Another Victoria's Secrets

via wikia.nocookie

I spent half my day today talking with my 19 years old cousin who asked me the other day stuff about life and spirituality. We discussed stuff, and I gave him some clues about life. I think it's kind of necessary to give out some advices here, to be shared and spread, the 10 best advices I've been holding on to in my life. Some I quoted, some I discovered myself. I hope these can help!

1. Things change. People change. It's one of the law in life and there's nothing we can do about it. The change is constant, therefore we must always learn to adapt. And adapt. And adapt again. We must be flexible and open minded.
2. The past is dead. When things change, you must know that that reality is gone and going to be replaced by a new one. It's always sad/shocking at first, but once we realize that we cannot relive the dead, we have no other option than to move on.
3. Listen to your heart. I know it sounds much easier than done, but the first thing pops into your mind usually comes from your subconscious mind/heart. It's the intuitive thing before any logic comes into mind. Needs a lot of practice to listen, but once you can it's gonna ease your way in life because heart will lead you the way.
4. Know your purpose. People say the purpose of life is to serve God. The others say to serve the others. Anything you find it clicks with your heart, go for it. Try find your purpose and be firm about it, and you'll be doing okay.
5. Acknowledge that HAPPINESS is a way of life, not a purpose. If your life goal is to be happy then you'll waste it finding something that can never be found until you switch your mind to be happy while living your life.
6. Connect to the nature. The Hindus believe that nature is God and God is in nature. Most peaceful people live in countryside while urban people tend to be depressed. I experienced this myself, that those lots of hours spent outside enjoying the scenery could be a kind of therapy and process on 'finding' the answers I'd been looking for. Go on vacation for a break. It'll always do you good.
7. Travel. Go somewhere new. Learn something new. Meet someone new. Anything new can always help--to handle boredom or to give new perspective on life. With more and more knowledge we receive, we are pushing our limits to its very edge. And it broadens our minds!
8. The people you know, you'll know for life. Even tho you know them for only a brief moment now, who knows if one day they'd become your boss/business partner/best friend--or spouse? So always do and give the best to people, as you want to be known/remembered.
9. In finding a spouse, look for one who has the opposite character from you but has the same taste/hobby/interest with you, not the otherwise. Opposite characters can help a lot to fill your weaknesses and vice versa, while same interest will help to keep/rebuild the passion alive.
10. Set some targets, be as tangible as possible, but NEVER target the age to be married. Money can be earned, success can be gained, but love is not a trophy. Love will come naturally, so never put target on when to be married. Worst marriages (that I know from people around me) are the ones that is done with time limit or the urge to have babies before 30. Come on. We are human beings, not robots!

Please feel free to share these if you find them helpful. Perhaps I'll compile another bundle of advices next time. And, by the way, have a happy brand new year ahead, folks!!

by Ane Brun


She's got everything she needs, she's an artist, she don't look back
She's got everything she needs, she's an artist, she don't look back
She can take the dark out of the nighttime and paint the daytime black

You will start out standing, proud to steal her anything she sees
You will start out standing, proud to steal her anything she sees
But you will wind up peeking through her keyhole, down upon your knees

She never stumbles, she's got no place to fall
No, she never stumbles, she's got no place to fall
She's nobody's child, the law can't touch her at all

She wears an Egyptian ring that sparkles before she speaks
She wears an Egyptian ring that sparkles before she speaks
She's a hypnotist collector, you are a walking antique

Bow down to her on Sunday, salute her when her birthday comes
Bow down to her on Sunday, salute her when her birthday comes
For Halloween, give her a trumpet and for Christmas, buy her a drum


I'm liking this song because my boyfriend 'gave' this to me and I'd like to be this girl for him. <3>

via rappler

Today another plane is missing this year, just 4 days before the closing of 2014. Air Asia's Airbus A320-216 PK-AXC plane with flight number #QZ-8501 was reported missing contact within their first hour of flight from Surabaya to Singapore this morning at 7:24 a.m. WIB (but the radar from flightradar24 said it went totally blank few more minutes after that).

The airplane carried 2 pilots, 4 flight attendants, an engineer, 138 adult passengers, 16 children and a toddler. That's 162 people in total. Like the lost plane of Malaysia Airlines' MH-370 before, the plane went missing above the sea and this means the third major airplane accident happened in this year, all three were Malaysian airlines.

