Gloriously, Past.

Is it about the sophisticated inventions of the time machines in time travel movies and the ever magical fairy godmother in tales of fairies and fantasies? OR are we really intrigued and enchanted by the possibilities of PAST changing, PRESENT wishes and FUTURE creation?

Counterfactual thoughts, simply known as thoughts about "what might have been" (Breckler, Olson, & Wiggins, 2006). These thoughts reflect on past events and how they could have turned out different. Such thoughts are contrary to the facts since they are merely imaginations.

Why, you might ask. My personal instintive defence was, I want to know no regrets. Regrets, in the form of present and the future.

Similarly, Roese and Olson (1995) has also argued that counterfactual thoughts have important effects for emotions, beliefs, and behavior. Such thoughts are also relatively easy for the person who can imagine how things could have been different where one attempts to "undo" the event mentally.

Of course, while some reflect on how things could have turned out better (upward counterfactual thoughts), others reflect on how things could have turned out worse (downward counterfactual thoughts). Perhaps, we wonder - does someone's counterfactual thoughts reflect his or her optimism or pessimism OR does a person's optimism or pessimism determine his or her counterfactual thoughts? OR does it really goes both ways?

To me, the past seems always to be beautiful, or at its worst, poetically tragic, because looking back removes the drudgery, the pain, the rubble of the experience. The feelings you fathom, looking back, are essentially remote from the feelings you felt then, becoming presently, the past. As I write, my words are becoming the past.

There are many moments I'd like to remember. Then again, would I? Would I just piece fragments of random memories and construct them coherently to form a rose-tinted past? Revel and bask in the beauty of an eternally "happier" former time just because I "recollect" it to be so? And, deem the present as regrettable, unfulfilling, incomparable, just because it has not the sepia-hues of time to dignify it?

As I write, a past has been created but I'm conscious of its legacy in so far as my thoughts advance. The past moulds us, but the present makes us.

"I was very much happier in the past."

The beauty of the past is in its eternity, the nebulous accuracy you grant it, the credit you give to selected bits of it and come away with awed streams of reminisence, poignance, celebration.

But, the beauty of the present, of now, this precise moment, is that there can be happiness unfolding before me, if I so choose to look and bask in it.

Who says life should be lived backwards? Must the here and now become the there and then before it can be savoured, enjoyed?

So, make your choice, my dearest friends.

Pretty Me, Not.

Pretty me, or not?

People consistently make the inference that what is beautiful is good, literally (Dion, Berscheid, & Walster, 1972).

This good refers to desirable traits and abilities, in addition to good looks. Beauty through facial features (e.g., size of a nose, width of a smile, etc.), bodily features (e.g., body type, weight, height, etc.), and in this ever fashion-evolving world, clothes may BE a contributing factor.

Even as early as infants, we have made beauty, our deciding factor in person preference. Studies showed babies showing favourable preferences and positive responses to attractive faces, strangers, and dolls (Langlois, Roggman, & Rieser-Danner, 1990).

Perhaps, we could excuse these ignorant infants. However, as adults, could we be excused too? Or perhaps, I should ask, could us adults be excused but not labeled ignorant?

Probably, we only memorised those idioms and their meanings we learnt in primary school of beauty is more than skin deep and that we should never judge the book by its cover. BUT, we never really applied their true esssence to life itself.

So, who cares what you wear, it's how you behave, who you are that really matters.

Clothes can maketh a person if the person behaves WELL accordingly.

In my line of work, I've met many people, most of them affluent. And I've learnt that fancy clothes, accents and cards do not make a nice person. It really boils down to good old fashioned MANNERS.

Class is how you carry yourself, how gracious you are, how much you respect others, and also, how humble you are about your achievements. It reflects your cultivation and having said such,

Class is nurture.

NOT nature. It's foolish, plain stupid people who think that owning a Gucci bag can buy them class, and imbeciles who treat the Gucci-bag-toting person BETTER than one less adorned.

Money talks and people listen. No wonder it's been said that money is vulgar. It will be, if that's your benchmark of judging one's worth.

So service personnel, who snub the less dressed-up, me, it's

time

to

examine

your

values.