Owner: An Ethereal Shard URL:http://foreignprophecies.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 02:51:23 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: This is a personal blog of a male Scorpio Indonesian American who likes to discuss his personal life, together with his interests world politics, linguistics, current affairs, climate change, and heaps of other stuff about Indonesia, Japan, and USA. Site statistics:Click here
Indo-lyric: Hingga Akhir Waktu (Nineball) 2008-03-29 04:09:13 English translation: Till The End of Time by Nineball I tried to resist the heartbut void is felt here without you everything becomes meaningful for me againI want you herewarding off my loneliness with you * there will never be anyone else on my sidemy entire soul is for youit's impossible to have another on my sideI just want you here warding off my loneliness together all's so meaningful for meI want you hereall's so meaningful for me againI want you here ** there will be no one else on my sidemy entire soul is for youand it's impossible to have another on my sidewant you here, warding off my loneliness with youtill the end of time, till the end of time repeat ** Original lyric in Indonesian: ku coba untuk melawan hatitapi hampa terasa di sini Read more:Waktu
My own autobiographical essay 2008-04-02 11:44:53 Last week, my dear friend KZ asked me to help her in making a narrative essay
that consisted of a couple paragraphs in English for her assignment submission at school. Being the helpful friend as I always am, I agreed to help her but I told her to wait some time as I hadn’t read anything English during my vacation to Sangihe and Manado. On the next day, I was finally able to compose the essay after reading The Jakarta Post and watching CNN. Well, narrative essay is a bit advanced topic for me to teach her, hence I gave her the paragraphs I composed myself. I don’t exactly call it plagiarism, since it’s fully with my own consent. How kind I am, eh..? Haha. It took no trouble for me to write it, since it’s largely autobiographical anyway (deriving from my own experience during m
Insect eating around the world 2008-04-02 11:06:37 ~Compiled from various sources~About 1,400 insect species are eaten in almost 90 countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Here are a few examples: Thais eat more than 150 insects, including crickets, silk worms and dung beetles. Canned crickets are sold in supermarkets, and vendors selling bugs are a common sight in Bangkok.There are 250 edible insects in Africa. People count on everything from termites to grasshoppers to help them through food emergencies. In southern Africa, the mopane worm has become a multimillion dollar business, with exports to immigrant communities in Europe.Rural communities in South America consider various ant species to be a delicacy. The Pemon Indians in Venezuela, for example, cherish fire ants during t Read more:eating
It’s all child’s play 2008-04-02 02:25:20 The following text is originally lifted from the trivia section of The Jakarta Post dated Wednesday, 26 March 2008. ~Compiled from various sources~ Monday’s Child is fair of face, Tuesday’s child
is full of grace, Wednesday’s child is full of woe, Thursday’s child has far to go, Friday’s child is loving and giving, Saturday’s child has to work for its living, but a child that’s born on the Sabbath Day is fair and wise and good and gay.During pregnancy a woman’s blood volume increases up to 50%. In addition to meeting the needs of the foetus, this is a reserve against the needs of the foetus, this is a reserve against fluids that occurs during childbirth.A foetus acquires fingerprints at the age of three months.Identical t
Day 1: The flight to Manado 2008-04-02 02:01:12 Date: Thursday,6 March 2008 So I was wrong back then when I wrote here that Manadonese have reverted their city name’s spelling from “Manado” to “Menado”. I found out that the correct spelling was still "Manado" because the plane ticket still spelled it that way. Hence my use of the correct spelling now. Uncle R and I arrived at the Soekarno-Hatta airport at 14:00 while we were supposed to be having a 19:00 flight. That meant that we had plenty of time to burn. Great. I started to regret not bringing my “Eldest” novel. It was a five-hour wait spent by reading the newspaper(s!), some printed Wikipedia stuff I brought along, and Jack Johnson on my mp3 player. If you wanna have some grub for your hours-long flight to any part of Indonesia, I strongly advise you again
A horrible April Fool prank 2008-03-31 22:15:51 ~Author unknown~A young mother had just given birth to a new born baby, the nurse was just congratulating her, when the doctor came in bouncing the baby from hand to hand. The mother looked startled. The doctor then said"Here catch."And promptly tossed the baby to the mother, but it landed on the window ledge and fell out the window. The lady shrieked and said, "You bastard, you've killed my baby!"The doctor replied:"April
Fool, it was dead already!"
