Another Victoria's Secrets

This is a short animation movie made by my schoolmate Dessy. It's a really cool animation out of a simple short story. Enjoy and support her please!

I was sort of free yesterday after a morning meeting, so I spent all day in Mal Galeria. I was intended to watch Fast & Furious 6 but the movie wouldn't be started till 6.35 p.m. which meant I had about 5 hours to kill so I bought another ticket to watch Man of Steel at 4.30 and had lunch at Sushi Kiosk before. 

The Man of Steel was fine, although I had a little problem with Amy Adams as Lois Lane and some part of the movie feels a little too lame. But thanks to Snyder and Nolan, we get to know more about Krypton, tho. And the graphics, effects and Henry Cavill's cute face and hot bod just paid all the disappointments.

I was needing a little workout today so I went to the Petitenget beach and had some walk along the shore for an hour. After that I sat on the sand drawing some stuff until dusk. Too bad there wasn't sunset because it was cloudy. But it was good to let my feet touching the sand and seawater. A Balinese guy told me that sea can cure anything, from disease (with the salt water) to broken heart. It's great just to sit there enjoying the scenery and breathing the sea breeze. So soothing.


I had dinner at Good Deal Warung by myself and when I was just about to ride my bike back, the security guards from Tulip (where I worked last year) recognized me and called me. I went across the street and made time to catch up a little with Dani, a waitress there who was always being friendly to me. She ended up invited me to attend her wedding day next August in Bangli area. I had never been to any Balinese wedding before, so I think it's gonna be a cool first time for me.

I then visited Frans' kost, not to meet the guy but the lady lord, who asked me to come to get Frans' room key back. When I got there she asked me to sit down and chat, so I did. We had a 1.5 hours chat together, talking about unimportant stuff. She said she really liked me and invited me to come back again some time for another chat.

It's really good to be invited and I got two in a night. I guess the nice feeling is to know that these Balinese people do like me enough to want me to be around. It really did made my day (which began not too great due to my lack of sleep last night). I guess Oen's Path this morning really is right: there is always-always-something to be thankful to. Thank God!

As a coffee drinker I have an obligation to share with you the best coffee I have ever tasted, and probably the best anyone would ever tasted, too. Javanegra is a 100% Indonesian brand for all of the coffee was planted all over Indonesia, from the east (Aceh Gayo) to the west (Irian; Papua Baliem), from the north (Sulawesi Enrekang) to the south (Flores Bajawa). Find even more variety in our web.


Special for wild arabica luwak coffee, we have this certificate of authenticity. Make sure you buy the original and best wild luwak coffee from Indonesia. Visit our website or studio in South Jakarta for more info.
All photos are copyright to Javanegra.

To continue the journey on finding our way to the lost Atlantis, here are the videos from Turangga Seta group (video #28-36):

Dewi's mother gave me this 'wuku' based on my birth date. I don't really understand the Javanese / Balinese / Sanskrit language so I'll ask her when I next meet her. So far, I can only put it here to share. Do you agree with what it said about me? Or, if you understand, would you help translate it for me? *pardon the language, there isn't any English version of this.

I'm not getting sick no more, so I think a nutrition guide would be helpful for my food choices.

Don't make me stop drinking!

I couldn't help to buy this purple lamp shade the first time I spotted it in Centro Dept Store. Too bad the shade didn't come with anything else but the armature and green cable. So I asked a hammersmith to make something to hold the shade and it came out as a pretty curvy iron cast painted in white. I also asked him to make small chains to hold the shade.


The green cable for the lamp bulb came without a plug so I had to buy a white plug and be an electrician for a moment. I cut the cord case and coil the brass fibers around each of the steel blunt nails on the plug and cover them back up. After the bulb was perfectly installed, I twisted the green cable around the white iron and plug it in and, voila, my pretty purple vintage bedside lamp!

After more than half a year, I finally had my racks applied to the wall yesterday, thanks to my landlord's help with all the screwing and hammering stuff. I felt so happy with the result, for my bathroom and kitchen looks more neat than before. I got the racks from Ace Hardware and Carrefour. Cheap and easy!

It had been 1 year, 3 months and 1 week now that I have survived settling in Bali. It took a lot of guts and a whole heart to move out to a new place without any family or friends. Lucky for me, Bali is still in Indonesia and the people speak both Indonesian and English, the two languages I expertise on. And I have friends here; both old friends, like Ana whom were my schoolmate in Binus, and new friends, like Dewi whom I met from work, so my days are not lonely.

