A Cricket on Entrecard

I was not satisfied with my previous Entrecard images which so far I have changed it 3 times, until I found the green Cricket on Flickr. The Cricket is very photogenic, and at first I thought it's not a real one. Just look at his face, it's like one of those on Bug's Life, and its pose is like he –I like to consider it a he :-D- knew that the photographer is taking his picture.


Glad that this picture is under Same Rights reserved license which allows anyone to use or adapt it for any project, but of course I have to make acknowledgment for fdecomite as an expression of gratitude for this wonderful macro shoot.

Play to Save Shelter Pets

It says that every correct answer feeds a hungry shelter dog or cat. So please, spare a little time to help those poor animals by playing the trivia.

I went to an animal shelter twice. I saw many dogs and cats there, for me as a dog person, all dogs are cute and for the cat person, all the cats there must be cute too.
I could hardly believe that people have heart to leave those pets there, for goods.
I spoke to the staff there about some Siberian Huskies that I saw there, he said they were left by an expatriate who went back to his own country for good.
Poor dogs, after the honeymooney times they're just left behind.
Why would someone buy pet/s if at the end left the pet/s?
Dog is a very faithful creature, they will be very sad if they must separate with their human.

My friend once adopted a dog which was left by his human who's back to his country. This dog was very friendly but quiet. One day my friend took the dog to dog salon to get groomed, as he was leaving the salon the dog suddenly went howling frantically and trying hard to follow him. It's really moving, seemed that the dog was scared to be left again.

When you suck

This Photoshop tutorial is hilarious, and very good.
He mixes the explanation with his crazy story :))
....clean up some of the dirty shames and unfulfilled dreams.
......baby making man gravy :)))

Traditional Expectorant

Believe it or not, the lime mixed with sweet soy sauce really worked for my cough.
Lime mixed with soy sauce is a mixture used by common people in Indonesia to cure cough. The last time I heard about it when my driver told me that his cough was cured without seeing a doctor, but by only drinking that mixture.
I usually cured my cough just by taking Comvita Fortacold lozenges and gargling with apple-cider vinegar. Too bad, the magical Comvita Fortacold lozenges are currently not available in Jakarta - I only know one shop that sells it and it's been out of stock for months!!


My sis-in-law assured me that lime and sweet soy sauce mixture worked for her too after she's taking it thrice a day for three days. Still a bit doubtful, I tried it anyway because the expectorant from the doctor didn't really work for my cough. The cough would stop if I took expectorant syrup, but the effect lasted only for two hours or less.

Surprise, after I drank lime and sweet soy sauce mixture, I felt I can breathe better and the cough stop much longer. I did what my sis-in-law told me, to drink it thrice a day, but it didn't need three days at all, my cough is gone.
I wonder if this mixture also known in other country?

Here's how to make the mixture:
Hand-squeeze one lime into a glass
Add one tablespoon of sweet soy sauce
Stir the mixture well and drink it.
Dose: 3 times/ day

Lime Photo by tigerzeye

Three years ago

This is not an impressive sketch at all, but for me it has sentimental value. I sketched this after Zippo came back from his long stay at the animal hospital. We had to put that collar on him to prevent him messing around with the stitch from his surgery.I'm sure it's not comfortable at all for him, but dogs are always dogs, he still tried to make us laugh with that condition. I still miss Zippo.

Car Insurance Portal

When you want to insure your car, then all you must first do is to search for a good insurance company that doesn't cost a fortune but provides you with satisfying service. You can ask your friends' experiences or go searching the net, but as the number of choices and recommendation goes bigger, you become more confused to determine your choice.
Carinsurancerates maintains a portal which is full of handy and useful articles about car insurance. The site is user friendly and neat, whether visitors want to squarely get free quotes of multiple insurers or want to first to have enough info before buying insurance, all can be done from a single page.

Getting quotes is as easy as putting the zip code of visitor address on the search square, the next step after proceeding it, visitor then must fill all the information regarding the car, then voila, the quotes are ready by a click. Visitors can also read reviews on the site about some largest car insurance companies in US.

