Rainbow Tree for Real!

I think, people nowadays have a new hobby; rainbow-ing something that isn't rainbow. Rainbow cake, rainbow cupcake, rainbow roll cake, what else can be rainbow-ed in this wonderful world? Anything! But, those rainbow things are all human made. But, this one thing is rainbow by itself. And this thing is a tree!

Eucalyptus trees are usually known with its characteristics aroma. But when you visit Mindaho Island, Philippine, you can find the trunk of those Eucalyptus are rainbow. Pretty!

The bark from near

 Beautiful colors that cover the whole trunk which has Latin name Eucalyptus deglupta are red, orange, purple, blue, and brown. Because the colors are like rainbow this pretty plant is also called Rainbow Eucalyptus, as written on the web of Eucalyptus deglupta.

At first glance, you might think it's just human painting for fun. But it's a NO! These colors are natural! They come out from its sap which drop into the bark annually. When the first drops began to dry up, others began to drip sap and bark of the tree on the other side. On the first drop, it shows blue color, then slowly turns to orange, purple, and red. Time difference of the sap to drop makes it colorful.

These beautiful trees can be seen not only in Philippine but also in England and Papua New Guinea. Wanna see it closely? Okay, let's together go to England or Philippine or Papua New Guinea, through your globe...

"Atas Nama Bangsa Indonesia, Soekarno-Hatta" ♥

"PROKLAMASI! Kami, bangsa Indonesia dengan ini menjatakan kemerdekaan Indonesia. Hal-hal jang mengenai pemindahan kekoeasaan d.l.l., diselenggarakan dengan tjara saksama dan dalam tempo jang sesingkat-singkatnja. Djakarta, 17 Agoestoes 1945. Atas nama bangsa Indonesia, Soekarno-Hatta"

Halo bloggers! Yap, untuk pertama kalinya gue nge-post pake bahasa Indonesia. Serius, kalian gak salah  baca atau salah buka blog kok. Jadi, kali ini gue sengaja nge-post pake bahasa Indonesia dalam rangka memperingati hari kemerdekaan Indonesia yaitu hari ini, 17 Agustus. Gue semacam terlalu bangga gitu bisa jadi salah satu orang Indonesia makanya gue antusias pengen nge-post pake bahasa Indonesia kali ini hahaha.

Oke, kita kembali ke topik. Mungkin kalian udah pada tau teks apa yang ada di paragraf paling awal itu. Yak tul! Itu adalah teks proklamasi yang di proklamirkan oleh Bapak Ir. Soekarno tepat hari ini, tanggal 17 Agustus, 67 tahun yang lalu jam 10 pagi di Jl. Pegangsaan Timur 56, Jakarta Pusat yang sekarang jadi Jl. Proklamasi 1, Jakarta Pusat. Oke, tanggalnya tepat, tapi jamnya emang gak tepat karena sekarang belom jam 10 tapi ya gapapa lah ya soalnya mungkin jam 10 ntar gue akan banyak cincong gak bisa diem kesana kemari kayak belatung nangka jadi daripada lupa mending gue post sekarang -_-

Balik ke topik yuk, Denis...

Jadi, berhubung hari ini adalah Hari Kemerdekaan Indonesia, post ini juga akan berhubungan dengan hari kemerdekaan. Tapi disini gue gak akan bahas tentang sejarah kemerdekaannya atau apalah itu karena udah banyak lah ya web yang isinya sejarah kemerdekaan Indonesia. Karena ini blog, tempat untuk sharing dan ngeluarin opini dan pendapat gue, disini gue mau berpendapat.

Kemerdekaan. Berasal dari kata merdeka. Merdeka. Bebas. Hmm... Apa iya Indonesia udah bener-bener bebas dan merdeka? Oke, gue tau itu pertanyaan klise yang tiap 17 Agustus pasti dibahas sama mahasiswa-mahasiswa intelek. Nah, berhubung gue bukan mahasiswa, melainkan mahasiswi, dan gue tidak begitu intelek, jadi tolong jangan berharap banyak, gue cuma ngulang pertanyaan klise itu doang tanpa ngasih jawaban. Terus kenapa gue nyantumin pertanyaan itu kalo guenya juga gak akan jawab? Kenapanya juga gue gak gitu ngerti ya... Maaf, kadang beberapa ketikan cuma jari gue dan Tuhan yang tau...

Oke serius nih ya...