Still, it's not easy to settle down in a new place, especially in the place where the tradition is thick and the culture is different. Here I'm helping you to adapt better, and quicker, in Bali:

1.  Ride the Bike
Everybody in Bali, both old and young, men and women, locals and tourists, ride the bike. I mean a motorcycle (which they call as 'sepeda' or bike), not a bicycle (here they call it as 'sepeda gayung'). It's like the number one transportation here because public buses' (angkot and Trans Bali) tracks are limited and do not go to small roads. Make sure you have the license (SIM C) and have learn to ride it in safe place with no traffic (try parking lots). It's much easier to ride the automatic kind than the ones with gears. Hundreds of bike rentals available along Kuta and Seminyak roads, but you can also buy yourself a bike if you certain to stay in long period in Bali. It'll help you big time, especially if you are an active and mobile person.
Price for daily rental is IDR 40,000-70,000 and monthly rental is IDR 500,000-600,000 for automatic bikes.

2.  Navigate Yourself
If you have lived all your life indoor, it's time to read the sun position now. Balinese people use compass direction to show ways to get somewhere (in case you are asking) and it's important to know which direction you are facing. Simplest way is to have the map on hand and know where the beach is. If you are in Kuta/Seminyak area, just remember that the beach is the West (kauh); if you are in Sanur or Tulamben area, the beach is the East (kangin); if you are in South Uluwatu area, the cliff is facing South (kelod) and if you are in Singaraja, the beach is the North (also kelod for it's seaward; kaja is used  toward the mountain). Better learn to read the map and stick to it, trust me. Also, Balinese people are good in calculating distance. Use the meter on your dashboard to figure out your first distances, then remember it for next calculations. It'll get better with practice.

3.  Speak Balinese
It's important to know local language when you are living there. I know Sundanese and it's a little help because the language is not so different. Buy a language book or, even better, learn from the locals. Make sure you know the most important words, such as hello/greeting (om swastyastu) and thank you (matur suksma). You can go further from there, plenty of time for this but make sure to get as much information as you can.

4.  Respect
There are people all around the world living or staying in Bali, especially in the South Bali, and they come from different places, culture, and religion. Respect is a must to survive; being open minded is another help. We can always learn something new from other people here, thus our network expands. But not only for people, we need to respect the nature also. Balinese Hindu people believe that God is in the nature, so we must treat the environment with lots of respect. Do not litter, do not damage the coral and sea life, do not damage the earth with heavy and massive structure, do adapt wild dogs, do care for the greens and reduce the use of plastic bags. Respect and be in peace with yourselves, then the universe will respect you also. Remember that karma works fast in Bali!

5.  Dress Properly
Balinese people have so many ceremonies they can ask for leave for up to 13 days in a month when they work. Big chance you will be invited to attend or to invite yourself to one of their sacred rituals. For women, the simplest and most common dress is kebaya just like in Java (a tube top/long torso/girdle with a brocade/chiffon blouse on top of it and a wastra cloth wrapping and covering the legs), but with a prada belt (a shawl wrapped around the hips) and for men, they wear udeng or headband, a shirt, and for the bottom part there are a wastra cloth, a kampuh cloth on top of it, and an umpal (a shawl) to tie up the cloths. You can add a flower on your hair/on the back of your ear. If you want to respect the host of the ceremony, dress up!
image taken via sphotos


You really don't have to wear the traditional dress everyday or speak Balinese all the time for sure. 99% of people in South Bali speaks English and other international languages. But it's nice to have all the points above so you can blend more easily with the locals, especially the ones that are not in the South Bali. Good luck for that!

Yesterday, Monday June 3rd, I woke up very early and arrived at Ubung at 6 a.m. at dawn. Nobody was there before me but soon people were coming over. After it was settled, we departed to Lake Batur; 13 students of year 2011 in an Elf bus, 9 more students of year 2010 in another bus, and me, Bli Agus and Bli Made Dwi in a Jazz car. I didn't know these people before, but it's a good time to get to know more in this program.

So the program was about the socialization of the forming of a cooperative (Koperasi) for organic producers all around Bali. The members of Organik Mandiri Sejahtera that had been collected until now was 700 people from 14 villages and 5 districts. This is a very large number, especially because the idea came for social interest.

