Writing

Writing is a very koool way to express our thoughts, sometimes very hard to do so, but after finishing writing about something, you’ll always a sense of fulfillment and achievement. Writing requires a lot of effort, thinking, and loads of ideas combined to create a main one which will be like the lead actor/actress in a film, to lead everything and start the flow of the plot.

I consider my skills of writing as “okay”, that’s also one of the reason why I had the courage to even start writing, wrote a book even, going for more, bigger and more courage-consuming things that are related to writing. I call my kind of writing, “free writing”, where there are a lot of random ideas coming at you at once and all you’re trying to do is to pick them up first, then you can start putting them together like Legos. The not needed part will be crumbled and tossed to the bin for now and might come back when it’s needed to be a part of the puzzle; hopefully, else it’s always a waste to throw away ideas. The qualified ones will always stay, by “qualified”, I meant by ideas that I find that there are connection to the topic I’m trying to write about and is a point which can be expanded very wide, if ever needed.

Recently, I’ve discovered my interest in free writing, it’s fun but you don’t play around the bush and never actually really finish the article; it always gives me the lingering feelings and to me, that’s very kooool. It gives you freedom while also not letting you cross the line of being “too” free and just play around too much with the words and in the end will make the article too impolite. Enjoying writing is a great feeling, in fact, it’s very rare and sometimes can be considered as a technique that writers have to master; somehow, because it’s gonna help a lot if you want to write good articles.

Inspiration

Inspiration is the main word for the many other words that I think, are related to it, and which gives more specific details to what Inspiration fully means.

I grow up very slowly, although I was exposed to the outside world much more earlier than the others, the knowledge (useless ones, rarely are there useful ones) were a lot, but I didn't know I had them inside of me until I was sort of being helped to be even more exposed to the outside world, AGAIN!

You might think, ERRR... the outside world and my childhood? how come it is related to what I'm writing about? well let's find out.

The reason why I brought up being exposed to the outside world, is because the reason why it happened was my parents, I do not blame them for that, but it was them who let it happened. They were unaware of the attention I was requesting, the things I see parents do to their kids and that I wasn't treated the same. It's hard to explain why they did not do it, in most cases, parents knew how to be affectionate and passionate about their kids and all; but in my case, my parents were beginners at that category at the period when I needed them to be professional at that. Now that they are sort of familiar with what is needed, my period of me wanting attention and affection is over. My brother was and is lucky, I was the testing platform for my parents to make sure how they convey love to my brother is way better and more effective than how they conveyed to me. I know it sounds like I'm very jealous and hate my parents very much for letting all this happened, I really WAS, not anymore now, hehehe, I might have just matured a bit.

And yeah, this is just one of the thing that happened, before we get on to me explaining the story about inspiration.

I wasn't mature enough to idolize a person, or even try to admire someone who's done great things. Until I was in my 11, I did not know what an idol is, what an inspiration is, and especially, how a person or any kind of living or non-living thing that are inspirational that can inspire a fellow human being to become someone better or do something better than the inspiration itself.

Inspiration is a very powerful THING, it can be considered as something that exists in reality, and also can be considered as just a mental kind of thing, like an imagination, more like a mindset. To idolize, to admire, to get inspired by someone or something, the fact that we humans do that is just simply amazing, the fact that we always want to be better and better is one of the most important quality that separates us from ANIMALS.

I wish I started idolizing and admiring people much sooner than I did, I guess I was just too unaware
of what's happening around me, and that I was too stupid that I might have not known what FUTURE is and what THE FUTURE HOLDS. I might have not done anything that special to start giving people advices on their future and that they should start as soon as possible, but what I know is that I have achieved some goals, when I get inspired and encouraged to do so, and whenever I want to achieve something, I think of the inspiration first, when I have that in me, I'm almost certain that anything can be done.

I WILL WRITE MORE!

This is just a small post to say that I will be continuing writing more articles from now on, thank you for the support, although I do not know who's reading and whether the stats appearing in my analytics  stat is real or not; but whatever it is, thank you and I won't slack off anymore, I promise.

