when in rome do what romans do

That's it. No more tolerance to ignorant fools who think that they can always be whatever they be in every place they set their feet on.

Few months ago, one platoon of presidential guard attacked a police post because one of the military men was warned for using public lane that is dedicated for bus (he was using motorbike). Are military helmets too hot that they melt clear mind? The lane is located in a city, the city is not undersiege or at war, police are supposed to do their job. The attack is full of arrogance and ignorance, in my personal opinion.

I was "trapped" in a crowded toll road with cars standing bumper to bumper (yes, in the city I live in, toll road sometimes is sooo full. the operator said that the users are not paying for the swiftness of traffic, we pay to recover the cost). Then, an ambulance set off its siren to make way. Lo and behold, it was not in emergency situation( I saw that there were only laughing passengers inside). It brouht me to the story about the boy who cried wolf.

I don't like this entry&#*@&$*#*&$()q#

ship-like crescent

A little girl, with her twin baby sisters, looked at the crescent last night. She opened her mouth in awe and said,"I wish I dream about the moon tonight".

A crescent shines at night. It's shape is just like a ship, small ship without mast. The ship is floating around starry, saphire blue night sky, sprinkling its glimmer adding colors to the night.

Three little girls rise from their bed, open the room's window and soar to reach the small ship hovering nearby the girls' house. Three little girls in their night outfit (off-colored t-shirts, worn-out shorts) hop in to the ship, smiling, giggling, expecting a night of adventure. On a ship, floating in the starry night sky.

Sleep my babies, sleep....

(Dedicated for my little angels, adapted from "Winken, Blinken, and Nod")

"Everybody wants to rule the world"

So the song says....
I heard the song on my way to office this morning with my wife humming it.

You know what? I see that people tend to use whatever they have on hand to forcefully make the world be on their side.

Exhibit one:
A housewife hit, iron, spill with hot water and torture phisically and emotionally damage her housemaid after the latter uninentionally broke the former's cup.

Exhibit two:
A warlord held a small town of Srebrenicka to a siege, sent the Netherlands' peacekeeping force out, sort out all male inhabitants from the town (disregarding their age and health condition) and then execute all 3,000 of them.

Exhibit three:
A citybus driver stopped his bus anywhere at anytime to gather as much passenger as he can, leaving other cars stucked behind it.

Exhibit four:
A football player with "fairplay" badge attached on his sleeve, tackled his opponent hard, with a possibility of injuring permanently.

Exhibit four:
A band of youngster stopped a car right in the middle of a busy street, sing and play whatever instruments they got to express themselves (they don't really ask for money).

Me, I am still trying my best not to have everything I want.
A friend of mine once asked me, what would I ask if a genie popped up and would grant anything I want. My answer was: I want to be able.

Laughter is the best medicine

Got fever last night, something went wrong with my digestion system but I brave myself to come to office (I said "come" to office, the word is not identical with "work" )

I start this morning opening emails from my long-time-and-distance friends, some of them really made me laugh my gut off! and you know what? The pain just left....

It is amazing to realize how the most ordinary things in the past was just an ordinary at the time it happened and it turns out to be hillarious and inexplicably extraordinary when we are recalling the event now.
Hail to the carriers of "souvenirs from the past" !!!
Long live friendship!!!

Here is one of them: http://dengjie.com/temp/bird.swf

Thought of the day

Why do we need reason to love or not to love?
Can we say that we love a person because he/she deserves it?
Can we say that we don't need more love because we had enough?

LOVE IS IN THE AIR not only at present, it is just there for us to inhale, feel, no reason is needed.

Make peace with yourself, and you will feel love.

Words exchange

...

+ If only we we took three, we would get at least three folds, Dar!

- Yeah, I guess so....

+ You see, Pak Ahmad bought one and he got a motorbike. Minggu..! Minggu...!

- He is lucky, a motorbike

+ I wish we had bought three, we would have ended up with at least three folds

- A motorbike, we could even get more than just that, Ndri!

