Live Life With No Regrets!

Sometimes, I shudder at the monstrosities that man can do. As they say, fact is often stranger than fiction.

Josef Fritzl locked up his own daughter in his carefully designed soundproof prison in his cellar. He systematically raped her and fathered 7 children with her, keeping her his prisoner for 24 years.

In this case, it is even more horrifying than fiction. The novel Flowers in the Attic depicts a similar scenario.

I just cannot believe that something like this has happened in real life.

Posted by Nico at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A lot of my friends say they envy me because I'm single.

And yes, they have a few good points. I make my own decisions. I am in charge of my time.

"You can do anything you want, they say."

I reply, "But at least you can have sex whenever you want. I can't."

However, the thing is, I can't do anything I want. I still have limits. Single people still have a limited amount of time on their hands.

Each day we only have 16 waking hours to do what we want. 8 is left after minusing our work.

Minus our meals, 5-6 hours.

Dressing up, showering, etc. 4-5 hours.

Commuting will take up between 1-3 hours depending on what he does.

Exercise is a must, it is important, 1 hour.

So that leaves a range of between 1-3 hours.

That's a maximum of 3 hours day extra that a single person has a day. Not really much. Most probably it's only 2.5 hours.

Just one night of dancing, or cell group, or martial arts, or studying will take up that time.

A single person can only do so much with his/her time. He can only choose to do one extra hobby, course, etc.

Single people also need this extra time to spend in social activities. I realize that some single people remain single waaaaay too long. And that's because they spend their time working instead of meeting people.

Obviously, it's a personal choice, but life is about relationships, becoming a better person, and growing. When we realize we have limited time, let's put priority on the most important things in life before our time is up.

Posted by Nico at 2:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The thing about this funny quote made me think. Yeah, that's true. We are all unique, but we don't seem to believe it.

Our thoughts can become, "I'm just an ordinary bloke", "I'm useless", "I can't do much."

We must believe that we are different and that we have a very significant part to play in this world. Belief in ourselves is the dam that controls our potential. We must believe that God desires to bless those who seek him. We must believe that we a highly favoured. We must believe that God works all things for the good of those who love him.

Posted by Nico at 2:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I think that it is a silly delusion perpetuated by the mass media that the main goal of life is to achieve pleasure and comfort.

Are we put on this planet for our own little amusement?

I do not mean to be ascetics, but that we are deluding ourselves and setting ourselves up for a very big letdown if we think that life is all about pleasure.

Pictures of a young couple walking by the seaside, or relaxing by the pool with a cocktail besides him/her, or a beautiful/handsome couple seated in a lounge, hotel, airline, etc.

When someone says that prosperity is for a purpose, I agree with them. But we must ask, what is that purpose? and to keep on remembering what the purpose is throughout.

When the means becomes the end, what do we become?

The purpose of life in general is love. Love of other beings. Not a feeling, but a genuine concern for the welfare of other beings both divine and mortal. It is in relationships that we find meaning. Little wonder that the two commandments are hinged on loving God and our neighbour.

I feel that if we think too much of how God can bless us materially, we forget that our true riches are found through love and building others up. We must ask ourselves when we count our blessings that it is because God loves us.

The next question then is how much have we loved others? Have we become so preoccupied with our jobs, our vocations, the mortgage, the rent, until we "don't have time for others". Money is good, to a certain extent, if we don't have money we won't be able to fully concentrate on relating and blessing others. So we pray like one of the writers in the Bible that we not be poor that we are tempted to steal.

But money can become greed, when we place money above relationships, when we talk more and show more concern for share prices, property valuations, IPO's, gold than about our feelings, about happiness, loneliness, hope, joy, fears, problems, support, etc.

So my question is, "True, prosperity is for a purpose, but what is that purpose? And how are you achieving that purpose day to day in your everyday life?"

Posted by Nico at 8:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've learned that on the first date, a guy should always offer to pay for it. Never mind about the modern liberated woman, blah, blah, blah.

Herzberg's Motivational Theory states that there are hygience and motivational factors. Money is a hygience factor. Without money people will get demotivated, however more money will not motivate them.

I realized that it applies to dating too.

Money isn't everything in dating. A guy lavishing gifts on a woman doesn't mean that he loves them nor does it necessarily mean the lady will feel good.