I made this for you, the readers!

Brain vs Heart

We obviously know that our emotions and feelings are not generated from our hearts, but why are we still referring them to our hearts?

In my opinion, there’s currently no specific reasons or explanations out there, how it has become like this. The only thing I know is that it is us who have been making this reference alive until now. Everyone knows that our hearts are just a piece of flesh which is the main function in our body which is keeping us alive and breathing, that’s the only job it has.

To most, I believe, including myself, still refers my or our emotions and feelings to my heart or our hearts, and it feel natural, as if it’s not a reference or something which was made up. Our emotions and feelings come from our brains, our happiness, sadness, jealousy, misery, fear, but never really referred to our brains, useless it is explained scientifically.

The reference must have started long time ago, because it has become so natural to us that it doesn’t sound wrong anymore, I doubt even scientist wouldn’t find it unnatural or disturbing. The reason why I’m talking about this is that I’m just very very curious, it’s actually not a small point to talk about, it’s just that we’re so used to it that we wouldn’t even consider this as something to even talk about.

I had to let this out, it has been in my head for so long. Although it's short and somewhat might be not as meaningful as the other articles I've written before, I still think it's right of me to not hide what I've thought about and written.

Ideas ideas ideas...

Ideas, that’s what we all call it, but there are some many other relatable words that are almost the same; opinions, views, thoughts, visions, and many more. What I like about my brain, or “the brain” is that it’s a very powerful weapon, but can only be operated when it falls to the right hands. I personally think that all our brains are the same, might not be the same shape or in the same condition in term of health. In some special cases though, very small teeny tiny amount of people have special brains, and I’m sure there’s always explanations to why it is how it is. But, overall, I think we are very very even, so even that there can never be an argument about the inequality of our brains; at least I don’t see that kind of debate coming soon as of now.

Ideas aren’t always amazing, you can’t always just suddenly have a idea of making the world’s most powerful nuke, it doesn’t work like that, and for the people who are expecting themselves to always bring out ONLY their best ideas and be very very about it; well, great/awesome/incredible/impossible ideas do not JUST come like that. In fact, you should never stop yourself from letting the ideas flow, unless you’ve really have done something real great about an idea you got and now you just need time to relax and read a book while drinking a glass of cocktail on the beach. Great ideas or lame ideas, they all are ideas, the more the better, why? because that means you’re very active, your brain is very productive. Some might think that the lame ideas we all get from our brains are unless and a waste of time just to think about it, well I think you’re slightly wrong about that, it’s not about whether the ideas are great or lame, it’s the timing. Timing decides everything about your ideas, when you want something and someone goes to you and just hand that one thing you always wanted to you, how would you respond? nahhh, I’m not taking it? of course you would take it and say as many “thank you” you could possibly say, and that’s what we all mistaken as “a or the great idea”, and vice versa, as “a or the lame idea”.

Enough of explaining what an idea is, let’s get started with why I brought this up. So, some nights ago, I dozed at around 9 - which I would never ever intend to do, and when I woke up around 2:30 in the morning, still in bed, but was thinking. Something hit me up, so sudden, I don’t even remember what was on my mind at that time when this thought came along, because normally there has to be a starting point of a process of thinking, not in my case, not this time. I was thinking about writing articles, at 2:30 am in the morning, it’s not even a thing I’m obsessed with, I mean I do like writing a a lot, but not so much that it would make me think of it at 2:30 am. So I was thinking about things to write about, since my summer break has started - it started long time back, it’s just that I’m feeling a bit lazy, if you want to know why, please read what I wrote yesterday first before even thinking of proceeding with this one. Okay okay… So… I was thinking about getting into writing articles again, I unintentionally took a very long and unforgivable break, that’s one of the reason why I want to get into it again. Writing is very fun, especially when I get to write freely, when there’s a small random topic to talk about and you just do not feel pressure at all writing it. People say when you do something you really like, you’ll forget about everything that is around you and never get bothered; not in my case, I write so that everything that is bothering me will come to me and show themselves and I MIGHT as well find solutions to fixing THEM.

