Happy Lunar New Year + A Thought For A Good 2012

I know that I've already wished everyone a Happy New Year but it is now the Lunar New Year. I would write it in Chinese but I've seen it written so many different ways that I'm a bit confused now. I decided not to even attempt to figure out which is the most correct way since I am not Chinese and don't know where to begin.

HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR! Let's all band together and make 2012 be a good one!

A floral arrangement for the lunar new year:

There are 3 small lanterns in the arrangement. Can you see them? There is actually a button on the top of each latern, which when pressed, will light up the lantern. It changes colors after a short while.

I think that in order for 2012 to be an awesome year, we as individuals, need to be proactive in the process. Of course, there are things that we can't control, like Mother Nature for example. A good friend of mine wrote an excellent blog post at the end of 2011. I hope that you will take the time to read it. It is written by Sheila of Maddy Loves and is titled "Blogging & Cyberbullying".

The internet has certainly expanded my world, as well as everyone else's. The world has become a smaller place as we are now able to communicate, find information and make purchases online. Internet, for me, is a wonderful tool and I've made so many wonderful friends in all corners of the world. Unfortunately, there is also an ugliness to the internet and people do feel much freer in doing and saying things that they normally wouldn't do in person. The internet allows you to remain anonymous and hide behind profile nicknames. I was appalled when I watched a YouTube video some months back. It was a tutorial by a well-known beauty blogger and I always appreciate the hard work that goes into doing those. I normally don't read the comments but I happened to and was shocked by the amount of mean comments. While I think that constructive negative comments are okay, mean and vindictive ones are not. I then went to another beauty blogger YouTube tutorial video and checked out the comments there and saw the same things.

As was mentioned in Sheila's writeup and was probably one of the main reasons why she wrote it, is that one of her friends, who happens to be a friend of mine, was being targeted. I believe some things were written as comments on her blog but most of them were in beauty-related forums. I did find it quite interesting that these were in countries where what you say and do are significantly monitored by government.

While these wonderful people who are being targeted seem to brush it off and ignore, one cannot deny that it is hurtful. Let us please remember the famous quote: "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." Hiding behind your profile nicknames and vindictive commenting as "anonymous" is cowardly. Negative comments are not unwelcome as long as they are tactful and constructive.

It is my hope that we can all be a kinder, gentler person. What goes around, comes around and if we can "pay it forward", just think of how much nicer this world will be.

*Kat*