New Starbucks' Era

So healthy living, organic, and back to nature kind of stuffs are in trend now. Starbucks is jumping into the boat as well. Look at their new product lines: The Skinny Muffins and Tea Lattes (Milk Tea). Well probably people ARE leaving coffee. I found the Red Tea Latte very good, indeed. Rich and sweet...dunno if it's really skinny, though...

Pondok Indah main street after busway

So finally the busway is built. The government did chopped down several trees and replaced them. But they also reduced the size of pedestrian area. Also, probably due to the protests, they did not make the busway elevated, but instead in the same level as the common lane. Want to see how the road looks like now? Since the bus itself hasn't arrived, so the road is pretty spacious. Btw, can you see the clouds? They're beautiful! So, do you feel that the pictures depict mini Beverly Hills, as it was said by the critics?

Interesting insight in the new year!

This morning I went to campus and had this discussion with a friend and I found this very refreshing insight in the 3rd day of 2008! I realized that human beings often have desires, wants, infatuations, etc that are completely pointless. Pointless, meaning having no positive outcome for oneself as well as for others. I had this thought because in the last few days I think of all of my plans that are not accomplished and after a while I realized how pointless some of they were. Should they were accomplished, they will most probably do nothing good to make life better. As an analogy, when I was a child I used to be crazy about furry stickers. And my Mom used to told me to do well in school and she'd give me those stickers as a reward. But my fondness decreases with time because now I have no desire to take care of the collection.

It's just an analogy. As an adult, we can have tremendous want for cars, houses, luxurious stuff and we work hard for that. However, these desires does not last and the same for the happiness. Therefore, one should not base one's happiness on things like that.

Instead, we should feel happy when we realized that we can experience many dimensions of life and many different feelings, such as sadness, happiness, disappointment, relief, etc. And while we do our best to achieve our goals, we drive ourself further, taking all the potential out of us. And therefore we should be happy. Also, after we reach our goals, we should see how these goals benefit others, social and natural environment. And there we should be happy. Moreover, we should be happy when we see what are our strengths and weaknesses and how we manage those things to do good. It is just such a relief knowing this insight, for I have searched a lot in the last few days when I tried to write my new year's resolution. So currently, I am very happy with my life and trying to enjoy every facet of it. :-)

Welcome 2008!

So 2007 is behind me now and I want to share bits of 2007 that left me with a lot of memories, sweet and bitter, but all of them really made 2007 unforgettable.
1. Met a lot of new friends from around the world and said goodbye too soon. Wish that we will meet again somewhere in this lonely planet. ^0^
2. Received so many inputs, some of them constructive, learned and still learning to accept them wisely.
3. Realized for the first time (as far as I can remember) that sometimes I want things that I cannot have, including living things (specifically human)... ;-)
4. Went to Bali and had good time. Hoping to repeat that again someday with people I love...
5. Struck by Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever! Boy, how that's something!

I experienced so many facets of life in 2007 that made me really believe that I grew up faster last year! So I learned a couple of things, such as:
1. Cannot make everybody happy, nor satisfied
2. Stand up for myself is harder than I think, but you gotta do it anyway. That's being assertive is all about...
3. Do not worry too much over things, there's no good in worrying, just make me less productive
4. Things will fall to its place in the right time. Religiously said, God will make things right in His time.
5. Just gotta let go some things and move on..

So, the resolutions for 2008 are:
1. Smile more (be positive!)
2. Drink more water (10 glass a day at least)
3. Exercise more (gotta release the energy, girl!)
4. Pray more (need all the luck I can get to face this world)
5. Complain less and write more instead!
6. Go out and meet mother nature (nature calling and being away from nature is killing me!)
7. Meet new people! Go to new places!

I cannot complain for my life that has been so good to me. Will not regret a second and just counting my blessings! Although I still got a question: sometimes you just want to say or do something so bad but not sure if the timing is right. Should I be more impulsive? Hahaha...don't think so :-D