SEE? FREE WRITING MAKES ME VERY EXCITED THAT I COULD JUST JUMP INTO DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS OF TOPICS IN A MATTER OF SECONDS.

That morning, the moment I started thinking about it, I took my phone that was charging nearby and just opened “Notes” and started spamming the keyboards with whatever was on my mind. The idea of getting back into writing articles again was not the “great” idea, the “great” idea was that I got some articles ideas and I will be writing more about them in more days to come. [if i don’t slack off again, hopefully not. :))]

One more thing, I really do think that ideas come more at night, when you’re so tired and very low on battery, that’s when it hits you and I think that’s always why people tend to just not pick it up - which is a shame, really. I don’t know whether it is just me, whether it’s just that I happened to always get ideas at night, I really don’t know. Scientifically, you can get that side of the answer on Google.

See? I was thinking of ending this article here and just put a nice quote to make give it a “the story ended happy forever after” kind of feel, but I, then, thought that it is to typical and obvious of me for doing so, so I ended up not doing it. But anyways, hehehe…

“NEVER STOP IDEAS FLOWING, AND NEVER STOP PICKING IT UP.”

Laziness and the lack of integrity

Ahhhh…. *deeeep deep breathe

LAZINESS, the classics quality that literally everyone has.

The signs of being lazy is very clear and we, ourselves, see it first, but most of the time, wouldn’t care to care about it, and that’s the only reason why the laziness keeps on increasing. Laziness can be prevented, but cannot be banished from any of our lives, nature just doesn’t allow that to happen. It can only be decreased or increased, and if you’re lucky enough to have that ability and to use it however/whenever/wherever you want, then you must have either put in so much effort or was given by God as a gift. Laziness is insanely addictive, people don’t really know that, but it’s in our nature and we live with it. It can be very dangerous, and can also be very very useful if you stop it.

Laziness is just the bridge to the disaster that always happened to us, the fact that we know that we’re lazy, but still deny the fact and go on slacking off as if nothing has happened; that’s the lack of integrity. Integrity has a lot of meanings, some are very deep, some are simple, but here’s how I understand it. You see… Integrity is like a function in our minds, they are in everyone’s, and it has been automatically used no matter we like it or not. Integrity works like a mirror, you see what you’re doing, mostly the things that are wrong and has to be changed right away, and when you are not willing to accept the mistakes and fix it when you see it right in front of you, that’s the lack of integrity; lying your mind that it is okay to delay, to postpone, to cancel, to “let’s do it next time”. 

To be very honest, it happens to everyone, including myself, in many many cases as well. But what’s good about it is that it never goes away, it’s like a very stubborn kid throwing tantrums at you until you get either the point or just do what the kid says just to relieve the annoyance; in either case, you win, all the time!

That kid will always be there, waiting to fight with you, never for you, unless you have so much integrity. Sometimes, you just have to listen to that kid, although most of the time you wouldn’t like to do so, but you know… maybe the ice-cream is really the key to everything.

Brexit

I’ve been following the Brexit news for a long time, I think it might have just made it to a one year anniversary. It first started with Grexit, the “Greece Exit”, and the Brexit; later? We don’t really know, do we?

The European Union was made to unite countries around Europe, community which is the most elite, including some of the world’s biggest economy. EU’s intention has always been to unite and help find solutions for all of its members, that’s why they are operating one of the riskiest deals that have ever been made, and that’s to let everyone go around the member countries without needing Visa.

*Courtesy to the Creator

What’s next? Italeave, Finish, Czechout, Oustria, Byegium and Departugal?

Is this the domino effect we might have to go through? If this really happened, the world will be affected, let alone the EU. I wanted to bring this up not only because I’ve been catching up with it, but this is also a very shocking news; the fact that the UK is actually leaving EU is just not something you see happened everyday. It is considered shocking because no one thought it would actually happened until it did, people kind of underestimating the possibility of it happening. It was a risk, the leave gives both headaches and dopamine for the voters. The votes were 52% to 48%, the digits are pretty thrilling, but the reality is that it is not a very good digit at all. That’s like half of the voters want to stay, and the other half want to leave; so either ways, HALF of the voters won’t be that happy with the outcome, and in this case, it’s been voted to leave EU. The 48% that voted to stay are rather disappointed with the result and are now probably hesitating and not sure how things will go on from this point of time.