QZ-8501 had requested a permission to go from 32,000 to 38,000 feet above sea level to avoid bad weather/some thick clouds but declined by Air Traffic Control (ATC) because there was another airplane at that height. It shifted to the left instead, with permission, just a moment before it was gone.


There are absolutely weird things going on here, especially if we study this with logic. I'll break down some for you here:

1. There were no signal of distress pilot(s) in their last contact. This means, there shouldn't be any major trouble happened despite the bad weather. Planes go through bad weather all the time, so it should be a 'normal' bad weather that the pilot asked only to go higher or shift the plane in a normal voice.
2. There were high air traffic around the spot where QZ-8501 was gone. If there was an explosion or the plane fell, there must be at least 3 other airplanes heading toward QZ-8501 to witness the accident.
3. If you take a closer look, there were 4 planes around QZ-8501 (pay attention from minute 1:10 to 1:38) that were hovering for 3-5 seconds before it went blank from the radar--a moment before QZ-8501 lost contact--but only 2 of them went back on track again after QZ-8501 was gone (minute 1:44). One of which had a kind of different path than its original one with bigger yellow plane signal, before the signals were lost, like it was U-turning during the signal lost. This might be the side effect from the "kidnapping" illusion or the four planes could take part in the scenario also (if the case was like MH-370). I prefer the first possibility, tho.
4. If the plane was gone before the line went into dash*, then the accident happened between southwest of Kalimantan and north of Java island (the Java sea, not to mention the Thousand Islands). There should be witnesses from the coasts around or from the fishermen if there was a plane fell. Or at least within side views from 2 airplanes around.
5. If the plane was gone exactly when the plane signal went static red and gone, then it happened around Natuna Sea, north of Belitung island. Still, there should be at least one witness from any of the coasts. And the witness in this spot should be more than the other spot due to more coasts around and 3 airplanes with frontal view toward QZ-8501..
6. Search for an airplane crash shouldn't take more than a day, especially in the neritic zone (shallow part of the ocean above the drop-off of continental shelf, approx. 200m in depth) where sunlight shines through to the bottom of the sea and is NOT an ocean. The wreckage should be found in no time.
7. And even if the plane crashed on the land/island (which is unlikely, due to the data we have now), the search would be even quicker. 
8. Looking back at MH-370's case, many psychics from various countries brought up one similar theory: the airplane was safe in other dimension/world. I'll take this theory--which apparently the only theory that fit all of the data.

I would love to jump into conclusion that this plane, like MH-370, was 'abducted' and transported to another dimension--or in our words: to enter the invisible portal to Area 36 (read about it more at www.turanggaseta.com). It is indeed hard to believe, but if all the facts don't lead you to any plausible theory, then why not try the insane ones?

In my discussion group, many asked why should 'they' abduct airplanes, or why should it be all Malaysian airlines or whether the passengers and crews could go back to our world/dimension. I don't really know the exact reason but I'd say 'they' want the world to pay attention (admit this: airplane accidents brought more attention than bus or train accidents, right?) and to notice that there are the 'other dimension' with their advanced technology that have been living around and beside us all along, that could make (impossible) things happen.

In my opinion, more planes are going to disappear until people would admit that the 'other dimension' of Area 36 does exist. Until people would admit that there are some greater power/knowledge/civilizations hidden around us. I know this sounds insane or maybe a little too sci-fi. But if you are reasonable--to quote Ricky Gervais--shouldn't these data change your perspective now?


P.S. (update) After days of search and some findings on bodies and wreckage--to think about it in other perspective--my best guess is the plane was about to crash with some UFO/a Nuswantaran flying vehicle that camouflaged in thick clouds that it perhaps: a) crash with the vehicle, b) shot by a thunder in order to avoid the crash or c) had the same case with Sukhoi jet on May 2012. What do you think??


*) the plane with dashed line on their path were not always appears on flightradar24 during the flight. In this video, the person created the video already clicked the plane (AirAsia QZ8501) before dashed line, so the plane appears all the time until he/she clicked another plane--copied comment from youtube. 

via rackcdn

Do you believe in reincarnation?
Is it related to your belief?
Does your religion against the idea?
What if the science can proof the otherwise?

But most importantly, what if today's researches could finally relate science with beliefs/spirituality? This movie is talking about a random test done by scientists couple that lead them to a huge discovery of the relation between science (which are based on facts/data) and spirituality (which relates to human's soul, feelings and subconscious mind).

