You Win Some, You Learn Some

This looks like some disgusting spawn of tadpoles in a milky brew of diluted mud water from the Sarawak River after a heavy downpour. But it's actually just my favourite vanilla iced latter from Coffee Bean downtown. I like the milky taste to it. Some of my friends have boycotted white coffee because of the melamine scare. Rightly so, I reckon, especially when they've been junk-foodding themselves a fair bit. I've always remembered that melamine was plastic plates and bowls, cos that's what they're made of. Melamine. The industrial chemical. Ingesting industrial chemicals is not a good thing. But I must emphasize that it's all about dosages. Especially when it comes down to healthy adults who have the ability to detox naturally. So I do indulge in my possible melamine-infested latte once every 6 months or so. I reckon people in this town should be more worried about melted plastic straws in their deep fried banana fritters and fried chicken, rubber in their sago jelly bits (they bounce), and cholesterol and sugar; and cigarette smoke.

For a while now, I've been listening to what I call 'happy music'. It's basically music with upbeat and positive lyrics. I figure, there's enough crap in the world. I don't need someone crooning about lost love, depression, death, abuse, drugs and what not. Why go with the flow when I can do better than the flow? So Jason Mraz and Jack Johnson are in. Gavin DeGraw too. Yoga and world music are in too, and I don't care what some Christians say, this category of music does have a calming effect on this Christian, ok?

The reason I like Jason Mraz's music is because this guy really walks his talk. His blog says many things about him and his great outlook in life. There's a part in Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours", where he sings,
Before the cool done run out
I'll be giving it my bestest
And nothing's gonna to stop me but divine intervention
I reckon it's again my turn to win some or learn some

To win some and learn some. What a fantastic way of looking at things. You win some, you learn some. And it's ok to change your mind about things too.

I've been spending way too long checking my tongue in the mirror
And bending over backwards just to try to see it clearer
But my breath fogged up the glass
And so I drew a new face and laughed
I guess what I'm be saying is there ain't no better reason
To rid yourself of vanity and just go with the seasons
It's what we aim to do
Our name is our virtue

So I changed my mind. I got it lasered off. I still think it's a fantastic, fabulous piece of art. I regret nothing, neither putting it on nor taking it off. For a variety of reasons that all boil down to ME, I have decided to do without it. For now.

And so the test of patience began a week ago. My current motto is "Fade faster, fade faster, fade faster". It's become a chant really. Frankly, I'm a tad disappointed with my immune system. For the laser breaks the ink up into tiny particles which are then absorbed by the body's own immune system. An ousting-the-foreign-objects sort of concept. Because my outline was done in dots, I can see the dots getting visibly smaller and more compact, and some have disappeared completely. But there are a helluva lot of dots. By the end of the first week, which was Tuesday, the fading was visible.

I've learned a lot about myself in the last couple of weeks. I've pushed my own boundaries and seen for myself what I truly think and feel about some things. It's not always clear what we think. We don't know ourselves that well. Win some, learn some.