Now and Then

My dear SE has accompanied me since 2006, it has gone through ups and downs with me for more than 4 years. I remember my darling once said "You must be a loyal person", I asked why. And the answer was "Do you know how OBSOLETE your phone is???!!!"
 

Well, not sure how loyal I am. But I am pretty sure that I am not so good with technology-updates. They are just too fast for a slow-learner like me. Anyway, SE is still working well, but it has showed some deteriorating signs; it's screen gone blank every now and then since 3 weeks ago. I am still using it 'til this second, though Bro already got me a new phone, a BB (Nice Bro, huh?) I am still not used with BB... he he he. Here they are, my current BF and my future BF... 

A Hole on My Feet

 This's the cut I got from the Cubadak Island trip. Quite nasty.

Healing now...

Cubadak Island trip

I guess it has been quite a difficult trip for AIESEC students when they are assigned to Padang. The city is naturally beautiful, but they couldn’t find much interesting activities here. Public transport (angkot) in Padang is quite tricky, they hardly carry their destination name or number on its body. And no route-map available at all; the only way to identify them is by their colour. It seems like only the locals know the way around. The locals are only able to speak 2 languages: Bahasa Indonesian and Bahasa Minang, their local dialect. So apart from infrastructure problem, they’d face a lot of communication problem.

Anyway, I really pity them so my parents recommend to take them to some small islands near Padang. Since they already visited Sikuai Island, yesterday (21Jan2010) we arranged the trip to Cubadak Island (Cubadak means Jackfruit in Minang language). Previously, we hardly recommend Cubadak Paradiso Village because the only way to get there is from Pantai Carocok - Tarusan, which need 1.5hours drive and 10mins boat-trip to get there. The driving trip was quite nasty, seems like we go on never-ending circle.

The 10 minutes boat trip was delightful, it was an easy one. Once you approached the island, you’ll be greeted by Mr.Nani & Ms.Dominique, super friendly owner. I think they are French, but they speak perfect Indonesian. Then Ms.Dom showed us rooms get change (complete with bedding and bathroom). I can’t believe they provide us with rooms, we were only on day-trip! How nice!!!

Me & AIESEC students started explore the shore, not long, we went into the water. It was quite murky, I guess it is because of last-night hard rain. So, we wasn’t able to see through the water, we just walk and walk in the water. I didn’t know there were many coral around; I cut my feet, so did others... hiks... hiks...

Around noon time, Ms. Dom reminded us that the lunch will be serve at 1pm, which later conveniently announced by bell rings. So cool…!!! The lunch was so nice, yesterday we were served tomato and quail eggs salad, friend pumpkins, calamari rings and chicken in soysauce. Yummy!!!

Then after lunch, we braved ourselves to try snorkeling. I’ve never done it before. Gave it a few try, was quite hard for me to breathe from mouth. But after a few dips, I saw incredible scenery down there – the water suddenly becomes clear and I was able to pretty fishes and amazing corals. Naturally, I was able to snorkel. Hahahaha. The more I explore, the more I see, then I saw a group of sea-urchins; they really made my heart skipped. I decided to avoid them, I don’t wanna get poisonous punctures.

Later on me and other 3 AIESEC students took the rowing boat and started to explore the nearby reef. Basically we rowed, stopped and dipped our heads down the water to have a peek. It was amazing scenery down there!!! I saw many colourful reef creatures, saw fishes, giant clams, some crab-alike creatures, cuttlefish etc. Also saw a huge sea-urchin look alike creature, but it was so huge and it has striking blue colour; so I guess it was poisonous. On the way back, near the honey-moon suite, we saw a weird thing popping from the water, it was huge, slightly pinkish, swimmed slowly and has tail; we tried to get a close look, but it disappeared. I later asked Ms.Dom, who explained it was humphead parrotfish which commonly feed around the coral.

Overall, it was a very amazing trip. I hope AIESEC students enjoy it. For me, the trip was really worth the money. I really wish I could stay overnight there. Anyway, my only regret is that I don’t have underwater camera. I wish I can capture those pretty creatures for you to see. Will go there again, soon.

ps: Pics here are taken from Cubadak Paradiso website, I'll put up some of my personal pics... if there are any taken by the students

Fear Feasting

Have you ever watched Monster Inc. by Pixar? Basically the cute movie is about monsters who tried to scare kids and utilize their fear as power source of Monstropolis. It maybe a cute movie for kids, but it actually happens around us, in reality. Well, I didn't mean there are monsters in Monster Inc. are real, but what I am trying to say is, there are people out there who are feasting on others' fear. Not everybody will experience these things, some are very lucky to never meet such evil predator.

