Instinct Counting....

Today I asked myself a question that left me puzzled. It is the question that occurred to me when there was an accident on the merging ramp. There was an accident on a two lane connecting ramp. On the right side of the ramp, a corolla had an accident, most likely to be caused by the wet surface of the asphalt since it was raining. The left lane was closed as there was a towing vehicle getting in position to tow the car. The Corolla probably had rammed against the side wall of the connector due to sliding, or in physics term : Kinetic friction. I was on the left lane of the connecting ramp and I was tempted to change lane to follow the rest of the traffic. However, I didn't.. Moments later, there was a car behind me that screeched to a halt next to me, again, the truck was sliding to a stop. 

I was thinking, if I had changed to the right, a fender bender would have been inevitable. I got lucky. My heart was pounding a million times a minute, I attempted to  calm myself down by taking several long breaths. This was when this series of thought suddenly gorge in like a dam slowly opening to harness the energy of the moving water. I had prevented the car from experiencing the third fender bender it would have gotten in the past 2 months. I got lucky! So, this leads me to the question of instinct counting. How do you measure the instinct that you have developed over the years? Instincts governs a lot of area of the human life. Be it a business decision, driving awareness, professional athleticism, or simply just an engineering problem that you face in the industry? How do you measure the accumulated instinct? 

The more I think about it, the more I believed that I wasn't just lucky. I had relied and chosen to follow the instinct;and I reacted accordingly. I'm talking about that split decision approach that you utilize in the moments before anything happens, not limited to just an accident. I remember a friend of mine once said before, the driving time that you have accumulated over the years will gift you a wonderful sense of instincts. In the split second, your body will recognize the situation and will act accordingly towards the approach that you're most comfortable with. I'm not saying that all the instincts that you have developed will work towards your advantage, sometimes this strategy may backfire! 

We live in a dynamic world where things changes constantly. We face different situations on an hourly basis and will eventually "store" these experiences on the back of our mind. When we face a similar situation occurring, we unconsciously "load" these memories, measure the importance of the results and decisively choose an exit strategy. Our brain is indeed the greatest creation on earth. We are given the ability to think and analyze our woes. This in turn gives us an opportunity to create and invent. But this is not always the case.. hahaha.. 

Anyway... I hope that you enjoy reading the analyzed version of my thought... next up will either be "bernoulli's relationship equation" or "importance me, ME ME ME!!!" haha, stay tuned for the update on my blog..

Proposition 8

Hmm... what should I say about this proposition? It is the proposition that eliminates the right of same-sex couples to marry. I was surprised that there were actually a lot of people around me who opposes this proposition. I don't feel that it is right to look at the gays and lesbians with a queer eye. It is utterly wrong to prevent the happiness of other people who are different than most people. I just heard that being gay/lesbians is actually an illness. I don't know how true that is and I don't feel the need to go research about it. 

I have a couple of people around me who are actually gay. My hairdresser back in Indo is gay, my mom's clothes designer is gay. They are human beings much like ourselves, they just have a different sexual preference than people who are heterosexuals. Sometimes, these people are actually in an industry where a lot of creativity is required. They are indeed very conscientious and diligent people who are blessed with jovial personality and a surprisingly ecstatic creativity!! 

I also know that they are people who have been oppressed for so long, they were forced to "hide in the closet" for centuries of years before the society gradually accepted them then they can finally heave a sigh of relief and be "outed". Now, when these group of people are eventually accepted by a significant amount of people, the redneck republicans suddenly feel that they are a threat to the society. Dude, the gays and lesbians has always been in the society for so many years, why now? All these politicians, sometimes I don't understand how they think. There's so many things going on in this world -- Terrorism, Global Warming, Recession,etc -- why should it be the gay and lesbians stuff? Don't you have other stuff to do? How do you prioritize? Seriously... Sometimes, they just gets on my nerve. 

Their argument was by allowing same-sex marriage, it will be a threat to the foundation of the family and it is going to give a negative influence to the children in the future. What what what what what what what what??? What kind of nonsense is that? I bet 80% of the people who are supporting this proposition are probably too disgusted to even befriend all these people. They don't even know these people, why would they deprive them of their right of equality? The constitution refuses to discriminate people of all backgrounds. Isn't the USA reverted back to the governance of less than a decade ago? Less than a decade ago, there was the discriminations of the Cherokee Indians, People of Color, People who aren't Caucasoid. Where is the advancement in the political power in USA? 

