Nurturers

When we’re just college students, I never imagined that my friends there with their ‘far from mature behaviour’ resemble any connection with the concept of good parents, as I remember they (or maybe we hehe..) were just a bunch of big kids that exploring the world without any trace of responsibilities or composures.

But when they’re getting married and later on have children, those friends of mine surprised me with their ‘hidden’ qualities; they’re showing great responsibilities and kind intentions as parent, and I’m fairly proud of my friends for that. Probably those qualities are the things that I instinctively knew and admire from the beginning.

I’ll always give my praise and admirations to any parent who has great nurturing skill and performing it as easy as walking in the park.

Subsequently when I imagine this concept of nurture, I realize this condition is not merely just for parents, as human we all are natural nurturers giving the fact that we have abilities to influence our fellow human and our environment, in some extent we could even nurture something more abstract like ideas, spirit, passion, love, you name it…

Cheers,
Fellow nurturer

Sleep on it

What is the purpose of sleep? to rest our body and mind?

Do you know that usually we have 4-5 dream cycles each night? and most of the time we don’t recall those dreams?

Sleep seems to have multiple purpose in our life, ranging from a simple one for just being lazy to a more complex purpose like enhance our memory and cognitive ability.

Imagine this, your day was like a bull fight in a porcelain store… and you don’t have a clue on what’s really going on… it’s not a pleasant day for sure, probably by the end of the day you take a bath at your home and go to your bed, your mind was still perplexed and puzzled… as you got sleepy… and more sleepy… then slowly you slip into unconsciousness and perhaps forget the whole matter… and it took hours until you’re conscious again, …but the next morning when you open your eyes… you feel different…, suddenly you think you get a clearer picture of the circumstances around you with some sort of new wisdom and understanding…

If you ever experience a shift in awareness like that, then most probably you’re gaining benefit from a good sleep.

In the past we tend to consider that we need sleep to fulfill our physical need to rest, but recent studies suggest that we need sleep to enhance our mental well being more than we need it for our physical benefit.

Sleeping is an active state, in respect that while we’re peacefully asleep our brain is busily processing the day’s information. It’s like organizing our memories, stabilizing, copying and filing them, so that they will be more useful the next day, furthermore while we’re sleeping we gain insight from our experiences and actually learn something from it.

So since we're more aware of this phenomenon could we use it in everyday life?

Absolutely…

Next time you have question or wonder about something, you could use our ‘top of the line cognitive enhancer’ a.k.a. a good sleep to gain new wisdom and grip a better understanding from it.

Perhaps you could imagine these illustrations:

Example 1

You’re in the middle of an immediate strategic decision; it’s whether focusing your resources for the research & development dept. in order to keep your company on the edge when the customer needs and wants changes, or take your existing product line to its quantity advantage and generate as much cash as possible by double the production.
You consider those options and by the end of the day using your ‘sleep processor’, and then the next morning all of a sudden you realized that your target market is urban women who have distinct characteristic, so you could direct your R&D to focus on much more specific issues that don’t require much resources while taking benefit from harvesting your existing product using advertising campaign.

Example 2

In the middle of the week you have two requests to spend your weekend, one from Julie, and the second one from Cathy, and they both are really wonderful so it’s quite difficult for you to choose one of them, …you take a deep breath, take warm shower and go to bed to gain insight from it, …then first thing in the morning you opened your eyes smiling, slowly turn your head around… you saw somebody lying beside you… but it’s not Julie nor Cathy… it’s your wife…!, immediately you know that those requests are just a dream.

hehehe...


 
Cheers,
Your sleep advisor

The End of Metabolism Immortality

Dear friends, do you ever have something to be grateful about, but gradually it’s changing until one day it’s quite different?

I got several, but let me tell you one this time.

Not that I’m complaining though, but my glory days of eat like a hungry bear and not gaining weight is over

Friends and colleagues has point it out in two different approaches, as these examples below:

1. The direct and without euphemism whatsoever approach:
   Iyong you’re so fat! (yes it’s quite direct and clear) with amazed look and widened eyes plus big grin (well I wonder why  most people and especially women tend to grin when they see me lately, hmmm…)

2. The courteous approach:
   Mr. Iyong the food is start emerging and traceable in your appearance (plus a polite smile)

Actually I appreciate their concern about me

Thank you dear friends, I know that your intentions is for me to be healthy and happy

And I’m agree with you, from now it’s better for me to take an evasive action, for I’ll only take no more than two heavy meals each night (hmmm… yeah I think it’s quite enough for the time being)

Unintentionally this occurrence helps me understand why many people always make a fuss and anxious about their weight, now I could imagine better on how they felt when somebody comments on their body mass.

