Phoebe's Guide To A Happier Life

"Guide To A Happier Life - Practice Males Perfect" - by Phoebe Chung


Practice makes perfect.
Recover your resources.
Ask an inch and take a mile.
Compromise with reality.
Tell white lies when skipping class or work.
Identify the right clothes when buying.
Control+C control+V = a finished paper.
Exploit new people.

Make sure to get a discount when shopping.
Assume a busy pose when your boss walks in the office.
Kill cockroaches without hesitation.
Estimate a man at a glance.
Skilled at unfastening your girlfriend's bra.

Pretend to be deaf when encountering unfair treatment.
Embrace your parents every day.
Run in high heels.
Fart in front of your boy friend.
Enjoy being alone.
Create absurd excuses for faithless lovers.
To eat the spiciest of foods.

By Phoebe Chung

Hobbies! My salvation in life...

At this time of my life, I believe that one can live without love (愛情.. not love in general :P ), but not without hobbies.

What do you think of that? Do you agree or you think 玩物喪志? Or you feel the precious leisure time should be spent on real people (or pets if people are too much troubles) rather than personal pursuits? Well, I have to say I've never really been ambitious so I don't agree with 玩物喪志 - hobbies will always be the center of my life.

There are many bad hobbies though; some of them are quite addictive like drinking, gambling, and most girls would agree that online-gaming is the most damaging one if you happen to have a boyfriend/husband addicted to it.

I always have too many hobbies, recently I’ve been reviewing them and made a decision that I should concentrate on few of them only, and I would make sure they don't consume my time up to a harmful degree. I've friends who are destroyed in single one hobby/activity, as a result they can rarely care about others things/people genuinely...I would say that is rather limited and dangerous life. I think we ought to have several hobbies so we won't be sucked into only one of them. But if you were determined to become an artist, to devote all your time to beautify the whole human race, there is no other choice except to be careless of all other things/people to reach your goal. That is, however, a luxurious privilege for really talented & special people. If you're normal like me, I suggest you not to waste your life doing genius’ work.

Why is it important to develop several lifetime hobbies? A picture is worth thousand words, so I'll give you a picture: If you go to any local library in Taipei, there are always many old people reading newspapers there, doing nothing else. Just picture that! I've been interested for further investigation on this matter, so I went there to observe a few times. Regret to say that not one, not single one of them during my visits was reading a book instead. What a depressing view don’t you think? How could one's mind be satisfied with news...(either on TV or paper. I know some people could watch news ALL day.) It’s sad but it’s something to think about.

Sorry for my long blog, I always write too much. But I'd love to read others long blogs though, please also share them here :)

I'll stop now and conclude with this line: A balanced & meaningful life takes great efforts.

Jennifer Nov.27.2008 4:30pm

Call for old photographs

Mandy has inspired me! She shared this fantastic photo of a paintball/BBQ afternoon from several years ago and it got me thinking... There must be a lot of students with photographs from past years lurking about. I'd love to see them. If you have any photos from past Chung-Deh years, please post the photos or links in the comments section so we can all enjoy them (and see how old we've gotten).

- Paul

This is a call out to all past graduates!  Tell us what you've been up to.   Did you go on with your education?  Did you travel abroad?  Did you get married.  Did you become a monk?  Did you join the secret service and go undercover?  Did you start a business?   Did you decide to cast off the world, go live under a bridge and write bad poetry?  Or did you just stay home and become a professional couch potato?  Whatever you've been doing, we'd like to know.