The English equivalent for the Indonesian term “As-pal” 2008-04-04 10:38:55 No, of course I don’t mean the word that is defined as “asphalt” in English
. The as-pal (mind the dash) here is the Indonesian
slang contraction which stands for Asli-tapi-Palsu (Real-yet-Fake). Real-yet-Fake is indeed a bit too long for an English equivalent. I agree with that. That’s why I was so delighted to find out the exact English equivalent just now: “faux-“. Just remember to add another word after that dash. Let me digress. I also found this interesting quote just now: “The best place to hide something is in plain sight” Agatha Christie.
My take on pragmatism 2008-04-04 10:35:40 I wholeheartedly endorse pragmatism. That’s why I support Obama. Practicality is a hell lot more important than egomaniacal, self-driven pursuits such as those shown by the people in the current Bush administration. Honestly.
Unique stuff regarding my blog 2008-04-03 23:52:16 Here are a couple of blog banners of stuff
I recently found regarding my blog:64%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?
Cat’s loyalty questioned 2008-04-03 01:21:24 This Garfield strip is interesting to note: Source: Ivanov It’s scientifically true to a large extent, really. My own cat Akira has turned to be the largest nemesis of her own mother. Well despite their laziness, I still love cats anyway (^_^)
Bit of a tipple goes a long way 2008-04-02 23:24:03 The following text is originally lifted from the trivia section of The Jakarta Post dated Saturday, 8 March 2008. ~Compiled from various sources~ In the 1600s, thermometers were filled with brandy instead of mercury.As late as the mid-17th century, French wine makers did not use corks. Instead, they used oil-soaked rags stuffed into the necks of the bottles.In the 1800s, rum was considered excellent for cleaning hair and keeping it healthy. Brandy was believed to strengthen hair roots.The corkscrew was invented in 1860.Before thermometers were invented, brewers would dip a thumb or finger into the liquid to determine the ideal temperature, neither too hot nor too cold, for adding yeast.The longest recorded champagne cork flight was 54 metres and 18 cen
New blogging format 2008-04-07 02:16:13 Starting from today onwards, I'll be posting two entries in a day in comparison to my usual one-entry-a-day habit... Both entries will be posted in the morning and evening each.This conclusion is taken as to accommodate my writing streak that has gone to an addictive level now. I just hope that people would still credit me for the quality -not the quantity- of my blog entries.Oh and by the way, below is an iseng snapshot I took recently.Seems familliar? You bet. It's Ratu Plaza.For Marisa Duma and Phil Ryan, I've granted your requests to put a name-url commenting system. But that means that I have to put a word-verification system, a thing I'm previously reluctant to do, because a staggering 98.67% of internet users loathe everytime they have to verify that they are, in fact, a human.I ju Read more:format
What do you think of interfaith marriage? 2008-04-07 01:03:29 Last week, my dear friend PL confided to me in our Yahoo Messenger chat of a problem she’s having with her boyfriend V. An ordinary couple-fight? No. Apparently, it turns out that the problem they’re having is much bigger than a mere fight. Here’s the transcript of our chat (it was originally written in Indonesian, hence this is the modified English translation). PL: so sad…. Been sobbin all nite, bro…..Toshi: wassup?PL: I’m havin problem w/ VToshi: what kind of prob? Mind tellin me?PL: we couldn’t continue our relationshipPL: there’s a BIG difference between us.. but neither of us is willing to end thisToshi: why? What difference are u talking abt?Toshi: isn’t the difference is what makes love beautiful? Or am I missing a point here?PL: Read more:think
, marriage
Funny Garfield strips 2008-04-06 07:36:14 I laughed out loud when I came across these two (^o^) clipped from ivanov.in Read more:Funny
, Garfield
What One Rupiah could buy... 2008-04-06 06:54:18 this is amusing ^^ clipped from metromad.blogspot.com Five things you could buy for one rupiah in the 1950s: 5 cups of coffee (for you and your mates) two packs of cigarettes (to go with the coffee) two litres of rice (two-day's sustenance for a family of four) two Nasi Goreng brackets (for you and your date) a bus ticket home (still saving up for the motorbike) Read more:Rupiah
Stimulative website for Dogs 2008-04-06 04:30:45 Using the word "P***" would make my blog banned by the Indonesian govt (according to the recently passed law), hence the alteration on the title. But this pic below sure is a laugh!Source: Kaskus Read more:website
3F is all that matters 2008-04-05 02:49:54 Some people say career. Some people say sex. Well for me, my 3F (Faith, Family, and Friends) is all that really matters
. I’m a proud liberal Catholic, and I love my family and my circle of friends. And they’re what my life’s made up of.