Not so very long ago I’m always considerably the skinny one in every group that I’m in, so it’s like a u-turn when I’m a bit chubby these days.

Hmmm… I think I should learn how to write poetry now, can’t count on my underfed look anymore to attract girls  hehehe...

Aware

How to easily identify what you like in life?

Some distinct few conscious people would easily tell us what they like and really know why they like those things; they are fortunate people who have good self-awareness.

For them knowing their own self is just as easy as seeing their own reflection in the mirror, it’s quite natural.

But for some other it’s not that easy:

“I’m not really sure what I want…”

“It depends on who’s beside me…”

“Ask my friends, they know me better…”

Perhaps you’ve heard that phrases more than once or even quite often.

Yes the exposed world we live in today has blurring our own self; the overwhelming flashes and expectations put other people values and beliefs into our receptive feelings and emotion, so sometime we’re not really sure of our self authenticity.

It’s good to adopt or extract other people wisdom and knowledge to our own understanding, we learn from other people experience, their mistake prevents us make the same mistakes, their successes might inspire us to have a triumph direction, it makes us learn and grow.

But like no two fingerprints are exactly the same, no two persons are exactly the same also, we have more or less a slightly different package with other person, so our needs and wants perhaps slightly different one another too, so it’s better if we’re not passing the responsibility of our well being to our environment.

And it’s more responsible to ourselves and people around us if we aware of our own personalities and inner self, perhaps it will free us from a lot of unnecessary pressures, though sometimes it’s quite hard to communicating or presenting your true self to others, at least you could embrace yourself better.

Well yes sometime a special person understands us better than anyone in the whole lot world, but don’t let his or her lovely ability prevent us from being responsible to ourselves.

Cheers,

Fellow person

(Btw please be advised if you stand or sit close to me for quite some time, I might feel your inner self unintentionally, so approach at your own risk) 

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I Love To Ride My Bike

It's Sunday morning, and it's a car free day!

sms-ing bunch of friends, no immediate replies (they replying and calling when I was on my stops, excuses and excuses he2x)

so I just grab my bike (that I bought because a friend of mine bought a nice yellow 'bike to work' edition)

and destination Monas! (=National Monument Obelisk) ladies and gentlemen

so packed with a bottle of cold water and exciting anticipation of a free main road ahead, I just pedaling my bike slow but sure (halah ^_^)

at first it was easy because the bike is made of aluminum alloy so it's quite light

but after a while it's getting heavy and I'm in the land of thirst, so I stop once in a while to take pictures and sipping water

I'm not quite sure is it me or is it the heat but I have a feeling that the girls along the way seem to cheer me up quietly with their eyes and wish me not to give up until I reach the ultimate destination he3x (btw the shining sun looks bright that morning)

then at last that tall figure coming to sight, I'm approaching Monas!
and considerably still in a good shape :-)

after that I'm cruising back to my home with a happy feeling, probably caused by the sense of accomplishment ^_^

bike: a couple of million

accessories: a couple of hundred thousand

bragging to my friends that I'm riding my bike to monas alone: priceless ^_^

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Attracted to

Sometime I wonder why I’m attracted to someone or something, just like anyone would wonder why they have special interest on particular things. 

The trigger could be anything (including your genes or hormones perhaps), and it’s likely endorsed or nurtured by our surroundings and environment

Let me give a glimpse example of things that I’m attracted to, and by any chance endorsed by comic books, magazines, novels and stuff like that:

1. Jet Fighters

I have natural affection to jet fighter airplanes such as F-15 Eagle, F-14 Tomcat, Panavia Tornado and many others. 

Perhaps it’s because when I was a little kid I saw calendar next to the kitchen wall that depicts beautifully majestic jet fighters, and so most likely it was my trigger.

And perhaps that trigger endorsed by Tanguy & Laverdure comics, also by articles on boy’s magazine back then. 

If someone ask me what I want to be when I grow up back then, definitely I’d reply: I want to be a fighter pilot! 

hmmm… lucky me that fateful calendar didn’t depict a bearded man with his guitar and weary eyes stare furiously as money fell from the sky and says Rhoma Irama, Hujan Duit (=Money Rain)

2. Cuisine Delights 

I’m sure everyone who ever read Asterix comics, would know the reader’s excitement and anticipation when the comics illustrate Obelix enjoys his yummy roasted wild boar, as it’s the most enjoyable thing in the world.

