Mostly Nothing

A new university semester/session just started this week. Many new students have come from their countries to study at universities in Sydney. A warm greeting for them: welcome to Sydney and have a nice time while studying in Sydney. Study hard and smart. Don’t spend too much time studying, though!

Well, being a new commer is not that easy, indeed.  Few days or weeks or even months are needed to adjust to the new environement. Not only the need to adjust to the new study environment, but also to the differences in cultures, food, and other things. For those who come from countries which English is not their native language, languange is another problem. Here’s just a funny story about a new student…

Time difference?

Benny, a new Indonesian student in Australia, wanted to make a long distance telephone call to his home.

He called the operator to find out the time difference between his hometown and the city where he is now.

Benny : "Could you please tell me the time difference between Sydney and Jakarta?"

Operator : "Just a minute…"

Benny : "Thank you," and put down the phone.

I made my first trillion today at Blogshares! I’m a trillioner now!  Wow, how I wish it were real money… Nah, just kidding… hahah… I’m not that crazy!

Actually I could have reached this B$1T milestone some time ago. But because of that system error, somehow I lost B$243 billions and B$443 billions in two separate transactions! Argh… The two occassions happened when I was trying to get shares of the famous number one top blog Blogskins News. There were some small losses, too, but they did not make much difference on my networth. But those two big losses hurt me much.

Well, my target of reaching that B$1T has been fulfilled. Now I am the sixteenth people to reach that milestone. Put another target? Naaah… I’ve been playing too much, I guess, and now I’ve been lagging behind on my real world stuff… and not too mention much less sleep or rest because of playing this addictive online game. I think I’d better reduce my playing time on Blogshares. Let’s see if I can do it… I’m not that addicted!

BerlinBear wrote this poem in a thread in the Blogshares Forum. I am so flattered! Thanx BerlinBear, and it’s my pleasure to do business with you!  And… for that forgiving those who slump against us… I must learn from you.

Our Hanz,
Which art in Blog$hares
Hanz be thy name
Thy gifts come
Thy hypes be done
On blogs in my portfolio
Give us this day our daily buzz
And forgive us our slumps
As we forgive those who slump against us
And lead us not into Restructuring
But deliver us from HTOs
For thine is the B$, the power and the forum,
For ever and ever,
Blog$hares.

Alright, finally here’s the new look of this blog. It fits better with this blog. Actually, I had been thinking to change the theme of this blog for ages. The previous layout seemed too simple and formal, if not ugly at all. There are many good wordpress themes out there that I like, but it is difficult to install a new theme at Blogsome, which provides some simple built-in themes that we can choose and easily activated.

I could not manage to spare much time to look for a good theme nor to find out how to install new themes at Blogsome. I had been busy with all life stuff, you know (ssshhh… not to mention all those time spent for trading on Blogshares!).

Finally, I managed to find a new layout provided by Blogsome that I think better than the rest. I don’t think it was there before! And… guess what? It looks even better after a bit of customization… and Nora helped me with the make over and customization of the header image. Thanx Nora! You’re really a good photoshop artist!

The Nun

A cabbie picks up a nun. She gets into the cab, and the cab driver won’t stop staring at her. She asks him why is he staring and he replies, "I have a question to ask you but I don’t want to offend you."

She answers, "My dear son, you cannot offend me. When you’re as old as I am and have been a nun as long as I have, you get a chance to see and hear just about everything. I’m sure that there’s nothing you could say or ask that I would find offensive."

"Well, I’ve always had a fantasy to have a nun kiss me."

She responds, "Well, let’s see what we can do about that: first, you have to be single, and second you must be Catholic."

The cab driver is very excited and says, "Yes, I am single and I’m Catholic too!"

"OK" the nun says "Pull into the next alley."

He does and the nun fulfills his fantasy with a kiss that would make a hooker blush. But when they get back on the road, the cab driver starts crying.

"My dear child, said the nun, why are you crying?"

"Forgive me sister, but I have sinned. I lied, I must confess, I’m married and I’m Jewish."

The nun says, "That’s OK, my name is Kevin and I’m on my way to a Halloween party."

Not Stupid!

Jones is driving past the state mental hospital when his left rear tire suffers a flat. While Jones is changing the tire, another car goes by, running over the hub cap in which Jones was keeping the lug nuts. The nuts are all knocked into a nearby storm drain.

Jones is at a loss for what to do and is about to go call a cab when he hears a shout from being the hospital fence, where one of the inmates has been watching the whole thing.

`Hey, pal! Why don`t you just take one lug nut off each of the other three wheels? That`ll hold your tires on until you can get to a garage or something.`

Jones is startled by the patient`s seeming rationality, but realizes the plan will work, and installs the spare tire without incident.

Before he leaves, he calls back to the patient. `You know, that was pretty sharp thinking. Why do they have you in there?`

The patient smiles and says, `I`m in here because I`m crazy, not because I`m stupid.`

I don’t think I am now comfortable with what I have achieved so far… but… it’s good idea for me to ponder whether or not, actually, I have tried to step out beyond what I think is my world to a totally strange, foreign world… or I have tried to push myself beyond the limit which I have been comfortably thought is ‘my limit.’ Yeah, coz after reading the following article, I realized that the world is not as just what I have been at or been thought of… there’re other places, other spaces, other realms, which perhaps you have never imagined… beyond what’s you’re now in and confortable with. The world is larger than what you think it is. There are more which you can explore, you can experience, you can achieve! So, don’t limit yourself… step out your comfort zone! Experience more and gain more! I know… I have to!

Comfort Zone

About 10 years ago, I started a job as a trainer for a Telemarketing agency. In one of my first classes the head trainer told a very motivating story that I would like to share with you.

He began by drawing a diagram of a stick man standing in the middle of a circle. To make it more interesting, he drew things like a house, a car, and a few friends inside the circle. He asked the question "Can anyone tell me what this is?"

In a long silence, one guy decided to throw out "the world?" The trainer said, "That’s close, this is your Comfort Zone. Inside your circle you have all the things that are important to you. Your home, your family, your friends, and your job. People feel that inside this circle they are safe from any danger or conflict."

"Can anyone tell me what happens when you step out of this circle?" A strong silence came over the room.

The same eager guy abruptly announced "You are afraid".

Another guy said "You make mistakes". The silence continued and the trainer smiled and said "When you make mistakes what can the result be?" The first guy shouts "You learn something."

"Exactly, you are learning." The trainer turned to the board and drew an arrow pointing from the stick man directly to the outside of the circle.

He proceeded to say "When you leave your Comfort Zone you put yourself out there, in front of the world to be in a situations that you are not comfortable with. The end result is that you have learned something that you did not already know, expand your knowledge to become a better person."

He turned again to the board and drew a bigger circle around the original circle, and added a few new things like more friends, a bigger house, etc.

"The moral of the story is that if you stay inside your Comfort Zone you will never be able to expand your horizons and learn. When you step out of your Comfort Zone you will eventually make your circle bigger, to challenge your mind and how to be stronger, and all in all a better person."