Mood Booster

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 books accompanied with relaxing music, and for sure, playing tennis!

Doing some exercise might also release 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, or practice taichi. It does help me to get out from such 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 talk to my best friend. A suggestion from them on how to overcome the problem would be very helpful and such a precious gift. Nevertheless, that they are 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)

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

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"

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:

1. 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
2. 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.
3. 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?

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

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

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 every time I see Poinciana flame.

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

Happy Birthday Mum

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
***

SW

Today: Electro-execution

--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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(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

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

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

An old farewell song: Graduation Ceremony SD Cipta Dharma 1992

"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?

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

They've killed the lizard

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

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 >^-^<