I think one of the most difficult things about being a Catholic, or even a Christian in general is making that connection between our hearts and our minds. It is very easy to convince our minds of some truth, but it is often difficult to have that truth make its way down and transform our hearts. I’ve experienced this very phenomena many times in my life, especially recently. From the mental assent that certain sins in my life are indeed bad, but not really connecting it to my heart, to the knowledge that I need to be closer to my family, more loving towards them, but being unable to make that connection in my heart. I mean how terrible is that?! How horrible is it that I cannot find it in myself to be more compassionate towards my own family, brother and sister, mother and father.

And it was only exasperated last night as I sat alone in the pews at midnight Mass. As I watched tons of families come in together to worship our Lord, to celebrate his birth, I felt so very alone. I don’t think I have ever felt that feeling of loneliness as strongly as I did last night when I celebrated my first Christmas within the Church. I thought of how my family doesn’t really strive to put Christ first in anything, how I really am the only one with very much zeal, the only one in our family who seems to get that Christmas isn’t about sleigh rides and Santa and tinsel and presents and Frosty the Snowman and how the Grinch stole Christmas and Buddy the man-elf. And no matter how many times I try to explain what Christmas is all about, what it really means to be a follower of Christ, they don’t get it. It’s so frustrating that I just can’t hardly stand it. In my heart I feel as if I am the only Catholic who has ever experienced this feeling of frustration and being alone as their family drifts further and further from God.

Yet, that’s just what is in my heart. In my mind, I know it isn’t so. I know that I am not alone. I know that many Saints have gone up against their families and friends to follow God when those around them wouldn’t. I know that many Catholic converts come against the very same wall that I have. And I know that I cannot give up hope, because Christ’s very incarnation brings hope, multiplies it. I just need that grace from God to make the truths that I understand mentally to make their ways into my heart and truly transform me. Until then, I’ll keep on trying, keep on praying, keep on keeping on.

Great minds think alike, that does not mine that like minded people are great

American Museum of Natural History

“The Known Universe takes viewers from the Himalayas through our atmosphere and the inky black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang. Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world’s most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History. The new film, created by the Museum, is part of an exhibition, Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, at the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan through May 2010.”

For more information visit http://www.amnh.org
—–

Watched it, loved it. The sheer size of our Universe is really big. In compare, we are so small. It’s always good to watch planets, stars comparison vids. It makes one feel that life can be bigger, better. There’s always more.

After I am done watching the vid, I read a few comments, which are some hippies talking arse. After watching, one could get a sense, and feel that the 3 little alphabet that make the sound of “god”, is not really someone, or something. Is the stuff that is still unknown to us. There are groups of individual who pray to some figures, or direction towards a block, or others. My guess is everyone just want peace of heart that some great power are there to guide them. Simple.

To really feel good, one have to start from inside, inside ones body. Kneeling with hands on the floor or held together does not help. It is the feeling after doing it that will, maybe.

If there are no different believes, will there be true peace with all humans? Maybe it does help. Not that we need to have an unanimous idea to believe in, but to know that help is within, within each person.

Minds are weak and strong.

—–
Credits to American Museum of Natural History & AMNHorg

For all the debate surrounding the applicability of Sun Tzu and Clausewitz to modern war, it’s fairly well-established that much of Clausewitz’s On War is the product of his age. Sun Tzu is perhaps better read, even by Western armies, if not for the sole purpose that it often serves as the guide for their enemies (not to oversimplify or state a categorical, but this is at least the assumption). At a strategic level, there is certainly some utility to be found, but the image one gets of Clausewitz’s writing is that of a relentless forward-only-advancing army, with no guile or subtlety to deploy.

It was for all these reasons that I was dismayed to hear Brigadier General Larry Nicholson of the 2nd MEB refer to Marja, Afghanistan as the “enemy center of gravity” (about 1:20 in the clip). Marja is a “stronghold” of sorts, where insurgents stockpile weapons and have built defenses. Granted, General Nicholson was paraphrasing Afghans (whose most frequent asked question is, “when are the Marines leaving?”), but the fact remains that he’s employing Clausewitzian terminology to describe a decidedly un-Clausewitzian conflict.

