Little Sketch of My Life

Buddhist Teaching, The Essence

2011-02-21T21:29:00.012+08:00

"Sabba papassa akaranam
Kusalassa upasampada
Sacitta pariyodapanam
Etham Buddhanasasanam"
To abstain from all evil
To cultivate the good
To purify one's mind
This is the teaching of the Buddhas

Jangan berbuat jahat
Perbanyak kebajikan
Sucikan hati dan pikiran
Itulah inti sari ajaran Buddha

DON'T JUDGE!

2011-02-15T23:55:00.005+08:00

Within a glance, a person can make a very accurate judgment on a subject that he has been familiar with. The person himself sometimes can not explain on what basis he can make such an accurate judgment. He simply trusts his instinct interconnecting all related experiences from his conscious and unconscious mind.

People who have been exposed long enough to a subject can be very fast in giving accurate judgment to that subject. The longer the exposure to the subjet will be the more accurate the judgment he makes upon that subject. A long exposure is like a constant practice in improving your skill. Like people say, practice makes perfect.

An artist knows whether a piece of art is exclusive or cheap.
A pro saxophonist can directly tell whether someone is excellent or poor in playing the instrument.
A curator recognizes whether a collection is a fake or a real one.

In our daily life situation very often we make an instant judgment on something or someone, however eventually we realize that we misjudge them. The chance to make wrong judgment is higher when we are not familiar with the thing, person, task, or situation we are dealing with.

Often our judgment is also distorted by the benchmark, general idea, principal, common misbelief that have been implanted in our head. The combination of too easy judging thing and the distorted mind exacerbates the situation into an autistic state resulting in a very poor judgment eventually. This brings disadvantage not only to the one who is being judged, but also to the person who judges.

To be fair and aware off, do not judge things, persons, tasks, or situations if you don't need to. Make professional judgment if only people ask for it as they might think that you are the expert. It is important to keep your mind opened, not to rush and take a little pause to allow your mind refreshed, then you can make a much better and fair judgment.

Reference:
Blink (Malcolm Gladwell)

Yogyakarta: time to refresh myself

2010-03-31T13:41:00.020+08:00

Yogyakarta is a nice comfortable place located under Mount Merapi in Central Java. The place is rich in art and culture. You can visit many ancient Hindu and Buddhist temples, the artistic and historical palace of Keraton Yogyakarta, and the very famous main street in Yogyakarta called Malioboro.

When you are in Malioboro, you will find a relaxing atmosphere among friendly local people and a lot of interesting things to see. Along this street, you’ll see souvenir stands side by side selling knick knacks and traditional foods.

As a food lover, of course I am willing to browse every corner of Yogya to experience new things for my culinary journal. This time I got information from my friend about a small alley near Station Tugu (the starting point of Malioboro St.) where on one side of the alley you can see several coffee stands (warung kopi). At the other side on the pavement, they lay carpet for customers to sit in and enjoy the drink. Heaps of youngsters from different communities come to this place just for chitchat and gathering with their friends.

All warung kopi here have more and less the same menu: nasi kucing (translated: cat rice, because of small portion of rice wrapped in banana leaf), egg satay, and many kind of fried snacks (gorengan). However, the main specialty of these warungs is “kopi (coffee) Joss”. This was the one that I aimed for. They put coffee powder and sugar in a glass, and poured hot water. Then they put burning charcoal in it. I asked they seller why they put burning charcoal in the coffee. He simply said that it makes the taste better. I tried it and I liked it though. The coffee didn’t taste too strong nor too sweet. It’s just nice to sip it and enjoy the night.

At this chance visiting Yogya, I also ate traditional gudeg Yogyakarta. Gudeg is characterized by the dominant sweet taste of the dish. It contains young jackfruit, eggs, sambal krecek (beef skin) and chicken. All are sweetened with sweet soy sauce. To eat it once would be ok for me, but not for everyday (as it is too sweet).

So, to end this writing, I would say that Yogyakarta is really worth to visit. Many tourist destinations have historical, artistic, and educational values to experience. And the foods can be challenging for food lovers to explore. I would certainly recommend anyone to come to Yogyakarta to spend their holiday!

Thanks to Radhika for the Kopi Joss info!

Happy Tiger Year

2010-02-14T20:20:00.007+08:00

Chinese New Year 2010

Steam Egg - 蒸蛋 (zhēng dàn)

2010-02-13T21:54:00.000+08:00

I remember when I was a kid, often mum or grandma cooked this for our meal. It's tasty and very simple.

Beat an egg. Add salt, pepper, fried onion, sesame oil, a bit of minced meat. Pour water up to double height of the egg surface and mix it well. Add nori seaweed on the top. Steam it.

I use microwave with second low heat for 7 minutes. The bowl needs to be wrapped. The result, texture is very soft and the taste is great.

Salad

2010-02-07T23:35:00.009+08:00

Ingredients:
1 cucumber (sliced), 1 red capsicum (sliced), 1 lime (squeezed)
pour sesame oil, salt, pepper, honey, fried garlic
add Thai basil leaves and dried seaweed if you like

Thanks to inspiration that brought this idea to mix whatever ingredients I can get from my fridge and garden

Anchovy Steamed Rice

2010-01-31T13:02:00.006+08:00

It seems that I haven't done cooking for ages since I stay here in the mess without kitchen. No more enjoyment of cutting, experimenting with mixing ingredient, and having gathering and eating together with friends :(

Now I only have a rice cooker and a microwave. Well, every night I cook plain rice and get confused what to eat with. Not until I get this idea to make Anchovy Steamed Rice.

Here are stuffs that I pour into my rice cooker:
1. rice
2. water
3. pepper
4. dried Anchovies
5. dried kelp
6. fried onion
7. fried garlic
8. fried peanut

And the result is just amazing. It tastes very good.
*Bon Appétit*

Great City Great Fireworks

2010-01-01T20:50:00.002+08:00

Eye to Eye

2009-12-22T23:59:00.012+08:00

This essay was written after I finished reading my two books, Power vs. Force and Zero Limits. The two books have interesting explanation about eye contact. Here I try to present what I understand from the books.

In the recent modern science, behavioral kinesiology is getting more and more popular and well investigated. One aspect in the study of behavioral kinesiology is to examine the strength and sensitive response of our muscle towards any object. Different qualities of similar object cause different responses to our muscle. This study reveals that muscle response and strength can be measured accurately*.

*) For example: An experiment was conducted where a group of examinees were given two sealed envelopes; one was enclosed with vitamin C and another with artificial sweetener. All examinees were not told what inside each envelope was. During the test, all examines gave exactly the same response. They showed positive response when holding the envelope with vitamin C, whereas the envelope with sweetener caused weaker muscle strength to them.

In Power vs. Force, Hawkins applied behavioral kinesiology technique to calibrate the state of human awareness to muscle strength. He found that level 200 (calibrated between 0-1000 in logarithmic scale) is the critical point for awareness shifting. At level 200 or above is obtained when people experience happiness, excitement, joy, peace, and universal love. Apparently, the highest state of human awareness which is calibrated at level 1000 is the universal love (Jesus, Lord Buddha, Muhammad, Krishna were the ones who had attained level 1000). Below 200 people emits weak energy aura. This is where humans experience all the negative state such as angry, sad, discontented, and desperate. Unfortunately, people nowadays are mostly under this critical limit!

In Zero Limits, there is a particular passage that really draws my attention: eye contact. What I found is that the ability to maintain eye contact is strongly related to the state of human awareness. It is showed in a behavioral experiment where a group of participants must stand up face to face toward their own partners who are completely strangers, and see right through their partner’s eyes for certain period. Apparently, not all participants were able to maintain eye contact within the defined period. The instructor said that the ones who are filled with love won’t get any problem with eye contact to a total stranger. People who are not in peace, not having pure heart, lack of love, having prejudice and all sort of negative thinking (below level 200), will not stand to maintain eye contact even for short time.

The ones who failed to maintain eye contact were asked to release their negative energy using ho’oponopono technique by saying I love you repetitively, emitting universal love towards all beings including their stranger counterpart. Some even dropped tears unconsciously during the progress as they felt embarrassed or guilty for having negativity that contaminated them selves as pure beings. The ho’oponopono was successful. Eventually they were able to hold eye contact with their counterpart. This indicates that our eyes can’t hide what inside our mind is. Eyes can't lie. That's why we have to release our negative energy and fill ourself with love. Wise men say, the purpose of life for every being is to love and to be loved.

Additional comment:
In Western culture, when you are talking, you have to maintain eye contact. You can tell that a person is lying or telling the truth from his/her eyes. Yet, it is a different situation in Asian culture where looking at someone straight in their eyes can be considered rude or impolite.

As someone who was raised in Asian culture, I have to adapt and get myself used to with maintaining eye contact when speaking to someone. This is an important cross cultural learning especially for Asian students who study in Western countries. The Westerners often misunderstand them because they don’t maintain eye contact when they speak. Luckily, now I am used to with it. It does help me to see whether some one tells a lie or truth. Eyes speak, and never lie.

References:
Power vs. Force (David R. Hawkins)
Zero Limits (Joe Vitale & Ihaleakala Hew Len)
Pictures from http://kingtay.blogsome.com/

Faith: accept and let go off

2009-12-13T23:16:00.020+08:00

keywords: acceptance, power, force, grateful
Things which are meant to be for us will surely come to us. It’s a matter of time. Just be patient to wait for the right time!
Every time I had difficulty I always pray to get inspiration to find way out. Lately, it seemed that all answers to my pray have been provided through books. The books came out to me in various ways: through recommendation from my friends; through recommendation which came out from a stranger out of nowhere; through sudden intention to take a specific book when I browse in a bookstore.

When giving suggestion to my friend with similar problematic situation I had, sometimes I recommend them to read one particular book which, I think, seem to be appropriate to solve the respective problem. Yet, very often the book doesn’t suit them in term of its philosophy or overall content. And very often I heard most comment from them is that they can’t understand the main messages from the book even though they have read it over and over.

That is why I truly believe that things which are meant to be for us will surely come to us; on the contrary, things which are not meant to be, we won’t get it, we won’t understand it. For other persons with similar problem like we had, maybe the universe has prepared another way to overcome their problem to make them able to draw the life lesson over such situation. We can help by sharing our experience in dealing with the same situation, but again, sometimes it may help to one person, sometimes it doesn’t work at all. One thing for sure, they will find the best way to overcome such situation. And the way out to the same problematic situation can be unique to every person.

Holding to that philosophy, now I can face everything with more acceptances. I realize when the thing I want can not be achieved, or the thing doesn’t work as I plan or aim for, I simply think that maybe it’s not meant to be for me at this time. Thus I have to work harder, I have to introspect and improve myself, and most importantly I have to let go off any negative thoughts for not meeting the expected target at this time. Maybe later, I deserve something better than before, something that’s meant to be best for me in the right time.

Previously, I realize that I used to apply force instead of power to get something. When we apply force, it has “tension of the opposites” (I borrow this term from Mitch Albom’s Tuesday with Morrie, as this is explained well about why we should use power instead of force). Imagine when you push a spring from its balance; you will get contraction and expansion. That is what happens when we use force. When I targeted on something with constant force, yes I can achieve the goal. But it takes most of my energy. Furthermore, it is also very exhausting to maintain what we get for using force.

Power on the other hand, encompasses everything. It doesn’t consume our energy, it recharges our energy instead. We can use power only when we are in line with our heart and in fully acceptance to the situation at any moment we live our lives. Initially, I felt a bit difficult to accept some situation in my daily basis. But when I can align with it, everything suddenly seems to unfold for me so easily. I am grateful to know this universal secret that we should work with power. Now even small things works perfectly for me as long as I’m in line with any situation in my present moment.

I still need to practice acceptance to any situation in my present moment. Sometimes, I still complain for unwanted situation I must face. Sometimes, I use force to deal with it. But then I realize, when something hectic happens, it alerts me to go in line again with present moment, and not to use force to agitate the balance, the yin yang of the universe.

I thank all respective authors of my precious books.

References:
Power vs. Force (David R. Hawkins)
Tuesday with Morrie (Mitch Albom)

How to control our emotion and be spiritually conscious?

2009-12-13T14:52:00.022+08:00

After dealing with some crucial life experiences and applying philosophy from several guidances about accessing spirituality, I feel that I need to share what and how I feel about my new prespective about life. A new chapter of my life has just been started.
Human beings might have advantage over other living beings in this world in the extent of having ability to be aware of their emotion, or “to be conscious” spiritually speaking. However, most human beings are not aware of this ability. Consequently, they don’t know how great the effect of this ability when it is being implemented.

Ideally, we have to be able to control our emotion and not the other way around; no matter it is driven by good or bad things in response to our surrounding environment. When it is stimulated due to good thing, we don’t lose control for not being overly excited. On the other hand, when our emotion is affected by bad thing, we don’t drag ourselves into deep despair.

The state of our emotion of being balance and not being affected by external factors is what in Buddhism is well known as Equanimity (Uppekha). It is “a spacious stillness of the mind, a radiant calm” (Salzberg, 1999), where we dwell in our peace and tranquility, emitting our highest aura and greatest inner power which can affect our surrounding environment in return (Hawkins, 2002).

Unfortunately, most people do not know how to apply this ability, and if they know, they don’t really put this into real daily practice. This fact has been confirmed in Hawkins’ investigation about the level of human consciousness where he found that most people in current modern days are below the consciousness threshold, i.e. below point 200 in logarithmic scale (the scale is between 0-1000, less than 200 is heading to chaotic state, 200 more is getting affirmative, 1000 is fully enlightened). Even in our daily life we can see that very often people are occupied with their own emotion. They become the slave of their own emotion. Consequently, a lot of people do erroneous acts, thoughts, talks, and other sort of irrational things.

Concentrate to pay attention to observe our emotional states

The question is how to control our emotion; how to perform our innate ability to be aware of our emotion and be spiritually conscious? The answer is simply to pay more attention to observe our emotional states in every moment. Paying more attention requires concentration. So, just concentrate to pay attention to observe our emotional states⁽*⁾. When we apply this once, we will experience a glimpse of tranquility; the awakening has just started. Practicing this every moment, our mind awareness becomes more and more conscious.

*) Practically, this is just the same as meditating. Meditating doesn't necessarily mean that you have to sit down like Buddha's posture closing your eyes and stay silent. Meditation can be done anywhere anytime as long as you concentrate to access the present moment, that is to pay attention to what you are presently doing.

Dwelling at conscious state offers several benefits. It does dissolve any emotional disturbance. Conscious people have acceptance to acknowledge that every single emotion influenced by external factors is only temporary, no matter good or bad. Since the power of being fully conscious is much greater than any state of world duality (good-bad, happy-sad, rich-poor, etc), it can also recharge our energy effectively and optimally. In contrast, drifting with our emotional flux consumes our energy a lot.

The pristine state of fully conscious beings is peacefulness. This is the last stage to achieve for every being in the universe. This is the highest state which is everlasting and unaffected by external environment. There is only peace inside. So, practice to observe your emotional states, be the witness on your emotional flux, and keep your heart at peace.

Happy Independence Teeth

2009-08-17T23:04:00.011+08:00

It is important to align our teeth so they can support each other in a nice and neat formation.
In the late age, our teeth can be tilted easily due to deteriorating support of the gum. In spite of that, teeth with straight formation might restrain them being tilted by giving strong support holding each other. For this reason, a lot of people with inadequate teeth formation wear brace to align their teeth.

The dentist said that anyone in any age is still possible to align their teeth using the brace providing the gum is still strong enough to support the alignment. The gum in the age of forties is still considered okay for such treatment. In some case, people in the age of fifties are still likely to do so.

Initially, the dentist normally asks you to have an X-ray photograph to check your jaw structure. Some people have a wide jaw structure causing their teeth formation very loose, or it could be the other way round where the narrow jaw causes the crooked or the overlapping teeth formation due to not enough space for the teeth to grow in line. The former case is easier to align simply by tightening the teeth using the brace. The later case requires more treatment which is to pull several teeth out or to file down some teeth into smaller size. Either way has the same purpose which is to give some space on the jaw enabling each tooth to align in the limited jaw structure.

How long a patient must wear the brace depends on how worse the initial teeth formation was. It may take about 1 to 1.5 years under the brace control to straighten either the loose or the overlapping teeth formation. Some case such as slanted-front teeth might take longer time to handle. For my case, I had worn the brace for about 16 months with a monthly brace control.

Does it hurt?
This is the most frequently asked question by someone regarding wearing teeth brace. Again, it is very relative to each person. Some said that they feel painful to chew for a week after the brace tightening hence losing appetite and weight consequently; some even said that they got fever. But for me, I normally had only two days to adapt after the brace being tightened. Those were the two days where I had to chew my meals extra slowly, but no fever at all, thank God.

Post Treatment
My dentist recommends me to wear teeth retainer after removing my brace. The retainer can prevent the recently straightened teeth from being deformed as the new formation is still unstable without the brace. The retainer can be easily removed any time, but it is recommended to wear it at most time. Normally, I just remove it during my meal, after that I wear it again and keep wearing it even when I sleep.

Thank my orthodontist for his professional treatment handling my teeth. Now, I can smile as wide as possible showing my tidy teeth to everyone

Tuban Eats

2009-07-19T13:08:00.027+08:00

Traditional Tuban cuisine is characterized by the extremely hot chili flavor. I guess, the majority of local Tubanese loves to eat very spicy foods. To them, the more their mouths numb and their bodies sweat when eating spicy foods mean that the more they enjoy eating the food. Accordingly, some Indonesian food that is not supposed to be spicy, such as sayur bening (spinach soup) and sayur asam (mixed vegetable in sour soup), here they also put chilies within.

