Mascot Parade

Saturday, 27th June 2009 ~ Went down to Ngee Ann City, a big shopping mall to view the Mascot Parade which was organized by SHINE. Reached the venue by 3 in the hot afternoon.

Me is Hengbok Mascot! xD


I dunno how you define mascot, but I guess anything & everything goes. Characters from many types of shows ~ anime, cartoons, old Japanese monster movies, sci-fi movies, children shows & so on.

Posing Mascots


With so many colorful, prominent & fascinating characters around, so many photo opportunities! xD

Japanese Hero & Monsters

More Japanese Monsters


And jumping from old Japanese movies to futuristic Star Wars!

May The Force Be With You!


Ain't that little Darth Vader cute? xD
And I dunno how that Ultraman was captured by StormTroopers. Guess he was no match for the evil empire. LOL! xD

There's a stage which featured some dance, fashion shows & demonstrations, but I wasn't paying much attention to them as there were too many distractions offstage.

Happenings on stage


I believe the bottom pic in my above foto is of a Muay Thai demonstration, a form of boxing, Thai style. Anyway, the characters offstage are much more interesting. xD

Greenie & Mousie with a little hamster me! xD

Orange Hair, Purple Dinosaur & Tiger


While I wasn't paying attention, I was kidnapped & tortured by Joker. Requested help from Ironman & Batman, but to no avail. I suspect they all belong to the same gang... waiting for their turn to abuse me! xD

The Marvel Gang


Luckily, sexy Cat Woman was around & rescued me. xD

Hamster Girl & Cat Woman


At the event, I was asked many times to pose for picture by many people. Do I look like a mascot to you? Hengbok Mascot? LOL! =P
Was posing for a pretty girl when King Kong chased her off & tried to grab a piece of me! HELP!!!

The Beauty & The Beast


Was again rescued, this time by 2 gorgeous Transformer Girls.

Transformers never look so good! xD


So dangerous was the situation that I'd to engaged bodyguards.

My SWAT Team! xD


It was well that I'd bodyguards coz as the afternoon was hot & temper flared easily. Saw a passer-by being assaulted by a gang of normally nice & cute mascot. Guess he must had gone too far, poking fun at the mascots in their heavy, hot & steaming costumes. xD

Mascot Rampage!


Alright, the above is just a joke. The real story is, this guy was going around fanatically trying to take pics with every mascot around. Most of the poses he asked from them were to abuse him. Don't ask me why he did that for. For all I know, he might like S&M. LOL! =P
In such events, there's another kind of rampage. The Otaku photographer horde. Their locust-like swarming are always triggered by the present of pretty girls, especially onstage. There would inevitable be an onslaught of every kind of cameras, all pointing their lens toward the target. Cellphone, iPhone, point & shoot, DSLR with long super telephoto lens. I just couldn't understand the need of a 300mm lens when the subject is less than 3m away. Maybe they want pics of her nostril hair?!? LOL! xD

Pretty girls & the Otaku Swarm =P


Actually I don't mind the photographers swarm. Well, as my soulmate, a former pro-photographer, used to said, it's sort of a compliment to pretty girls, no? At such events, after putting so much effort into your costume, dressing up with all the works, if only your friends want to take your picture, but no one else want to, won't that be an entire waste of effort & doesn't it indicate one thing? How many times or how many photographers want a girl's pic is the indication of how pretty a girl is. And that's the fact of life!

2 pretty & very popular mascots


Note: More & bigger pics can be view in my album.

Singapore River Festival

19th June 2009 ~ There was a happening at Singapore River called the Singapore River Festival organized by the Singapore Tourism Board which hyped the festival as the Largest Sundown Party by the River.

Singapore River Festival @ Singapore River


By day, there wasn't much noticeable changes by the river, except for some promotion banners & a big advertising balloon looming over the river. Nothing much happened, peaceful & calm.

Singapore River near Clarke Quay


As evening approached, the scene changes, the river banks lit up in festive lights & it seemed the river's mood changes too. Lively, cheerful, noisy & rowdy.

Lights by the river

Lights on the water


And where there are lights, there is Hengbok! LOL! xD

Happiness Party!


