My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 066:

To live without the heaviness of past events, you need to forgive, or at least be okay with it. Whether it to be your enemy, bad break-ups, guilt, or insecurities. It is almost impossible to move on happily without any hesitation if you let the past live in your mind. Whatever the past might be, you are free to look back and reflect, however things are most likely to be remained fixed so you may as well let your past go and get free. Your life starts... now!

Mic

7/8'12

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 065:

Do you have your personal getaway spot? When bad experiences make their ways onto your mind, where do you find escape? In usual case traveling is not practical since we are attached with responsibilities. An ideal getaway spot would be either near by where you live or work. One of my older Japanese friend is a sharp hotel manager during daytime, a live bar musician after sunset; he found peace and release inside single malt with a hint of Eric Clapton. My other friend who handles client relations, rides 10km off direction to a small mountain every few days, gazing at the night scene of Taipei; "All that work and stress during the day seemed like nothing all of a sudden". If your job gives you sh*t, go just go dump it somewhere else, peacefully.

Mic

4/25 '12

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 064:

We cannot freeze time. Human created the concept of actual time by carefully dividing a physical day into tiny incremental units. However in most cases, we focus too much on the classically defined time, like: "it takes 40 minutes for me to get to Union sq", "I need at least a day to finish this book." Think again, if you do both tasks separately, you are very much in bad hands, why? Riding public transportation is low intensity activity, where not much of your brain nor physical energy is required. Have you not seen subway sleepers? You can combine some other low intensity activities to beat the wasted time on current one. Truth that many think commuting everyday to and from work is a great deal of time lost. That is also why some people would rather pay for an apartment closer to work. The trade off is most obviously money. We are now living in a world that time appeared to be more and more precious, the only way out of this rat race is to apply efficiency techniques. Let time work for you, chasing it will not do.

Mic

4/24'12

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 063:

It is important to include challenge in your life. When you think something in your life has gotten harder, that is a good sign. Challenges allow us to understand what is it like to be challenged, where do we want to reach, what we are doing wrong, what others are doing right, and what generates happiness. Getting tired of your life? Face a new challenge, set a goal; whether it is full marathon, photography competition, cycling race, presenting new proposal, or simply a bet against yourself like starting (and maintain) a new habit or else.. Take that challenge, do not get lazy, you deserve more.

Mic

3/3'12

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 062:

Always bring your best game on, only the best can conquer the best. Victory, means you still are the best standing; lost, means you have been defeated by the best. Either way you cannot lose if you squeezed the last bit of your effort to be the best version of yourself.

Mic

2/28'12

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 061:

Sometimes in a conversation speaking is not absolutely required. On the other hand, dialogue quality can be enhanced simply by listening. People feel obligated to speak in a conversation, perhaps to show the other party that "I know this, I got this." It really is a case-by-case thing. You are bearing risks of creating critical mistakes and possibly giving yourself away as a lousy person all by yourself. There is no need to impress nor to brag, personal image is built slow and steady, you will earn the image you deserve eventually if you start managing your image from now on.

Mic

2/26'12

my last words to you if I must die tomorrow 060:

If you want to be good at one thing, make sure you do not focus on only one thing. Athletes would know, the result of an ideal body is not sheerly from exercising. It comes along with habits, intakes, maintenance, and adjustments. As well as growing plants, it requires more than watering; sunlighting, fertilizing, weeding, exterminating, and TRC (tender loving care.) Do not see things in only one way, it gets stiff and unromantic. When things do not work, try tilting your angle a little bit, it may guide you to view different perspectives.

Mic

2/26'12

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 059:

It is quite challenging for being responsible of how others think, which in most cases were not caused by bad intentions. However "confusion process" can always be avoided. The most common exclusion examples where someone in a group being left out: vegetarian vs. meatlovers, non-drinker vs. alcoholics, single vs. couples, foreign speaker vs. native speakers, dreamer vs. realists... list goes on. So do I invite minority to an event dominated by majorities? Sensitivity in social occasions is absolutely required, the classic "I did not know you were (vegetarian, non-drinker, religious...) so I figured you might get bored, thus I left you out of invitation." Nothing is unforgivable, but you really can make the scenario better by fore-thinking before hindering relationships. We tend to think of ourselves first, but can you really win a chess match without minding others?

