Chapter 10: Know Yourself

Dear reader,

Long time, no see :). Wow, wait. I know you from somewhere...where have we met before? :D Seriously, you're face looks so familiar to me.

I consider myself  a spiritual person and a believer of fate as well as other new age ideas. While I am a believer of my own God, I love exploring the concepts taught other religions. One of the concepts that I find  interesting is reincarnation. My understanding of it is that we all have previous lives that have intertwined with each other. For example if you find it easy to learn the piano in this life, you may have been a pianist in the previous life. Similarly when you find "the one", you feel that you have known them for a long time without being able to explain it, because in your previous life you have already lived a lifetime with them.

Now what if I told you that when we enter this life we lose all knowledge of our previous life together. We look completely different, we might even change gender, but the thing that made us ourselves remains. Christians call it the soul, new age thinkers call it infinite consciousness. What is it about you that would make me remember you, if you looked and acted completely different? That I cannot put a name on, but what I will say whatever it may be, it is our true self, it is what truly defines us. Christians believe that it will live on long after the death of the body. So how do we tune into it?

Chapter 9: Asian Persuasion

Dear reader,

It all starts with a surprise. Are you ready? This will absolutely blow you mind--I'm warning you....
 Daniel, the author of this blog, also known as Huli, is Asian. I know! OH MY WORD! I'll get you some whisky. Calm yourself down, we don't want everyone to know :).

I was born and raised in the UK with a Filipino mama and a European father. I have all of mama's genes: the dark hair and eyes, the tanned skin, the full lips and yet, my features are predominantly my father's. The shape of my face and the deepness of my eyes, the high cheek bones and my height. I come from a family of giants on my papa's side. It is one of the benefits of being mixed race.

Mama comes from the Philippines, one of the most beautiful places on Earth. For those who don't know much about it, the Philippines is a group of exotic islands south of Japan, and north of Malaysia. It is a hub for tourism, a "paradise on Earth". Boracay Island, which I visited when I was three months old, is an example of this. It won awards on many occasions for having the most beautiful beaches in the world.

But this isn't the main reason to why I'm proud to be Filipino, or Asian, actually. I am proud because I believe Asians are one of the greatest races on Earth, in every way that "great" can be defined. Today's article will hope to persuade you to think the same, if you don't know it already :). So the next Asian person you meet, run up to them and give them a huge hug. They will probably run away at first, or faint, or shriek and karate kick you in the groin, but after reading this article, this is a risk that you will be willing to take.

Chapter 8: Being Lucky

Dear reader,

I took a four day rest--did you miss me? I missed you too. Now come here and give me a hug before you get all emotional on me. :D

One of my favourite super hero films has to be The Dark Knight directed by Christopher Nolan.  For those who haven't seen this film, I recommend that you do.

In The Dark Knight, Harvey Dent is a respectable man who fights crime with the the law rather than wearing the cape and cowl serving as a vigilante. His personal philosophy is symbolized in a coin. One scene that stays with me was when Harvey asked the character Rachel to flip this coin, betting on the coin to land on heads in his favor. When the coin landed in her hand, heads up, she realizes that both of the coin's faces were actually heads: a two faced coin. Then, smiling to herself, she repeats his words saying: "I make my own luck."

Chapter 7: Being Productive

Dear reader,

Well, well, well, if it isn't the mysterious blog reader again...you sly devil you! :). Please, make yourself comfortable, I will hang up your coat.

Over the last three weeks I have learnt how to be twice as productive with my daily routine. Huli is a blog producing maniac for a reason. Today's article is all about facing laziness and smacking it in the nose, or, if you want the less violent approach, tickling it until it passes out.

As humans we are all prone to procrastination. In fact it is often those with a plan, those who want to be organized and do well, that are the biggest victims of all. (The lazy people are often the brilliant people) This is because these people assume that their own hard work and backbone will pull them through. What they fail to notice is that quite often this backbone comes far too late or ceases to exist at all. They need a handsome guy to sell them one. *Pulls out of his pocket a wallet* They are five hundred pounds. Gimme.

What is the solution? It is quite simple really, follow with three simple tips:

Chapter 6: Finding Creativity

Dear reader,

Wow--your teeth look so white. :) What toothpaste do you use?

I consider myself to be a creative person. I love creative writing, blogging, I play the piano and compose songs, I sketch portraits and I have my own style--I also enjoy activities such as drama, singing and dancing. I wouldn't mind taking up dance classes the moment I am settled down (because it's something I want to try :) ), and I continue to work on creative projects daily, purely for personal satisfaction. I have learnt to hate sitting and doing nothing. (And watching soaps is doing nothing unless you are doing a research project on it :P) and most of all, I am trying to do all of these things with a career, a solid working life, one rich with activity and fulfillment.