You don’t hit the enemy where’s he strongest; nor do you hit him where he’s weakest. You attack where the enemy does not defend; you defend where the enemy does not attack. You avoid cities at all cost (this is not entirely applicable to Afghanistan, but it’s a strong general principle). If the Imperial German Army was wise enough to bypass Liège and Namur, you’d think the 2nd MEB could do the same. Obviously the parallels aren’t exact, but they’re there. If Marja is what they’re defending, Marja is what we don’t attack.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6952298.ece

[quote]December 11, 2009

Stop shooting messengers and face the truth
Sometimes knowledge is uncomfortable. But it is the mark of a civilised society that we do not sweep it under the carpet

In 413BC a traveller sat down in a barber’s shop in Piraeus, the Athenian port, and readied himself for a shave. He commiserated with the locals for the loss of their recent military expedition to Syracuse. The horror dawned; the traveller was first with the news. The barber flung down his tools and ran to the city, crying the news. His reward? The Athenians refused to believe that their navy had been destroyed, that their sons and brothers were dead or working as slaves in Sicilian mines. As Plutarch tells us, the barber was “fastened to the wheel and racked”.

This is how we so often treat those who tell us the truth we do not want to hear. History is littered with examples of messengers being shot, tortured and pilloried, literally and metaphorically.

To quote Sophocles’ Antigone: “No one loves the messenger who brings bad news.” To misquote Corporal Jones: “We don’t like it up us.”

We assume that we are different from our forefathers; more tolerant and more willing to allow uncomfortable truths to be aired. We have a liberal democracy and we congratulate ourselves on a commitment to freedom of speech. Yet when the truth sits uncomfortably with our notions of what is right, when it clashes with our dearly held notions of tolerance, we are as squeamish as any of our ancestors. Few are as intolerant as the self-consciously tolerant.[/quote]

The article above is about crime in the U.K. but it could just as easily been about trying to get the truth out about Gang Stalking and the fact that people in most time periods do not like people who tell them the truth, or who preach something that goes against their orthodoxy. What I am learning about this time period is that it is no better, in fact it’s worst, because unlike other times, we have so much wonderful and rich history to fall back on, and yet in many ways we are just as ignorant.

[quote]
This is how we so often treat those who tell us the truth we do not want to hear. History is littered with examples of messengers being shot, tortured and pilloried, literally and metaphorically.

To quote Sophocles’ Antigone: “No one loves the messenger who brings bad news.” To misquote Corporal Jones: “We don’t like it up us.”
[/quote]

Sorry if the message is not what you want to hear, truth is a bitter pill to swallow at times. For me I loved my country, I thought I lived in the best place on earth (literally). It took me a really long time of grappling with the betrayal I felt to come to the semi-full realization of some truth. I don’t think I have the full truth, I am not sure I could handle the full truth just yet, but I have tried to educate myself on some of the recent history, the stuff that the text book does not tell you, some of the not so hidden conspiracy, and it’s one shock to the system after another.

Sometimes I get angry with people for being so stupid and gullible, for believing the best, but I was right there a few short years ago, and without my targeting, it would have taken me a very long time to believe anything bad about my country, or my fellow citizens. I always thought of us as the good guys, that we would never ever do what was done in East Germany or other places. I was so naive, so desperately wrong, luckily for me truth is easier to swallow when you have the burn marks, bruises, and psychological torture to show for it. Without this, I might still be trying to believe that my country was not doing anything bad. I might not have taken the time to research like I have, but I have now done this, and I have no intention of going back.

I don’t hate my fellow citizens, I feel sorry for them, many of them likely think that they are doing something good, trying to be good citizens like I was taught to be, but I am lucky, I have seen the dark side and I know enough history to know that what is being done is wrong. Most importantly as a target, I have seen, experienced and read about cruelty like none other, and I am quite comfortable with how I feel.

I know for some this is hard to comprehend, some really are just there to try to make the society better, but if killing the innocent is how you are going to make the society better, you are wrong. I know many don’t see it this way, the 15 to 30 minutes that they give seems like nothing and they might not see how their small roles could destroy lives, so with every story, revelation targets have tried to show you this. We have been trying to say, hey look we are innocent, in many cases good people, and something is wrong within the society cause it’s destroying our lives. Many of us naively thought that this would be enough, but we were proven wrong time and again, and worst many started to realize the long term goal of this targeting is our destruction, how could you expect us to be ok with it?

Did you think this was Stalinist Russia? Did you think that we would agree that we were bad because the state said so? The state who does some of the most hypocritical, terroristic things? Not going to happen. Most of us are good people, we do not deserve this, and we are saying that a system that would destroy us, is a broken and corrupted system. I get that some do not see it that way, but I am sorry for you, because we see it, live it and feel it on a daily basis and it does destroy lives.

