About followers and followers

Do I have the Twitter blues? Because sometimes I wonder why some people communicate on Twitter with me, yet find it hard to follow me. Are my tweets so annoying? I've seen worse ;-)

I have this policy on Twitter: Unless it's a news source or celebrity, I would follow people who communicate with me at least sometimes. I mostly add bloggers, because it's the easiest way to connect outside the blogosphere. You can exchange links, ideas, thoughts. It's fun. :-)

I guess everybody has a group of people (twiens, friends) to chat with daily and a bunch of news sources and random people to chat with occasionally. I try to keep my number low, because I want to connect with those who I want to follow. But I'm pretty open-minded when it comes to adding people. Just talk to me, I'm nice. I would always reply back [*unless you're a spam bot] and I would follow you back, if you seem friendly and really interested in getting to know me. I delete spammers immediately, but sometimes some random [*real] people follow me, but never @me. I don't block them, but I don't follow back either.

But recently I decided to unfollow some people who silently unfollowed me and I deemed them as twiens. That's no biggie. It's a free #tworld ;-) Like in real life, people come and go, so that's nothing special. Same goes for blogging. Followers come and go... So may I: I may come, I may go. In the blogosphere I usually give more than I recieve, but now I need to focus on those who give me the same attention that I give to them (be it on Twitter or blogs). Some people could be more appreciative, I guess, but then again, I live by my standards and they live by theirs. So..., whatever. To each his own [*my favorite saying for online issues].

[*Don't we all have some complaints about twitteres and bloggers? Hehe...]

Ok, a serious question: What are your blog or Twitter policies regarding following and commenting?

[Photo: My cat on my bed while I'm tweeting. She doesn't really care about Twitter]

Obama won the Nobel peace prize!

This was just wow! Barack Obama won the Nobel peace prize 2009! I happened to watch it live on TV, when they announced it and I pride myself as being the first who broke the news on Twitter (I'm so FOM, I know, hehe). Anyway, the initial reactions on Twitter were funny, like: "What did he do???" Duh! Imagine Sarah Palin near the Oval office? Ok, joking aside, let's see some tweets:

• PepeEdwardson WTH! US President Obama received Nobel Peace Prize???? No year in oval office and....? Whtas Wrong Sweden!?

• Syler_mi4 #Obama is first US President to win a nobel prize while still in office. not to mention that he hasnt completed a year in office.

• Karmapriya U.S. President Obama has won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy.

• karr1 Why O Why did we give #Obama a #Nobel price? He hasn't done anything special yet, has he?

• kimbabim Obama just won the Nobel peace prize? Wow. Crazy. Didn't expect that at all. Isn't that a little early? #obama #nobelprize

• mainewolfie CNN Breaking news - President Obama has won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. FOR DOING WHAT??

My point of view: First of all, who cares why? Seriously. It's not Obama's "fault" to get this award. If you have complaints, send them via Oslo. If I was American, I would be proud. I mean, it won't hurt your country, will it? It can only make your image abroad better. You were pretty much hated by all over the world during Bush's 2 terms. Plus this award may be like a reminder for Obama to keep his promises and end wars and don't start new wars and to engage in peace efforts in Israel, Darfur and elsewhere in the world. It's a good signal. But I can imagine the rightwingers freaking out and finding new ways to mock Obama.

Anyway, congratulations mr. President and congratulations USA.

I am not a ghost man

I didn't colonialize the East, I didn't enslave the South, I didn't conquer the West.

I was born human. You say I was born white. I may look different than you, but I'm just like you. I don't see colors, I see people. And I'm friendly to anyone who's friendly to me.

It's not my fault that people who belonged to the same race as I commited so many crimes against humanity in the past. It's not my fault that people who belong to the same race as I think they're superior to other races. I won't be responisble for future crimes comitted by people who belong to the same race as I.

I am not an ambassador of my race abroad, nor am I an ambassador of my continent, my country, my hometown, my age group, my gender.

I am my own ambassador.

So how about instead of calling me khawaga, farang, barang, gwailo, angmoh, laowai, atoka, gaijin, kojangi, mat salleh, bule, puti... call me by my name?

[Photo taken in Penang, 2007]

Dreams can come true

My dreams will come true.

[Photo: Source]

Who are you really?

"The ugly and the stupid have the best of it in this world. They can sit at their ease and gape at the play."

Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

Have you ever looked in the mirror and asked yourself Who am I really in a brief moment, where time and space seemed to disappear and you suddenly felt that you're the main character in a movie and your whole life is the setting?