(The exclusion scenario is only one example of causing confusion further resulting relationship decline.)

Mic
2/25'12

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 058:

Emptiness feeds business. We seek for goods to fulfill our emptiness, when we get one, we look for better ones, because we feel empty with the current one. This is a never ending latter of greed. Paying too much for luxury goods? Try loving what you have, that is the only way to stop enterprises from making your money quarter by quarter. Your unsatisfied feeling is the best fuel for business, because they already know: "our product will fulfill your empty feeling, temporarily." Stop buying, start cherishing.

An inspirational dialogue with K. O. at a Hookah bar

Mic

2/20'11

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 057:

Such an easy way to have an "above average" day. Put a smile on your face. Proven by scientists, proven by myself, definitely the easiest way to get your day going. So smile :)

Mic

2/19'12

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 056:

Feeling guilty about things that seem to come to you effortlessly? Have the feeling that you want to physically earn every bit of the end results? It is definitely positive to having thoughts like such, but take a second glance, why not doing great things with what you already have as opposed to feeling insecure about your position and giving it away? What a selfish way to get rid of your guilt. Maybe you will have the fortune tomorrow still, maybe you do not. What matter is, at the end of the day when all resources have withdrawn, what have you accomplished? Do you have higher aims? Or just that "It's alright, did not think I deserve it anyways."?

"E, Sometimes your positions in life allow you to get things that you never could have had, that does not mean it is not right, and it does not mean it is going to last." - Vincent Chase of Entourage

Mic XXIV

2/18'12

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 055:

Go to bookstore in the morning, gather inspiration, know better of the things that you are about to do today. Go to bookstore in the evening, somewhere in the books you will discover potential projects that you may currently start on hand; in this case, run home and do it. 

Mic
1/19'12

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 054:

Drink, if you do like; do not drink, if you do not like. When you have to drink, drink minimal. Carefully observe people who are drunk, the bluff, the whiny, the angry, the ugly. Not to mention the vomit. Do you wish yourself to be that person? Center of attention, perfectly designed for elegant, sophisticated male and female, especially business people, traders, government officials, and personals of high regards. Pathetic. 

Mic
1/18'12

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 053:

Learn to use different languages in your daily life, even though it is as simple as using "merci" instead of "thanks." Train yourself to process and respond to various cultural phrases. Have cultural appetite, trust your brain capacity, make it work more as it deserve more. You will then find traveling addicting, because you will definitely be surprised how involved you can be on a foreign soil.

Mic
1/17'12

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 052:

There is nothing more subtle than our minds, many things cannot be articulated with words, action, even other forms of expression could not capture the ideas that we have "up there". Yet nature of us human demand such explanation, not that we needed it, just that we would not be satisfied without hearing it. Sometimes we do not have to ask why, seek explanation or answer; we just have to accept that some things are beyond our reach, we are only human, not fully developed human.

Mic
1/16'12

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 051:

If you are right-handed, use left hand more often. Use left hand to eat, don't use lame excuses like you are not used to it. While growing up, you were definitely not used to using forks and spoons; instead, shoveling everything that looks and smells good into your mouth. Balancing both hands is balancing both brains (left/right.) Think of how useless you will become if one day you broke your right arm, disabling your primary writing, cooking, driving, whatever skills. Noah did not build the ark when the crisis comes.

Mic
1/15'12

Death status update 001:

3 days of coma status due to Internetdisconnectia*


*Stationary wifi connection is not widely used in Japan due to highly advanced mobile phone technology.