There will be no teachings in the education system that teaches the children about same-sex marriage. The school has never and will never teach their students about marriages, moreover same-sex marriage. This fact has been confirmed by the Teachers in the United States. 

My question is... why are you depriving people of their rights to sexual preference? If there should be no discrimination in work place, public place and even employment opportunities, why should there be discrimination when it comes to marriage? It is the same as not allowing girls to wear pants, dudes not allowed to wear boxers. What kind of nonsense is that? 

To be honest, I'm utterly disappointed to see the people who are supporting Proposition 8, it hurts even more when there are people around me who are supporting it. I know they must have their own reasons for it, but my reason is simple. If you cherish the peace that we have wherever you are in the world, why should you disturb the peace of others by banning them their right to equality? Screw you Prop 8!!!

生活中的点滴风采。。。

So, it has actually been more than 3 months since I last visited my blog. A lot of things has happened in the last 3 months -- my Indo holiday in Bali, the sub-prime mortgage crash, Global Recession, Chelsea getting their ass kicked by Liverpool, and me getting my ass kicked by life. Haha.. very funny, I know...

So, let's talk first about Bali Holiday. It was pretty fun in Bali, the air is just filled with holiday mood. First of all, there are indeed a lot of Caucasians and non-locals in there. The place is set up in a sense that it gives the visitors a yin-yang balancing effect of traditional and modern. You can go see both traditional and urban infrastructure in there. Food there has a multi-national variety. There were also a lot of caucasians who decided to establish their residency and make their stay permanent. The locals were very nice people and they were always greeting you with smiles. But there was this one group/race of people who does not deserve the hospitality and the privileges that Bali can give you.

Anyway, that was that, so let's move on to the events that encircles my holiday. I went para-sailing, scuba diving and lots of shopping. First, parasailing was this brief 5-10 minutes of attachment to a parachute that was pulled by a speedboat over the Sea at Nusa Dua. At an elevation of what I can estimate of 50-100m, you can seriously feel wind/air resistance. It was like sitting on a convertible airplane. Well, the exact experience was more of sitting in the air with nothing but two velcro strap in tension around your waist. It was Awesome!! The view was exhilarating and for a moment I forgot about my phobia of heights, screw that!!!

Haha... technically, I went scuba diving first before parasailing. There was briefing before the actual diving just to establish some ground rules and methods that we have to utilize during the 1 hour underwater experience. Then it comes to swimsuits, weights, oxygen mask & tank and flippers. Cool right? yeap, it was that cool. Had taken a lot of photos of me underwater feeding fishes but I forgot where the CD was. So yah, i have to find it before I can share the pictures with you. Plenty of different type of fishes underwater, although we only went about 32 meters under the sea level. It was totally different from the simulation game that I had played on Wii, you can't touch the fishes cos they'll just freaking swim away the moment you tried to touch them. Again, I've experienced the second type of resistance, water-resistance. Actually, it was more of a viscosity, shear rate issues, etc. But I shall not go into detail. 

Finally to shopping and food. Shopping wasn't that impressive, cos it was more of an event that satisfies my mom's craving of shopping. But the shopping was worth it cos I found a zebra striped pants that I really like but people just thought that it was distasteful. Who cares anyway? I think it was an awesome pair of pants!!! Haha.. Anyway, now it comes to food. Babi guling was also awesome. Aside from that I didn't really care about anything else that I ate cos they're not as kick ass great. Haha.. 

Back to LA, i was indeed sucked back into reality. So much for a hell of a holiday. School is starting and again I find myself constantly trying to improve. I want to retain as much information that I got from lectures. But one thing is for sure -- I am a hands on person. Sure you can force me to memorize that freaking formula and its derivation, but until the day I get to see the actual equipment and work with it, I can't picture it in my mind at all. So I do love hands on experience with equipments and machine, which is why I am taking the opportunity to take on my second senior project -- the PLC. I can't remember what it is, I can't remember what that's for, but I am building it. So I'm expecting to see a lot of things that I probably had not seen in my life and work on it. Trust me, by the time I'm out of this, I'll be like this kick ass PLC expert. I'll share more next time lah. 

