Stargazing Hour

It was such a long time I don’t do stargazing. Rainy season still go on which means too many clouds in the sky that make stargazing activity is ineffective.
One day, the sky is clear, and my niece yelled,”Anty, It’s Orion, right?!”
I just smile. I previously told her about Orion the hunter so every bright star she saw will be considered as Orion. And she pointed a wrong constellation.
Maybe it’s a sign for me to gaze a night sky.

Date: April 25th, 2006
Time: 10.30 pm, Sky status: clear
Observation result:

• Head of Scorpious the scorpion is prominent on the East.
• I saw Arcturus for the first time. The color is yellow and bright. It belongs to Bootes constellation, the herdsman. Part of the constellation is blocked by the building :(
• I saw Spica for the first time. It’s part of Virgo constellation, the maiden. Spica is dimmer than Arcturus actually.
• There’s a square of 4 stars with the same brightness on the right of Virgo. O...that’s Corvus the crow.
• Start to identify dim constellations which are Libra the scale & Lupus the wolf.
• At first, I just notice the front legs of Centaurus the centaur. They are 2 bright stars which are Alpha Cen and Beta Cen. But now I can identify the whole part.
• Identify dim constellation near Crux the cross entitled Musca the fly.
• There’s a very bright star at the tip of Libra. It dominates the other stars. But I don’t find it fit in the map sky. So I guess this one is a planet. Finally I know what the mysterious thing is. It’s Jupiter!! I’m so happy. I have no interest to identify planets because their path pattern is irregular. But now I change my mind.
• I was relaxing my eyes but still looking at the stars. They’re beautiful and sparkling, look like jewels spread in the sky.

Date: April 26th, 2006
Time: 5.00 am, Sky status: clear
Observation result:

• Scorpious is seen as a whole.
• Sagittarius the archer is shown behind Scorpious. The square body part is clearly visible.
• On the north side of Sagittarius, I found the close pair of stars. One star is brighter that the other. The brightest is Altair, part of Aquila the eagle.
• Identified Cygnus the swan nearby Aquila.
• Once you have identified Aquila and Cygnus, then you will found Lyra the harp. These 3 constellations are known as summer triangle. But it’s so strange I couldn’t identify Lyra. Maybe because the cloud came that blur my view.

I wake up in the morning just to see the sky for a moment. I guess the excitement overwhelms me.

Date: April 28th, 2006
Time: 8.300 pm, Sky status: rather cloudy
Observation result:

• Jupiter still twinkling bravely on the east. I don’t see any star around it because blocked by cloud.
• As I gaze north, I saw line of prominent stars there. I’m a little bit shocked. Are they planets? I grab my sky map and start to observe. O my Goodness, that’s the big dipper, the well-known pattern of stars within Ursa Major. I though I would never seen Ursa Major the Great Bear since this constellation lie on north polar sky. Woo hoo!! The dipper/bowl is so bright and sparkling. This is the best constellation beside Orion.
• Finally Regulus, the brightest star in Leo constellation is identified.

I stop my activity coz the cloud cover the sky little by little. I can’t wait to see Pisces and Pegasus constellation because this region is a place for dim constellations. I have seen many bright constellations so it’s time to identify dim constellations. But of course it takes time to find the right time.

Last thing to do is checking my constellation list, which ones have been identified and which ones still waiting to be found.

Justification and Justice

A man murdered his pregnant mistress with burglar scenario by sacrificing the neighbor of the mistress. On one night, the ghosts of the mistress and her neighbor come to the man seeking for explanation and justice.

Man : “It wasn't easy. But when the time came, I could pull the trigger. You never know who your neighbors are till there's a crisis. You can learn to push the guilt under the rug and...go on. You have to. Otherwise it overwhelms you.”

Neighbor : “And what about me? What about the next-door neighbor? I had no involvement in this awful affair. Is there no problem about me having died as an innocent bystander?