Mic
1/13'12

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 050:

Cherish food, try to finish your plate, and do not order more than you can finish. Imagine a person holding your favorite dish, and dumping it in the toilet in front of you, with a cunning smile. How would you feel? I am not speaking for the starving children or hardworking farmers, just demanding the basic respect for food. Today there are too much food being wasted by people who take food resource for granted. Do not be that person.

Mic
1/10'12

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 049:

Learning can be easy, as long as you care not how you look when asking someone questions: "Do I look stupid?", "did I ask something ignorant?", none of that help but to be absolutely humble, and accept the fact that your knowledge to that specific field is limited. So what if people think you look stupid? If that is what it takes to obtain new information, why not?

Mic
1/9'12

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 048:

Friends come and go, the more people you interact with, the more likely you will have to lose some contacts. Do not feel bad, as you are feeling sorry about the friendship, people already moved on. It is sure that you will get to know many people throughout your life, through school, work, and leisure, however the ones that provide you good insight, ones that provide you love and patience to walk through your ups and downs, and the ones that bear risks of your misunderstanding, speaking not sugar coated words but daring to voice out only the truth. If you observe people enough, you will realize that being nice is rather easy, because people want to be loved not to be hated. However being truthful is still a challenge for most people despite how nice they seemed to be. Be true to your important friends; for others, you can care less, they will grow themselves, one day.

Mic
1/8'12

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 047:

Sometime stress come from over expectation. For example, you expect your friend to understand what you want to do and  how you feel, and if not, you feel bad. You expect to pay very little money when you found out about the place, but you were told price has increased, then you feel bad. You expected an A for your final grade, but when C showed its face, you feel bad. Learn how not to overshoot your expectation, it is a simple way of living happy life.

1/7'12

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 046:

You can still rock leather jackets and aviators even if you get old, you can still go to bars and hit on young girls/guys (if you are single) even if you get old, you can still play 1 on 1 with a high school kid and own him in basketball even if you get old. Getting old does not mean getting boring, does not mean you have to accept what society describe you as, old. Age defines nothing but a mean of recording time passed, and that is not something that we should fear, instead to celebrate, your growing sophistication.

Mic
1/6'12

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 045:

Use music playlist to create an emotional boost for yourself. The impact of everyday music has more to do in your life than you expect. Even recording great speeches and playing back on your iPod, Mp3 players do you good. Make a playlist for concentration, for creative work back ground music, for pumping up before interview, for better relaxation, and for retrieving certain memories of the past. Take music for whatever way you wish, for leisure or for  personal collection; but may I suggest, that music can also work for you in your favor, if you make them.

Mic
1/5'12

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 044:

Look back into your old photographs, try to relate the moods, the mindsets, the stages that you had personally gone through. You will be able to find clues for what you really wanted to do. Care for what you used to smile for, what you used to frown for. Somewhere along the line of life, you might have changed, whether to a place that you felt comfortable, or miserable. Looking at photographs will allow you to temporally relive the moments. It does not change anything, but perhaps it gives you the courage to chase the dream you never started pursuing, once again.

On top of a Mayan pyramid - Yucatan, Mexico 2009

Mic
1/4'12
Good bye USA, brothers and sisters. Thanks for the memories.

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 043:

Learn how to self-massage. Some easy self-massage moves will be for shoulder, neck, head, foot, and legs. The obvious reason for discovering this skill will be instant relief for body tension and stress. The sooner you ease the muscles, the sooner you can get back on track and be productive again. once this skill became a habit, body ache will be reduced, therefore more motivated to get outside and exercise. 

Mic
1/3'12

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 042:

Rely more on your hands-on skills rather than machines, manual skills are the ones that you can always count on when machines fail. Do not wait for car mechanic to rip you off every time you visit the shop, try learning the parts on your own, it is more fun than you ever imagined. Learn to drive a manual car, some countries do not have many automatic transmission cars, if they do they will be costly; if you drive manual car, it is not only fun to drive, you no longer have to hesitate when automatic cars are not accessible. Apply elementary physics, use leverage to open your beer; pound the bottom of the bottle against hard object so the rapidly increasing air pressure will force the cork out. With limited resources around, manual skills allow you to enjoy things in wide variety without problems.