In relation to my interest to explore traditional Tuban cuisines, I usually ask my local friends to accompany me on my food safari. Not to forget, I always bring stomach-relieving tablets, promag, to prevent discomfort due to excessive gastric acid, chewed before and after having the very spicy food.

Here, I recommend some popular place to eat traditional spicy foods in Tuban (I challenge if you dare to try). I put 1 star (mild) to 5 stars (extremely hot) just to indicate the ‘hot’ level of the food.

Pecel Pincuk Patung*
Description: A mixed vegetable (agati flower, cassava leaves, bean sprout, petai cina (a kind of bean), and basil with peanut sauce, served with rice.
Place: Near Patung round about in Kalijogo St. The small warung (food stand) is in the left side if you come from the round about. ASK locals which one pecel pincuk stand is.
Open time: around 6 p.m. till mid night.
Other info: They also have empal (spice-flavored beef), fried eggs, chicken egg satay, perkedel (potato cake), rempeyek kacang (peanut chip), rempeyek teri (anchovy chip), salted duck egg, and soy bean milk.

Lontong Tahu Tri Dharma*
Description: Lontong (rice cake) and fried tofu with peanut sauce.
Place: Sutomo St. in the intersection to Ronggolawe St.
Open time: around 6:30 p.m. –

Wader MU**
Description: Fried fresh water fish with sambal (chili paste). I give 2 stars for the sambal, the fried fish itself is not spicy.
Place: Warung Moeloeng. Go toward Semen Gresik mess, if you come from Tuban, the place is about 1 km after passing the mess in the left side. Phone number: +6281335304014.
Open time: morning till night around 10 p.m.

Lontong Kikil**
Description: Kikil soup served with lontong (rice cake). Kikil is the chewy part around the cartilage and foot part of the ox meat. The soup is rich in traditional spice of the typical East Javanese cooking.
Place: Near Patung round about in Kalijogo St. The small warung (food stand) is in the left side if you come from the round about. ASK locals which one Lontong Kikil stand is.
Open time: morning till afternoon.

Bechek Menthog (Duck Curry)**
Description: Duck curry and satay, served with steamed grounded corn or lontong (rice cake).
Place: go to Medika Mulia hospital, pass it heading south for another 300 m, then ASK locals for more detail guidance. The place is on the right side, under pohon sawo (big sapodilla tree).
Open time: morning-afternoon.
Other info: curry will be ready after 12 p.m. better come on time otherwise they run out of stock quickly due to so many customers.

Nasi Pasar Baru***
Description: Various Tuban cuisines including delicious seafood cooking, served with warm rice on a piece of teak leaf. Famous for all sorts of curry: catfish, sting ray, squid curry cooked with squid ink. Ask for the sambal (chili paste).
Place: Pasar Baru (central market of Tuban), go in through eastern gate (main entrance), and you’ll notice a warung there.
Open time: 6 p.m. – 3 a.m.
Other info: Ask for the teak leaf on the plate.

Ikan Bakar Nurhamidah***
Description: Grilled fish served with rice and fresh vegetables. The sambal (chili paste) is very tasty. The way they grill the fish is excellent, well cooked but not too dry making the taste of the grilled fish so marvelous. I give 3 stars for the sambal.
Place: Tuban-Semarang Highway km. 4, the place is precisely on the beach.
Open time: morning-night.
Other info: They also serve other seafood; fried shrimp/squid are highly recommended. Arrange your time to come earlier as they take at least 45 minutes to bake and prepare the meal.

Nasi Jagung Jangkar****
Description: Fried eels/frogs/catfish coated with red chili sauce, served with steamed grounded corn wrapped in banana leaves. The sauce can be separated by request.
Place: go to Medika Mulia hospital, pass it heading south for another 1 km, then ASK locals for more detail guidance.
Open time: morning, normally by 12 p.m. the foods have been sold out.
Other info: Tuak, a traditional drink that contains alcohol is also served here. (See also my other posting about this place).

Belut (eel) Pak Min****
Description: Same dishes of spicy eels and steamed grounded corn, except the sauce is slightly different, a bit yellowy color due to turmeric use in the ingredient.
Place: go to Medika Mulia hospital, pass it heading south for couple miles until the road ends at a T-junction, turn right until you find the 1st alley on the left. Car is not accessible to this alley but the place is in walking distance (5 min walk). ASK locals for more detail guidance.
Open time: around 5 to 9 p.m.

Belut (eel) MU*****
Description: Eels in spicy thick sauce, served with steamed grounded corn. A half spoonful of the sauce is enough to burn your mouth! Suggestion: keep eating till you finish, a pause will make you suffer even more.
Place: go to Merak Urak (MU) market, from the T-junction, drive another 2 km to Suruan village, heading to Tuwiri Wetan until you find the first alley in the left side. ASK locals for more detail guidance.
Open time: morning-afternoon.

Rajungan Rhemason*****
Description: A very hot addictive crab curry.
Place: Manunggal Jaya in Manunggal St. in front of SMUN 3. Phone number: +6281357388219.
Open time: morning-night.
Other info: They also serve black squid curry, goat satay, and goat curry.

Happy Eating!

Soto Ayam Sleko

2009-07-19T12:12:00.058+08:00

“The best of soto ayam I’ve ever had” is the reason why I compose this essay and dedicate it to Ibu Narto, for her brilliant recipe of a perfect spice mixture creating such a great taste of a traditional East Javanese style of Soto Ayam.

Soto ayam is an Indonesian type of chicken soup (soto=soup; ayam=chicken) characterized by its yellow color due to the use of turmeric and other spice. Talking about soto ayam, Indonesian people normally refer to East Java as the place where you can find the original taste of this soto. Soto ayam in East Java is slightly different from the one in West Java. Soto ayam in West Java is with coconut milk whereas the one in East Java is without. I myself prefer the East Java one since the exotic taste is purely from the perfect mixture of the spice. As reference, Lamongan in East Java is the most popular place for soto ayam. I often drop by there on the way from Tuban to Surabaya to eat soto ayam.

Lamongan soto ayam is good but not until I found this place called Warung Soto Sleko during my food safari in Tuban. This place offers a really great taste of soto ayam, the best I’ve ever had so far. I got information about this place from local Tuban people. From them I can tell that this place is pretty well-known among the old generation of Tubanese. They said that this place has been popular since long time ago. However, not so many young Tubanese know about the place.

The owner of this small warung is a 72 year old lady called Ibu Narto. In her late age, she is still active to run her business selling soto ayam. She uses a small patch in the front part of her house with a nice little garden in one side. She told me that every morning she has to go to the market to buy free-range organic chickens, then prepare the ingredient based on her excellent recipe and finish her cooking by mid noon. The place previously opened from 5 to 9 p.m. but now opens from lunch time to 9 p.m. everyday except on Sunday for the church.

Ibu Narto told me that in the beginning she ran her business, she didn’t utilize the front part of the house for the warung. When she had finished the cooking, her late husband would bring the big pot full of soto to the nearest market. They opened a stand there because there were more customers around the market than around the house since the area around her house was not convenient for access. But after couple years passed, Tuban city council had fixed the area up and facilitated it with street lights. Since then, they opened this nice comfortable little warung at home. Her loyal customers still come to the current place in Pahlawan St. no. 7, just in front of a monument in the T-junction. Her customers are not only from down town Tuban, but also from Jakarta, Surabaya, and other areas.

Apart from serving soto ayam, Warung Soto Sleko also serves fried chicken and sambal lalapan (fresh vegetables and chili paste). Both soto ayam and the fried chicken are from free-range organic chickens therefore the taste are very delicious. Soto ayam here can be served with rice or lontong (rice cake). Normally the rice is poured with the hot soto within one bowl, but you can ask to separate the rice from the soup as what I usually do. Before, this place also offered grilled chicken, but they have withdrawn it from the menu. The reason is simply due to ease to prepare soto ayam and fried chicken only, said Bu Narto. So, I strongly recommend you, try this marvelous soto ayam and the fried chicken. Bon Appetit ;)

Price info:
A bowl of soto ayam + rice: IDR Rp. 7,500.00
A piece of fried chicken: IDR Rp. 10,000.00
A glass of tea: IDR Rp. 1,000.00

Batik Gedog, a nice souvenir from Tuban

2009-07-13T21:35:00.018+08:00

Batik Gedog, one of the Indonesian traditional hand-painted batik, is a well-preserved cultural heritage which is originally from Tuban, East Java. The artistic feature of this batik is characterized by its coloration. The base color of the fabric could be any color. Red, blue, green, brown, black and white are common among other basic colors. The conspicuous pattern of this batik makes it unique relatively to other Indonesian batik. The patterns are mostly inspired from nature for example flowers, leaves, marble, insects, lizards, peacocks, and many other types of birds.

Batik Gedog can be worn as informal or formal clothing. Pajama, casual T-shirt, short- or long-sleeves shirt, and formal gown are common clothing made from this batik. The highest to lowest quality of the fabric used for painting Batik Gedog are silk, juantiu, and primis (local term) respectively. Cotton is the most suitable fabric to make Gedog T-shirts. Any fabric other than those types is less appropriate to apply for batik painting.

The center of Batik Gedog making can be found in several villages in Kerek, the western suburb of Tuban. A village called Margorejo, about 30 km from down town Tuban, is a very popular Gedog making center where you can see the process of drawing Batik Gedog by most female local workers.

It is very interesting to see those skillful hands of the ladies drawing particular pattern on the fabric. They use a wax-based ink to make permanent color on the pattern so it can hardly bleach for long.

The only thing you should be aware of when you wash a new clothing of Batik Gedog for the first time is that you have to separate it from other clothes as the remaining ink will dissolve and can contaminate other clothes. The second wash will be perfectly okay to mix up.

Life Journey: Evolution of Spirituality

2009-06-20T23:41:00.032+08:00

Source: Zero Limits (Joe Vitale & Ihaleakala Hew Len) & The Power of Now (Eckhart Tolle)

After reading and reviewing several literatures regarding self-improvement by visualization, affirmation, self-awareness technique, EFT, etc; I must say that I totally agree with Joe Vitale’s concept that the evolution of spirituality among human beings in general can be summarized into three different stages:

We are as a victim
In this stage, we are the typical ordinary people in the daily life. We feel that we don’t have influence, totally powerless. This stage is often characterized by people complaining, blaming, judging easily, which are still considered acceptable as ‘normal’ behavior in our life. We act almost entirely based on our ego, unconsciously.

Start gaining control
In this stage people start to know about the power of intention. With a powerful visualization of affirmative mindset, they start to attract good thing as expected. True, it is the law of attraction that works behind this as they emit high vibrating energy due to excitement. Recently, more and more people practice “The Secret” to attract better things in their life. Yet, such technique is not necessarily always successful. It really depends on the degree of intense craving and how strong they can visualize the thing they want to attract. Sometime, a person is not “thirsty” enough to empower the attracting force towards the thing he or she wants. Apparently, this power is still based on human’s ego, only in a more controlled form which is performing intense visualization of what a person wants.

The common characteristic of people is never feeling satisfied with something. Moreover, we all have things we want to posses. However, after one thing has been fulfilled then we start craving for another thing, and so on. Sometimes we push the situation by applying the power of intention to satisfy our craving. Yet, when the thing doesn’t work as we expect, we tend to find a more powerful way to fulfill our own needs.

It would be very lucky enough if people, with time and experience through different life situation, can shift into higher awareness which is the very last stage of spiritual evolution. That is to realize that it is not by letting our own craving always be satisfied to get true happiness. We can achieve the true happiness only when we get rid of our own ego and craving. Hence, there will be only peace inside. That is the highest state of happiness. (For more information, read Power versus Force in which Richard Hawkins has scientifically investigated about the lowest to highest level of human energy in relation to the state of mind).

Awakening
In this very last stage of spirituality, people start to realize that their own intention is the limiting factor to access the greatest power of life. People in this stage look inward them selves; enjoy every single present moment of their lives. They start to feel deep peace inside, the peace that comes from within, not because of outer environment. When this is happening, the power of forgiving, forgiveness, love, gratitude simply emanate from inside towards the universe, affecting people, animals, plants, things, and all beings. This is where the law of paradox begins to happen, i.e. the universe unfolds for you when you surrender, agree to each moment of life, or what is referred as you are inline with God. Hence, you start receiving miracles. And you simply enjoy the miracles you receive with gratefulness as you already know that you are going to receive it.

* * *

Regarding my life journey, if I look at back through my life experience, at the first stage of my life I realize that most things I did were not based on my conscious mind, but were ego-based instead, an extremely determined ego-based. I labeled anything good or bad according to my limited own beliefs based on my ego’s importance.

The second stage was started when I encountered one very crucial life problem that made me so desperate. Just by chance, a stranger had a little chat to me and mentioned about “The Secret”. So, I bought the book. After reading it through, I was so excited to try this technique. As recommended from the book: keep practice to sharpen this power, start by visualizing small thing in our daily life. So, I did that excitedly. I remember that on one particular day I was out of town, I had seven small tasks done using the Secret technique. I felt so great! To some extent, I had experienced the power of intention which had been successfully worked for me due to my intense craving. Nevertheless, not every life task can be easily accomplished with it despite I have developed my mood enhancing technique. When I feel down, I hardly can visualize the “happy” thing that I want to attract or achieve. This seems to be the weakness of this method.

Under my confusion and sickness of life, I kept looking for an answer. It was in the bookshop I browsed for a good book about life. I simply grabbed The Power of Now. This book really helped me to open my mind and to look at life situation with clearer perspective. Thank Eckhart Tolle. I felt so blessed that I got the answer to my prayer. It provides me guidance to enter the last stage of spiritual life. The book might be kinda “heavy” reading, but the principle is simple and very logical. Till now, I practice to live my world in every single present moment. At least I can start to feel at peace. And I try to keep that state anytime anywhere.

For that reason I feel very grateful, that I’ve experienced each stage progressively. I was wondering why not since a long time ago I’ve found the book. But then I think I should experienced each stage gradually, otherwise I won’t have capacity to understand on what has been explained by Tolle in The Power of Now.

By reading such literature, I have also revised and sorted out many of my ego-based philosophies. Previously, I really admired and implemented Julius Caesar’s famous Veni Vidi Vici as he expanded his empire and conquered his enemies. But now, I feel that such principle seems to be impractical in current life situation and no more appropriate for me to apply.

Thus far, I considered my self very lucky because I was born and raised in a very conservative Chinese ethnic descent family which is strict in applying Taoism and Confucianism principle, combined with typical Chinese norms of living in a transitional period toward a modern millennium life. Moreover, to me, living as minority among indigenous Indonesian people is considered as another blessing since I can learn how to position myself within any community to avoid racism issue and conflict upon social strata. Another lucky thing I have in my life is being associated with Buddhism which initially I learned during my previous 12-year basic formal education. The teaching is very useful and influential in guiding me to understand about what’s happening in this world, a world which is full with chaos and unconsciousness. Finally, I am so grateful because I had opportunity to experience living in a very complex modern big city to a small simple little town and quiet suburban village, in developing and developed country, in western, eastern, and multiracial culture. Living in various dynamic places, interacting with people, and encountering various life problem play a very important role to open my mind, identify my weaknesses, find out my strength, improve my tolerance and adaptability skill during social interaction, enrich my learning, and eventually gain deeper understanding about universal life.

Supporting References:
-A New Earth (Eckhart Tolle)
-Power vs Force (David R. Hawkins)
-The Law of Attraction (Michael Losier)
-The Power of Now (Eckhart Tolle)
-The Secret (Rhonda Byrnes)

Be successful at work!

2009-06-20T12:33:00.004+08:00

“The more you include others, the more smoothly things flow and the more easily things come to you. When you give little help or no help to others or put obstacles in their path, the universe – in the form of people and circumstances – gives little or no help to you because you have cut yourself off from the whole.” (Eckhart Tolle, 2005: A New Earth; pg 123)
* * *
“Your resentment of another person’s success curtails your own chances of success. In order to attract success, you need to welcome it wherever you see it.” (Eckhart Tolle: A New Earth, pg 123)

Ginger ice cream, cooling and warming

2009-06-11T19:40:00.010+08:00

Temperature today is so hot! Spontaneously I just remember ginger flavored ice cream. So, I just write this essay, dedicated to my favorite things ^_^

Ice cream with ginger flavor might not be as popular as strawberry, vanilla, or chocolate one. I my self knew about this very late. At the very first time I tried, this ginger ice cream already made me addicted totally!

It was in Frosty Mango, a nice comfortable little stop-over in between Townsville and Cairns I found this ginger ice cream. We were on the way back from Orpheus Island to Townsville, and we dropped by there. From the name of the place, I thought they must be specializing in processing fresh mangoes for the ice cream since they have their own mango farm around the shop. Certainly you can get ice cream with mango flavor, but there are many more unique flavors such as coconut, lemon, jackfruit, longan, lychee, sapodilla, and ginger!

ice cream bar in Frosty Mango
So, I decided to try this ginger flavored ice cream. The color looked quite similar to vanilla ice cream. The taste was so great. I had the cooling sensation under the hot North Queensland climate, and at the same time I felt warm and comfortable in my throat. What a great ice cream!!!

Unfortunately, ice cream with ginger flavor was not so common. I can hardly find it in Stockland and any other ice cream stands. So, I had kept asking my friends who went for a field trip to Orpheus, to get me a box of ginger ice cream on the way back.