Statistics on expats in Indonesia 2008-04-05 02:49:11 This is the statistics as of early 2008. The South Korean embassy knows there are some 30,000 Koreans working in Indonesia
, 70% of whom live in Jakarta. The American Embassy said it has 7,700 U.S. citizens registered in Jakarta and figures for non-ethnic Indians are guessed to be sitting somewhere around the same. Japanese Embassy figures put its expatriate community at 11,200, with 6,470 of them residing in Jakarta. This is followed by Taiwan, with some 7,000 in Indonesia, including 1,000 residing in Jakarta. The Australian Embassy said they have 1,000 expatriates registered as employed in the Indonesian capital, but one official said it is probably more likely 3,000. And they don’t all live in Kemang. Source: April 2008 edition of The Jakarta Post Weekender supplement magazine. Read more:Statistics
Day 2: A bump into an old friend 2008-04-08 10:50:48 ~This is part of the Minahasa-Sangihe Chronicle. Date of journal: Saturday, 8 March 2008 ~ When I woke up at 8 the next morning, I hurriedly opened our room curtain and I was fascinated to find a bustling city under my feet, but two mountains at the direction of 000º and 090º each. Wow. My first impression of Manado was how green and tidy it was. And it has an amazing vista on its suburbs, which aroused my curiosity even further. After having Nasi kuning (yellow-rice fried in kunyit) for breakfast; Uncle R and I headed out to look for Oma Tr’s house. Oma Tr was apparently a quite well-known figure in Manado since she was the wife of a late acquaintance of a famed General. Due to her fame, Uncle R was able to locate the house (which was very close to the Jengki fish mar Read more:friend
Swimming as a new hobby and the tan that it brings 2008-04-08 10:29:37 I’ve recently taken up a new hobby of swimming as a result of my two weeks in Sangihe… But still, swimming on an ordinary swimming pool never feels quite the same with if it’s done on the beach. Whenever I ask Mom for a day out on the swimming pool, she always likes to wait until it’s after 3 PM or so, because tanning is one thing that she fears. While I prefer swimming at 11 AM. “But we’re white Mom! Look at it, we may not be pure bule (Caucasian) but we’re still white Indonesians anyway..” “Well if you insist, why don’t you go swimming yourself? I don’t wanna get a tan” The idea of tanning has never entered those who live in the tropical regions like Indonesia, even by those who are white/fair-skinned in the first place, presumably because such an idea is inco Read more:Swimming
My comment on "The Diana Conspiracy" 2008-04-07 19:27:04 Seriously, when are they going to let Diana
rest in peace already? Even if such conspiracy theories are true, what do they gain?Apparently it has caused the Britons much more than just a mere headache.clipped from www.telegraph.co.ukLord Justice Scott Baker, the coroner overseeing the inquest into the death of the Princess in 1997 said bills for the marathon hearing had topped £2.4 million.The inquest into the death of Princess Diana has already cost £2.4 millionThe figure comes on top of the reported £3.6 million spent by former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Lord Stevens' Operation Paget investigation into the case.The money does not include costs run up by Mohamed al Fayed, the father of Dodi, also killed in the car crash in Paris. Mr al Fayed is reportedly paying for three sepa Read more:Conspiracy
My extreme jealousy 2008-04-07 07:12:54 I have a confession to make. I don’t know why, but I easily get jealous over a lot of things. Here are a few examples: When a male friend finally gets a date with a new girlfriend, I’m jealous. Not jealous because of his hot date, but jealous because I haven’t got any date of my own. When a cousin bought the newest handphone, I got covetous as I compared it to my 5-year-old Nokia 6100 handphone… When another tells me a story of his recent vacation to Japan, I get jealous because I haven’t got the money to visit Japan yet. However, none of my friends/relatives has ever labeled me an “easily envious guy” because I always do my best to hide it. I just hope that this jealousy of mine would subside soon… It’s one of the 7 deadly sins anyway, isn’t it?
My sexual orientation: Thank God I’m not a gay 2008-04-07 06:43:18 A guy who is raised in a mostly female-oriented childhood tends to become a gay in his adulthood. I just thank God this doesn’t happen to me. I’m 99% straight, in case you’re wondering. 100% isn’t possible, because that would mean that I’ve never said that Will Smith is cool or Robert de Niro is charming. But hey, I’m just being honest here, haha Read more:Thank
My fave perfume? 2008-04-07 06:42:43 There is none, really. Why? Perfumes are expensive!!To refresh my body odour, I prefer cologne instead.
