I got to watch Matrix Revolutioin once again recently. During the somewhat ridiculous, “dragonball-style” fight between Agent Smith and Neo in the finale, Neo got pummeled to the ground as the enormous raindrops continue to mercilessly hammer on his drenched-self… The furious Agent Smith insists and prosecutes Neo on the futility of the Neo’s struggle and the meaninglessness of the human race…

Agent Smith: Why, Mr. Anderson? Why do you do it? Why get up? Why keep fighting? Do you believe you’re fighting for something? For more that your survival? Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know? Is it freedom? Or truth? Perhaps peace? Yes? No? Could it be for love? Illusions, Mr. Anderson. Vagaries of perception. The temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them as artificial as the Matrix itself, although only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love. You must be able to see it, Mr. Anderson. You must know it by now. You can’t win. It’s pointless to keep fighting. Why, Mr. Anderson? Why? Why do you persist?

Neo: Because I choose to.

I love how he simply responded, “Because I choose to.” I love it, I absolutely love Neo’s response. And I also love Agent Smith’s twisted facial expression to the response.

At the end of the day, we need to understand that every moment, at every crossroad, is about us making choices with all reasonings aside. The choice can range from being simple as choosing what to eat for dinner to something difficult as what to do with a relationship. Here is the truth. You are unhappy? Because you choose to. You are stuck in the same boring job?　Because you choose to. You are very healthy? Because you choose to. Let’s face it. Be it positive or negative, whatever happens in life are direct consequences from the choices that we make. Consciously thinking and knowing that our very own selves are making the choices is what will empower us to take charge, to be proactive in life. Note the keyword: consciously.

Next time you get all the “why” questions: Why do you work so hard? Why do you love me? Why do you follow the strict diet? Why do you care? Why even set a goal? Why do you persist on the same path when it can get so painful and lonely? Why, why, why…

The simple answer can be, “Because I choose to.”

Also next time you are at a crossroad or desire some changes in life.

You are the one making the choice. You choose. No one else does.

This post is closely related to Stop blaming, take responsibility

People are always coming and going in and out of life. This happens especially if we choose to strive for change and self-improvement.

Our perception and ideals would continue to change, and the people we use to hang out with no longer share the same feelings or in worse scenario, could become incapable to understand and communicate with our newer, improvedand character. Additionally, when our behaviors change, others will distance themselves from us as they reject us for being “different”. They may also envy us, wish us bad luck, try to deter us, as we strive for success…unfortunately. Of course we wish for them to change for the better together, but we all walk a different path in life. That is something must be accepted in life.

People fear difference. Sometimes people limit themselves because they are afraid to be different.

Consequently, it gets lonelier the more we change and try to become our better selves. Thus, the dilemma for each of us…

In the face of loneliness, how do I respond?
Can I maintain myself with confidence?
Or will I choose conformity out of fear?
Can I presevere, knowing it will only get more difficult?
Or will I take the easy way out instead?
And worst case, will I be okay with the fact that no one in the world can understand me?

Let me share this quote:

Anybody can be famous
Fame is cheap
Fame is easy
Fame is fleeting,
Try achieving greatness.

Greatness is hard
Greatness is lonely
Greatness is work
Greatness is humbling
Greatness is a responsibility and greatness lasts forever,
you don’t want greatness do you?

Therefore, greatness requires determination and perseverance. Striving for greatness is a true test of ourselves, and that’s why we need to know who ourselves really are and what we want.

For those of us who choose greatness, we can safely assume the individuals who stay with us by our side on this path will be the greatest companions we will ever encounter in life. Encounterance with these individuals are truly invaluable, so we shall know and cherish these individuals.

Now we finance blogger always plead frugal living. I have pleaded for us to distinguish between “want” and “need” when we want to buy things. However, there are things that serve great value by saving money and time in the long run. One such thing is Global Positioning System (GPS).

GPS is something that I have owned for awhile now that I can honestly and confidently claim that have save me MUCH time and gas (thus, money) in the long haul. Being a couple hundred dollars investment, I struggled for awhile before making the purchase, but the saving of time and gas was precisely the motive for it, and it is worth its every cent.

Garmin Nuvi 350 is the one I owned. Not only has it saves me time from looking and printing out directions every time I go somewhere, it has frequently save me from being lost and also get me to places on the fly w/o mistake. The point of interest feature on the Nuvi 350 is also excellent, finding me restaurants, ATM, car rentals in the vicinity when needed.

The price of GPS has come down so much that just further expands their true values. For time, for gas, for convenience, get a GPS.

PS. The touch screen on the Nuvi provides a much better user experience than the Garmin i5 with the scroll wheel, which I owned previously.

My dear friend D told me that his friend has purchased a house somewhere in the South Bay Area. Of course it is something to congratulate about as we all know how steep the housing prices are here. But something really confuses me…

Basically the area that is selling the newly constructed homes is only aimed and restricted to moderate income households. The restriction roughly goes something like this: 129k for 1-4 people household, 135k for 5 people household and so on… I asked D for a number of what the house costs his friend. The answer is a little over 800k.

This immediately leads to the next question… how the heck can something with moderate income afford these houses! Mind you, the 800k is the lowest priced model home. The others cost up to 1mil+.

Let us do a bit of calculation with the assumption of a 800k house, a healthy 20% down payment, and an interest rate at 6.05% for 30 years fixed mortgage. The payment comes out to $3,857.72 a month. Also assuming a household with max. income allowed of 129k, it results to around 6k after-tax per month. If we tag on utility, property tax, living/food expenses on top of the 4k~ payment, it is really walking the edge!

The fact is, I have played down the price tag, assumed a healthy 20% down payment (160k!), and also assumed a average interest rate. Let alone there are other living expenses (eg. insurance…) I did not mention.

In a nutshell, I’m just lost how they calculate the income restriction with houses priced like this… can anyone explain? I would love to hear :)

Looking back, there are many occasions that I am annoyed and overwhelmed when my surroundings gets messy and cluttered. Especially back in those student days with schoo, work, and life all going that I really didn’t have time to clean. When I finally get the chance, it’ll be such a clutter that I’m not sure where to start, which makes it EXTRA annoying.

That being said, those are my main motivations to stay clean and organized, and also the reason for spending a good portion of my memorial weekend cleaning my apartment of things from past years. Now that I am more aware, I realize how my mind can be more peaceful having a surrounding that is clean and rid of clutter.

I want to share this because this is something that we all have control over that can contribute to the peace of our minds and put ourselves more at ease. Cleaning is something that we can all do by choice!

So I suggest let’s all allocate time to clean and keep it clean. Not only living area, but also work desk, office, car… Clean up junk mails/paper, recycle things we don’t need anymore, mob the floor, reorganize furnitures for more spacious, cleaner look, etc.

By staying clean and organized, we can focus our energy and attention on other things in life, instead of having the burden of uncleanliness on our minds.

On a side note, I bought a few pieces of furnitures that both help to keep things organized and provide a more unified theme for my apartment. I spent arond $130, but it’s worth it. I brought this up because we need to remember to live frugally without being cheap! :)