My Own Happiness Project

My Own Happiness Project
because happiness begins inside and flows out...

20100331

coffee quote from the gilmore girls.....

The Pilot Episode - Opening Dialogue

Lorelai walks past a sign that says "Stars Hollow Founded 1779" and crosses the street. She goes into Luke's coffee shop. She takes off her coat and walks up to the counter, coffee cup in hand.

Lorelai: Please, Luke. Please, please, please.
Luke: How many cups have you had this morning?
Lorelai: None.
Luke: Plus...
Lorelai: Five, but yours is better.
Luke: You have a problem.
Lorelai: Yes, I do.

Luke pours her coffee.

Luke: Junkie.
Lorelai: Angel. You've got wings, baby.

A man watches Lorelai drink her coffee, then walks over to her.


Joey: You make that look really good.
Lorelai: Oh it is really good. It's the best coffee in town.
Joey: Oh yeah? I'll have to get a cup.
Lorelai: Good plan.

Lorelai: Sorry and I will get you some coffee.

Lorelai takes a coffee cup up to Luke, who gives her a stare...

Lorelai: What? It's not for me. It's for Rory, I swear.
Luke: You're shameless.

Luke: So what'll you have?
Lorelai: Coffee, in a vat.
Rory: I'll have coffee also. And chili fries.
Luke: That's quite a refined palate you got there.

Luke: Coffee, fries. I can't stand it. This is so unhealthy. Rory, put down that coffee. You do not want to grow up to be like your mom.
Rory: Sorry, too late.

freedom

A take on freedom, noted as I was browsing other people's blog again today...

Freedom Means Responsibilities

If we wish to free ourselves from enslavement,
we must choose freedom and the responsibility it entails.
There's a price for every freedom, something to be given up for every liberty.
It's up to us to weigh the price we must pay for each of our freedoms.
Everything we want has a price.
There's a price we'll have to pay for changing things and a price we'll pay for leaving things as they are.
Freedom is the opportunity to make decisions.
It's the capacity to take a hand in our own development.
Freedom is the right to choose.
It's the right to create for ourselves the alternatives of choice.
No one is free who is not master of himself.
We are free to do whatever we like.
We need only face the consequences of our actions.

20100324

arteo listing it down.....

While attracted to this article in the email, I became peculiarly in the mood for lists of wisdom and felt that sense of duty to share some of the gems with everybody in my blog... and got distracted from work, while at that. Totally fail.com, heh....

Anyway...

7 Strategies to Avoid Distraction at Work
By: Laurence Roy Stains

Very few men are endowed with the sort of concentration that allows them to cut through clutter and get the job done. Most of us are overwhelmed screwballs who need to learn what this focus thing is all about.

Athletes are always striving to perfect their focus. "You have to pay attention to the most task-relevant cues," says Robert M. Nideffer, Ph.D., a performance psychologist in San Diego and president of Enhanced Performance Systems. "You've got to separate signal from noise."

If you're going to advance your game and post a win, you can't get distracted—by the noise around you or the noise inside your head. You have to pinpoint what's important and execute accordingly.

The enemy of focus is distraction. Only during an Internet bubble could a distraction be so pie-in-the-sky. Usually it takes the form of the work that has to be out the door by 5 p.m. When that workload reaches inbox-busting proportions, it sucks up all your attention. The result? You get so caught up in what's urgent, you lose focus on what's important.

That crucial distinction was made by Stephen Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and it is, for my money, the best part of that best-selling classic. If you spend your days reacting to the urgent but often unimportant priorities of others, your career will consist of putting out fires. You may be efficient—but will you be effective?

Your top priorities, the things that will help you keep focused, should be your long-term goals—the projects that will define you, advance your career, and maintain your passion for your line of work.

Only your boss gets the luxury of concentrating full-time on what's important. And we all know why he's able to do that—he delegates the urgent stuff to you. If you're dizzy with conflicting demands on your time, how can you keep your eyes on the prize? Here are some smart ways.

Think by the Week

Most planning tools—calendars, daily planners, and to-do lists—help you be more efficient. But you're only prioritizing your crises each day.