Actually, I was invited by my blogger friend, Nathalie who is a member of Nuffnang. The founders of Nuffnang promote their organization as Asia’s first and leading blog advertising community. At this occasion, they had organized an Exclusive Singapore River Festival Experience. All free of charge, so of course I went. xD
Friday evening came along & I went to attend the so-called not-to-be-miss experience. First on the list is the registration with Nuffnang at the Central Promenade.

Group pic with other happy bloggers


After which, we were on to experience the River Festival. Some of the event's highlights included Flight of Fantasy, an unforgettable performance of aerial acrobatic above Read Bridge. I had a binocular with me, a real bino, not the paper & plastic lens ones given out free by one of the organizers. xD
However, my small point & shoot camera is not up to the task of capturing the actions above the bridge as I was too far away.

Riverside Aerial Acrobatic


Next, we watched a wayang. A wayang is a Chinese open-air road side show or theatre, a sort of a play or opera mostly in Chinese dialects. This particular one was a dance musical in English. Oh... what do you expect? It's for the tourists! If it were in ching ching chong chong, even me wouldn't be able to understand it & I believe most of those young bloggers around me wouldn't either! xD

English Wayang


After the wayang, we boarded a river boat for a cruise down Singapore River. I must admit this is the first time I ever took such a cruise. Well... same as the wayang, it's mostly for the tourist anyway, but I was kinda like sexcited over it. A humid evening & a cruise is just the thing to cool me down. =P
It was a nice cruise too, looking at the sights of the river banks which I had never seen from that angle before. At the bow of the boat was a pair of Indian musicians in tradition costumes playing soothing Indian music & me being a notorious cam hog, couldn't resisted taking a pic with them. xD

Indian Musicians


Onboard were full of Nuffnang's bloggers enjoying themselves too, hah-ing & wow-ing at nearly everything as we sailed past the sights, behaving like tourists, me included. Haha... & taking tons of pics for their blog. I bet they blog better & much more often than me. xD

Blogger Onboard

Blogger Tourists! xD

Hamster Tourist =P


After the cruise, the last item of the evening event was the Ultimate Pajamas Party @ The Arena. As pajamas were attire compulsory for entry which include 2 free drinks per person, we went to change into sleep wears, looking rather silly. We collected quite a numbers of disbelieving stares as we walked out into the crowded night. LOL! xD

Silly Pajamas Us! =P


Inside The Arena, at section put aside for us bloggers, Nath & me grabbed a table & proceeded to drown our embarrassment in drinks. My embarrassment actually cos Nath was the shameless one who had wore her pajama the whole entire day even before the event started. I quickly took off my sleeping rode once inside. LOL! xD

Cheers!


There was a band belting it out onstage & the girls were in lingerie in keeping with the theme.

Singing Lingerie


At first, we were sober, inactive. Then a whole lot of us went down to the dance floor & the action started. My soulmate, in a genuine yukata with a headband written with the word 大日本(Dai Nippon) is one of the craziest around even though he cut an imposing figure which really made him looked like a Japanese traditionalist tourist out for a good time. People came up to him, shook his hand, asking him if he's a Japanese. One spoke to him in Japanese even, which fortunately, he can speak a little. xD
No, he does not want his pic display here & I've no pic of the dancing coz the camera is with us. =P

Pajamas Party


Later on, a friend of Nath joined us. A sweet & cute girl by the nick of Jam. She is dressed in a female version of yukata which suited her very well.

Jam & Us

Stripping Jam of her shyness =P


The night partied on...

Pajamas Crowd @ The Arena

Salute!


I believe the most popular person of that night is a very popular Malaysian blogger by the name of Kenny Sia. He is also very well-known locally & he came down to join us at the bash. A very sporting, cheerful & fun-loving guy who daringly put on a shocking PINK lingerie... OMG! No wonder he's popular! LOL!

Shocking Pink Kenny! =P


Shocking it was till we molested & squeezed his boobs! LOL! xD

Shocked Kenny! =P


It was a wonderful memorable evening for me. Enjoyed it temendously. In closing, I would like to thank Nath for the invitation & Nuffnang for organizing such a great event. And also thanks to Kenny for letting us have our wicked ways with him. LOL! Hope to see you guys again! =)

The Gathering@Asia

7th June 2009 ~ Was invited to an event, The Gathering@Asia, organized by a friend who had just opened a new shop at Central. It's a shop dealing mostly with anime cosplaying merchandises, costumes, props & such. If you are into cosplaying or wanna make it a hobby, I recommend you to go take a look at his shop: Cos'tasia, #02-05, Central.

