Quotable utterings of the famous (Part 3)

The following text is originally lifted from the trivia section of The Jakarta Post dated Saturday, 29 March 2008.

~Compiled from various sources~

• "Luck is the residue of design" - Branch Rikey, former owner of the Brooklyn Dodger Baseball Team.
• "Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die" - Mel Brooks.
• "Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so" - Bertrand Russell.
• "Wit is educated insolence" - Aristotle.
• "My advice to you is get married: if you find a good wife you'll be happy; if not, you'll become a philosopher" - Socrates.
• "Egotist is a person more interested in himself than in me" - Ambrose Bierce.
• "A narcissist is someone better looking than you are" - Gore Vidal.
• "Wise men make proverbs, but fools repeat them" - Samuel Palmer.
• "It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity" - Albert Einstein.
• "The secret of success is to know something nobody else knows" - Aristotle Onassis.
• "Sometimes when reading Goethe I have the paralysing suspicion that he is trying to be funny" - Guy Davenport.
• "When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite" - Sir Winston Churchill.
• "Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has not heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains" - Sir Winston Churchill.
• "The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. The opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth" - Niels Bohr.
• "We all agree that your theory is crazy, but is it crazy enough?" - Niels Bohr.
• "When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong" - Buckminster Fuller.
• "In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite" - Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac.
• "I would have made a good Pope" - Richard Nixon.
• "In any contest between power and patience, bet on patience" - W.B. Prescott.
• "Anyone who considers arithmetical methods of producing random digits is, of course, in a state of sin" - John von Neumann.
• "The mistakes are all waiting to be made" - chessmaster Savielly Grigorievitch Tartakower on the game's opening position.
• "It is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims" - Aristotle.
• "Grove giveth and Gates taketh away" - Bob Metcalfe (inventor of Ethernet) on the trend of hardware speedups not being able to keep up with software demands.
• "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one" - Albert Einstein.
• "One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important" - Bertrand Russell.
• "A little inaccuracy sometimes saves a tonne of explanation" - H.H. Munro (Saki).
• "There are two ways of constructing a software design; one way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is more difficult" - C.A.R. Hoare.
• "Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler" - Albert Einstein.
• "What do you take me for, an idiot?" - Charles de Gaulle, when a journalist asked him if he was happy.
• "I heard someone tried the monkeys-on-typewriters bit trying for the plays of Shakespeare, but all they got was the collected works of Francis Bacon" - Bill Hirst.
• "Three o'clock is always too late or too early for anything you want to do" - Jean-Paul Sartre.
• "A doctor can bury his mistakes but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines" - Frank Lloyd Wright.
• "It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid" - George Bernard Shaw.
• "If you haven't got anything nice to say about anybody, come sit next to me" - Alice Roosevelt Longworth.
• "A man can't be too careful in the choice of his enemies" - Oscar Wilde.
• "Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names" - John F. Kennedy.
• "Logic is in the eye of the logician" - Gloria Steinem.
• "No one can earn a million dollars honestly" - William Jennings Bryan.
• "Everything has been figured out, except how to live" - Jean-Paul Sartre.
• "Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech" - Martin Fraquhar Tupper.
• "Thank you for sending me a copy of your book - I'll waste no time reading it" - Moses Hadas.
• "From the moment I picked your book up until I laid it down I was convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it" - Groucho Marx.
• "It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating" - Oscar Wilde.
• "When ideas fail, words come in very handy" - Goethe.
• "In the end, everything is a gag" - Charlie Chaplin.
• "The nice thing about egotists is that they don't talk about other people" - Lucille S. Harper.
• "You got to be careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there" - Yogi Berra.
• "I love Mickey Mouse more than any woman I have ever known" - Walt Disney.
• "He who hesitates is a damned fool" - Mae West.
• "Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theatre" - Gail Godwin.
• "University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small" - Henry Kissinger.
• "The graveyards are full of indispensable men" - Charles de Gaulle.
• "You can pretend to be serious; you can't pretend to be witty" - Sacha Guitry.
• "Behind every great fortune there is a crime" - Honore de Balzac.
• "If women didn't exist, all money in the world would have no meaning" - Aristotle Onassis.
• "I am not young enough to know everything" - Oscar Wilde.
• "Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same" - Oscar Wilde.
• "The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his" - Gen. George Patton.
• "Sometimes a scream is better than a thesis" - Ralph Waldo Emerson.
• "There is no sincerer love than the love of food" - George Bernard Shaw.
• "I don't even butter my bread; I consider that cooking" - Katherine Cebrian.
• "I have an existential map; it has 'you are here' written all over it" - Steven Wright.
• "Mr Wagner has beautiful moments but bad quarters of an hour" - Gioacchino Rossini.
• "Manuscript is something submitted in haste and returned in leisure" - Oliver Herford.
• "The covers of this book are too far apart" - Ambrose Bierce.
• "Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them" - Flannery O'Connor.
• "Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end" - Igor Stravinsky.

