Galungan - Day Of The God

In a few days, Balinese or Hindus of Balinese to be exact, will celebrate their most significant ritual - Galungan. Occuring once every 210 days in the Pawukon (Balinese cycle of days), Galungan will last for 10 days. This Galungan starts on Wednesday, 27th of June and ends at Kuningan day on Saturday, 7th of July.
Galungan is celebrated as the triumph of virtue (Dharma) over evil (Adharma). On this season, people can see Balinese run festival feast everywhere and almost everyday and Bali will look so colorful with its offering. A week before Galungan day which is also called Sugian Tenten. The next day, on Thursday Wage (six days before the actual Galungan day) people celebrate Sugian Jawa. On the following day, they celebrate Sugian Bali. Those three celebrations symbolize the process in purifying mind (Sugian Tenten), body (Sugian Jawa) and soul (Sugian Bali).
Saturday and Sunday (the following days) are called the Embang Sugi (the time when people are concentrating on self-abilities.) Then, Monday Pon Dungulan (in the following week) is called Penyajaan Galungan (a symbol of asking for power from God). The next day, Tuesday Wage Dunggulan is called Penampahan Galungan, symbolizes the time when dharma or truth fights against adharma or evil. Penampahan means "slaughtering" the evil or bad spirits. During this penampahan day, Balinese will slaughter a pig unlucky enough to be chosen to help celebrate this occasion. Then the finely diced pork is mashed to a pulp with a grinding stone, and moulded onto sate sticks that have been already prepared by whittling small sticks of bamboo. Chickens may also be chosen from the collection of free-range chickens that roam around the house compound. Delicate combinations of various vegetables, herbs and spices are also prepared by the men to make up a selection of 'lawar' dishes. While much of this cooking is for use in the offerings to be made at the family temple, by mid-morning, once all the cooking is done, it is time for the first of a series of satisfying feasts from what has been prepared.

To celebrate Galungan, houses are decorated with penjor - long bamboo poles hung with offering, splendidly decorated with woven young coconut leaves, fruit, cakes and flowers. Everyone puts on their best attire. This is Balinese Hindu culture at its most colourful and vibrant with all sorts of festivals held during the Galungan period.

During the Galungan period the deified ancestors of the family descend to their former homes. They must be suitably entertained and welcomed, and prayers and offerings must be made for them. Those families who have ancestors that have not yet been cremated, but are still buried in the village cemetery, must make offerings at the graves.

On Wednesday, the day of Galungan, one will find that most Balinese will try to return to their own ancestral home at some stage during the day, even if they work in another part of the island. This is a very special day for families, where offerings are made to God and to the family ancestors who have come back to rest at this time in their family temple. As well as the family temple, visits are made to the village temple with offerings as well, and to the homes of other families who may have helped the family in some way over the past six months.
The day after Galungan, called Manis Galungan, is a time for a holiday, visiting friends, maybe taking the opportunity to head for the mountains for a picnic. Everyone is still seen to be in their 'Sunday best' as they take to the streets to enjoy the festive spirit that Galungan brings to Bali.

All materials compiled from: Wikipedia and BaliBagus.com

You Belong To Me

Been to the cinema lately? If you have I think you've already seen the latest Shrek movie: Shrek 3. Now I haven't watched it personally but from what I heard in this episode Shrek has a child. Curious? Go see it then. Here is the lyric of one of the theme song by Jason Wade (the vocalist of Lifehouse), "You Belong To Me".

see the pyramids around the Nile
watch the sunrise from a tropic isle
just remember darling all the while -
you belong to me

see the marketplace in old Angier
send me photographs and souvenirs
just remember when a dream appears -
you belong to me

and I'll be so alone without you
maybe you'll be lonesome too

fly the ocean in a silver plane
see the jungle when it's wet with rain
just remember till you're home again -
you belong to me

oh I'll be so alone without you
maybe you'll be lonesome too

fly the ocean in a silver plane
see the jungle when it's wet with rain
just remember till you're home again -
you belong to me

10 GB

This is another funny story. It happened just now. I and my coworkers were just doing our daily routine, that is typing (source code of course). One of my associate needed to install C# on her computer. She already had Visual Dot Net installed but it turned out only VB.Net was available. Hence we told her to reinstall the application.

G: Just reinstall the application and you should see C# there.
C: I don't think we can reinstall it.
G: Why?
C: I don't think there is enough space for the whole program.
G: How many gigabytes do you have left in your computer?
C: Only 3 GB.
G: And what is the size of your harddisk?
C: 10 GB.
G: ?????

