Saturday, May 24
Gratitude for My Dedication
| I am grateful for every penny I earn. I believe that in this life every one of us is meant to work by serving one another. It’s more than just work. It’s about dedication to society. A president director of a company is served by his barber. The barber is served by the fried rice seller. The fried rice seller is served by his wife. His wife is served by a bank teller. The bank teller is served by her English teacher. The English teacher is served by a parking attendant. And so on. Each profession, for the service it gives, receives money so that the circle of service to one another can go on. I am no exception. I earn money from my job. Thank You, God, for every penny that I earn and spend to meet my basic needs and support my family. I am grateful for every day I pass. Certainly, there is a day when the sun scorches every single living creature on earth and there is a day when the black clouds up there in the sky pour down with water, soaking me to the skin. Please forgive me, God, for sometimes I complain about the weather. I have been so stupid and selfish by uttering swear words or whining words when I get soaked or scorched. By uttering such worthless words, I am forgetting your divine cause of making the weather so. Certainly, You know better than any of your creatures when to pour rain or to set the sun ablaze. The life on earth keeps going because of both the rain and the sun. Thank You, God, You still give me the chance to pass the day at this point and I hope You still spare me thousands of days ahead so that I can achieve what I desire to achieve and devote it to the better life of every one on earth. Thank You, God, for the very beautiful life You have given to me. |
Gratitude for Food and Friends
| I am grateful for every grain of rice I eat. Either in the moment of abundance or in the moment of scarcity, the rice, my staple food, is always there on the plate to satisfy my hunger. Thus, with the hunger being satisfied, my body resumes its strength and I can put it back into work again. Thank You, God, Your hand has nourished me with the food so as to keep me alive and healthy. I am grateful for every friend I have. My world has been so colorful because I am blessed with many friends of various types of personalities. One is talkative and cheerful. One is fussy and grumpy. One is dominant and confident. One is attentive and analytical. One is patient, understanding, and forgiving. One is grateful and helpful. One is naïve and gullible. One is determined and persistent. One is humorous and hilarious. One is submissive and modest. If this world were filled with friends of the same type, this life would certainly have been dull. Thank You, God, for giving me a lot of friends with a wide range of personalities. Without them, I would have been solitary and would have slowly died of loneliness. |
In Gratitude for My Life
| As a Moslem, I always believe that the blessings flowing from God to my life are countless. God says in Al’Quran (my holy book) that we’ll never be able to count the blessings that God has given to us. It’s so many that we can’t count it. However, in celebration of my birthday, I would like to express my gratitude to God for the beautiful life that God has given to me. In this gratitude, I will mention some blessings that I can feel. Still, there are many other blessings that go beyond my knowledge, whose number extends much more than what I mention. This blessings mentioning should be considered an attempt to be grateful for God’s blessings, not a statistical list of the blessings. I am grateful for every breath I take. Yes, with every breath I take, I still have the chance to carry out whatever God has meant me to accomplish in this world. Thank You, God, thank You. You still have faith in me that I can carry it out. It would be a shame on me if, with the faith You still have in me, I no longer have faith in You. Sometimes I feel like my faith is shaken to the point I despair, and even when I am on that point, You always restore my faith. Bad things happen and my faith is shaken again and again, and You indefatigably restore it. When no one can stage a recovery for my faith, You’re always there to help me keep the faith. |
Let Food Be Thy Medicine
| Bananas for Pre-menstrual Syndrome It is a natural process in a woman body to experience menstruation every month when her ovum is not fertilized yet by sperm. The ovum, because no sperm comes to fertilize it, is released out of the woman body. Sadly, this monthly guest often comes with unbearable pain that tortures a woman. So when her period comes, she has to go through this painful ritual again. And during this torturing pain, she is not only physically tormented, but also psychologically affected and, as a result, she often makes a convenience of her loved ones around her to vent her spite on them. So, she was an angel yesterday, and she is a monster today. Yesterday she was gorgeous, today she is horrible. Yesterday she gave you a mountain of TLC (Tender Love Care), today she frights you with terror. A friend of mine suggests that everybody stay away from a woman who is having menstruation to avoid being her victim. And more tragically, many people believe that such pain before and during menstruation is natural. They understand her and she claims her right to torture them too. Well, the woman can’t be blamed and maybe my friend is just exaggerating his paranoid. Actually, this monthly ritual does not necessarily have to come with pain. I don’t agree with the notion saying that the pain from which a woman suffers before or during her menstruation is natural. Contrary to what most people believe, menstrual pain is actually a health problem. Today I want to share with you some menstruation-related information which can benefit you, especially if you are a woman. If you are a man, please be patient for a while to read on so that in the near future you don’t have to stay away from your wife or your girlfriend unless she insists that you should do so. The physical pain and psychological problems prior to and during menstruation may be (I say “may” because up to the present, the cause of pre-menstrual syndrome is still inconclusive) caused by several factors such as hormonal changes, unhealthy diet, drugs consumption, and unhealthy lifestyle. There’s