Event Posters


So on Sunday, I went down to Central to show support. It was a smallish event with a mixture of Jpop, hair-styling demo, video gaming & a game characters cos-play competition organized by VGL.

Event Stage & audience


There are some booths there too. One of those that interest me is display of miniature figures sculpted by students of Egg Story Digital Arts School. If you fantasized yourself as an anime, fantasy or sci-fi character, but can't do it in real, sign up for their course & soon you will be conquering the universe! Make your dreams come true, only in 3D animation or miniature models, of course! xD

Sexy Warrior Girls!


Another display that piqued my curiosity is a booth which had a table display of miniature trees. No, not Bonsai, but handcrafted, painted mini trees made from metal wires, plastic, clay or dried foliage. They are mainly used in architectural model building, but also can be used for making a diorama for your dolls or mini figurines. According to my soulmate who had done these sort of things in hobby & commercially, those cute little trees are very well made. The man behind those artistic mini trees called himself 'Tree Wizard'. If you need miniature trees, here's your man ~ Contact: 9474 3005.

Mini trees which won't die on you. xD


While I was browsing the booths, there is a duo from a rock band known as Helven storming away on their electric guitars.

Rock & Roll from white plastic chairs. xD


After the band exited, come on the hair-styling demo which is more gear towards anime cos-playing hairdos.

Hairy Plays


Next in line for the limelight is the game character cos-play competition. I managed to have a pic taken with a participant. In my opinion, she's the best among the contestants... just my opinion, of course. xD

Elven Princess


The stage is set, the cameras are rolling & the judges are ready...

Contest Judges


Drum rolls... presenting some of the contestants... erm, I dunno what the characters were, so please pardon me... xD

'Cloud' on stage

EyeBall-ing the MCs. xD


I left the event before the closing, but before that, I managed to grabbed a pic with the 2 gorgeous MCs whom I knew from a previous event, also held at the same venue.

Beauties of the show, Calista, me & Reiko.


And also 2 pretty showgirls whom I recommended to the event organizers. One of them is my friend's sister & the other, her ex-classmate. Don't they look cute in their anime costumes? xD

ShowGirls Peggy, Michelle & me.

My Sister is Sick!

2nd June, 2009 ~ For the past numbers of days, I have this sadness in me.
My Thai sister, Namtip has Trichinosis, a parasitic disease.

Info about Trichinosis

Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Prognosis and Treatment of Trichinosis

According to the doctors, the disease had infected Namtip's brain & may attack her central nervous system. If left uncheck, it will lead to her death.
It will be a very slow & long term treatment needing lots of money.
Poor Namtip had recently experienced a very traumatizing time, starting off with troubles as mentioned here.
She is currently holding 2 jobs to make ends meet & to pay off her remaining debt. And now, this disease struck! =(
Adding to all those, her computer had broke down, rendering her unable to communicate with her oversea friends unless she spend much of her hard-earned money in Internet shops/cafes. She is also a Flickr member(her pro account was given by another Flickr member) where she met wonderful people.
I'm trying all I can to help, but my own situation isn't that good. How I wish that I strike the lottery and can help her completely solve all her woes once and for all!

Namtip is going to be furious with me for doing this, but I will bear it as it's preferable to her dying slowly. She has pride, asking me not to mention this publicly.
Before this happened, in her earlier crisis, she had received some money from Friends to solve her problems. That had shamed her for being so helpless.
She does not want to appear like a scam. According to her, she knew that many of her country girls do, always coming up with excuses or made-up sad stories to ask for money.
However this is for real. Sometimes in life, it's unavoidable that disaster does happen & there's no simple way of avoiding it.
It's in time of crisis when you can really tell who are your real great friends & who are just hang-ons. As her close friend & blood sister, I will do whatever I deem right regardless of consequences.
If this post is seen as begging & shameful, so be it. But I do really care for another human being. I can't save all of those who are worthy of saving, but I can try help a few with my limited resources and I deem Namtip is worthy of saving. If I can't save even one, then am I worthy of being a human? So I refused to stay silent, to watch my sister suffer. Regrets & remorse is useless when it's too late.