Until now, ginger flavor is still my best favorite choice of ice cream!... mmmm yummy...

God, The Creator, The Divine One, The Source…or Energy?

2009-06-08T21:23:00.016+08:00

All material in this universe consists of molecules. Each molecule has atoms that consist of nucleus with its orbiting electrons. Within the nucleus there are protons and neutrons. (Quantum Physics).
Now compare it to our universe! It’s a very similar pattern.

The space contains billions of galaxy clouds. Each galaxy cloud contains billion of galaxies. Each galaxy contains billions of stars. Each star has its own system consisting of orbiting planets with their own orbiting satellites. (Astronomy-Cosmology).
So, ever wondered who creates all of these?

Scientifically, people will point out ‘energy’ that maintain the system balance. Energy can’t be created or destroyed. It moves its form to another form. Energy enables the big bang that forms the galaxy system in the empty space... Theologically, people will say ‘God’. God can not be created or destroyed, just moving into form, through form, out of form.” (James Ray, the Secret pg 159). So, it is the same essence, only different terminology. If I use the following equation:

God = Energy = mc²; where m = mass, c = speed of light in a vacuum

It does make more sense now to a scientific explanation-minded type of person like me to see what people mean by God is everywhere and within your selves!!!

All materials have mass in this physical universe. Therefore, they have potential energy, or so-called God essence in a spiritual context. I’m not saying that we have to worship any material as they have God essence (read: potential energy). To me worshiping is more into religious culture and habit. And I’m not talking in a religious context, but in spirituality instead.

Talking about energy in relation to human being, ever wonder how we produce heat? We get energy from foods so then we can produce energy to act. It’s all about energy transformation. Every time, our body also emits energy. In the spiritual context, it is referred as the aura of our body that emanates towards the universe.

The emitted aura is strongly influenced by the state of mind. So if our mind is happy, compassionate, and always positive, then we emit the positive aura. Similarly when we are imbued with bad thoughts, unhappy feeling, resentment, and other kind of negativity, we’re emitting bad vibration.

When we emit bad energy vibration, we attract bad thing; good energy only vibrates to good things to attract. This is what is defined as the universal Law of Attraction. So, when we’re aware that we’re in negative state then we must immediately dissolve our bad energy.

It is not an easy thing to overcome our negativity. At worse, most people are not even aware enough when they’re doing something negative. Thus, it really takes lots of practice until we find the best way to lessen our negativity along with improving our affirmative thoughts and developing positive mental attitude.

The way I deal with it is simply to apply the principle of LET IT GO into my daily practice. It here refers to things that might trigger my negative thought; those are things such as my bad experience or dissatisfaction in the past that might lead into potential resentment, hatred, depression, personality disorder, or even taking revenge. Despite the fact that such things exist no more in the present moment, very often they come back again and easily pop up in the mind of most human beings. So, there is absolutely no use to keep such memory in our mind. Just LET IT GO! And only by doing that, I can access and enjoy my present moment peacefully.

Once our mind is in the present moment, it is easier to bring acceptance and forgiveness within our self. These are the acceptance and forgiveness on any condition that has happened to us, particularly past occasion that may activate our bad mood or self-blaming, which is known as painful memory. Only by focusing on the present moment, such memory can be dissolved from our mind, hence less and less painful memory popping up in our mind and eventually gone totally.

Another benefit of living in the present moment is that you are more aware of any thing in your surroundings. People mostly talk, act, and think about something without being fully conscious! But when you are totally in the present moment, you will be conscious enough to witness that any things around you has God essence that always reminds you to return back to God’s path, leading to deep peacefulness and enlightenment.

In this state, any inspiration can easily come to us. Inspiration is the creative thinking. And only with creative thinking, we can easily unlock anything in our life: career, wealth, good health, and many other life tasks. That is to say, the universe unfolds for you as you’re in God’s path. You’re returning to God, back to zero. And that’s where you are experiencing the truth happiness.

Key:
God is within you means God dwells in you, this you can sense only when you’re at peace, or at transcendental state.
God is everywhere means that every single thing around you will remind you to return to the universality of God.

Source:
-A new earth (Eckhart Tolle)
-Power vs Force (David R. Hawkins)
-The Law of Attraction (Michael Losier)
-The Power of Now (Eckhart Tolle)
-The Secrets (Rhonda Byrne)
-Zero Limits (Joe Vitale & Ihaleakala Hew Len)

Images:
quantum: http://www.quantumenergywellness.com/
atom: http://www.bartleby.com/
milky way: http://www.dailygalaxy.com/
solar system: www.gcsescience.com
solar sketch: http://fascinatingly.com

Dear Friend, Life Must Go On

2009-05-18T23:04:00.013+08:00

It’s always good to hang out and get together with friends. Yet, as we’re getting along with our friends, we must still keep focusing on what we want to achieve in our life. While each of our friends has different goals in their life, we must also focus on ours otherwise we will be left behind.

Our friends one day may leave us to reach their dream, or it could be the other way around. It is such a common phenomenon in life. Have you ever thought about your old friends in elementary school, high school, or university? Where are they now? ... Yes, it is great if we still meet up or keep in touch with them. But some might have been disappeared from our radar. And again, that is just considered normal. They have to continue their life journey, and so do we.

Often I found very good friends in different places. But after a couple period of interaction then it is time to say good bye again. I’m not regretting about it though. To me, having high-quality friendship is such a precious gift in this world. It’s a matter of whether we can deal with the sudden change of a situation where we have less and less time to interact with our friends. After all, true friends will always be close to our heart although they are separated thousand miles away from us.

The wise saying tells us that we should not have too much attachment to our friends in many respects. Indeed, experiences teach me that too much attachment to our close friends eventually causes more emotional pain when thing doesn’t work as what we expect. Unless, you are spiritually awakened enough to control your emotion, or in other words to say, you are free from attachment, that would be great! However, most people suffer “gloomy” period due to this emotional pain. It may take one week, a month, or even longer to dissolve such feeling.

“You may not know that you’re attached to something until you lose it or there is the threat of loss” (Tolle, 2005: A New Earth)

My colleague, Y. Apriliansyah, gave me a very good advice on how not to be overly attached to our fellow friends. Follows are the paraphrase on what he said: Attachment is caused by strong emotional bound, i.e. love, implicitly. Therefore, we must prioritize the distribution of our love. The first two highest priorities are to our Creator and to our parents (My comment: Most Indonesian believes that God is supposed to be the 1st priority to love then followed by our parents, but in India is the other way around. Despite different reasons in each country, both still agree that God and parents are the first two highest priorities to love. This is typical in most Eastern countries). Then we can dedicate our love to our spouse or sibling. Apparently, friends are relatively the last priority to love. The closest our bound with someone will be the more painful we suffer when we break up. In that case, only by shifting our love to the higher priorities we can dissolve such emotional pain.

My very personal suggestion is to be grateful always for those who still have good friends around. Be communicative and open to your good friends to avoid any misunderstanding. And ideally, we should not have overly attachment and too much dependency towards our friends, so we can enjoy our friendship without any prejudice, jealousy, and other kind of negative attitude.

So in this chance, I’d like to say to all my dearest friends: I’m sorry for my negative thoughts that have caused any problem and misunderstanding between you and I; Please forgive me; I love you; Thank you for being my friends and becoming part of my life (Ho'oponopono Teaching).

Many thanks to Mr. Thayalan and Yudi Apriliansyah

Earth Day'09

2009-04-22T21:29:00.011+08:00

Love Our Planet Earth

Bali's Day of Silence

2009-03-26T21:04:00.003+08:00

Mindset: How Can I Do More?

2009-03-12T10:23:00.002+08:00

"Can I do that?" That sounds doubting our own capability; "How can I do better?" This is a more positive attitude.
I believe that in any life situation, we surely can do things to improve our lives. However, some people complain that most often they always run out of time to do their daily tasks, hence no more time to do other things that might enhance their life quality. In the end, they always say that their life situation is not as ideal as what they expect.

It’s very common to hear statement like “I wish I have more time to do that”, “I wish I could do more to get additional income”, “I wish I can cram that activity into my schedule”, etc. As a matter of fact, sure we can manage everything in a defined period. There is no time limitation as an excuse. Any life situation is certainly manageable. It’s all about whether or not a person knows how to manage it and really wants to do so.

The best way to manage our life is to get rid any inefficiency in our daily routine. Indeed, everyone has capability to live their life efficiently. Unfortunately, people tend to underestimate their own capacity to overcome such condition. I believe it is simply just a mindset problem. They accuse that their daily routine has killed most of their time.

A typical common example of a life situation is when your boss assigns you for a new task. The first reaction could be excited, nervous, doubtful, not confident, or mix between them. That’s still normal response. Yet, some people might feel stress or under pressure as they take it as more burdens to bear.

But lets we take a look at it through rose-tinted glasses. Would that be a big chance to get more precious experience? The boss might have considered several candidates, but then you’re the one who has been chosen and entrusted to perform the task.

In some case people are urged by their life situation to do more additional works to support their life. They still can manage it eventually. The key to success in managing more works is simply doing better time management, thus allocating time more efficiently within our daily routine.

Another point to bear in mind is to keep positive mindset: We can do anything as long as we put extra effort physically and mentally. Never ever give up! That is the moral value.

“How much we can do depends on how much we think we can do” (Schwartz, 1979: The Magic of Thinking Big)

Aris, our friend, can’t move his left hand after having an accident. Yet, he does not give up doing his normal activity even with one hand paralyzed. Playing pool is one of his hobby. He develops a technique to strike the ball with one hand. Now, he plays as great as other two-handed pro pool players. He enjoys his hobby till now. I really admire his inspiring spirit!!!

Ost: The Matrix

2009-02-14T15:59:00.007+08:00

Clubbed To Death
by Rob Dougan

...is dance music that you could never dance to. (Wikipedia)

Just a little part I tried to play on my piano

I love this composition very much, so COOL!!!
Take a look at my other essay related to The Matrix here.

Happy Chinese New Year 2009

2009-01-26T08:18:00.014+08:00

Gong Xi Fa Cai 2560

May We Always be Fulfilled with Positive Energy

May All Sentient Beings be Well and Happy

Xin Nian Kuaile, Wanshi Ruyi

The Greatest Blessing

2009-01-22T22:33:00.004+08:00

It was typical for me not to tell my family, close friends, or anyone about my big project before I reach my final goal. Good though, to some extent! Eventhough I feel pressure dealing with the task sometimes, yet I learn to be strong to stand up on my own feet, not to depend on other people, a single fighter totally if it is necessary!

The moment I announce that I have achieved my ultimate goal would be such euphoric climax for me. I love to surprise them, my family and my close friends. I really enjoy that second with all joy and excitement!

However, to accomplish every single task requires big effort. It wouldn’t be as easy as snapping finger. Perhaps I just realized that every task I do will run more smoothly when I ask my mum for her blessing. I believe that mother’s blessing to her children is absolutely powerful in any situation. Anytime I have chance to tell my mum about my task, I’ll ask for her blessing.

Dare to Dream

2009-01-22T22:02:00.020+08:00

Edensor, a popular Indonesian novel by Andrea Hirata, tells about the author’s life reflection in realizing his dream. The story begins in a little village in Belitung, Indonesia. There lived a boy who had strong will where his life journey led him to France to pursue his higher educational degree. France was the place of his dream, inspired by the old picture of Eiffel Tower hung in the almost-broken class room wall during his early school days.

Through his effort, he eventually got a scholarship for his post graduate study. This was his starting point of his life adventure. A boy who previously lived in a low-level-society district, who thought that going overseas is only for someone economically capable, eventually just started to experience the world thousand miles away from his village. He learnt lots of things from his journey. There he realized that whatever he dreamed about during his early days, it would come true. Even by chance he found the most beautiful scenery of Edensor, a place that he could only see and imagine from a book given by someone important in his life when he was just a kid.

***
This novel of Edensor inspires me to write this essay, an essay about having dreams in our life. Many people don’t want to realize their dreams. They think that the world is such a threatening place. That's why it’s better to be secure by not chasing what they really want to do, what they really dream about as it might be too risky. Once you have a thought like this, then that is your world going to be. (Coelho, from the Alchemist)

It is very true that in realizing our dream, there will be lots of obstacle blocking up our way. But the essence behind that is how we learn to overcome such blockage by applying patience, hard work, effort, and persistence, so that we become a better individual. Unfortunately, most people give up in that situation. They don’t want to live their “personal legend” in making their dreams come true.

“Personal legend” is a term mentioned by the alchemist to refer to several processes that must be accomplished by someone to achieve the goal of their life. (Gee...I really like to refer to Coelho’s work. Coelho is such a genius!)

Regarding achieving our dream, here are best notes that I quote from another Coelho’s work “By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept”, part of the wisdom saying from the padre to Pilar:

“Follow your dreams, transform your life, take the path that leads to God. Perform you miracles. Cure. Make Prophecies. Listen to your guardian angel. Transform yourself. Be a warrior, and be happy as you wage the good fight. Take risks” (River Piedra, pg 132)
I would add a bit of my own interpretation and note.
Listen to your heart to chase your dream. There will be so many miracles for you to experience on the way to reach your dream and be grateful for every single miracle you receive. Be brave and take risks in moving forward to make the dream comes true. How soon your dream can come true depends on whether or not you move your step toward the realization of your dream.

So have your big dreams. Enjoy the journeys in achieving your dreams. Finally celebrate the moment when your dreams come true!

Season's Greetings

2009-01-01T21:57:00.011+08:00

The picture of Snowflake here is published with permission from Nancy Hamlin-Vogler of Eastern Sun Printworks. Thanks a lot Nancy for sharing your beautiful master piece to me :-)

Mood Booster

2008-11-27T17:47:00.013+08:00

We’ll never know what will come to us in the next couple second: news, occurrence, etc. It could be something good or bad. Those things can influence our mood significantly. Good thing is good for us. But bad things can affect us worse and worse. Bad things in the beginning of the day can really spoil the whole day. Bad mood EMITS negative vibration. Be aware of it!

That’s why it is important to identify something that can turn our mood better. People call it as mood booster. Mood booster has a significant role in controlling our energy. Mood booster could be things that make you relaxed, happy, warm-hearted, smile, laugh, peaceful, and other kind of good feeling. It could be memories, music, sport, hobby, pets, foods, nature, and many more. Different individuals have different choice of mood boosters. Environment is also a very influential factor in applying which mood booster is the most effective to use in a particular situation.

For me, I notice several mood boosters in different stages of my life:

Kindergarten: going to the beach swimming with my family, walking to explore the block around my house
Elementary school: get together with my musician friends
High school: sitting on a quiet beach enjoying my self alone looking at the horizon
University in Indonesia: going to China town for shopping and eating, praying in the old temple
University in Australia: going to the Strand and Sunday market, cooking, salsa night, going for trips
Working in Tuban: talking for hours on the phone to my close friends, reading self-management book accompanied with relaxing music.

I also found out that doing some sport really releases mental pressure, uneasy feeling due to stress, and all sort of negative energy, hence improving our mood. When I wake up in the morning, if my mind is drawn into too much worry, then I just push my self to jog, get sweat, and release all tension. After that, I feel much fresher and stop thinking such unnecessary worry. To relieve stress from work, I play ping pong, tennis, and do taichi together. It does help me to get out from such a depressing situation.

However, like I said before, we’ll never know what will come to us in the next second. When something suddenly comes and makes us feel bad, then we need an instant mood booster. What I normally do when I face such situation is to call my best friend to have a talk. A suggestion from them on how to overcome the problem would be such a precious gift. Nevertheless, that they are just being available to listen to me is already an enormous blessing.

Another instant mood booster of mine is listening to music. I have prepared a bunch of good music in my mp3 player. They’re all the cheerful, funny, soft, relaxing ones. No hurt feeling, disappointment, nor broken heart kind of song; It’s all with positive lyrics. I just set my mp3 player on and simply enjoy it. It makes my mood better at anytime. So, find out what will your mood booster be :-)

Recently I read a book called "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle. He proposes that only with the Power of Now we can gain our liberation from any unconscious thought that causes our negative feeling. To access the Power of now is basically to be fully aware on the present moment by observing our breathing or emotion. Simply just observe, be a silent observer.

I have been practicing the Power of Now and I’m in progress to get more familiar about it. Like the author said, keep practice until it is rooted into your habit then you can start to experience the joy of this power. Hmmm, I am inspired to write another essay regarding this technique.

A Review: The Alchemist (Coelho)

2008-11-25T19:48:00.012+08:00

This book is very challenging to read! Coelho is such a genius.

What I understand from this book is that an Alchemist is basically a person who gets fully awakened spiritually. The main character, Santiago, seems to have this “talent” which allows him to become more aware on things he deals with.

He learns thing very fast from his surrounding. That is why through his journey he eventually understood the Alchemy principle which is the basic philosophy of life. It’s a deep understanding he got from his learning that was inspired by his sheeps, the sea, crystal, fire, dessert, and other things he encountered in his journey. When he got inspiration, he became silent and impressed by the aura of each element around him. Such a trance condition he experienced!

Follows are several quotes I like from this book:

It is "old and wise" to learn lessons from any thing you experience in your life (Santiago's thought, pg 73)

"If you can concentrate always on the present, you’ll be a happy man" (phrase from camel driver, pg 85)

"The fear of suffering is worse than the suffering it self" (phrase from the Alchemist, pg 130)

Don’t be scared, coz when you are, you won’t be able to listen to your heart (paraphrase from the Alchemist saying, pg 141)

The Secret Concept; the Power of Positive Thoughts

2008-11-15T15:52:00.007+08:00

It seems that nowadays The Secret becomes a popular tool to achieve someone's dream and goal in their live. The concept is to use affirmative thoughts to emit the powerful positive vibration of our energy to attract what we want to achieve. Here, I found several examples that apply The Secret and how The Secret works.

