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amazing artist cont

here is more of his art work... my idol!!

posted by jingzhi @ 11:43 PM 0 Comments

amazing artist

chalk drawings from Julian Beever!
Incredible isn't it :D This guy is just so amazing!! He can create space out of nowhere.
Do stop to appreciate every frame. Enjoy!!

Julian Beever is an English artist who's famous for his art on the pavement of England, France, Germany, USA, Australia and Belgium . Beever gives to his drawings an amazing 3D illusion.

posted by jingzhi @ 11:34 PM 0 Comments

Tuesday with Morrie

Woo today finally went for the long anticipated SAT. Hum how did i do? Ermz. Didn't finish the essay. Sort of left it dangling with a statement opposing my thesis. Aiya, don't really want to think le since what has been done has been done, just hope that everything goes well ba.
After SAT is over, now it is time to face the preparation for block test. Yikes! I planned to start the revision this afternoon but... hehe... as always i am distracted. In the end, i spend the entire afternoon reading "Tuesday with Morrie" by Mitch Albom. It is a beautiful book and the bittersweet ending was really touching. Yet, the magic of the book reallie lies in it being able to make me reflect on a lot of things and learn with the character within the book. Here are some quotes from the book:

"The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning."

"The culture we have does not make people feel good anough about themselves. And you bave to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it."

"...family is about, not just love, but letting others know there's someone who is watching out for them."

"Do the kind of things that comes from the heart. When you do, you won't be dissatisfied, you won't be envious, you won't be longing for somebody else's things. On the contrary, you'll be overwhelmed with what comes back."

posted by jingzhi @ 9:14 PM 3 Comments

Bye Quan Lun

Yesterday evening i received an sms informing me that today's training will consists of a farwell 'ceremony' for our assistant coach, quan lun shi xiong, who will be leaving for taiwan soon. I am told to think about a little message for him which can later be transferred into a little booklet the J1s have prepared for him.
At first i really cannot think of anything to write for him. He is my shi xiong but i don't really know him very well 所以我只好硬着头皮写下去. The amazing thing is, as i am writing i started to visualise many small inccidents that have occured in the past year. I suddenly realised that without quan lun shi xiong, my experience in wushu would have been very different. For one thing, i wouldn't have taken part in the organisation of the wushu reunion dinner 2006 and subsequently got to know so many wonderful shi xiongs.
Perhaps if i wasn't made to think about it, i would have never realised that a not so close shi xiong contributed this much to my life. Yet upon this enlightenment, I suddenly starts to ponder how much have I missed out regarding the people around me. Have i neglected their importance to me?
No matter for how long, no matter for what reason, people whom we come cross in life have all contribute to who we are now in one way or another. However, we often fail to appreciate them in their presence; only realise how important that person is to us when he/she is gone. But why wait until then? If appreciation is felt, show it while the person can still hear it ba.

posted by jingzhi @ 4:52 PM 0 Comments

Faith

Yesterday i went to help out with da di's service learning project; sold batches along the streets to rise fund for Children's Cancer Foundation. It's has been quite long since i last participated in any fund rising event. Yup, to think about it, the previous encounter goes all the way back to last year when rising fund for the victims of the tsunami.

Anyway, it is always rather interesting to observe how different people react when you approach them. I remembered that my friend once came up with a list of ten most popular ways to avoid donating after finishing off a flag day.

The list:
1. Look past you as though you are air and totally ignore your presence
(hum... i am a person despite i want your money... show me some respect at least)
2. "I am in a hurry"
(too busy to stop for a half a minute? see how fast-paced our society is)
3. Shoot you a irritated look to intimidate you
(this is a good one...i wouldn't approach you, don't worry...)
4. "No change" and quickly walk away
(no one's stopping you from donating notes... )
5. Smile and say no
(that is quite nice...)
6. "I have donated"
(thank you... sometimes this makes me wonder if i some people just donate for the seek of this immunity)
7. "Later..."
(as if you will come back)
8. can't remember le....

I am not critical towards people who don't donate; anyway donations are not compulsory. Sometimes I don't as well when people approach me. The over-abundant donation drives are sure to desensitize people towards donation. A lady whom i approached even stopped to say that what is the point of having these flag day, haven't them raised enough money through all the charity shows and government efforts. Perhaps soon enough people will start to feel that students with tin cans are nuisance. It will get harder and harder for flag days to be successful.

Then again, these fund rising can be good learning experiences for the participants. These are some of the learning points i can think of:

1. to speak up and ask for favours from total strangers: It seems that these tin cans bolstered our courage in doing this that we would never do in daily life. Perhaps what one can learn is that it is actually not that hard to knew new people; and strangers are not that unapproachable.

2. to accept rejections: most of the time one has to approach many before you finally come across someone who is willing to donate. (someone got 13 rejections in a row ... :P) In cases of rejections, some people do it nicely, others behave in a harsh way. In any case, the volunteer may learn to accept rejection graciously.

3. to be comfortable with uncertainty: Some have mentioned that a problem with local students is that they do not dare to speak of what they are unsure of (like abstract ideas that are just starting to form in their minds) during lectures. Often, this results in failure to hold effective classroom discussions about issues. When one approach someone not knowing if that person might reject or accept to donate, perhaps one is seeking cure to the about syndrome as well.

4. marketing strategy: To ask for donations, if you can put things in a way to touch the cord of people's heart, will be easier than plainly asking "can you donate for XXX please."

Hummm... looks like i have digressed a lot without going into what i really want to talk about. There is one thing that occured during this cip that has left me with a deep impression.
I approached this man who seems to be in his thirties to sell the badges. After repeating the standard line to ask for donation, the guy agreed to buy a badge. He took out his wallet only to discover that there is only a fifty dollar note inside. Of course he wouldn't buy a two dollars worth of badge for 25 times its value. Putting away his wallet, he told me that he will come back later and walked away.

I went back to er di whom i was selling the badges with and told him about it. He said that the man would not come back. For a moment i thought about it as well, remembering that "later" is among my friend's list. It was actually quite disappointing when the man walked past us again a little later but did not even came close.

The afternoon past quickly and i was left with the last two badges. As i was trying to get a Tamil couple to buy one of the badges, a small group of people walked past us. I heard the man leading the group saying "go buy a badge" and looked up to see the man i approached earier was the one speaking. "My boss says two dollars so two dollars", the guy who came over said, before handling me a bill (the guy looked a bit relunctant though :P). The man kept his promise!

Perhaps lots of treasons have occurred around us, perhaps we have been told not to trust strangers since young, yet we should have a little more faith in people don't we? 人之初，性本善 ma. I wonder if other people who "later" but never came back realise that though insignificant as it is, they had made a promise. 君子要言而有信, this kind of things can be refected through small incidents as such. That man who kept his words is a respectable person.

That afternoon i was particularly glad, for it was proven that there are certain virtures that still holds even in the messy world today.

posted by jingzhi @ 5:31 PM 0 Comments

confession about blogging

posted by jingzhi @ 5:13 PM 0 Comments