Her Morning Elegance / Oren Lavie

Just a funny video clip that was shown by my sister..She told me that this technique of film making is "stop motion"-film...enjoy :P

Roverandom from Tales From The Perilous Realm

This illustration depicts very well what kind of story Roverandom is. that tiny winy dog is Rover the main character, and the bird is Mew one of the character that he encouters during the journey. No I'm not gonna spoil everything here, so this is not going to be a true review, but rather my personal impression of this book plus some background information about this book.

Roverandom is one of J.R.R. Tolkien's work that has no connection to the Middle-Earth Saga, and lately it is republished in "Tales From the Perilous realm" along with four other Tolkien's works. No it is not some book about searching for eternal meaning of your life, nor cracking the mystery of God or Love or whatever that is, nor that it is an encouraging brave adventure story that gives you a boost of adrenalin and motivates you. it is a children bedtime story about fantasy and adventure, in a creative and fun way, reading it will gives you the impressions very much like "Alice in Wonderland", but in a less cartoon way, and more like a delicacy of the british old legends. And to my surprise, I like it.

It reminds me the simplest joy of reading a fantasy book. It never stops to stimulate my imagination, along with its detail but with a little bit of poetic touch descriptions about the scenery. as I continue to read it, as long as nothing from the "outside" comes to bother me, it actually feels like watching a movie. you can actually imagine in your own way how does the environment looks and feels like. And now, with some addition of Alan Lee's illustrations, it gives more value to the book, because i just simply love it. That picture above is just one example of his works.

Aha, I remembered now why I like to read The LOTR trilogy at the first place, it is not because of great plot, or deep psychology, or the bravery of the soldiers. It is because this (imagination stimulating) reason and the vast unbounded fantasies that doesn't fall into a foolish nor ridiculous cheap creative way. Even in the translated edition (My first Tolkien's book is Indonesian translation of "The Fellowship of the Ring"), Tolkien's works always excel on stimulating your imagination. Of course not all readers fancy it, because some of my friends are not.

"Along the way, the pine trees stands firm like the soldier of the white tower at the right side and the river flows steadily along the left side and end to the water-fall that as deep as the abbys. Far beyond, the hills with its arrogant look upon us crwal its way to the unkown boundry of the dark clouds"

Well that isn't originated from the book, it is just my own recreation of how the book usually describe the scenery, and far from good i must say. Yet for some, this kind of detail is just to much and confusing. But for me, to be able to visualize it, is a very enjoyable experience.

And here is some more fun fact about this story. It is writen in the first place for his son, who losts his toy-dog one day while playing at the sea shore. So Tolkien wrote the story to calm his son and gives some relieve about the fate of that lost toy-dog of his.

Here is some phrase that is simple but attract me to share it here along with some picture that I hope best accompanied it.



"The moon rose up out of the sea, and laid a silver path across the waters that is a way to places at the edge of the world and beyond, for those that can walk on it."





"The sun jumping out of the sea, all fiery-red with clouds about his head, as if he had had a cold bathe, and was drying himself with towels."




Other illustrations of Roverandom. I can't find any on the net, so I just take a picture of it directly from the book.

Roverandom with the sea-wizard.

The White Dragon of the Moon.

Here are some other illustrations that I found from internet, but they are not Alan Lee's works. I got them from here : http://jemimahunt.blogspot.com/

Roverandom with the Moon-Rover

Both Rover are chased by the White Dragon.

37.61 + Right-sided Sore Throat - A Possible Source of Depression?

Yep..apparently I got mild fever, and an acute bacterial right tonsillitis, with a small amount of detritus in it. perhaps this is the source of my drowsiness this whole day, and perhaps the day before. Or perhaps I just hope it is so that I can have a rational excuse for my laziness. After all, I do make lots of rationalization with this depression.

Yes, I am depressed, I admit it, and I realize it, and I'm aware of it, but it doesn't solve the problem. I thought there should be a reason for this depression, perhaps it has something to do with the meaningless of life, that it has something to do with the faulty of my searching for the truth. well the search did brought to me this depression, while it shouldn't. But to think again, why was it in the first place that I begin to search. I realize that what I actually seek is energy, undiminished source of energy, I need an endless boost of spirit, and many authors refer it as "enthusiasm".