Paulo Coelho, a very famous writer, seems to understand The Secret well. Many phrases in his books are the manifestation of The Secret concept. In his book, The Alchemist, he keeps emphasizing that, if you want something, the whole universe will conspire to make it true. He refers that in Alchemy discipline, the universe will unfold all things for you, this principle is known as "the Soul of the World" i.e. when you want something with all your heart, your soul will be the closest to the Soul of the World (the Universe), and it is in the form of positive force (the Alchemist, pg 78). This positive force will attract anything that corresponds to it.

He also raises a good point on gratitude; that we should be grateful for whatever things we receive everyday; that the things we receive everyday are miracles. So be grateful on miracles you receive everyday, otherwise you have wasted your life!

I presume that anyone who can successfully achieve their goals using The Secret concept, no matter obtaining small or big thing, can be assumed as an Alchemist. Anything can be achieved with your pure heart. That's why in Alchemy discipline, according to Coelho, the process of achieving can be analogized as the power that is able to transform from no value thing into gold.

Another book of Coelho, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept, he also highlights a similar phrase, "The universe always conspires to help the dreamer" (pg 53). In this book, he also proposes that in realizing your dream, you must tackle all forms of your own worry and fear, which he refers this as "the Other" of yourself. Thus, by controlling the Other, your motivation to achieve your goal will be synergic between your thinking and your heart. There is no more paradox within your self. It's all pure motivation with faith. He suggests that even tiny faith as a grain of sand can move a mountain (pg 82). Hence, your goal your dream will definitely be fulfilled.

Second example of the power of positive thought: Loving-kindness meditation. During this practice, first we have to relax our meditation posture, scan the whole body, then start emitting loving-kindness vibration towards all sentient beings. Initially, it is much easier to emit this positive energy to people whom we love, people close to us, then to someone whom we are not familiar with, eventually to people whom we have problem with, upset with. Once we can do that, then we can emit this loving-kindness energy to all sentient beings. It gives such a peaceful feeling wherever we are. Also, it will be much easier next time we deal with people whom we have problem with. Simply keep blessing them to be well and happy. We can reduce and eventually remove our negative thought on them, and replace it with loving-kindness instead. It is the power of positive thought that makes us a better person.

I realize that blocking our negative thoughts is not an easy thing to do. It requires lots more practice. The more we practice will be the better. The animation movie, Kungfu Panda, also inspires me that the most powerful technique to learn to be the greatest kungfu master is to be able to conquer our self. It's how we can control our fear, worry, and all sort of negativity. That's all reflected in the forbidden parchment: nothing except the shadow of our own. The truth of the greatest power we can achieve is simply within our self.

Even in Harry Potter, the scariest nastiest creature in the wizard world, the dementors, can be defeated using the warm-happy spell Expecto Patronum, simply by concentrating to the thing that makes you happy, then the spell will work effectively. This idea is the analogy where any form of fear and worry must be directly expelled by shifting our mind using mood booster which makes us feel better. The mood booster is something that makes your mood better and happier. Mood boosters could be any memories that make you laugh, favorite things you enjoy to do, or anything that can alter your mood into a better stage. (See my other essay on Mood booster).

To summary, be grateful for anything you get in your life, it's all your miracle. Keep blessing to people, all sentient beings, the universe, to be well and happy.

About "The Secret"

2008-11-13T07:20:00.021+08:00

The Secret really affects my life. After reading it through, I feel that I become more optimistic in dealing with anything in my life.

I suggest anyone who has not experienced the outcome from reading The Secret, DO read it one more time! Try to understand the essence and apply it into daily practice. It's easy to understand though. The most important thing is that you must read it open mindedly! It's not discrediting God, any beliefs, teaching, nor any religion.

I'm sure that The Secret is not against any beliefs. Even in Christianity and Buddhism, the two teachings which are so different, The Secret seems to include both phylosophies appropriately.

Christianity emphasizes on faith. Simply, you must believe in God. God is everything related to positive things!

At first, I was a bit difficult to accept the "you must believe" kind of teaching. But now, I can understand the concept of having faith to ourselves. We are creators of our universe. God is living within our selves. When you have affirmative faith on yourself, then everything will work to fulfill what you want to achieve positively. So, trust yourself, believe in your own capacity. Accordingly, you'll have no more negative sequel in your life dictionary.

This is just like in the Christian teaching, "You believe in God (positive), your sin will be washed away". Or I can say in other words: Once you do things positively and live yourself in a positive attitude (as they call it "to live in God's way"), then you are not going to think of doing sin nor to live your life with sin, hence no more sin (or "washed away").

Whereas Buddhism is more into "Ehipassiko": come and see you'll know (You'll prove it by yourself). There is no such doctrine to insist on people to believe in 'something'. Just prove it (the teaching) by your self! This is the reason why Karma becomes a very famous teaching in Buddhism. Whatever you do, it will fruit to you.

The bad things happened to us were simply the result of our own Karma. You were the one who created that scenario of bad thing. It WAS your OWN THOUGHT which you can't control in the past, creating negative thinking or imagination or visualization or even just a pretense, which eventually fruited to you. That's why how the bad thing happened to you.

***
In practicing The Secret, I realize that sometimes I can't concentrate well, my thought goes deep melancholically, my fear or worry comes especially when I'm tired physically or mentally. Thus, the ways I practice The Secret are:

When I'm on my happy or good mood, I concentrate to emit my energy to the universe and focus on what I want to achieve

When I have my disturbance (tired, which causes worry, which eventually causes fear), I stop emitting my energy. Scream out loud "STOP" to my mind. I use my Samatha meditation* to concentrate on the present moment. Hence, my negative thought won't pop up in my mind.

Once I'm able to control my mind, then it's the time to change my mood again to "good state". To do this, I use my mood enhancers. And I have heaps of mood enhancers: listening to my favorite music, talking to my close friends, etc.

*) Samatha meditation focuses on cultivating high levels of concentration. There are 40 different themes you can choose. Each person has their own suitable theme. I always focus on the white light that enlightens my body and mind. Thus, whenever my mind thinks something negative, it will be burnt down by the very bright white light.

Some people may comment that what The Secret tells you is just something persuasive. I think, as long as this can lead to a better mood and positive energy, then what's the big deal?! It brings more positive aura, more confidence, eventually rises up your energy! Once you are on your optimum energy, everything is going to be much easier to achieve!

The essence of The Secret book is simply to keep you doing affirmative thought, thinking, attitude, imagination, inspiration, and positive aspect to look at things in our lives. Simply like that! No discrediting God, any beliefs, teaching, nor any religion.

Thank You Rhonda Byrne for sharing The Secret.

Bite your new shoes!!! Sound Ridiculous?

2008-11-06T17:25:00.004+08:00

I wore a pair of new white-color and never-been-used tennis shoes. Not even 10 minutes playing, I felt down, maybe because my feet were not comfortable enough yet with the new shoes. My right ankle got twisted.

So, I told my friends about that. A friend who is a Singaporean Born Indian told me whenever you are going to wear new shoes, bite them 3 times each. My Thai friend also suggested the same thing. Well, I simply did it with my other new running shoes, nothing to lose though heheh... and so far I was okay running with my new shoes ^_^

Is there such "tradition" in other parts of the world?

Note: Some people habit when they wear a pair of new shoes of their own for the first time: Just dirty it up!

Hoarding

2008-11-05T23:02:00.004+08:00

Here is another thing happened at home. Mum always collects plastic bags, meal boxes, and unused paper wrap. Then she just stacks them around the kitchen and our TV room.

This situation seems so similar to the one in other Chinese families' house. Not to deny, I've also been noticing those mums' habit in many Chinese families. Since they don't want to lose benefit for the things they got for free (sounds so Chinese huh?), so they keep plastic bags, nice cake boxes, nice paper wrap; stack them in the corner of their living room, in their kitchen shelves, here, there, everywhere... Yet, they don't even need those things soon, not even for the next 1 year!

I know that my mum's point of view is more into keeping those things, so whenever she needs it, she doesn't need to buy the new one. It is good though, to some extent, saving more money, less buying plastic and paper stuff, and perhaps discouraging people to sell those hard-to-decompose materials in nature.

But when this habit tends to become compulsive hoarding, hmm...that can be very annoying anyone who's living under the same roof! The house would be very uncomfortable to live in. Moreover, the environment can be so unhealthy due to too much stacks, providing media for germs and other insects to grow. (Lucky, my mum is not so compulsive, yet she needs to be alerted).

Whenever I went back home, normally I was the one who cleared out the stacks, dumping those old plastic bags and moldy boxes. Yet, my mum still halfheartedly let me do it. So, I usually clear them out when she’s not there...

I am just worried that her behaviour might indicate that she has a tendency to be an obsessive hoarder. However, after I clear them out, she just loves to see the clean and neat room... But not for long, she’ll start again and again collecting and stacking plastic bags, boxes, paper wrap, old magazines, stuff 1, stuff 2, stuff 3...stuff 13... Well, I guess I’ll always have my cleaning activities on my holiday back home.

Poinciana, The Flame of the Forest

2008-11-04T21:22:00.002+08:00

No wonder this tree is also called Flamboyant (Delonix regia), as the bright scarlet petals become the whole canopy during the flowering season, drawing attention and amusement to anyone who passes this tree.

Beautiful and elegant, those were my first impression looking at this tree during my childhood time. Those days, every Sunday my mum and dad used to take me to the beach. That was my happiest moment during the olden days. We passed a pleasant road where Poinciana trees always shaded us from the hot tropical sun.

In the mid shiny day, the green leaves was so soothing to my eyes. In the cloudy day, the brilliant reddish blossom really cheered up the gloomy atmosphere. Would this be the reason why I’m getting more and more admiring this tree; or is it simply because of the pleasant memory aroused everytime I see Poinciana flame.

The only thing I know is that anytime I see Poinciana, it does really makes me happy.

Happy Birthday Mum

2008-10-11T20:44:00.023+08:00

亲爱的妈妈，祝您：

幸身平生
福体平日
美健安快
满康安乐

May You always be well and happy
***

Today: Electro-execution

2008-10-09T21:45:00.009+08:00

--Witnessed by the whole Lab-building staff--

The alarm in pantry rang loudly. Everyone immediately got together in a small crowd wondering what has happened. A medium size fly just got executed on the electric insect killer hung on the pantry ceiling, making some smoke with burning flesh smell.

...hmm, the exocuter works well, and so does the alarm...

October First

2008-10-01T18:31:00.011+08:00

Yeap, my first day of October, spending my off-day of Idul Fitri public holiday in Bali. I drove my mum with my motor bike. On the way back home, when we had a turn, suddenly the tire slipped due to not enough pressure. Mum and I fell down from the motor bike. Luckily, my mum can stand up immediately. My right foot was caught under my motor bike. Some people came to help us. Then, I can stand up. I felt very painful in my right foot, then my left arm...scratch and blood, I noticed. Mum was ok, although she felt uneasy on her chest. Both of us suffered internal pain.

We put the motor bike in the house of mum's friend, just in the opposite of where we had that accident. Mum's friend drove us back home by their car.

In the evening, we had Mba Maria to help us with her curing massage. Mum felt a bit better after that. My left wrist got twisted. But I felt much better after having Mba Mar's massage.

Thanks Mba Maria.

Rosella Tea

2008-09-26T20:56:00.009+08:00

A nice flower petal drew my attention during my evening walk around Wilis Hill. A lady told me, it is called Rosella (Hibiscus sabdariffa). Then she told me about making Rosella tea. So, I tried it according to her direction.

Pick about 3-4 flowers, take the calyces only, clean them, put them in a mug, then pour boiled water up to the whole mug, let it cool down. You can mix it with sugar. The taste will be like frambozen syrup. But, I prefer the fresh natural sour taste of this Rosella tea.

Rosella tea is rich in antioxidants, minerals, and fiber. Thus, it is believed to be able to reduce the 'bad' cholesterol level and to improve our skin health.

Vegemite, from yucksss to yummm

2008-09-24T23:39:00.015+08:00

It's a typical Aussie breakfast: toast and vegemite spread. Vegemite is made off concentrated yeast extract and very rich in vitamin B.

First time I dealt with vegemite was during breakfast in Orpheus Island Research Station. I saw my Australian friends put vegemite very thick on their bread. I sniffed this dark brown paste. It smelled very sharp. Yet, I tried to put some on my bread. That time I completely couldn't take it. First time I had, it tasted weird in my tongue... salty and smelly... My mistake I guess, I put it too much on my bread. As a result, I just said no more vegemite to my self.

But then, I used to go to the church to help distributing bread for the orphanage. We're allowed to take some home for ourselves. Once, I tried a peanut bunch.

I didn’t know if the filling was a mix of peanut butter and vegemite, until the lady there told me about it... not bad I thought. Then I encouraged my self to buy vegemite, and tried this way: put it thinly on my toast

and mixed it with some fruit marmalade. Well, I can take it! Amazingly, I didn't know how my tongue can adjust gradually with this taste until I can put more vegemite and less fruit jam. Eventually, I can spread merely vegemite on my bread.

I remember one of my OZ friend said to me: "wow, that's very thick! I guess you've been australianised"...heheh...Well, I guess, I've been addicted to it. Now, I always have vegemite on my bread.

I would introduce and recommend this to my friends. Mum and my brother still can't take it. I've explained them that it’s one of nutritious food source recommended by health magazines. It's also recommended to vegetarian people. Thiamin (B1), Riboflavin (B2), Niacin (B3), etc... every thing you need is contained within one jar!

LoVe these AROMATIC HerBs aNd sPiCes

2008-09-14T21:18:00.035+08:00

It’s very common for Indonesian people to serve fried meat with fresh basil leaves. Eating fried chicken or fried catfish seems to be much tastier with basil leaves. Ayam kemangi, or chicken basil, is one of my favorite cuisines. It’s such an exotic taste and aroma. Thai basil which has slightly wider leaves is another type of this herb. This basil is used mostly in Thai curry. Green curry and fish red curry are my favorites among any other amazing tastes of Thai foods. The aroma of fresh basil really can make me mouth-watery, hmmm...

Some people don’t like the smell of coriander leaf although some considers it nice. Most of my Japanese friends can not take coriander leaf. But for Chinese people, coriander leaf is very common to use for cooking. I remember my first experience having mixed sea cucumber and duck meat cooked with soy sauce. This Chinese delicacy food was sprinkled with fresh coriander leaves hence the coriander scent dominated every single bite of the dish. My aunty and I also love to put lots of fresh coriander leaves on Vietnamese spring roll. Among Asian food; Chinese, Vietnamese, and Thai cooking use lots of coriander leaves. That is why I like them very much.

My first experience tasting food with Chinese prickly ash (花椒) was when my aunty from China brought this spice to Indonesia and made sautéed dried tofu with it. It was really good! Furthermore, I had more encounter with this spice when I was in China. This spice is the main ingredient in Sichuan foods. Once, I was invited to attend dinner by a Chinese family in a Sichuan restaurant. I was astonished with the taste of the boiled carp (水煮鱼) and the small box fried chicken (炸鸡丁). They use a huge quantity of this spice! Numb in my lips...that’s the effect of this spice. Then I started sweating, and felt burning sensation in my mouth. But I enjoyed this experience. My friend told me that the Chinese prickly ash has a kind of opium effect. I guess I must agree with him as I’ve been addicted. Whenever I order Chinese noodle (米线), I also put lots of prickly ash oil... Hmmm, mouth watery again I am.

The name of this spice has been familiar to my ears since I was a little kid. But I didn’t know how cumin looked like and smelled. Cumin is widely used in Indian and Indonesian cooking, goat curry particularly. I knew that goat curry was very delicious, but I didn’t know what spices that made it so. Cooking experts like my mum and my aunties used to tell me that cumin matched well with mutton or goat meat. Moreover, I started to enjoy the unique aroma of this spice when eating Xinjiang goat satay. Xinjiang is a province in China where majority of the people there are Muslim. Goat meat seems to be part of their food culture, and they are really good in processing goat meat. That’s why Xinjiang area is very popular with their goat satay. "Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr", if you hear that, that’s the specific tone of Xinjiang goat satay sellers. The first time I ate this satay, I didn’t know what the dominant spice was which characterized this satay. Until I found it out, it was cumin! Then I started to enjoy more on any cooking that had this cumin aroma.

Coriander seeds are also widely used in Indonesian cooking. Mentioning about coriander, the tasty "ayam ketumbar" or coriander fried chicken instantly pops up in my mind. Chicken meat is boiled with coriander seed powder and other ingredient for couple minutes. Then after that, simply fry it, mmmm mamma mia... the smell of fried meat combined with the aroma of coriander really boosts everyone’s appetite. Coriander seed is also a perfect match for pork satay and beef jerky.

I like the clove smell in sup buntut, Indonesian ox tail soup. The best ox tail soup I’ve ever had was the one in Tegal (thanks to Budi Ortega for taking me there). The meat was so tender and the composition of the ingredient there was so perfect! You have to be very careful to put clove as an aroma sharpener as its strong aroma might ruin the whole spice composition. Some cooking, like ox tail soup, if there is no clove, it will taste that there is something missing on the flavor. Too much clove will outweigh the scent of other aromatic herbs or spices hence spoiling the food. My aunty told me just to put 2 to 3 cloves when boiling the sauce for spaghetti Bolognese. Amazingly, the taste overall was improved becoming very punchy compared to the previous sauce I made without cloves. But learning from my experience, I thought the more cloves I put, the punchier the flavor would be. I put more than the usual amount when cooking red spaghetti sauce. As a result, the whole sauce was dominated with clove scent; other aroma of oregano, bay leaves, and other spices were gone. So, be careful with clove in your cooking.