Jadi gini. Menurut gue pertanyaan itu maknanya luas banget. Bisa diartiin merdeka dari penjajahan, atau merdeka dari kebodohan, atau merdeka dari kemiskinan, atau merdeka dari tekanan, atau masih banyak lagi. Luas banget kan? Nah, disini gue pake makna denotasi aja ya. Jadi kalo merdeka dari penjajahan negara lain/koloni itu udah pasti udah bebas dari jaman penjajahan. Buktinya kita udah jadi negara sendiri, dengan pemerintahan kita sendiri. Kalo untuk merdeka dari kebodohan, kemiskinan dan lain-lain yang sering disebutin sama mahasiswa-mahasiswa intelek itu, mungkin belum. Belum ya, bukan nggak. Jadi masih ada kemungkinan dan kesempatan untuk bener-bener merdeka dari yang tadi itu. Itu doang sih jawaban gue.

Terus intinya apa kalo jawabannya cuma segitu? Intinya bukan pernyataan gue yang menyatakan merdeka/belum tadi itu. Intinya sih sebenernya gue pengen ngajak generasi gue yang masih muda, untuk terus berkarya, berprestasi dan ngangkat nama Indonesia supaya bisa jadi lebih baik lagi. Liat kan kebodohan kayak buta huruf, terus kemiskinan, kelaparan, masih dimana-mana. Gak ada salahnya buat kita yang masih punya tenaga, waktu dan pikiran untuk bantu-bantu ngebenahin Indonesia. Bisa dari hal kecil kayak ikut lembaga/organisasi yang concern ke masalah kelaparan Indonesia, atau yang lebih gampang lagi kita ikut make produk Indonesia. Itu secara gak langsung kan bisa ngebantu ekonomi produsen Indonesia juga dan endingnya pelan-pelan bisa naikin taraf hidup Indonesia kaaan. Itu hal kecil yang setelah gue semediin sekian lama ternyata bisa ngebantu juga loh. Selagi masih muda yekaaan. Yang muda, yang berkarya!

"Berikan aku 1000 orang tua, niscaya akan kucabut Semeru dari akarnya. Berikan aku 1 pemuda, niscaya akan kuguncangkan dunia." -Ir. Soekarno

We Levitate, Not Jump!

Bloggers! Have you ever seen this kind of picture?

Or, this one?

Yap, it's levitation photography! Levitation photography is trending right now in photography lovers. Well, what is levitation? The word "levitation" was taken from Latin, levitas, which means light or mild. This photography technique makes the object of lens seems like floating defying gravitation. The picture below maybe the first levitation photograph. It is Cousin Bichonnade in Flight and was taken in 1905 by Jacques-Henri Lartigue from France.

Cousin Bichonnade in Flight

Then, levitation photography was reintroduced by Natsumi Hayashi on her blog: http://yowayowacamera.com.

Levitation photography can be generated in two ways, the first is by jumping and posing hovering, and the second is by the help of Photoshop. The object of the photo mustn't be seen like jumping but levitating.


Levitation photography is different with jump shot. In levitation photography, the object must be seen like he/she is hovering, so the facial expression, body language and other aspects must be seen natural, like there's nothing he/she is doing but levitating. See the difference with jump shot?


Well, I have some levitation photography pictures. All the pictures below are taken from Natsumi Hayashi's blog. Enjoy!

That's all! One thing, the model must be sooo professional, and exhausted while picturing these levitation photographs!

Fasting: Hunger, Thirst and Obedience

Happy fasting people!

Well, a glimpse about fasting is it only happens 30 days (a month) in a year and it is called Ramadhan in Moslem calendar. And, all Moslems really have to do this fasting because it's one of six pillars of Islam. If we don't do this, it will be a sin.

And the question is, how do we fast? We fast from dawn until sunset. It's fasting hour in Indonesia. Other countries have different fasting hour because some countries have longer noon and dawn until sunset will be very-very-very long. So, it has its own rule about fasting hour. While fasting, we're not allowed to eat, drink, smoke or anything being eaten, drunk or tasted. We're dealing with hunger and thirst.

But, the point of fasting is not about withstanding hunger and thirst. It's all also about keeping ourselves from anger and bad habit, and also brooding over our sins. We try to be a better person, and beware with what we say, what we see, and what we hear.

Ramadhan is the perfect time to confess, clean ourselves from sins and become a brand new one. It's all about our obedience to our God.

So the point is, fasting is not only about dealing with hunger and thirst. It's also about our obedience to God, in order to be a brand new person.

Again, happy fasting!!!

Family Gathering

Hey bloggers! Here I am, wanna share a little bit about my family gathering on 7th-8th of July 2012.

So, right now I'm having my oh-so-long-long-long holiday. Yap, it's a very long holiday because I have 3 months off. THREE MONTHS, DUDE! And, I flew back to Jakarta from Bali and about 2 weeks ago I had a family gathering at Sukabumi.

This family gathering came from the idea of my uncle who is about to move to Pittsburgh, USA, at around the end of this July. He got scholarship to study there and he'll bring her wife -- my aunt -- and his daughter -- my cousin -- along with him. That means we won't meet up with them for 2 years and that's why we wanna have a family gathering before he and his family fly to Pittsburgh.

