Indo-lyric: Selamat Pagi (Ran)

English translation:

Good morning

I feel the beauty of the sun's warmth
waking me up from this soporific snooze
Your bright light starts to enter my eyes
and lures me away from the world of dreams

Now I hurry to prepare myself
to start the day afresh
I couldn't wait to see my smiling friends
and welcome this morning anew
and I say...

(Chorus)
Good morning!!
Dew wets the world and starts commencing the day
and I say:

Good morning!!
The birds are chirping and now I'm ready to start the day
Now hurry up prepare yourself to start this day afresh

(Chorus)

Original lyric in Indonesian:

Kurasakan hangat indahnya sang mentari
membangunkanku dari tidur yang lelap ini
Sinarmu yang terang mulai memasuki mata
dan mengusirku dari alam mimpi

Dan kini kubergegas tuk segera siapkan diriku
tuk mulai menjalani hari ini
Tak sabar ku temui seluruh sahabat yang tersenyum
menyambut datangnya pagi ini
Dan kukatakan..

(Chorus)
Selamat pagi!!
Embun membasahi dunia dan mulai mengawali hari ini
Dan kukatakan:

Selamat pagi!!
Kicau burung bernyanyi dan kini ku siap tuk jalani hari ini.
Kini bergegaslah siapkan dirimu untuk memulai menjalani hari ini

(Chorus)

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Questionnaire

Though this is supposed to be a tagged-based post, I still post it with my own initiative notwithstanding. Informations which I assume are to personal to disclose are left blank, hehe.

001. Real name: [Blank]
002. Like it: Yes
003. Nickname(s): Toshi
004. Status: Not married
005. Zodiac sign: Scorpio
006. Male or female: Male
007. Elementary school: [Blank]
008. Middle school: [Blank]
009. High school: [Blank]
010. Hair color: Black
011. Long or short: Short
012. Eye color: Light brown
013. Weight: 55 kg
014. Height: 174 cm
015. Righty or Lefty: Righty
016. Sweats or Jeans: Jeans
017. Phone or camera: Phone
018. Health freak: Nah
019. Piercings: None
020. Do you have a crush on someone: Kinda
021. Eat or drink: Drink
022. Purse or Backpack: Backpack
023. Tattoes: No
024. Do you like yourself? Yep
025. Current worry: [Blank]

THIS OR THAT
026. Orange or apple juice: Apple juice
027. Night or day: Night
028. Sun or moon: Moon
029. TV or Internet: Internet
030. Playstation or Xbox: Never owned an Xbox, hence couldn't compare
031. Kiss or hugs: Both
032. Iguana or turtle: Turtle
033. Spider or bee: Spider
034. Fall or Spring? Fall
035. Limewire or iTunes: iTunes
036. Soccer or baseball: Neither

FIRSTS
037. First surgery: When I was 1
038. First piercing: [Blank]
039. First best friend: Edwin, a classmate in my primary school
040. First sport: Badminton
041. First award: Best primary school final exam taker
042. First crush: first grade
043. First pet: Engkoy, a mixed-colour cat
044. First big vacation: errm.... Indonesia? It hasn't even ended yet after more than a decade.
045. First big birthday: None is big enough

CURRENTLY
046. Eating: Nope
047. Drinking: Nada
048. I’m about to: Go home from French lessons
049. Listening to: None
050. Singing: Corrinne May
051. Typing: only this Blog entry
052. Waiting for: an SMS

YOUR FUTURE
053. Want kids: Perhaps
054. When: Not sure
055. Want to get married: Of course.
056. When: Above the age of 27
057. Where do you want to live: Ideally, Southern Europe
058. Careers in mind: Freelancing and/or anything with steady salary
059. What did you want to be when you were little: a detective
060. Mellow future or wild: WILD!
061. Something you would never try: Smoking, having drugs

WHICH IS BETTER FOR THE OPPOSITE SEX
062. Lips or eyes: Lips
063. Shorter or taller: Shorter, with no more than 10 cm gap with mine
064. Romantic or spontaneous: Both
065. Nice stomach or nice arms: both
066. Sensitive or loud: Neither
067. Hook up or relationship:Relationship
068. Trouble maker or hesitant: Neither
069. Hugging or kissing: both
070. Tan skinned or light: Either
071. Dark or light hair: Either
072. Muscular or normal: normal

HAVE YOU EVER
073. Lost glasses/contacts: Nope
074. Ran away from home: Almost
075. Held a gun/knife for self defense: No
076. Killed somebody: Hmm....almost
077. Broken someone’s heart: Hmm.
078. Been arrested: No
079. Cried when someone died: Yes.
080. Kissed a stranger: Nah
081. Climbed up a tree: Yes
082. Liked a friend more than a friend: Yep

DO YOU BELIEVE IN
083. Yourself: Kinda
084. Miracles: No
085. Love at first sight: Yes
086. Heaven: Yes
087. Santa Claus: No
088. Kiss on the first date: Why not?

ANSWER TRUTHFULLY
089. Is there one person you want to be with right now: Of course
090. Do you like someone: I only like those who don't stab me behind my back
091. Are you seriously happy with what you are in life: Most of the time, yes

LASTS
092. Received/sent text message: Dear D
093. Received call: Dear D
094. Call made: Dear D
095. Person(s) you hang out with: Dear D, my 2nd Dear D, Buana, Sis R, Duli, Citra Agustine

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Dead and definitely gone

The following text is originally lifted from the trivia section of The Jakarta Post.