I myself do believe in reincarnation, now that I have seen the proofs for the past 10 years. I remember I used to argue with a friend about this and I insisted that there aren't such thing as reincarnation. But from Paulo Coelho's books and testimonials or stories from around me, I slowly started to believe in the idea, especially when a man told me who I was in my last incarnation.


Now if something like this occurs in your life, whether you're a scientist or a religious person, would you change your belief? Would it affect your perspective on seeing this life? Would it trigger more the curiosity in you about the mystery of life? Or would it be just another movie/discovery/news that goes by and forgotten in your already busy life?

And if there are proofs/facts/data that connects the never-ending debates between science and religion, shouldn't it be a great thing to discover? That we could finally find the answer about life mystery? I have found recently the data that is indeed shocking but so true that it works on researches and experiments, but really changed my belief on almost everything in life.

But as Ricky Gervais had said: "Beliefs don't change facts. Facts, if you're reasonable, should change your beliefs." No, I never lead anyone into atheism like Gervais did. I simply want people to see the greater truth, the one hidden behind religions--but not that God isn't there--the one that had been there all along, written/drawn/encrypted on manuscript or other ancient artifacts, the proofs that had been there way before religions existed. Why not grounding our beliefs from the origins--the original one?

I'm not going to discuss about that now, but I put it in my novel, Gerbang Nuswantara, all of the facts that could trigger your curiosity to find out more about Indonesian original history/culture/data. For me, this movie is another great mind-opener--just like Lucy--on the greatest knowledge we're not told. Yet. But it really is a mind-opener.

I like almost all of the quotes from this movie, especially the one that said "eyes are the window to the soul"--that specific quote we're all already familiar about--that is literally proven in the movie. Because I experienced it too when I met my current boyfriend. It was at our very first meeting that we knew we've known each other since forever. And that we are each other's true love & soul mate, and that we could see it in each other's eyes.

Maybe that's why I love this movie so much. Because it's mind-opener. It gives proofs. And it relates to my own personal experience. Now I am curious to have my eyes scanned and see who I was in my past life(s)--in a scientific way. Not that the past mattered, but I always believe that the past holds the key to our future (and the knowledge).


Anyway. Some fun facts about the movie (taken from IMDb):

1. For a brief moment in the opening credits only the letters I and O are shown in the movie title. This gives "IOII". In binary the number 1011 translates as eleven which is an important number throughout the film.
2. In the ending Salomina completed a test and scored 44%. The test involved 25 questions from A-Y. 44% of 25 is 11. In the beginning of the film, 11 is the number that brought Ian and Sofi together. This is a well thought out scene which shows the directors use of fore-shadowing.  
3. Salomina's score of 44% is 11% above the average score of 33% which is yet another occurrence of "11" in the story. 

via shouldiworkforfree

Found this on Facebook, I am very grateful because I've been working for free for so long, especially to the closest people around me.. until it hit me about six months ago that my friends insisted me to make her a business card for her piano course (that I declined, after much difficulties because she thought she has the privilege of being my friend that she should get it free from me).

And this chart here is a perfect chart to eliminate the unnecessary projects to my work piles. Thank you, Jessica Hische who made this. It really is helpful for us designers!

For more details, click here.

When you hear the word "volcano" you probably automatically picture something like the sight of red and orange magma coming out of the earth and burning everything in its path..


Volcanoes are formed where the Earth's tectonic plates shift, allowing subterranean magma chambers to erupt, or in locations where the Earth's mantle is anomalously hotter, pushing the magma up to the surface.


Of all volcanoes in the world, the Ijen Volcano complex is the most rare and unique as the lava it produces is blue.


Located in East Java, Indonesia, Ijen's unique blue lava comes from the very high concentration of sulfur in the magma.


The locals have been mining the sulfur for many years now, at a very low pay and high risk to themselves.


Still, the incredible site is one to behold, and since National Geographic mentioned the phenomenon a short while back, tourism to the spot has increased.


When photographer Olivier Grunewald chose to visit the mountain and photograph it, he had to wear a gas mask due to to the high concentration of sulfur in the air.


Both of him and his team slept by the acid lake at the top of the volcano with their masks.


But thanks to them, we get to view such amazing images.