In trying to expose this, we are just doing what past targets have done, would you honestly expect anything less? Don’t get upset if you have a harder time destroying our lives, it’s not our jobs to make it easier for you to do so, and how silly would you have to be to think so?

The goal of these sites is to support each other, document the stories of targets, and to highlight the sad truth, which is that our countries are becoming a nation of informants, but also to show what has happened to other societies where this was allowed to happen. The saddest part I find in researching is that when these times are happening, people always feel justified, they believe the lies, and they become so brain washed that they can not see past the lies, they have to believe the lies. They tell themseles I was just following orders. I did it cause an authority figure told me to. Anything else would mean confronting the evils of their actions, the drunken power that corrupts consistently in every time period. The comradely in these times of evil that oppressors invariably feel towards one another.

History can teach a great deal, but it’s words and facts, it is not hearts and minds, only by reaching hearts and minds can we hope to change things for the better and ensure a brighter future for ourselves and others. Believe it or not, we are not just fighting for ourselves, our main survival is key to be sure, but targets are also invariably fighting for others so that they do not have to go through and experience this horrible betrayal by the state.

I don’t know what else can be said, there are some really wrong and horrific things happening, to not draw attention to that would be neglectful at best, but it would also be a betrayal in another way. I have more incentive ofcourse, but it’s no less imperative for others to awaken to what is happening.

Also I tend to go on about us and them, us targets, those informants, but many many informants are or were targets who are broken, made to co-operate, forced, others who just gave in, and or others who were brought up this way and don’t understand the big deal. Many don’t do anything bad as far as they are aware. I don’t mean to keep separating everything, it’s really all one humanity, but as a target it’s so easy if you have a target to say, they, those are the ones doing this, at times it’s easy to forget that many of them suffered also, are suffering. I am sorry for that, but I do have my good days and bad days like everyone else.
Anyways I don’t know what else there is to say.

[quote]
We assume that we are different from our forefathers; more tolerant and more willing to allow uncomfortable truths to be aired. We have a liberal democracy and we congratulate ourselves on a commitment to freedom of speech. Yet when the truth sits uncomfortably with our notions of what is right, when it clashes with our dearly held notions of tolerance, we are as squeamish as any of our ancestors. Few are as intolerant as the self-consciously tolerant.

[/quote]

Uncomfortable truths are not fun, I have come across so many, some posted, some just hard to take, but I have consistently adjusted my comfort level cause I would rather truth than lies. I know not everyone is the same, many are happy with lies, and half truths, or flat out denial, they can not handle the fact that there could be anything bad about the society. They would silence anyone who would say otherwise, but that’s just not acceptable, because it must be said, and some of us are at the convenient place of saying it. When I say convenient, I don’t mean easy, but it’s something that needs to be done. No one is trying to make anyone feel bad, or ashamed, but I don’t know how to make people feel good when the sad truth is that their actions might be helping to kill and harm innocent people. I can just point out the facts and hope that societies conscience will have enough left to do the rest. Oh and pray.

To become happy, we must first become grateful. There is so much to be thankful for. If we take a few moments to look around us, how can we not feel this?

If we have our health, we have our wealth. We can be thankful for the magnificent machinery of our body –for our cells – for our hearts beating – for each breath. For the mysterious force which grants us life.

With our minds and creativity, we can express ourselves in the world. What pure pleasure to create, to think, to understand, to communicate, to share, to inspire, to encourage…..we have such abundance – do we realize it?

If we have our family and friends, we are truly blessed to be surrounded by this love. Many find it challenging during the holidays when we reflect on the loved ones we have lost. Having had many family members who have passed, including my parents, I do long for their presence. Yet I also feel gratitude in my heart for having had them in my life – for all of it, the pain and the joy. For so many lessons I carry forward.

If we take a few moments to look around us – there is beauty everywhere. In a flower, in a tree, in a butterfly, in a hummingbird – even in a leaf. If we take a few minutes to draw in nature’s boundless energy, it will restore us. For this too, we owe gratitude.

Whether we live in a home or an apartment, we can be thankful for our shelter. For a place to call our own. For the experiences we share in our sanctuaries – for our chance to decorate and create unique spaces. For the laughter which bounces off of our walls, releases our stress, and etches smile lines into our faces.

During the holidays in our frantic rush and concern over all the details, we may forget to be thankful for them. They bring us together. They remind us about community, celebration, and fun. In spite of the add-ons to our to-do lists, we have much to be grateful for. To gaze at the colorful holiday lights and to watch a bouncy child tear through her presents giggling with glee. To sit by the warm fire next to those so dear with hot cocoa or spiced cider – glory be!