I repeat: To have great friends, you have to be a great friends to others first!
So, my friends, I also implore you to do the same if your are a great friend.
If you are in a position to, please, I beg you, help Namtip.
For once in your life, help somebody. Help Namtip. Any amount will do, even if it's a dollar. I will be sincerely grateful & Namtip will be too.

Is there someone who can donate & ship a computer to her?
A netbook, a very small basic net-surfing mini laptop will also do.

Namtip's blog: Namtip's Life

For donation @ Namtip's site: Click on 'Donate' button. PayPal needed.
(Site is sponsored & done up by one of Namtip's very good friend)

Reach Out For Love


Many thanks for reading this message.
If you have any doubt or question regarding this subject, please contact me.

Alice in Wonderland

9th May 2009 ~ Hi! I'm Alice & I'm 12 years old. My hobby is photography & I like taking pics of nature, especially of flowers. Let me tell you a story about that time I was snapping some shots in a flower & veggie garden near my home. It was a blazing hot day & I was a little dizzy from the heat. Suddenly, I saw some movement under a big bush. Went to investigate & found a large hole hidden by the bush. It looked so dark & forbidding. Anyway, I'm afraid of the dark & was backing away when a force pulled me into the hole... like a black hole in space. OMG! I must have crossed the event horizon! Helplessly, I fell & fell, endlessly falling till after an unaccountable time had past, I landed with a gentle bump... in a greenery Wonderland!

Wonderland


Wonders of wonders... there were flowers everywhere. Sweet smelling perfumed flowers surrounding me.

Flower Power!


When I looked up at the sky, it seemed like I'm in paradise.

Paradise Lost


I sort of remembered a book read to me by my parents when I was younger... something about a little girl falling down a rabbit burrow. Oh... never mind that. I'm lost, hungry, thirsty, tired & wanna go home. Saw some wild berries, but I dare not try them as they might be poisonous.

Three Berries


So I asked the flowers where can I get a bite & which way home.

Yummy Flowers!


The lovely flowers told me to look for a cat, a Cheshire cat. What's a Cheshire cat? No problem, I know a cat when I see one! Meow, meow? =P
I came across some mushrooms & asked them whether they saw a cat? They told me they had lost a pipe-smoking caterpillar. Dumb mushrooms!

Brightly Orange


I explored further & found some golden rabbits. Asked if they had seen a cat. They told me they lost their top hat! Silly rabbits!

Wabbits!


I saw some orchids racing by & followed them thinking they might know the way.

Racing Orchids


Suddenly, I saw movement in a patch of yellow flowers. It was a cat! A black cat with a ribbon on it's neck. Fancy that! But when I approached, it faded & disappeared! Hey! Come back, you stupid cat!

Flowery Cat


Then I saw it materializing at another patch of flowers.

Meow?


I told it to stop doing it's disappearing trick as I had some questions to ask. Ask away it said & faded away again! Oh dammit! I would have curse & swear if I'm not that thirsty. It's been a lousy hot day!
Then it appeared behind me & said "Can I buy you a drink?" Coca Cola in paradise?!? Who cares, I'm thirsty!

Cat Cola!


Next thing I knew, the cat was playing with my bag. Hey, stop that, you stupid cat! And you haven't answered my questions!

To Bag a Cat


It said "Let's have tea with the queen." Huh? Cat said "Follow me quick." It leaded me to a castle in a park.

Dream Castle


That's where the cat introduced me to the Duchess who was also going to the tea party.

Regent Ginger


On our way, the Duchess hailed the Mock Turtle, but he was too busy emo-ing coz he lost his Rotting Fish dancing partner.

The Tortoise & The Fish


Finally we arrived at the tea party & I was introduced to the Queen of Heart.

Cold Stony Queen


We were served unagi & I asked for ocha.

Unagi Me!


Cheshire cat wanted sake & sashimi.

Cool Cat!


