The most beautiful I've seen on TED.com

Miwa Matreyek's glorious visions | Video on TED.com

I'm speechless...regarde!

Miwa Matreyek's glorious visions | Video on TED.com

My Playlist of the day

Here We Go Again - Angus and Julia Stone

I am trying not to to freak out like Americans, but AWESOME! FANTASTIC!

My Summer Playlist

I can only work with the music....and now, I can really see the design of the dress. I am imagining soft flowing dress in a little girl walking bare feet in the tall green grass...the wind blows her wavy hair and she's picking up a bunch of daisies....the rays of the sun softly warm her face .... and continue

Raffael Indra Odier, growing growing

Raffa at 9 months


9 months


10 months

Angus and Julia Stone - Big Jet Plane [Official Music Video]

Facebook Dilemma

I was pretty excited at the beginning when I found out about Facebook in 2009. When I lied awake, I would be stalking my friends, poking them, giving some comments or sending some greeting to friends and many more. I also developed the need to add more friends so my friends can see I am well-connected person. Well, 300 friends was my aim but now I've got more than that. I have approved 90% of friends requests. It's pretty daunting to know that I can be connected to people who just passing by from different parts of the world. I probably meet them one or two occasions ever in my life and hey, "We are Facebook friends!" The one that get me hooked all the time was the Cafe World game. After a couple months, I decided it was a waste of time. I still get many invites for this game.

These days Facebook's community is getting larger. Facebook is behemot. One of the largest, most all-encompassing sites online, Facebook is a virtual directory through which anyone with a computer can reach anyone else. It is by far the biggest social network on the planet, and that doesn't look to be changing any time soon. Most of the members are young adults from all over the world. Can you imagine? There are no boundaries at all! When there were big calamities, wars, accidents in small part of town somewhere in Timbuktu, you'll get the news within a split second (okay I am exaggerating it). The point is I know it before the news on the TV or radio. I am talking to the last details such as how many people injured, which part of the plane that got burned, how many people is suffering etc.

A couple of days ago, I read the article on how the Egypt revolution get started. And you can guess what is the tool the youth of Egypt used it? Facebook. They planned it carefully and connect their ideas using Facebook (Zuckerberg, your idea rocks the world). Because it is so powerful, The government shut down the internet for the whole country. But it was too late, their heart and mind had burned with the desire to toppled down the government.

Right now, I am on the edge of leaving this tool. There are lotsa reason behind it. Firstly, I became hooked of "showcasing what I have" to people in my friends' list. And I believe, that is one of the purpose of Facebook-ing. I always think getting the latest, the biggest, the most expensive stuffs are need to be reported. Okay, not only that I started to picture what the happy-me should look like on the photos.

Secondly, sometimes I neglected a good quality time with my daughter and my son these days. Although I found that it was a medicine to my boredom and loneliness after I gave birth to my son. I just can stand to sit for a long period of time breastfeeding my son for 10 times a day. I needed the latest update from my friends to keep sane. But I've spending too much already and sometimes I don't know what status I should post. Furthermore, I don't like if my daughter tell me to stop Facebook-ing cos she wants bed-time reading. It will happen someday. Spending so much time on the computer is encouraging the children to do the same thing like you. So, they think it is normal to ignore quality time with the family someday.


Thirdly, Privacy loss risks. I've shared everything to friends about almost anything. Sharing too much information can lead to identity theft, professional issues and relationship problems etc. And yes, talking about relationship problem I was amazed why people asking me whether I am 'Married" or having "Complicated", or "Engaged", "Single" etc on my marital status. I changed the choices every 2 months just because I think it is fun. I think, why would I want to post too much facts in this social network media? I prefer to create different identity in so-not-real-world. They asked me whether I have a problem with my husband for not stating that I am "married". So, for the well-being of everybody I now put that I am Married.

A couple of hours ago, I decided to block a couple of persons in my friends' list. I felt guilty after that but I overcame it by convincing myself this is not real relationship. And heck, I can use my rights to block anybody who I feel it is useless or never meet in person in the past 2 years. Unfortunately, one of the person I blocked is a wife of a friend who complained and sound a bit depressive in everywhere she went in this country. Oohh, God bless her soul and her family! She bragged about the imperfect world she is living. I just hope she can get a life :-). What a pain to read her sadness.
The rest of the friends I blocked today, they just don't create any impact in my life whatsoever. Never meet them before, or I am not going to have anything with their life. If I see friends with their whinning status all the time, I usually get them blocked. I can't stand to hear the negativities about a lot of thing when I know they are blessed to live in this world.