also another theory saying that the cause of pre-menstrual syndrome is the increase in estrogen level in the blood which leads to depression symptoms. The increase in estrogen level is also believed to disrupt the chemical process inside the woman body, including that of B6 vitamin. B6 is well-known as an anti-depressant vitamin because it controls the production of serotonin hormone which plays an important role in maintaining the woman’s mood. As the chemical process of B6 vitamin is disrupted, the serotonin hormone is disrupted too and, as a result, the woman’s mood is badly affected. She will feel tense, oversensitive, upset, depressed, exhausted, worried, and go through physical changes such as breast pain, headache, weight gain, and an outbreak of acne on her face. Bananas contain B6 vitamin, calcium, and glucose, which help maintain serotonin level in the brain so as to keep the woman’s feelings in a good mood, or at least alleviate her emotional outburst. So, if you are a woman, eating two bananas with each weighing 120 grams every day before and during menstruation can help you ease the physical pain and emotional upheavals. If you are a man, take it as a glad piece of news for your wife or your girlfriend so that she can pass her menstruation without a lot of sufferings and thus you can still see her during her period without being afraid of her venting her anger on you. Have a nice experiment! |
There’s nothing you can do
| Having a girlfriend who is always frustrating you every time she is in a bad mood? No matter what you do, and no matter what you say to cheer her up, you are always wrong in her eyes. Then, being confused, you ask yourself,”what does she want, actually?” Frustrating, isn’t it? The thing is, it’s simply impossible to change a woman’s mood in an instant. Once she is upset with you, there’s nothing you can do to cheer her up or to make amends for your wrongdoings. Yes of course you can try to make your deepest apology to her by saying sorry or by letting yourself become like a stupid donkey which has to listen to all her angry words or her whine—which she enjoys very much but doesn’t change her mood, though. But don’t be surprised if she doesn’t feel any better. So, forget your high expectation to make her feel better every time she is down. The only thing that can kill her bad mood is the time. Leave it to time. Time will heal her bad mood. Sooner or later, she will subside and become your lovely angel again. So, if a woman is in a bad mood, there’s nothing her man can do but wait until she gets back to normal again. If you still love her, just swallow her whine and anger. |
Saturday, May 17
Bill Gates: I am a bad example
 Some time ago, not too long ago, the founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates came to Indonesia. During his visit in this country, he met some prominent figures of this country. One of several arrays of his activities during his visit was to give a public lecture. In his lecture attended by students, government people, and business community, he said that he was a bad example in terms of formal education. He quit his studies in Harvard to concentrate on his computer project. In this public lecture, he encouraged the students to finish their studies. He said that completing study is important. Unfortunately, he didn’t explain the significance of completing formal education. |
Formal Education: Is it necessary?
Many may wonder why a drop-out like Bill Gates has turned out to be a very successful man whose dreams and visions have made our life much easier with his Microsoft regardless of his unfinished formal study. Many may wonder if formal study has somehow little thing to do, if not to say it has nothing to do, with success. Bill Gates stands not only for himself in this case, but also for many other gigantic corporations owner who, if we trace back their educational backgrounds, did not make it in the academic field. |
Irony of the Day: Seeking help from a dropout?
I remember that there is an institution dealing with informal education in Indonesia. This private institution helps high school get students prepared for the final test and university admission test by giving them extra lessons and tips on solving problems given in both tests. Indonesian high school students come flocking to this institution, hoping that after being empowered by this institution, they will successfully pass the tests. Ironically, the owner of this institution, like Bill Gates, is a drop-out student from a reputable state university in Central Java, Indonesia. So these students come to this dropout and seek his help to make it in their studies. What an irony! |
Friday, May 16
Today is simply great!
| Today is simply great because today I have just entered into the world where I can share all my ideas with the world. It feels great to have all my thoughts read by people all around the world. In this digital era, where the world is simply condensed into "clicks", I begin to reconsider the necessity to have my ideas printed in books. Thanks to the internet, I do not have to wait those publishing companies to call me up and condescend publishing my books. |
Stay up all night long
| When the rainy season comes, I get wet in the rain and ask myself when this troublesome season ends. When the dry season comes, I perspire and ask myself when this perspiring season ends. Neither of them seems right under any circumstances. One goes around and the other comes around but I am simply blind to see what favors that each has nourished me. Well, that's okay. They will come anyway no matter how I feel about them. Many people are grateful for their coming, after all. Then I begin to ask myself, when the space next to me in bed has a damsel to cuddle me up. I wake up in the morning, only to learn the bitter truth that the space is still empty. Well, that's okay. There's more to life than just a damsel to spend every single night with me, I muse in self denial. |
Splinters of Thoughts
| Welcome to Splinters of Thoughts. This is the premiere posting. This posting will go through regular updates on issues dealing with anything concerning dreams, work, prosperity, and how mankind can benefit their resources to make the earth a better place to live in. We will share good ideas no matter how impossible they seem to materialize. |