I found it really funny, because in the world where hard disk is already reach Terrabyte in size, you can not imagine someone would have a hard disk with that capacity. It is really to small, 10 GB today is the same as a floppy disk ten years ago. Then again, she is a programmer. I really think that she need bigger space for her hard disk.

Milan: David Suazo Transferred

Milan have managed to hijacked David Suazo from Inter. It was reported earlier that Suazo has passed his medical test at Inter and it would only be a matter of time before the player became an Interisti. But it seemed that the Milan and Cagliari have reached an agreement late last night about the transfer of the Honduras born player. This is confirmed by two of Italy's largest newspaper, Gazzetta dello Sport and Corriere dello Sport.

"David Suazo will wear the red and black jersey of Milan next season. The agreement has been reached last night with Cagliari's director", said Milan's official site.

Thus, the arrival of Suazo will once again resurrect the media interest of Alberto Gilardino's future at Milan. The player once said that he wants to find another club which will guarantee him a first team place. But after Ancelotti letting the player go, he then pledged his future in Milan. Suazo could be Milan's solution for a new power forward together with the "Phenomenon" Ronaldo and Pippo Inzaghi.

Link Exchange

For you who have been blogging for quite a while now, have you managed to increase the traffic to your site and thus increased your page rank?From my experience the easiest way (if you do not want to pay) to increase your traffic is just to surf people's blog, leave comments or just post in the shout box and hope for the owner to visit your blog in exchange. The other way is to join a link exchange such as Linkalizer. This site serves as a middle man between people who want to exchange links. First you have to register, then you will have to choose a category suitable for your blog. After that you will just have to wait for offer to exchange link, should you accept the offer then you have to put the link somewhere on your blog. The same would be done for you.
Now, to increase your page rank (in a blog indexing site, such as technorati, pagerank, kampungblog) you need to have a lot of sites link back to your blog or a page in your blog. You will have to be patient though because it really depends in the quality of your posts. Check out these blogs: Aroengbinang-> Pagerank (PR): 4; Technorati (T): 178, Anang's Blog-> PR: 4; KampungBlog (KB): 3. Both of those sites have loyal readers, you can see this by looking at each post which has a minimum of six comments. I am really impressed because I have been posting quite a while but the maximum number of comments I got only six (there are a few of mine in those :D). Anyway the point is you need to post regularly, not just a common post but a good and unique post so your reader will want to come again.
Speaking of unique, check this site. What so unique about this site? Well you can see from the posts there. This site is dedicated for fellow bloggers who post a message in the shout box. Now for each time you post a message in the shout box you will be credited by a link in his daily post. Isn't that a good way to increase your page rank? It's not pretty but it will do the trick I guess. It even gives a review for bloggers who come often. You can see the review about my sites here and here. The owner of this site really has a brilliant idea, this way people will keep on coming and leave message in his shout box and in return will increase their page rank. Quote from MacGyver: "From the bottom of my heart, I salute you".

Love Is Blind?

Do you really believe that love is blind? I don't know about you, but I really do believe. When you love someone you don't give him/her half of your heart, but the full of it. You're willing to do anything, even if they didn't acknowledge it but still you keep on doing it, just because you care for him/her. For those of you who is trying to win the love of your life, keep on trying and win his/her heart, for love is all we need. In the name of love, here is a song from one of my favorite band, LIFEHOUSE. It's called BLIND.

I was young but I wasn't naive
I watched helpless
As you turned around to leave
And still I have the pain I have to carry
A past so deep
That even you could not bury if you tried

After all this time
I never thought we'd be here
never thought we'd be here
when my love for you is blind
But I couldn't make you see it
Couldn't make you see it
That I loved you more
Than you'll ever know
When part of me died
Will I let you go

I would fall asleep
Only in hopes of dreaming
everything
Would be like it was before
But nights like this
It seems are slowly fleeting
disappear as reality is crashing to the floor

After all this time
I never thought we'd be here
never thought we'd be here
when my love for you is blind
But I couldn't make you see it
Couldn't make you see it
That I loved you more
Than you'll ever know
When part of me died
Will I let you go

After all this why
Would you ever wanna leave
Maybe you could not believe it
That my love for you is blind
But I couldn't make you see it
Couldn't make you see it
That I loved you more
Than you'll ever know
When part of me died
Will I let you go
And I loved you more
Than you will ever know
When part of me died
Will I let you go