For anyone who have not car yet, they can learn what kind of car which can make them get a lower premiums by reading the articles in www.carinsurancerates.com. This site even has articles about what are the most ten preferable cars to be stolen, what cars which are less desirable by thief, ten easiest cars to get insured, top ten hardest cars to get insured. In other words, don't buy car before visiting www.carinsurancerates.com otherwise you will pay high for your car insurance :)

Photo by extranoise

Rejoice all the dogs

I don't know how and why I love dogs a lot, and even though when I was a kid I was bitten by Lassie -my first dog- once, that has never traumatized me. This fondness of dogs somehow puts me in misery every time I hear bad things happen to dogs.

But I'm dog-less now, simply because I still can't bear to lose a dog after -on 22 January- three years ago I lost Zippo. I had lost 4 dogs to death before Zippo, but all the four dogs –except Kam Kam- died because of old age. Kam Kam died at the age of 3.5 months, after a small quarrel with the 8-years old Jenghis, my other dog. No, Jenghis didn't bite him, but it seems the quarrel had dispirited Kam Kam, and what made it worst was that we took him to a wrong vet. I said a wrong vet, because when we brought Kam Kam there he tried to sell us a puppy. We said no because we already had 2 dogs but he kept insisting. Who wouldn't get annoyed when taking a sick puppy to a vet and the vet, instead of taking care of the puppy first, he’s offering another puppy for sale. He gave two injections for Kam Kam and the next day Kam Kam passed away. Later I heard horror stories about that vet from my friends, but thank God not long after his place was closed for good.
It's tragic that Kam Kam died at a very young age, but at least he didn't look suffered.

Zippo died at the age of 13, and he died in pain because of a malignant tumour :-(
Once a vet said that Zippo had a strong heart, means he's a very strong and healthy dog, that before he got the tumour. Even when he's sick and hospitalized, it needed 4 men to tame him.

Here are the dogs who used to fill my life with lots of laughs:
Lassie – a mixed-Pekingese, went to dog heaven at the age of 3 years
Condore von Nakia – a boxer, went to dog heaven at the age of 8 years
Bruno von ? - a boxer, we only got him for a month and we returned him back to the kennel because he's limping and the kennel knew how to take care of him better. He's around 2 months young.
Kam Kam von Kalaidoskop – a boxer, went to dog heaven at the age of 3.5 months
Broni von Bangun Baru a.k.a Jenghis – a boxer, went to dog heaven at the age of 10 years
Zippo – a mixed Labrador, went to dog heaven at the age of 13 years.

Now, for the question "Do dogs go to Heaven?"
Read this religious story from Pope of the Pope!

Photo taken from The right second - the dog on the right looks like Zippo when he's still healthy

Wiki for Shopper

After the ado about wikipedia and some other wikis, here comes Shopwiki.
According to wikipedia, wiki wiki is a Hawaiian word for "fast." With that saying therefore, could Shopwiki mean shop fast? :-D

That could be true, since customers can find fast certain product by putting the keyword in Shopwiki search engine. The coaction of its web-crawling technology and consumer-written wiki will only bring out impartial and selective choices of products for consumers. Consumers can easily personalise the search by adjusting a price or price range, colour, brand of the products that they are looking, or consumers can just search for certain keywords if they are not yet sure what they're looking for.
For instance, sport lovers may use keywords such as team sports, and the engine will show various kind sports. If they click any of the sports, let's say Baseball and Softball, it will take them to a thorough result about the supposed sports where they can find valuable info before they shop.

However don't put the word Football if what you mean is the football in Europe, because the word football in Wikishop will show rugby sport.

Photo by jmv

A Stylish Sucker

It sounds like a joke when something which really sucks can inspire a fashion god such as Issey Miyake. Dyson did it when Dai Fujiwara, the Creative Director of Issey Miyake, hooked him for a collaboration work.

I'm talking about Dyson the dirt sucker which was invented by James Dyson over 14 years ago -who has since then kept developing his ranges of vacuum cleaners. His belief that design must goes well with the function combined with his thirst for innovation, has granted the world with stylish looking vacuum cleaners which are powered by Dyson important invention in vacuum cleaners world, the powerful cyclone technology.

For more information about Dyson hookup with Issey Miyake, just browse Dyson.co.uk. The site also covers all the necessary about Dyson vacuum cleaners such as its history, its various models, its online store that facilitates its customer and Dyson users to find Dyson spares and accessories, and -do not miss- its telescope game and ball game.