Read more...

on my scholastic strength

Your Scholastic Strength Is Developing Ideas

You can take a spark of inspiration and turn it into a full fledged concept. You are talented at brainstorming, visualizing, organizing, and independent thinking. You should major in: Natural sciences Computer science Creative writing Math Architecture Journalism

What Should You Major In?

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on Musical instrument

You Should Play the Piano

You are a true music aficionado who loves many musical style and eras. You find music to be an escape. And you'd like to be relaxed and comfortable when you're making it. You're very innovative, and you have a unique way of knowing what may sound beautiful. There's a strong possibility that you could compose some of your own work songs quite easily. While you have a lot of creative energy, you are also serious and conscientious. Your musical talent needs time, practice, and lots of privacy to flourish. Your dominant personality characteristic: your painstaking attention to detail Your secondary personality characteristic: your natural tendency to be whimsical

What Musical Instrument Should You Play?

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on Driving

You Should Drive a Green Car

You're the type of driver who sees driving as a necessary evil. You much rather be biking or taking a pleasant walk to where you're going. And because of this, you tend to be a "green driver" - as best as you can. Whether this means driving a hybrid, supporting alternative fuels, or simply not littering out your window.

What Color Car Should You Drive?

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on my birthday (15 Nov)

Your Birthday Predicts You're Nurturing

Ever since you were born, you've loved being a caretaker. Whether you're caring for people or animals, you love making others feel good. You don't stress or worry much in your life. You think it's important not to sweat the small stuff. You have a soft spot in your heart for children and pets. You are drawn to anyone in need.

What Does Your Birthday Predict About You?

Read more...

Indo-lyric: Belahan Jiwa (D.O.T)

English translation:

Soulmate

the softness of your loving caress is irreplaceable
nobody else could be like you
I am here accompanied by loneliness
separated by the distance between us
only your shadows is with me now

reff:
you are my soulmate
you are the rays of my heart
you are the light of my life
you are everything

that feeling may be present again
when you are here
please accompany me once more

repeat Reff

will never be replaceable
nobody else could be like you, oohhh

repeat Reff [2x]

Original lyric in Indonesian:

lembut belaian kasihmu takkan terganti
tak ada yang bisa sepertimu
aku di sini sendiri berteman sepi
terpisah jarak kau dan aku
hanya bayangmu yang menemani

reff:
kaulah belahan jiwaku
kaulah curahan hatiku
kaulah cahaya hidupku
kaulah segalanya

rasa itu mungkin akan hadir kembali
bila kau ada di sini
temanilah aku lagi

repeat reff

takkan pernah terganti
tak ada yang bisa sepertimu, oohhh

repeat reff [2x]

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On buying cigars

Most people laud the new MUI fatwa on discouraging cigars among Indonesian Muslims due to its adverse effects on health.

Well, despite my natural hatred towards tobacco, I agree on the discouraging of smoking not because of its impact on your health.

Nah, those arguments on passive-smoking have started to sound like a cliché here, so let's not get into that.

I agree on the discouraging of smoking simply because of one important fact one may miss here:

more than 40% of Indonesians are categorised as living in poverty.

That's one fact for your head.

Here's another fact that one may also miss:

a lot of those who belong to that 40%+ number love smoking

It is a personal thing when you decide to buy a cigar when you're financially capable, but when your pocket is perpetually dry, refrain from smoking, for goodness sake!

I don't have to provide any pictures or statistical data here, because you can simply walk down the urban streets in Jakarta, Bandung, or Surabaya to simply see how buskers or bus drivers are spending their hard-toiled money on those addictive poison.

Instead of purchasing those hell-bound substances, shouldn't they better save their money for their children's education....say, affording them until university level?

Fuck those smoking-bound (poor) parents. They should have looked for more inexpensive way to poison themselves, should they not?

Read more...

They ain't nothing but hound dogs

The following text is originally lifted from the trivia section of The Jakarta Post dated Friday, 27 June 2008.