I’ve learned to be grateful no matter what shows up. I write out what I’m grateful for every morning in my journal. One holiday season we had only recently moved into our temporary housing after the Cedar fires. Our home had burned, and we spent more than a year living elsewhere, rebuilding our home, and our lives. Yet now as I look around, I feel richly blessed. All things are new, all things are beautiful, all things we designed together as a couple. We had the chance to recreate our home into a masterpiece. Our initial pain brought forth so much to be thankful for. Like childbirth bringing forward an angel to love. Like the phoenix rising. We can be grateful for it all.

- In keeping with the borderless world, you can take East Prussia out of Germany, but you can’t take the East Prussian out of the Poles. History rhymes, again.

- Michael Berubé’s The Left at War. Tells Chomsky like he is: the most dishonest intellectual in academia, legitimizing “corrupt and repressive regimes” across the world. Berubé’s summary of current left-wing humanitarian internationalism: “We oppose tyranny around the globe, but not to the extent of actually doing anything about it.” I tend to agree – genocide and repression are bad things. Sometimes it takes military force to get rid of them. Lesser of two evils?

- You’ve got to win at home to win abroad.

- Obama goes to Oslo to pick up the Peace Prize. Rather curious for a winner in that particular category, he reminds everyone that  “There will be times when nations – acting individually or in concert – will find the use of force not only necessary but morally justified … A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler’s armies. Negotiations cannot convince al Qaeda’s leaders to lay down their arms.” To preserve the peace we must prepare for war? Echoes of Vegetius, Metallica. Way to stick it to the Norwegians. And don’t forget what’s possibly the most convincing argument for Obama winning a Nobel in the first place.

- It’s no Fulda Gap mentality, but to an extent, aren’t we planning to fight the last wars? A full-fledged (and coherent) COIN strategy would have been nicer about 8 years ago. Also, if the best we can take away from this is that if this mentality has just now pervaded everyone – what were they all thinking in the last decade?

*updated the larger pic on 15th Dec 2009

WOW check the FONT SIZE of the wordings of the album art is ALL IN CAPS : ) and BIG IN FONT SIZE, does that clothing looks familer ya she wore it for Music Japan Anison SPecial 2 hehe… time to order extra Phantom MINDS ! ! ! * will update a larger pic in time mean while enjoy the small pics first : )

Here’s the Full Track List:

・PHANTOM MINDS
　作詞：水樹奈々　作曲：吉木絵里子　編曲：陶山隼
　劇場版「魔法少女リリカルなのは The MOVIE 1st」テーマソング
・Don’t be long
　作詞・作曲・編曲： 矢吹俊郎
　劇場版「魔法少女リリカルなのは The MOVIE 1st」挿入歌
・Song Communication
　作詞：ゆうまお　作曲・編曲：藤間仁
・十字架のスプレッド
　作詞・作曲：志倉千代丸　編曲：菊田大介
　アーケード版「シャイニング・フォース クロス」テーマソング

have you order it?

- McChrystal-mania? Fred Kaplan reads too much into his admission of imperfection (“There is much in Afghanistan that I do not understand”).  A crazy, crazy man getting one meal and four hours of sleep a night. Oh, and he bridged the usual discord between QRF and the JSOC.

- The private sector officially surpasses NASA in relevance. Not that surprising, in the end. When will humanity make a concerted effort towards the stars? Even just the United States taking some initiative would be fine.

- Afghanistan and Al Anbar are not the same thing. Thank you, Carter and Jerry, for clearing that up.

- David Engerman calls for a modern ‘Sovietology’ in Foreign Affairs - “Jihadology.” Sounds pretty narrow at first, but gets more compelling. “Instead of lurching from one perceived threat to the next, U.S. policymakers should make a deep investment in knowing the whole world.” This is decidedly true, but then again, how relevant will Islamic fundamentalism be twenty years down the line? The Soviet system was an influence – at the least a factor in – a number of political systems throughout the world. This may be more locally confined. But, if Engerman really does mean to reassert the primacy of culture over politics, there’s definitely an argument to be made.