Cinnamon is my favorite spice for sweet dessert. I like the strong smell of cinnamon in the apple pie. I always add cinnamon in my chocolate milk and cappuccino. Sometimes, I just boiled ginger, brown sugar and added a little piece of cinnamon bark. It is such a nice drink in a cold rainy day. I used to pass a cinnamon tree when walking back home from a friend’s house. Then I picked a small twig from the tree. I squeezed it and inhaled the cinnamon scent along the way home. It was really refreshing for me, such a nice natural aroma therapy after a whole tiring day.

Ginger is strongly related to Chinese cuisine. My aunty always uses ginger to make stir fried vegetables. A combination of ginger and other herbs also creates such a distinctive oriental sauce, such as the sauce for Chinese style steam fresh grouper. Boiled chicken with chopped ginger dipping is another marvelous dish which I can’t resist. However, not only for main dishes, sweet dessert like ginger cookies is also a nice pleasure during Christmas times. The ginger ice cream! I found this incredible taste in Frosty Mango, on the highway 1 from Townsville to Orpheus Island. This ice cream is so cooling but it makes our throat warm. Hmm, I’ve been craving for ginger ice cream so badly. I couldn’t find it in other place so far.

Black pepper seems to be well-suited with meaty stuff. Barbeque, steak, and gongbao jiding (one of my favorite Chinese dish) are also dominated by the aroma of black pepper. Not to mention the beef black pepper of Ambun’s recipe (thanks Ambun), normally I put more coarse black pepper when I make it. KFC, the fried chicken, also has a strong aroma of black pepper. I love this fast food... yeah yeah I know…miserable. I take it very rarely though. Once, my Philippino house mate made a "raisin kambing", I love this Philippino dish. It was goat meat with sweet raisin sauce and ungrounded seeds of black pepper. Wow, it really made my body warm.

I love to put white pepper powder in a bowl of hot soup. Chinese, Western, creamy, soury, or any style of soup won't taste so good without white pepper. I always put it a lot in my chicken soup, veggies soup, chicken porridge, or boiled noodle. I also enjoy my mixed stir fried vegetables with strong white pepper aroma. Omelet, steam eggs, and other egg-based cooking are very suitable with white pepper. Hence, I take white pepper as my favorite spice as well.

pfiuhh, it's very taft to write this essay. My mouth keeps watery all the time.&&^%$

Fly me to the sky

2008-09-04T20:37:00.032+08:00

It was at deep night with clear sky full with twinkling blue stars. No one was around. I went up to the veranda at the 3rd floor of my house. Admiring the silence of the night for a moment, then I climbed the veranda wall. From the top of the wall, I confidently jumped into the air. I felt that my body was very light... I flew...

What a nice aerial view of my neighborhood that I’ve never seen before. I can see details of whose roof, whose backyard from the sky. It was such an amazing sensation of floating in the sky, such a free soul! ...

... Till I woke up, I still can’t forget that sensation. The closest thing I can think to describe is that when you take a fast lift inside a skyscraper, go up from the ground floor to the highest one within couple seconds.

That night, I wished I could fall asleep again and re-enter that dimension where I could fly, fly like a bird...

I’ve been looking forward to having this dream again and again, a wonderful dream I had when I was a little kid. However, it has never been happening till now... Dear the God of dreams, I wish I could have this dream tonight.

The singing bulbuls

2008-08-25T22:28:00.018+08:00

Their chirp breaks the quiet dawn

I just realize that every morning I can hear heaps of bulbuls singing around my place in Tuban. They really draw my full attention. I could stand up behind my glass window doing nothing except observing them for couple minutes. They are really playful. Once, in the early morning, I notice them pecking on my red ripe tomato on my backyard. Well, I let them enjoy it. It’s nice to see them around...such a cheerful starting day with them.

Sunset and Oldies Songs

2008-08-24T21:47:00.026+08:00

I really enjoy the reddish ray of light inside a comfortable room while listening to soft and beautiful melody of oldies song.

I used to have this experience when I was a little kid. Whenever I had this moment again, it always brings me back to that time I was with people I love. It was such a calm and warm atmosphere that I miss...

Transactional Analysis: I'm OK You're OK

2008-08-23T09:48:00.009+08:00

(a book by Thomas A. Harris)
"I am a person. You are a person. Without you I am not a person, for only through you is language made possible and only through language is thought made possible, and only through thought is humanness made possible. You have made me important, Therefore, I am important and you are important. If I devalue you, I devalue myself." (Harris, 1969: page 223)

Wristwatch as a compass

2008-07-27T07:34:00.002+08:00

If you have an analog wristwatch, then you can exactly define where the north direction is. Just be aware which hemisphere your standing position is when reading your watch.

(I have no idea how it works if you are in the equator, but I will ask my friend who lives in the 0-degree latitude to check it out)

In the northen hemisphere:
1. hold the watch horizontally
2. point the hour hand in the direction of the sun
3. bisect the angle between the hour hand and the 12 o'clock mark to get the north-south line. North will be the direction which is further from the sun.

In the southern hemisphere:
1. hold the watch horizontally
2. point the 12 o'clock mark in the direction of the sun
3. bisect the angle between the hour hand and the 12 o'clock mark to get the north-south line. North will be the direction which is closer to the sun.

Feliz Cumpleaños

2008-07-26T21:27:00.010+08:00

Happy 24th Birthday dear my brother, Jinwei.
***Semoga sukses selalu dalam segala hal***

An old farewell song: Graduation Ceremony SD Cipta Dharma 1992

2008-05-04T13:13:00.013+08:00

"I Remember Your Love"

Since you said "good bye", I sit alone and cry.
No one ever knew such pain.
I recall your face and miss your warm embrace.
My poor heart's going insane.

I remember your love, oh my darling my love.
I will never forget you it seems.
I remember your love, when the moon shines above.
I remember your love in my dreams.

My first public performance. I played the keyboard for the closing choir of this song.
A nice song taught by Bu Suan, our 2nd grade school teacher. However, I don’t know who composed the song; I can’t get any information from the internet about it.

Mental Attitude: Whether or Not Environment Affects?

2008-04-29T15:05:00.009+08:00

This experience happened in Surabaya airport. I was just walking around on the waiting hall. But then, something was catching my eyes. A guy smoked in the non-smoking hall while having chitchat with his friends. It's was very clear that the sign of "No Smoking" was just above his head.

a situation @ Surabaya airport (29/4/08)

I was so disappointed and mad seeing such thing. Can't he read the No-Smoking sign? Or he just selfishly felt that, "I do whatever I wanna do", as there was no security officers around (the smoking guy was in the far end of the waiting hall. Well, maybe security officers in Surabaya airport were too lazy to patrol up to that corner end, and if they did, maybe they were too "reluctant" to warn the smoking guy there!)

You won't see any regular patrol by security officers along the hall, at least not as much as the one in Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, China, and any other place. It seems that Surabaya airport does not need such patrol, as everything is just always under control...hmm!)

That just made me wondering, how we can change the attitude of such people to be more discipline. Not to mention the discipline of time (arghh..."Indonesian Time!" We do have that phrase, and I'm certainly NOT proud of it).

It is very difficult indeed. People with such moral, eventhough they are moved to a better environment, an environment with high environmental awareness people and strict regulation, they will just be the same individuals with such attitude. It is not easy to change their behaviour to follow the system eventhough they have been inside the system. Once they get 'chance' to do the same thing like what they comfortably used to do, they will intentionally or unintentionally do it over and over...littering, spitting, and smoking not in the proper place!

...yeah, yeah...that takes time...takes time for such changing to adjust with the better system...but for how long?
And yes, I have seen my own Indonesian colleagues (not only one colleague) who did that when we’re studying in Australia. And I felt sorry about that! I did tell them though, and they just smiled, and I didn't know whether they smiled because they were ashamed or because they were too bothered with my words.

Having said that the effect of the environment is less influential than the root of the moral of each individual, it doesn’t always seem to be true for every case. I remember my experience in front of the lobby of Sheraton Hotel Surabaya (18/4/08). A caucasian person with a local chick were entering a taxi. His cigarette was just recently lit. The cab was full AC, so he had to turn it off. But what happened?

He entered the cab while sucking deep his cigarette, opened the window and dumped his cigarette in front of the Sheraton staff. I was really sick off his attitude. I assumed that this "bule" (an Indonesian word to refer white people) had lived in Surabaya quite a while. At least he had experience seeing locals littering not in the proper place. But, why a bule must downgrade his moral to do such thing, particularly in an exclusive place like in the gate of Sheraton Hotel. Want to show off his power? That he is an expat? That he comes from developed country? That he is a dollar/euro holder so he can afford to stay in 5 stars hotel? or to look down Indonesian people knowing that in Indonesia, we don't have such a heavy fine due to littering like in the Singapore strict regulation???

As the taxi moved away from us, the valet parking staff picked up the cigarette and dumped it to the closest rubbish bin.

If only I were a Harry Potter (or a least I had my own wand), I would put him under my spell to stick the dumped cigarette back into his mouth for 24 hrs, so he can not talk and kiss that bitch!!!%#~*)$#%@#*

***
This indicates that environment can change people's attitude, moral, and behaviour too! How significant it affects people's attitude and moral? I guess, it depends on the characteristic of individuals. Therefore, keep your mind open!

Earth Day

2008-04-22T20:14:00.003+08:00

They've killed the lizard

2008-04-16T19:31:00.002+08:00

I was waiting for my driver to pick me up in the parking area of marine building. There were 2 staffs with me at that time. Suddenly, I saw a big lizard crossing the road at the next block. I just excitedly said: biawak!...while pointing at the lizard. Unexpectedly, the guy next to me, abruptly ran toward the lizard while yelling out loud at his friends: biawak…biawak!!!

The others enthusiastically followed him. The first guy who reached there aggressively attacked this lizard with stones. They caught the wounded lizard.

A monitor lizard “biawak” (Varanus sp.)
I’ve heard that marine crews here (not all of them though) eat anything that moves on land except vehicles! My 1st day in marine building, I’d seen them catching a cobra, about 2 m in length. They fried and ate it together. I’d been told that couple days before, they also caught a biawak and cooked it. Not only cobras and biawaks, they also slaughtered cats (as plenty of cats around marine building). It seems to be ordinary meat for them as their food resources.

But, what I’ve just seen just now was such a brutality. It was really disturbing me. I feel sorry! If only I didn’t tell them, the lizard might still be alive. The following day, the guy who cooked the lizard told me that it has 14 eggs inside the body. He fried all of those eggs and ate them with his friends!!! That made me really really bad!!! Not only one lizard could still be alive, but also her 14 offspring as well…if only I kept my mouth shut!

Lesson for me! Next time, I should not let them know if there’s any lizard or snake or other wildlife around. If necessary, I will distract their attention from any passing wild life around the marine building. At least, this can prevent their instinctive brutality, hopefully.

The cute one from Marine Building

2008-04-15T19:08:00.010+08:00

There are about more than 20 cats around the Marine Building. But, this one is the cutest one and very tame to me. Well, a bit moody, naughty, spoiled, sometimes well behaved, sometimes rough...Yet, he is just a little felis >^-^<

Dinner (farewell) party @ Willis Hill

2008-03-30T11:40:00.012+08:00

Last dinner with Mr. Lao.

A Thought: THE MATRIX & BUDDHISM

2008-03-29T22:15:00.010+08:00

I’ve watched all series of The Matrix several times. Last night, The Matrix Reloaded was shown again on TV. I didn’t know why after watching it, my head seemed to be filled with lots of inter-connection about things happened in that movie. Until this morning, I’m inspired to write my thought here. I found that the concept in The Matrix, to some extent, is similar to the concept of life according to Buddhism!!!

World Dimension
In The Matrix: they are struggling in the real world, riding a hovercraft ship observing all things that happened in the “programmed” world, called as the matrix. They have transporters to move them from the ship to the matrix; and the other way round, from the matrix to their ship using particular portals such as public phones and any other hard line.

In Buddhism: Buddhism believes in Karma. Depending on the karma, after one death, a creature can be born in any of these 31 (4+1+26) dimensions: hells (there are 4 different hells), 1 universe (our universe, but not necessarily in one place, could be in separate planet in any galaxy; earth is only one out of many other places), and heavens (there are 26 different heavens). Just like in The Matrix, a creature can also “move” from one dimension to any others and returns back again to the initial dimension. This concept in Buddhism is known as karma and punarbhava, a continuous birth and rebirth from one realm to any others before reaching Nirvana, the highest state of eternal happiness where the wheel of rebirth has been stopped.

I remember a short story told by my spiritual teacher:
A couple of husband and wife lived in heaven. One day the husband went out to pick some fruit. But then, he accidentally fell down from the tree, dropped off from heaven to earth. He’s born as a human baby, becoming adult, getting married, having children, getting old and eventually died. He then was born again in heaven, the same heaven as his previous place. His wife suddenly came and asked him, “Where have you been this whole morning? ... I thought you were picking some fruit!”***
I guess the story may give you a clearer idea, right? …that we all also live inside the “matrix”. But of course, we would not be able to move at anytime from one world to any other dimensions like in the movie using transporters and portals.

The rule of life
The matrix is created by the “Architect”. Within the matrix, all evil creatures like vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and demons are the form of system anomalies which are ruled by a programmer called the Merovingian. It is the Oracle the one who guides humans to free from the attachment of the matrix.

In Buddhism, the primary concept of Buddhism is “Life is suffering”. Since the 1st time a human is born, he/she will struggle with his/her craving (tanha), the main cause of all physical and mental suffering. Consequently, controlling our self from such desire leads only to 2 things: good or bad motivation/action. You have good motivation, you are making a good karma; bad motivation bad karma! That’s why where we lead our life depends on our self. It’s we are the one who have power to control our self.
To illustrate: when you lose a competition, you should congratulate the winner and say “I’m happy for you, I will put my effort to improve my self, so wait for me in the next competition”. This is a good thing, good motivation, hence a good karma. However, if you can’t accept this condition for not becoming the first, the winner, the best; you even talk some nasty swearing and do destructive action due to jealousy, you are accumulating your bad karma!

Furthermore, each of us is the “Architect” of our own life. We plan, control, decide what we WANT to do in living our life. Of course, in this process of living, there will be good things (as what our “Oracle” guides and advises us to do) and also bad things (as characteristics programmed by the Merovingian that leads to our own upheaval). Finally, it takes our hard effort to control our self, to free us from any attachment, to liberate us from suffering. Peace!

Acknowledgement: Diyono Puji Harjoko (Pak Puji)

Bubur Candil

2008-03-23T20:22:00.007+08:00

Prepare:
- sweet potatoes (steamed till soft then pealed), u can use either purple or yellow sweet potatoes or mixed between them
- tapioca flour
- palm sugar and white sugar
- pandan leaves (2 pieces)

Rounding dough into small balls
Mashed already steamed and pealed sweet potatoes, add tapioca flour little by little, mix it by hand till the dough seems to be saturated with flour. You can add some more water to enable mixing more tapioca flour. The more tapioca flour you put, the chewier the texture will be (as some people prefer chewable texture).

Take the dough into small pieces and round them tightly into small balls.

Preparing palm sugar brown syrup
On the half way making the balls, you can prepare the brown syrup.
Estimate that the amount of water used is enough to soak the whole balls. Boil water, put 2 pieces of pandan leaves, couple pieces of palm sugar (just enough to make the syrup brown). Add some more white sugar to make it sweet enough for you. Turn off fire when all sugar has been dissolved and the syrup gets boiled. Strain it.

Note: you can add some more dissolved tapioca flour (± 2 spoonful tapioca flour dissolved with water first) when cooking the syrup to make it thick (It’s supposed to be very thick)

Boiling the ball dough
Using other pan, boil water (make sure it’s enough to boil whole dough balls). You can put in the balls only when water has been boiled.
Once the balls floated, lift the balls, and immediately put them in the already cooked syrup.

Preparing coconut milk
Grate coconut, soak in hot water, and squeeze it.
Boil the milk with medium heat, put 1 piece of pandan leaf, and add couple pinches of salt.

Note: You can also use fresh milk with a pinch of salt instead of coconut milk. My mum and I prefer using fresh milk.

Suggestion: put this candil in the fridge. Eat cold is better as a dessert. Just spoon out the candil in a small bowl, pour coconut milk or fresh milk. And…Bon Appétit!!!

Thanks to Iko Indrayana of TPPI Lab. Tech. for the recipe.

Condiment for Vietnamese Spring Roll

2008-03-22T23:25:00.012+08:00

Vietnamese spring roll is easy to prepare. I would recommend to serve this dish during gathering, spending weekend among close friends, chit chat, well...making spring roll together, the more people the merrier it will be!

Basically, you need rice paper. Soak the rice paper in hot (not warm) water for couple second then you’re ready to wrap your own spring roll. You can combine your filling with anything you like: Sliced cabbage, carrot, fresh mushroom, alfalfa, meat, banana, avocado, coriander leaves, mint leaves, or boiled glass noodle.