So in that sense, there is actually no reason for me to be depressed by what I found (Well I'll not claim that I have found some everlasting truth, because I don't know, I just found something, that's it). Because perhaps at some point at my way I have strayed. My search for energy has brought me to explore myself, "What is the cause of my emptiness?", I thought that if I find the source, I can cure it, and my energy will flow. But then I start so see the faulty, I start to judge myself, my parents, and people around me. My scepticism took over, and I'm entering an endless search for reason and meaning. I start to judge the way of human's world (because I don't find that the world itself is faulty, It is as it suppose to be), and start to hate them because they are worthless and hopeless. And what is worst is that I end up in self-hatred.

But thinking again, perhaps it should be "everything can be meaningless and pointless, but it doesn't have to effect me". It struck me that I'm searching for enthusiasm, and it shouldn't have anything to do with others, or even my faulty. I don't even know why I suddenly think of this way, perhaps De Melo has got in to my head, perhaps it is he that do the talking. Well I certainly hope not.

Or perhaps I'm just depressed in the first place because I didn't read enough cardiology and afraid of failing even if I don't admit it. but it is possible, you never know, hahaha.

Idle is Misery

About a month ago, I was still a Cardio intern an RSUD Tarakan, trying to smooth my way out to become a cardiologist in the future, hopefully. And that means I will need to take the Cardiology residency exam, which also means, I will need to take a break about a month before the test, to make sure that I study enough. The idea is “With that much time, can u imagine how much about cardiology that I can learn”.

So the plan was:

Wake up – breakfast – study – lunch – study – nap – dinner – study – good night.

Or:

Wake up – breakfast – go to gym – lunch – study – nap – dinner – study – good night.

Looks like a terrific plan uh. Sure I’ll get to the top of the list of the writing test. I had no obligation else where, why should it be a problem to manage my own schedule? But Nooooooo. . . . It is much much harder then I think. It turn out to be:

Wake up – breakfast – uhmm.. still sleepy, might wait a bit so I can focus better when I read, so watch BBC knowledge – uhmm.. still sleepy, a short nap might help – uhmm..no, My eyes wanted to close, but my brain refuse to shutdown, so I’m force to wake up – lunch – uhmmm..now the headache kicks in – study, err..struggling to focus – nap – dinner – watch TV a little, why not, reading after dinner will only make me sleeps faster, that is called rationalization of laziness – oh my god, late night, study – barely focused – go online – sleep. And it goes for days +__+

The next day:

Wake up – Gym – aha, tired, but better then drowsy, u can study while tired, but u can't study while sleepy – lunch – study – long nap – dinner – watch TV – study – early sleep. Hmm…sound better, but it rarely comes this smooth..1-3 days a week, that is very inefficient +__+

So idle seems to bring more misery then a boost of spirit. Now I understand why the idle old Chinese folks do morning tai chi exercise. Perhaps an “SKJ” that I usually resent rather made sense. Because practice at gym in the morning seems make a better day. And it seems we people, or perhaps its just me, are accustomed with arranged daily schedule. when I have the freedom to manage my own daily routine, things seems to be getting out of hand. What a robot...

F*ck You...With * = U..hahaha

Well, in respond to my friends post about cool cursing, I think it will be interesting to add the infamous - since God know when used - word "Fuck" in this blog. Well generally, we know Fuck literally means having sex, or illiteraly means anything that resembles cursing. so I just opened up my Webster and found these:

1. To engage in sexual intercourse in both transitif and intransitif forms.

2. To meddle, followed by with.

3. Fuck around: To spend time idly, foolishly.

4. Fuck off: To idle, Go away.

5. Fuck up: To make a mess, or blunder.

6. Fucking: Extremely. Ex: It is fucking hot in jakarta lately.

The funny thing is, you can actually find it in Webster..hahaha...well you will certainly never find "ngentot" in Indonesian Dictionary. And I dont think ngentot has other meaning, or used in other vocabulary but literaly having sex, or pure cursing with no meaning. And I personally think that "ngentot" sound harsher, as this word will only accidently pop out when I am extremely angry with the "metro mini's" attitude while driving.

