Water in The Bottle

Check this youtube video about the The Truth of Bottled Water

The idea of Selling bottled water might sounds silly, who would buy things that are free and available abundantly around us? What's next? Even years and years ago Dr.Seuss have predicted something dodgy yet promising to sell when the environment collapsed, it's written in the Lorax. Bottled water, done. Does it mean next gonna be a hip bottled air, just like O'Hare advertisement?
Get a well-known celebrities to endorse ridiculous products, create an illusion that your life would be incomplete without it. And kaboomm!!! The product will be a hit!

As someone who spend almost 50 gallons of refilled drinking water per-week, I feel very bad watching the video above. Though, I think it's not as bad: I mean, we are not disposing the bottles right away, they get refill-ed (the 20L size that get chucked into a water-dispenser). Why we choose to buy bottled-refillable-water is about it's actually cheaper to buy rather than to boil tap water. Note that in Indonesia, our tap water is not ready-to-drink, we need to boil it to kill all the bacteria; the good thing about it is not-much-chlorine-in-it.

About those tiny bottled water that I could finish up in a few gulp. Gee, need to remind myself to always carry my water bottle. Save the environment, save the future.

He is ...

He is...

Helium

and I couldn't believe I thought of something else

Guinness Book of Record: The Longest Centipede Procession (蜈蚣座）

To celebrate 福德堂/HokTekTong/Himpunan-Tjinta-Teman/HTT's 150 years anniversary, a series of events were held to celebrate it. One of the most anticipated one was The Centipede Procession or Sepasan or 蜈蚣座.

The achievement was awarded by Guinness Book of World Record and MURI (Indonesian Record) as the Longest Centipede Procession in the world, they broke the previously held world record by 金门 KinMen County, Taiwan, by having 223 kids on boards, total length of the construction is 250m, number of people participated in carrying the centipede was 1500 people, taking a route of 3.9km (basically circling Padang's Chinatown).

The procession was carried completely on human strength, without wheel and engines; all by 100% human strength. Of course, HTT has 5000++ members, they sure can carry a bit this. Noting that, HTT member carried coffins almost on regular basis.

Although there were a bit of light shower in the middle of the procession, it ran quite smooth and elegantly. It's a success! Very proud to see the young kids to behave very well, it's a big thing, since the kids were 2-5 years old and they were dressed in complicated costumes too. Even some foreign kids participated in this procession, ignoring the language and cultural barriers.

Apparently the procession has always been carried out years and years ago. The term Sepasan (Centipede in Minang language/Padang local dialect) was a translation of 蜈蚣. Looking at the similarity of the wooden construction with KinMen County, there's a big probability that both originated from the same source: somewhere in FuJian, Mainland China. 

FuJian Chinese Immigrants started to come to Padang-Indonesia sometime in Qing Dynasty (Canton Chinese came a bit later), a conclusion roughly taken by reading some of inscription left in HTT. In the same time, I guess, some of them went to somewhere closer to FuJian: Taiwan. It's amazing that this particular tradition is well preserved until today.
The only difference from KinMen version is the Head part. Padang's Centipede has evolved into a Dragon (always been as far as my memory goes); while KinMen's Centipede is still looks like a Centipede.
Used to wonder why this dragon called as Sepasan? Now the mystery is answered.

You can watch a report on our local TV station here (in Chinese)

Here are some pictures of the glorious procession

The original name of HTT-福德堂 was 建德堂. Looking from the name, you'd probably able to draw a family-line to some South East Asian areas. The early immigrants didn't aim for one particular places, they spread to a different places, carrying their unique cultures that deeply infused until the very day. The brother-organisations can be found in cities of Malaysia and Myanmar. Some more are yet to be discovered, the world is all connected after all.

Blue Yabbie Pet

Apart from my chickens, I have another pet: Blue Fresh-Water Crayfish / Yabbie
Didn't purposely get it for a pet. What happened is, Mom saw some live ones in the market. Obviously they were intended as food.
Out of compassion, Mom bought some to release it in wild.
Then Mom and Dad realised that they can't just throw those crayfish in ponds, waterways or anywhere. They can be a scary predator. Crayfish can ruin natural habitat, so they end up to be my pet.
I dunno how long I'll keep them, until they all die I think. I've been keeping them for nearly 2 years now.
Somehow they do not reproduce any little babies for me
They are not much fun as pet, cos they always hide in their burrows (made from PVC pipes) - what a shy creature...

Big Balloon - Failed

the giant balloon of the "Gateway of India" - Bombay

Look how cool this giant balloon is.
All I think about when I saw it that it'd be so cool for Nara's 1st Bday.
I imagined to tied up those giant balloons on his waist and it'd look like Disney Pixar's UP.