Prepare in a bowl:
- a small can of pineapple, sliced into small pieces, use also the juice
- 5 bulbs garlic, chopped coarse
- 3 bird’s eye chilies, sliced thin (dump the seeds)
- 2 small tomatoes, sliced into pineapple size
- freshly squeezed lemon juice
- fish sauce / squid sauce (don’t put too much, you have to taste whether or not it is salty enough)
- a little bit sugar (optional) for sweetener, if not sweet enough

Thanks to Mbak Mariaty - Townsville, Qld

Thai Salad, for coriander lovers

2008-03-22T23:11:00.000+08:00

Try Thai Salad for fresh oriental taste. Mix following ingredients:

1. glass noodle / rice vermicelli (soak in hot water for a moment)
2. boiled shrimp (as many as you want)
3. coriander leaves (as many as you want)
4. fresh shallot (cut thick)
5. lemon grass (sliced fine)
6. fish sauce (you can also add some salt)
7. freshly squeezed lemon juice
8. white pepper powder
9. fried shallot

***** easy to prepare for gathering
***** unique oriental taste

Thanks to Icha for introducing this marvelous taste

Sambal terasi gw

2008-03-22T22:07:00.005+08:00

Living abroad sometimes makes me missing the taste of Indonesian food. Sambal, the chili paste, is a compulsory component among Indonesian food. Eating any Indonesian food will be much tastier with sambal. That’s why I learned to make the best sambal suitable to almost any dishes (well, at least very suitable according to my tongue...the xtra xtra xtra hot one!!!). Thanks to Johanna Kodoatie, my best friend who told me about her basic secret ingredient. However, this one is on my own modification (adding garlic and grounding chili seed effect...after couple trial with different proportions). As a result, the taste of the sambal is much much sharper! You can try it!

Prepare:
1. bird’s eye chili, you can use 8 up to 13 chilies; sliced thin for ease when grounding
2. one bulb of garlic, for taste and aroma sharpener. Do not put more than 1 garlic bulb as it will spoil the taste!
3. about 2/3 to 1 teaspoon of terasi or shrimp paste
4. about 1/2 to 2/3 teaspoon of salt
5. lime leaves, 2 pieces, sliced thin for ease when grounding
!!! Just take a look at the picture for the proportion of ingredient I use!!!

Put the whole ingredient in a mortar and ground them well!
NOTE: ground the whole ingredient including chili seeds till becoming the smooth paste. Do NOT use blender!!! Or the taste will be different, not as punchy as the manually grounded one.

Beggar in Indonesia, a profession?

2008-03-20T20:36:00.010+08:00

…some of them seem to have been enjoying that living as a beggar is a kind of an "easy-money-making profession"...

What I had experienced recently really reminds me on what my friend had told me about beggars’ life in Indonesia...

Thanks to Arief “Ripe” Rahmawan for sharing his finding on the social study about street boys and beggars in Bogor, West Java.

It was about 9 a.m. I was in a small warung (small shop that sells daily needs) in Tuban waiting for the bus to Semarang. Sitting in the corner of the warung, was an old lady wearing dirty clothes. The first bus from Surabaya just arrived and stopped by a restaurant, next to the warung, for the passengers’ meals. The old lady quickly took a position, sitting on the ground near to the restaurant entrance, begging for money to anyone passing in front of her.

From the warung owner, I got information about this lady. She said that this lady lives quite far from the restaurant, definitely not a walking distance for an old lady. She has to spend about Rp. 3000.00 (US$ 0.3) for the transportation fee to get into this place (in front of the warung) every day just before 9 a.m.

Before going home, the old lady always sits in front of her warung to count the amount of money she has collected. That’s why the warung owner knows that she can get at least Rp. 75.000.00 to 80.000.00 per day. Sometimes she could earn up to Rp. 150.000.00 per day.

Big amount of money!!! said the warung owner with heavy tone to me. I can understand her tonal expression of dissatisfaction. The warung owner who’s also an old granny said that even running a warung selling sugar, rice, soap, and other stuff, she rarely can reach such amount of net margin within a day compared to the beggar who does nothing except sitting and waiting patiently begging people for money!!!

Surprising!? Let’s play a simple math, say the beggar earns Rp. 50.000.00 per day. That equals to Rp. 1.500.000.00 per month, an amount which is even more than the standard salary of fresh bachelor graduate in most places in Indonesia!!!

While waiting all passengers going back to the bus, I saw the first young guy gave the old begging lady Rp. 3000.00. Well, that’s already enough to cover her transportation fee. And that’s just from one person, from the 1st bus. The bus comes every 1.5 hour in average from 9 a.m. till 2 a.m. next morning. So, I guess, she can go back home anytime she wants from her “work place”. A home with 4 bedrooms and a proper family bathroom, described by the warung owner as she had visited her before. Doesn’t sound like a beggar’s property, huh?

This is only one example of a beggar’s life in Indonesia. Well, I’m sure that most of them are struggling to live their life and have no other choice to desperately become a beggar because of the situation that makes them to. However, some of them seem to have been enjoying that living as a beggar is a kind of an “easy-money-making profession” which requires an “art” behind that.

The art of acting! Yes, they have to act with a sorrowful expression when begging people. Bandage the healthy legs and pour some yellowy fermented liquid on it so then lots of flies attached in, try to make an impression of a guy with terrible illness that he can’t afford to cure it, hence expecting people’s sympathy and of course, charity! (Rahmawan, 2001)

Very often they exploit little kiddies, let them beg under the traffic light. The middle-aged women rent or borrow the baby of their group, intentionally let the baby cry loudly, and then they beg for money asking donation to buy milk and food for their “poor baby”. This art of begging can be performed in any public place, along the road, city corner, pavement, in front of shopping malls, under traffic lights, and other busy places.

Talking about exploitation, they even exploit themselves. I know that most beggars are handicapped, blind, or having other physical disabilities. However, they tend to dramatize their disabilities to draw people’s sympathy. I don’t know whether such thing can be considered as a self exploitation, or should I consider it, again, as the art of begging. One real example I’ve experienced was with a guy who has eyes disability, thus wearing black glasses, begging for money on the train. A donation box he brought was in his left hand and a stick for guiding him was in another hand; passing slowly behind a standing woman. He intentionally almost-dropped his body towards the woman, pretending that he hadn’t enough strength like other “non-disability” people had to restrain the train shaking. It looked really awkward to see his exaggerated action just to respond the constant train shaking. The woman just helped to stabilize him. I really noticed that he deliberately did that. I knew that! I had been noticing his behaviour, since he entered our compartment.

My friend who did a social study about street boys and beggars has visited their home. What he found was quite surprising him: a set of VCD player and TV in a comfortable living room, cell-phone...totally beyond his expectation!

Once, my friend saw a guy with a nasty appearance begging in a train station. Another occasion, he noticed the same guy, but with a proper shirt talking on his cell-phone in another train station!

From all points above, it seems that being a beggar in Indonesia appears to be the last easiest solution to make money. Lots of people from remote area, who are stimulated with the glamour of metropolitan life, come to the big city expecting to get a good job, good money, without well preparation or without being equipped with any skill to get a job. Eventually, they desperately start begging people. Very soon, they will discover the art of begging to earn enough money; just like the old lady I saw next to the restaurant. So, the art of begging = technique to make money? The higher the art of begging they can master, to more money they can collect, I suppose.

But, would that be a good future for a developing country like Indonesia? Would this lead to an effortless Indonesian generation that do thing without careful thinking or preparation? Or can “beggar” be considered as a title of a profession? What and where’s the best way to donate our money then? How can we trust that the institution doesn’t corrupt our donation?

Hmmm. Another never-ending chaotic social problem in Indonesia to discuss. May everyone be well and happy. –S–

Weekend in Semarang: around Simpang Lima

2008-03-18T22:28:00.001+08:00

Trips and Food Safari: Salatiga

2008-03-11T19:48:00.020+08:00

Salatiga is a pleasant little town, located in the middle part of Java, about 1.5 hours drive heading south from Semarang, the capital city of Jawa Tengah. This place is surrounded by two volcanoes, Mt. Merbabu and Mt. Telomoyo. The highland Salatiga has cool climate which makes it so comfortable for a relaxing holiday.

If you take a drive to Kopeng, somewhere along the way, you'll find a place to eat called "Fani". This place is quite popular because they serve only satay and rica-rica, a traditional Manado culinary, using unusual meats: porcupine, civet, wild cat, or dog!

Glosarry: landak=porcupine; luwak=civet (Paradoxurus sp1); garangan=toddy cat (Paradoxurus sp2); bajing=squirrel; blacan=fishing cat (Prionailurus viverrinus); RW is just a term for dog meat

We went there to taste those unusual meats. I didn't mind to taste them, but not for the dog meat. I was thinking to try squirrel meat and one of those wild cats. Unfortunally at that time, they only had porcupine and dog meat available. They said that this depends on what the hunters caught. Porcupine, I think, was the most common animal found around the mountain in Salatiga as they were always available on the menu.

So, we just ordered porcupine satay and porcupine rica-rica. Porcupine meat had hard texture and specific smell. Well, it was quite tiring to chew this rubbery meat. I think, that would be my first and last time to eat porcupine.

Another interesting place to eat you can find along the way is a place that sells rabbit satay. People said that eating rabbit meat can warm your body. I think that's the reason why in Indonesia, rabbit satay is commonly found around highland areas, as it can be useful to combat cold temperature in that areas. So, we also stopped by to try rabbit satay. This one was not bad at all! Indeed, rabbit meat is so tender and tasty; doesn't have strong smell; and tastes really like chicken! Well, at least that's what everyone told me before about rabbit meat, and now I must absolutely agree with them.

After having such meaty lunch, we stopped by a strawberry farm to have fresh strawberries. There are plenty of organic strawberry farms around. There, you can pick strawberries by yourself and they will charge you based on the total weight. We bought 2 small boxes and finished them all while sitting and enjoying the fresh atmosphere around the pretty farm.

Spending night downtown Salatiga would not be complete without having traditional dessert "ronde", the sticky rice ball with grounded peanut inside, served with hot sweet ginger soup and dried fruits. The ginger soup also makes your body warm at highland cool temperature at night. Almost all along the road sides you can find ronde sellers. It would be nice to have a bowl of hot ronde while enjoying night life activities among Salatigan people.

Other things that you can try when visiting Salatiga are: Nasi koyor, the traditional mixed rice with beef and coconut milk sauce; tingting gepuk or grounded peanut candy; and beef abon or herbs-flavoured roasted beef.

Happy Chinese New Year 2559 - Mouse Year

2008-02-07T18:31:00.001+08:00

恭喜发财
在新的一年里，祝你们有：
鼠不完的幸福，
鼠不完的快乐，
鼠不完的活力，
鼠不完的青春，
新年快乐，万事如意

a mouse, caught on the first day of the mouse year at my house, well...we released it alive outside the house thou!

Neem Tree

2008-01-28T22:39:00.002+08:00

Hindu people in India use neem leaves as an offering to worship Lord Krishna, the incarnation of God Vishnu.

Neem tree, also known as Imbo tree (Azadirachta indica), gives lots of benefit to human beings. In Tuban, people plant them as shade trees all along the road. They also boil the leaves and drink the water as an antiseptic for stomach as well as curing itchiness or any skin disease. Other sources also mention that the extract of Neem leaves has medicinal properties as anti cancer, anti bacteria, and anti intestinal infection.

Neem trees are very abundant in Tuban, so it’s very easy to get the leaves. Once, I boiled the leaves and drank the water. The taste and the color of boiled neem are similar to Chinese bitter tea (kuding cha - 苦丁茶), one of my favorite tea. There is one big tree just next to my house in Tuban, so I can enjoy my bitter "Imbo" tea any time. ^_^

Around Tuban: Bektiharjo Pool and Ngerong Cave

2008-01-27T23:22:00.001+08:00

Morning Inspiration: The song

2008-01-27T20:52:00.000+08:00

In a fresh morning, inspiration can just easily pop up inside my head and flow wild. All tasks that require creative solution seems to be confidently manageable. One of my experience with a morning inspiration resulted in a sweet piece of music. Composing a melody was as simple as interpreting my own mood. Then the music gradually sounded in my ears. And I just took my pen and translated it onto a piece of paper.

To me, a beautiful melody is not necessarily difficult. The simple one is good! The most important thing to make such a beautiful melody is that it must simply come from the pure feeling inside your heart. So, the listeners can also feel what you’ve felt, although the melody is interpreted in different ways. A melody is contagious as it emits your expression, either joyfulness, happiness, or even sorrow, to everyone who listens to your music.

But then, back again to whether or not you have inspiration. No inspiration means no idea for creativity. Inspiration is the potion that without this, you can not be optimally productive to do anything. So, my hope from now and then, every minute and every single second: May I always be fulfilled with lots of inspiration.

Nasi Jagung Jangkar

2008-01-20T23:43:00.001+08:00

This place is located in Tuban, very famous among locals because of their traditional cuisine: eel, frog, and catfish, cooked in hot chili sauce mixed with other herbs. It does make you sweat when you eat the hot sauce with freshly steamed grounded corn (nasi jagung). I agree with most people that eel suits best with the steamed grounded corn compared to frog or catfish. Everyone who's eating there seemed to enjoy the pleasure of every drop of their sweat due to burning sensation in their mouth. A traditional fermented drink called tuak, poured in a centhak, a traditional bamboo glass, is usually asked by visitors to accompany their meals.

As most visitors’ first impression, that place might look a bit “inappropriate” as a place to eat. But people say that this place now is in a much better condition than it used to be after they’ve renovated it. Jangkar now has more and more loyal customers; and gains more popularity, not only for local Tuban people but also among visitors. If only they pay more attention to hygiene, I believe, they will have much more customers. I admit that the foods there are very amazing! I think I’m addicted to their nasi jagung with hot eels. I my self don’t mind to eat there. Hmmm…yummy!

The green of Nglirip

2008-01-20T22:36:00.000+08:00

This trip really rejuvenated my eyes to see all the green around, after such a busy wek stucked in the Lab.

Hot...Hot...Chili

2008-01-20T19:20:00.001+08:00

Why do we sweat when eating hot chili?

This is because chili contains a very tiny amount of hydrochloric acid (HCl) that is responsible for the burning sensation in your mouth. HCl is the second strongest acidic compound after sulfuric acid (H2SO4). The effect of hydrochloric acid heats your body system, consequently your body will produce sweat to cool it down.

The sweating effect of chili is very helpful to people living under high air humidity like Sichuan province in China. That's the reason why Sichuan foods use lots of chili. People there eat lots of chili because they want to sweat more, so they don't get humidity-related diseases due to a long-term exposure of wet condition.

Brebes Salted Duck Egg

2008-01-20T09:40:00.000+08:00

Here is what local Brebes people told me about the way to make their famous salted duck eggs.

What to prepare:
1. Fresh duck eggs, washed and rinsed with water
2. Abu gosok or burnt rice bran (this stuff can be easily found in any traditional market in Indonesia)
3. Salt, depending on how many eggs you use (100 eggs: 5 kg salt)
4. Water

Make the coating mixture: mix abu and salt, add water, stir them well until thick but not too watery.

Coat each egg with this mixture, then roll it on the dry abu, re-coat it tightly to make the coat layer strong and not easily detached during the storage

Keep the already coated eggs for 12 days

After 10-12 days, detach the coat, clean the eggs, and boil it. And you'll get the result like what I've done as shown in the pictures.

Thanks to Budi for being a good host

Durian + Alcohol = Hangover

2008-01-19T09:18:00.000+08:00

Durian contains a sulfuric compound called mercaptan which strongly absorbs water from your body system, hence you'll feel dehydrated. The reason why we can not drink alcohol at the close period after eating durian is because alcohol performs a fast hydrolysis process which also breaks down water from your body, exacerbating your dehydration. The double effect of losing your body fluid will extremely suffer your brain, that's why you'll experience a hangover.

Tips: After you drink alcohol, you have to compensate it by drinking an amount of water at least at the same amount of alcohol you took. And after eating durian, drinking much water will be a wise thing to do. Never ever drink alcohol after eating durian, or the other way round!

Thanx to Lai Weng Hoi and Emmanuel for sharing the knowledge.

Prevent flu! Combat flu!

2008-01-19T00:19:00.000+08:00

During rainy season, so many people get flu. When you have the flu symptom, try to do following things:

Drink more water
Have you heard about water therapy? It can prevent and get rid of a lot of disease in your body. However, when you already feel discomfort due to flu symptom, just think that drinking lots of water may flush the virus around nasal areas (pharynx, throat), hence preventing worse illness or infection.

Eat more
As your body fights flu virus, you need an extra amount of energy from your intake to win the battle. Push your self to eat eventhough you lose your appetite during this period, if necessary increase the quantity of your intake!

Tips: Eat as much fresh garlic as you can. The fresh garlic contains allicin which is good for antibiotic in our body. Allicin will be gone if you cook the garlic, thus eating the fresh one might be more powerful in combating flu.

Worrying about terrible breath after eating fresh garlic? It’s the sulfur compound which is responsible to make people dizzy when you open your mouth. But, don’t worry about that! Eat tomatoes while taking your fresh garlic. The substance contained within tomatoes can neutralize the strong smell of garlic.

Take vitamin C
A 1000 gram vitamin C is recommended when you are combating flu as it can increase your body immunity.

Get enough sleep
Go to sleep earlier. Allow your body to have more rest to support your recovery. This makes the healing faster.

Take medicine
This is when you feel really terrible and can’t take it anymore. Then take flu relieving pills, or as a better option, ask your doctor for a prescription. Still apply what I’ve suggested above, hopefully after taking your medicine, in the following morning you wake up, you’ll feel much better.