Creativity allows you to escape from reality. It allows you to wade out, or go very deep inside the waters of your own mind. It allows you to explore more possibility and ultimately teaches you more about yourself. In Britney Spear's song "Circus" the first line of the song goes: "There's only two type of people in the world, the one's that entertain and the ones that observe". She couldn't have nailed it more on the head. You are either creating and giving to the world, or you are being stimulated by it. There is no right way to life, but in this article I do hope to enlighten you to the possibilities of a creative lifestyle.

Chapter 5: Beautiful Creatures

Dear reader,

Now, before you ask, I didn't grab your attention purely with the naked mermaid in the cover photo :D. I am sure you were intrigued to why I chose it. Let me tell you a little secret...one that might shatter your thoughts of me forever. I think fish are a huge turn on. When I see one in a tank I just want to pounce on it. The Little Mermaid is my favourite film of all time. Secretly I think of myself as a handsome swordfish because of my long nose.

:D

So I  fooled you for a moment. How naive of you :P No dear friend, the reason why I chose this mermaid was for today's article which is about "beauty" in a woman and how a woman can tap into that inner goddess. If you are a guy reading this please stick around too, as I might throw in some more half naked mermaid pictures for you, or some stunning, really hot fox ;). Now, sit back, relax, and I will tell you some stories about real beauty.

Chapter 4: Finding Happiness

Dear reader,

Well look at you, aren't you looking great? :)

As you can probably deduce by the chapter cover of this post, today's article is all about finding happiness in your life.Though, be rest assured that I won't bore you with the details of my own love life, nor have you endure the cute and fluffy nuances of my everyday existence....

Oh fine, if you insist :D.

It was the summer of 2011 and the small market town of Buckingham had never looked more picturesque. The ducks had waddled out of the ponds to sun bathe by the river side, the Nigerians were walking around everywhere with their athletic bodies and perfect grace, making me feel like un-coordinated Magikarp (it's a Pokemon, look it up) and the university after eight thousand years was suddenly filled with the sound of theatre and drama.

Chapter 3: In The Moment

Dear reader,

When I was growing up I was a very introverted person. Other words would be the "shy", "loner" or "mysterious" type. Yes, yes, you can "awwww" if you like. In an ideal world I wish that I could say no matter who you were, you would still be able to climb the social ladder. While you attract a lot of intrigue as a mysterious quiet type, you are ultimately creating a reality where people are forbidden to enter. I call this reality the "bubble".

The bubble is the world you hold over yourself. When you make friends, when you buy a new pet from the pet store, or become an uncle or auntie, your bubble opens up and welcomes in that new thing. That new life, that new energy. You'll feel stronger and more open every time this happens. In this same sense when I was younger I found that I lived in a very small bubble, and consequently a very small way of thinking where I lived so much in my own head. I didn't want to let people in. Now certainly if you an artist such as myself, sometimes we need to keep these ideas in, but ultimately in the end you intend to share your ideas anyway which means the result is the same. Everyone can benefit from what I hope to share with you.

Chapter 2: Taking Flight

Dear reader,

How are you feeling today? :)

We get asked this question a lot. Yet, tell me how many times do we answer this honestly? "I'm good, thanks. How are you?" "Fantastic" "Not too bad". The truth is that most of the time we don't  really know what we are feeling, and this is not our fault. We simply feel what we are supposed to feel, and do what we are supposed to do. If you are taking exams, you should be feeling stressed just as your friends and your older siblings before you had felt. If you are facing a job interview, you should be feeling nervous and if it went badly, then perhaps you should feel great disappointment.

At the end of the day if you are feeling for the sake of feeling, you are probably not in as much control of your life as you thought. What I realized over the last year has been that quite often people will give their selves away to the flow of the river of life and they feel obliged in this almost sheep like mentality, to follow the person in front of them. This not only puts limitations and barriers up to people's potential, it stops us from taking action--it stops us from literally doing the impossible: to take flight.

Chapter 1: First Steps

Dear reader,

You are looking great today :), please, have a seat.

Welcome to my blog! If we haven't yet had the pleasure of meeting, my name is Daniel. In short, a recent Law graduate with a career path set on qualifying as a lawyer. When I am not working in a Law firm, my passions are dedicated to the arts. I love creative writing with a passion and play romantic improvisational piano to which I taught myself and have composed a number of songs (see my website :P). I am also a huge fan of clubbing and the dancing/mingling scene, haha, and consequently psychology along with philosophy. The way in which I apply these two areas of thought, I will indulge you with further down the road. I am half Filipino (the beautiful talented artists and Asian bohemians of the world), quarter Slovenian (the strong minded and beautiful mountaineers of Europe) and quarter Italian (spaghetti-pizza-Mario-Luigi) which means that if we were to have children, they would be astonishingly beautiful human beings,  with a slight possibility of one popping out as a platypus, donkey or another random species like that.