Being Shot At ... !!!

From one of nice articles at Grant's Graceland

Got a nice reminder...

...just because you are being "shot" at does not mean you are not in the correct battle, it is just a reminder that you ARE in a battle ...

Yep

That's right ...

Beautiful World - On being a parent

Showed this photo to my former manager ... "If you see this picture, we wonder how come the world can be so screwed up..."

So true ... children innocence and smile ... my children.

And, the responsibility to oversee them growing up is bestowed upon me and wifey ... surely that need a vast dosage of prayer ...

Harry Potter - hmm I wonder ...

Warning ... this post contain spoiler ...

Just read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows ... and I end up wondering ...

You know, there's this notion in some people, that Harry Potter and JK rowling is the embodiment of the devil itself. Promoting magic to children especially Christian children. it's unacceptable ... cannot be ... atrocious etc.

Well I was just wondering now that in the story, Harry Potter chose to die, so that others can live ... and then live again... I was wondering what would be the argument from those above now ... "You know son ... Harry Potter is bad ..." "Why Dad ..." "It promotes magic ..." "Oooo ... but isn't Harry chose to sacrifice himself and rise from the dead Dad ? Just like the bible stories ?" " Welllll I dunno son, at least magic is bad, Harry Potter is bad ... end of discussion"...

Im not defending Harry Potter, but like I wrote, I just wonder ... what would the argument be ...

Our Ancol Trip

Hmmmppfffhhh

Got complaint from an old lady today

"Been checking flyingpiggies ... no update at all ... NOTHING " ...

Ya ya ya ... mam I've been so busy...

And... what was that writing about commitment again ... ??? Hmmffpphh....

Okay lah ... I should make good of my word isn't it. So let me tell you a story about the day we went to Dunia Fantasi Ancol...

Yep .... it was the last day of school holiday. And gosh... I haven't spent any quality trip with my girl. And monday she's due in school again. What to do oh what to do... And at the end I do what any loving father would do ... Skip work ... okay not skip work but take an emergency leave (Hey I have tons of leave okay ... seems ages since I've taken them ..... officially >:) )

So here we are ... 12 in the noon ( not a good idea I tell you ) driving to Ancol. Of course Aiko is excited. Look at her smiling - cute isn't it


We went together in a circus pack ... my mom was being generous that day so she took all the maid's children, our driver's children and off we go in a very large group. I thought there were 25 of us at that time. Alot of person huh.... Heres Aiko with Risel, the maid's daughter


Off we go started with the merry go round ...


Then off we go to the boats ...

OKAY OKAY you didn't see the boat ... hey what do you think how on earth I can take a picture of the boat while riding it ? Who do you think I am .. mr Fantastic ????

Ok ... next come Dumbo the flying elephant ... our experience ????? WELLLLLLL let's just say Dumbo had troubles getting off the ground ... Aiko must be getting heavy .... Here's the view behind Dumbo's ear

After Dumbo's experience, daddy hadn't had the heart to try out the motorbikes... so here's Aiko with aunt Isty...


Afterwards ... It was chaos ... The heat and the up and down in dumbo took it's toll on Aiko's stomach. And Daddy being insensitive HAD TO take Aiko on a circling teacup (dunno what's the name)... So Aiko was crying ..."Papaaaa sakit peruttt" ... (daddy my tummy hurts) ... Daddy was brokenhearted ... what to do ... Take her to istana boneka (dolly castle) ... but then she was so tired and her tummy must felt terrible, she fell asleep in daddy's arm in the LOOONGG Dolly Castle queue... Mind you Aiko was not that heavy ... only 22 kgs !!! So .. being a manly daddy I carry her throughout the queue (i swear .. must be 1/2 hour long), and throughout the queue Aiko was .... how do you say it ... FARTING !!! Must be good for her stomach though...


Luckily in the dolly castle, tummy feeling better, Aiko was being her happy self again ...

After that we ate ... and JOOOYYY oh JOOOYYY ... mommy decided to skip work also ... well mommys story was a bit more dramatic, as she sneaks out the office (hopefully her boss didn't read this blog) ..

So after that ... Dolly castle again !!!

Then the ferris wheel - Mommy is afraid of heights
After that ... we got FIREWORKS !!!