I recall when I’m still a little kid that I have really high praise for Padang/Minang girls, because I think their traditional cuisine was so spicy and yummy, as a kid I imagine If I marry ‘one of them’ then perhaps we could enjoy this wonderful cuisines ‘together’ for the rest of our life.

Also back then if I saw a girl who’s enjoying bakso (meatballs clear soup) with bihun (rice noodles) or mie ayam (boiled chicken noodle) sometimes I discreetly gaze at her and subjectively think that she’s cute and loveable he3x, probably back then as a kid my ‘attractive girl’ definition subjectively influenced by her cuisine preferences.

3. Good Person 

Hmmm… because I read a lot since I was a kid, (also read other people’s mind too )

I think I have a lot of admirations for people with good behaviour and good intention 

In one way or another my admiration perhaps inspired by these comics and stuffs like: Trigan Empire, Storm, Si Janggut Merah (=Red Beard), Safan, Eppo (btw if you could find me this magazine perhaps I’d give you a big hug), Tintin, Lucky Luke, Bobo, Ananda, Hai, Tanguy & Laverdure, RA Kosasih’s wayang comics, cerita silat (=chinese martial arts epic-series) Enid Blyton’s series, City Hunter, Harry Potter series and many more… 

 

 

Angel's Chat

One day I lost my way to lunch and all of a sudden I came out on an angel’s club common room

I can tell by the self-less but confident aura from corner to corner of the room

And because angels could appear in several forms I manage to mingle in the form of human and no one would notice me

I casually grab a magazine titled A Guardian Life and start concealing myself on one shady corner behind that magazine, while trying to hear what they’re talking about

Soon I heard friendly chat next to my place

Voice 1: busy day Mike? fighting demons that trying to manipulate lost humans?

Voice 2: hey Gaby, nah… the demons is just a secondary enemy nowadays

 

(me thinking quietly: how odd?)

 

Gaby: so what’s troubling those poor humans now?

Mike: apparently they’re consumed by their own self nowadays Gaby

Gaby: what do you mean?

Mike: it seem that many human has become fragmented and could only think 
        about themselves

Gaby: they’re misleading by their own self-centeredness?

Mike: well…, being selfish is quite tempting for sure

(me still thinking quietly: yea being selfish for a 6 years old child perhaps quite normal but for a responsible grownup it’s quite pathetic)

 

Mike: as selfish person you only have to worry about your own feelings and 
        senses, you don’t have to bother seeing other people perspectives on 
        things or try to understand other people feelings and senses  

Gaby: hmmm… perhaps I should give updated message to human, that to 
         understand each other better means that you loved each other better
 

(me: hmmm should I asked them a couple of my personal questions about that?)

 

But before I could ask anything to them, all of the sudden I came back again to this wonderful world with around 6,7 billion unique feelings and senses…

 

well maybe later then dear angels…

The Frog Institute

Once upon a time in a land far-far away there is a wonderful kingdom with its princes and princesses

Young princes in this kingdom go to Higher Education for Young Princes, or better known as TFI (=The Frog Institute)

They learn to understand themselves and their surroundings at the institute…

T (=Teacher): “all right class gather up, today we’re going to discuss about Cinderella”

T: as we all know that she really is a good person, but now we’re going to analyze why Cinderella with her unparalleled goodness and sweet temper suddenly left the prince at the ball…, any opinion young princes?

P (=Prince) 1: “maybe she forgot to put out her stove fire at home?”

P2: “perhaps she has unbearable PMS (=premenstrual syndrome) and has to go?”

P3: “perhaps she’s not really Cinderella but a stand in???”

T:  “hmmm… actually the fairy godmother has clearly told Cinderella that she has to be back home before midnight, everything will be back to the original condition at midnight, and because she was wearing torn gown when the spell was casted by the fairy godmother, naturally she won’t like being seen by the prince with that torn gown so she ran away right before midnight”

T: “next question, why she drop a glass slipper at the palace staircase?”

P1: “perhaps she thinks that she still growing so she wears size 38 instead of size 37?”

P2: “perhaps she wants to drop both slippers but just could manage one?”

T: “well that’s what we called a twist of luck, so the prince could trails Cinderella later on with that glass slipper”

P1: “o respectful teacher, why doesn’t Cinderella just simply came back to the prince the next morning?”

T: “yes that would simplify things my young prince, but sometimes life’s just so simple and easy yet sometimes it’s quite a bit complicated, just be grateful with yours”

P2: “regarding complicated o reverent teacher why in this institute we have to temporarily shape shifted into frogs?

