Bless youtube.com.
I can practically find everything there. I searched 'Jakarta banjir' and got a lot of clips of the flood back home.
Sad... really sad.
But, what does it mean when you look at those sad clips where people are half soaked and then all you think about is 'I want to go home'?
Sigh...
Indonesians are funny, they are walking in the depth of flood and then see a camera rolling, then they make the effort to smile, wave and even try to stick their faces to the lens.
Gotta love the spirit.
I'm sick of always having to hear bad news from home though, I wish there's a way to inject some sanity and conscience to the government that they need more open areas, more parks, less malls, better sewage system, better garbage disposal system. This flood happens every freaking year.
Hello?
You thought by now they would've been picking up the clues.
The slum areas are too much. Something needs to be done there. It is a massive effort, and maybe even impossible. But it just itches me so that not a single thing is being done.
It's like this: I saw the original DVD of An Inconvenient Truth in Walmart, many weeks ago. That dude, Al Gore includes a energy efficient light bulb in every DVD.
Now what are the odds that if I buy the DVD and use that one bulb, I will halt global warming? I think the chance is super slim to none.
But if I do my part, and a thousand other people do too, and maybe not a thousand, but a million or even 10 millions, then it'll finally make a different.
See my point?
Jakarta is a massive city. It's huuuge. But they should start somewhere. Start with an area with bad sewage system, and stop developing those freaking malls! I went home last year and every time I blinked in the car on my way to somewhere, I see yet another mall. It's unbelievable.

I'm an idealist. My boyfriend would've killed my idealistic idea (he's a compulsive realist).
But, do something. Start somewhere.
It's just like doing my laundry. It seems bottomless, but you have got to start somewhere. Right?

You would thought that dating someone for more than 4.5 years would be enough to know the person entirely in and out.

Wrong.

My boyfriend had a crappy day yesterday. It's just one of those days that really just ridiculously unpleasant. See his blog & him rant about it.
People handle anger in many different ways. My boyfriend's way of coping is apparently to totally shut out the rest of the world and withdrawn from everybody. That includes me, his better half.
I ain't no 'better half' yesterday.

I didn't understand this at first since I happen to be the kind of person that would look for a friend to share, dissect, discuss, or even bitch out instead of sulking in my little dim corner. So we are totally in the opposite sides of the pond. And I was pissed because he isolated me, but then I couldn't be, because, heck... his day was so bad, even as I felt pissed, I still felt bad for him.

But anyway, my smart self finally figure out that it was not about me. I guess the extreme analogy is like this: that day, I would have burnt the whole city down, while, he would have closed the business, hung a 'Gone Fishing' sign and been gone for a whole week, which in a smaller scale, he actually did.
Mentally.

So, I told him eventually that it's not really okay. I'd like some warning if he wants to 'go fishing'. I don't want to see the sign while he left already. And he big heartedly said sorry.

In retrospect though, I have dealt in the past with men with anger management issues, who would yell and belittle people when he's mad. Heck, I have had encountered childish men who would punch a microwave and throw stuff to the wall.

So this 'gone fishing' thing. I'll take it anytime, I'll work it out. I'll learn to fish.

Oh... the Bears lost in the Superbowl. My boyfriend was so fed up that he refused to see the last minutes and start karaoke-ing instead.
I must say, his karaoke-ing was more fun then watching Rex Grossman made yet another mistake.
I didn't sing though. I need much more booze then that to be able to hear myself sing with an echo effect.

Just chatted with an old friend this weekend.
In the spirit of concealing the detail & preventing giving out too much information, I will just make this case a little something about me, instead of her.

I have a lot of philosophy, one of them is the rule of thumb of not giving advise. If it doesn't concern me, then, I will not have a say in it.
My boyfriend at times would say to me that I should give advice, especially the constructive ones.
But. I don't give advice, unless asked.
Does that make me an ignorant person?
Where do we draw the line?
For example, a dear friend is marrying a prick, chauvinistic pig that she adoooores like mad. Do you tell her what you think?
Or another example, if someone tells me that I should just go home and be with my parents because they won't live forever and it's better that they spend their old days with me close to them.
And yet another example, if someone tell a mother to quit her job because now she has kids.

My opinion? I won't say my 0.02$.

Why?
Because it doesn't concern me.
Ignorant?
No.
I just don't think I can just invade someone's privacy trying to be this righteous person with a neon halo above my head.
It is amazing how your mind overlook the big errors you made, yet being able to spot others.
Human nature, I guess.
I remember I gave another friend an advise, like 5-6 years ago about her other friend: You don't have to tell her that what she did was wrong. She's fully aware of it. She knows already that she shouldn't date him. What you can do is be there for her, because when she falls it is going to be painful.

Hence, because of my point of view, I neither like giving unasked advise nor I like being told about what I should do. There are only very few people in my life that can freely give advise. One of them is, of course, my mom.
And, uhm,.. sure, Hunny, you too.
;)

So, if you need a piece of advise, ask.
If you need someone to talk to without being afraid of judgment, talk.
If you don't feel like talking, don't. I won't ask.
If it doesn't concern you, then just mind you own.

Sigh... if only that is being applied in real life.


Confusius - "Fellow-feeling . . . Do not do unto others what thou wouldst not they should do unto thee."

It is sooo cold these days. It's so cold up to the point where I think this is exactly what the total opposite of hell feels.
But yet again, every day I wake up to an even colder day.
And I every day I told my boyfriend: I stand corrected! Today is the total opposite of hell, not yesterday.
I wonder what are the people in Siberia are doing right now.