There are more than just a reason why I love this movie "If I Stay", a movie based on a novel by Gayle Forman, starred beautifully by Chloë Grace Moretz and Jamie Blackley. I found it while browsing and decided to watch it tonight out of boredom. Apparently I couldn't stop the tears from falling while watching it, but I don't regret--it was really worth it!

I love this movie because:

1. The casts are all beautiful and simply fit into the characters. I'm loving the Halls family already.
2. The way the movie is packaged from the beginning to end; so light yet so deep and meaningful.
3. The so many lessons we can get during watching--not to mention if we read the book.
4. Adam "was already someone" which kinda hit me with my own reality...
5. And the problems Mia and Adam were facing are simply similar to my own that I can copy almost all of the quotes and apply it in my own life.

So yes, I love this movie mostly because of its similarity to my own love problems (tho I am not in the dying situation) but now that I had to choose between moving on (and running out of fight) and facing the reality instead, then I chose the latter. I chose to live for love. And I am staying for my boyfriend.

"Sometimes you make choices in life and sometimes choices make you." -Gayle Forman.

While I knew only one, apparently there are more than five ways to knot a tie. 


It seems like such a fine thing on a man. It completes their formal-wear in a way that leaves no doubt he is a sharp dresser, especially if you get a little clever with your tie tying, and sport some a really interesting know that's hard to do. So, from basic to advanced, here are some easy visual instructions on how to tie some of the more popular as well some of the rarer - tie knots.

Here are the ways: 

by courtesy of Oom A.E. Pryana.

I have no idea on how much time did it take to make this movie, but it's damn awesome!
This is the music that Nigel Stanford composed for Tom Lowe's movie TimeScapes. I love watching stars, staring at the view of nature and be adventurous (especially at the river between canyons). This movie is bringing me some of that, and I hope you like this as much as I did. Enjoy!

I'm not a physicist nor do I plan to become. But I bet this following video will just trigger your curiosity toward physics, once you watch this awesome music-science video by Nigel Stanford here:



“In 1999 I watched a documentary on Synesthesia — a disorder that effects the audio and visual functions of the brain. People with the disorder hear a sound when they see bright colours, or see a color when they hear various sounds. I don’t have it (I don’t think), but I have always felt that bass frequencies are red, and treble frequencies are white,” Stanford wrote.

“This got me thinking that it would be cool to make a music video where every time a sound plays, you see a corresponding visual element. Many years later, I saw some videos about Cymatics — the science of visualising audio frequencies — and the idea for the video was born.” (CNET)
This, will surely direct people's minds to the idea of free energy by Tesla, or find out more of it here.

I can't write more about this due to my lack of knowledge in science and physics, but this video is surely brings us a message, that there are energies working around us, that is related to aura, law of attraction and everything else--you name it. I'm just saying that our universe is a lot richer than what we know. And I am just as curious to find out more about it!

All for Rp 50,000!

I found these books on sale last week and got them all for only IDR50,000. It was a great deal for me, who haven't shop for books for quite some time. I've been reading most of the tales, both the Arabian Night's (Kisah-Kisah dari Negeri 1001 Malam) and the Indonesian & World's Classic Tales (50 Cerita Klasik) and I think some tales are similar to each other.

One thing that I notice, tho, most of the tales tell us that first-born child or earlier-born children (almost) always have bad/worse attitude than the last child. It had always been like that, even in the Bible. There is only one tale I found that the "winner" of the game is the middle child, only to find in the next tale that his youngest brother gets a bigger prize after.

Then the questions came to me:
Is it natural that oldest kids are tend to be rude, cruel, lazy, spoiled, jealous children?
And why is it never happen to the youngest one?
Why is the kind-hearts, humbleness and nobility always go to the last child?

If the Bible--or these tales--were told as metaphors, then I'd take it that the best quality is usually found in the ones who get a lower place or the suffering/downtrodden people. Perhaps it is said to obviate people from getting arrogant. Because, honestly, I am the first child and I feel that I am far from being a rude, cruel, lazy, spoiled, jealous, or whatever-it-is-that-is-worse-than-the-last-sibling's-attitude.

I may not be perfect but I won't agree if all first kids are that bad. But I also admit that my youngest sister gets easier path of life than it is/was for both me and my brother. Perhaps it's in their luck. Maybe there is a special privileges of being the last child. But as a first-born, I'd say I have my own privileges, too! ;)

Herdi was giving speech

I'm gonna share the event I went to last Friday, which I just knew exist a few days before. I wasn't planning to go to Jakarta that day but I had to interview a resource for an upcoming project, so I went instead. The venue took place in Jl. Tirtayasa and I finished at 5 p.m. Such a perfect timing on Friday night in Jakarta!