Mic

1/2'12

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 041:

Ever pondered upon the meaning of learning? Ever had a dilemma between your passion and other people's expectation? Yes, the trade off game is not always romantic and always your way, but some important things are worth fighting for. If you are a Bollywood movie fan, "3 Idiots" is an excellent movie. It perfectly highlights the struggle of "highly expected" children as they try to figure out what is truly important in their life. This movie made me wonder about two important things: personal interest to excel, and affection of meaningful friendship. In any possible ways, this is an brilliant movie, not only for children but also for adults. 

Click to see IMDB review on 3 Idiots

Mic
1/1'12

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 040:

Bad judgement leads you to bad experiences, now you have choices either to learn or to dwell; if you decide to learn, you might have a chance to get to use good judgement, but if you dwell, you will sink into endless misery, looping back to bad judgement. If you keep on learning, you will eventually get out of the loop. Do not get comfortable yet, if you do, you may loop yourself back to bad judgement, however if you keep pushing yourself to improve further, success will be a vocabulary that describes you.

Mic
12/31'11
Have a great 2012, work while dreaming/dream while working.

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 039:

Ladies, try not to go to other ladies for advices about your man. First, you do not know what kinds of men they are familiar interacting with. Second, there will be too many "he is supposed to be..." in the conversation, which no one can really judge. Calculate the miscommunication between you and the information provider about your man plus the almost always confident "trust me sister, I know" can create expectation problems. Imagine listening to all the other couples' stories and having false mentality of "my man should be like this, why isn't he like that?" Furthermore, if you bring this topic back home and try to "communicate", the dialogue will become a fight, fight will last, because of expectation gap incepted. Every relationships are independent and unique, do not generalize or should I say fantasize. Be grateful with what you already have, listen to HIM not HER, work on problems together not alone.

Mic
12/30'11

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 038:

Utilize your emotion, even if people say you are emotional. Stay positive, channel your negative emotion into something else. For example, harsh words or comments can be demoralizing and can cause depression. However the negative emotion generated by the input source does not help the situation at all. 

"Goku does not squat down and cry like a little girl when he face strong enemies, he charges up and become Super Saiyan."   Mic

Instead of dwelling upon negativity and having a daunting past, turn the switch, twist the sad sensation into anger, which actually carries somewhat of positive energy. 

When people start judging you: "I want to prove you wrong!"

When your parents think you cannot make it: "you have never seen my true potential yet!"

When you classmate make fun of you: "F@&# you all I'm going to Harvard!"

Dwelling will not change your destiny, unless you change its property into something called Negative Motivation, that has the virtue of rapidly moving forward to prove some point. (Some people take it too far, handle emotion with care)

Mic

12/29'11

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 037:

Be aware of your wellness, many injuries and/or diseases can be prevented simply by adding/subtracting something regularly. If you smoke too much, subtract it from your life, if you exercise too little, add it to your life. Something as simple as brushing your teeth to 30 sit-ups before you go to work, can provide you the extra-kick than regular body without any "editing". According to the Latte Effect, even 30 sit-ups a day or 20 minutes jog, in 4 months your body can be really toned. The important part is to pay more attention to your body, understand what it needs, so you can do the math correctly.

Mic
12/28'11

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 036:

Many people do things based on their intuition, and know absolutely everything about what they are doing. However there are too many people out there, trying to analyze and create the perfect plan yet taking no action at all. Be a Doer, not a Sayer.

Mic

12/27'11

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 035:

Do you enjoy thinking? Have ever thought of thinking as a sport or a hobby? Sportsmen gain full joy out of concentration within the physical and mental nirvana; Painters gain full satisfaction from the dimension he/she created and absolutely dominate the world of imagination. Spontaneously or passively, we think everyday, about numerous matters. Rather than solving complex mathematical problems or trivia quiz, some people prefer spending time thinking of practical solutions for flaws we face each day, that is a thinker. Carry a notebook with you, perhaps a laptop or some device that you can establish your own comfortable "field" for thinking. Thinking is challenging yet/and rewarding, and there are no absolute answers to any problems. Sometimes problems themselves are not quite the "problem."