Psychic Ladies

Here is the number one psycic in the animal kingdom.

How is it called psycic?It can forecast weather 6 months ahead..and based on the research in America, it is with 100% accuracy. What does weather forecast has anything to do with ladybug??well...It has something to do with their survival.

In England, ladubug will need to know how harsh will winter come. If its a mild winter, then they simply do nothing, and by the time the weather gets cold, they only need to pick a spot which is shielded from the a direct wind and open air. they will freeze by the winter, but not freeze enough to kill them. As soon as the spring arived, they will "melt", and be the first bug to roam the spring feast of fresh leafs.

But if the coming winter is a harsh one, they'll need to dig an underground temporary settlement so that they don't freeze to death during six month of winter. So yes, weather forecasting inaccuracy will be a death sentence. Luckilly so far, research has proven that their psycic ability is 100% accurate. And up untill now, no scientist has ever succeed to unravel this "psycic" ability.

The Way of the Giant Panda

Here is one weirdly paradoxical creature. I discover these strange fact when I was watching dodo's guide to extinction (I forgot wether its at NGC or Discovery Channel)

• It is a bear descendant, but looks like a racoon, and unlike other bears family, it has a thumb.
• It is a carnivora by nature and has a carnivora's digestive tract system.
• And yet they refuse to eat anything other than bamboo.
• They only get a small amount of calory each meal, and therefore should eat all the time.
• Low calories cause low blood sugar, hence the letargic and lazy behavior.
• That is why the most popular panda's pose is this. A perfect combination of lazyness.
• Panda doesn't know how to mate unless they had watched other mating couple.
• So in captivity, they try to make panda watch panda's porn, and viagra, but also didn't work. (Yes a porn movie for panda...can u believe that!!)
• Thus happen the artificial insemination for captive panda.

Bushido: Truth or Myth

Bushido (Bushi: warrior, Do: way) which can be directly translated into “The Way of the Warrior” has been the infamous code to samurai class in Japan for many centuries. It is considered as a noble way of life among the samurai (warrior) in service to their master. By the commoners, bushido can be simply put as “do or die” principle. It is believed that the samurai is a loyal servant, who always kept pride for his status, and task. Should he ever fail his master, the penalty of death in his own sword (hara-kiri/seppuku) awaits, for a samurai was thought to be unable to bear the shame of failure or defeat.

But under my research on the spiritual basis of bushido, I had found that there is more to it about bushido. The part “death “of bushido needs a more philosophical approach for it to make sense, so it doesn’t sound stupidly as a waste of your life for an errand that is consider unworthy of a human life. A samurai is said to pursue perfection is everything that he does. Because life as a warrior means that death awaits every day, the samurai must do everything in his best so that should he died that day, he would have no regret, because he have lived an unregretful life.

And even further, after I read Musashi (a novel my eiji yoshikawa), my understanding of bushido itself is biased. Musashi is considered as the greatest samurai ever in Japan, yet many things that I found in his experiences and wisdoms are contradictive to the popular opinion about bushido. Musashi considers that life is a precious diamond that should be well kept. A samurai must guard his life as his first priority, for as long as he is still alive, he could still fight or repent for no matter what failure he had done. A samurai should only fight to his death for a matter that is worthy of his life. That is why, Musashi found no shame in fleeing from the battle, he even comes late in his final battle with Sasaki Kojiro, he has no particular tradition or technique in his sword style, he utilize everything in his surrounding to achieve his goal. Freedom of mind and body is the core essence in his teaching. All that he knows is that if he didn’t do it (in a sword fight), then he’ll die. That is why for some narrow minded bushido fan-boy, Musashi is considered not noble, even a cheater.