Herdi and me

After 10 minutes trapped in hopeless traffic jam, I turned my wheels and headed to Plaza Mandiri SCBD for PechaKucha Night Jakarta. My ex-colleague Herdiana Surachman of Deluxshionist was giving a speech for the community, and the night's topic was Fashion Nation. When I got there at 6 pm, the room was barely filled so I got time to chit-chat with Herdi and catching up stuff we'd lost in 2 years.

This is Ucita Pohan, one of the best speakers that night

PechaKucha is a community started in Tokyo, Japan, in 2003 by Caucasian architects for creative people to gather and share ideas. PechaKucha Night is the monthly event for 20x20 presentation. It means each of the speakers has to speak within the slideshow of 20 images, each shown in 20 seconds. I must say, this is a very creative way to inspire and be inspired.

Herdi, me and Atri

So I stayed for the night while waiting for the traffic jam to dissolve. I sat next to Herdi and perhaps the only not-fashionista person to sit at that row of speakers. Just before we left, we met Atri, our other ex-colleague, and had another catching up chit-chat. It was a very tiring day for me, yet inspiring. I think I'll go to the next PechaKucha Night!

Our booth at D6

For the first time since it was built, De Latinos housing complex in BSD City, Tangerang Selatan, held a local fair, participated by almost 100 booths, sponsors and talent performances. Me and my aunts joined the crowd by renting a booth for selling crafts, cloths, cookies, etc. I spent for about a week to prepare my forgotten handcrafting goods I brought from Bali.

Indonesian batik & weave motifs for lanterns and cushion cases

I don't really have much to say about the event, except that it was held in 2 days (13-14 Dec 2014) and that I got sunburn because of roaming and biking around by the sun. But overall, I got few friends coming and it feels nice to be visited by those who live far away from De Latinos. They were Tommy and his partner, Joseph and his friend and DJ Laxx who helped us promoting to passersby.

my aunts, mom and me

I sold all of my batik fabric I bought in Bali and almost 10 of my lanterns, which is half of the stock. By the end of the fair they lighted beautiful fireworks for about 5 minutes and amazed us all--no matter how often you have seen fireworks in your life. We all came home tired, sleepy, but happy because it was a success. Thank you for all friends who came and shopped at Pélopé!

Tomorrow, my handcrafting brand Pélopé Shop will open a booth at De Latinos Fair, at BSD City. The event will be held from 9 am till midnight for two full days this weekend. If you're happen to be around the area, come by and experience some fun with us! I'll meet you all there!

I was web-surfing and found this series of television drama based on Janette Oke's novels called Love Comes Softly that aired on Hallmark Channel. The set was in 19th century' American farmers and cowboys and among them, a life of a Christian family. The movie starred by Katherine Heigl--which was the first reason I watched it--and old time TV series Time Trax' Captain Darien Lambert, Dale Midkiff.




Then there are prequels to the series, which telling the story before Clark Davis met Marty: Love Begins, Love's Everlasting Courage (both 2011), and Love's Christmas Journey (November 5, 2011). All have very beautiful setting and story, regardless the Christian theme the series are based on. I enjoy the movie because of its setting mostly, and I hope you enjoy these as much as I do!

via locadev

I owe this article to a friend in Bandung since my last visit there, last month. Due to my busy-ness, I just have time to write it now (sorry). So, during my visit to Bandung I met two of my old friends, whom both have small business; one in fabric business and the other has custom shoes workshop. Both, to my surprise, complained about the same thing: the upcoming AFTA 2015, which made me wonder, what about it?

What is AFTA?

Based on Wikipedia:

The ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA)^[1] is a trade bloc agreement by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations supporting local manufacturing in all ASEAN countries.
The AFTA agreement was signed on 28 January 1992 in Singapore. When the AFTA agreement was originally signed, ASEAN had six members, namely, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Vietnam joined in 1995, Laos and Myanmar in 1997 and Cambodia in 1999. AFTA now comprises the ten countries of ASEAN. All the four latecomers were required to sign the AFTA agreement in order to join ASEAN, but were given longer time frames in which to meet AFTA's tariff reduction obligations.
The primary goals of AFTA seek to:

• Increase ASEAN's competitive edge as a production base in the world market through the elimination, within ASEAN, of tariffs and non-tariff barriers; and
• Attract more foreign direct investment to ASEAN.