The queen said no, we only have English tea. I argued that since she was serving her guests Japanese food, it must go with Japanese drinks, you dumb blonde! The queen shouted for her flowery guards. "Off with her head!" she screamed & they attacked like X-Wings in the rain.

Attack of the Mad Orchids!


I torn them up & tossed their petals down the drain.
There were too many of them. I'm fighting without gain.

Charge of The Yellow Brigade


Pacman swamping, they cornered me.

Chomp Chomp!


Desperately, I took out my communicator & shouted into it "Beam me up, Scotty!" and Viola! I'm onboard the NCC Enterprise, starship from the fleet of Federation of Hamsters. There's this elf with pointed ears & Beatles haircut. He's a very irritating fellow who kept saluting with 4 fingers & saying "Live long & phosphorous." He explained that what I experienced is a conspiracy by Romulans who were from a distant galaxy, a long long time ago. They were time-warping & destroying alternate universes lead by a Lord Viagra who corrupted the citizens of Wonderland by telling them that he is their father. Pointy ears, Beatles hairstyle is helpless & clueless on what to do to counter the threat. I kicked him out of the command seat & took over. 'Lead, follow or get the hell out of my way' is my motto! Capitan Nikita commanding! Me is going to teach those blue trekkies a lesson they will never forget! We retaliated, went in with phasers firing fiercely, proton torpedoes launching furiously, light sabers swinging wildly...

The Future Begins...


The Hamster of War is unstoppable! We fought till the sky turned red with flames. Take that, you wussies!

Apocalypse Now!


The enemy surrendered, unconditionally peeing in their pants. Lord Viagra went back to being AnyTin Slywalker again, selling insurance. The universe is at peace again. And I crashed into a wedding...

Wedding Crasher


Oh wait! That's another story! Cheshire cat & me will be dreaming of another adventure, to go boldly where no hamster had gone before, to the frontier & beyond! Story is The End!
What? You expect Vulcans' logic & reason in this story?!? Get real! =P

Acknowledgments:
We would like to express our gratitude to Singapore Botanic Garden, Waraku Japanese Restaurant for the use of their location. We also would like to say thanks to the movie, Star Trek - The Future Begins, which is awesome. I know many hardcore trekkies complained about that movie & that's precisely what makes me wanna watch it. It turned out I'm right. Whatever they, the trekkies dislike, I will like. xD

Disclaimer:
I cannot be hold responsible if anyone gone crazy or mentally unstable after reading my story. It's your fault if you have a weak mind. =P
No infringement is intended. All characters & locations in my story are fictional. If for any reason that certain characters & scenes look/sound familiar, it's just pure coincidence. Call it Murphy's Law. =P
No animal, plant, statue, building, soft toy, universe or movie is damage, harm or driven mad during the making of this blog entry. xD

And look out for the teaser after the credits...

Credits:
Lead actress Alice played by Nikita Hengbok.
Cheshire cat played by Gigi, from Kiki Delivery Service by Studio Ghibli.
The Queen of Heart played by Statue in Singapore Botanic Garden.
The Duchess played by Wild Party Ginger.
Pointed ears & Beatles haircut elf played by Spock.
Lord Viagra played by Darth Vader.
Mushrooms played by Orange Fungi.
Mock Turtle played by Turtle.
Rotting Fish played by Dead Fish.
Pacman played by Lily Leaves.
Flower Power people played by orchids from National Orchid Garden.
Wedding couple played by Married Couple.
Script by Cutie Hamster
Photography by SiaoMouse
Costumes by Hengbok Fashion.
Etc...
Etc...
Etc...
Blah, blah, blah...

So... what are you waiting for? Shoo shoo... get off your computer!
The teaser? OH! The Teaser! Here you go...

The Galactic Princess


Huh? Blurry? That's a teaser, right? =P
That's a pic of Princess Laygal in captivity as a sex slave own by Pizza the Hut. It's for our next episode, The Return of The Seeds. It's a story about how the Seeds allied with the Klingon to deseed the JerkDies.
Alright folks, this is really the end of this entry, I mean seriously!

I Am Your Mother! xD


Go fore, live long and prosper. May the Force be with you!