I didn't really get involved with the process but I agreed to help on the ceremony day. I was in charge of 22 students of Agriculture major from Udayana University who participated as ushers and receptionists. We were all dressed in Balinese kebaya, the local traditional dress. The first batch (of year 2011) came together with me but the second one came around 11 p.m. so I didn't get to really know them.


We arrived at Wantilan, on the west side of Lake Batur, at 8 a.m. and got prepared our guest lists and other forms the members and invitations needed to fill in. After completing the registration they needed to make a photo, taken by Bli Made Dwi. Then they were ushered to the Pura Jati temple at the north-east side of the hall.

The program started at around 11.30 p.m. when Ratu Pedanda (head of the Hindu priests from the Brahman caste in Bali) gave opening speech, followed by Mrs. Ni Luh Kartini (woman activist for organic production in agriculture and also a lecturer in Udayana University) and Pemangku (a Hindu priest). The speeches were closed by briefing from the Department of Agriculture from the government about the structure of a legal cooperative organization.

The program was supposed to be done at 3-4 p.m, but we finished at 2 p.m. already. It was because the food came late so the programs had to be started earlier than the schedule and the farmers, being uneducated mostly, just went home after the stomach was full. We knew it'd be hard to handle them, but we didn't expected that they'd just go home like that. It was kind of surprising.


But we are grateful enough for the whole programs, although we didn't get all the forms they should fill in, and we went to Pura Ulun Danu (the 'water source' temple) for the administration and to thank and farewell to the Jero Mangku (head of Pemangku in a temple). It took another hour or two before we could go home. We reached Ubung at around 7 p.m. at dusk time.

It was totally a social work for me, and I felt so good because it was not just to support a 'go green' program, support our farmers, and also to know people who care enough to make the cooperative. I got many new friends, especially the girls I was working with. It was really a fun day, not only because of the foggy scenery of the Lake and Mount Batur, those pine trees and also to learn more about Balinese language. Matur Suksma!

P.S. matur suksma = thank you

This was the last treatment form at Wen Zhong for my wounded knee on last Tuesday. After three times of acupressure, I had the blood detox that took 250cc of my dirty blood away from my body and left my body felt fresher than before. Ana came with me for the last two acupressure treatments and we had the blood detox together.

The Sinshe told us to fix our eating style with more fiber such as wheat, vegetables, fruits and nuts, especially from 7p.m. to 10 a.m. Well, we knew about these stuff since a long time but still, living on budget on our own far from family made us had to choose between being healthy or having more money for other things. Well..

Apparently it's not that easy to be healthy on budget in Indonesia, but we promised ourselves to pick more healthy food to be consumed. More importantly is to exercise, which is even more difficult to be done than said, regarding to our lifestyle. But the warning was there and we need to take care of our bodies more now. Now, keep healthy, folks!


P.S. A result of my blood sample just done today and they said the indication is for cholesterol. My LDL level is quite high, I need to consume more fruit and fish oil, avoid the fried food. Basically, I just need to fix my eating style.

Talking about future, we are here already. Ready or not, we have arrived in the time of interactive projectors like what those superheroes or villains had in the movies like Time Trax, Mission Impossible, etc. Here it is, Google Glass. Check the video out!


Explanation from the email I got said as follows:

If you're in the majority, chances are you haven't gotten your hands on Google Glass just yet. And even if you've peered through the high-tech specs before, you might be in need of a tutorial.
Now, Google has released a video explaining how to get started with Glass, a touch-sensitive device heralded as the future of mobile. 

Here's a deeper look at how it works: By swiping the frames' "touchpad" — which runs from your temple to your ear — you can change settings and access new features. To turn it on, all the touchpad needs is a simple touch. The display positioned above the user's line of sight can be adjusted manually, similar to a rear-view mirror in a car.

The display appears to be floating a few inches in front of the eye. The first thing you will see is a clock with the time, which is the first "card" in your timeline. Other cards, which can be swiped to accessed, include the weather, your calendar and so on. Tapping on a specific card will open it up with more details, such as flight information.

The sequence of the cards plays a role as well. Cards from the right of the home screen are from the past, such as messages, videos or photos, while cards to the left are for upcoming events. You can also click on photos to share with one of your friends — contacts populate within the display, so clicking on the person you want will create an email message addressed to that person.

Meanwhile, swiping your finger downward on the touchpad will bring the display to standby.

So, I guess all those smart phones are going to be expired soon, don't you think?