However, if the guy doesn't even offer to pay for the date, or buy dinner, it demotivates. More money doesn't show that he loves him. But no money may be a strong indicator that he doesn't love her.

Posted by Nico at 2:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

On a whim, I asked my accountant friend whether as a screenwriter, my watching movies can be considered a deductible expense, she said to my surprise... yes!

Because I need to watch movies to understand movies and screenwriting, it is a valid expense.

Wow... looks like my DVDs and movies and musical expenses can be written off literally as business entertainment expense.

Posted by Nico at 2:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It is easy to die for your religion, any idiot can do that.

However, it isn't easy to live for it. Living a holy life is far, far, far harder than dying.

A sacrifice is only a sacrifice if it is valuable in the eyes of the giver. In a way, it is relative. Remember the widow who gave all that she had, two copper pieces? A greater sacrifice than many other rich men who gave out of the abundance.

Therefore, in order to sacrifice your life, you must learn to love your life, to love yourself, not in the hedonistic sense, but in the spiritual sense, to see yourself as a person created in the image of God.

A sacrifice must also be done out of love: "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13). A sacrifice done out of hate isn't a sacrifice at all, it is spite. It must be done, voluntarily, out of friendship not because of compulsion or a self indulgent reward like virgins in heaven.

That is why I disagree with extremists and reports that describe themselves as martyrs.

Posted by Nico at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Just because a religion has people dying for it doesn't make it true.

It may be an indicator that there may be truth, or that the followers are seriously deluded.

There are religions that have followers committing ritual suicide, some that glorify death as a ultimate act of self-sacrifice and devotion.

I think that the argument that Christianity is true because people are willing to die for it isn't enough. We can look at followers of other religions that are willing to kill themselves (and perhaps others). Even even religion, look philosophies of thinking like the Kamikaze warriors of Japan who died for their country and their Emperor.

It isn't enough.

Christianity isn't true because other people died for it. It's true because Jesus died.

It isn't just dying. Dying is just an act. What is the meaning behind the act? Jesus died for what was right. There are people who died for what they believed was right in their own eyes. Jesus died in the face of suffering. That it was the facing the inevitable fact that life is suffering and the manner in which suffering must be faced. There is no such thing as a comfortable life. No person rich or poor can escape suffering in this world. Neither Bill Gates nor the poorest street urchin wandering the streets of Calcutta.

But then, just because a founder of a religion died, doesn't mean it's true either. Lots of people have died for the cause they founded, look at Gandhi, Martin Luther King.

So, therefore, the final thing that makes Christianity true is that Jesus rose from the dead.

That is the one thing that makes Christianity different. No other religion on earth, no philosophy can compare to that. It is the resurrection that makes everything different.

Posted by Nico at 12:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Heart Transplant Man Kills Himself Just Like His Donor.

Sometimes, life is stranger than fiction. The idea of an organ donor doing tricks on the receiver is employed in the movie "The Eye".

But this takes the cake. The receiver begins to act and feel like his donor. Even falls in love and marries the widow.

Really good material for a movie. I can imagine a scene, where Mr. Graham begins to start hearing voices, sees things, begins changing his dressing style, tastes in food, his walk, his gait, starts remembering things he's never experienced. He visits Mr. Cottle's house. Remembers the combination to a secret safe. "How did you know?" "I don't know, just got lucky I guess."

A titanic struggle ensues. The spirit of Mr. Graham and Mr. Cottle fight to gain control of the body. In our real life case, Mr. Graham lost.

Though of course... it could be the wife, who engineered a fake suicide. So instead of a supernatural thriller, it becomes a CSI or Hercule Poirot story.

Posted by Nico at 4:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've heard friends, colleagues and acquaintances complain that going to courses are useless, they will give anecdotal evidence about observing a colleague who attended a course in XXX and it didn't change anything.

I would agree to such an observation, but my response to that is this: Many people go to church and read the Bible, but they don't change either. That doesn't mean that going to church and what the Bible teaches is useless.

Posted by Nico at 5:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I learnt from scriptwriting that a hero isn't just proactive. He is proactive to cause a reaction in the other party.

Just doing something isn't the mark of a hero, doing something that does something, that causes things to move, that causes a change or reaction on the lover, the enemy, the situation, that is the meaning of being proactive.

Posted by Nico at 3:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)