~Compiled from various sources~

• Pharaoh hounds are the only dogs that blush. They do this when they are excited or happy, and their ears, nose and eyes become pink.
• Bulldog puppies are usually delivered by caesarean because of their large heads.
• The Great Pyrenees dogs are so sensitive to anaesthesia that it can kill them.
• A dog bite is less likely to cause infection than a human bite.
• The Basenji does not bark.
• Chow chows have bluish black tongues and gums, which start out pink but turn dark by eight weeks.
• Chow chows were originally bred for three reasons: as a pet/hunter/helper; to keep people warm with their furry hides; and as food, like chickens and cows.
• The Afghan hound is mentioned in writings as far back as 4000 BC, and its name can be translated as "baboon" or "monkey-faced hound". Despite the unflattering name, he was a favourite of royalty.
• The bloodhound does not need to smell blood to find someone who is lost. It is said that his name instead means blooded hound, or aristocratic.
• The gigantic Irish wolfhound is so strong that he can pick up a mastiff or bulldog. When pitted against either in a fight, he picks his opponent up by the back and simply shakes him to death.
• Rhodesian ridgebacks have an actual ridge along the top of their backs that is made up of forward-growing hairs.
• The Saluki is represented in Sumerian carvings dating back to 7000 BC. It is said that whenever one sees the word "dog" in the Bible it means Saluki.
• The tallest dog breeds are the great dane, the Irish wolfhound, the St. Bernard, the English mastiff, the Borzoi and the Anatolian Karabash (Turkish shepherd dog). All of these breeds can reach 90 cm at the shoulder.
• The smallest breed of dog is the Chihuahua, which weighs between one and 2.5 kilos. The second smallest breed of dog is the Yorkshire terrier, which should officially not weigh more than 3.2 kilos.

Read more...

Human brains are all the same

A friend of mine back in Singapore (V-gong) told some of the guys that there is no such thing as one person is dumber than the other.

Why?

Because all human brains are the same and they have identical capacity within the same range of age.

Which means that if you are a 25-year-old guy born without any deformities, you have exactly the same capacity of brain as your 25-year-old pals.

Then why do some people appear more intelligent than the others, some may ask.

It is due to the very fact that people wire their brains differently. Some may have very good abilities in using more percentage of their brain (say, 3% of it), while most of us ordinary mortals continue using our brain only to the 1% of its maximum range.

Well, "10% of your brain" was widely accepted then, but the new fad is on 1% now.

Read more...

No topic is too taboo to discuss

Those who have known me for quite long would know that I am the kind of person who never shies away in discussing any kind of topics most people rarely discuss in open such as those on sex, religious or racial bigotry.

It is not that I am always inclined to discuss those things.

Nah, indeed not. As a matter of fact, I sometimes do feel uncomfy whenever I touch those topics, as I always have to maintain a good balance between political correctness and political incorrectness.

But wait a sec. Why "political incorrectness"?

As an out-of-the-ordinary type of guy, I personally think that sometimes we need a certain tinge of political incorrectness in our life.

What's with all those courtesies? Once in a while, human beings do get tired with those courtesies, don't you think? (unless you happen to be a member of the royal family, of course).

Kick those courtesies out of the window, please.

No topic is too taboo to discuss for Toshi. Whatever your sexual fantasies or religious leanings are, I could always manage to find a way to discuss them...without being indecently offensive.

Just try with me, or go ask my friends.

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on Japanese-accented English

No, I'm not referring to Engrish here.

I'm talking about those Japanese who can speak fluent English, yet with mediocre pronunciations (i.e., thick Japanese accent).

They're one of the worse English speakers in the world, I guess.

Many Indonesians I know complain that they don't speak good enough in English. But nah, the Japanese are worse.

Read more...

on Hannah Montana

I don't care what people say, but I do think that Miley Cyrus is gorgeous.

And oh by the way, I love the scent of Head&Shoulders. Just smelt it off someone's hair today and it was very sweet indeed.

Two trivial facts of the day, haha.

Read more...

Indo-lyric: Pergi cinta (Audy)

English translation:

Just go, dear

It's too late for me to walk this path
I'm lost when you're already ahead
It's too late for me to interpret your love
I realize everything after you're gone
it's hard for me to accept losing you
I harden myself when you choose her over me

Reff:
Just go, dear and forget me
It's okay for me to see her in your embrace
Just go, dear..erase my memories... dear
and make her happy..dear
till the end of time
you're with her

it's too late for me to win your heart
until you give up
I've never known until now you're gone
I realize that you're always in my heart

with a heavy heart I accept my loss
I strengthen myself after you are hers

back to Reff

Original lyric in Indonesian:

Terlambatku menyusuri jalan ini
tersesat di saat kau menjauh
terlambatku mengartikan cintamu
kusadari setelah kau pergi
berat hati menerima kehilanganmu
tegarkan aku saat kau memilih dirinya

Reff:
Pergi cinta lupakanlah aku cinta
ku relakan dia..ada dipelukmu
pergi cinta..hapus bayanganku..cinta
bahagiakan dia..cinta
sampai akhir waktu
engkau bersamanya

terlambatku memenangkan hatimu
setelah kau menyerah padaku
ku tak tau sampai kini kau berlalu
tersadari dirimu selalu di hatiku

berat hati menerima kekalahanku
tegarkan aku kini kau menjadi miliknya

kembali ke Reff

Read more...

Origins of wedding attire

The following text is originally lifted from the trivia section of The Jakarta Post dated Friday, 14 March 2008.

