Marsha Maung: I write. I love. I live

I am not much of a fighter. Put me in a boxing ring and I will serve you tea. Peppermint green tea? Earl Grey? Lately, I have been forced to bring out a little bit of the fighter in me. I hate bugs, I really, really do. I know they are smaller than me but the thought of being in contact with them scares me to no end. But recently, for whatever reason, some bugs have made the booth (or some other parts of that old wheeler) of my car their home and they come out for regular walks around the dashboard, the steering wheel and sometimes peeka-boo at me from the window, just right above my head. Did I say I hate bugs and they scare me? Try being stuck behind the wheel in a traffic jam with one crawling along your dashboard and heading towards your air-conditioner. 'You can't run, you can't hide, you're stuck behind the wheel and you can't stop the car and run down the street leaving your car behind because people will think you are CRAYYYYZZEEEEE' , it sings...

While it is a little copy-ey (as in Jimmy Kimmel style), Hootsuite did something right with their social media management. Er...no, I don't use Hootsuite for some reason because I am still quite happy with Tweetcaster. Maybe I should download it onto one of my devices or try it on my laptop...maybe. So, following in Kimmel's footsteps, Hootsuite came up with their own ' Staff Reads Mean Tweets ' - nothing as bad as some celebrities get it - and used each of the criticism (mainly that it is ugly) and turned their product around. This is how things should be and sure, reading something mean about ourselves or what we have done can hurt a little (maybe can cause a flood of tears) but you can really learn a whole lot of yourself and what you are missing out on when you listen. And social media is a great platform for that. The whole world is waiting to give you their best 'advice', aren't they? I think Malaysia can learn a lot from something like this......

I am not a hoarder but I can sometimes be a 'saver' which means I try to save things that maybe should have found their way out my door. On their own hopefully (because have you ever tried to get rid of bulky items like washing machine and sofa sets? I mean, like really). Well, over time, you may have also accumulated some things yourself and find your home littered with what-the-heck-was-I-thinking stuff. I found some of these tips pretty useful and great reminders, especially the paper clutter thing. I don't print things much these days, preferring to invest in thumb drives and hard disk drives to save things digitally but gosh....there are books, documents, bills, bills, bills, reminders, leaflets, business cards, bills, bills, bills, bills, bills, bills and bills. And they are piled up nicely on the table, on the floor and anywhere where there is a surface area to pile them up on. I know, I know. So, here are 13 strategies to de-clutter your home and eventually, yo...

Diwali is one of my favorite celebrations of all times.  Credit: "The Rangoli of Lights" by Subharnab Majumdar - originally posted to Flickr as The Rangoli of Lights. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Rangoli_of_Lights.jpg#/media/File:The_Rangoli_of_Lights.jpg  It is about light over darkness. I love candles It is the largest and brightest celebrations in India and around the world (with the exception of lantern festival) It also celebrates parts of the sun, the giver of light and life It is about right over wrong There are ancient stories of good winning over evil It is also about hope over despair and knowledge over ignorance It is the happiest festival in India and Nepal The festival is also marked with celebration of peace, goodwill, charitable causes, kindness and patience Everything is so pretty and brightly colored! Happy Diwali/Deepavali! Love, Marsha

You know you have at least one friend on Twitter or one relative on Facebook who is overly obsessed with their looks or are paid to promote something they have absolutely no faith in. And you also perhaps know of people who are continually told that they look young, beautiful, gorgeous, inspiring, skinny, bla bla bla... Well, I was the last one. Not that I am gorgeous or anything (puh-leeeeezzzze) but when you post a nicely EDITED picture of yourself, people will give you compliments, right? While I appreciate the compliments, it makes me feel awfully fake. Yeah, I put on that top in order to look thinner. Yeah, I put on some makeup so that I look like I DON'T have makeup on. lol. We have apps for that, folks. Anyway, I am not Essena Oneill and she is done with looking pretty for everyone else. She is, a little like me, (although I grew up without the pressure of social media) a very sensitive being with lots of good intentions. She wants to move mountains, make changes, go...