So, I bought a pack of ten (and WAS regretting not buying more of them. Not anymore now)

the length of the tile is 60cm

On Nara's Bday, I really brought up the balloon. And to my big disappointment, it never turn out to be what I expected. I wanted to be as big as the vendor's!!! 

I guess I've been fooled.

Should have asked the vendor "Are these balloons gonna turn out to be as big as what you have now???"

I also googled about this Bombay Balloon, see if anyone succeed... Not much luck. 

But I found a lady wrote something about Big Balloons of Bombay here.

Who buys them ?  ---  me?

How much do they pay? --- around 50 rupee if I'm not mistaken

What do they do with them? --- Blow it?

How long do they take to blow up? --- not long, see this youtube clip. I tried using my mouth too, it tooked 5 mins, I guess

Why? --- cos giant balloon is cool

The Black Monster

I once visited a friend at our neighbouring country. I stayed at her place for a couple of days there.
Once day, she took me to mall for sightseeing...
And suddenly, her 2-3 years old baby girl shrieked "MONSTERRR !!!"
My friend quickly gave her baby a hug and say... "Yes! Black Monster... It's OK, mommy is here"
They were referring to a Bangali cleaning service guy - whom were busy mopping the floor and did nothing to scare the baby.
Apparently, my friend has been teaching her daughter "to-hate/ to-be-scared" those Bangali people. The code name is "MONSTER"... "If u not eating your food, Mommy'll call the Monsters to catch you (pointing at a Bangali worker)" or "Don't run, walk with mommy, later got Monsters, how??" etc etc
The sad part is, almost all the family members named those people as "Monster". Even the grandma told me proudly "Since very young, she already don't like those Bangali. Smart girl, you know. Those Bangali are scary and filthy, like Monsters, right?". So wrong.

In my neighbouring country, it's very common to see South Asian immigrants doing "unwanted" job, ie. Cleaning service, janitor, construction worker, etc. Although, you can find some other races doing unwanted job too.

But teaching a toddler to love and hate a certain race by judging skin colour is so wrong. 

She's so young, and they started to feed her unnecessary fears. And these kids will keep in their minds and develop hatred for ridiculous reasons for the rest of her life.

Why "RESPECT LEVEL" is inversely proportional to a "MELANIN LEVEL"?

Though seems trivial, these "RACISM" issue may cause a bigger problem in longer run. Learn from us, please :(

Look, In Indonesia, despite being colonised by Dutch and Japanese for centuries, I never seen any local Indonesians hate them as much as they hate Chinese. Odd, isn't it?  (Although, I believe those jugun-ianfu will have different opinion about this)
And vice versa, Chinese hates locals. Looking down on them.

I don't know how people in the pasts whipped out this hatred. Some said, the Dutch used to give more benefits to Chinese, so the locals got envy. Some said it's the sin of our former President Suharto. I dunno how true it is, but it seems to be deeply infused until today.
And sometime it blew up, just like 1998 incident.
Both races' morons fought for someone-else's victory! They don't even realised they are being used for military for a coup trial. Stupid...!

Yet it still happens...
Local kids will call Chinese by "mocking" names. Local government official will anyhow ask for more ciggy-money form Chinese, anytime, anyhow.
When I was young, my parents forbid me to speak Chinese in public, they are scared that locals will harm me by showing Chinese traits. I think, no matter what I speak, my skin and my eyes already shows my race. Being mute won't help much.
I don't understand Indonesian Chinese either. Those super hard-core ones (I met some who can mistreat and swear about locals' race) are hardly "Chinese". I mean, they are 3rd-6th generation Chinese that no longer speak Chinese, they know nothing about China, and they never ever set their foot in China. What's China about them is merely diluted gene and their cheap mobile-phones!!!

I won't teach my younger generation to hate someone based on unchangeable things, like: you can't change your skin colour.
Ehm... (I see what you do there... OK OK, I'll rephrase it)
I guess, the proper way to say it, it'd be better not to hate anyone or anything :)
Easier said than done. But let's give it a try, shall we?

Silence of the (un)Wise men

"Silence is Golden"
Somehow, we were taught from young age, that silence is golden. 
We are groomed to the idea that say nothing is preferable than speaking.
Esp. in Asian countries, to confront someone is considered a taboo. 
It's rude to comment, to question and esp to oppose someone...
In some circumstances, this might be true...

If you know your friend is being bullied, would you stand for him/her?
If you know your neighbour is hiding a fugitive, would you report it?
If you happened to know a terrorist plan, would you tell police about it?