Most have been saying that leaving the EU will affect so many things, mainly the economic part, it will be heavily damaged and only God knows when the struggle will end. The struggle will sure happen; sooner or after, normal or bad.

Weeks after the Brexit vote was done, I think the voters who voted to leave started to realize how the exit will affect not just the country, but they themselves as well. The deal of whether the people of UK can still roam around the EU is still in the cloud, nothing has been said yet, and everyone will be eager to know what will happen. If the EU representatives decide to not let the people of UK go around the EU and live and study and work and do whatever they want and need to. With that in mind, people are very worried, because this is probably the best and most important deal among all the economy and financial related deals.

Time will tell what’s gonna happened to the UK; I, we, just hope for the best to happen.

Royal Birthdays

printf(“HELLO WORLD, THIS IS MY 40TH ARTICLE!”)

HELLO WORLD, THIS IS MY 40TH ARTICLE!

The Royals have been around for so long; they have done so much, both positive and negative. We humans take time to evolve, but eventually, we would always will someday.  From the tribal leaders to the Kings and the Queens to the Presidents and the Prime Ministers, and that won’t be it; soon, when it’s time for the evolution, we will then evolve. They are the big shots who were involved in the making of so many things that have happened, to always having their names on the history book. Some were humble yet strong and mighty, while some were cruel and inevitably evil that they did not even make it to the book. Some brought peace while the others went to wars, some were different and was rewarded with honour and fame throughout their lives. Each and everyone of them were and are different, that’s why we all are changing and have never stopped looking for more. They were always considered as strong people, if not physically, then mentally, or sometimes; both! They are always on top of everyone, and intentionally made the top to help out and fix everything that are meant to be fixed.

We are meant to respect them for what they’ve done for the country you’re living in; and in some rare cases, the world you’re living in. Some were not that good, didn’t complete their jobs well and was eliminated, because wearing the crown was not meant to be all sweet and fun. When they are good enough to wear that crown on your head, they have to be perfect in whatever they are doing, their plans and techniques on making their country better and better. They have to have the feeling of ‘being a King or Queen’, then that’s when everything goes the rite way. These guys didn’t have the ‘to mess up’ option in their mindset, that’s one of the few things they just cannot afford to do at all. Only few had egos, like a very strong and positive one, the ego that made people respect and love them, instead of the hatred and being extremely scared of them. They were treated like Gods and Goddess, the people knew what they had to do and returned the favors back pretty well.

It’s the Royal Birthday, the whole country deserves a day off and they do. I don’t think anyone would dare to disrespect or violate the rules and come on… why would anyone do that? It’s a holiday! It would be a great holiday for all, sometimes the holiday would eat up the whole week and that doesn’t happen that often; but when it does, Phnom Penh will be emptied and everyone will be on their way out to provinces.

No one really knows what happens after the usual celebration when see on the TV every year, we just never know what happened behind the closed doors. To be honest, I really think the royalties are just regular people, they are just like us; it’s just that they have a heavier responsibility and definitely a better sense of what they are doing. Although we don’t really know whether they would just jump straight into their work rite after the celebration ends or just hanging there having fun and eating and partying, in either ways, they’re both good.

We must carry on this holiday, not just because it has to be carried on, but also for the sake of the advantages both sides will be gaining from. Having a King is already something rare to have these days, we must respect that fact and the tradition and culture that goes behind it.  We, the people, the citizens of Cambodia, are the small particles of unity. And he, the majesty, is the symbol of unity, he united the whole nation and will keep it that way as long as possible.

There’s more definitions and examples to the word ‘King’, then the King himself. The word ‘King’, can most of the time, refer to a certain person whose personality is strong and solid in a way that makes that person hard to be hated. That person does not use that personality for just specific reasons, that personality defines that person, and he/she breaths that attitude. A person that can be labeled as a ‘King’ isn’t just everyone, you have to earn that label, and the requirements are there to trip you on the way. Brave, confident, outspoken, charismatically explicit, in my opinion, with those qualities not being “too much”, you’re good to go.

