UEFA European Cup 2008 Austria-Switzerland

UEFA Euro Cup 2008
Hosts: Austria & Switzerland
June 7, 2008 – June 29, 2008

I totally can’t wait for this competition. It’s one of the biggest soccer events after the World Cup. It’s counterparts in other continents consist of the Copa America which took place last year and good job for the Brazilians who won the cup; there’s the Asian Cup which also took place last year where the favourites Japan, Australia, South Korea, Iran and Saudi Arabia were surprised by the championship winners Iraq; the African Cup of Nations which named Egypt their champions this year; the OFC’s Nations Cup and CONCACAF’s Gold Cup which are still to be settled this year and next year respectively.

~

Some might wonder about my great fascination to the sport. For me personally, it’s the atmosphere that brings me to each soccer match. From chants, to banging drums and blowing horns, the fans bring the best in each game.

I watched several tournaments including 2 World Cups (2002 Korea-Japan, 2006 Germany), 1 Euro Cup (2004 Portugal), 1 Asian Cup (2007 Thailand-Vietnam-Indonesia-Malaysia), and 2 Copa America Tournaments (2004 Peru, 2007 Venezuela).

I followed the happenings in the Major League Soccer (US & Canadian League – especially Toronto FC), the English Primer League, Primera Liga (Spanish League), Lega Calcio Serie A (Italian League), Ligue 1 (French League), Fußball-Bundesliga (German League), the Eredivisie (Dutch League), the J-League (Japanese League), Campeonato Brasileiro (Brazilian League) and the A-League (Australian & New Zealand League).

I also became acquainted with the football legends in history and even at present.

I found out long time ago that there are a billion people who either play or are big fans of the sport.

I thought to myself that I found the sport of the people. It’s a sport that is fascinating enough to bring people together. We get to watch some good skills to some crazy goals and glorious celebrations from the players themselves to the fans. It’s the sport of the people to the point that we get to know the 11 men of our favourite team and we become affected to their happiness, their frustrations, their glories and their defeats. We celebrate for them, we cry for them, we find passion for the sport because of them… because they are humans just like us and we feel for everything that they’re going through. It’s a magical experience everytime I watch a football match.

~

16 countries will be battling it out in this tournament surprisingly excluding Ukraine and England who are both phenomenal teams.

Group A:
1. Switzerland (Host)
2. Czech Republic
3. Portugal (Runner Up on the 2004 Euro Cup which they hosted;
4th place World Cup 2006 in Germany)
4. Turkey (3rd place World Cup 2002 Korea-Japan)

Group B
1. Austria (Host & Debut appearance)
2. Croatia
3. Germany (Third place World Cup 2006 which they hosted;
Runner Up World Cup 2002 Korea-Japan defeated by Brazil)
4. Poland (Debut Appearance)

Group C – this is the “Group of Death”
1. Netherlands
2. Italy (Current World Cup Holders 2006 Germany)
3. France (Runner Up World Cup 2006 Germany)
4. Romania

Group D
1. Greece (Title Holder Euro Cup 2004 defeating hosts Portugal)
2. Sweden
3. Spain
4. Russia

Every team had experienced playing in the Euro Cup with the exception of Poland who have come in the tournament for the very first time and Austria who joined the Euro Cup for the very first time and luckily as a host nation.

Through reflecting upon every country and their achievements over the recent years, I don’t personally think that any one of these countries weren’t convincing enough to be potential winners. I only need to do more research on Austria & Russia (both countries I haven’t heard of since the 2002 World Cup), and Romania (i haven’t heard of their football team and what strength they have)

I could hope for another cinderella team just like what Greece did 4 years ago. They surprisingly won the cup against Portugal, the host nation, in the 2004 Euro Cup Final. Unfortunately, because of the fact that I’ve heard pretty much every team (Romania doesn’t seem to be a surprise to everyone despite the fact that I haven’t heard about them), no one seemed to be a true underdog in this competition. I don’t think Austria & Poland’s debut appearance gives us any surprise either since both countries are capable of qualifying for the World Cup which meant that they can qualify at any tournament.

Kick off is on June 7!

“Welcome to the NHK” by Tatsuhiko Takimoto

“Welcome to the NHK”
by Tatsuhiko Takimoto
(Japan)

It took me 3 days to read the whole book.