The primary mechanism for achieving such goals is the Common Effective Preferential Tariff scheme, which established a phased schedule in 1992 with the goal to increase the region’s competitive advantage as a production base geared for the world market.

After some discussions, both of my friends said that this AFTA thing is a seriously big threat for their business, especially at the beginning of the opening of the program, because the agreement will allow imported stuff spread widely in cheap(er) prices around Indonesia which was expensive due to the taxes it applied.

via sastrasipilindonesia

Why is it a threat? 

Let's take it this way:

1. The imported brands that come to Indonesia is very pricey now that it has enough digits or percentages of taxes it applied with.
2. This, has made the small local business alive because those who cannot afford buying expensive things will go for custom-made or the copy or anything made by local industries.
3. But when AFTA is applied in Indonesia shortly next year, this will make the imported goods as cheap as, if not cheaper than, the local-made stuff.
4. Seeing the character of Indonesian nowadays, most of us always prefer things that come from outside of our own country than local-made, mostly because of the brands.

• Then what will happen to the local small industries? 
• How will they compete with imported brands with such competitive price? 
• Moreover, how will they manage to export their stuff with the competition among international producers?

This AFTA agreement, of course, is a great opportunity for Indonesian industries to go international and export their stuff, introducing their brand globally, at least in ASEAN + 3 East Asia countries (China, Japan, South Korea). But how about the small industries that do not have enough fund to compete with the middle and big industries? Are we really ready for the agreement?

via patra

They call it win-win?

Yes, we can always see the bright side in every situation, especially for those who are big enough and ready for the change. But for the small industries, things can be even more rocky. The conditions to enlist a product/brand for AFTA will include a set of documents, registrations and payment of certain amount that is rather impossible for small industries to provide.

Then, how about the workers of these small industries?
Will they be on risk of losing their jobs?
And what do the government do to help the small industries with it?

This, I suppose, should be our homework to think about the solutions for them. If we want the equity of economy throughout our country and to thrive together, we must do something about it.. but WHAT? HOW? Can we raise our awareness and love to local products? Can we provide or donate for small industries to help them survive the agreement?

What do you think? 
*comments/replies for this post will be posted in my next blogposts. Just keep 'em coming and if you're on my range (Indonesia area), I might give you something as a reward.. Let's do something about it!

Anyway, here's the latest video pitch for Tosan Aji The Movie.. If you are interested on joining us in producing or as a team in the production, let me know!

Click here for more details or send me email for the proposal.

So, I went to this exhibition in Perpustakaan Nasional last Monday. I met Pak Iwan there, and roaming around the aisles to see the old manuscripts of Panji. Panji is a character in a folklore told too many times that it has many developed versions that are spread to all Indonesia and even to Southeast Asia. In this exhibition, they showcase about 30 versions of the library collection.

Perhaps it is a coincidence that I am doing the story of Panji for my magazine project that the exhibition is being held now, until Oct 30. They give away free books that I managed to bring home, mostly in Javanese and some with ancient Java scripts. The one I'm working on is completely different from the others, although generally they are talking about the same historical event.

free books from national library

I cannot share what I am writing here, but I can share that basically Panji is a story of a grandson of Kuripan Kingdom (now Jenggala Kingdom) who fell in love with a princess from another part of the divided kingdom (now Panjalu Kingdom). Their love story is more or less like Romeo and Juliet because both kingdoms are at war with each other. An interesting story, given that it came from Java land. I hope more people would read and know about it.

Meita, me, Maria, Christin, Albeta and little Freya

This should be posted few days ago, but let me share this now. I went to another elementary reunion last Sunday in Senayan City. Although not as many as the one we had in Bandung--and only girls came--but I enjoyed meeting my long-lost friends that afternoon. We had lunch at Pancious for almost 5 hours chatting and catching up, then they continued while I had to catch the last bus at 6 pm to BSD City.

The next day, after my whole day meeting at IKJ, I went to my other elementary school's friend reunion (the school I went to before I moved to Bandung). We gathered at Alexandre's office at Pondok Indah before went to PIM for dinner in Sushi Tei and watch Fury. It was only me, Jovita, Alex and Alif--the only singles left in our classmates.