And ended with another go at the merry go round

And ... we're all happy ... well at first Aiko is grumpy when we about to go home
But .. she's soon became her cheerful self again

Multiply !!!! a commitment

Matthew 28:19-20 .... multiply ....

Hey what i am thinking ? Nah ... it's only my new "recommitment" to write. Just finished this multiply site.

I'll try my earnest to update it regularly.

A Confession of A Narcists ....

Look at her ...


Isn't she beautiful ....

And then look at this .....


Then you will realize that the following parables are true ... "Like father ... like daughter" ....

Hahahaha

Damn Electronics !!!!

I bought an Ipod last month ... as shown here .... it was the 5G 30 GB model, as I said, it holds lots of music, the sound quality was fabulous. I paired it with a Koss Sparklug earphone. I also bought the dock and the remote and connect it to my stereo in our room.

Everyting was perfect ....

Until ...

And last week Charles update me with the HORROR ..... APPLE RELEASE THE ENHANCED 5th generation Ipod. Those bastards ! Why couldn't they wait for another month or six ? Why couldn't they let me feel good as I have one of the coolest, dandiest and hip music accessories around ... Why .. why .. why .. And to make it worse, the 80GB model was just about the same price of my 30 GB one ...

This is the problem with consumer electronics, a hip things will quickly become commodity. Apple Ipod itself revolutionalize the MP3 player world. And then now we're flooded with a flock of MP3 players. Price becomes cheaper and cheaper, but feature wise, a 249 USD ipod have lots more features than a 500 USD ipod 2 years ago. Commodity goods, every one was doing it, so in a while it will come to price wars. Features become irrelevant, because everyone was stuffing every feature imaginable to their products.

Soooo ... I need to turn my attention to .... ACCESSORIES, no use fretting about the commodity market huh... As I said in the previous blog, that Harman Kardon Drive and Play sure looks fabulous....

Commodity stuff ... HUH !!! Electronics ... HUH !!!


Well I haven't started to fret about Canon releasing a 10 MP beginner DSLR over my "semi pro" 8 MP 30D....

Again ... commodity ... HUH !!!

That EF 24-105 L IS USM sure looks good :D

Jump and Splash .... The continuation ....

Mmmmm

It's a continuation of my two recent blog ... the one titled splash and jump.. jump... Well let's go to jumping first.
The following pictures are proofs that Aiko likes to jump... The pictures are blurry (well wifey can't handle the canon 30D adeptly ... yet ), but it speaks bundles he he he ...

Then you can also guess that these pictures also speaks a lot about swimming !!!! Well last time I was afraid that Aiko was traumatized because she drowned at that time.... Welll worry no more .. Not only that she's likes swimming pool ..... SHE ALSO FLOATS !!!!
First Picture ... sleeping in water ...

Second Picture... notice how deep the pool was (1,4 meters) and how far was she from me ...

Daddy is soooo PROUD !!!

Jump Jump Jump ....

Aiko likes to jump ... She's able jump up and down for half an hour straight. We have an additional mattress beside our bed and she used to jump down.

Now besides that mattres we need to put another mattress paralel to the window, because once she jumped and get bounced to the window (end up with a bruised head)...

It's amazing to see that someone so small has so much energy.

White Suit and Powdered Face

The Venue :
Salom's Wedding

Couples sighting:
- Andrian & Venny & Aiko & Nanny
- Daru & Raney
- Regina and Hubby and Two Children (forgot the names .... SORRY)
- Nindya & Helen & Hovan
- Tungting dan Evatek (hmmmm ... of course tungting plays the role of the MAN !!! :p )
- Maya & Lovy ... (no guy like, but couples none the less)
- Mico & Eva

The report :

Only one sentence ... The groom wears whitesuit with powdered face .... nuff said ... let the picture do the talking

Higher resolution pictures (and more of them) are here

Good luck to Salom and Mira

Swimming ...

Got a confession ...

Once in one outing at the pool, Aiko fell down ... My fault, I was too far away and she was underwater for a second. Naturally she said... "udah ... udah ... Aiko udah ..." And I was heart broken. It was about 2 months ago.