Now having heard all that, we expect the samurai as noble warrior with a strict code of honor, Like the Jedi perhaps. But the reality about samurai life is far from what we expected. As I read my latest book “Samurai – An Illustrated History”, it is stated that most samurai were killers, superstitious, irrational, and held human life cheap. It all makes sense. My previous reading on Taiko and Shin Heike Monogatary has proven that loyalty was not their best quality. Nobunaga Oda died by betrayal of one of his own retainer during the Sengoku. Ieyashu Tokugawa rise againstToyotomi descendents after Hideyoshi’s death,thus

happened the Edo period. We also know that most samurai are sex addict. Yes, u heard me right, that hentai and JAV idol that you watch are not negative influences of the western world to the Japanese. It is all on them. Taira no Kiyomori has a fascination of molesting young untainted geishas. Toyotomi Hideyoshi has many adolescent concubines which gives the impression of a pedophile. The geisha culture is just a masquerade to make it sounds more civilized and stupidly artistic. During the World War II, bushido is also abused by the Japanese government to brainwashed and control the people. After all, they do need pilots of human missile to blow the Americans. And even now, bushido and samurai culture are abused as money making trademarks, rather than a noble code.

Now am I disappointed? Yes and No. Yes because one more code of honor is happen to be a masquerade. And no because it is to be expected, the latest book only confirmed it and gave the fact that I need to establish a thorough understanding about bushido. It also relieves me, because I once thought that it is possible for a human being to live up to such a perfect code, and a failure to do so while you cling on the ideal is kind of depressing, but, now I know that it doesn’t. After all, humans tend to create rules and codes that they can never fully lived up to. The samurai is not an exception. To make it simple, you must separate samurai and bushido. Samurai tries to live up the bushido code, but few actually success.

And I haven’t stated yet, that spiritually, bushido are actually derived from Zen Buddhism. The teachings within it are not exclusively for the samurai. Since brought by Rinzai Zen master to japan many centuries ago, Zen soon serves well to the need of the warrior. The meditation offers mind stillness and attitude that is needed during the battle. The samurai practice martial arts and Zen meditation simultaneously. Combine the Zen teaching all together with what is relevant for the samurai, thus born Bushido. Vulgarly speaking, perhaps there is no such a thing as bushido. Bushido is just a Zen Buddhism that is adopted, and then applied to the life of the Samurai.

Artist of Life

Just recently, i revisit my old-book collection and found "Bruce Lee - Artist of Life". A book which bought by my father at 2007...I opened the first few pages, then read the foreword, and found this quote by Bruce:

"To know yourself takes a lifetime"

And I Thought "Heh??sounds damn familiar"..and i remembered something...

"Memahami diri, gak cukup seumur hidup"

This phrase once posted by me in my facebook status update...that is just funny..and weird..hahaha...but I'm also excited, because a man of his caliber could have the same thought as I am..well this book gives me a broader view about Bruce Lee..

People tend to think of him as a martial art master, strong punch and kick, able to fight numbers of opponent at one, macho, strong, etc..but few realized that he is more than that..his martial practice has led him to understanding about the importance of philosophy, and understanging about the life itself...thus years of study at University of Washington in philosophy...Plato, David Humes, Rene Descartes, Thomas Aquinas and other philosophers has influenced many of his philosophycal thought...perhaps I'll write something about it in near future...

SLAP!!

I need a SLAP in the face, plus a scold "GO READ SOME CARDIOLOGY YOU DUMB ASS"...
But since the first who slaps me will get a taste of my boken's tip perhaps I'll slap and scold myself...
well certainly not this kind of slap..

Thus Said By The Romans "Demi Jupiter"

Has any of you read Asterix?A comic by Goscinny and Uderzo that tell stories about the almighty but silly Roman versus the limited number but strong Gaul (Now Frenchman)...It is described that every time the Romans were in such situation that made them swear, they would say "Demi Jupiter"...Well Jupiter is worshiped as the King of Gods in Roman Mythology...it is like people now days say "Oh my God" in a certain situation...Now that Italy is a Catholic Nation, such worship is nothing but a myth..So Jupiter is either a character of Roman mythology or just simply a planet...


But wait a minute...what you don't realize is that perhaps Jupiter (the planet) does deserve at some certain degree worshiped even not as God. Perhaps just noticed and appreciated, so that you guys don't have to accuse me for blasphemy..hahaha..