It happened to me a while ago before brushing my teeth. I was very tired. I looked at the mirror with my weary eyes and drowsy head and I suddenly started gazing at my face. I thought: Is that me? Is that how others see me? Who am I? Am I beautiful? Can I be beautiful to others? So many questions running thru my head in that moment. In order to get my senses back, I had to shake my head. I brushed my teeth and went to bed.

But the questions remained. Especially How do others see me is a permanent one. It's a question that helps me to behave well and to be respectful and mindful of others. Don't we all want to look good in the eyes of others? And it doesn't mean we're overly vain, it's a normal human condition, both sociological and biological. Of course, if you overdo it, the result will be the opposite. People will realize you try too hard and you're being fake. So you need to find a balance between careless and fake. I think most people are somewhere inbetween (including myself).

But for the new generation, the internet became a pool of vanity. Suddenly everyone's a model, we all pose, we all put the cutest, the prettiest, the handsomest pics on our Facebook profile. We're all fashionable, we're all sociable, we're all smart (thanks Google and Wikipedia), we're all the coolest peeps in every story we post on our blogs and so on... We can create a whole virtual identity, an altered one (a fake one?), an exaggerated one, but that won't change who we really are. Of course I'm not talking about everyone, but about those who are trying too hard. Be it online or offline, we can't play a role 24/7. At one point we have to face ourselves. We have to look in the mirror. It's a sobering and humbling moment.

Even Michael Jackson once sang: I'm starting with the man in the mirror, I'm asking him to change his ways...

So... who are you really?

[Photo: My sunnies]

Yui vs. Girls' Generation

The reason for this post is very simple: I had a discussion yesterday with my female friend about women's thighs. She says strong thighs are not sexy and she wants to keep hers thin, while I said I prefer strong over thin and that hers look good the way the are [*ah, women!]. The same day, my other friend Hwan gave me a link to a video of the girl on the left: Yui. She's a singer of the popual Korean girl group after school [애프터스쿨] and she's currently one of the hottest Korean girls in the showbiz [*still not hotter than Hyo-ri, I may add]. Anyway, Hwan told me, that Koreans call her "Kkulbeokji", which means something like "thighs sweet like honey." To get a better idea of that, please check the embedded video below. When my friend saw that video, she was like: OMG, her thighs look like mine. She always mentions another Korean girl group Girls' Generation [소녀시대], that consists of 9 girls, who are famous for having very thin and long legs and she wants to have legs like them. If you want to have a better image of that, check their latest video Genie. The girl on the right photo is a member of this group: Jessica. Now you can compare these two girls and answer a general question:

What kind of women's thighs do you prefer: Strong or thin?

My friend and I have a bet, so I'd really appreciate your feedback on this one. Keep in mind, we're talking about strong, not fat thighs. My friend is Taiwanese and it seems that the very thin legs are deemed beautiful there. And what she considers strong, is considered thin in Europe. So, before you comment, keep in mind, that we're debating Asian and not Western norms.

You said: Strong (5) - Thin (3) - Depends (2)

Yay, I win! :-P

[Ps: I admit, this was a silly post. What the heck, it's just for fun ^_^][Yui photo: Source, Jessica photo: Source]

October is here! Hope lives on.

October
And the trees are stripped bare
Of all they wear
What do I care
October
And kingdoms rise
And kingdoms fall
But you go on

by Bono Vox, U2 (Video)

September is over! Finally. And what can I say, it was one of the best months of this year for me. It hasn't been so good since my trip to Hong Kong in January and the Chinese new year celebrations in Malaysia soon after, with the countless sleepless nights playing mahjong. After I returned back to Europe, things have gone pretty bad and the hardest part was the break up. I needed few months to find some meaning in my life. I blogged a lot, tweeted a lot and at least it helped me to ease my pain. It was totally therapeutic, but it worked. And then came September, a month to remember. I found my happiness again. I felt special again, valuable and needed again. It's not as if my whole circumstances changed, basically I am in the same position as I was before. The only difference is, my views shifted. I am positive. I have hopes and dreams. I believe in love again. I have ambitions. I want to travel, learn, evolve. I want to experience so much and I feel confident in achieving all the goals I set for myself in September. And now it's October. And I feel it can only get better. Maybe the beginning and the end of this year will make it up for the horrible in-between time, that made my life so difficult this year. I am hopeful.

How was your 2009 so far?

[photo taken near my house]