Stop Domestic Violence

I don't join this contest to win the prize, I join this to win Artconstellation's attempt to get people awareness on domestic and sexual violence. I've been a follower to her blog since I found it through Entrecard. It's hard to say that I love her drawings and paintings, cause most of them are products of her past life-stories and her past life stories are not things which are desirable. I wish that she did not have to have that life. I envy her ability to turn her nightmares of her dark past life into valuable arts.

I hope her contest will re-awaken people awareness of the latent violence within families that happen but many are ignored. I hope the law can really bring justice to women and children, which has not yet happened in my country. I don't know if the organisation like Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network really works well in the USA. In my country the alike organisation seems don't work cause the government only open half of one eye for women and children abuse issues. We're not either 'lucky' enough –though lucky is not actually the proper word at all- to have organisation like the National Sexual Assault Hotline that can be reach anytime by calling 1-800-656-HOPE or 1-800-656-4673.

However from the International Domestic Violence Information link that Artconstellation provides on the contest, can be found some similar organisations for women and children in Indonesia, I didn't know many of them before.
Come on people, let's spread this contest.

Photo by Eljee

Howdy travellers

Now with the help of internet it makes easier to arrange travel to anywhere in this world, and it seems travel websites keep competing each other to please customers in travel industries. Travel.com.au has been since the beginning prepared to specilise in international flights and overseas holiday bookings offer which makes it have extensive source of travel offers such as flights, hotels, cars, holiday packages, cruises, insurance and many more. With that saying, people in Australia can browse available cheap flights of various international flights to Africa, Asia, Europe, New Zealand, Pacific, South America, USA and Canada, or within Australia easily.

Travel.com.au is also a travel agency plus because its crews are experts in travel as well as internet savvy, that sure won't make customers stung.
When Hong Kong, Bali, Taj Mahal or any other travel magnet calls you, make Travel.com.au your companion.

Bye Bye Yuwie

I finally deleted my Yuwie account after joining it for a month. Yuwie is Myspace plus benefits, means members get paid if anyone views either their profile, blog pages, their friends, comments, picture pages, use their share layouts, and if members view their control panel pages. With that scheme members need nothing but a bunch of friends on their Yuwie page, so adding as much people as you can into your Yuwie and to accept all incoming friend requests is advisable.

That didn't work for me. I created a very nice Yuwie page that made me unwillingly to ruin that good looking page. I also didn't want to add anyone who has gluttonous Yuwie page. Gluttonous in the sense that the person put too many unnecessary adds-on like video news feed, mp3 player, flash thingy, etc all together. My internet connection gives me freedom to download/ upload and to be online without restriction, but still I found it very annoying when clicking a page, suddenly video news feed, youtube, mp3 player, flash thingy are on at once. I also can't stand ostentatious profile page, and I don't like blinkies or kitsch images. However, for anyone who doesn't mind at all of those mentioned, then Yuwie is a hot thing.

Photo by Lord Jim

Coffee please

During our study at the university, my friends and I were very used to drink coffee, because many times we had to stay awake till morning to finish our assignments. Sometimes we gathered together at one house of one of us to do our assignments when the deadline was very close.

It is such unforgettable moments when we drank coffee together trying to fight drowsiness while finishing our drawings or projects. Having a coffeemaker that can produce a cup of hot coffee fast was a desirable.

Kinda miss those days, nowadays we go to a coffee shop.


Photo by Josh Parrish

Learning to play gold

I don't know much about gold bullion investment, but from what I read gold is preferable if national crisis becomes a concern in one country, and with the turmoil of geopolitical situation that has happens the last five years gold investment and trading seems on demand. One of articles that I read says that the activity in gold futures trading has been soaring since late 2006 and it is believed to still have positive return in 2008. The BBC News on 2 January 2008 even says that gold surges to new record highs after having a price rise of more than 30% last year, and one of the triggers is the deteriorating of US dollar.