Man : The innocent are sometimes slain to make way for a grander scheme. You're a collateral damage.

Neighbor : “So was your own child.”

Man : “Sophocles said: To never have been born may be the greatest boon of all.”

Mistress : “Prepare to pay the price. Your actions were clumsy, full of holes. Almost like someone begging to be found out.”

Man : “It would be fitting if I were apprehended and punished. At least there would be some small sign of justice, some small measure of hope for the possibility of meaning.”

End of the story, the police didn’t find any evidence that lead him as a suspect. Because of some luck, the police suspected a drug addict. Unfortunately, the drug addict has killed by one of his own. Case closed. The man go on his life happily ever after with his wife.

What a lucky guy on earth!
Take somebody life to cover adultery is absolutely a huge sin. He must be punished to uphold justice. But he made justification for what he has done. Every question is answered. Every mistake is rationalized. Every stain is bleached.
This is some kind of anomaly. But it possibly happened in our daily life nowadays. People make justification and rationalization to blind the truth and justice for personal gain.
Things prepared to have an impressive justification:

• Be cool and confident as if you do nothing.
• You must have lots of life philosophy. This is a powerful strategy to twist people mind. The more difficult the philosophy the more confused it got by people.
• You must know lots of quote. Make sure the quote from famous people. It is best from the Greek philosopher. It just sounds cool. Beside the quote itself, people would be amazed because of your capability to memorize the quote owner. Certainly a plus to you.
• Point 2 and 3 can be accessed through internet, book, TV, or movie and don’t forget to practice ;) over and over.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t support justification. I believe people who stand behind justification have already known these tricks. While the good people still have to learn to protect their selves. Well, I hope I don’t do justification here .... :).

Actually, I took the story from a movie. It’s a good movie. I love to hear the accent when they talk. Does anybody know this movie?

Sharing Husband

Movie industry in Indonesia is growing. I’m happy for that. The controversial film has been released on this month entitled “Sharing Husband” (Indonesian: Berbagi Suami”). One keyword for this film is Polygamy. This phenomenon has been existed in our exotic country for such a long time ago. The good news is polygamy thing has decreased to any level but still remain.

NO! I’m not talking about the movie. The review on TV is enough. I’m talking about us. I never heard my friends (especially for men) intentionally wanna go to the movie to watch local drama movie. What I usually find out is that they’re more excited to spend money for a movie with full of visual effect or testosterone rush. Drama genre just for romantic thing and dating time :D.

Why does “Sharing Husband” attract men’s attention? It’s a local movie. It’s a drama movie. As a person who hasn’t watched the movie yet, my answer will be the Title. Whoever creates this title has a good sales instinct. The title touches the very basic of man nature. It makes men become the most important/needed/powerful/loved person for women. This is the situation dreamed by men. Feel like a king milled by his concubines. The movie totally support men ego. Since I haven’t watched the movie yet, I can’t conclude this movie merely a commercial movie. Perhaps there’s another message that want to be conveyed by the director or the script writer for us, the society.
Anyway, congratulation for making men become sensitive and make them leaves their Playstation (PS), Guitar, Sport program, Computer, etc for another amusement which is go to the cinema. But I hope Polygamy will not become a trend from now on.

I don’t agree with Polygamy. We used to hear about one cock for many chicken, one lion for many lioness, one male for many female chimpanzee, etc. But we’re not one of those. We’re homo sapiens, the thinker one, the sophisticated one, and the civilized one. That is why we don’t spread male seed everywhere to sustain our species or poorly beat by lust.
There is an eternal couple like Adam and Eve. But there’s no such thing for Adam and Eve, and Angelina Jolie, and Pamela Anderson, and Scarlett Johansson, and on..., and on..., and on..... :)

Do You Eat Carnivores?

