus fears most won't come to pass, and that Miley will emerge from this time ready to focus on her acting and singing, so that she can make the most of her talent and not just the most money. And now the rest of us can respectfully look away while this broken family does its best to heal.

Surprise Surprise*

百忙中應該給自己一個驚喜，例如節日上的慶祝。更加要獎勵自己的努力!

I appreciate the surprises created by others to me, which gives me a good start of the year.
Enjoy every corner and angle of life=)

To Ladies*

An encouraging and meaningful message to all ladies=):

1. No matter how good this man in front of you is, if he doesn’t love you, this is his biggest shortcoming which you can never change.

2. Do not cry when breaking up. Of course, it's not that you don't cry at all. In front of him, don't cry, but back in the ground, you could cry as much as you want.

3. The biggest shortcoming of a person is not selfishness, brutality, and willfulness, but stubbornness for loving a person who does not love you.

4. No matter how bad your conditions are, there will always be someone who loves you. No matter how good your conditions are, there are always people who do not love you.

5. The only way to seize a man should be, never let him be satisfied.

6. No matter how pretty you dress, no matter how expensive you wear, that's just a guise. A coat made with kindness is the true beauty.

7. If we blame love for hurting us, then may I ask, did you nod at the beginning to accept that love to come?

8. Grievances that can be spoken are not grievances. Those “lovers” who leave you are not considered your true love.

9. It is a kind of happiness to be able to hold a touch of sadness that cannot be taken away by time.

10. Human is always a lonely creature with ego. No matter how you sincerely speak your love, there will always be a moment that your heart cannot be understood.

11. Be neither modest nor arrogant, face everything with calmness and elegance.

12. A person, if he is not free, it is because he does not want to be free; a person, if he cannot walk away, it is because he does not want to walk away;

a person, if he has too many excuses for you, it is because he does not want to care.

13. Sometimes, things are subjective that cannot be explained. If you think it's worth it, then it's worth it; if you don't think it's worth it, even others say the opposite, you still feel it’s not worth it.

14. To understand the truth, men easily like a person, but will not easily fall in love with a person.

15. Woman, when in love, is like being isolated from the world.

16. On calm days, leave and cherish some space for yourself, some space for your partner, and some beauty for distance.

17. Sometimes don't worry too much. Men are a little bit clunky. Forgetting one thing doesn't mean he doesn't love you, don't scare yourself.

18. Women often like to confess their hearts, while men do the opposite.

19. Sometimes, learn to treat disappointment as a gain, because disappointment could be the byproduct of expectation.

20. Don't deliberately try to change whoever, because no one can change whoever, only if, he (whoever) is willing to change for you.

21. By time, you can understand love, you can prove love, you can also overturn love.

22. Freedom is precious, but tens of thousands of people are using freedom in exchange for love every day.

23. You can have vanity, because that is the nature of women, but don't let yourself become a tool for adding vanity to others.

24. Don't say that there is no good man in this world, don't remember and hate the person who abandoned you, after all, he had loved you. Forgiveness will make you more beautiful.

25. Don't be curious and don't care what his current girlfriend looks like. How is her figure? You're just making trouble for yourself like this.

26. Whatever you said must be done, even if it is stupid, it is better than words without credibility.

27. Don't make a decision when you’re angry and crying, you will regret it.

28. He said, “I am tired, let me calm down and take a break for a while, okay?” You say yes, because he came to inform you, not to get your consent.

29. You are pure then so be it, if you pretend to be pure, it is uglier than ugly, understand?

30. Not all efforts will succeed, but without effort, you will not succeed.

31. Girls must love themselves. No matter how much blow you encounter, no matter how bad the situation you face, don’t deprave yourself. The more you don't love yourself, the more nobody loves you.

32. Beauty, wisdom, money, and many other things are doomed by nature. Don’t try to change using your jealousy.

33. Be careful! Jealousy, hatred, and revenge are just tricks. It doesn't matter if you want to play these tricks, it's about not being discovered.