BullionVault.com clears my doubt regarding the simplicity and security of doing gold trading because it has a revolutionary way for buyers and sellers to trade gold bullion online directly at their own prices and to have a bargain in the process. It also gives concise information such as safety, vaulting, selling and buying gold, the operational, and many more. It makes sure that you will play gold and not play God in your investment because it has live spot gold price chart and you get enough sources from its research section about the latest gold market analysis and investment

Photo by janusz l

Pork in her bag

After the piano recital the audiences were led to a buffet in a garden. I picked some food from the platters on the table and I saw 'contains pork' sign on a piece of paper stood in front of two serving platters. Pork is kosher for me, so I could it eat but I don't really like it. So it's not a problem at all for me, but it's a problem for my two friends who also attended that recital. I told one of my friends about that sign, and my friend F was aware of that. Then came R with some food on her plate and seemed R was eating something. F and I were aware that R was coming from the direction of the platters that serve food containing pork, so either F or I asked R if R was aware that some of the foods were not kosher.

"Which one?" asked R who obviously didn't read that sign on paper.
"Those ones"
"@#4^&!!...so this one is pork then, ohh....where to throw this?" R was about to leave the remains on the table, but...
"No, you can't leave it there, it's not polite" said F giggling
"Ooh.....what then?? Ok, I put it in my bag then" R decided that hopelessly after R couldn't find a single trash bin around.

It's a bit ridiculous :-D, of course R could leave the remains on the table, and F was just joking, we didn't really expect that R really put that pork meat into her bag.

Photo by oTto kiNDeR

Your Habits are Exposed

Do you know that all the cleared history of your web surfing are not actually a hundred percent vanished? Windows records whatever you do during your internet session and your computer is like a labyrinth, there are so many hidden parts that are unknown by you. You need a total hard drive cleaner from http://www.evidence-blaster.com to avoid a humiliating incident.

I'm sure you probably have visited an adult oriented site by accident, and you think by deleting the cookies, history and the stored files from your internet browser you have cleared that porn trail, until one day your partner or a member of your family finds out that evidence of your dark-side history on your computer. All you need is that programme from http://www.evidence-blaster.com that will remove porn site trail from your computer without any trace left, and you will never have any embarrassing moment.

A Pheasant in a Waiting Room

A woman: tell your Mom to eat, she hasn't eaten since before.
A girl : I did ask her but she's lost her appetite.
Another woman : oh well, just show a chunk of money in front of her face, she would eat.

Part of conversation I eavesdropped in an ICU waiting room. There were a bunch of ladies blabbering while accompanying their friend (? or relative) whose husband just got malpractice. The middle-age lady who didn't want to eat is the wife.
The late 50 year old chat-active woman who said about that money thing is one of her mob members, or it seemed so. They were there with their other four or five friends, but that chatty lady was the prominent one and she reminded me of a pheasant. She seemed very excited, like waiting for a lottery drawing.

She asked her friends twice or so, where will be their next eating-out, while the others were talking about the bad luck that's just struck their friend's husband.
That husband of their friend was supposed to get appendectomy, but what happened was the doctor just cut the vermiform appendix a bit, tied it and then folded it up! I couldn't really follow what's going on, but that procedure has caused the husband to be taken into ICU.

Photo by BobMacInnes

Help on writing

All students, like it or not, have to do many writings during their study, whether they are skillful or not skillful at writing. Blessed are those who do not have problem in writing for they have to worry only about their studies.

Recently I helped a friend writing her term paper. I think she asked me not because I am good at writing, but simply because she was overwhelmed by her course assignments and her work. Of course I could not provide her even half as good as what she would get if she searched help from online term papers service.

If she sought help from online term papers service, she sure would get an A+. However, luckily she asked me about a subject that I understood. I couldn't imagine if she asked me to write a business dissertation or Finance thesis, because those two subjects needs to work with actual up-to-date documents, and for that she would need someone who is versed about Marketing, Finance, Management and some other related subjects.

Photo by topgold

If You Were A Song

Thank God for my mobile phone, thank God for the internet, thank God for everyone who like to blog, otherwise I wouldn't know this very sweet song that I listened through CnJ radio when I was in the car yesterday. I typed some words from the song on my mobile phone while listening to that an unfamiliar but a very nice song, and voila, Google does its magic again.

That breezy romantic jazzy like song is "If you were a song" and it is sung by an Australian singer Mark Sholtez, not by a female singer like what I thought before.
Mark Sholtez seems don't make available or don't distribute the music video of this song on the internet. Youtube only has a video clip based on If you were a song music, made for VH1 India video promo that channel.