T: "ah good question young prince! when in the temporary form of frog you’ll have the chance to see the world from a really different perspective, you’ll understand how it likes to be an insignificant and vulnerable frog"

T: "it also could benefit you when you met a princess"

T: "if by any chance you met a wonderful princess while you’re in disguised form as a frog and thankfully she could accept you unconditionally, then you’ll know that she must be a really good person that would embrace you with happiness and delight no matter what young prince"

Simple Tuna Spaghetti

Weeks ago when we’re at Warung Laos Bandung, my boss recommending chili tuna spaghetti that’s on the menu, well... because I seldom having spaghetti other than with bolognaise sauce, I don’t expect much of this one.

But when I taste it, something unexpected happen… my senses erupting! My tastes break loose… my dear God it’s the best spaghetti that I ever have, the texture of the taste is so simple and light but yet it accentuate the delight and savor of its simple ingredients…

And yesterday when I have the honour accompanying a friend of mine who’s an expert on the culinary marvel to the wonderful Huize Trivelli, I asked her advice on this kind of spaghetti; she listens to my description then gives basic recipe guidance…

So this is my first attempt to make Simple Tuna Spaghetti…

 

Some of The Ingredients

 

 The Outcome

Formula One Calendar 2008

01. 2008 FORMULA 1™ ING Australian Grand Prix (Melbourne) 14 - 16 Mar

Race Day, 16 March: 11.30 (Jakarta), 15.30 (Melbourne)

 

02. 2008 FORMULA 1™ Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix (Kuala Lumpur) 21 - 23 Mar

Race Day, 23 March: 14.00 (Jakarta), 15.00 (Kuala Lumpur)

 

03. 2008 FORMULA 1™ Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix (Bahrain) 04 - 06 Apr

Race Day, 06 April: 18.30 (Jakarta), 14.30 (Bahrain)

 

04. FORMULA 1™ Gran Premio de España Telefónica 2008 (Catalunya) 25 - 27 Apr

Race Day, 27 April: 19.00 (Jakarta), 14.00 (Catalunya)

 

05. 2008 FORMULA 1™ Petrol Ofisi Turkish Grand Prix (Istanbul) 09 - 11 May

Race Day, 11 May: 19.00 (Jakarta), 15.00 (Istanbul)

 

06. FORMULA 1™ Grand Prix de Monaco 2008 (Monte Carlo) 22 - 25 May

Race Day, 25 May: 19.00 (Jakarta), 14.00 (Monte Carlo)

 

07. FORMULA 1™ Grand Prix du Canada 2008 (Montreal) 06 - 08 Jun

Race Day, 08 June: 00.00 (early Monday @ Jakarta), 13.00 (Sunday afternoon @ Montreal)

 

08. FORMULA 1™ Grand Prix de France 2008 (Magny-Cours) 20 - 22 Jun

Race Day, 22 June: 19.00 (Jakarta), 14.00 (Magny-Cours)

 

09. 2008 FORMULA 1™ Santander British Grand Prix (Silverstone) 04 - 06 Jul

Race Day, 06 July: 19.00 (Jakarta), 13.00 (Silverstone)

 

10. FORMULA 1™ Grosser Preis von Deutschland 2008 (Hockenheim) 18 - 20 Jul

Race Day, 20 July: 19.00 (Jakarta), 14.00 (Hockenheim)

 

11. FORMULA 1™ Magyar Nagydíj 2008 (Budapest) 01 - 03 Aug

Race Day, 03 August: 19.00 (Jakarta), 14.00 (Budapest)

 

12. 2008 FORMULA 1™ Grand Prix of Europe (Valencia) 22 - 24 Aug

Race Day, 24 August: 19.00 (Jakarta), 14.00 (Valencia)

 

13. 2008 FORMULA 1™ ING Belgian Grand Prix (Spa-Francorchamps) 05 - 07 Sep

Race Day, 07 September: 19.00 (Jakarta), 14.00 (Spa-Francorchamps)

 

14. FORMULA 1™ Gran Premio Santander d'Italia 2008 (Monza) 12 - 14 Sep

Race Day, 14 September: 19.00 (Jakarta), 14.00 (Monza)

 

15. 2008 FORMULA 1™ SingTel Singapore Grand Prix (Singapore) 26 - 28 Sep

Race Day, 28 September: 19.00 (Jakarta), 20.00 (Singapore)

 