~Compiled from various sources~

The dress

The first known white wedding dress was worn by Anne of Brittany when she married Louis XII of France in 1499. Prior to that women wore their best dress no matter what colour it was. In biblical times, most wedding dresses were blue, which symbolises purity.

In China and Japan brides have traditionally always worn white. White in these countries is the colour of mourning, which is considered appropriate for a bride as she is leaving her family of birth to join that of her husband's, thereby undergoing symbolic death.

The veil

The veil originally symbolised a bride's virginity, innocence and modesty. This symbolism has been lost over the years but the veil is still customarily worn.

The lifting of the veil at the end of the marriage ceremony symbolises male dominance. If the bride lifts her own veil, thereby presenting herself to him, she is showing more independence.

Luck

Something old,
something new,
something borrowed,
something blue,
and a silver sixpence in her shoe.

                                                                                                                                            

This good luck saying dates back to Victorian times and many brides try to arrange their wedding attire accordingly.

Something old represents the link with the bride's family and the past. Many brides choose to wear a piece of antique family jewellery.

Something new represents good fortune and success and the bride's hopes for a bright future in her new life. The wedding gown is often chosen as the new item.

Something borrowed is to remind that friends and family will be there for her when help is needed. "Borrowing" is especially important, since it is to come from a happily married woman, thereby lending the bride some of her own marital bliss to carry into the new union.

Something blue is the symbol of faithfulness and loyalty.

Often the blue term is a garter. Blue symbolises love, modesty and fidelity.

A silver sixpence in her shoe is to wish the bride wealth. Some brides place a coin in their shoe during the marriage ceremony.

Read more...

Various degrees of relationship in Indonesian language explained

Today I'm going to introduce to you a cultural element you may find in Indonesian language: various degrees of relationship ranging from "friendship" to "dating".

Oh well, we're going to skip the marriage part; as I think that it should be obvious already. And for information, I'm only going to discuss it from a Boy-Girl relationship point of view, and not by any homosexual/polygamous one.

Hope you find this article useful!

1. Kenalan (Acquaintance)

This is the kind of relationship you maintain either with those whom you know by name only, or those you contact once every few months (or years). In Facebook, these are the people whose friend request you have accepted (yet you vaguely know him/her).

2. Rekan (Colleague)

The relationship you maintain only to those whom you know in professional life. They are merely work partners, nothing more.

3. Teman (Friend)

~Should be obvious~

4. Sahabat (Best friend)

~Should be obvious too~

5. Teman Tapi Mesra (Platonic friend, lit. "intimate friend")

This is largely a unique Indonesian term, which means that the cultural comprehensiveness of Teman Tapi Mesra (TTM) is much more confined to the Indonesian language and could not be translated accurately into English or any other language.

TTM is the kind of relationship you have with a friend of an opposite sex whom you like platonically. Meaning; both of you could maintain an extremely close relationship, yet the feeling of jealousy and possessiveness are both absent.

Most of the time, TTM is used by singles who maintain close relationship with many individuals of the opposite sex; yet not ready to make any commitment to a single one.

X. Saudara angkat ("adopted sibling")

Now this is a controversial term.

It is controversial in the sense that the element of "love" usually exists in this kind of relationship, and may cause jealousy to your date if you happen to also have a significant other.

That aside, if your Indonesian significant other claims to have a "saudara angkat", this means that he/she loves her/him in the way someone loves his/her sibling.

Now since the difference between TTM and Saudara angkat is thin, we need to draw a line between those two. Which is why it is sandwiched between TTM and HTS (yet unnumbered; notice the X?)

A TTM could turn into "saudara angkat", but once two persons have decided to become adopted siblings, both of them are committed to turn into lifelong siblings and they have ruled out the possibility of dating each other, ever.

See the difference?

TTM could turn into a HTS (and eventually, dating too), but once two individuals of differing genders decide to adopt each other as siblings, they don't get into any deeper relationship than that.

Saudara angkat will always remain that way, no matter what.

6. Hubungan Tanpa Status (Status-less relationship)

HTS... This is the kind of relationship you maintain when you're undecided!

Both of you know that the other guy/girl loves you and you return the same feeling yet for some undisclosed reasons, the two of you decide to stop there and not continue your relationship any deeper.

However, it is a kind of problematic relationship too.

I strongly suggest that when you are engaged in a HTS kind of relationship, please do not prolong such a relationship for too long. You should either just say it out loud with either one of these two phrases below:

"Will you go steady with me?"

or

"What about if we remain as friends?"

Either one of the two questions above will give you a definitive answer, whether you will remain as friends or getting serious with her/him.

I tell you what, this kind of relationship could hurt both sides a lot.

Why?

It is because when you are engaged in HTS relationship, you know that you like each other yet the element of "commitment" is absent. The line between HTS and Pacaran (see below) is defined on the presence of "commitment alone".

And when you are not in any way committed to your HTS, you are free to hang out with any friends of the opposite sex and vice versa.