For now I can only listen If you were a song from the MP3 player on the Myspace site of Mark Sholtez, and try to sing a long a bit with its lyrics:

If you were a dream
I wonder how many hours I’d sleep
How hard it would be to wake up and how easy to fall

If you were a dream
There would be nothing else I’d want to see
No reason ever have opened my eyes at all

♥ If you were a song
Every word would be etched in my memory
Every note of the delicate melody would be there in my head
If you were a song
I would practice you night and day
Until perfectly I could play you by heart

If you were the sun
I couldn’t bear have a cloud between us
I’d search for a place where they say that the rain never falls

If you were the moon
Every night my eyes would be fixed on you
Never closed for one moment from dusk 'til the first light of dawn

...back to ♥ twice
For everyone who is currently fall into the great thing called Love ;-)

Bedding Talk

I cannot stand ugly bedding.
When I stayed at a student accommodation, I hated to see the uniform bedding that we got, and I missed my beddings at home. I wished I could have Palm Tree Bedding or any bedding with nice patterns. One of the first things that I did then was to have bedding shopping. Otherwise I would have a hard time to fall asleep.

This might sounds weird, but I believe some people are also like me, they can't sleep well if the bedding doesn't goes well with their tastes. After all bedroom is supposed to be cosy because we need to be relax and comfy there, and it's really a personal space, something like sanctuary. So we have to provide it with things that are pampering us, things that we like, like an enchanting bedding design.

It's not hard these days to shop for bedding, but it is hard to choose what we really want amongst so many available beautiful choices of bedding designs. Take a look that heart bedding picture above, its very nice vivid colour combination and pattern will add a dramatic impact even to a dull bedroom. It is even made of a high-quality material which is extremely breathable, delicate and long-lasting. This heart bedding really will light up passion, but Palm Tree Bedding is really cool and also romantic.
So the choices are so varied, and they all indeed beautify bedroom.

Ever Wonder about this Picture?

I used to wonder whenever I pop in a blog that has nice images to complement its postings like what DoshDosh.com has. How to find that kind of images for my blog?
Then I noticed that Dosh Dosh uses images from Flickr.
That interesting, I didn't know that we can use images from Flickr for free, until I found A Complete Guide to Finding and Using Incredible Flickr Images from Skelliewag.
So start from 30 Dec 2007, I have been using images from Flickr to adorn my blog entries.

Here's a shortened version of that guide:
1. Notice the Creative Commons or copyright license of the image.
2. Don't use the copyrighted or All Rights reserved ones, you need permission from the author.
3. For hassle-free one, just look for Attribution Licence because this licence allows the images to be modified and to be used commercially or non-commercially. This Flickrcc -posted by one of the commentators there- is a good handy source of that kind of licenced images.
4. Do not forget to put a credit by linking back to the author whenever you use a photo.

To get a clearer and thorough explanation, just check A Complete Guide to Finding and Using Incredible Flickr Images, but basically those four steps are enough.
Photo by scragz

Wanderlust

So the travel bug has bitten you too early this year, and you feel the wanderlust has swept over your whole self. Hold on a moment, the holiday season is still months away, what are you going to do?

This is a perfect time to plan your next vacation because your great adventure deserves an early plan. If sun, sand, beach and nature are your choices, then you have to think of some exotic places that allow you to be surrounded by those elements.

Imagine you stay at a secluded place where nature is just some steps away from the door, where you can see it at the same horizon level, where you can feel home sweet home even in a stranger's land.

Go find on the net about vacation homes, they offer you flexibility, and they come in all sizes that you can pick to suit your need whether you go with your family, partner, friends, or alone. Vacation homes, such as beautiful Cabo san Lucas vacation homes in Mexico and Costa Rica vacation rentals, do literally mean homes that are truly located in surroundings that respond your leisure needs.

Photo by jenschapter3

First Day of year 2008

The year is still fresh
My wish is re-blossoming
I smile to my new days to come
I refresh my hopes to God
I feel infatuated

I have a perfect reason to smile on my first day in year 2008
Dear Lord is that a hint or what?

Oh..and please..Let there only be PEACE for year 2008...

Photo by wilhei55