I was in the food court with my family. This time, I’m gonna try sea food, so I ordered roasted fish. I told the server, the fish must be very very well-done. It prevents me to puke coz I can’t stand fishy food. Maybe I’ll tell you later about my eating problem. It’s not anorexia or bulimia, okay. Don’t you ever think about it. :)
There it is the food, after waiting for about 10 minutes. On the first taste, I started to smell fishy. I hardly swallow the food until pass my throat. I don’t think I can continue eating this horrible food. My mom will be the solution. We switch the food. I grumbled inside my mind. He, the server, supposed to give me a fresh fish, supposed to roast the fish much longer, supposed to season the fish thicker, or whatsoever. Food must hate me coz we often never get along. They know how to wake up my sense of smell in term of fishy smell. People sometimes don’t believe me when I stop or don’t eat because I told them the food is fishy. The reason is they don’t found any problem with that food but me.

I look at my uneatable fish... *hiks* and then I saw its jaw is gaping and what shocking me is that the teeth are sharp and big. Based on the morphology of its teeth, this fish is a carnivore. It might be a predator.
I eat chicken that come from herbivore. I eat beef that come from herbivore. I eat vegetables, fruits, beans, and their family. But I don’t eat dog, cat, or lion. They’re carnivore. It is bacteria job to “eat” their flesh and I should not seize the job. Apparently, my unconsciousness treats the same thing to living creatures in the water. When I saw a fang or sharp teeth on the food, I think about eating lion, cat, or dog. Certainly, you will loss the appetite.

It must be a link between carnivorous and fishy. Carnivore meat mostly fishier than herbivore meat (The statement is still hypothesis not theory. It is possible my statement has some exception).
Pork is fishier than chicken and beef. Because pig is the mixture between carnivore and herbivore. There’s a term for this habit, but since I don’t post a scientific article here, let makes it simple.

Have you ever seen a ribbon/cutlass fish (Indonesian: Ikan Layur)? Balinese people like this fish, so was my family. The fish is cooked by removing its head. Even though I never saw the head, I always smell fishy. So I don’t like it. Couple days ago I search on the internet about this fish. And I read the fact that, this fish eat another fish and sometimes become a predator. No wonder it has a strong fishy smell.

Help!! We were locked..

This story is supposed to be a testimonial to my college friend in Friendster. I guess most of people who love internet and a living matter collector will register to this site. Is it enjoyed by Indonesian only or by all people around the globe? I don’t have any idea. For those who don’t know what I’m saying, I encourage you to visit and register the site :)
Back to the story, she doesn’t respond the testimonial and I think she doesn’t online for such a long time. I’m getting worried, is she okay there in Vietnam? Well, I hope so. Vietcong has vanished, right?

The story takes place in our campus when I was in college. I used to go to the lab for free internet from 8.00 pm until 1.00 am. Since I have the lab key, I turn the lab become internet corner at night. Sound fun? Sure it is!

As usual we use internet service in the lab. It’s 1.00 am. We decided to go home. Oh my God!! The gateway of this building is closed. We’re locked. There’s some robbing case happened recently. That is why building security is closely guarded. I guess curfew has been put into effect. Ok.. be calm. We go upstairs. Maybe we could find some guy there. Apparently, nobody is there. We’re locked and alone!
There’s a battle in my mind.
Let’s just jump from 2nd floor.
I can’t take the risk to break the leg and have brain concussion. What if nobody know we injured? It is worst than being locked.
How about stay a night in the lab?
For God sake! This building is the house of the ghost. Don’t you hear lots of spooky thing happened here?
Some of you might think, “Why don’t you contact friends to get a help?”.
Unfortunately, we don’t have a cellular. This technology hasn’t familiar yet on that time.
We’re in panic a little bit. Finally we go downstairs to the gateway and use the barbarian way which is screaming and hoping security/the guard hear it. Hey, mister! ... Security! Open the door! Open the door! Keep screaming. We grab the trellis harder and shake it. Suddenly *click*...... the door of the gateway is open. We’re freeze a moment. Craps!
Nobody locked the door. They’re just close it. Then start laughing...Ha ha ha..
Imagine if the security heard our screaming, came in a hurry, and found out 2 panic girls thought they’re locked but actually is not? Thanks God, it’s not happened. On the way home, all we can do just laughing the silliness.