~Compiled from various sources~

• Henry the VIII executed some 72,000 subjects. His favourite method was boiling people to death.
• The ashes of astronomer Eugene Shoemaker were put aboard the 1999 Lunar Prospector flight and was "control" crashed into a crater to give him a moon burial.
• Only four U.S. states are on record as having never engaged in a lynching - Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.
• William Kemmler was the first person to be executed in the electric chair in 1890, at Auburn Prison in New York. It was a disaster. The executioner had to administer several rounds of electricity while Kemmler kicked, seared, smoked, thrashed and convulsed, finally dying after eight minutes. An autopsy showed he literally cooked to death, from the inside out.
• Lethal injection was first used in 1982. Three separate drugs are used, starting with a barbiturate that knocks the victim out.
• When John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, it was not a federal felony to kill a president of the United States.
• Singer Steve Goodman had his ashes buried under the home plate in Chicago's Wrigley Field.
• An eternal flame lamp at the tomb of a Buddhist priest in Nara, Japan, has been tended to and kept burning for 1,132 years.
• Utah and Ohio are the only U.S. states that still can execute by firing squad.
• The first drive-in mortuary in the USA was opened in 1968 by Hirschel Thornton. While the deceased rested behind a glass wall, those wanting to pay their last respects could drive by without having to get out of their cars.
• From the 1850s to the 1880s, the most common reason for death among cowboys in the American West was being dragged by a horse while their foot was still caught in the stirrups.
• Tens of millions of people died of smallpox but now there are only two live samples of the virus left in the world. Both are in sealed test tubes; one is in a lab in Moscow and the other is at the Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The last reported case of smallpox was in 1978 in England, when the virus accidentally escaped from the lab.
• The leading cause of death among military personnel in peace time is drunk driving.
• Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, CA is the largest in the U.S. - 1,200 acres in four parks.
• Crematoria ovens heat typically to 1,100-1,300 F and will burn up a 180 lb. man in about an hour and a half. There are always bones and chunks left; everything is then ground up, and those are the "ashes" you get back.
• The word "mausoleum" comes from the memorial tomb of Mausolus, who died in 353 BC. When he died his wife had him cremated, mixed his ashes with water, and drank him.
• The tradition of funeral wreaths originated from the belief that the wreath would encircle the spirit of the dead and keep it at bay.

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Big dogs, small dogs, dumb and smart

The following text is originally lifted from the trivia section of The Jakarta Post dated Tuesday, 26 August 2007.

~Compiled from various sources~

• The border collie is the smartest dog, the afghan is the dumbest.
• The ridge along the back of the Rhodesian ridgeback is made up of forward-growing hairs.
• The Irish wolfhound stands 75 to 90 cm at the top of the shoulders and weighs 45 to 55 kg.
• The labrador retriever was once called "St John's Newfoundland".
• Although human noses have an impressive five million olfactory cells with which to smell, sheepdogs have 220 million, enabling them to smell 44 times better than man.
• In 1804, Australia issued a proclamation ordering the destruction of all dogs except greyhounds and sheepdogs.
• The dalmatian dog originate from Dalmatian coast of Croatia.
• Dalmatians are born pure white; they don't start getting spots until they are three or four days old/
• The dalmatian is the only dog that gets gout.
• Inbreeding causes three out of every 10 dalmatians to suffer from hearing disability.
• The chihuahua stands 15 to 22 cm at the top of the shoulders and weighs only one to three kg.
• The dachshund is the smallest breed of hunting dog. It is low to the ground, which allows it to enter and manoeuvre thru tunnels easily.
• The cocker spaniel is the smallest member of the sporting dog family.
• The pug is one of the oldest breeds of dog, having flourished since before 400 BC.
• Pugs were kept as pets at Buddhist monasteries in Tibet.
• The pug was the official dog of the House of Orange in Holland after one of the breed saved the life of the crown prince; the dog appears in the effigy of the monarch over William's tomb.
• The wrinkles on a pug's forehead were thought by the Chinese to resemble the character for prince.
• Though called Mopshond (to grumble) in Holland and Carlin in France, the name "pug" probably comes from the dog's facial expression, which is similar to that of the marmoset monkeys that were popular pets of the early 1700s and known as pugs.
• The sled dogs running in Alaska's annual Iditarod race burn an average of 10,000 calories daily.
• Every known dog breed except the chow has a pink tongue. Its is black.
• Chinese crested dogs can get acne.
• The Basenji does not bark but makes yodelling noises.
• When a wolf howls it is either marking its territory, telling other wolves to stay away, trying to find a lost wolf from the pack or looking for a mate.
• Jackals have one more pair of chromosomes than dogs or wolves.
• More carnivorous than other hyenas, the spotted hyena eats everything but rumen contents and horn bosses of biggest antelope. Bones, horns, hooves and even teeth are digested within 24 hours.
• The spotted hyena spends a large part of day lying down, the rest hunt and foraging. It can travel up to 40 km/day.

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on the creation of Hindu-based and Buddhist-based political party in Indonesia

What I have noticed from Indonesia's democracy is the lack of either Hindu-based or Buddhist-based political parties...

While there are numerous examples of Islamic-based ones (PBB, PKB or PPP to name a few), Protestant (PDS), or even Catholic (PKDI), why are the Hindu Balinese or minority Buddhists not represented yet?

As a true blue pluralist (note: I am neither Hindu nor Buddhist myself), I am looking forward to the creation of both political parties for the 2014 elections.

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