Covey's cure-all: a weekly worksheet. Organize your life on a weekly basis; this allows you to schedule time for your top priorities and the actions that prevent crises.

Tell People to Leave You Alone

"It takes the average person 2 to 15 minutes to recover from each interruption," says time-management coach Joy Baldridge of Baldridge Seminars International. "Interruptions are the biggest time robbers and focus busters."

To minimize an interruption, she recommends her "plus, plus, dash" trick. Say two nice things (the plus, plus, or ++), then dash (-) off. Example: "Hey, great to see you. I wish I could talk now. Right now isn't good, though; let's talk at 3."

Clear Off Your Desk

Is your desk a mess? I hope so. Psychologists have discovered that messy desks are a necessity in a wide variety of careers. They're also distracting. Although we're barely conscious of it, we all have the same method to our madness.

We keep a "hot" pile of papers, probably next to the phone; a "warm" pile or two toward the edges of the desk; and various "cold" piles atop the filing cabinet and every other square inch of horizontal space. These last are mostly completed projects or "just in case" materials.

Their presence may ratchet up your sense of being overwhelmed. "As emotional arousal increases, focus becomes more difficult," says Nideffer. So take a rainy Saturday to stash or trash that stuff.

Straighten Out Your Life

If your output is down but your workload is the same, maybe something is bugging you. "One of the hardest things to realize is when your own emotions are slowing you down," says Jeffrey P. Kahn, M.D., a psychiatrist in New York City and president of the consulting firm WorkPsych Associates.

"Listen to what people tell you. If they ask, 'Are you okay?' it's appropriate to say, 'I'm fine,' but then ask yourself, 'Am I okay?' " If, on the other hand, you feel frazzled, but everyone admires your ability to juggle a zillion tasks, then give yourself some credit: You're multifocal. "I see that a lot, particularly among very successful people," says Dr. Kahn.

Respond Right Away

"In high-pressure situations, people tend to rush," says Nideffer. You've done this, I'm sure—you get an e-mail or memo, and because it requires a moment of thought or the retrieval of more information, you set it aside. Later on, you come back to it (when you're even more rushed) and spend time trying to figure out where you left off.

Try not to pick up the same piece of work twice. "Read it and respond," says Dr. Kahn, "rather than put it aside and think you'll respond later."

Carve Out Time

If you're feeling overwhelmed, break it down. Ask yourself, "What is it, exactly, that I'm not getting to, and how can I get to it?" Doctors need to return phone calls, contractors need to take care of paperwork, salesmen need to sit down and make long-term plans. They all need to carve out an hour or two for these tasks. "Protect that time," advises Dr. Kahn. "Then you don't have to worry about it while you go about your day."

Pick the Low-Hanging Fruit

In the end, your workday will inevitably be a hodgepodge—a crazy salad of big projects, short deadlines, interruptions, distractions, and surprises. Roll with it all, but make sure to do what Dr. Kahn calls "picking the low-hanging fruit—tackling the easy tasks that you can get done quickly. That helps you feel like you're on track."

18 things worth fighting for....