34. Set your mind, don't be sad when you lose things, you should be thinking like this, he does not belong to you.

35. Try to be an elegant woman, don't be pretentious, because pretentious women are not only hated by women, but also by men.

36. Independence, forever. No matter, emotionally or financially.

37. Um ... On what occasions do you not believe in a man? In bed, when he is happy, when he asks for you to do him a favour, and when he makes mistakes.

38. Don't try your best to show off to many people that you have many boyfriends or male friends. Because others will not envy you, they will just despise you.

39. Don't ask all day, do you love me? By the time when you ask, he doesn't love you anymore.

40. Under 20 years old, if you believe in idol drama, so be it. Over 20 years old, you still believe in idol drama, then it's over.

41. To know whether a man is good or bad, it’s not depending on his monogamy or not. Since ancient times, men have many dedications (I.e. Flower heart in Chinese), it’s depending on whether a man has self control or not.

42. Brave women are always more beautiful than coward women. If, your lover does not love you, I advise you to be brave and separate, better than cowardly entangled.

43. A woman who is good at compromise is precious. However, women who are only good at compromising are cheap.

44. Don’t be an overwhelming female; be a wise and strong woman.

Live with Stress and Reality

Have you ever read any people's blogs about their recent lives, especially the one that you used to hate before? I accidentally found out a person's blog, which I am interested in reading it right now. The person and I had some misunderstandings and arguments with each other when we were young. We used to be friends. However, we became two strangers after the argument because both of us said something hurtful to each other. After 10 years, both of us have grown up a lot and turn to be more mature. When I see her blog, I realize her emotions and impression towards human life and love. Ironically, we didn't even talk about our life goals and philosophy when we were still friends.

Her blog shows her confusion towards her goal and love. I experience similar identity confusion as hers, but hers is stronger than mine. I found out that she has a high expectation about her love, and an unsure plan of life. Each of her blog entry implies sadness and loneliness. Due to the fact that we do not keep in touch and that we are in different part of the world where are far from each other, I feel weird to cheer her up and leave her a comment in the blog after all these years. Therefore, I leave my words here for myself as well as for all the friends I love (hope you are reading my blog=)).

1. Everyone has his or her own stress. We cannot remove stress but we can live with it. Treat it as our motivation, our partner, and our supervisor.

2. Dreams are very important. Don't blame yourself if you cannot achieve the targets you used to have. Because you are in the right direction already, you just need to give yourselves sometimes to implement your dreams with different methods based on the reality. Try to know the rule of this game and play it well!

3. For the girl: I don't hate you anymore. I appreciate your writing skills and your personality. So I hope you can be happy and lovely in your life.

Opportunities

After watching the 10-year-transformation story of Lv Yan, who is the Chinese Top Model in Paris and New York, I realize that the key to success is going for each opportunity we have. Lv Yan gives me the impression that she is optimistic, brave to try, and she says "yes" to every opportunity. Therefore, she gains a successful life. She does not only gain fame and money, but she also maximizes her personal value in the fashion industry. I hope I can also treasure all the valuable chances in my life and become an useful person=)

Non-white and Quiet Christmas

Well, let's continue this blog even I finish my GE class, Geog 7. I never thought that I can make a 3D map by myself using the software. Technology is really amazing nowadays, which help us a lot.

In this winter, I went on trips as usual. Traveling makes me feel relaxed and eye-opening. =)

No snowing for this Christmas; the weather is warmer than usual. And it seems quiet on the streets during Christmas Eve and day. I wondered," Where do all the people go?" The quiet atmosphere was totally different from the Asian cities, such as Hong Kong and Seoul, during this happy holiday. In Hong Kong, people tend to hang out to enjoy the beautiful decorations, go shopping, and go to theme parks, while in the U.S., just a few cars and people stay outside, even no lights are on in houses. I guess people here prefer going on trips rather than staying at their hometowns. This is just an interesting cultural difference I realized in this vacation=)