Happy Birthday, 29th January, 2012, Auckland

Received a cool gift from my wife today for my birthday. Look at the picture and you will see what I mean.

Young man killed himself after updating his facebook profile (suicide, death, jump, love, girlfriend, Auckland)

11th December 2010 -  I was a bit shock to see a young man of 22 years old too his own life after breaking up with his girlfriend of four months.  The news was published on an online newspaper on 9th December, 2010.  http://tiny.cc./alvisskong

According to sources, the young man's facebook profile was updated prior to his death.  May he rests in peace.

The story of a pencil (December 5th, 2010, Auckland, New Zealand)

A child was watching hiw grandmother writting a letter. At some point, he asked her:

-Are you writting a story about us? Is it a story about me?

His grandmother stopped writting, smiled and said to her grandson:

-I am writting a story about you. However, what is more important than the word i am using, is the pencil i am writting it with. Someday, when you grow up, i really hope you become like it.

The intrigued boy looked at the pencil but saw nothing special about it.
-It is just like any other pencil i have ever seen, said to his grandmother.

-Well, it all depends on how you see things. The pencil has five qualities, which if you manage to obtain, will make you a person always at peace with the world.

First quality: you are capable of achieving great things, but you must never forget that there is a hand guiding your steps. We call that hand “God”, and He always guides you according to His will.

Second quality: every now and then, i have to stop writing and use a sharpner. That makes the pencil suffer a little, but afterwards, it’s much sharper. So you too, must learn to bear some pains and sorrows, because they will make you a better person.

Third quality: the pencil always allows us to use an eraser to rub out any mistakes we make. You should realise that correcting something you did wrong is not necessarily a bad thing. It’s important for keeping you on the road to justice.

Fourth quality: what really matters in a pencil is not its wooden exterior, but the graphite on the inside. So you should always pay attention to what is happening inside you.

Finally, the pencil’s fifth quality: it always leaves a mark. In the same way, you should know that everything you do in your life, will leave a mark. So try to be conscious of that in your every action.

The above story is an excerpt from Paulo Coelho’s “Like the Flowing River”