The moment of truth is today, is Aiko traumatized because of that day ? Well I can report that it's ok now, she showed the same enthusiasm with water as before... But daddy come prepared now ... Look at the picture :) (sure she had a gulp of water .... well make that three, but nothing unexpected :p )

More picture here

How Did it Come to This ?

Picture this,

My graduation day and birthday ... October 31st 1998... Oh my God is it really been 8 years since I graduated ? And .. and .. and ... it's been 13 years since I first entered college ???? Arrrgghhh... so .. Im ... Im ... Im ... 32 this year ....?????? ARRGGGHHHH....

Calm yourself Andrian ... this passage is not about your age ... it's about something far more sinister, far more diabolical, far more .... Yes it's far more important than my age ... it's magnitude surpassed Israel invading lebanon !...

Picture this ... a nice meal, a gathering of friends, about 10 of them. I graduated that day and coincidentally it's also my birthday. Then naturally we go for a meal ... the restaurant : Glosis, the food ... steaks ... some of them pork (hey Glosis serve those ...). The setting ... very much warm and lighthearted... friends were laughing, stories were shared, jokes were told .... Until the end of the meal ... the horror ...

Behold ... in the restaurant's yard ... a photographer along with a couple ... the bride were beautiful, but the guy .. o mi gosh, the guy ... He ... he ... he... He wore his hair high, I bet he used a full bottle of hairspray to achieve that hair. Hmmm ... picture Alec Baldwin, a thinner Alec Baldwin with slanted eyes (he was chinese), a weird cocky smile ... ah you got the picture. Then the prop ... they are the most horrible thing I saw that day ... they brought an old bike, a complete picnic apparel, with baskets and the accompanying picnic sheets (with box pattern), and the guy was holding ... A GUITAR !!!!! Sinister ... diabolical ... unprecedented ... and naturally faced with that kind of horror, we LAUGHED LIKE CRAZY ....

Fast forward 8 years (goodness it's been that long ya ...) I was speechless, stunned, surprised, shocked ... when I received ... this ....

How did it come to this, ... how come ... how dare him ... how dare you ... how come you let yourself be a laughing stock ... HA HA HA HA HA HA

Degradation of humanity, far greater magnitude than Israel's attack ... ha ha ha ha

Still I wished them best of luck. To Mira and Salom ... welcome to the unknown ... Im sure you will find it worth the trip...

Our prayers are with u guys...


CHEERS

Odong-odong

What on earth is an odong-odong...
Hmmm it's like a miniature arcade machine for children. But it's powered by man, the guy will pedal and the odong-odong will move back - forth - up - down ... Just like arcade machines.

It's cheap, only Rp 500 per song ... Aiko usually spends Rp 2000 to 3000 in one go
Still confused ??? Let pictures do the talking:

Warrior of Light

Found from the blog of my friend : from Paulo Coelho, the author of The Alchemist:

"Every Warrior of the Light has felt afraid of going into battle

Every Warrior of the Light has, at some time in the past, lied or betrayed someone

Every Warrior of the Light has trodden a path that was not his

Every Warrior of the Light has suffered for the most trivial of reasons

Every Warrior of the Light has, at least once, believed he was not a Warrior of the Light

Every Warrior of the Light has failed in his spiritual duties

Every Warrior of the Light has said 'yes' when he wanted to say 'no'

Every Warrior of the Light has hurt someone he loved

That is why he is a Warrior of the Light, because he has been through all this and yet has never lost hope of being better than he is"

Music, lots of them

A week ago I took the plunge and bought one of these....

Man it really nice to have most of your CD collection in one place. And it's soo good so I bought one more .... wait one more ? You see, Venny is pregnant now and she's nauseous all the time. That day she listened to music during our trip and it really help her. So I bought one (i know ... i know ... what about sharing ... :p )
by the look of it... Aiko enjoys it too... It's really a good buy, but now I have to refrain myself from all that accessories.... Hmmm that HK drive and play sure looks good :D

Out with the Old and In with The New

We just replaced these ....

With these ....
Why you asked ? Well let's just say, the new ones have no joint, so less likely to break.... :(((

- Two little friends -

They don't really understand each other ... (or do they)
Come from different race ...
Still look cute and played together ...
Even tried to cook together ...
Kids are fun ... kids are hillarious ...
It proves that the language of friendship spans further than our spoken language
I feel blessed just watching