The Cat and The Bear: Upcoming Trip

Posted by Paramita on May 7, 2013 2 comments

Yes! They’re going to India!! ^^

The bear really wants to try an elephant ride. And the cat is very excited to meet her far relative, the Bengal tiger. While the bear is quite worried about his ability to digest Indian food, the cat is more worried about the temperature on summer there. It might turn her into a grumpy cat ;). Anyway, I hope they’re going to have some fun!

p.s.: Please notice that the tiger which the cat is excited to see is a baby tiger, looking from its size, and obviously too young for the cat. There is no need for the bear to be jealous ;)

Dilemma and Decision

Posted by Paramita on May 7, 2013 No comment

After a series of vacations *got me into dreamy and browse-for-cheap-ticket mode*, unhealthiness *sprained knee from the last skiing, and feverish bear*, and papers… I finally get to write again! Not that I don’t have enough free time to write, it’s just that the laziness, and sleeping and watching (movies, series) moods, attacked me in the last few days (or weeks? :p).

Just recently a friend faced a great dilemma and had to make a big decision *past tense since the decision has been made ^^*. She had to choose between buying one way or return way ticket to go home *as buying return way ticket is much cheaper than buying one way ticket twice ;p*. She has been given a great opportunity to stay and continue developing her skill, but unfortunately while being so far away from the family. Whereas her family wants her to come home, for some reasons. She’s the one that has to make the decision, so we as friends could only give our thoughts, cheer her up, and give our supports whatever her decision is.

And that… motivates me to write ^^. Maybe this will come to be too extreme as an illustration, but I watched Lincoln not so long ago *a great movie by the way ;)*, and I found that this would be the perfect analogy. Lincoln’s son, Robert, wanted to contribute in the civil war, but his mother, already lost a son before, was completely against that since she thought that she couldn’t bear to lose another son. Well, in this case the son knows exactly what he wants, and it depends on the parents whether to support him or not. Perhaps also to decide for him since as Lincoln said, “I’m Commander in Chief. So, in point of fact, without my permission you ain’t enlisting in nothing nowhere, young man.”

I know that every parent wants only the best for his/her children. To decide what would be the best for the children is one of the parents’ duty, only when the children are not capable to decide for themselves. Parents might think that they know better since they’re more experienced, but forcing their idea of ‘the best’ without thinking of what the children want is not the correct way of parenting, IMHO.

Just this once, Mrs. Lincoln, I demand of you to try and take the liberal and not the selfish point of view. Robert will never forgive himself. You imagine he’ll forgive us if we continue to stifle this very natural ambition? – Abraham Lincoln

When the parents insist that their decision would be the best for the children, regardless of what the children want for themselves, the children will face this great dilemma, between fulfilling their ambition and not letting the parents down. When someone makes a decision to comply with what others wants, they will get a chance to blame that other people every time things get rough. It is not unlikely that the children will feel resentful towards the parents. Though it depends on the person actually, whether to carry that bitter feeling the whole life, or to forget and forgive ^^.

What I want from my parents, or what I want to do when I become a parent later on, is that they let me decide for myself, as I will be the one who lives with the consequences, and that they support me whatever my decision is. Well, perhaps I have this version of ideal way of thinking because I’m not yet a parent ;).

Anyway, I believe that every decision we made will turn out to be the best, as long as we are sure and convinced that it would be the best. Then bearing any consequences of that decision will be easier, living without any regrets will be expected. I’m sure about that, I know ;)

I must make my decisions, Bob must make his, you yours. And bear what we must. Hold and carry what we must. — Abraham Lincoln

The Cat and The Bear

Posted by Paramita on April 15, 2013 2 comments

This is a story about a cat and a bear…

The bear, not as weighty as depicted :p, is a very sweet and fluffy bear, that I guess any cat would happily jump into his warm hug. As sweet as honey bear, he doesn’t really like to eat sweet stuffs though, and prefers bacon than fish (or any other seafood). While the cat loves seafood sooo much, even wears fish bone as a pendant ^^. Well, she actually eats everything except bitter stuffs, but raw salmon and chocolate and cheese are her favorite.

They speak different languages, obviously, luckily they know one common language, let’s say… rabbit’s language ^^. One thing they also have in common is their fondness of hibernating, especially in cold weather. However, the cat’s hobby to sleep, and inclination to play than work, are more severe than the bear it seems, which I guess the problem of every cat ;).

Both the bear and the cat like snow very much, but they also like sunshine. Playing with snow in sunshine would be the best. Unfortunately, the bear could easily get sunburn, maybe because the fur is too soft (and fluffy) :p. The cat won’t get sunburn so easily, it’s just that the fur color will change :D.

There are so many more things I could tell about them, such as how the bear likes to fly so much (yes, the bear can fly a plane  ^^), or how the cat really wants to try diving (and catches the fishes while doing that). But let’s keep them for now. One thing I could say is, their story… has started, and will never end.. i hope ;)

P.S.: It doesn’t mean that I will draw the illustration of their story, as in this one.. would be nice if I could, unfortunately I’m not that talented ^^;

Il Nuovo Frullatore!