Facebook can also be rather irritating. I am constantly getting friend requests, messages, pokes, like, photos, game requests, application notifications, etc. This will never end. I got tagged too many photos of the products from a few online shops. And sometimes, the latest news are the new products launching. What a pain to see these.

The decision to leave Facebook may depend on how my project going to be in the next few months. I wouldn't have time to keep stalking to my friends' life. But who knows, I will probably use it for marketing tools ;-) It's fair, non?!

Taking a break in the kitchen

Oh, I've just closed the door of the kids room. Raffael went to sleep at 7 pm and Noelia is starting to sleep around 8.30 pm. So, I have just half and hour before I pick the package that Ludo's parent sent at Lalitha's house.

We've been travelling quite a bit this month. It was a good few weeks in Bali, and another few days in Jakarta during the Hari Raya Ied. Yes, it is a holiday and work at the same time. Most of the workshop for the products I am going to launch are in Bali and Jakarta.

I came back home yesterday night, I was happy to find my room and the house. This morning I decided to do strawberry and Banana jam. And I looovvee the smell of the sweet strawberry cooked on the stove. Yes, I need that break! Cooking is de-stressing for me. It's been a long time i did not manage to let my hands get dirty in the kitchen. I've been concentrating so much on doing paper works, specs sheets, calls etc all this time.

Now, I just need to stock-up my jams! I love preserving my favourite fruits.

Well tomorrow, I am planning to buy a couple of flower pots for our little garden!

Lilies of the Field by a Pullitzer Prize, Anna Quindlen

I am inspired this week by this commencement speech by Anna Quindlen at Villanove University.

She teaches me how to find humility in all the things that we do, as a wife, a parent, a friend, a daughter, a sister and a granddaughter.
We need to be bold in action, have a courage to cross the sea, and instant gratification is never in our life.
The world is not all about me but about everything and everyone.

-----

By Anna Quindlen

I'm a novelist. My work is human nature. Real life is all I know. Don't ever confuse the two, your life and your work.

You will walk out of here this afternoon with only one thing that no one else has. There will be hundreds of people out there with your same degree; there will be thousands of people doing what you want to do for a living. But you will be the only person alive who has sole custody of your life.

Your particular life. Your entire life. Not just your life at a desk, or your life on a bus, or in a car, or at the computer. Not just the life of your mind, but the life of your heart. Not just your bank account but your soul.

People don't talk about the soul very much anymore. It's so much easier to write a resume than to craft a spirit. But a resume is a cold comfort on a winter night, or when you're sad, or broke, or lonely, or when you've gotten back the test results and they're not so good.

Here is my resume: I am a good mother to three children. I have tried never to let my profession stand in the way of being a good parent. I no longer consider myself the center of the universe. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make marriage vows mean what they say.

I am a good friend to my friends, and they to me. Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today, because I would be a cardboard cutout. But I call them on the phone, and I meet them for lunch. I would be rotten, or at best mediocre at my job, if those other things were not true. You cannot be really first rate at your work if your work is all you are.

So here's what I wanted to tell you today: Get a life. A real life, not a manic pursuit of the next promotion, the bigger paycheck, the larger house.

Do you think you'd care so very much about those things if you blew an aneurysm one afternoon, or found a lump in your breast? Get a life in which you notice the smell of salt water pushing itself on a breeze over Seaside Heights, a life in which you stop and watch how a red tailed hawk circles over the water or the way a baby scowls with concentration when she tries to pick up a Cheerio with her thumb and first finger. Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure, it is work. Pick up the phone. Send an e-mail. Write a letter.

Get a life in which you are generous. And realize that life is the best thing ever, and that you have no business taking it for granted. Care so deeply about its goodness that you want to spread it around. Take money you would have spent on beers and give it to charity. Work in a soup kitchen. Be a big brother or sister.

All of you want to do well. But if you do not do good too, then doing well will never be enough.

It is so easy to waste our lives, our days, our hours, our minutes. It is so easy to take for granted the color of our kids' eyes, the way the melody in a symphony rises and falls and disappears and rises again.

It is so easy to exist instead of to live. I learned to live many years ago. I learned to love the journey, not the destination. I learned that it is not a dress rehearsal, and that today is the only guarantee you get.

I learned to look at all the good in the world and try to give some of it back because I believed in it, completely and utterly. And I tried to do that, in part, by telling others what I had learned. By telling them this:

Consider the lilies of the field. Look at the fuzz on a baby's ear. Read in the backyard with the sun on your face. Learn to be happy. And think of life as a terminal illness, because if you do, you will live it with joy and passion as it ought to be lived.