Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

One should learn from one's mistakes. Always. Try and do the hardest to learn from one's mistakes.

I was cracking my head to look for this saying. I had the meaning in my mind, but somehow, try as hard as I did, the complete saying did not materialized. In the end, I had to rely on the powerful tool of Google to get my 'Yeah' moment.

The meaning of this saying is simple and straightforward enough for anyone to understand. You are a fool if you cannot learn from your mistakes and experiences. This thought had been lingering in my mind for a few days now. The feeling of me being a complete fool, being fooled twice into making the same mistake.

I will not wallow in self-pity. I do not deserve that. It has all been brought unto myself, by myself. Perhaps my oversight? It might be due to my short-sightedness. Then again, it might have been only due to greed, impatience and voraciousness and nothing more. What ever it is, I am now in a rut that I tried so hard to bury but just failed.

And so, the conclusion that I can make is only but I am a fool, stuck in a rut, trying hard to dig herself out, but ending up suffocating herself with even more.

So apt. I just realized that this post will go under April. I guess this makes me the April's Fool, too.

Colourful papers

It's a yearly ritual for the Chinese to go the graveyards of their ancestors and/or loved ones. Most of the time, it is a norm to see them cleaning up the graves, do a little sprucing up like painting faded nameplates, sweeping, and then lastly, of course, they will offer prayers before leaving.

What I find interesting and favour the most is the involvement of colour papers here. Once the graves has been cleaned, swept and the weeds cleared, colourful papers will be placed all over the graves. Most of the time, this is tasked to the younger ones. The simplicity of the it and the involvement of colourful papers makes it ideal for the little ones who are eager to pitch in this yearly ritual. They would be able to create their master pieces.

Over at my family, we will normally match at least a couple of colourful papers and use stones to weigh it down on the grave. We would normally be asked to make sure the papers are evenly spread throughout the grave, so that not one side is heavily 'decorated' than the other. I used to really look forward to putting these papers and although I do chip in my share of cleaning up the graves that we visit, I still like this task the most.

I would try as best as I can to lay different colours together, evenly all over the graves. I don't simply choose the different colours but rather try to get matching ones. No specific rules were brought to my attention to say that colours have to be different or matching or you have to put more than a piece at one spot. It is just my own little idiosyncrasy self at work, unstoppable even if I wanted to. Once done, I cannot help but admire it. I would normally take a few steps back, accessing the outcome. Little but totally unnecessary adjustments would be made just to make it looks all right.

This year is no different. You guessed it, I did it in such. I do hope that I will have a chance to do this again next year, and the next. With family.

And yes, I am odd.

creative, innovative, interesting ideas

Creativity is something I don't really have. Yes, some people, I have to admit modestly, think that I possess a certain level of creativity. They often let me handle the creative aspect of things when we are given projects or jobs to carry out. I do what I can do best, bluff my way through the end of the project.

Well, seriously, personally I think I am not creative. I still find it not easy to come up with ideas, not to mention new ones. I struggle to carry out projects as my create juices will just not flow. Given time to search on ideas, I will browse and think and sit on that particular idea for a while, trying to catch any impression that I can get. Then it's innovation time. Doing something about it, tweaking the idea a little, to make it mine.

Honing this skill takes time too. Innovation comes hand in hand with creativity. Maybe you are not creative, but being innovative can safe your skin sometimes. So I do take note and collect ideas as I come across them. And of course, I do try my best to store them, although I think they that they will all be lost in the greying jungle of mine. Here is another creative idea I stumbled upon during my daily exercise routine, net-surfing :

http://runningfromcamera.blogspot.com/

It is a very interesting photography concept and I foresee that I would transform myself in due time to a Cheshire-similar creature and try this out. An idea with lots of potential to be innovated by an un-creative mind. Wish I had thought about doing this before this guy did it, but then again, it's alright, I guess. It is just another interesting way of presenting yourself, all about in this big, wide world.