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gue makin frustasi dengan tayangan di TV lokal..

seriously,,setelah gue dulu pernah berpikir bahwa dunia pertelevisian kita berada di titik terendahnya saat booming tren tayangan2 mistis semacam Dunia Lain, Uka-uka, Kismis (KISah-kisah MISteri…Boong banget kalo sok2 ngaku ga tau acara ini. Helloooo, doesn’t Catharine Zachary and her line: “…jadi begini ceritanya…” ring any bells to you?)

ternyata gue salah besar. I was wrong, man…BIG TIME!

Kenapa??? well, karena sekitar 2-3 tahun-an setelah Era-Mistis itu berakhir dan hingga detik ini, layar kaca kita ternyata tidak henti2nya memberikan tren-tren tayangan lainnya yang tak kalah absurd-nya..they all easy come-easy go. Inilah yg bikin frustasi. Ini cuma pendapat pribadi gue aja..but please allow me to elaborate some of them. gue ga akan nyebut merek,,because i am more than sure, that you all know what shows i’m talking about:

1. Ketik IDOLA(spasi)NAMA KAMU kirim ke 9898

Silakan pilih: mau jadi idola pop? idola dangdut?? jadi akademia??? atau mau jadi idola bersama mama tercinta????Ini adalah masa keemasan para artis-wannabe. semua serba cepet..serba instan. Kemaren masih ngamen di gerbong kereta listrik Jakarta-Bogor..sim-salabim-..2 bulan kemudian bisa tampil di TV didukung 2 juta sms dari penduduk seluruh negeri untuk menjadi idola baru Indonesia. Sah-sah aja sih, apalagi emang pada dasarnya menghibur. Tapi gue mulai merasakan acara2 gini mulai lebay..dan lama2 ngeselin. kenapa?? nih beberapa contoh alasannya:

• Dramatisasi momen penggeretan koper di atas panggung penuh derai air mata, saat satu-persatu akademia terdepak pulang setiap minggunya. (itulah esensi suatu kompetisi:  sometimes we win..some other time we lose. But seriously, dorong2 troli koper di panggung?? gimmick yg kurang penting..)
• Eksploitasi kisah hidup penuh derita-sedu-sedan para kontestan idola. OK,,ini sebenarnya kontes menyanyi, atau kontes hidup-siapakah-yang-paling-menderita-di-acara-ini?
• Kontes idola dengan durasi 3 jam selama 2-3 kali seminggu?? oh God..sungguh penyiksaan. Apalagi dua-per-tiga porsi acaranya cuma diisi oleh celetukan, celaan, dan banyolan (kadang ‘agak’ lucu, tapi seringan garing) dari para MC yang heboh sendiri.
• Tayangan ’spin-off’ behind the scene keseharian para kontestan di lokasi karantina. Layaknya The Truman Show, acara yang tayang hampir tiap hari  ini menampilkan kegiatan 24/7 kontestan dari pagi-sampe pagi lagi. Mulai dari bangun tidur, latihan koreografi, menyanyi, bikin Ind*mie, sampe curhat2an cinta lokasi…. Semua diekpos!!

2. (Un-)Reality Shows

Ah yes,,we all love DRAMA!! Apalagi kalau drama ini terjadi dalam dunia ‘nyata’. Kita cukup nyalakan TV, duduk manis, sambil mengkudap makanan..dan seru berkomentar sana-sini: Ikut antusias melihat perjuangan bocah ABG melakukan hal konyol cuma untuk nembak gebetannya; ikut terharu saat seorang wanita mencari kekasihnya yang telah lama hilang..dan pencariannya pun berakhir di sebuah pemakaman umum di hadapan nisan kekasihnya tersebut; atau ikut emosi mengikuti intaian berhari-hari seorang pria yang akhirnya melabrak pacarnya karena ketahuan berselingkuh dengan orang lain.

Oke,,shit happens and reality bites! tapi mengeksploitasinya di TV nasional untuk ditonton beratus juta penduduk se-Indonesia???? better think again!

Dan di dunia TV kita dimana rating adalah raja, kadang2 produser akan menghalalkan segala cara untuk bikin acaranya jadi ‘racun-candu-manis’ buat pemirsanya. Semua dibuat lebih lebay. Makin lebay, makin asik. Dan tayangan bertema ‘reality shows‘ ini lama kelamaan menjadi acara realita yang tidak realistis. Yaiyalah, masa tiap episode mesti ada acara berantem2an antara Klien vs. Pelaku. vs. Figuran vs. MC?? atau masa bisa banyak ‘kebetulan’ aneh disepanjang acara?? Ekspresi tidak wajar para ‘figuran’ dalam acara tersebut?? Arrrgggghhh….