Every Indonesian masseuse has to wear padlocks on their undies and skirts: What on earth is happening here? 2008-04-10 00:17:52 Wow. Kudos to the government for having thought up such a holy idea... This is indeed one of the amazing things you couldn't have found elsewhere in the world. Not even an economic superpower like Japan or USA has ever thought up of such an idea.Indonesia has become a very holy country these days, with all its Holey streets in Jakarta, the banning of online pornography, and now this.Believe it or not, this is the real illustration.Image Copyright belongs to Media-College Publisher.Here is my English translation in case you don't understand the Indonesian
news clip below:The Jakarta Tourism Department is considering to enforce a new regulation that obligates masseuses (i.e. female massagers) to fasten padlock on their undies
and skirts
. This kind of regulation is viewed as a way to banish t
Let's sign this petition to reopen Youtube and other blocked websites! 2008-04-08 18:24:41 Feeling kinda pissed off with certain people due to the blocking of Youtube, Multiply, Myspace, and Rapidshare lately? Don't worry, you're facing the same adversity with all Indonesian netizens.With this petition
, hopefully those chaps would consider reopen
ing it, perhaps after certain weeks. Just enter this website to sign the petition.
What does “half-naked” mean, actually? 2008-04-11 11:08:15 When a person says that someone is “half-naked”, what does he/she mean? What is “half-naked” actually? How do you define it? Is it the state of being partially disrobed? Is it the state of being unclothed from the waist up? You know, since being naked would mean that someone is bare, nude, without any concealing garments whatsoever, and since half means 50%, then being half-naked should be logically defined as 50% of all the defining features that people would say as “being naked” And as you can see, a normal guy walking down a pavement Kuta, Bali wearing a T-shirt and beige shorts could be defined as half-naked if we follow that definition, since his limbs and neck weren’t covered at all. And he doesn’t even have to be bare-chested. It’s indeed funny how phrases li
Diguyur derasnya hujan 2008-04-11 09:40:53 This Indonesian poem was written by Toshihiko Atsuyamain 2008 aku merasa gelisahakan jarak yang kan memisahdengan putus asa ku berpasrahpada diri sendiri aku marah di bawah hujan ku berjalanberselimut penyesalantak berpayung tak berkawandiguyur derasnya hujan aku menyesal saat kusadariberkat Tuhan tlah kutolakkubuang kesempatan berhargatanpa tahu rencanaNya yang esa di bawah kelamnya awandengan selimut kehampaankutiti jalan tak berujungdiguyur derasnya hujan betapa ku ingin kembalimengulang hari demi harimenarik kata-kata yang kusesalisemenjak ku tinggalkan Bali aku berandai mundurkan waktuaku ingin sibakkan kalbuhatiku penuh gundah gulanayang tak henti gerogoti rasa Oh Tuhan cerahkanlah hariberikanlah aku pengertianbukakanlah aku pintu harapananugerahkanlah aku mata hati
A Painful Wait 2008-04-14 05:39:05 The poem below was written on Saturday, 12 April 2008 by myself (Toshihiko Atsuyama). It’s dedicated to someone special, to whom I hold back my dearest feelings…If I am to stay frigid,let me be,sitting alone here covered,within debris of darknessIf I am to stay gelid,let me be,soaked up indulgent,within saturnalia of sorrowAs the clock ticked by,as days came and went,as calendar pages were torn piece by piece,my lonely soul stands still patiently for you,waits unrelentingly for your heart,despite the bore of everyday life,amidst the bustle of South Jakarta.I know it’s pathetic,to wait in silence for you,wailing endlessly for your love,creating an imaginary story of you and me,composing a dull poem that I know you won’t read,only to hear myself breathing agonizinglywithin this deep
Pelepasan 2008-04-14 05:37:03 This Indonesian poem below was written on Sunday, 13 April 2008 by myself (Toshihiko Atsuyama). Sorry folks, I'm not gonna translate my own works into English.Dengan cinta yang tak terbalas,Ku terdiam dalam keheningan,Meredam rasa yang tak terucap,Terkubur mimpi akan dirimu.Ku menyesal tak terkira,Saat kau di sisi ku tak peduli,Sekarang kalbu pun menghampiri,Karna kau pergi terpaut yang lain.Di tengah hiruk-pikuk Jakarta,yang kan segera kurindukan nanti,kulayangkan sebuah doa,semoga kau bahagia bersama dirinya…
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