Mac: An Ego

I got a Macbook Pro from a friend of mine and he loved it, even though it is a  secondhand, but it looks fresh as new. If you ever get your hand on a Macbook; use it wisely.

What’s important is not just the product, in fact, real users don’t focus on the machine itself; they focus more on how the machine was made to have this kind of reputation and great ego in itself. I mean it’s obvious that the machine is very powerful and capable to do ‘more’, and that’s also one of the reasons why people like it. I’m no technician, but in my opinion, I think it wasn’t made to just suit one type of user; it was made to suit everyone with any kind of needs.

No offense at all to the users that are using just for the sake of owning one, I respect, but not as much as the ones that would wholeheartedly use and respect their own Macs. I would consider myself as one of the true users when I feel like I’ve given enough respect and care towards mine, but until then, I’m going to treasure this Macbook in a way which it should be treated.

I’d like to say that Jobs has done his job well and this job he’s achieved will stay with us for a very long time. To make something which will remain as a part of someone’s lives is not just an everyday thing, it’s never impossible, but to be honest, I doubt there are many out there doing what he’s done to us. Most of us don’t know or just have no clue that this is not just a laptop, if you’re the true user and believer of Macbook, it’s one of those things that will stay with you for a very long time. It’s something special, something you care for and will do anything to keep it safe and sound.

Let’s talk about the man who was behind the success of the whole company, Steve Jobs. According to so many sources, his interviews, his Wikipedia, his articles, and recently, his movie; it clearly showed that he was a hardworking man, and a very loyal servant to his company. He was a true believer, he believed in everything he was doing and always proud of what he has done, he did everything wholeheartedly. Two or three paragraph won’t describe him, yeah, he’s one of those guys; you have to write a book about him to cover like fifty percent of what he’s done and doing, not a sentence or an article. People might not realize it or they have but wouldn’t agree with it, but having a book written about you isn’t a daily thing someone would do to you, so that’s somewhat an achievement that would ONLY come to you when you earn it.

Guys like Steve Jobs, you just gotta respect him and his products too, because I bet that everything came from his heart. He made Apple to get him money, but that was not just it, he had so many things to do in order to make that happen and it had happened; the legacy will remain where it shall be and it will never lose its value. And one more important quality he had, it was his ego, his positive and ambitious ego, that quality can make or break, Jobs’ was in Jobs control, and as a result, he made everything.

He took a bite of that Apple, and everything else, they say, were all history and innovation.

Reality and Belief

Opinions vary around every corner of the world, from guys on streets to suited&tied-politicians, we all are able to express what we think about one certain thing. Whether it’s good or bad, rite or wrong, it doesn't really matter does it? it’s just how we think of it, and whichever way we think of things certainly cannot be penalized.

I wanted to write an article on this topic because it’s something happening everyday and no one seems to be making a fuss outta it; not saying that I will, but someone has to start the fire. Everywhere in the world, people believe in beliefs, in Gods, in spiritual things we can all say, might or might not exist. It’s all an opinion. We have to somehow reduce the overwhelming passion we have for beliefs, because it's hurting the reality and I honestly think that it has the potential to make things worse, with time. It is very okay and awesomeee to believe our choice of beliefs because we have doing that for so so long, and if it stays at this rate, it ain't going anywhere. But when things get too overwhelmed and overdone, and no one is seeing it, that's one heck of a problem.

I pay my tributes to the hardcore prayers and the ones who go to God when it's needed the most, and most of the time, things work out just fine and you can start thanking the guy who helped you outta it. I do pray as well, so so many times; before competing for something I think I deserve to win, when things get in the way and I start panicking.