Start when you are a kid. Remember those days when bigger-built-kids bully you and snatch your snacks?

or

At school, the mean teacher keep threatening you with fancy punishment if you don’t get your parents to sign insurance that they secretly selling? (some teachers have a side job as insurance sales)

or

Policeman who caught you red-handed crossing lane (illegally?) and made you pay a lump sum of money

or

When a bloody fortune-teller keep filling your heads with accidents, misfortunes and curses when you don’t follow their "holy" requests. Or even worse, he poisons people surrounding you to ensure you’ll forever be his loyal slave. (I am smart enough to know it is all for your earthy needs)

Don’t you have anything else to do other than feasting on people’s fear? I really pity your victims, dedicating their life to be dictated by fear you infested on them.

Unfortunately I no longer fear you, WHAT are you anyway? Just a ZERO-self-esteemed guy who can't accept having a powerful wife. You really can’t think of anything else to do to exceed your wife, right? Sad sad sad. I pity you.

I don’t care if others are still feeding you. But I won’t be one of them.

to Understand, Forgive and Love (again)

A dear friend, HSL recommended this book from Thich Nhat Hanh. He wrote it in simple words, no fancy terms, easily understood. I can digest the book in less than 2 hours, but to get his advices done, I might need more than 1 life time to get it done.
From the whole book, I feel that these paragraphs suits me most:

There may have been time when you could not communicate with your XXX. Although you lived in the same house, you might feel that your XXX was very distant. In this situation, XXX and you suffer. Each side believes that there is only misunderstanding, hatred and separation. XXX and you do not know that you both have the capacity to understand, to forgive and to love each other. Therefore, it is very important to recognize the positive elements that are always there in us to prevent anger and other negative elements from dominating us…

... You try to avoid XXX out of fear. You don’t want to suffer. But this can also create misunderstanding, and make XXX feel that you despise XXX. This can cause XXX a lot of suffering. You give XXX the impression that you want to boycott XXX, to ignore XXX's presence. You cannot face XXX and the same time you cannot avoid XXX. The only solution is to train yourself to be able to communicate again. Deep listening is the way…

Both paragraphs explain exactly the situation I am in now. Both can describe what happen to me and XXX,. It is funny, as if Thich Nhat Hanh is here himself to observe my situation. I guess many people are in the same situation like me.
The book explains how to unwind all these tensions. I wanted to try. But I am scared. What if I failed??? This will be my last shot. I am all gone if I lost this. I hope I can do it well without blowing my head off. I hope you know that I really love you.

Buddha for Everyday

According to Thai culture, these are Buddha figures appointed for everyday in a week. Thanks to Ven. Bhuripanno and  Ven.Ditthisampanno for this interesting info :)
Illustration and explanation taken without any consent from u Thailand

Why bike-short should be black?

On one fine day, my dear friend AD asked me an intriguing question "Why men bike-short are usually black?". My answer was simple, "Because it is much easier to match with the tops". Then, AD showed me the picture below, and saying "That is why, Ming"

Now I know WHY... so it can tell time??? 1 o'clock or 11 o'clock?

Earthquake Warning

Today, my dear friends sent me some information about possibly-next Sumatera (or Padang) Earthquake in different languages. Warning warning warning. I am not panic about it, but I am very curious about the credibility of the prediction. I came up with this particular article. I hope it will never ever happen.

Ulster Expert Warning On Indonesian Earthquake Zone
The earthquake which rocked Padang, western Sumatra in September last year killing more than 1000 people was not the ‘great earthquake’ which earth scientists are waiting for. In fact, it may have made the next massive earthquake more likely.
That is the key conclusion of a paper published today in the journal Nature Geoscience, the authoritative earth sciences research journal and website. Following its publication, Professor John McCloskey of the University of Ulster, who is the lead author of the study and an internationally respected authority on Sumatran earthquakes, has issued the following appeal to the international community. more...

巴東震災．因為有愛

I am so excited, tonight is the 1st time to see my own face on tv :)
I really thought they gonna cut me off cos I knew I was super nervous when they shoot me... was so surprised to see myself hanging on the tv screen for quite a few seconds. Hahaha.
Anyway the program was taken by DaAi TV, it was about Padang Earthquake; a report of what have been done (or not done) after 2 months of the disaster. It was nicely captured.
Oh yeah... Dad was in there too. So proud of you, Daddy. Love you so much.
Special thanks to Ms. Feili Hsu, Mr. Tom Huang, Mr. Lin and Mr. Hendrik Ng for such compact report, it was very informative yet still very touching. Very nice to meet such dedicated person like you.

Happy New Year 2010

Happy New Year 2010 Babyyyyyyyy
Love you more than last year
Love Love Love You So So So Much