The story begins with Tatsuhiro Satou, a recluse – he is one of the so-called “hikkikomori” which are people who lock themselves in their house afraid of interacting with people and the society. He thought that there is a conspiracy that is trying to bring him down, an evil organization that aims to keep him the way he is. Yet, all it takes to solve his hikkikomori problems was to meet up with a girl named Nakahara Misaki who wanted to help him remove his disorder. But along the way, his high school classmate and next door neighbour who is partly a hikkikomori named Yamazaki Kaoru met with him and shared the ideas about women and happiness through “eroge” or erotic games.

Let me start this book reflection by telling everyone reading this to please follow these advices of mine: Don’t do drugs; Don’t make bombs; Don’t try to commit suicide; and Do not download child porn. I warn you if you ever read this book, it’s contained with information about drugs, violence, bombs, eroticism and things which some I’m glad were reconsidered from being included in the anime series.

I apologize for those who were expecting this to be a journal on the anime series or the manga. This is about the original novel to which the ideas were taken from – well some of them that is.

The anime series is a lot lighter. It includes a romantic element on it between Satou and Misaki, Satou and Hitomi, and Yamazaki and Nanako (Nanako never materialized in the novel but the anime wanted to create her to make some kind of completeness and story to the character of Yamazaki’s girl) rather than following the dark contents from the novel. The manga is more devoted to the original novel and of course the novel is the god of them all hehehehe. anyway…

Takimoto’s interpretation on the novel in comparison to the anime series is just mind-blowing. For every page I turn, there are always issues that brings me into deep reflections – many were dealt with in the anime series but the novel catches your mind a lot more with the language that can sometimes go beyond the reasonable and it had made me sort of involved with the crazy world they made – the only difference is that I’m not the one high on drugs.

It’s funny how the character of the narrator Satou seem to send the message that these thoughts are all his and we should care a lot more with what we think and what our worldview is all about – in short, we should just mind our own business.

But I have to point out one very important reflection. It’s when we think too much about our failures in life – with accepting defeat and the fact that we are useless and no-gooders in this world. We even go through thoughts of suicide which amazes me cause it’s always one of the options being considered by depressed people.

In this book, I was so drawn with the idea of happiness according to the narrator. That our loneliness is caused by our interactions and relations with people. We refuse to feel hurt by how other people will react towards our utterances and actions. Yet we also refuse the so-called half-assed sense of happiness – partial happiness in simple terms – which brings the conclusion of being a loner as the best solution.

But this is something that I found worth reflecting as I read the part when Satou and Misaki were about to finish the hikkikomori program… Once we actually move on in our lives – whether by our own actions or through a certain miracle – we will suddenly suppress those depressing thoughts from our minds and come to the conclusion that life is great despite how mysterious it may be. And Satou was able to realize that in the book.

Another issue I found was on the idea of “conspiracy” according to the narrator – that there is an “evil” entity (or organization) conspiring to bring individuals down from moving on with life. That evil is something people want to disperse and as bad as it may sound, religion and gods seem to be one of the ways that evil can be defeated.

But the idea in this book is that “evil” is not something that is external from the individual. Evil is something that is within us and we – the self – are the only witnesses to that evil.

What message this brings to us is that we have the evil in our own lives as well as the good. Each individual have created their own little world so that they can tell to themselves that “this is how I understand life” or “this is how I understand the universe” or “this is how I perceive love, hate, romance and erotic sex”.

We have created these entities in our minds in order to accept who we are and tell the world to respect it. This brings me to this philosophy that I have taken by heart – Anything is possible in every human being! What stops us from that idea is fear and choice. Consider this! And I hope people who would read the book can find something valuable from it with regards to life and how you can believe in the limitless possibilities of being a human being.

“Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress” by Dai Sijie

“Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress”
by Dai Sijie
(France)

Amazing work by Chinese-French novelist Dai Sijie! I love the story and I became a lot emotional as symbolisms and important events reveal itself.

The book revolves around two teenage guys who were sent outside of the city to be re-educated in a rural village as ordered by the Chinese Government when Communism was at its strongest grip in the early 1970s. They didn’t have any hope to be released from the re-education because of the fact that their parents were among the so-called “enemy of the people”, a label that the Chinese Government gave to them because of being either immoral or being reactionary against the preachings of the power-hogging government. But as they stayed in the re-education process, they found a beautiful girl from next town and a suitcase filled with banned books which brought change to the lives of Luo and the unnamed narrator. These events started to change the lives of the two to the point that they felt freedom from re-education.