Mic
12/26'11

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 034:

Camera, don't matter if it is a point-and-shoot, DSLR, film camera, or an iPhone camera, if you have any of the above, utilize them. Not only they are wonderful for memory keeping and extracting instant stories out from any single photo, they are also brilliant tools for sharpening your observation skills, which later derive to creative thinking, problem solving, and enabling multi-angular points of view. Eventually, you can capture any moment without a physical camera, if you train your mind to work as a viewfinder. They (memories) can be preserved by drawing, music, or words; camera is just the third eye, carefully taking notice of the surrounding. (If the mind is working)

Mic

12/25'11

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 033:

(For ladies,) Be gentle to your body. If you worry about your pimples, sleep early, eat less greasy food, use less spice. Good health will eventually turn into beauty, but not often the other way around. If you have back and neck pain, stop wearing shoes that cause pain. Try shoes that give you good foot support and comfort, beauty can (always) come second. If your knees hurt, stop wearing high heels, stop going clubbing. It is not worth your knees and livers for crowding in a dirty, smelly basement/club where all men consider you one of their "target of the night". Do not down grade yourself, missing out in night life does not equal boring; even if people call you boring, you still are better than sluts.

Mic
12/24'11
Merry Christmas
Happy Hanukkah

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 032:

Have an open mind, try not to follow rules all the time, try not to follow popular trends all the time, and try not to think of things as "ways they are supposed to be" all the time. If you only have one purpose in life - to have fun, then an open mind would definitely be the best rifle for the game. If you become too rigorous on things, you are missing on great opportunities to see world through different lenses simply because of your unwillingness to try, adapt, and overcome the new. So what if the guide says this? so what if the crowd say that? This is your life, do not change your perspective and belief merely on vox populi.  Celebrate diversity and cherish curiosity.

Mic
12/23'11

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 031:

Limitation is a powerful switch that enables your true creative capacity. Limitations could be rules, could be some type of constrains, but one sure thing is that, just like the word itself, limitations give you short term obstacles, headaches to test your will. Randy Pausch, author of his book The Last Lecture explained this concept the clearest:

"Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. They are there to stop the people who don’t want something badly enough. They are there to keep out the other people."

Some examples of making creativity live under limitations: Classical Chinese poets followed strict rules such as symmetrical patterns, number of words, and more restrictions; however Chinese poets also utilized these limitations to create epic pieces with just a few words with few lines. My friend Ruwando built his very own Cardboard City to entertain himself at his parent's basement when he was little because he did not want his parents to spend fortune on new toys. Creativity is an internal power, that eventually overpowers everything else that are external, like limitations.

Click to watch Randy Pausch's The Last Lecture

Mic
12/22'11

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 030:

Clean your house, even if cleaning probably is not the most exciting activities on your list. Make your environment so clean that you would hesitate to create any mess, I remember my high school teacher said something like this: "Few things in life define a person: handwriting, words, money handling, and domestic cleanliness." Some people pay extra details to certain things just to see how you treat your life. It is quite common that employers look at things like how an employee takes care of his/her car, table manners, even tiny things like drying hands after using the bathroom. You will be surprised how much little things can passively explain a person.

Mic
12/21'11

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 029:

Be patient, especially with your love ones. By no means they will harm you with bad intention, by no means they will hate you for no reason. When they are not acting as you wish they have acted, give them time. We are all parts of a perfect whole, therefore none of us are perfect at all aspects. Sometimes we just wish they (our loved ones) would listen to our advices and act on it as soon as they could, but we often forget we must treat them like we pamper ourselves. Some pardons, some exceptions, some little giveaways.