7. Pacar (Significant other)

~Should be kinda obvious, eh?~

Read more...

Toshi's 20/20

What are your best traits?

I always feel guilty when I lie to people. Which is why the odds are higher to find me being honest, haha.

And worst?

I'm so indecisive when it comes to trivial things

Bad habits?

I procrastinate.

How do you stay healthy?

By keeping my mind happy.

What would you do as President to make a better Indonesia?

Fix the road potholes, increase the teachers' salary, and demolish half of the malls in Jakarta and Surabaya to make way for high-end libraries.

Which book do you wish you had written?

Harry Potter. I'd be living a great life if I were Rowling, haha.

What is your idea of a perfect holiday?

In a tropical island with few tourist but enough amenities.

My first cinematic memory...

Lion King.

My childhood hero was...

Michael Jackson. I used to be fascinated by him.

My friends would be surprised if...

I smoke. I'm very much against smoking.

If I could change something in the world...

I would love to have all countries in the world adopting Japan's transportation system.

Don't call me...

Tomato. I detest it.

My greatest achievement is...

I don't think I've lived long enough to be able to name one.

My favourite animal is...

Cat, their purr comforts me.

Where do you find hope?

Hmm... God?

What is your greatest fear?

Making a speech in the podium.

What is love?

More about giving, less about sweet talks.

The meaning of friendship is...

Sharing and trust.

Life's most embarrassing moment?

Nah, I couldn't tell you that.

Life's proudest moment?

When I won a two-year extendable scholarship to Singapore.

When the going gets tough...

I sometimes stumble.

What is the craziest thing you have done?

Hmm... I almost burned down a neighbour's house when I was 11. It could have turned into a work of arson if not for the people extinguishing the flames.

Preferred clothes?

T-shirt and Jeans. Or short pants when in the beach.

What makes you angry?

When things don't turn out the way I've expected them

What is an unforgivable act?

When I find out that my friends are betraying me.

Your dream dinner guests?

President Obama, of course. And Paulo Coelho... I'd love to learn a lot from those two guys. (a dinner with Keira Knightley may also suffice anyways, haha)

What do you never leave home without?

My Nokia

Favourite corner of your home?

Bedroom. I could spend hours reading while laying on my bed.

What question are you tired of answering?

Where do you go to school?

Regrets, you've had a few, or too few to mention?

I've had a few. But nah, there ain't no use regretting them, are there?

How would you like to die?

In my sleep, when I'm above 90.

What is your life motto?

Haven't thought about it yet. Will tell ya later.

My earliest memory is...

Mom left me locked inside my house in Depok when I was 3 or 4. She was going out shopping for around two hours, and I shed tears and screamed till my lungs burst during those hours. It was hellish, I woke the neighbours up..haha.

My first crush was...

Ironically, a blonde American when I was a first-grader in Richmond, Virginia.

I'm very bad at...

Visual arts. They look nice, but please don't involve me in the creative process.

At school I was...

A mysterious boy who always keep things to himself. Depending on my mood, I might also make a ruckus in the class by becoming the class joker.

My happiest moment was...

When I moved to Bali for the first time... It was July 2002.

Your favourite journey?

To Senggigi (Lombok) and Sangihe! I loved the panorama and beaches

Worst nightmare?

A psychopathic one. I saw my family members killing each other before my own eyes. Gee, I find it hard to sleep the night after that.

Who do you love?

My family, my cats, my close friends, and her.

What makes you laugh?

School Rumble [anime title].

What makes you sad?

When I have to leave the people I love.

What makes you bored?

When I have to wait (in terminal, hospital, etc.) without any reading materials.

If I wasn't me, I would like to be...

Who else? Barack Obama, I think. Or Thomas Friedman. Haha.

What talent do you wish you had?

I wish I were a child prodigy in playing piano.

What would you change about yourself?

My hair. I'm always kinda unsatisfied by my hairstyle.

First thing you think of in the morning?

Any new SMSes this morning?

Last thing you think of at night?

Ah.. sleepy. ZzZzZzZzzz....

Your last meal?

Spaghetti Bolognaise and a serving of Nachos. Preferably with some aged French wine, too.

How would you spend US$1 million?

Finish education till Doctorate degree, travel half the world with my dear girlfriend, and save the rest.

If you could live in the past, what era would you like to have lived in?

The medieval period, where I could experience old European experiences firsthand.

~will be updated with more questions in the future...~

Read more...