Message From Hallmark

This is funny!!! I found the joke from someone’s blog: Spinster War Diaries. It makes me lol.

What will you do if someone gives you a card with this special message?

1. I always wanted to have someone to hold, someone to love. And now that you've come into my life...
(Inside card) - I've changed my mind.

2. I must admit, you brought religion into my life...
(Inside card) - I never believed in Hell until I met you.
----> Comment: the funniest one :)

3. As the days go by, I think how lucky I am...
(Inside card) - That you're not here to ruin it for me.

4. Someday I hope to marry...
(Inside card) - Someone other than you.

5. When we were together, you said you'd die for me...
(Inside card) - Now that we've broken up, I think it's time to keep your promise.

6. We've been friends for a very long time...
(Indside card) - What do you say we stop?

7. I'm so miserable without you...
(Inside card) - It's almost like you're still here.

8. Congratulations on your new bundle of joy...
(Inside card) - Did you ever find out who the father was?

9. You are such a good friend. If we were on a sinking ship and there was only one life jacket...
(Inside card) - I'd miss you terribly and think of you often.

10. Looking back over the years we've been together, I can help but wonder...
(Inside card) - What was I thinking?

Balinese Tradition Dress Code

There was a ceremony held in our family “Pura” (Balinese temple/shrine) yesterday. We, especially for the women, are told to wear White “Kebaya” (Indonesian woman’s blouse) as a dress code. Considering this is a God related activity then wear something white must be apt. It was such along time I live outside Bali (Bandung & Jakarta), approximately for 8 years. So my kebaya collection is kinda out of date. I only have one white kebaya (favorite one) and I don’t intended to wear it. Do you know what happened to stuff with “favorite” status? It’s often to be used! So that people will recognize you because of what you wear not your face :D.
I went to the Pura with orange kebaya. Just as I entered the gateway, the entire women on the range of my view are wearing white!! Ouch....I though people will not paid close attention for dress code. And I was wrong. Fortunately, I bring my outspoken nieces, so nobody comment on my appearance (this is positive thinking that possibly wrong...again). They’re too busy with my nieces.

There are several rituals we have to perform. One of them is to welcome the holy water that is taken from water source. Suddenly when we do this ritual which is held outside the temple, hard rain came. It’s not appropriate to pour out to save ourselves from rain. We’re all wet! Actually I love it :D. Nature joined us. Can you imagine to women/girls that must spent 1-2 hours in dressing and wearing make up? They’re become a little bit messy because of 20 minutes rain.
After finishing the holy water welcoming, some people go home to change including me. My home is just about 4 blocks from the temple. I change my kebaya with the white one. I don’t wanna feel like “a fish swimming in the wrong pool”. Once again I entered the gateway, and now I saw a different view. Some women don’t wear white kebaya as the result of the rain disaster :).
At the end, it looks like I’m the ones who follow the dress code. Rain can made everything up side down.

I’m too relaxed when dealing with Balinese tradition dress code. Maybe I don’t feel comfort to wear it, especially brocade kebaya. Thanks God, brocade is not a trend to date! Once I wear an office shirt to replace kebaya in a semiformal ceremony. The fact is I want to see God here not to please people, right? I am not saying I write this post to stand up against tradition. In my opinion, you have a right to do anything to achieve goal as long as you don’t break the law and you don’t inflict people.I’ll try to change this habit but I don’t promise a thing here. Don’t let complexities blur the essential thing that should be achieved.