People, I'm not saying a lot or very few, but they should wake up from whatever unrealistic situation they are in, and start considering another path in making their lives better and brighter. Focus on your beliefs, but I suggest you focus more on the reality. The things that are around you, are the things that will involve in your life, no matter how small it actually is, it will always make an impact on you. Focusing more on reality makes you look smarter, and nevertheless, a better person I suppose. Reality is where you'll be in forever, a place you'll never be able to leave unless Satan comes to you and tell you to say your last words. Reality is time, and time has no limitations, we can go visit Satan when we are just 18 or we can go on to be the healthiest/oldest people on Earth; no one really knows what will happen, I doubt God too, won't be able to give you an exact time of your lifespan.

I’m no expert in either the REALITY field or the BELIEFS field, I’m just expressing my thoughts on how I’m seeing things as a teenager living in a country, I can say, is flooded with religious related. I feel bad for those who are too obsessed with their beliefs and not realizing that they are actually living in the reality, not in their dreams or their fantasy world.

Once again, I think God has been with me most of the time, helping out here and there pretty often, and I sincerely thank it/he/her for everything. But I’m sure that's not what Gods want from us, I believe that they leave us alone sometimes and not helping us because they want us to be independent, and only depend on them when things are too much and that's when they’ll come in and help.

The existence of Gods are always questionable and will be a infinite debating topic. Not reality though, reality is there, rite in da face; no questions asked!

Khmer New Year of 2016

#lastyear

Last year’s Khmer New Year was spent in Koh Rohng Samloem, and I had some quality times there, very very worth it. It was pretty fast as well, thinking that those times were actually one year ago makes me feel so old.

#thisyear

This year’s Khmer New Year is an unplanned one, people here call it, “dek teas saart”, which translates into something like this, “beautifully sleeping at home”. Although that's not the exact meaning, but it's pretty close, it means you are not going anywhere, even if you do, it's probably somewhere nearby; can be called an unplanned holiday.

#theunplannedholiday

The word “Holiday” is like the perfect word to describe being able to get super lazy and relax and sometimes literally do nothing at all, except for eating a lot of food and watching a lot of tv and games and doing useless stuffs to burn the possibly the longest holiday of the year; which I, myself did it for many times before getting into the blogging and fotography I’m doing rite now. I’m very aware that it still occurs to most of the teenagers here and I regret having done it for many times in the past, but now that I’m somehow more mature than I was two years ago, I can see how useless it was and now still is. I’m done with all those stuffs and have somehow managed to do something else which gives more energy and usefulness to myself and later, probably for the society (just saying…:)

#somanylectures

You can definitely slack off during the holidays, but that's when you dun really have a clue how much time you actually have in hand and how much work can be done in that amount of time; which in my case, will definitely help a lot with my work and all, which will definitely affect everything I will be doing after the holidays. So what I think everyone should be doing is that they should definitely have fun, else there's no point in getting so many days off and have nothing to do; and should definitely try to make something out of the holiday, because believe me, you have no idea how much time there is in your hands until you actually decide to take it out and try using it.

Enough with all the holiday definition thingy, let's get back to the holiday itself. I can say that we have been developing like crazy, maybe not so much with the construction and roads and all, but definitely the tourism side; it's growing like crazy. People might be saying that there are only locals going to places such as Angkor Wat and Pub Street and those amazeball places we have here in Cambodia, and that we lack the likes of overseas tourists, but that doesn't really matter does it? The grass is always gonna be greener on the other side (I’m talking about the likes of Thailand where there are tons and tons of overseas tourists compared to us), but if we always keep our mind in the positive mode, local tourists are giving us a lot of interests, and that is way better than going overseas and spending money in other countries. I’m not saying we shouldn't be going overseas, they are great and niiice and an inspiration to our development, they are not bad guys.

#khmernewyearhasevolved

Khmer New Year has attracted so many locals, especially teenagers, and when there are teenagers, there are the parents, no one is leaving no one behind, and in this case, it just makes the tourism part even better and better. As we all know, we are opened to more knowledge and education nowadays, parents and all are more open minded than ever before, so are their kids; that's a great great news. Teenagers now are engaged with the idea of being kool and swag and classic and all those influence and cultures we all get from all the great technologies. It is always good to be a part of something that is already there and very famous, but we have to also keep it low and to never exaggerate. Most of the organizations in charge of making the festival very engaged with teenagers and mixing up the past and the modern, I must say, are ran by either teenagers themselves or people who know us very well. They bring in new and exciting things so that it will entertain literally everyone, and if we are to make things better, we are in the rite path.