Anyway, the movie was great. The characters are strong, the actors acted so good it made me kind of devastated to imagine myself as Norman, the new driver assistant in Fury tank, to fight the Nazi at World War II. I think Brad Pitt has his own interest on fighting Germans, to see that he starred before in Inglorious Bastard. Well, he chose right for this one because Wardaddy is a really cool sergeant!

www.pnri.go.id

I'm going here tomorrow.. Anyone interested, too?

Arie, Alvin, Robby, Hendra, Arief, Beatrix, (Melissa & Dewi), Yune, me, Delta and Ernest

I just got back from my 3-nights-holiday in Bandung. I went there last Wednesday with mom and Aunt Agnes then we hung out at Paris Van Java--it was my first after two years--mom met her friends while I roamed about the aisles of the mall with my brother. Many things changed but still the same unique mall that Bandung has.

We stayed in a friend's house in Awiligar, the area I knew so well since 1995. The next morning I woke up too early to meet my ladies, Irma and Esther, at Irma's daughter's school. We chat while having noodle breakfast for two hours until the time Irma had to pick up her daughter. I went back to the guest house for some nap then..

..until it was dinner time and I went out to meet DJ Dixie, DJ Dana and Yudha at Cafe Bali. After dinner and some trip around the city (and some dessert at Nanny's Pavillon), we split up and I went on to Golden Monkey to meet another of my best friend, Patrick, and his friends (more about this later). Paulo Coelho once said: "There's nothing wrong in creating a blacklist with people who put you down. Just don't include people who challenge you" and Patrick is one of a very few persons who always challenge me. That is why I always enjoy talking to him.

The day after, I picked up my sister at Cititrans travel and my brother at his kost. We then had lunch at Pepper (at Jl. Sutami), a new burger parlor belongs to my schoolmate, Adit. After some catch up, we went on to join mom at D'Warung Tabuga, way up from Punclut. Then, we moved again to Miss Bee, a cute place we love both for the architecture-interior design and the food.

Later at night, we went to Nanny's Pavillon (again) for dinner. My mom with her friends; my brother, my sister and my cousin together; then I with my reunited schoolmates from elementary years. It was really fun for us, that some hadn't seen each other for 10-20 years now. There were 12 of us, which supposed to be around 70 of our peers. I went home with Alvin by motorbike that night. It was so chilly I forgot how cold it was in Bandung, at night!

Then today, me and my family had lunch at Traffic on the way back to Jakarta. I didn't know it belongs to Mario, a friend I knew from another friend. Sometimes, especially after you've traveled so far and long in life, all that can simply brighten up your day is some friendly faces and talk about the good old stuff and old times--things that are so familiar that you feel like coming home. Somehow it just relaxes you, despite all the heavy burdens and fast paces of adult life.

So basically my holiday this time was full with old friends--all the friendly faces I needed and wanted to see. I did planned to meet Irma, Esther, Patrick and Alvin this time (and I did met them) but failed to meet Cheryl and Agatha. But there will always be another time for Bandung, right?

So I tried making some illustration for Gapura novel and here they are. The first image shows Drupadi went out of the portal to catch a butterfly and in the second image Bima & Rani are about to enter the portal, looking for Drupadi to return her pendant. More of these will be inserted to the novel--and I need your prayers for the process of getting them to published nationally.. :)

For now you can visit nulisbuku for order and purchase. Thankies fellas! :)

Have you ever wondered how our world was before the great volcano eruptions on 15th-16th century that changed the whole world's map? I found some that caught my interest the most: the ones that showed that the world was shaped differently than it is now; North America wasn't as big as it is now and Canada (the almost crescent shape at the left side) was connected to Brazil (South America); Australia was connected to South America and Java was a continent of its own.

Dieppe (Dauphin) Maps

According to wikipedia:

The Dieppe maps are a series of world maps produced in Dieppe, France, in the 1540s, 1550s and 1560s. They are large hand-produced maps, commissioned for wealthy and royal patrons, including Henry II of France and Henry VIII of England. The Dieppe school of cartographers included Pierre Desceliers, Johne Rotz, Guillaume Le Testu, Guillaume Brouscon and Nicolas Desliens.