Lesson that I've learned today... Spend that extra effort to do things, when you are cooped up with a chore that you wished you just like to get done and over with, take a moment to breathe. See what is the extra inch that you can do and do it. It doesn't take your life, it doesn't hurt you, but by the time you finish, you'll accumulate an extra mile throughout the experience. Worth it? You be the judge...

Too Serious Too Soon...

So apparently, there is still a lot of things going on in the world. It seems to be never ending huh? Have you ever wondered when the earth will sleep? At any given moment, half of the earth was supposed to be asleep. However, there are indeed cities that never sleeps. An example of such city will be Las Vegas, the gambling business never sleeps, prosperity never sleeps. You can struck gold at any given moment of the day, therefore Las Vegas is a city that never sleeps. At any other given moment, it's 5 o'clock somewhere else in the world. How true that is. I heard about that from a song that I listened a while back. So the world is always filled with events. Sleeping is never an option.

Anyway, I don't know why I started talking about the world being unable to sleep. My world has been rocked and sleepless too, I guess. Been sleeping at 7 or 8 pm at night and waking up between 5-6 in the morning. My day seems a little bit longer and my nights are definitely so much shorter. I guess my life now only revolves around visiting family, eating, hanging out with family and eating again. It's not a hard life to lead isn't it? Unfortunately, it is for me. I can't stand just staying still and not doing anything. Seriously... Back in LA, I am always busy, busy in sch, busy outside sch, busy at home, etc. Most of the time, I'm just doing other people's things. There is a limit to how much effort you can put out there, but there are indeed people who managed to accomplish so much at such a short time. So, we come to the question, what do I want to do? What do I like to do? I only have less than a year left in LA, before I head back home, what do I want to do till then?

Of course a huge part of it will be taking classes in school that allows me to complete my minor and major degrees. And that will probably take up about 50-65% of my time. For the rest of the time, I guess I have to do things for myself le. So, serial shows just gotta wait then, I shall do things that I want to do. I want to learn scuba diving, I want to snowboard, I want to explore US, but ultimately, I wanna do something else, something more private and is beyond the scope of this blog.

There are things that I want to try for different reasons. Ultimately, I just want to try how it feels to have adrenaline pushed into your heart, leaving a hint of shiver within your body. I am not saying that I want to break an arm or a leg, but if that is what it takes, then so be it. Perhaps for the remaning time that I have in the US, I just want to release myself, be fearless.

Overweight Jakarta

So apparently, I am back in Jakarta. Thank you all for posting comments on my blog, I don't have many people visitting my blog, maybe a good thing, maybe a bad one too, but the truth is, with the minimum amount of attendance on my blog I am not upset after all. I am glad that you guys came, your comments means a lot to me. Constructive criticism or not, it still means a lot to me.

Speaking about criticism, I am sorry mich, I doubt that this blog will ever be abandoned. To abandon is to totally discard the fact that the blog exist, but I don't feel like this blog is ever going to be discarded. I did desert the blog from friendster, b'cos I don't know who's going to read them, wanna keep it more private, that's why it was discarded. This blog had actually fulfilled most of my needs to keep my diary out of the public's view, so ya, it doesn't seem that its going to be abandoned. Look at your blog, you've promised to update it, but seems like its the one being abandoned. Haha... there'll be more than just bananas and atoms and nucleus, there'll be protons, neutrons and whatever it is inside a cell. Haha... Shua, I don't always go to ATM ok, with the technological advancement of the Internet, I can do a lot of things from the internet, that will reduce the amount of visits to the ATM, other than to take cash, so I'm keeping those visits to a minimum. Haha...

So, back in Jakarta, nothing much has changed, except that I have a nephew. Dylan Kenzie Wantah is his full name. Haha.. family just keeps getting more whole by the generation. Seems like my dear little nephew treats me like a "spring bed", or so according to my sis and sis-in-law. It is always easy for him to stick his head on my chest and he'll fall asleep within the second. Haha.. Apparently I have my way of handling kids falling asleep. This surprised me too. Anyhow, I'll be scheduled to return to LA on Sept 12th. I tried to avoid travelling on Sept 11th, but it doesn't seem to be much of a danger now. Until the US has a new president (hopefully not a republican), I guess the terrorism problem wouldn't improve. It is still a big question mark as to how the most advanced army from the US still failed to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Perhaps the real terrorists still live amongst us in the United States. Damn jack ass loh!