This book deals a lot about learning. We learn as we experience life as it progresses in many ways. It doesn’t matter if it’s a sensational experience – going to university for the very first time, going to another country, meeting new friends, having a new hobby, playing a new game, studying a new subject, even reading books – all of these can bring forth new ideas that will make a person wake up into a new world. In the novel, the encounter between them and the little seamstress as well as the event when they read a banned book for the very first time since the time which gave them the opportunity brought Luo and especially the narrator into many reflective moments which then became a coming-of-age story for them. They learned about love, sex, romance and freedom in a world which tries to tame them from even thinking about those notions.

It acknowledges the existence of teachers. The villagers, the books and their experiences have become a great source of learning for the main characters…

Yet there is a line in the story that have drawn me to what the whole deal is all about: “Dancing is not something that could be taught… The same is true of diving and writing poetry, for the best divers and poets are self-taught. Some people can spend their lives having lessons and still resemble stones when they hurtle into the air. They never achieve the lightness of dropping fruit.”

Learning will always take place. But in the end, it’s all about us – the self. Learning is quite distant from the person. The only way to learn really isn’t from the outside but from the inside. It involves how we understand life and how we can approach it so that it can work for us – so that we can learn easily – and so that we can benefit to our surroundings as well. We are taught to be reflective. We are encouraged to show empathy.

Through the tenacity of all the forces that our minds absorb, we then find a way to learn for ourselves.

But here’s another thought that I made… No one can control those forces – not even a government who may have all the power to kill anyone who is devious in the social or political order.

In the end, we are all individuals – we have minds, we have souls, we have individual aspirations, we have good and bad traits, we are all hypocrites and opportunists, we are all caring and loving, we are all desiring, we are all needing; all of these in certain levels among us… in the end… we are all… “unique”…

And that uniqueness is what we should respect and understand.

“Naomi’s Tree” by Joy Kogawa & Ruth Ohi

“Naomi’s Tree”
by Joy Kogawa
Illustrated by Ruth Ohi
(Canada)

I was in the Japan Foundation two weeks ago and I was able to meet with these two wonderful people when I was volunteering for their book talk event: Joy Kogawa, a Japanese-Canadian children’s book writer and novelist; and Ruth Ohi, also Japanese-Canadian who draws for children’s books. These photos were taken with my own camera.

Left: Ruth Ohi talking about what inspired her to draw and how she does it.
Right: Joy Kogawa sits down and talks about their book, “Naomi’s Tree”.

Ruth Ohi and Joy Kogawa after the Book Talk event together with their new book “Naomi’s Tree”. I requested to take their photos and to tell you, they’re really nice. I do hope the photos are just fine if ever they see it. I had a chance to get a copy of “Naomi’s Tree” and had both of them sign it. I also had a copy of “Obasan” by Kogawa which the author alone signed.

The first time I encountered Joy Kogawa was in the novel “Obasan” back when I was still in college. I wasn’t a really hardworking student back then which is why I didn’t have the chance to read the novel cover-to-cover. I’m sure I’ll be able to go through that book very very soon.

For now, I want to talk about one of Joy Kogawa’s children’s books which was done with the help of the creative and expressive drawings of Ruth Ohi.

I was able to learn all about the lives of Japanese-Canadians in Canadian history back in college. This book just gave me an idea of the events that time from the perspective of an individual who is a Japanese-Canadian and who went through those experiences along with her family. From the time they were living peacefully in the beginning of the century as immigrants to Canada up to the Second World War which have affected drastically the Japanese-Canadian community, and even until today…

I was able to learn about how it is so important to “preserve love” within the lives of people no matter how unavoidable separation can be even if separation itself could last for a long, long time. Kids need to value the importance of love – of caring for other people, of spending quality time with other people, of making peace and harmony within family and friends a great deal. “Naomi’s Tree” have provided that experience through the relationship between Naomi and the cherry tree – the Friendship Tree, whose role is to become a symbol of love which lasts for a long time and is preserved for generations to come. This love is shown through its beautiful pink petals during spring and its sweet fruits as they ripen.

But the best thing about this is that it relates to the life of Joy Kogawa who had this exact experience and who realized great things throughout those encounters in life. Thank you very much for sharing those experiences.