Many of us, wouldn't.
I have to admit that, once you step in, sometimes it'd be messy. 
You might mean well, but you might end up in the bottom of the well.

But does it mean, that we should shut our eyes, close our ears, sealed our lips?
Remember:

"The world suffers a lot, not because of the violence of bad people, 

but because of the silence of good people"

It's so easy to say:
As long the bully doesn't hurt me, I don't care
As long as the fugitive doesn't come to my place, I don't care
As long as the terrorist doesn't blow up my train station. I don't care... Let them blow airport, I don't take planes

"It's none of my business"
Is it, really?

Here is a cut of legendary comic for thoughts... 

what do you mean, it is not?!!! :D

"When choosing sexual partners, remember: Talents are not sexually transmittable"

Tina Fey, Bossypants

LiuBei vs CaoCao

Who would believe that a bloody story of wars-wars-and-wars in 14th century China would still be captivating, even for today.
Romance of Three Kingdoms is probably one of the literature staple for every Chinese beings at school.
I didn't have that chance, we don't have Chinese school here, rite?
Anyway, I know we are 3 years late, but the TV is playing the series now. It's cool!

So, my mom seems to favour Caocao (the antagonist) rather than LiuBei (the protagonist),
The reason is because LiuBei always-always-always reluctant to do things that it's not morally correct according to him.
Everytime he doesn't listen to his wise advisor-ZhugeLiang, he would always fail.
LiuBei somehow very dependant to ZhugeLiang. Without him, LiuBei's name would end in the first chapter of the story.
While Caocao, an ambitious man. He would do anything, everything, anyhow to achieve his goal.
Even if he need to kill innocent men, which he did casually.
Not that mom fond of a murderer. But she simply adores the strong and determined character of Caocao.
When both compared, of course Caocao seems to be more superior. Somehow all villain are superior than their hero. Don't you think?

I replied mom this way:
LiuBei is not stupid. He is smart in his own way. In today business world, LiuBei is a portray of a CEO
He might be weak, but he has 1 ultimate strength: he knows how to choose great people in his team. 
He particularly choose people who are more skilful and capable than himself. But, he knows how to utilise them.
Even a brilliant ZhugeLiang faithfully defend him after LiuBei is long gone.

I regard CaoCao as a business owner. Someone who is capable of anything - in military strategy, in poetry, in arts... in everything.
He is a one-man-show person. Everything is centralised to 1 person, himself.
Yes, of course he is more capable than LiuBei, but he need to do everything himself; while LiuBei can just sit and delegates all the chores.

Here to read more about CEO vs Biz Owner
Who is better? It's very hard to judge.
Both have their strength and their own weakness.
But it would be unfair to say one is a complete idiot, cos none of them is

Hehehehe... I think I answered it wisely and cleverly.
I was impressed too. How in the world could I say such thing. Hahahaha

At the end of the story, none of them become the winner.
The one that have all the power is grandson of SimaYi - advisor of Caocao.
SimaYi is a very smart, cunning and yet very patient man, he planned and plotted his own path right from the start. By the time, he strike a coup d'etat, he is already an old frail man.
Fate churned everything into his descendant's plate.
Without much blood on his hands, the grandson became the emperor, ending the long battle of 3 kingdoms.
Now, that's what I call "Lucky You"

Behind Religious Curtain

this brilliant comic are taken from here

It's not a rare thing to see a headline where corruptors wearing religious attributes, quoting religious verses, and speaking as if he/she a martyr. Happens in any religion, without fail!
Borrowing God's name has become a compulsory formula when you got into deep shit; it's the golden rule when you have fingers pointing at you.
We all know they are all covered with lies, yet, as a compassionate human-being, we took a pity on them.
Nodding at the ridiculous excuses, twisting brain-wire to find a loophole to escape - let's be a bit lenient, everybody has made a mistake, right?; and at the end, you just forgive because you have fallen into their melancholic drama plot.

For a conduct to be right or wrong, it's not because how correct the particular action is.
It's determined by one's mind - the way we see it

For example...
It's politically correct for a soldier to kill an enemy
But it's not correct, when a stranger killed a member of your family (for whatever reason)

For US government to have Snowden in their custody is the correct thing - that rascal has leaked US dark dirty secrets. He need to be punished, or maybe wiping him out from this world would be a better option.
But for those who loathe US' bullcrap preaching on human-rights, Snowden is their hero! They'll be cheering for Snowden's escapes. God speed, Snowden!!!

It's all in your mind. Your own illusions.
There's no absolute correctness in this world
Tweak it a bit, and you'll find million ways to twist the so-called-truth

Let the time speaks, the truth will reveal itself.

God will protect me and punish you all for the injustices you've done me.

- stated by a proven corruptor