In Memory of Nancy Pribonic

A tragedy occurred in the Flickr community yesterday. Flickr member, Nancy Pribonic had passed away, knocked down by a drunken driver. I learned of the sad news when my Thai sister, Namtip, a Flickr member, informed me after she was told by her Flickr friend, Ed_X. Namtip was shocked upon learning of the tragic accident because she was putting comments in Nancy's pics when it happened. I wrote to Ed & he confirmed Nancy's sad fate, writing back to me half an hour before his flight to attend Nancy's funeral. Nancy was a special friend to Ed in Flickr. He was on the phone with her 15 ~ 20 minutes before the accident happened. The police called Ed to check for Nancy's info as his was her last received call.

A few years ago, I joined Flickr & it's a wonderful community. I'd made a number of good friends & even acquired a sister. We had lots of fun exchanging comments in each other pics & even running photo groups. In Flickr, we always try to help & support each other. Isn't that what friends are for? I am not exactly a photographer, only using a little point & shoot. Nevertheless, my Flickr friends always have nice comments and/or encouragements for my works. Bless their soul! I really appreciated their kind words. Here are some of my closest friends & sister in Flickr:

Namtip(My Thai sister)
PBCB
Teban
Sɧαŋŋα
Tata aka Ting Hay
Bob
Ken

My apologies if I didn't list some of you guys coz it's simply not possible to as currently, I've nearly 900 contacts in Flickr.

Even though Nancy is not in my contact list, I can relate to her as she's a fellow member of the Flickr community. By looking at her works & comments in pics by others, including Namtip's, she is a nice, decent & talented person. She is so young, so lovely with so much potentials in life. Before her untimely death, Nancy had a bright future, attending law school & modeled to pay for her education. It's such a pity I didn't get to know her earlier. Wish I did. =(

This needless lost reflected the fact that accidents do not happen, stupidity does! I had hesitation in putting this up, but I'm so angry at that idiotic irresponsible driver & so sadden by the lost of an innocent. Why is it that it's almost always that the innocents suffer & those stupid showoff jerks behind a vehicle, a deadly weapon, get away harmless? How can people be so irresponsible & how many times must they be reminded not to drink & drive! If you harm yourself when you're irresponsible, I don't give a damn, but please please do not harm others!
Please pardon my rant, but life is so unfair sometimes! But there's only so much one can do... to stop the tide of darkness & stupidity. This also reminded us how life is so previous. The light seems to be dimmer without Nancy's bright presence. It's a sad day for me in Flickr. She will be dearly missed. =(

This pic is specially dedicated to Nancy Pribonic in remembrance.


My deepest sympathies & sincerest condolences go to her family & all those who know her.
May her soul rest in peace. 27th April 2009

In Gratitude

In my previous entry, I put up an appeal for help for a dear Thai friend of mine, Namtip, who was in serious trouble. She is still having some problems, but complete disaster had been avoided with the help of many generous people. At least, for the moment, she has some hope & able to smile a little now. This 'A Cry for Help' was also done up as a pic in my Flickr album.

A Cry for Help


I'm very gratified that many of my friends answered this call for help. This entry, as my sincere heartfelt appreciation, is dedicated to those wonderful kind-heart souls who had so generously contributed & those who had pledged their continual/future support. Many thanks for putting back the smile on my friend's face! =D

From Flickr(by alphabetical order):
Andrew Morris, LaBlueEyes - England, UK

Andrea Raviglione, aikidude - Italy

Boris Mitendorfer, Sharky_MB - Slovenia

Colin Restall, 神酒 Coal - Japan

Fabian Blandford, fabianfred - UK/Thailand

Frank Keffel, mank0702 - Germany

Gonzalo Mayo Awad, GonzaloHM - Spain

Ken Liljegren, aklilje - Denmark

Lloyd Barnes, Kalamankia - Canada

Paul Proctor, Vanpaul2 - USA

Robert Davis, Shiroi - USA

Teban Simmons, Asian Infatuation - USA

William Johnson, Apex Fine Art - USA

From online forums which I had posted:
Ler Gary - Singapore
Dennis C. - Singapore
S. K. Heng - Singapore

Some of these warmhearted people did not just stop at donating cash or helpful items, but had done more by spreading the words around. They had done so by using my pic/texts from Flickr. My sincerest thanks goes out to these outstanding friends for their wonderful support!