Lyrics by Sing365.com

A Day At The Hospital

Finally I am able to post again. Last two days I was at the hospital. My little girl was sick and she had to spend a day at the hospital. It happened really quick, one minute she was laughing with us and the next minute she was vomiting. First, I thought she had swallowed a small piece of her toys. But that was not the case. Then she threw up every time we tried to give her milk or water. That was when I realized that this was not the usual case of drinking too much.
We called our doctor and told him what have happened. He then told us to stay calm and keep tying to give her the medicine. If the vomiting continues then we have to take her to the hospital. Unfortunately for her, she vomited all the time that night. So, first thing in the morning we took her to the hospital.
We arrived at the hospital at 7.30 AM. We waited for ten minutes then the doctor came. He then examined my daughter and he suggested that we have to spend the night there because my daughter has lost a lot of body fluids. He also told us that we have to put an IV to her to help getting the medicine inside here body. Wow, that was really shocking for us, because I myself never spend a day at the hospital or having an IV attach to my body. The nurses attached the IV to my daughter through her right foot. It was really sad to see a needle stick to her right foot. Poor my daughter.
Fortunately, right after that she stopped vomiting. Oh, we were really glad to see that. But she didn't want to drink milk or water. We had to force her a bit. But do you know what's the worst part? When the IV was almost empty, suddenly my daughter screamed and cried. We were confused at first but then realized that the IV have turned red. It was my daughter's blood. That's why she screamed really loud. Now that was worst but this is even worst. This happened twice, first when the IV was almost empty and then right after they have changed it with the new IV. Oohhh that was unbelievable. I called the doctor and told him to remove the IV. Only then my daughter stopped screaming and she could rest until morning.
The next day, the doctor told us that the lab result for my daughter was good, so we can go home. But still we have to see him again just to check if she has really recovered.

Authority In Indonesia

Are the authorities in Indonesia love to overshow their power? Lately, if you watched Indonesian news there were plenty of incidents involving the authority and common people. Click here to read about the most recent case between the people of Altas Tlogo village, Lekok, Pasuruan and the Navy. The conflict was started because of a land dispute. The Navy was going to use the disputed land as a military zone, but the Pasuruan people believed that they are the rightfully owner although they have lost in court.
What happened on 30th of May still make me confused. The authority, in this case the Navy, has a job and that is to ensure the safety of their people. But instead of maintaining the security they started shooting at the people. Four people are dead because of the ricochet of bullets fired by the Navy as a warning. The warning shot was fired because the villagers turned violence and started to throw small rocks at the patrolling Navy. At least that's what the Navy claimed. But the villagers said that they heard a series of shot aimed at their home. Only then they started to approach the soldiers and were mad because of the casualties.
From the neutral point of view, we don't know the real story. But engaging and shooting people who were unarmed is definitely wrong. The investigation is still going, and thirteen have been set as defendant. Hopefully whoever is wrong will be brought to justice eventhough that will not bring the dead back to life, at least it will make the family who lost their loved ones fill ease.
Another case is a real experience I have just experienced yesterday. I was driving with my wife and came into a junction. I was headed east and from my left or north side there was this car who was going to go north also. I have blown my horn, but the driver, who then said that he didn't see my car, just keep on going. I managed to brake and stir a little to right, thus I didn't hit his car. But unfortunately for me, my car was hit from behind. Now guess who was driving that car behind me. Yup, you guess it right. An authority man this time it's a policeman. He wasn't wearing his uniform so I guess he was already off duty.
After the collision, the three of us stopped at the side of the road. The policeman came out real quick, and he was even quicker saying that I was to blame. I, if you don't know me yet, am also a hot tempered man. I didn't like being blamed like that, I said to the policeman that the driver who was in front of me, cut my road. That's why I had to break suddenly and stirred a little bit to the right. Maybe my voice was also in high tone, he didn't accept being shout at. He threaten to bring this matter to court, he even said that if he was found guilty he will pay for all the damage. It was then an argument between me and that policeman, the guy who was the source of this problem was the middle man. He tried to give the solution and admitting that he caused this incident.
The reason the guy was in a hurry because he was trying to go to the hospital to see his brother who was sick. Hearing this reason and the fact that he already admitted his fault and his promise to pay half the cost of repairing the damage made me suddenly think. Why was I short fused back there? I found the answer to that later, I was not happy being blamed by the policeman. That's why I had the argument. At last, the matter was cleared and I told the guy that I won't take his money only if the policeman also didn't charge me with anything. We then had an agreement that it was merely an accident. Accidents happened right?
But still this show that there is an urge to show your power if you are a man of authority in Indonesia. I then shook the policeman's hand and not to forget telling him that I was a man of authority myself. Not authority with guns but I am responsible for the education of many people (I am a lecturer, am i not?).

10 Recent Posts

Here are my newest posts, it's removed from sidebar and put into a page. So I can call it from the header above.