18 Things Worth Fighting For
By: Mike Zimmerman
  1. Your workout schedule. Nonnegotiable. A deal breaker. Make sure everyone knows it.
  2. The theory that two people must have sex before they can ever be in love. Because you can't love someone until you know that person fully—and sex brings many revelations. Ermmmm...
  3. Your favorite band/movie/team/political party/religion—which, you've just been told, sucks. It may indeed suck. So what? Someone just ground your passions under his heel. Let him have some.
  4. Fifteen percent off. You'll get 10.
  5. Your rung on the ladder. The salary's still there, you still have your office, but something's off. They're making plans without you. Your turf has eroded. Time to shine again.
  6. Your right to leave the bar as early and as soberly as you want. You will be called many names. You are none of these things.
  7. Your equally valuable right to hand your keys to a buddy and have another round. Morning will hit hard and fast, but sometimes you have to risk short-term-memory loss in the name of long-term-memory gain.
  8. A free phone. They get a check every month for 2 years? Yeah, free phone.
  9. That brief stretch of time that is your own. You may not get it until 10 p.m., but make sure you get it, because after commute time, company time, dinnertime, and quality time, your time is the last defense against total annihilation of the self.
  10. Your habits. She's dying to change you, but she should know up front that men don't change. We can evolve, however, and that takes time.
  11. A perfect combination of retained youth and acquired wisdom. Especially as it applies to nooky.
  12. The true source of her silence, her headaches, her thickening layer of frost. It may be you, or it may not. But whatever it is, get it out there, because this crap cannot go on.
  13. The remote. A guy we know broke his leg fighting for the remote. And he'd do it again.
  14. The sanctity of the line. Whether the dirtball tries it with a car or his own cloven feet, his butting in line is a grievous insult—he's saying his time is more valuable than yours. We're all on the same death clock, pal. Deny him. Hard. The mob will back you.
  15. Making money from that one thing you're best at. There has to be a way to cash in.
  16. The real answer. Sales reps, bureaucrats, and bosses of every stripe are where they are because people settle for their pat, evasive answers. Pound their bullsh-- position with a fusillade of toddler logic: But why?
  17. The mail-in rebate you still haven't received. Companies count on lazy consumers. Be their nightmare.
  18. Happiness. Can't swing that? Strive for absence of misery. Then keep going.

20100315

out of roads.......

Veepee Pinpin
from Something More: Songs for Skeptics


This is one of those emotional songs you'd really hate for them to play during Camp's Worship time... because it will inevitably break some tears! I may not have observed much of Lent this year, but I'd reflect on my situation, very much like the chap who is singing this song. A (probably) smart (so I've heard) fellow with lots of head knowledge (then again), thinks that he knows much by studying and able to interpret the stars. So he ventures out of his father's house, spending his times and life till he comes to this night, when he looks at the stars again and wonders why is he still lost... But determination has another name, some calls it perseverance, and he stay on. But he knows that he's just delaying the inevitable, for he has this haunting need that he can't deny... But maybe tomorrow?

Out of Roads...

I just ran out of roads again
Don't know where to turn
I started counting stars again
Then I lost my way

I just ran out of time again
Will I ever learn?
To stop my chase of hours again
Only to learn I've lost the day

The last thing I need is to hear
This whisper in the wind
The last thing I want is this voice
That rises from within

I'll need to go home soon, I know
But maybe tomorrow, not now
The last thing I need here and now
is this lasting need for You

I've been rushing out of rooms again
Too afraid to stay
I've been dreaming of some rainbows end
But the colours melt away

Should my heart be like an open door
Help us to restore
Permit Your wind to touch my soul
Only to leave this aching song

The last thing I need is to hear
This whisper in the wind
The last thing I want is this voice
That rises from within

I'll need to go home soon, I know
But maybe tomorrow, not now
The last thing I need here and now
Is this lasting need for You

The one thing I need is to hear
Your whisper in the wind
The one thing I want is Your voice
That rises from within

I'll need to go home soon, to You
Won't wait for tomorrow, right now
For the one thing I need here and now
Is this haunting need for You
Is this haunting need for You

retweet from boidea.....

As seen on the notice board outside the main hall I suppose. Vic's and Dean's names were so screwed, they should sue the school.

Another reason for being nostalgic.

20100312

arteo gets nostalgic.......

Jeffery's Rounds circa year 1999 - 2000

I wonder if I'd ever relive those good old times, ever again.... sigh.

20100307

world book day @times bookstore......


Times World Book Day

20% off storewide discounts for TPC members
10% off storewide for non-members
Additional 5% off on 4 March for TPC members
Free limited edition notepad with purchase of RM50
Free TPC membership with purchase of RM100

Available at all Times Bookstores

www.timesbookstores.com.my

20100306

arteo learns the technical stuffs....


Okay, I think I've reached the edge of my sanity in trying to do my own website without professional help... so I've got a Dummy to teach me. Errmm, I think reading this guide makes ME the dummy here, heh. Anyway, that's another RM87.78 out of the wallet, into the climbing cost of putting up Philosoffee webpage on my own... It had better worth it!! Damn.