Let's check on these following Dieppe maps:

Guillaume Brouscon's 1543 Dieppe Map

Above, we can see this as the oldest world map we have in archive. Australia looks like an expansion of South America (left below) and North America (look at the flag above South America) was narrow and bending. Canada was very big to the north-most and most of its part was unidentified yet. Most of East Europe (Asia) was also unidentified, as also the Terre Ostrale.

Guillaume Le Testu's 1556 Dieppe Map

In the map above we can see the shape of South America was slimmer than before and the unidentified lands were already taken shape. The Terre Ostrale has Grande Iave and Terre Australle at the south of it. This means, there was already a catastrophic disaster that caused these changes, but not too big. We can also see that most of the world was covered with lands instead with seas/oceans.

Nicolas Desliens's 1566 World Map

In the map above we can see that most of the lands had disappeared at the north-most but the shape of America & Canada was still sickle-like and Borneo, Sulawesi and Papua (of Indonesia) wasn't as big as it is now today. There should be another volcano eruptions that caused these land shifts.

Jave le Grande

The more I research on this, the more evidence I found that most of the cartographers focusing on Iava la Grande or Jave la Grande. It is believed that this ancient Java was the disappearing Atlantis, although most of people thought it was Australia. If we look at the maps, they show some differences of the maps from 1543 to 1566. There must be some missing evidence and details about what happened at this time, but the only explanation is some catastrophic disasters must happened.

According to wikipedia:

La grande isle de Java (“The great island of Java”) was, according to Marco Polo, the largest island in the world: his Java Minor was the actual island of Sumatra, which takes its name from the city of Samudera (now Lhokseumawe) situated on its northern coast.

Robert J. King has suggested that Alfonse’s description of La Grande Jave could also fit the Regio Patalis promontory on Oronce Fine’s world map, and indicates that the Dieppe Maps appear to have conflated Marco Polo’s Greater Java with Fine’s Regio Patalis and Brasielie Regio.^[18] On the Dieppe Maps, the great promontory of JAVE LA GRANDE (Greater Java) extends, like the Regio Patalis, northward from the Austral continent. The evolution of Fine’s REGIO PATALIS into JAVE LA GRANDE may have been influenced by the phrase used by Ludovico di Varthema, an Italian from Bologna who made a voyage in 1505 from Borneo to Java, who said that Java, “prope in inmensum patet (extends almost beyond measure)”.

The Dauphin Map 1530 and 1628

In the maps above we can clearly see the changes of what it was before Indonesia (it was called Nuswantara), from Samatra (Sumatra) to Java La Grande (Atlantis--it wasn't really Atlantis but Atlantis was a part of Java La Grande and it's not Australia at all--I will explain this another time) in 1530 and 1628. Again, there must be some catastrophic disasters (such as volcano eruption) that made the world map changed several times during that century.

(Actually I have another theory about this, but let's save it for later post.. or to be written in my novels!)

Volcanoes

Ring of Fire - via geospatialdesktop

The list of volcanoes eruption during that time was: Pinatubo, Luzon, Philippines (1450); Nemrut, Turkey (1441, 1597, 1692); El Teide, Tenerife, Europe (1492); Chaparrastique/San Miguel, El Savador, Central America (1510-1515); Galeras, Colombia, South America (1535, 1580, 1616); Kelud, Java, Indonesia (1586, that took out more than 10,000 lives); Cotopaxi, Ecuador, South America (16th century); Villaricca, Chile, South America (16th century); Merapi, Java, Indonesia (16th century); Gamalama, Ternate, Indonesia (16th century) and many others.

The map of 1628 was already shaping most of the islands of Indonesia as it is now, but the part that they call as Land of the South would be changing again during a closing of several of Nuswantara kingdoms. Since 2010, there are hundreds of natural disasters happened such as tsunami, hurricane, tornadoes, earthquakes, landslides, floods and volcanoes erupting--most of the volcanoes are located in Indonesia.

The recently active Indonesian volcanoes are Merapi (Central Java), Kelud (East Java), Sinabung (North Sumatra), Slamet (Central Java), Semeru (East Java) Marapi (West Sumatra), Lokon (North Sulawesi), Anak Krakatau (West Java), Barujari (Anak Samalas-NTB), Gamalama (Ternate), Karangetang/Api Siau (North Sulawesi), Soputan (North Sulawesi), Dukono (North Maluku/Halmahera), Rokatenda (Palue, NTT).

What do you think? Would there be another change in world map soon?