Like birds?
You gotta check this short film by Chris Jordan.


It's about an island in North Pacific 2,000 miles away from the nearest continent which is full with birds, but also with the dead birds' bodies (which captured by the photographer) with plastics inside it. It shows the irony of our plastic waste that became their food eventually kills the animals and, slowly, our natural environment. The film has a really nice but also ironic scenes of the island and habitat. It's worth to watch and to donate, too--then work on our own plastic garbage!

I don't know where these houses are located, but found the pics on family's mailing list and I think I should share with you guys. What about living in one of these places? 

Well this is kind of embarrassing, but last Tuesday I woke up with pain in my left knee. I couldn't bend it so I walk limply, while my first meeting of the day was 10 a.m. at Gelael Supermarket in Kuta Raya. I held my pain till it was too much and thankfully Oom Irwin (Mom's friend and an uncle to my childhood friend) and Tante Susan took me to this Sinshe (some traditional Chinese doctor) at Kartika Udayana shops.

Turned out the Wen Zhong Acupressure Center have branches too in Jakarta, and the place was kind of clean and nice. There were 5-6 massage beds open to the main doors after the reception area. So people can see what's been done to the patients. They were all having acupressure therapy, except for me, for my emergency situation, to have the acupuncture.

I was kind of lucky because to meet the Sinshe and having a consultation would need a long reservation because the place was kind of crowded, but the Sinshe's wife (which also has the license for practice as Sinshe) was there when I made my complaints of my knee and she offered her help. She said it was probably because of my eating habit (instant food and no exercise), not because of the ligament break as I predicted before.

It was much better after the 20 minutes treatment; I could walk much easier and surprisingly the pain was totally gone in the next morning. But I still need to do the acupressure therapy for 3 days in a row, starting today, and going to be closed with a blood detox where they'd take 250cc of my dirty blood away and leave my body fresh and healthier. That's what they say, so I hope the result will be so.

I had never done acupuncture before, but it really wasn't that scary. The pain was like being bitten by an ant for one millisecond and that's all. But at around the minute 15, the Sinshe made a swirl at the six needles and at where it hurt most, the pain was like the sensation of being electrocuted. That was the only pain I felt during the acupuncture. I think it's endurable and really worth it.

P.S. For the acupuncture treatment or 1 hour acupressure therapy they charge IDR80,000 and for the blood detox it's IDR250,000.

According to our 2 hours experience there, we have learned some stuff that could be useful tips for you:

1. Never come at Saturday night at dinner time on rain. The queue was crazy!
2. Order all things that you would want from the beginning. It took a while till the food would come.
3. Don't try to come if you have problem sitting on the floor. The only seats that aren't on the floor are the waiting area. You won't want to eat there.
4. If you sit upstairs, especially on rain-and-windy time, mind your belongings. Wind could fly your lightweight objects and you wouldn't be aware of it. 
5. If you would want to taste one of the jamu menus, achtung! The bitter taste would stay longer for the portion was a wine glass full.

But after all, we had a great time eating there. It's really a unique place with hilarious concept. They warned us already that they are sort of mad people (written on the sign at the receptionist). The waiters wear vest and batik sarong while the waitresses wear girdle with batik cloth. It's like going to a Javanese cabaret or traditional dance show but the actors are serving us instead of being on stage. It's worth it, I guarantee ;)


P.S. The phenomenal restaurant is located in Jl. FM Noto 7, Kotabaru, Yogyakarta 55224, next to Mirota Bakery. Or ask local people, they'd know.

I was watching How I Met Your Mother: Season 1 the whole night yesterday and managed to watch till episode 19. Somehow there's a dialogue between Robin and Ted from the 18th episode that stuck on my head this whole day. So I replayed the movie and captured the scenes and placed them here so I can share with you guys.


This somehow made me laugh but also think and reflect on my own life. I really love the series!

I forgot to post here about my birthday. I went to Blanco Museum for the first time. It is a very unique place, combination of Bali landscape and architecture with a touch of Italian paintings. The museum also has a small bird park in the front and bigger bird cage at the back. They have parrots and cockatoos and popinjays and they let me took pictures with them.



The museum has a restaurant named after the Balinese wife of Don Antonio Blanco. The place is a balcony above the entrance gate and the food are extremely good. Try the cheese fondue and fried banana. They also give a free special flavored tea for compliment. Indeed a really nice experience to have!