16. 2008 FORMULA 1™ Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix (Fuji Speedway) 10 - 12 Oct

Race Day, 12 October: 11.30 (Jakarta), 13.30 (Fuji Speedway)

 

17. 2008 FORMULA 1™ Sinopec Chinese Grand Prix (Shanghai) 17 - 19 Oct

Race Day, 19 October: 14.00 (Jakarta), 15.00 (Shanghai)

 

18. FORMULA 1™ Grande Prêmio do Brasil 2008 (Sao Paulo) 31 Oct - 02 Nov

Race Day, 02 November: To Be Confirmed later

Content

 

Not so long ago while driving to Bandung, a friend of mine chat about his worries for his upcoming marriage, getting cold feet eh? Well in western society you could ask your friend preparing an emergency escape route if you change your mind on the last minute, for example you could pretend to passed out at the altar then your friend could drove you away he3x.

Hmmm… there are lots of cliché questions regarding marriage such as: is she or he the right one for me or am I the right person for her or for him, or are we’re gonna be happy together? Well the bad news is perhaps you’ll find out not before but after you’re getting married, but the good news is you might actually marrying the most suitable person for you, just by enjoying your journey together.

Contemplating on my friend uncertainty back then, I'd like to share my opinion to give them something to think about.

Maybe you could start with yourself first, we all have little flaws here and there, so if we could accept our own imperfection lightly then we should check if we could tolerate our spouse imperfection, if you love each other so much (well it’s the chemistry inside your brains or perhaps the hormones he3x) then you’ll accept he or she as it is and you’ll always believe that whatever he or she did always intend to give the best to you and nothing less.

But something that both of you should aware from the beginning is your expectations on your life, it’s quite delicate because every person has their own dreams and desires.

*remember one of our ‘jomblus ajus’(=being single for a long time) friend that has a thing with pizza and batman? Perhaps we should introduce him to a nice girl wearing batgirl costume holding a hot and steamy pizza on one hand, while offering a batman costume to him with her other hand. (He3x this is just a hyperbolic illustration).

My point is please make sure that you’re quite understand and comfortable with your spouse’s dreams and desires from the beginning, and he or she also knows and comfortable with your dreams and desires too, many young couples have difficulties with their marriage life because they don’t seem to know what they want in life and hope that marriage will make them happier, so please help them God.

Another thing that you guys should be aware of is the mutual contentment, perhaps he or she is not the best there is for you, but if you feel content with him or her, then you’ll be just fine.

PS: content means happy with one’s lot

Insight

As human we’re all equipped with cognitive ability, and we also equipped with the capability of mental associating, deducing, and analyzing, so in some ways we (yes all of us) could read other people’s mind or get a hunch about other people intention.

When we reflect on someone it’s good if we could appreciate that person hidden intention and feelings beyond her or his apparent deeds.

Some shy people perhaps couldn't really express their feelings and intention freely on an ordinary community, so it’s possible that other people misunderstood her or him; on the other hand perhaps some expressive and bold people maybe could also give a misleading perception to other people with different interaction style.

For sure it needs wisdom and comprehensive understanding to see something beyond what it seem on the surface of anything, sometime it looks tempting jumping to conclusion when evaluating something, but a more prudent approach might gives us clearer and better perception of the condition we’re embracing.

So we could understand other people better.

 

PS: insight means the ability to perceive and understand the true nature of something

Santun

One quality that I admire from charming people is well mannered behavior, how they interact with others shows their inner integrity, they treat others as respectful individuals and they radiating graciousness.

A word in Bahasa Indonesia that probably could represent that quality is perhaps the word ‘santun’.

Santun person has a light hearted aura around her or him, and has a natural gracious attitude, I notice that some of the most beautiful and charming people I met happened to be santun persons, and I respect them for that.

And I might say that in our modern world where individualistic selfishness exploding like a virus, a well mannered behavior would be like an oasis on a hot desert, it definitely will stand out from the crowd.

So maybe next time you see me admiring a charming lady, probably you’ll notice why her respectful behavior attracts my attention.

Good Wishes

Thank you very much for the love and affection shown to me, I’m flattered, from four corners of the globe, friends, family, relatives, bosses, colleagues they all wish me a happy birthday today, it’s really wonderful.

A few things are quite different this year, for instance some of the prayers and wishes seem a bit different than usual.

After good wishes to a healthy and long life, some of them also wish that I’m getting what I wish for, they give their faith in me to wish what is best for me, that's nice.

Thank you very much again folks for the good and wonderful wishes for me, I really appreciate it.