Mic
12/19'11

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 028:

Just like certain job requires specific experiences, an unique character requires certain personal traits. Besides, it maybe more fitting by saying an it is a combination of your personal experiences. Ways you have been brought up, friends you have been interacting with, things you believed in; the happy, the sad, the angry, the exciting; all count. Do not be ashamed of the way you have been living, do not feel bad about your past, they are important components that make you who you are, because present is merely layers of yesterdays.

Mic
12/18'11

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 027:

A continuous movement of object(s) without creating any impulse. Flow is a higher degree of efficiency, you no longer have to choose between confrontation or avoidance; once you start the process, it agilely does all the work for you like how momentum works.

Mic
12/17'11

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 026:

Keep an open mind, many wonderful things would never had happened to me if I never took the chance. Imagine if you step out of your homeland, begin a soulful journey. What if you quit the job that you hate, start doing something you love for part time? Ever tried fighting back to your parents and tell them boldly what you believe and what you stand for? No one knows what your true potentials are, only through constant confrontation with your insecurities and fears, other people's humiliations and doubts, you will slowly realize your true self within.

Mic
12/16'11

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 025:

Be flexible about plans. Most people complain about how they have no time for nearly anything; busy, is what they live for. There are three types of people: Time manager, time struggler, and time waster. I would like to say most people are time struggler, who is not satisfied with current time use and demand a change but do not know how; very little are time waster or time manager. Time managers account fragmented time into normal course of a day, so if anything unexpected comes up, needless to panic, instead, situations can be handled in ease (and with style).

Mic
12/15'11

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 024:

Read biographies, it is simply the cheapest best way to learn from other people's experience. If you are among the ones who said "I've read that when I was in elementary school!" Go back, read again, your memory retention is far less reliable than a piece of paper and a pen.

Mic
12/14'11

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 023:

Hobby, like a loyal partner on your grand journey, it will direct you towards the path you always wanted to pursue; maybe the adventurous, maybe the impossible. The rigorous path that others want you to walk on based on what they "think" is best for you? Respectfully turn them down, but thank whom provide advices. Acquire new hobbies, sharpen new skills once in a while, research shows mastering new skills have significant impact on improvements in person's brain potential.

Mic
12/13'11

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 022:

Treat your family members with respect and care. Go back to your roots, you may or may not realize how essential it is for a person to seek knowledge in family heritage. Life, like trees, the larger you wish to become, the stronger the roots you will need.

Mic
12/12'11

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 021:

Experience self-discovery, the sooner you go through self-realization period to reach into yourself, the sooner you will be likely find happiness in things you do everyday. Learn to be more purpose driven, it definitely makes things more fun.

Taken in Eternal Flames near Buffalo

Mic
12/11'11

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 020:

Be on a wheel chair once, be on crutches once, go blindfolded, live in a different country where your verbal communication is completely disabled. We take way too many things for granted that we no longer see the values behind each senses, of which we will be dysfunctional without. Starve for a day, stay out of technology for a weekend, practice vegetarian for a month, read scripts from different religion for once; you do not have to love it, nor to hate it, simply appreciate and understand the differences. By exposing yourself to higher levels of divergent schools of though, you may enable the most powerful combinations of applied knowledge and practices. Again, challenge yourself, we are such shapable species that we can endure almost anything as long as we have a steady and robust mindset. 

I love living life, I am happy - Nick Vujicic

Click image to watch Nick Vujicic's motivating speech

Mic

12/9'11

My last words to you if I must die tomorrow 019:

Forgive others, it takes courage to do so. Throughout life, people are going to hurt you, intentionally or unintentionally. Sometimes even friends turn their backs on you, some backstab, some make use of you, some just plain talk too much. Whether you are prepared for it or not, it will come; some might later apologize, some won't. But there are just too much more in life, that you should not have time to store these unpleasant bundles in your backpack. If we can be larger than our past and forgive, learn a lesson and move on, why not?

Mic
12/8'11