Indo-lyric: Yang terlewatkan (Sheila on 7)

English translation:

Those that have passed

where have you been all this time
the angel I've been waiting for
why is it just now
that we are met with each other

it would prove no use to regret
bcoze everything has happened
now you have gone thru it, du du du du du
the rest of your life with him

reff:
perhaps it was wrong of me to let you go
and did not look for you with my entire heart
I truly am sorry

it was wrong of me to let you go
that now you're with someone else
I truly am sorry

it would not be repeated
I won't let you go
with all my heart I'll look, du du du du du
wherever you are

repeat reff

although it's too late for me
you're still the best
to see you, to hear you
you're the best

Original lyric in Indonesian:

dimana kau selama ini
bidadari yang ku nanti
kenapa baru sekarang
kita dipertemukan

sesal kan tiada arti
karna semua tlah terjadi
kini kau tlah menjalani, du du du du du
sisa hidup dengannya

reff:
mungkin salahku melewatkanmu
tak mencarimu sepenuh hati
maafkan aku

kesalahanku melewatkanmu
hingga kau kini dengan yang lain
maafkan aku

tak berulang kembali
kau tak akan terlewati
segenap hati kucari, du du du du du
dimana kau berada

repeat reff

walau ku terlambat
kau tetap yang terhebat
melihatmu, mendengarmu
kau lah yang terhebat

Read more...

My colour-check

Dobutsu Uranai is a website that claims to be able to determine our personality by the basis of Name and Date of Birth alone. Quite accurate, methinks.. You should try it out!

Toshi

15/11/1989

You are Black koala, who is cheerful, amiable and youthful.
But you lack activeness and prefer to be on your own.
You are not good at taking leadership and to take initiative.
You react after carefully considering the action and are convinced.
Even if you are asked your opinion, you don't speak from heart and you don't give out your opinions.
You think you are acting cool, but people around you think you are eerie.
You can not stand to hurt others or get hurt yourself, so you tend to be nice to others.
You have a sharp instinct and when having an argument, you try to develop the argument by reading the other person's minds.
By doing so, you effectively make your point.
Both cautiousness and timidity reside in you.
If you rely too much on first instinct, your action may be haphazard.
Nevertheless, you tend to be strong-minded, and will put in all your effort, even if you upset your health.
You are indifferent to commodities.
You tend to be careful with money, so you won't experience much loss.
You have extremely strong likes and dislikes of people.
You have lots of friends, but at the same time you can create lots of enemies too.
You may exhibit extraordinary talent as a scholar or an entertainer.

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Indo-lyric: Simpan Saja (Ecoutez)

English translation:

Just keep it

You could always make me
forgive your wrongs
and now you repeat
those same mistakes

I'm disappointed with you
wounded by your attitudes
and now I could not
go on anymore

I must admit my life used to have a meaning
and my life would be empty without you
but now it would be better to leave me alone

Just keep the feeling in your heart
and forget everything
my feeling is no longer about love
let us end it here

Original lyric in Indonesian:

Slalu saja kau dapat membuatku
Maafkan salahmu
Dan kini kau ulangi
Salahmu yang itu itu saja

Kecewa ku dibuatmu
Terluka karna sifatmu
Dan kini ku tak mampu
Bertahan lagi

Kuakui dirimu pernah berarti
Dan memang hidupku hampa tanpamu
namun lebih baik aku sendiri

Simpan saja rasa di hatimu
Sudah lupakan
Hasratku sudah tak lagi saling cinta
Sudah sampai di sini

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Arson to evict slums and illegal buildings

It's an Indonesian "tradition", really.

I don't know if this kind of arson also exists in other countries as well, so forgive my cultural unawareness, everyone. But for writing's sake, let's just appellate it as an Indonesian one (albeit not necessarily unique).

In Indonesian urban, if you happen to have your building permits expired or own a shack located near a department store or a mall or any other strategic locations, chances run high that you are asked to relocate building/rundown dwelling somewhere else by some Big Brother.

That Big Brother gives you some sort of compensation in the form of money. Then you'll start lingering over the old memories you have spent in that shack/market stall of yours, with all the decades you have gone thru and perspirations you have toiled.

But for goodness sake, I advice you not to be so sentimental about it. Just take the money and leave your building/dwelling/whatever it is!

Because if you insist on staying, you will get NOTHING in the end.

Yes, you read it right...NOTHING.

Here's a case scenario:

Not long after you reject the compensation offered by Big Brother, you need to leave your building/dwelling for a holiday or Lebaran trip to your hometown.

Then you come back to your city, to find that your building/dwelling is simply....no longer there.

Or rather, it's still there, yet it is reduced to ashes and rubbles.

Nothing; absolutely nothing could be saved, not your furniture, not your TV set (let's hope it's not an LCD), not your daughter's teddy bear.

Your beloved place has already burnt into some "charcoal castle".

Then you ask yourself, how did your place catch fire? Newspapers report it that there might have been electrical fault somewhere, but as your neighbour's buildings/dwellings have also turned into "charcoal castle", there must have been a larger story to that.

Now I leave you my blog readers to take your own conclusions.

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The sharp-eyed eagle and the wise owl

The following text is originally lifted from the trivia section of The Jakarta Post dated Saturday, 9 February 2008.