#angkorsongkran

Angkor Songkran means like a celebration in Angkor itself, celebrating for the Khmer New Year that will be coming the day before the Angkor Songkran will be held. I have no idea what people actually do in Angkor Songkran, but I’m sure that it's definitely something very fun, else no one would be joining. Honestly, I’ve never been to an Angkor Songkran before, so I dun have a clue how it looks like, but by the looks of the images I searched for in Google Images, it looks like there are pretty fun activities. I see stuffs like water guns and water balloons, some Khmer traditional games, I seepeople shaking off their stress with the remix of Khmer traditional dance and the trendy “Nhi Keng Jerng Dance”, you just simply put your heels on any plain platform and start twisting it with a bit of Marizon (dance) to it; I call it the Khmer version of Gangnam Style maybe?

#13thprayersday

By the 13th, people have already given their prayers and received grace from the new God of this year. Every year there comes a different God who to my perspective, is the one who will be responsible for all the things that will be happening that year; most likely to look like the animal that is in the zodiac sign. There is always green screen play on tv every year, showing probably a crew of that tv show dressing up like a random God and sitting on his cloud on the way to Earth; no offense here to whichever ministry or organization who is responsible for the green screen, I just think that for some thing this important and rare, it should be made with better technical skills.

#notoldyetnotsoyoung

It looks like we have been desperately finding a way to make everything not old yet not so young, and we’ve a lot of ways to make that method work. We like being trendy and modernized more than being out of trend and look ancient, we do like them more, but what’s most important thing rite now is that we have PRIORITIZED the past more than what’s now or the past. Fortunately, people have found their way to liking the mix of past and modern so much that it also has become a trend, and that trend is never something bad for a country that is rapidly growing. We take objects like Kroma (Khmer towel) and make it something fashionable and showcase it around the world that it's ours and we’re not shy to say that we're proud of it. Characters like Hanuman (The Monkey God) or Yiek (Typical Khmer giant), have been made into books for college students who are majoring the Fine Arts here; moreover, these characters are literally everywhere, down the graffiti streets, printed on T-shirts, made as mask, used in posters for things relating or representing CAMBODIA. There's no doubt that we have been prouder than ever before.

#khmernewyearitself   

This year, the Khmer New Year itself went pretty well. By saying so, it involves both my holiday and the general holiday I see people having. Some enjoyed full-time slack at their home sweet home, some recorded many good moments into their history book and wish to be wherever they were again next year. I had a good holiday as well, watched some pretty rock-solid movies, did some crucial work, nap some incredible naps, and let's not forget the water park I went earlier this week plus a relaxing trip to Sihanouk Ville; which has officially made my skin peeling off like a snake’s. The overall holiday was very good, the general one I mean, there seemed to be more and more activities every year, more tourists and locals out there for a treat. Phnom Penh was not silent until the actual day of the Khmer New Year, I dunno how ya’ll think, but I am always positively thinking and this to me means probably we’re a bit more populated than last year, you just never know, do ya?

Let the new year make you better.

The Grand Phnom Penh Water Park in Cambodia

Water park has somehow never been on my priority list at all, probably because there isn’t one here? maybe? or is it just me enjoying childhood pretty well that I dun have any issue missing water park for the last 15 years.

Grand Phnom Penh Water Park is probably the first ever proper water park we have here in Cambodia, the looks seem to impress me; which of course is the reason why I decided to go and give it a shot. As I’m writing the intro of this article, I have no idea how tomorrow will go for me, what kind of impression the water park will give. You just never know, do you? it can always make and can always break, and I hope it will make me want to go there again and again.