With regards to Ruth Ohi’s drawings. I have to admit that there are emotional moments in the book that the pictures do intensify and I really liked it. And of course, these images can be appreciated very well by the youngsters who can open up to different perspectives of life aside from just sticking to their out-of-this-world imaginations which parents always find really interesting.

I hope everyone was able to acquire something valuable out of my reflections to this work. It was a great read! I’m pretty sure that I will pass this literature on to my kids if ever I would get one hehehe.

Football Matches This Week

I missed all football matches yesterday with Toronto FC vs. DC United at BMO Field and the UEFA Champions Cup final between Manchester United vs. Chelsea FC. Though I’m glad to share some videos.

Toronto FC 1 vs. DC United 0
May 21, 2008 (BMO Field, Toronto, Canada)

The early goal by Danny Dichio on the 7th minute was the game winner for The Reds which have brought them to a record of 4-2-2 making them climb up in the Eastern Conference.

DC United had tons of chances including a clear chance from a header by Fred coming from a long cross by Gallardo – the chance was obviously spoiled by Toronto’s Greg Sutton after the shot was blocked and cleared.

TFC didn’t give up from making another chance. Amado Guevara ran in front late in the game clearly seeing an open Dichio which unfortunately didn’t materialize into a chance because of the tight DC defense. Overall, great job by the Reds! Next match is their home match against LA Galaxy who they beat weeks ago. Here’s the video of the highlights.

~

Manchester United 1 vs. Chelsea FC 1 (Manchester United wins 6-5 on penalties)
UEFA Champions Final, May 21, 2008 (Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow, Russia)

I felt sorry for not being able to see this match but the broadcasters and sportscasters never failed to give me great highlights on this very interesting All English Final in the history of UEFA Champions League history.

Manchester United scored the first goal from an easy header by Cristiano Ronaldo. Chelsea responds later in the match with a chip shot from Frank Lampard which undid the lead of Manchester United in the first half. The match stayed the same until the end of 120 minutes which brought the match into penalties.

I felt so bad when of all the people to miss for Manchester United, Cristiano Ronaldo had to be the one. Peter Cech was able to find the direction of Ronaldo’s kick and blocked it to put Manchester trailing by one. But Chelsea also had some tough luck when their team captain John Terry – who should have made Chelsea win the shootout – hit the post putting the penalty shootout into sudden death. But in this sudden death, Manchester United was the lucky one after Edwin van der Saar blocked the shot from Chelsea’s Aneika.

Though it was unfortunate for Chelsea to lose the UEFA Champions Cup, the hard part was that they lost Drogba who got a red card late in the game for slapping a Manchester United player.

Cheers to Manchester United! I apologize though for not providing video of the match.

“The Five People You Meet In Heaven” by Mitch Albom

“The Five People You Meet In Heaven”
by Mitch Albom
(USA)

First of all, thanks to Beryl (http://beryl22.multiply.com) for giving me the opportunity to read this interesting novel full of very insightful ideas about life and most especially death as it is interpreted by the author.

[20mayMMVIII - status: after 2 days, 145 of 196 pages done]

I couldn’t believe I can actually read that fast in just two days. Well for one thing, the plot had a very interesting style to it – the linear events were organized in a way to make us understand the relationships between the past and the present which were pieces to the puzzle of the life of Eddie, the old mechanic from Ruby Pier who died and went to heaven only to be reunited with his past. I won’t tell you the rest of the story since I definitely want you guys to read it.

It kinda grabbed my attention when there was a reference to the Second World War to which Eddie participated in and guess where the setting was… it was in the Philippines back then when the Japanese colonial rule took over the country.

Once I read the entire novel, I will definitely find some words to fit in the question of what idea this story is trying to give us.

But for now, after 146 pages, i see that the book is so mind-blowing because the author’s description of the settings, the moods, even the feelings of the characters themselves grab my imagination which then drove all the way to my senses – the feelings of love and affection, to hatred and negligence, through the good times such as being together with family and friends and through the bad times such as encountering wars and diseases. Those feelings are even associated with fear, anger, madness, mistrust, and sometimes calmness, happiness, humour, empathy and sympathy.

The story taught us about how important life is and how valuable everyone and everything in our lives are that we might be just taking them for granted yet they connect to us. There is relativity in this world even before we were born and even if one have never seen a certain person or face or name in their entire life, everything in this world affects each one of us and we definitely should think about showing gratitude for the existence of things that bring us great opportunities in life, great endeavours and feats, and even in our own daily survival in life.