A Painting is Worth a Thousand Words

It was lunch time. Sometimes I wonder why they have to go to the toilet before having lunch. The habit just likes a ritual. Since I am alone in front of the lift and waiting for my friends, my nerve found something eye catching which is a painting on the wall of an office. I forgot the name of that office. :) The painting is abstract without a title. I have nothing to do, so I try to figure out what is on this painting. Just to kill time. Is it a house? Is it a landscape? A man? Flower?
Then something funny came up.

What if this painting represented nothing?
On a certain day, the artist doesn’t have any inspiration to work. Blank... So he just splash the paint on the canvas, scratch the canvas with some color, and doodling. Voila.... you got a painting! And then someone come by to buy art for his/her company. This is a 21st century. Abstract is a trend, classy, and modern. The painting is sold and then places it on the front wall of the office. Every people who look at the painting will use their imagination to appreciate the painting because of its abstract.
If the artist is in that office and watch a guy looks at his painting full of attention, he will smile and say, “There’s nothing on it!! I made it up. Go on your life, okay.” The artist must be more amused if he displays that painting on the exhibition, where lots of people thirst for appreciation. :D :D.

Honestly, I appreciate some people who express their imagination through canvas. I realized that I am a visual people. A picture is worth a thousand words. There are two types of paintings that interest me which are mythological and impressionism paintings. They’re easier to enjoy.

MYTHOLOGICAL Paintings
I love the imagination of the Greek in creating stories. It makes me interested to anything related with Greek mythology, so as the paintings. By seeing the background, the accessories their wear, the motion, we will know who or what is the subject painted by the artist. It could be the god/goddess, heroes, royal house, piece of story, etc. We can play trivia question, for example: “Who is that women with bow and arrow?”. The answer could be Artemis (Diana), the goddess of huntress. Interesting, right?

1. Corot, Jean-Baptiste-Camille (1796-1875). French painter
Orpheus Leading Eurydice from the Underworld
Oil on canvas, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

Orpheus can be clearly identified for his lyre. His mother, the Muses, gave him the gift of music. He goes down to the Underworld to bring his wife, Eurydice back from death.

2. Baburen, Dirck van
Prometheus being Chained by Vulcan
1623; Oil on canvas, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam



Against the wishes of Zeus, Prometheus (titan=elder god) gave the humankind the gift of fire. Enraged at this, Zeus sentenced Prometheus to a terrible punishment. He was to be chained for all eternity to a rock by the help of Vulcan (Hephaestus), God of Fire and Smith. And an eagle was to peck out his liver every day. Did you see man with wing were on his low-crowned hat and his magic wand, the Caduceus? It’s Hermes, Zeus’s messenger and Master of Thief.

3. Raphael
The Nymph Galatea
1512-14; Fresco, Villa Farnesina, Rome

The fresco shows Galatea with her gay companions. This scene describes the fair sea-nymph Galatea rides across the waves in a chariot drawn by two dolphins and laughing the love song sing by the clumsy giant Polyphemus, who in love with her. While the gay company of other sea-gods and nymphs is milling round her. The picture of the giant was to appear elsewhere in the hall.

IMPRESSIONISM Paintings
Landscape painting is the most beautiful object I can see. Impressionism focus on light and color to expresses the reality of the external world. We can see contrast between colors to distinguish light intensity. It makes the painting appear not too real as photograph, but that’s the beauty of it.

1. Pissarro, Camille
Les chataigniers a Osny (The Chestnut Trees at Osny)
1873; Oil on canvas, Private collection, New Jersey

I put this picture as my desktop. I like to see the leaf. Each brushstroke that form a leaf, quite contrast with the others (it looks stiff). But somehow, on the whole, the result is beautiful and still in harmony.

2. Cézanne, Paul
Foliage
Watercolor and pencil on paper, The Museum of Modern Art, New York

You will see different view when this painting is seen both from short and long distance. I guess most of impressionism paintings provide us this sensation.