Do exercise
After taking enough rest during recovery process, usually your body will feel “saturated”. This makes you really want to re-activate your body. Indeed, this is a good sign of successful recovery. Do some physical exercise, but not too heavy one. After sweating, you’ll feel much refreshed.

Source: advice from my parents, my senior, health magazine, the internet, and of course my own experience ^-^

Just another cloudy day, not yet a storm

2008-01-09T20:21:00.000+08:00

It has been scientifically proven that the effect of global warming leads to chaotic seasonal and climatic alteration. In Indonesia, rainy season now becomes more disastrous, instead of being beneficial for agriculture as it used to be. People are worried to see the sky becoming dark; It’s not only just cloudy, but it seems like a big storm is on the way to come creating such heavy rain. Apparently, flooding occurs almost everywhere. People suffer from such disaster that wipes out their housing and precious belongings...Well, Mother nature has her own way to balance the chaotic system, which is created by us, and given to us in return.

Brebes, the city of shallot

2008-01-08T00:56:00.001+08:00

Recently, I took a trip to Brebes, a small little town of Jawa Tengah. Just try to know more about the town, as I used to pass by this place before.

Brebes is well-known because of its main local product, salted duck eggs. There are two types of salted duck egg based on the yolk: one is with yellow color, another is with orange or reddish color. Depending on the nutrition intake, ducks that are fed with shrimps will lay eggs with orange to reddish yolk, while the ones fed with grain will produce light yellowy yolk. Of course, in term of the price, a yellow yolky egg is cheaper than the orange one. A boiled salted duck egg from either types usually has an oily creamy yolk. I like taking it with porridge for a nutritious breakfast.

Another thing about Brebes is that this area predominantly grows shallots as its main commodity of agriculture. Shallot field covers most area along the side of the main road. Shallot market, shallot storage houses, and shallot drying activity are common things to see here. For this reason, Brebes is also well-known as the city of shallot.

New Year Dinning

2008-01-02T23:54:00.000+08:00

Thanks to Jeanette's mum for cooking such delicacy foods: lamb soup, couscous, eaten with merguez sausages. Thinking about that makes me mouth-watery already...mmm......!!! should ask the soup recipe, what herbs to use, and how to make the lamb so tender!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008

2008-01-01T23:32:00.001+08:00

May this New Year lead to a better life and a successful career

Flooding...flooding...flooding...

2007-12-31T22:51:00.000+08:00

"Mum, flooding out side!"... said the boy who sat behind me on the bus.
Flooding in Ngawi, East Java

Semarang, a place to visit and to eat

2007-12-31T01:37:00.000+08:00

An old picture

2007-12-30T21:22:00.001+08:00

The 23rd – 25th generation, just above mine!

Tourism impact in Bali: Local vs. international visitors

2007-12-30T16:48:00.001+08:00

Bali is such an exotic paradise to the eyes of the world. Lots of visitors from Australia, America, Europe, Japan, Taiwan, and many other countries, come to Bali for their holiday, honeymoon, business, or even for the international class conference.

As majority of Balinese people earns for living in tourism sector, I notice that there’s an interesting phenomenon in the behaviour among locals especially the ones who are mainly involved in tourism industries. For those who work in a highly competitive touristy place, they tend to prioritize their service to tourists who can pay more to them. So, they always tend to be “nicer” to tourists who hold yen or dollar in their hands. Local visitors seem to be the second class guests that deserve secondary services.

My friend who’s a Singaporean told me that when she was in Bali, her friend and she had queued for a table for a half hour in a very popular restaurant in Seminyak. But the staff let the other caucasian guests to come in without having to queue first. She could not understand why the queuing system was so crap, or was it because that she looks like a local, thus she didn’t deserved to be prioritized for the table. Well, from what she told me, I myself was not really sure, either the staff was a bit picky for the dollar holder guests, or could be that those groups might have booked the table before they came.

Another “interesting” thing that you might find out is the price deviation within a place for dinning. In a certain touristy area, a restaurant might provide different price lists for the same menu. They have an image that Japanese guests generally have more financial ability to spend their money for food. Thus, menus written in Japanese usually follow the standard of yen price, which appears to be the most expensive one compared to menu price written in other currencies. But yes, you’ll be surprised that they do have menu written in different languages with prices that have been “adapted”.Well, certainly it’s more beneficial for the local as they get cheaper prices, but, of course with the standard “local” service which is totally different from the “international” one in term of their hospitality.

Well, what I’ve exposed here doesn’t intend to discredit the popular image of the great hospitality of local Balinese. As a matter of fact, Balinese people naturally are very friendly. This you still can see in the remote area in Bali where local villagers are really willing to talk and curious to make friend with you, no matter you are dollar holders, caucasians, locals, or whatever your performance and background are.

Again, what I’m trying to point out here is not about a racial issue, but simply showing the impact of tourism among locals, especially the doers of tourism industries which seems to have a behavioral alteration of their attitude. Interesting phenomenon, isn’t it!

Astrology Revised: New Zodiac Sign

2007-12-30T16:18:00.002+08:00

The new zodiac sign, Ophiuchus-the serpent bearer, is incorporated due to "precession", the corrected position of the sun within constellation boundaries. So...just recheck your zodiac sign again. (Ref: The real solar zodiac)

Aries (19 April - 13 May)
Taurus (14 May - 19 June)
Gemini (20 June - 20 July)
Cancer (21 July - 9 August)
Leo (10 August - 15 September)
Virgo (16 September - 30 October)
Libra (31 October - 22 November)
Scorpio (23 November - 29 November)
*Ophiucus (30 November - 17 December)*
Sagittarius (18 December - 18 January)
Capricorn (19 January - 15 February)
Aquarius (16 February - 11 March)
Pisces (12 March - 18 April)

Ref: Ophiuchus, the serpent bearer

Special thanks to Bihlie for the critical comment

What a big day today

2007-12-16T22:05:00.002+08:00

Early morning I’ve already got a call from my friend telling me that Arief, a friend at JCU, got married here in Tuban. Most of my Indonesian JCU friends came there to attend the weeding. Nice reunion, I think! But, I can’t attend it as I had to go to Surabaya under my boss’s instruction.

My boss and I were at the same car to Surabaya. Hmm… I worried too much if it’d be an awkward situation like running out of topic of conversation. Apparently, my boss was very talk-active. I felt comfortable to have conversation with him. We talked more about human behaviour, a very interesting topic that challenged my own knowledge and interpretation. Good talk good time, indeed.

At night, I met my old friends in an unpredictable situation. Thirteen years ago, we still played music together. Then I just met them again on the wedding hall. Thanks to their smart performance on the stage. Otherwise, I won’t be so sure if I could recognize them. What has happened today, to me, did not always come all the time. It did make me excited and surprised. Well, I’m thankful on that… and I’m looking forward to having another day like this again ;-)

Good Friends

2007-11-14T15:17:00.003+08:00

I wish that my life could always be surrounded with my best friends. Well, this is just my ideal thought. Yet, I still realize that there’s nothing perfectly ideal as what I expect in this real world.

I’ve been thinking about this since the past couple weeks of my stay in Tuban. At least, what it’s in my mind may explain why dealing with people in the working place seems to be tougher than at school.

It’s simply because at school, I just interacted with someone whom I’d considered to be good to be my friend, and the rest, I wasn’t really bothered. But in the working place, I have no choice to interact with every staff within a shared space, eventhough I don’t like the person.

The funny thing is that my first impression about someone is used to be wrong. I thought…hmm… this person can not be my friend, but in the end we’re such a close friend. Or the other way round, in the beginning we were too pushy to became a good friend, but then after all, we just became “hi and passing by” friend.

No one to blame; it just goes with time and natural selection

A and B are two individuals who just come into a new place. They haven’t had friends yet. Then A and B start to get to know each other, often have chitchat, then decide to do something together. After sometimes, they know that they don’t have similar preferences. Then as time goes by, each of them has their new friends; eventually A hangs out more with A’s new friends, B also enjoys more to be with B’s new friends. Sometimes, if by chance A meets B, then they just say hi, talk only one or two sentences, then… ok, see you, I gtg now. They don’t seem to be bothered with that changing, both of them realize on that, and they are just ok, as they know that this situation is better for both of them...

吃海螺必须要小心

2007-11-14T12:29:00.001+08:00

我以前写一篇文章关于“丰富的早餐”说我姨和我早上吃海螺之后感觉不舒服。我们觉得可能海螺对肚子太凉，所以肚子应该不可以太空。

最近，我告诉我的中国老师这件事儿。她说，海螺本来有毒。就是白色的一部分最近离它的孔，这部分就不应该吃的。吃了太多你就重毒了，所以感觉不舒服，头或者眼睛感觉很重。

总的说来，吃海螺时，注意白色的部分，别吃那部分。这样对身体比较安全。

Airport

2007-11-13T14:21:00.000+08:00

My memory suddenly takes me back to Bali airport long long time ago. Indeed, I have a deep scratch in my memory about that airport. A memory back to the time when I was very little, even just before my brother was born.

Lili was my favorite aunty. She always accompanied me to play at home. I really liked her. She’s very pretty. She used to give me chocolates, cheese, toys, and other knick knack. She used to visit our family in OZ. So when she left, I felt like losing my good friend to play with, even I still remember how sad I was when she was not around. That’s why I used to be extremely excited to wait for her in the airport when she got back.

Once, she was going to go to OZ again, my dad, mum, and I went to the airport together with her to wish her a safe trip. At that time, Bali airport had public access, not exclusively for the one who had a ticket. So, we can get in to the second floor and sat down on the terrace. From there, I can see my aunty walking toward the plane. I screamed out loud calling her name. She saw me and gave me a good bye gesture, I replied it excitedly. When her plane took off, I was still screaming “good bye aunty…good bye aunty…”

Then it became like a regular activity to me, to ask my dad to go to the airport just to see the plane taking off, and as usual, I still screamed “good bye aunty… good bye aunty…” eventhough that was not her plane. Sounds silly, but that’s the feeling of the little me missing her.

Since then, I really loved to watch planes. I even remembered how I cried in private hearing the plane accident in the airport. I remember my dad and I went to the location to see the poor plane.

Couple years later, my aunty moved permanently to OZ. So, I really hoped that one day, my family can fly there together to visit her. But then we never made it, as she already passed away***

The beginning of 2004, it was my first time to fly to OZ as I got a grant to pursue my study there. My dad, mum, and brother took me to the airport, to wish me a good safe trip. Well, that was my last time I saw my dad, inside the international departure section. That was my last memory seeing him alive***

Recently I flew pretty often. There’s always an excitement being in different airports, expecting what the new life adventure will be outside the airport. Yeap… looking forward to new adventures from inside the airport, but also reminding me backward to the time I was in the airport for the person I love.

Aweto, a parasitic fungi

2007-11-13T12:39:00.002+08:00

Regarding my writing on Aweto, the winter insect summer herb (冬虫夏草), here I got further information about it.

It is actually a parasitic symbiosis between ascomycete fungi (species Cordyceps sinensis) and caterpillars, the host.

"When infected by C. sinensis, the bug's entire body cavity is filled by the fungus mycelium, killing the host, and the caterpillars die near the tops of their burrows." (wikipedia, 2007)

"When the caterpillar dies the fungus produces a stalked fruiting body that produces spores. The spores are spread in the wind to the next generation of caterpillars. Uninfected caterpillars pupate into relatively large primitive moths." (caterpillar fungus, 1998)

Thus, the infected host will definitely be dead. It is not a cyclic life stage as what I thought before. Since this fungi attacks hosts during summer, that’s why the Chinese called it “the winter worm summer grass” 冬虫夏草 (dōng chóng xià cǎo).

Friendship, relationship: Does it work?

2007-10-28T14:10:00.003+08:00

When establishing a new friendship or relationship with someone, it may work but also may not. If it doesn’t work or becomes worse, do not too emotionally respond it! Once you have introspected yourself and believed that you have done nothing wrong, then NO need to try to be nice or to clarify anything. Don’t get too far on him/her. Maybe s/he is the one who has problem, for example an overly sensitive type of person. And to this kind of person, you really must keep distance!

In the worse situation, if s/he says something cynical to you, don’t take the bait; just don’t give a damn on what s/he has said.
Indeed it’s a good practice to develop compassion and patience. Any single cynical word you’ve heard, let’s hope it will bring satisfaction and happiness to the person who delivers those words. Then you’ll be able to smile freely and feel much better, meaning that your practice of compassion is successful.

Tuban, after a week of training

2007-10-28T13:57:00.001+08:00

Working in a place together with Singaporean expatriates gave me some unusual experience, particularly to deal with their weird characteristic. No need to feel inferior. Take it easy, this is just the beginning of the real world. There will still be a dozen more characteristics of people that you’ll never expect out there. Just be cool, calm, and confident! Do smile if you don’t want to say something stupid that may worsen the situation; at this situation: Silence is Golden

Remember, stay low profile!!!
***
The most difficult thing to learn in my working place:
Is not to learn the chemical reaction on hydrocarbon
Is not about making a monthly plan based on estimated material balance to maximize the gross margin
Not either is to understand the whole units applied to process crude oil into highly valuable xylene
But,…
It is how to deal with people with different characteristics, especially the weird one!!!
So, find out what the key is to deal with this!

Tuban, East Java

2007-10-28T12:56:00.000+08:00

Philosophies of Chinese Horoscope

2007-09-15T21:08:00.000+08:00

1. Mouse: skillful, proficient, smart
2. Cow: hard working, diligent, modest
To be skillful but not hard-working will be ineffective and useless. Hard working but no brain will also be easily exploited by other people.

3. Tiger: brave, powerful, mighty
4. Rabbit: cautious, prudent, wise
If the characteristic of tiger is too dominant then it will be recklessness. On the other hand, being overly cautious will lead to fear. Both characters balancing each other will be bold and cautious, hence unbeatable by enemies.

5. Dragon: firm, ferocious, competent
6. Snake: flexible, intellectual, intelligent
Too firm is easy to shatter, that’s why flexibility is necessary. In contrast, being flexible must also be accompanied by stricter mind.

7. Horse: ahead, forward, fast
8. Goat: calm, kind, warm-hearted
Becoming too fast and leaving others behind indicates selfishness; consequently it may fuel conflict among others. Kindness would counteract selfishness. However, kindness and calmness without high motivation also leads to a life without any goal, thus an unpromising future.

9. Monkey: vivacious, lively, efficacious
10. Chicken: consistent, honest, genuine
Vivaciousness and consistency may achieve any goal with a better result. Vivaciousness merely without constancy, or the other way round, won’t hit target as optimum as possible.

11. Dog: loyal, devoted, dedicated
12. Pig: easy going, laid-back, providential
The loyal dog and the easy going pig, these combined characters will attain inner balance among them. Inappropriate loyalty without tolerance will often be opposed by others. Too easy going type of person without devotion also often breaks the rule, hence a poor attitude.

Source: Yuankai
Thanks to Chris for the help

The Complete Name of Chinese Zodiacs and Their Meaning

2007-09-13T19:48:00.000+08:00

精子鼠 (jīng zǐ shǔ); the smart mouse
憨丑牛 (hān chǒu niú); the modest cow
威寅虎 (wēi yín hǔ); the mighty tiger
慧卯兔 (huì mǎo tù); the wise rabbit
神辰龙 (shén chén lóng); the competent dragon
智巳蛇 (zhì sì shé); the intelligent snake
奔午马 (bēn wǔ mǎ); the fast horse
温未羊 (wēn wèi yáng); the warm-hearted goat
灵申猴 (líng shēn hóu); the vivacious monkey
信酉鸡 (xìn yǒu jī); the genuine chicken
忠戌狗 (zhōng xū gǒu); the loyal dog
福亥猪 (fú hài zhū); the providential pig

The second character within the name represents the time within 24 hours that regulates every single birth.

23:00 - 01:00 = 子 (zǐ)
01:00 - 03:00 = 丑 (chǒu)
03:00 - 05:00 = 寅 (yín)
05:00 - 07:00 = 卯 (mǎo)
07:00 - 09:00 = 辰 (chén)
09:00 - 11:00 = 巳 (sì)
11:00 - 13:00 = 午 (wǔ)
13:00 - 15:00 = 未 (wèi)
15:00 - 17:00 = 申 (shēn)
17:00 - 19:00 = 酉 (yǒu)
19:00 - 21:00 = 戌 (xū)
21:00 - 23:00 = 亥 (hài)

This basic information from your Chinese astrology is necessary if you ask an expert to read your fortune based on Chinese horoscope. For example, I was born on 22nd April 1980 at 8:00 pm, then calibrate this date into Chinese calendar (use lunar calendar converter)

22nd April = day 8, month 3 of lunar calendar
1980 = year of monkey
8:00 pm = 戌 (xū)

Thus, my lunar birthday is in the 3rd month day 8th. So, tell me what your lunar birthday is!

History of Twelve Chinese Zodiacs

2007-09-13T17:42:00.000+08:00

A translation from: http://www.nongli.com/item1/shxwh/sxgs-1.htm

Long time ago, everything was so chaotic on earth. The king of heaven ordered one of the God called Tài Bái Jīn Xīng (太白金星) to establish 12 zodiac signs from different animals. Hence, the contest to find 12 animals to be the symbol of zodiacs was begun and announced on earth.

On a fine day, cat was fishing when suddenly a magpie, the bird, appeared and told him about this contest. Then the cat went back home excitedly. Arriving home, he found that mouse, his servant, was still doing the house work. Cat confidently told mouse that he would win the zodiac contest and become one of important zodiacs that rule lives on earth. He ordered the mouse to register him for the contest.