[21mayMMVIII - completed]

Mitch Albom really put a brilliant ending to this masterpiece. I definitely did not expect it myself. I have to tell everyone that I cried reading the last few pages of the book and I really want all of you to get your hands on the book and be touched as it did for me.

It still shivers me to be freaked out in immersing myself with the image of heaven brought about by Albom in this novel.

To learn that all of our life stories are related in one way or another and that we need to fill in the holes of our pain and suffering through going back to our past is a magnificent thing. Yet it brings me to the idea of mystery which a lot of people hesitate and some are even reluctant to investigate.

As I felt every description interpreted in the novel, I kept in mind the idea of heaven which contributes a lot to this book. Heaven or life after death is interpreted here as a place where the mysteries of your life is clarified. It is where the process of “resting in peace” takes place. And all it took were a few people and one’s own life story for the purpose of heaven to work for Eddie.

~

Favourite Quotes:

“…no one is born of anger. And when we die, the soul is freed of it. But now [after death], here, in order to move on, you must understand why you felt what you did, and why you no longer need to feel it.”

— this drew my attention a lot because it’s something that we don’t just have to do once we have already died. It is always important to reflect upon our lives and re-evaluate our feelings from anger to sadness and even our feelings of happiness. As we move on in life, is it really worth it focusing on certain aspects of life and embedding them with specific meanings that in turn reflect towards our emotions? A supermarket where you have worked at for many years (for example) may have been associated with hardships and difficulties in life which breeds a lot of loneliness and anger; but does it really matter once you have quit working there? Some people would vow to themselves never to take a single step in a supermarket ever again once they quit. We forget to reflect on how much we have helped and served other people and how you should consider them as part of your life – as the people who help the company where you’re working at grow a lot and returns back the favour by giving you income.

“Lost love is still love… It takes a different form.”

— Indeed, this is powerful. Love is lost when people break up or when husbands or wives are widowed. And it is even more devastating when someone can never take it back either through loving something else or through doing something to divert one’s own sadness. But no matter what, love still exists because the thing that is lost is those who love you, it’s not love itself. You still appreciate people around you, show them respect, care for them… it’s normal for people to feel that way cause that’s love.

New Widget: Books Currently Reading

Being inspired by some of wordpress’s bookloving bloggers, I have created a widget where I can place all the books that I’m currently reading. It’s quite amazing that I’m actually trying to go through my library once and for all this summer. I might be able to do some reviews on these books when I get the chance to – which is most likely.

I’d like to thank beryl from multiply.com for suggesting me to read “The Five People You Meet In Heaven” by Mitch Albom. It definitely motivated me to finish up the other books that I have been putting aside in a while.

To the rest, I hope you’ll be able to find the books I have listed and be able to discuss it with me or the reading community.

Cheers!

Literature and Film brings passion!

I read books, watch films and play video games in order to learn a lot about life and be able to know how people react and feel in different situations. It brings passion!

Through novels by Paulo Coelho and Banana Yoshimoto, I learn about the intricacies of life through how people struggle and face the harshness of challenges in life. Yet we still stay strong to be able to do what we normally do in our everyday lives.

Through international films, I get to learn about different cultures and value empathy. We all act differently depending on how we are raised and what we are involved with in our environment. It’s not just natural as a lot of people would argue.

Through video games, I test out my senses and act out willingly to reach the goals that I’ve been asked to.

Passion is all about emotions and how we perceive them or execute them. Through literature, film and video games, we do become emphatic, knowledgeable and sensitive.

Metal Gear Solid 2

Currently Playing Metal Gear Solid 2

I thought MGS2 is brilliant, unfortunately, I felt depressed. I guess some people who have played the game will know why. It’s because she died. It made me horrified and I was even hoping for an alternate storyline so that she could be kept alive. I did tons of research on the internet and none came out.

I was just so disappointed and hurt by that part of the story. To think that she’s a lovable character and end up like that is just unacceptable. I just hope someone would cryogenically preserve her or maybe her nanomachines will heal her or something on future games.

Nonetheless, I am about to battle with the bug machines at this point.

~

Oh, and I forgot, the girl I wanted to see Meryl isn’t in this game… she’s going to appear instead on MGS4. Too bad I don’t have a Playstation3 at the moment but I hope that she’s can make me forget about the other girl in MGS2. I just couldn’t get it out of my head at the moment.