There is no doubt now that the water park has successfully lured my brain to go again, because today was an insane day, memorable and awesomeee. I went there with a bunch of friends, it was quite a long trip to be honest; I was nagging and all about the weather and that I had to wait for a friend, but that happened because I didn't have a clue what was gonna come. I didn't like the weather at all, it wasn't that hot actually, it's more of the humidity stuff which had been annoying me since I woke up, you can't breathe proper.

As my impatience went up, I hurried to the changing room and swiftly did everything I needed to do and down I went, to the giant slides. Of course, it was more than what I expected, both the look and the feel; the feel came a bit late, but it hit me hard and sucked me in. I was declared restless in less than 30 minutes, after some twisty/speed-of-light kind of action, I went for the straightforward one, and fell in love with it. The basic logic you get from playing in a water park is that you get to repeat whatever you’re doing again and again, and that so should be applied in reality as well. When you are doing something pretty legit and good or let’s just say FUN, you’ll want to do it again.

The first few slides scared the chicken outta me, but that was probably it, the whole day was left for me to enjoy. It wasn't just the slides though, the people and the environment were grand, it was one hell of a water park. You just can't deny the fun, it will make you go for it and never ever want to leave it; you normally see all the old guys and parents just hanging around the corner doing nothing rite? well there were few, but most of them were in the water, doing slides, WWE-ing in the water, getting massage by the falling bucket of water, basically, the fun was also intended for them. As you all know, I didn’t have a clue what a water park can give until today, means I had no idea that it was this good. I like the idea a lot as well, the idea of being able to entertain anyone; no age limits, nothing else is required, you just have to be human and you’ll get the fun too.

After many many slides, I wasn’t that tired, but it’s obvious that I had to have lunch. The weather was at its best, tanning everyone including me, and literally telling everyone to get off the park and go eat. The lunch place was very crowded, no orders were allowed to make anymore, so I had no choice but to pick up some ready made salad and sandwich to make my tummy a bit stabilized. After 30 minutes or so, I decided to go make some orders because I wasn’t going to go back in the water, “not being full”. I waited for 2 hours to get everything I had ordered, I mean they were worth it; but along the course, I was irritated, I was nagging a lot , things were not supposed to be this long.

The Cheng Meng Festival of 2016

I’m already so happy right now, writing this article for the second time was expected, but the journey and the matter of time wasn’t that easy at all. I mean you just feel good writing a second part of any article, it makes you feel like you’ve lasted for quite some time, and that's never something bad to acknowledge.

So many things changed, but Cheng Meng didn't. It has and is and will always be a very special occasion for us all. I’ve always attended the occasion, but not this year; exams and tight schedules, I had no choice but to miss it. Mom and dad were having good times travelling to their hometowns and spend their time freely, and with no pressure. Mom came back with a big smile on her tanned face, having heard and laughed about so many jokes and gossips with her siblings. Dad had a great time hanging out with the in-laws, despite never actually having had a conversation with any one of them before. They both came back very happily, it’s been so long since the last time they had this much time to actually hang out with anyone.

As always, there were many foods to offer to our ancestors; the prosperity was too much that it has also flooded our refrigerator, and me. The ancestors has been there for us when they were alive, and now as they’re gone far away, they somehow smuggled a bit of help to our everyday life. It’s hard to actually believe that they’re still here with us, but most do believe and that’s how and why the ritual is still going on every single year. Unless everyone has stopped believing in their beliefs or religions, Gods and all will still exist. How we feel about a certain thing is always the case, imagine us not having feelings, that will be another very crazy case to even talk about.

I personally dun really have a certain God that I pray to, to me they’re all the same, they might have different superpowers or histories or whatever it is, but they do have one common thing, they are always here to help. Gods are known to be very very kind, in a very thoughtful, as I know about Buddha, Buddha helps you unconditionally, never wanting anything back from you at all. They are known to help everyone in need, in whichever situation each of us are in, they twist and turn and compose the story of your life. That’s why there’s a saying that goes by, “Life is a story.”, and it definitely is; to some, they strongly believe that it has been decided for them of how their life will be.

All I do is to pray, no matter to which God you’re praying for help, God will help. So, just pray.

Pray, pray, pray again, and again, and never stop praying.