On the way to find the place for registration, he met monkey who discouraged him not to go there because the queue had already been too crowded. The mouse insisted him to tell the way to go to the temple to register his master. Monkey then told him the direction to go to the temple***

>>>At this time, there had been 8 animals that have registered for the contest, they were: dragon, tiger, cow, monkey, pig, chicken, snake, and dog.

Fox was the next turn talking to the interviewer. He said that he never done any crime and always behaved well, when just suddenly the rabbit interrupted “Fox should not be allowed to participate in this contest because he is very bad, stealing duck’s eggs couple days ago.” Rabbit’s protest was also supported by the horse which made fox left the place without being registered for the contest.

>>>Then 3 more animals had been registered: rabbit, horse, and goat.

Mouse eventually arrived at the place and had a queue behind the elephant. Looking at a long queue, he was a bit panicky. He told elephant, “I come here to register my master…Can I jump into your back to see how long will the queue be to get into my turn”. Sarcastically, the elephant said “Who the hell you are you bloody small thing want to jump into my body”. Hearing what elephant had said, mouse angrily bit his toe. As the response, elephant tried to step him violently. Mouse was too quick to avoid, and he hid himself inside the elephant’s trunk. The elephant then felt itchy on his trunk, thus he sneezed abruptly, throwing the mouse far away toward the registration desk.

At this moment, the owl was just going to sign the registration form, which would be the last form, when just suddenly the mouse landed on the form and pictured his feet as the signature on the form. The interviewer asked him, “What are you coming for?” Just before he said that he was going to register his master, he suddenly had another thought. Thinking to be one of important zodiacs would be a great idea. “I want to register for the contest on behalf of my self” he said.

Owl was extremely angry and initiated to snatch the mouse. Mouse carefully avoided it. Unfortunately, owl’s craw hit the interviewer’s face. The interviewer then punched the owl back, hitting owl’s face. Good chance for the mouse to escape. The mouse bowed to the interviewer who was so upset. “Ok…the last form, I give it to you” said the interviewer to the mouse.

The long queue was then dismissed. To each 12 animals that had been registered, by tomorrow, they must arrive in the heaven palace. The order of zodiac signs would be awarded based on the order of arrival, whoever would arrive first will be placed as the 1st zodiac sign, and so on***

Back home, mouse saw cat eating and drinking happily. “Yes, I have registered your name” mouse said when the cat asked about it. How happy the cat was, he then let mouse together with him ate the fish he had caught. Cat got drunk. When he was conscious, mouse had left home. The owl came to cat’s house and told everything about what mouse had done. Cat was mad and tried to chase the mouse.

Mouse came over to rabbit’s place to ask for protection. But rabbit was too afraid to deal with cat, so he refused mouse to stay in his house.

Mouse continued running, he saw cow that was still farming. Cow saw mouse behaving nervously. “You must have done any crime” he said to the mouse. “No, cow brother, I was confused as the cat has been rushing to the temple of heaven while you were still here.” What mouse had said made cow rushing to start his journey. “Cow brother, can you take me too? I really want to see this contest…it must be such a great event, too bad to miss it!” Cow let the mouse jump onto his back. And they started the journey together***

Fox wanted revenge to the rabbit. He got an idea, bringing some food and wine to tiger, and told him that rabbit said something bad about him. Tiger then immediately went to seek rabbit for an explanation. Rabbit tried to calm him down and explained that fox told lies. Tiger believed more to what rabbit had said. However, he was still emotionally unstable; he then ordered rabbit to spy other contestants whether or not they had started their journey.

Rabbit agreed and worked on it. Soon he knew that chicken was still at home, busy with his make up; dog and pig were chatting. Arriving at cow’s house, cow’s wife told him that her husband has left to the temple. Reporting this to tiger, both of them were also in rush to begin their journey as well. Fox saw rabbit running, he chased rabbit and bit rabbit’s long tail. Fox got the tail; however, rabbit with a shorter tail can run faster and faster leaving the fox***

It was a beautiful sunset time. Goat was watering flowers when suddenly cow passing and stepping on goat’s flower garden. Not a good situation! However, mouse quickly suggested cow to pay an amount of money for the damage. “Don’t waste time for this as the most important thing is to keep moving to reach the temple as soon as possible.” Cow agreed and goat was also ok with it. After a while, tiger passed by his house then also rabbit did. Goat suddenly realized that those animals had started their journey for the contest. He then told horse to begin the journey immediately.

>>>Fox passed by duck’s place. He blamed his bad day to the duck. Fox was just going to destroy duck’s house. Luckily, the horse which passed by the duck’s house saw fox’s nasty behaviour and with one kick knocked the fox out.

Cow and mouse had already entered the jungle, they got lost. Mouse then climbed up a tree to see the direction and told the cow the correct path. Cow let the mouse sat on his back when he swam crossing the big river. After a while, tiger also crossed to river. Rabbit used dried wood as a boat. Horse and goat also successfully crossed the river***

Sunrise in the following day, chicken, dog, and pig started their journey. Snake passed by their house, asking for a ride, but was rejected by the pig. So the snake continued moving on his trip with his own effort. Chicken, dog, and pig arrived in the river. Chicken and dog had a little argue about how to find a way to cross the river, while the pig tried to find other place to cross the river. Chicken and dog didn’t notice that pig went to find another spot to swim; they thought that the pig had already crossed the river. Thus, chicken was in rush to jump into the river. However, chicken can’t swim well. Luckily, the dog helped him by holding his wing. Pig also found a better spot that enabled him to cross the river.

Snake eventually arrived in the river side. Realizing that he can’t swim, he had an idea to ask help from the dragon who lived inside the river. He saw turtle, his own ancestral relative. He asked turtle to call the dragon inside the river to help him crossing the river. The dragon was awake. Both turtle and snake praised dragon’s power. Dragon was overly flattered, so he helped snake crossing the river. Dragon showed his power to create strong rain which eventually caused flooding. Therefore, the God came to warn him, advising him to ask cow’s help as cow had an ability to dig drainage to over come flooding. He immediately flew to find the cow. On the way, he met chicken, dog, and pig, and asked them whether they met cow. The dog lied by telling him the opposite direction. Dragon directly flew to the direction pointed by the dog. Chicken was disappointed on dog’s attitude; then chicken and dog had an argument again.

Monkey so far was in the first place, sitting on the big tree. The magpie asked him why he was still sitting there instead of going to the temple. Monkey said, “No need to rush, I want to do my business first selling fruit to other animals who passed this way.”

Cat passed by, and was offered to eat some fruit. Cat ate some fruits, but then left the place without paying. “Hey, this is not for free” shouted monkey. But cat misunderstood the offering. He thought it was monkey’s hospitality to offer him some fruits. He didn’t want to pay. Monkey slapped him violently till he dropped***

Cow and mouse passed by monkey’s stall, and were also offered some fruit. But mouse suggested cow to keep moving on as they can eat fruits on the way back home. Tiger, rabbit, horse, and goat consecutively took a rest in monkey’s fruit shop. Only snake didn’t stop there as he realized that his ability was least among others to reach the temple***

After some time searching a long way path, dragon realized that he had been cheated by the dog. He directly went to cow’s house. Cow’s wife told him that he had been heading to the temple. He then directly flew to the temple***

Cow finally arrived in the temple of heaven. Just before entering the gate, mouse with a rapid movement jumped from cow’s back and quickly entered the gate, then followed by the cow. The guard of the heaven gate loudly announced, “Number 1. mouse…, number 2. cow...”

Knowing that the little mouse was the 1st winner, the God wasn’t so pleased. Yet, the God still awarded him the golden robe with the label "子" (zǐ) on it, and cow was with the label "丑" (chǒu).

Cow realized that he had been used by his buddy. Mouse said “Cow brother, thank you for your help. I’ve never believed that this dream comes true.” Cow was eventually accepted the situation as he realized that together with the mouse, his journey was more efficient. Without his help, he might not be able to arrive at the temple earlier than other animals***

Monkey was still waiting for the last animals, chicken, dog, and pig. As usual, monkey persuaded them to take a rest and eat some fruit in his stall. Suddenly, the magpie came and told all of them that mouse and cow had arrived in the temple and been awarded the zodiac robes.

Hearing this news, they all got shocked and directly ran to the temple. Chicken was half running half flying. Dog was in his high speed. Monkey was jumping from branch to branch, which made his money pocket felt down, thus the whole money he collected also dropped to the ground. It was only the pig who kept walking unhurried while collecting the fallen money from monkey’s pocket***

The animals arrived based on the order were: mouse, cow, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, chicken, dog, and pig.

>>>Knowing that mouse was successful to reach the temple and became the 1st winner of the zodiac contest, both cat and owl committed, that during the day, cat will kill all mice, and at night, owl will be responsible to eradicate mouse and his descendants.

>>><<<

>Hence, till today, the order of 12 Chinese zodiacs is fixed forming a 12 year cycle: mouse, cow, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, chicken, dog, and pig.

>The legend also tells us how rabbit has short tail; how cats and owls are main enemies of mice; but of course, it’s all based on the Chinese tale.

Many thanks to Jiangyang for the help

2007-09-13T17:29:00.001+08:00

A place where the end of sleepy ocean meets the clear azureus sky, fresh green trees grow among ease of the city; There I will start my friendship and build my own community; There will be the happiest place of mine to live in

Tai Chi (太极拳 - tài jí quán): Soft inner power and its philosophies

2007-09-07T17:26:00.001+08:00

There are 2 types of inner power:

Hard type; often seen in many martial art practices, such as: expelling enemies without touching them, bare protection to any sharp weapon, etc.
Soft type, which I will describe more in the following passage.

Every one has soft inner power (SIP). The simplest illustration about the SIP is: if someone moving a box from point A to B, than he has been already used an SIP. However, once the box has been placed at point B, then the SIP has also been over.

Maintaining our SIP is essential. The more long-lasting the SIP we maintain, the higher our body immunity will be, consequently the more resistant our body to any disease will be. The point is how to train our SIP to be more continuous and more long-lasting. The simplest answer is by practicing “Tai Chi Chuan”.

Every movement of Tai Chi is inspired by philosophies of Buddhism and Taoism. The period when Tai Chi was created, these two teachings were popular in China. It’s believed that most of Taoist monk practiced Tai Chi for maintaining health reason.

The philosophy of Buddhism "form is emptiness, emptiness is form (空即是色, 色即是空)" and the balance of Yin Yang (阴阳/yīn yáng) of Taoism: softer and harder, upward and downward, outward and inward, bigger and smaller, centrifugal and centripetal, are basic philosophies of Tai Chi movement.

Here I can describe Tai Chi Chuan 24 styles and 42 styles, the two styles that I am familiar with. Each movement, from the beginning until the closing part, must flow and not be fragmented, although the formation theme of each movement must be shown obviously .

The best illustration to explain the concept of Tai Chi movement is: Our universe! From an empty space, then the big bang initiates the whole thing, the forming of solar system and other star systems. And everything works based on natural gravity power (as analogized to be the SIP), hence there appears revolution (major movement) and rotation (minor movement), night and day light; and everything must be balance. If any of this system doesn’t work properly, or stop rotating or revolving, then it is the end of the world.

From this analogy, says you are practicing Tai Chi 24 styles, if you perform the whole movement (open-close, revolving-rotating, major-minor, etc) without a balance flow, then your practice of maintaining ISP is totally useless. That’s why the more practice the better.

***
The first day I practised Tai Chi Chuan - 24 styles, my right leg was so painful. Both legs used to be trembling during and after practice. But, it was getting better and better after practising several times.

dedicated to my late Tai Chi master, PekPiu

Eight Major Styles of Chinese Food - 八大菜系

2007-09-04T12:08:00.000+08:00

Delicious Chinese cuisine can be divided into 8 kinds based on characteristics of its own origin, including the coloration (色), aroma (香), taste (味), and appearance (形); The taste of Chinese cooking from each region are commonly: south-sweet (南甜), north-salty (北咸), east-hot and spicy (东辣), west-sour (西酸). The 8 major styles of Chinese cuisine are:

1. Sichuan Cuisine (川菜) - Chuān cài

Pock-marked bean curd (麻婆豆腐) má pó dòu fu
Chicken cubes with peanuts (宫保鸡丁) gōng bǎo jī dīng
Pork shreds with fishy flavour (鱼香肉丝) yú xiāng ròu sī
Flavored beef shreds (灯影牛肉) dēng yǐng niú ròu
etc

2. Guangdong Cuisine (粤菜) - Yuè cài

Roasted suckling pig (烤乳猪) kǎo rǔ zhū
Steamed turtle with chives sauce (清蒸甲鱼) qīng zhēng jiǎ yú
King snake with bamboo slices (笋片烧蛇) sǔn piàn shāo shé
Gourd cups (葫芦盅) hú lu zhōng
etc

3. Shandong Cuisine (鲁菜) - Lǔ cài

De Zhou grilled chicken (德州扒鸡) dé zhōu pǎ jī
Bird's nest soup (清汤燕窝羹) qīng tāng yàn wō gēng
Stewed clam (油爆大蛤) yóu bào dà gé
Lotus flower and shrimps (荷花大虾) dà xiā
etc

4. Huaiyang/Weiyang Cuisine (淮阳菜) - Huái Yáng cài

Stir fried chicken and vegetables (蔬菜炒鸡片) shū cài chǎo jī piàn
Pork ball and crab casserole (砂锅蟹肉丸) shā guō xiè ròu wán
Chicken corn soup (奶油鸡丝玉米汤) nǎi yóu jī sī yù mǐ tāng
Squid with crispy rice crust (鱿鱼锅巴) yóu yú guō bā
etc

5. Zhejiang Cuisine (浙菜) - Zhè cài;

Dong po pork (东坡肘子) dōng pō zhǒu zi
Xihu sour fish (西湖醋鱼) xī hú cù yú
Shrimp with tea flavour (龙井虾肉) lóng jǐng xiā ròu
Beggar’s chicken (叫花鸡) jiào huā jī
etc

6. Fujian Cuisine (闽菜) - Mǐn cài

Sea food and poultry casserole (红烧鱼翅) hóng shāo yú chì
Steamed chicken with egg-white (芙蓉鸡丸) fú róng jī wán
Fried prawn (油炸对虾) yóu zhá duì xiā
Crispy butterfish with lychee (荔枝鲳鱼) lì zhī chāng yú
etc

7. Hunan Cuisine (湘菜) - Xiāng cài

Dong'an chicken (东安鸡) dōng ān jī
Braised pork (红烧肉) hóng shāo ròu
Steamed turtle (清蒸海龟) qīng zhēng hǎi guī
Chicken with cayenne pepper (辣子鸡丁) là zi jī dīng
etc

8. Anhui Cuisine (安徽) - Huī cài

Huang Shan stewed pigeon (黄山醉鸽) huáng shān zuì gē
Gourd duck (葫芦鸭) hú lu yā
Fricassee pork with egg-white (蛋花炖肉) dàn huā dùn ròu
Pork rib with pine nuts (松仁排骨) sōng rén pái gǔ
etc

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Reference: baidu and my chinese friends

2007-09-04T11:57:00.000+08:00

脑子灵活一定要谦虚

谦虚的人脑子也要灵活

2007-09-02T22:54:00.001+08:00

"learn to ignore the names that people call you, ... and you just trust who you are"

---Shrek, from Shrek the Third---

Leaving Dalian

2007-08-30T11:27:00.000+08:00

Thank you for everything. To all my friends there. Hope I can visit you again someday. I love you, my beautiful Dalian.

A Little Girl on the Bus in China

2007-08-28T22:14:00.001+08:00

The bus has been clumped! There was only one seat near the spot where I was standing up, a woman with some stuff on her hand was going to take that seat. Suddenly, a little girl snatched the seat, then abruptly called her mother, "Mum, here, I got a seat here".

The woman just gave it up, and the little girl's mum was struggling to go through the clumped people, until she reached the place "booked" by the girl and sat down there with the girl on her lap.

***

So, why did I feel a bit weird about this situation? She is just a little girl though, who wants to present her mum a place to seat, ... but by snatching a seat from a woman with a lots of thing on her hands??? Is this nice little girl wrong?

Well...well..., this is another chaotic situation in China, I must say, I hate this condition. It makes me think, it must be very difficult to all Chinese, especially to young generation, to realise the motto of Olympic 2008, "Jiang Wen Ming", to make China to be a better "civilized" country.

Salute to all young generation whom I saw giving their seats to the elderlies, to the pregnant woman, to the woman with her baby!!! To all parents in China, do teach your children to be more civilized then!!!

Chinese Spirit Festival

2007-08-27T23:46:00.000+08:00

Full moon (15th) of the month 7th, Chinese lunar calendar.

Chinese people burning the "hell money" for all spirit before 12 a.m. At the same time, I think it's a good opportunity to do the "Zoor practise", dedicated to the deceased one.

What to prepare:

plain flour
honey
yoghurt
melted butter
sugar

Mix all the stuff together, make a coarse dough (so don't put too much honey, yoghurt, or melted butter), don't make it too wet, then put them little by little on the burning charcoal. The burned dough has good aromatic smell which is believed to be the "good food" for all spirit.

May all spirit be happy

A Hope

2007-08-24T08:56:00.001+08:00

On the small bus, sitting in the front of 2 high school girls. Then, giving their seats to two elderlies. A very "unique" event here in Dalian. Good sign for the present Chinese young generation. Very impressing me!