Haha, that being said, I am falling asleep le, so I guess I'll talk to you more next time. In the meantime, give me inputs about the song in my playlist, do you guys like it?

Quote of the day

Yeah baby, I have time to present our quote of the day, or rather the quote that I think is worth mentioning. Got the quote from ria, learnt a lot from her and sally today. According to Ria's psychology training, the best predictor is still past history. But we got into the entire debate about past history leading to stereotypes that is actually perceived as negative in the society. Then we came to the topic of our current quote of the day which is " you can never change someone, the most that you can do is to influence them", which by unanimous vote decided that it was unargueable. Good job, great talk ppl!

YeLlOw, MeLlOw, HeLlOw

So what's been going on huh?

I've decided to make my blog more private by switching to blogspot. Friendster is too overrated anyways. Friendster should go into the recycle bin and Facebook should be the new Friendster. Haha... Anyway, shua said that my blog has been disintegration into neutrons and protons, filled with spiderweb and bananas. Shua said that bananas just adds the effect of filth into the entire condition of the blog. Shua... nobody eats bananas in their blogs... hahaha...

Reason why I took so long to finally blog was... school and stuff. Summer's here, its hot everywhere but I'm still busy with school. Couldn't say I got exemplary results last quarter but I must say I deserved it. Haha... Right now, I still have 9 units of short semester course to complete in 2 weeks and then off to Indo I'll go. Right now, I must say that I have a little bit more time for myself. But I just can't get used to it. Previously I have been spending too much time either with work or with company, but now, all of a sudden, I'm alone.. darn it! hehehe... Lonely... I am so Lonely.... I have nobody.... I'm on my own...

Anyway, topic of the day should be Global Warming. I don't know why I picked it up, but hey, whatever comes into my mind is whatever I'm vomitting out right now. Inspiration waits for nobody, once it comes, you gotta do somethinga bout it, cos when it goes, it goes away, sometimes forever. I know that the previous sentence has a run-on sentence mistake, but hey, this is my blog, and in this parallel world of my brain, there's no such things as correct structure and layout. I say things the way they're organized in my neurological way and I should have the liberty of doing it simply because.... it is my own brain, hahaha...

Let's just get to the main topic of the day and get it done and over with, shall we? The reason why there's global warming in this world is because we are burning fossil fuels to provide our constant hunger for energy. Right? Right...

When we burn fossil fuels, we actually increase the entropy of matter in the world. Right? Right....

And when we burn fossil fuels, we add heat to the environment, right? Right...

So basically, in a chemical engineer's perspective, this is an open system. Or rather I should say an open batch system which we can see as a continuous stirred tank reactor(CSTR). If the reaction keeps giving out heat, then we shall see an increase in the enthalpy because the entire reaction is exothermic. So, if this system is not balanced by another system that actually absorbs the heat then we shall see that there is an increase in released energy. And this released energy is in the form of heat. Right? Right...

Hence, with the continuous release of heat, we are actually increasing the average temperature of the world. Right? Right...

So, with the increase of temperature around the world, then it is obvious enough that the icebergs are melting and increasing the sealevel. With this increase in sealevel, a domino effect will occur. There'll be tsunami, floods, rainstorms & hurricanes, just to name a few. So with this eulogy, who the hell believes that there is going to be Global Cooling? For those of you who don't understand what global cooling is, it is the belief in the phenomenon of Ice Age(Well, at least this is what I thought it was supposed to be, but yeah, you can do the research and let me know whether this is true). Apparently, there are some scientists that believe that the Ice Age is approaching. As a chemical engineer(not yet certified, by the way), I came up with the abovementioned theorem that proves that Ice age cannot occur. Heat is being released to the atmosphere even as we are interacting in this blog.

So the next time you wanna go for a campfire, barbecue, driving, electricity wasting of any form, think about the sequence of events that will happen next. But then, all we can do is just think about it, there's really nothing much we can do if we are already slaves of the entire energy business. Haha... So there you go, a crash course in Global Warming in my perspective.

Oh well, so for now, I'm thinking about getting a MacBook Pro to replace this Toshiba that I have... A lot of thinking to do but well... Ok, so I gotta retire for bed now, I have an appointment to donate my blood platelets for a young girl who's suffering from leukemia. Let's just hope that if I can't save the world, I can at least try my best to save a young girl. One packet of platelets and blood at a time...