~

The gameplay is quite neat keeping up with the first game. There are more weapons and there are more items to use.

However, I liked the continues of Snake when he dies in the game rather than Raiden’s which have annoyed me so much.

The biggest disappointment I had in this game was the plot and character development. I couldn’t understand a single bit of it and there are few references to Titanic – Jack & Rose – and not to mention the girl who died after being stabbed by one of the villains who I never wanted to exist in the story because of his awfully general characteristic which exists in a lot of villains in many stories – he’s a vampire (now people are starting to know what I’m talking about).

Characters are mixed up, repeat scenes from MGS1 are evident – the difference is that Raiden is the one on the receiving end of it. And all kinds of crap.

I’m disappointed with MGS2, with the story, with the plot and with the death of that girl who has an important story to tell and who would be amazing if only the game made her live. I wish they made some other kind of story for MGS2.

Happy Mother’s Day!

I would like to take this opportunity to greet everyone a Happy Mother’s Day!

I celebrated it with my mother who is currently recovering from an injury.

I thought I want to share this because it’s kinda funny. I read a magazine called “Psychology Today” (I have the link on my “Sites of Interest”) and I found an article [link] about Italian adult men living with their mothers – they are called “mammismo”. The article says that a large percentage of men who are sons do have an exaggerated strong bonding with their mothers. This means that there are a lot of mamma’s boys in Italy.

Although they would be able to have their backs covered and be able to face lesser economic difficulties, this “Figli per sempre” setting is somewhat impeding the autonomy of men which can be a pathological issue.

I thought to myself that reading all about this on Mother’s Day made me reflect a lot about my role as a son. I have been living with my parents for 24 years. I do think that I have a strong bonding with my mother. I care for her a lot and it pains me so much to see her suffer. Of course, her recent accident made me reflecting about my role in the family.

Unfortunately – for them – I definitely don’t want to force myself to keep myself in the house forever. I have to learn being autonomous. As time passes by, I realize that if I stay with my family, I will stay forever as a bum – I will just stay here at home playing video games and surfing the net not being productive enough to be able to help my family… Worst of all, I might not be able to find a family of my own. If only my parents knew, I am quite desperate to have someone else to love me aside from my immediate family.

But where do my parents – especially my mother – fit in these things? How would they understand me?

I always thought that parents are always there for me if ever I need their help/their assistance. That if I get into trouble, I know that they have enough experience to be able to help me. I want them to be among all the people who I talk with and spend quality time with learning about life, acquiring insightful knowledge, and getting the right resources and know-hows with regards to solving all my problems and my issues.

But I really thought that their authority over me should just be over with and that they should just push me towards moving on with life, getting a new job, earning more money, having a romantic relationship, and being able to do things on my own on a very large scale.

I was able to finish a leadership and effective communication course, I wanted to deal with teaching and learning a.k.a. pedagogy after two years of taking linguistics as my major in university, I start to experience things by myself, I become a lot more reflective, I become a lot more caring about all the things around me whether my parents agreed with me or not.

I want to take my risks in life. I want to fix my own problems. I want to be alone and build up that confidence that I need in order to live better. If I fail, I will keep on trying because I know pretty well that my parents have done it for themselves as well; That my parents were able to bring all of us in another country leaving behind their loved ones – their homes – not being stopped by anyone.

I definitely wanted to be independent literally to be able to know myself even better. I wanted it because I want to take the lead and be able to show to my parents how much they have contributed in order to make me into a mature, well-educated and values-oriented individual which they would want me to become anyhow.

But here’s one thing that I think would matter most for all of us. It’s that we have to keep the love alive. I love my family – my mother, my father, and my younger brother. Leaving them behind doesn’t mean being cold towards them. Through their company, I turned into what I am today and I am very happy of it. If I stop loving them, then I won’t grow. If I don’t choose to understand them or to interact with them or to discuss and debate with them a lot of things, it’s as if we don’t know each other. There is a saying that “Acquaintances agree, friends argue.” The thing is that this is between my family and I and my family deserves to see all the truths about myself.

Second of all is that we have to always show gratitude. I thank my family all the time for being there for me in all of my trials and my challenges in life.

And I do thank my mother for always showing us so much care in our lives.

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!

(photo: http://www.waterloogardens.com/wallpapers/images/1280/january/carnation_pink.jpg)