Project 365: Day 9-11

Day 9

Cam-whoring while reaching for heaven (okok, I was in a ferris wheel's cart)

Day 10

I have a thing for Ferris Wheel...

Day 11

Medical student went crazy....she was happy she found heart sounds on the dog!

Project 365: Day 6-8

OMG. This project nearly failed. I guess I over-estimated my “attention span”. I’m determined to make it work eventhough the photos might be crappy. Well, I hv been having crappy, tiring days. Ok, here goes…

DAY 6

The first spring rain of 2009. But it snowed again the next day.

DAY 7

Taken a week ago, on our way to Lenta. Notice the ding dong?

Day 8

Super-bright Winter Forest

Snow Patrol – Crack The Shutters

God.Life.Conscience

Life is like that. I don’t know why some people get to live to 100, and some didn’t even get to see the world. I don’t know why some people survived a terrible accident, or disaster or a surgery but some did not. I don’t know why some people have cancers and some not even though they have all the risk factors. And, I don’t know what will happen to us once we died – do we go to heaven or hell, or be reincarnated, or just that our body turned into dust. Between life and God, there are many unanswered questions, and nobody in this whole wide world has the capability to know exactly the answers for maybe 1% of the questions. To say God is just an imaginary powerful father-figured character formed by humans for their innate need to be led or not…this debate can last forever. Not to mention the debate of which is the true God to us. Come to think about it, there aren’t any real justifications of any kinds.

Putting that aside (as always) and coming back to our lives. There are so many ways to live our lives; none can one judge the right way. Who are we to judge the alcoholics, drug addicts or the prostitutes as if we are any better? We always say we want to make a difference, but how many actually did it…in their lives. Family, relationships, friendships, work life etc…one should really ask this, “Did I treat them good? Did I show my love to them? Did I think of them in a nice way? Did I use their love for my personal motive?” Whatever the answer is, no one will ever step up and admit the truth because there are always reasons not to. Scratch underneath the surface, and you will get the hones truth of someone’s strong reasons.

Life. People always say that it is a circle. It goes up and it goes down. But I believe it is actually more of a balance scale. Things that make us happy or sad…they are always there. It is when we choose to take note on one and not the other, and concluded we are either happy with life or not. Maybe that is why when our own life has nothing special happening, we still could be depressed. Or when we were promoted or getting married, we sometimes couldn’t be happy because we looked back and wanted something else.

What is my conclusion? Life is like that. Nobody have any answers about life and God. And as always, we continue searching for it, something anything. But since we going to be here for quite some time, I believe we shouldn’t take the chance that there won’t be a justice God or that there isn’t anything like karma. What I am trying to say is we should always choose to be good to ourselves and to others as much as we can. I understand the line between good and evil is just a thin silver line, and often there are people who try to confuse us of our motives and/or actions with their own selfish motives. Most frustrating part is that you believed you did something good but to others, it is concocted evil. Clear conscience with the knowledge and faith in God – I guess nothing else can sum it all up except this phrase,

“You see, none of us chose our end really. A king may move a man; a father may claim a son. But remember that, even when those who move you be kings or men of power, your soul is in your keeping alone. When you stand before God you cannot say “but I was told by others to do thus” or that “virtue was not convenient at the time. This will not suffice.”
(King Baldwin IV – Kingdom of Heaven)

2 Peter 1:3-1:8 -

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason,make every effort to add to your faith, goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Project 365: Day 5 – Random and Delayed

A view of the Kremlin in Nizhny Novgorod. And until now, I don’t know the name of the statue. Some famous pilot or something something.

Project 365: Day 4 – Crack The Shutters

I know I’m a bit slow. Snow Patrol released their newest album…erm..last year. Living in Russia with limited internet-surfing option does make one out-dated. Ok, watever. I just acquired their album “A Hundred Millions of Sun” and so lovin’ it esp this song “Cracks the shutter“. Catchy, upbeat (esp the drums) and of course, the lyric. It is a love song, and like all Gary Lightbody songs – it’s down-to-earth but at the same time, it gives you the feeling of being in heaven. It’s about having the real love right beside you….ok watever. My fav songs: Chasing cars > Crack the shutters.