Posted by Paramita on April 4, 2013 2 comments

Sudah lama sebenarnya saya berniat membeli blender. Setelah sebelumnya kualitas sarapan saya meningkat setelah berinvestasi dengan membeli toaster, pastinya jadi lebih berkualitas lagi dong ya kalau dilengkapi dengan jus buah-buahan :p.

Akhirnya niat itu terlaksana juga, setelah saya tergoda memborong strawberry diskonan di supermarket. Lama-lama bosan juga makan strawberry dengan ‘saus’ susu kental manis, lagian kalau disimpan begitu saja di kulkas cepat busuknya. Akhirnya saya simpan di freezer jadi frozen strawberry.

Nah, kombinasi frozen strawberry, yogurt, dan sedikit susu kental manis *iyaaa, gw fans berat susu kental manis >.<*, jadilah homemade strawberry smoothie! Lengkap dengan marshmallow, hahahah, niat abis. Semua bisa terwujud berkat sang mini blender yang super imut ini ^^. Sengaja saya beli yang ukurannya mini supaya nanti kalau pindahan ga repot bawanya. Biarin porsinya dikit, toh yang minum paling saya doang :p.

Semoga dengan blender baru ini jadi bisa lebih sehat dengan jus buah-buahan atau sayuran *lagi asyik browsing resep green smoothies*, plus buah-buahan dan sayuran yang tersimpan di kulkas jadi cepat habis bukannya membusuk begitu saja karena saya males motong-motong ataupun masak :p.

Anyway, a little side story…

Since the opening sentence is already in English I will just continue then :p. Every time I use this blender, I always imagine this worst scenario that often happens in a comedy movie: when someone foolishly didn’t close the lid before turn the machine on. I don’t have to explain what kind of mess will happen right? ;) It’s just that, I’m so clumsy that this thing might happen, and I can imagine how the wall will have this pink spots all over it.

A couple of days ago, I purposely invite someone to try my delicious strawberry smoothie, that I could proudly declare as buono as Italian gelato *mamma mia ;)*. After it’s done, I opened the lid to confirm that it’s really done, then tried to separate the container from the machine. But somehow it was stuck and I asked for his help. He innocently pressed the button, and… thank God it stopped before the pink things reach the wall :)). His defense was, the button said ‘PUSH’ so he pushed it *facepalm*.

So that kind of accident happens after all ;)

Books: 4-Hour Workweek

Posted by Paramita on February 11, 2013 No comment

I have to confess.. I don’t read non-fiction books, except for –of course– books for the courses that I attend. Those books about self-help or self improvement or time management never attract me. Well, I read Chicken Soup for the Soul a long long time ago, perhaps they could be considered as non-fiction? Oh, and I also did read these books as a child, did you? Or Seri Tokoh Dunia? :).

Anyway, I stumbled upon this book, titled The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Tim Ferriss. Not a recent book, published 6 years ago, so maybe you knew and read it already. The only reason why I read it was because.. that is the only book in English among those German books that I found during my last vacation ;). However, it turns out that the book is quite interesting, the author is pretty skillful in writing the methods he proposes not in the boring way.

I haven’t finished the book, but I really like the last 2 chapters that I read: The End of Time Management and The Low-Information Diet. Both of them are about how to increase productivity, something that I really need right now.

The first one focuses on tasks and time. Of course you have to focus on important tasks to shorten work time. However, there is this weird phenomenon, that you usually perform well, or maybe best, during the minutes before deadline. That is the magic of deadline, because the time pressure forces you to focus on the tasks at hand. The idea is to use both: identify the important tasks, then set for them very short and clear deadlines. Self discipline is a must have in this case ;).

The second chapter focuses on limiting your access to information because most of them are really unimportant. Can you imagine how much time you waste on reading emails, or browsing the timeline of Facebook, Twitter ..or 9GAG? ;). The author even suggests to not spending time reading news, giving you the opportunity to ask people “So, what’s new in this world?” then having a small talk.

Last week I was offline for exactly one week, no internet at all, I even set my mobile network to flight mode the whole week. After I came back to the ‘world’, browsed through my social networks, I realized that.. nothing much happened. Well, I got almost 100 unread emails, but only 2 important things happened: my master thesis’ supervisor’s baby girl was finally born :) and I need to do Skype call on Monday morning. So there’s really no need to check your email every hour, except if you’re really expecting something important.

The author set some rules for this information diet thing, one of them that I found funny is: No reading books, except for this book and one hour of fiction pleasure reading prior to bed :D. The thing is.. one hour fiction rule won’t work on me, because one hour engaged in an interesting story is enough to make me finish the book, however long it may take ;p.

So.. since it’s snowing outside, now is the perfect time to finish this book *or writing another posts, let’s see which wins, reading mood or writing mood* ^^ Ciao!