From Flickr:
Oddess, Oddess - Italy/Philippines

Ling Ling, LyLyn - Italy/Philippines

Teban Simmons, Asian Infatuation - USA

Frank Keffel, mank0702 - Germany

There are some whom under certain circumstances couldn't contribute in material sense, but still, their well wishes & thoughts are also greatly appreciated. Here's to a marvelous quote: "To have great friends, you have to be a great friend to others first." All those people mentioned here, without exception, are Fantastic Friends with remarkable soul!
Therefore, on behalf of Namtip & me, THANK YOU!
Wishing all of you Great Karma for the rest of your life & beyond!

In Gratitude

Note: I hope I did not leave out anyone who had contributed. If I did, please accept my sincere apologies & kindly contact me so I can rectify my mistake.
Any contributions after this entry will be updated in the list above.

A Cry for Help!

Dear Friends, this entry is put up as an appeal, a cry for help.
A dear friend of mine is in her greatest moment of need in Thailand, Land of Smiles as it is known. However, my friend by the name of Namtip, a member in Flickr, is not smiling lately due to a series of unfortunate events that befallen her. The most recent of those sad experiences occurred just a few days ago. Her father had a serious illness & was hospitalized. They are a very poor family which can't afford much, definitely not the hospital bill which will incur with long-term treatment & hospitalization. Due to his illness, her father had lost his job. Her mother is partially blind, helpless. There's no social welfare in Thailand. Now, in order to lower their cost of living, to survive, her parents had given up their home in the city & moving back to the village where they were born. Poor fragile Namtip, now as her family sole bread winner, will be left alone in the city to cope by her own. She can't go back to the village as there's no job, no future there. She is currently working as a assistant photographer in a studio. Her pay is very low & within this year, she has to pay back in monthly installments, her educational loans which is not a small sum. All those recent ordeals had left her with very little money even for food. And now, without a house of her own, she has to bear an additional burden of monthly rental. Her situation is actually more grave than what she is willing to tell as she does not want people to pity her. This brave girl has a dream, a dream which she shares with another friend who is also an assistant photographer. Their dream is to operate a studio of their own & now, that dream together with her life, was completely shattered.

Read about Namtip's trouble in her blog:
http://thainamtip.blogspot.com/2009/03/sadness.html

One of my motto in life is always try to spread-the-joy. Help those who are less fortunate & who are worthy of help. When I see a good friend in trouble or in sadness, I cannot help but feel their pains. There are already too much sadness in our world. Help spread the happiness! Help someone worthy to realize their dreams. Help them overcome their predicaments. I do it not for any benefit nor reward, but for the satisfactory of seeing more happiness occurring in our world. To bring light when there is darkness. The greatest achievement for anyone should be, to be a better human being. The world will have much lesser trouble.
There is this famous quote: "To have great friends, you have to be a great friend to others first." and this is what I strongly believe in. You can call me naive, idealist or tell me I will be easily cheated, but I assure you, I'm no fool either.
Namtip is a very nice decent girl with a beautiful soul. Do not judge her by her pics. That would be very misleading. I had already done whatever I could to help, but I fear it wouldn't be enough as I'm not well off either. I truly hope that there are more understanding & kind-hearted people out there who are willing to help.

So kind ladies & gallant gentlemen, if you are able to, please, I beg you, on behalf of Namtip, I implore you to help her in her greatest moment of need.
What she needs most now is money which can be donated at her site:
http://www.thaisisters.net/thailand/about.html

The site is put up with the help of another good friend.
Click on the 'Donate' button & key in whatever amount you're comfortable with.
You'll need a PayPal account for this.
Any amount will do. Even if it's just a dollar, we will be very grateful!
May you have great Karma & Blessings in return for doing this kind-hearted act!

THIS IS NOT A SCAM! This is a genuine plead for help. I am NOT doing this for myself. I asked for nothing in return. The PayPal account which the money will be transferred to is not mine. Rather, it belongs to another of Namtip's friend who is kind enough to give it to her. If anyone needs assurance, please contact me. I'm willing to answer any reasonable question(s) you might have regarding this issue.

Many heartfelt thanks in advance!