On 21st July 1994, Jupiter had been hit by a comet named Shoemaker-Levy 9 (SL9) and resulted in an explosion that is greater than the size of our beloved tiny planet called Earth...Although rarely mentioned, some scientists speculated that had the comet not been blocked by Jupiter, it may came straight to Earth and kaboooom...In fact Jupiter, being the largest planet in our solar system has experienced countless collisions with either comets or asteroids (our solar system has thousands of these), owing to its large size and therefore, large power of gravity...Over millions of years Jupiter has act as a vacuum cleaner of our solar system, and has kept some smaller helpless planet like ours to survive...but since it is not an absolute protection, we humans are considered very lucky that such impact just happen to Earth every several million years...But do we always get that lucky??No, not at all...as times goes by, we will one day out of our luck...it is just a matter of when...

65 million years ago Earth does out of luck which resulted as an asteroid wipe out 90% of life form on earth, thus extinct the dinosaurs and came the humanity...As we know that asteroids do came to contact with earth's atmosphere, but most of them are small in size that it burned out before it could reach the ground...Four telescopes operated by the US military are searching endlessly for any object in space that presents possible threat to the earth, object that is large enough to penetrate Earth's atmosphere and explode...And surprisingly, about four threatening asteroids can be found each month...

As a conclusion, or you can say a stupid analogy..Do pray "Demi Jupiter" sometimes, so that it keeps us away form those nasty asteroids....Amen...

Source:
1. BBC Knowledge - Space
2. Asterix
3. Wikipedia - Jupiter (Roman mythology)
4. http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=8136108
5. http://www.lightandmatter.com/html_books/2cl/ch01/ch01.html

Well That is An Odd One

I have taken my test this afternoon, and it sure is an odd test...no one is assign to watch over me while I do the test, so that I can freely do the "stunt" that FKUI 2002 are famous for...hahaha...thanks to the great role model Madame Tisya to had done it before...

Can you imagine that after finishing the structure and reading parts, I actually have to get out of the class, go down to the receptionist, and says "permisi, udah selesai nih, mau test listening"...perhaps with more courage or u can say recklessness, I can even take out my laptop and make a copy of the listening CD...but of course I'm not that crazy...hahaha...but it is possible, and at the same time pointless...

Why pointless?because I don't think it is necessary...seriously, the only part that you should study that hard is structure...I spend weeks and months finishing Sukur's TOEFL Grammar, and only two days working on Barron's listening and reading test, but still feels that I did much better on the later..

The result can be taken on Saturday or Monday...hopefully I can score above 600...Just a wish...Amen..

Vocabulary: Peculiar

It has two roles. As an adjective:
1. Of only one person, thing, group, country, etc; distinctive, exclusive.
2. Particular; unique; special.
3. Out of ordinary; queer; odd; strange.

As a noun:
1. Something belonging to one only, as a privilege.
2. A church or parish under jurisdiction other than that of the diocese in which it is located

Synonym: Strange

Source: Webster's New World College Dictionary, 4th ed, 2000

Lest Practice Some TOEFL

A sachet of Good day Moccachino plus two tea spoons of chocolate, served chilled, and I'm ready.

Having finished 77 units of Sukur's "Comprehensive English Grammar For The TOEFL Test" which took me several month (with many interruptions of course), I will now continue to lots lots of grammar practice tests. And after get bored enough by the grammar test, I'll step further to Barron's reading and listening test. Hopefully by Thursday I'll be ready for the real test at ILP. It surprise me that ILP and Cardiology TOEFL Test doesn't include writing test. Well that is a good news.

Just wish me luck.

Genesis, Miranda Bailey MD version

Thought I'll do a little copy paste from my fossilized Blog at Friendster...A funny prologue at one the episodes of Grey's Anatomy...not that i like to watch this series tough...

"In the beginning, God creates the heaven and the earth. At least that is what they say. He created the birds of the air and the beast of the field, and he looked at his creation and he saw that it was good. and then God created man, and its been downhill ever since.

The story goes on to says that god created man in his own image, but there's not much proof of that. After all, god made the sun and the moos and the stars, and all man makes is trouble.

And when man finds himself in trouble, which is most of the time, he turns to something bigger then himself to love or fate or religion, to make sense of it all."

Hallo World..

Simply put..Hello world...its my first post in this under-construction blog..do it just so the blogger.com stop bugging me with the request to make a blog every time I've signed in...well of course I intend to write something in the near future...but just not now...kinda busy...so that's it...c u...