The family gathering was held on 7th-8th of July 2012 at Pondok Saung Geulis Cottage, Cisaat, Sukabumi. I went there along with my uncles, aunts, cousins, mom, dad, brothers, and maid. We booked 3 cottages because the cottage is big enough so we didn't need to book too many cottages.

The cottage is good enough, score 7 out of 10. Inside the cottage, there is a restaurant, fishing pools, parks, a jogging track, and cottages of course. Between each cottage, there are small ponds with fish in it so we can see the fish under the cottage. But, watch out for babies and toddlers to not to go too close to the pond.

My family and I went there by car, if I'm not mistaken, 4 cars on convoy. I was in the third car together with my uncle who will move to USA, dad, mom, and brothers. On the afternoon, we arrived there. We had late lunch, and gathered at the park. We played soccer perfunctorily, bubbles, etc.

On the second day, we just gathered again at the park, took photos, had lunch and went back to home. Just that! It was just a very simple family gathering, but really can heal my homesickness ahahaha :') I love my family, so much ♥

Observation or Vacation?

Heeey bloggers! As written on my last post, now I'm gonna share about my observation at Lombok Island. Well, my campus has a yearly activity called field trip for some observation and all collegers outta make a report based on the observation did on the observation point.

Nah, this year we got a chance to have some observations at Lombok Island for 4 days and 3 nights. To start it all, maybe some of you wanna know what exactly Lombok Island is. Lombok Island is a not-so-big island located near Bali. It has sooo many beautiful places to visit and most beaches there are all still virgin. That's a glimpse about Lombok Island.

There, we stayed at Senggigi Beach Hotel, located in Senggigi area.

Garden view

Terrace

First day was spent on board. From Bali, we went by bus then cross the sea on ship. It took 5 hours to cross the sea you know! Ergh I was soooo bored because there's nothing to do >:( so I just chitchat with my friends and then I slept hahaha. Finally, we arrived at Lombok! After we arrived, we had a little tour around Mataram city, had dinner, then direct to hotel to check-in and take a nap. Before we took a nap, we had some guidance from our mentor about the observation (we were divided into groups) because tomorrow is the observation day.

On the second day, after breakfast, we had some observation. My group was sent to a travel agent in Senggigi and Rembiga. There, my fellows and I did an interview using a questionnaire. Just about 1 hour, the interview done. Then, we went back to hotel to get prepared for lunch. After lunch, we went to Sade Village. Sade is a traditional settlement in Lombok Island. There, you can buy traditional textile, typical bangles and other traditional and typical stuffs from Lombok.

Typical accessories

Traditional and typical textiles

Lombok-styled accessories

The accessories

Bird cage

Local people

Welcome gate

After visiting Sade Village, we went to Kuta Beach! Don't mistaken it, guys. Kuta Beach isn't in Bali only. There's another Kuta Beach in Lombok Island ;) after going to Kuta Beach, we had dinner, got back to hotel and had another guidance about the observation did that day.

Kuta Beach

On the third day, we went to Gili Trawangan! It's my most-waited tourist attraction. Gili Trawangan is located on a different land from Lombok. So, we had to sail to get there. I heard people talking about this place and none of them say something bad about this place. That's why I'm really curious about this place. And, all what people say is totally true. Gili Trawangan was so...ADORABLE!

Gili Trawangan ♥

The unique thing in Gili Trawangan is that there's no motor vehicles there. All transportation is still using horses, bicycles, or just by foot. I took time to walk around Gili Trawangan but because walking too much can make me sooo exhausted, me and my friends decided to ride bicycles. So, we rented bicycles just by paying IDR35,000 each per day. 

Bike for rent

We went around Gili Trawangan and a little bit far from the point where we gather, we stopped at a beach which I believe it's still virgin. Sooo beautiful! And at that beach, I found so many starfish!

In Gili Trawangan, you also can buy many souvenirs like shirts, textiles, bangles, ornamental things, etc. There are some souvenir shops there, like this one.

Souvenir shop

After having fun at Gili Trawangan, we had dinner and back to hotel.

Last day, the fourth day, we had an examination about our observation at the hotel venue. My group gave a presentation about the travel agents. The presentation went smoothly and, done! We went back to Bali again!

That's my observation story. Ummm actually, it seems like it's just a vacation, huh? We had more fun than the observation. From the whole 4 days and 3 nights, we only did the observation for 1 hour and the test about 2 hours. The rest is, HOLIDAY!

Here I give you other photos of my vacation observation in Lombok. Enjoy!

Lombok sky

Hotel beach

Such a nice shot :3

Kuta Beach

Horse used at Gili Trawangan for transportation

Relaxing spot at Gili Trawangan, on the edge of the beach!