~Compiled from various sources~

• The most powerful bird in the Amazon is the harpy eagle. This eagle can have a wingspan as long as two metres and weigh up to 4.5 kilos.
• The harpy eagle feeds on large to small mammals including monkeys and sloths. An adult harpy can grow talons up to 20 cm long.
• Bald-headed eagles are larger at age two than when fully mature.
• There are more bald eagles in the province of British Columbia than there are in the whole USA.
• The peregrine has been known to nest on skyscrapers.
• The nest of a bald eagle can be 3.5 metres, three metres wide and weigh over a ton.
• Harpy eagles, from South America, eat monkeys.
• Indian Black Eagles will take the entire nest of other birds to either consume the eggs or the young.
• Kestrels can detect ultraviolet light. It is helpful to them because small mammals such as voles mark their tracks with urine which reflects ultraviolet light. This means that a kestrel can track them.
• The Kestrel is a solitary bird, but is sometimes seen in pairs during the breeding season.
• The Turkey Vulture roosts communally at night in groups that can number hundreds. At night they lower their body temperature by 6 degrees to 34 degrees Celcius, becoming slightly hypothermic.
• Plover birds of Egypt ride their backs of crocodiles and enter the croc's mouth to pick its teeth.
• The owl's cornea is highly convex so that its vision up, down, left and right is good.
• The owl has the ability to turn its head up to 270 degrees.
• The face of an owl is disk-shaped in order to pick up more light and sound waves, much like a satellite dish.
• The owl's hearing is far superior to that of a human thanks to the placement of the ears: the right ear is located above the left ear and pointed at a different angle so the owl can perceive vertical sound movement in addition to the horizontal sound movement that humans can detect.
• The largest owl, the Eurasian Eagle Owl, will eat almost any animal they can kill, from beetles to deer.
• Owls have soft feathers all over their bodies, even on their legs. The extra feathers absorb the sounds made by the owl's flight, making them successful hunters.
• Owls have extremely sharp, curved talons. They depend on their talons for killing and eating prey, as well as for gripping.
• Besides communicating by hooting, owls clap their wings, snap their beaks and sing.
• Screech owls use song in the reproductive process. A male bird will sing a song in a lower pitch, and the female with answer in her higher voice. The two then sing a duet, during which the two owls draw closer to one another.
• Owls can focus each eye individually.
• Owls can contract their pupils, which is necessary to filter out extra light, and therefore can see during the daytime. Even during the day, owls have better visual acuity than humans.
• Owls have been around for millions of years. The oldest owl fossils found have been dated to about 65 million years ago.
• All owls lay white eggs.
• Owls feed entirely on animals.
• A single barn owl can eat over 1,000 mic in a year.

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The world of entertainment

The following text is originally lifted from the trivia section of The Jakarta Post dated Sunday, 24 February 2008.

~Compiled from various sources~

• Oscar Wilde served two years at hard labour after being found guilty of homosexuality.
• Dracula is the most filmed story of all time, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is the second and Oliver Twist is the third.
• Chocolate syrup was used for blood in the famous shower scene in the Hitchcock classic Psycho.
• The famous split-fingered Vulcan salute is actually intended to represent the first letter ("shin", pronounced "sheen") of the word "shalom". As a small boy, Leonard Nimoy observed his rabbi using it in a benediction and never forgot it; eventually he was able to add it to Star Trek lore.
• Spot, Data's cat on Star Trek: The Next Generation, was played by six different cats.
• The first word spoken by an ape in the movie Planet of the Apes was "Smile".
• Of the six men who made up the Three Stooges, three of them were real brothers (Moe, Curly and Shemp).
• More than 150 spiders were used in the laboratory scene in the Spiderman movie. An assistant-auditioned spider actors, picking the ones with the most predictable behaviour, as the Humane Society looked out for their welfare.
• Per several sources, Rose Wilder Lane worked as a ghostwriter much of the Little House series attributed to her mother, Laura Ingalls Wilder. Rose also worked as a journalist, travelling throughout the world, and wrote the first biographies of Henry Ford, Charlie Chaplin and Jack London.
• Margaret Mitchell, who wrote Gone With the Wind, never wrote a book before that, and never wrote a book after that. Her original title for the book was Tomorrow is Another Day, her publisher changed it to Gone With the Wind. The publisher also changed the heroine's name from Pansy O'Hara to Scarlett O'Hara.
• 101 Dalmatians and Peter Pan are the only two Disney cartoon features with both parents that are present and don't die throughout the movie.
• Mystery writer Agatha Christie acquired her extensive knowledge of poisons while working in a hospital dispensary during World War 1.
• Poet/writer Edgar Allan Poe was expelled from West Point, the US Military Academy, because he showed up for a parade in his birthday suit.
• Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was the first American to have plumbing installed in his house in 1840.
• Rudyard Kipling would only write when he had black ink in his pen.
• Shakespeare referred (in Love's Labour Lost, Act 5 Scene 1) to a game called "flap-dragon", in which the players snatched raisins from a dish of burning brandy and extinguished them in their mouths before eating them.
• Mark Twain referred to the accordion as the "stomach Steinway".
• Playwright William Wells Brown was the first black American to write a play in the United States. Escape, or A Leap for Freedom, was written in 1858.
• Mozart once composed a piano piece that required a player to use two hands and a nose in order to hit all the correct notes.
• Only one person walked with Mozart's coffin from the church to the cemetery for its burial in an unmarked pauper's grave.
• The French philosopher Voltaire owned 80 canes. His contemporary, Jean Jacques Rousseau, owned 40.
• The famous 19th-century bullfighter Lagarijo, born Rafael Molina, killed 4,867 bulls.
• In 1910, magician Harry Houdini purchased a Voisin biplane in Germany. He had the plane dismantled and shipped to Australia, where he planned an extended tour. His plane was the first flown to Australia, and he was the first to pilot a plane there. Interestingly, he taught himself how to drive a car during that time, so that he could get out to the airfield. Houdini abandoned the plane and coincidentally, also never drove again.

