Ganbatte

I found this tempting picture recently and I decided to post it here today before it collects dust. It's one of the few pics I've seen of hot naked guys that made me laugh out loud... yeah it was that funny for me.

I was just reading some guy's blog (u got gay) and felt an odd tingling sensation inside me. It's just a wonderful feeling to see something that strikes a chord in you. Canadian (I love Canada), with an Aussie mate who's learning French (I'm also trying to learn that now), who also happens to read that aussie blog (I just got in touch with Brenton of aussielicious), who's an "evil" (go read his profile, it's funny) lawyer (I once was accepted into law school but decided to pursue something else), but yet when I just read on and on, then I decide he's so different and interesting too... it's so challenging to my mind in more good ways than one when, if one can project what goes on in each gay guy's life onto a tapestry, that tapestry must definitely be a masterpiece no man can possibly re-create. Like if you look at this German boy's blog, no doubt he's even more of a "beginner" than I am (though I think he'll surpass me real soon), you won't disagree when I say I think he's just so intriguing.

I can't help but recall now a recent e-mail from an old friend I met during my days at good 'ol Cal Berkeley. The both of us studied Japanese together for a long time and had the most awesome of days doing that -- even now she says that she found those classes the most fun classes she's ever had (and I agree 110%). She's back in HK working, but she told me that she was gonna be studying for the Japanese Language Proficiency Exam, but she needs to ganbatte for that. Now ganbatte is a Japanese word that's not easily translatable to English, but essentially it means to work hard for something. Curiously in Japanese, you don't normally say good luck to each other (like how you'd say that to a friend who was taking an exam), BUT you would totally say ganbatte in many situations -- I guess that's part of their culture, where everything comes through by your effort and luck is something that's accepted as part and parcel of all that happens and doesn't factor into consideration anymore.

And so the fact that you and I can be here reading interesting blogs and finding out about the wonderful and amazing lives of guys out there is, no doubt, a matter of luck (which is a given) but more importantly, it's also a matter of our own effort. I replied telling her how cool I felt that she was taking up the challenge (after all, I was always better than her in the language and I think it's no mean feat), and that we ALL need to ganbatte in our lives. Yea, whether it's mesmerizing words that one wishes to craft, or tantalizing muscles one craves for, or whatever for that matter, they all have to come from some real substance that one has to ganbatte for. Sure things (or people) may look or seem laid-back and easy-going, but they can be for this very reason.