You cool your bed-warm hands down on the broken radiator,
And when you lay them freezing on me, I mumble “can you wake me later?”
But I don’t really want you to stop and you know it so it doesn’t stop you
And run your hands from my neck to my chest

Crack the shutters open wide, I wanna bathe you in the light of day
And just watch you as the rays tangle up around your face and body
I could sit for hours finding new ways to be awed each minute
Cuz’ the daylight seems to want you just as much as I want you

It’s been minutes, it’s been days, it’s been all I will remember
Happy lost in your hair and the cold side of the pillow
Your hills and valleys are mapped by my intrepid fingers
And in a naked slumber, I dream all this again

Crack the shutters open wide, I wanna bathe you in the light of day
And just watch you as the rays tangle up around your face and body
I could sit for hours finding new ways to be awed each minute
Cuz’ the daylight seems to want you just as much as I want you

Need to save money to buy the album to add into my collections. Snow Patrol…WooHoo!

Project 365: Day 3 – Lazy Sunday

Just another lazy Sunday. 2 out of 3 occupants in my room are sleeping still as I’m writing this. Nothing unusual or exciting happened today…except….hmmmm I have this habit of reading “Dear Thelma” section in the Sunday Stars every Sunday. Got it from my mum. We will read and laugh our butt off over the nonsensical letters people “wrote” to this life-relationship advice column. I know it’s bad to laugh at people problems but sometimes, most of the times….it’s stupid (I wonder if it were all made up). And I give it to this Thelma person for indulging it and tried to give sane advices to these people.

But I guess people are more worried about the big recession problem than their own life-relationship problems because the Dear Thelma column wasn’t in the papers today! Well, I still want my usual Sunday anecdote!

Project 365: Day 2 – A Sinful Brunch

Erm….this is just one of those days – that you expect karma will bite when you did something wrong, but it didnt. You are left thinking maybe the universe is on your side and you feel awesome (usually for a while..hehe) This is what happened:

Church was brought forward a day earlier instead of the usual Sunday service. We were all reminded of it. Pastor even sent me an sms to remind me on Friday. I should have revise abit on Friday night ( I know, I know…nerd-alert), go to bed early and wake up to go to church. But I didn’t. Instead, I joined my friends for dinner and they introduced me this very funny series called “The Big Bang Theory” I watched with them few episodes and continue watching it by myself till 2-3am. Thus, I woke up late but not late enough to go to church. But I didn’t. I gave in to my laziness.

But if I did go to church, I’d have miss this fantastic so-called American Big Breakfast that my roommate made!

How many cardinal sins I committed just today? Sloth, Greed and Gluttony.

sigh…just one of those days~

Project 365: Day 1 – Andrei & Babushka

How often does a person randomly ask some strangers to pose for a picture, and also try to strike a conversation with them in a foreign language? I couldn’t believe I DID  THAT today! I was in Kremlin area after settling some business in the dean office nearby. I brought my camera so I can make an entry for this project. I saw the babushka (grandma in russian) and her grandson, Andrei walking on the pavement. She was so tender and loving with him, and he was just so cute bundled-up. I don’t know what prompt me…that I just asked them to pose for me and talked to her in my very broken Russian (after 6years here, I still can’t manage speaking the language…sigh~)

Anyway, I think this is a great start. I’m actually doing something I never thought I will. Hehe. Kremlin area was so beautiful, overlooking the Volga river still covered with snow, with the sun shining at the right angle….almost making the river looked “sparkling” (I think). Spring is coming.

Project 365 – Intro

Excerpt from Photojojo [http://photojojo.com/content/tutorials/project-365-take-a-photo-a-day/]

People will often say that their whole lives flashed before their eyes after they experienced a traumatic event. Perhaps it’s a bit morbid, but we think that sounds pretty incredible. When Taylor McKnight started taking a photo a day on January 1st, 2004, he never imagined the project would not only serve as a way to remember a year, but also help him understand what was important to him in his life. Whether it was his relationships, his career, or his fashion sense, recording a photo a day for a whole year left him with a rich visual history of his life.

  

That is pretty much the reason I’m participating in this little project. But I guess, for me, it will be more like a-post-a-day because not only will I upload a photo, I think I will add in my thoughts, rambling, summary of a particular event and etc. The chronicles of my life – and there are no better time than now, because I’m in my last months of my university life (graduating in 3-4months time), I will be going on a Euro-trip during the summer, and I will be back home for good after 6years. And then, probably bumming around waiting to start my working life as a dentist, and when I reached the 365^th day of the project, I’m working as a dentist already. (hopefully!)

And I feel when one is in that sort of transition or more accurately, reaching that quarter-life crisis, it will be the time that one will be trying to find who he/she really is and be what he/she made of. Old principles uprooted, new principles embraced. Finding a solid ground to stand in midst of this unstable world or ours. Yeah, you know what I mean. Interesting but at the same, very scary.

This project is going to be tough. It was never easy for me to stay committed to one thing for a long time and I’m just not the type that carry a camera and shoot things every moment I have. Let’s see how this goes. Day 1 will be starting on 20^th March 2009.