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Indo-lyric: Keliru (Monita)

English translation:

Mistaken

In the relics of my heart is kept
a feeling of utter confusion
that I've resisted from telling
now that I've realised
the fading away of your heart
that you've kept for her

Reff:

I love you
I long for your embrace
yet I was mistaken
for killing
your love and hers
ohhhh....

Oh... God
forgive me
for stepping in innocently
creating confusion in his heart
I know
you are already with another
I don't think I could
release this love between us

Original lyric in Indonesian:

Di lubuk hatiku tersimpan
Ada rasa bimbang
Yang enggan ku ceritakan
Ternyata baru ku sadari
Sirnanya hatimu
Yang engkau simpan untuknya

Reff:

Aku cinta kepadamu
Aku rindu di pelukmu
Namun ku keliru
Telah membunuh
Cinta dia dan dirimu
ohhhh....

Oh... Tuhan
Maafkan diriku
Telah melangkah lugu
Memberi bimbang di hatinya
Kutahu
Engkau telah berdua
Tak mungkin kurasa
Melepas kasih antara kita

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Indo-lyric: Sadis (Afgan)

English translation:

Mean

Your way is too mean
in making me
a substitute for love
so that he'll return to you
without caring how much it hurts me

How could you
shoo me away
from this relationship
so that he'll return to you
without caring how much it hurts me

Reff:

I hope God avenges everything that has happened
to me one day later
until you realise that the one you have
I'm the only one to return to
as your love

I'm the only one to return to

[Reff]

until you realise that the one you have
I'm the only one Ooo...............
as your love

Original lyric in Indonesian:

Terlalu sadis caramu
Menjadikan diriku
Pelampiasan cintamu
Agar dia kembali padamu
Tanpa perduli sakitnya aku

Tega niannya caramu
Menyingkirkan diriku
Dari percintaan ini
Agar dia kembali padamu
Tanpa perduli sakitnya aku

Reff:

Semoga Tuhan membalas semua yang terjadi
Kepadaku suatu saat nanti
Hingga kau sadari sesungguhnya yang kau punya
Hanya aku tempatmu kembali
Sebagai cintamu

Hanya aku tempatmu kembali

[Reff]

Hingga kau sadari sesungguhnya yang kau punya
Hanya aku Ooo...............
Sebagai cintamu

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Indo-lyric: Kasih tak Sampai (Padi)

English translation:

Unrequited love

Beautiful
it feels beautiful
when we are lulled by the melodies or love
feels like we want to create
the desire to possess each other

But if
everything could be readied
in one bond of love
it would not be as easy
to unite the love

Keep on becoming the star in the sky
so that our love will stay eternal
Let your rays shine thru this universe
to become the witness of our love
both of us...
both of us..

it has...
it has been to slow...
now everything must end
perhaps this is the best way
and we must let go off this reality

to become the witness for both of us

Original lyric in Indonesian:

Indah..
Terasa indah..
Bila kita terbuai dalam alunan cinta..
Sedapat mungkin terciptakan rasa..
Keinginan saling memiliki

Namun bila,
Itu semua dapat terwujud
Dalam satu ikatan cinta
Tak semudah seperti yang pernah terbayang..
Menyatukan perasaan....

Tetaplah menjadi bintang dilangit
Agar cinta kita akan abadi
Biarlah sinarmu tetap menyinari alam ini,
Agar menjadi saksi cinta kita
Berdua...
Berdua..

Sudah..
Lambat sudah...
Kini semua harus berakhir
Mungkin inilah jalan yang terbaik
Dan kita mesti relakan kenyataan ini

Menjadi saksi kita berdua

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