“Behind The Scene” that become a Spoiler

I realized this issue rose a couples months ago and the impact still remained. It’s Saturday, the best time to relax and watch TV. I watch an hour duration program called Behind the Scene: The Chronicles of Narnia. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

I thought it would be exciting to watch the film making. I wonder what actually they’re doing. But suddenly there’s something wrong. This is not a common movie. This is a movie with visual effects. Computers play the important role here. They make some characters beside the cast.
When I watch the program, I feel everything is fake. They create the woods, the river, and most of the setting. Even for a simple scene which is crossing the river, just walk through the bridge, the shooting take place in a studio. Play with computer character just like acting in a strange way :). What I’ve seen in the studio is that the actor run, fight, scream, and do acting stuff by him/her self. Just like play with an imaginary friend or the worst case... being crazy :). The rest of it, computer will polish up their acting with the power of Green Screen technique.

Anyway, what is Green Screen?
It’s a term for the filmmaking technique of shooting foreground action (the actors) against a monochromatic background for the purpose of removing the background from the scene and replacing it with a different image or scene. Some people use blue screen or other colors. We can just call it Visual Effect.

After seeing the film making, just like my prediction, I didn’t enjoy the movie. The subtle thing when watching movie is that we feel the movie as if it’s real. The feeling is flat coz I know exactly they did it in a studio. There’s no river at all in the scene when the kids drifted in the river. The studio and computer made it. That’s why in my opinion, “Behind the Scene” can be a spoiler. Make sure you watch the movie at first, not the film making. This warning is especially for the movie with visual effect.

Something happened when we’re a child

One thing that you should do with children is story telling. Unfortunately, I don’t have any story to be told for my 2 nieces. Beside story like Cinderella, Snow White, or any local story are too common. I think my mom and dad have done this job well for them. Since their parent are working, mom & dad baby sit them at home.
So what I’m gonna do just standard action such as play a PC game with them. They love Insaniquarium Deluxe, feeding fish game.

"My 1st and 2rd niece from my 1st sister"

"My 3rd niece from my 2nd sister"

One day, my 4 year niece points a Milky Way poster then she said “Anty, what is that?”
Aha!! This is gonna be a story to be told. I grab my book about “Night Sky”. I talk about nebula, galaxy, sun, planets, and any other celestial objects. She’s interested. She’s amazed. Her eyes wide-open when I talk about asteroid hit earth. That face come up because of my story or I’m too expressive that actually make her scared. I don’t know... The next day, she asked me to tell more about planets. I start rewind the story about solar system. Suddenly, she can tell me a solar system member from Sun until Pluto, in the right order. I thought there must be their parent told her to complete my story. So I asked her mom, “Did you tell her about solar system?”. She said, “No!. What did you do to my daughter? She talked about something ... like nebula and stuff at home”. Ups....

So many articles said that children brain just like a dry sponge. They can easily absorb anything: vocabulary, behavior, dialect. Now I know and realized it. Coz when I was a child, I think I never show my parent about this “dry sponge theory”. Life flows like a river. I’m too busy to do outdoor playing with bunch of children around my age. I go to school, do my homework, and the rest of it would be play with my friends.

Kid’s world should be playing, but we must dig their potential as early as possible. Take the opportunity of their “dry sponge” capability. Coz this ability will be last when they grow up. Another thing we should know is language capability. Children use their instinct to learn language. And the fact that this instinct will be gone when they grow up. This means it would be better for them to learn foreign language when they’re still a child. They will learn syntax and dialect by instinct instead of memorized them. So instinct and learning is a perfect combination to learn language.

Look at me. I learned English (foreign language) when I was 12 years. The sensitive time to active my instinct language has passed. Learning is the only “weapon” I have. I memorized the syntax, vocabulary, and stuff. I memorized how to make the right past, present, and future sentences. It’s not flowing. You need extra effort to learn. I believe there must be some wrong syntax in my blog. That’s why I create a blog to challenge my English ha ha. Even though your English is excellent, but still you have to think when you speak English. It’s not like speaking with mother tongue.