+ I am telling you, brother! three is the minimum

+ How much is the bananas, Mpok?

# 2500 rupiah, Bang

+ 1500, I will not take more than that

# 2000 then, Bang

+ Ok, give me one, Mpok!

+ I could bargain better, too bad I am driving now. Take it brother, it is nice and sweet.

- No, thanks. I am full.

+ You should have told me before I made the bargain (biting one of the bananas)

- I wonder how he could manage to figure the numbers

+ He only used one piece of paper, you see? (tearing a cigarette's case), like this small (handing it over to his partner)

- 72 36 ...

+ and I got 36 72, can you imagine had I put it right?

- and Pak Ahmad got a motorbike!

+ I would give it away to you, that motorbike, I am happy with the money. How much is 15 times 8, Dar?

- wait... 120, Ndri

+ wow.. 120...! I will surely give the motorbike away

* Stop it here, Bang!

(the pointless "conversation" I witnessed on a city transport between the driver and his friend, last weekend)

Today's quote

Whatever happened it happend for a reason.

(Thank you, Colin, Jean, and Carolina)

Being in touch with friends

I find it very funny about how we can be keeping in touch with our friends; long gone, faraway, and old ones.

True that technology helps us a lot; internet, telephone, even old-fashioned letter mail keep us in touch with our friends. But technology is just one of means, passive, a gun which needs a trigger puller. It is not a hard thing to come up with prove. Do you realize how thick your name cards collection is? How much the telephone numbers' list in your cellphone? So, how often do you contact the person who got those coordinate.... How many of them you called because you need them? How many of them you called because you miss them? - missing is also kind of need, our heart is telling us that it needs something to address - How many of them you called or contacted simply to say HELLO.

Anyway, we keep them in touch. Another way of keeping in touch with the very existence of your friends is dreaming about them. Unlike the "more sophisticated ways" people use nowadays this way of "contacting" is active. Functioning without us asking them to. It popped up when we least expecting. The dream connects us with a friend that we never met for zillion of years, it brings us to a time when we are "still friends". Not only it is self-propelling, the dream is sometimes also induces us to something further; MAKING a "real" contact with our friends; be it calling, sending email, or maybe just thinking about them, remember that we still have them in our heart.

I am quite happy with my recent "disorder"; light-sleeping. It makes me dream a lot, and that opens a huge window of opportunity to see my friends, the one that I don't even remember....(and I still refer to them as friends?)

Salam.

I find this word very strong: Creation

Main Entry: cre·a·tion
Pronunciation: krE-'A-sh&n
Function: noun
1 : the act of creating; especially : the act of bringing the world into ordered existence
2 : the act of making, inventing, or producing: as a : the act of investing with a new rank or office b : the first representation of a dramatic role
3 : something that is created : as a : WORLD b : creatures singly or in aggregate c : an original work of art d : a new usually striking article of clothing
(Mirriam-Webster online dictionary, 2004)

Yesterday, in my parents' house, I saw with awe how strong the word is. It was the first time for my daughter (and her mother) to make donuts and panada out of dough. Her grandma prepared the dough and afterward they shaped it into those donuts and panada.

When I looked at those little hands of my daughter "playing" with the dough and saw her face, bright with light of content, I can feel how strong the word is. She looked very absorbed in her effort to form that dough into donuts, and once she finished one donut she showed it to me with veeerry broad smile. The things also happened to her mother; the smile, the content, the satisfaction. The spectator is not left behind, I feel so happy to see them showing the look in their faces. These all came from the creation of one single cake a.k.a donut.

Perhaps, that is why I love looking at buildings, especially the ones that were made in harmony with their surroundings; temples, palaces, ancient stadiums, houses of Gods. Behind those buildings lies the contented people who built them; their smiles, their happiness of finally finishing what they had started.

I wonder how wide my God's smile is.

today

I feel overwhelmed, full of joy. I LOVE YOU PEOPLE...!