3. Stripped Down by Stripping-Sinetrons

Okee,,one sentence: I Hate Sinetrons!! itu pernyataan jujur dari lubuk hati yang terdalam. No offense buat kalian yang hobi ataupun ngikutin satu-dua (atau bahkan banyak) sinetron di TV kita. Ini cuma pendapat pribadi aja, tapi menurut gue, sinetron jaman sekarang nyampah! Gue ga bisa bikin sinetron..yang gue bisa adalah menambal atau mencabut gigi. Jadi mungkin sebagian dari kalian berpendapat gue ga berhak nyela-nyela sinetron kita jelek, de el el. Yah, paling ngga gue masih peduli..dan mudah2an kritik gue bisa membangun.

Gue dulu suka sinetron, catet: DULU…saat tiap episode hanya tayang sekali setiap minggunya, saat akting2 yang ditunjukkan masing2 aktor dan aktris masih berkualitas, saat cerita dan skenario yang dibuat masih berbobot alih-alih maksa, dan sinematografinya juga baik..tidak hanya mengandalkan shot2 close-up yang saking dekatnya, kita bisa lihat kerut-kerut wajah ibu tiri sang tokoh antagonis saat melotot berang karena upaya membunuh mantu yang dibencinya itu gagal.

Kalo rumah2 produksi dulu bisa bikin sinetron bagus, kenapa sekarang nggak? kenapa ceritanya jiplakan dan stereotype? kenapa saat ceritanya sudah mentok masih aja maksa dipanjang2in sampe season 2, 3 dst? Kenapa harus kejar tayang setiap hari, sampai2 para ABG pemain sinetron itu tidak ada waktu untuk sekolah? Kenapa..kenapa..dan kenapa??? *mulai cape*

4. Meet your Soulmate on TV

Nah, ini yang paling booming sekarang. Jodoh belum ketemu di dunia nyata..mari beralih ke layar kaca!! Yep..daftarkan diri kalian ke acara yang tayang beberapa kali seminggu itu, lalu ‘jual’-lah diri kalian dihadapan belasan opposite-sex untuk kemudian dinilai dan dipilih berdasarkan kesan pertama. Jangan sakit hati kalau sudah jor-joran mempromosikan diri, tapi ternyata semua lampu peserta dimatikan tanda tidak ada yang berminat menjadikan anda sebagai calon pasangan hidup mereka.

*sigh*,,gue percaya akan adanya jodoh..ada satu orang untuk tiap orang lain diluar sana. tapi menemukannya lewat ajang jodoh (yang juga) lebay ini menurut gue adalah suatu cara yg kurang sehat.. It feels not right aja,,

apalagi sejak ada acara tambahan: setiap pasangan yang sudah ‘jadi’ dikumpulkan, dan diliput segala aktivitas keromantisan maupun gonjang-ganjing hubungan mereka yg baru seumur jagung..untuk kemudian saling diadu di atas panggung, lalu ditentukan: siapakah pasangan yang terserasi?? Komentar dari juri dan polling lah yang menentukan! (Whattt?? your relationship dikomentarin sama Anwar Fuady, dan Ustad Cinta??…sorry, not interested)

***

All and all..mungkin gue cuma bisa pasrah. Karena selama masih banyak yang nonton, ya acara-acara seperti ini akan terus lanjut. Tapi tidak semua acara TV kita menurut gue serba ga jelas dan ga esensial. Masih ada kok beberapa acara yang berbobot, mendidik, tapi tetep entertaining in elegant-kind-of-way. Cuma ya itu..acara2 yang bagus kaya gini justru ditaro di jam2 ga strategis dan masih kalah pamor sama acara2 aneh yang barusan gue bahas di atas.

If there is such thing as a parallel world, dimana gue tidak berprofesi sebagai dokter gigi melainkan seorang sutradara, produser, pemilik production house, atau pemilik stasiun TV…gue pengen baget bisa melakukan sesuatu,,revolusi di dunia pertelevisian dimana gue bisa membuat tayangan2 berkualitas, bermanfaat, menginspirasi, dan memotivasi ke arah yang positif. Ga melulu hanya gonjang-ganjing masalah percintaan, kekerasan, kepornografi-dan-kepornoaksian, gosip selebritas, dan tanyangan TV yang hanya menjual mimpi…

but then again, i’m not living in that kind of world.

Sayang sekali….

For y`all hipsters to dance that disco beat in ye nice cardigans, it`s a crispy scotish one!

Get`cha edit ACUM

PHANTOM MINDS

Here’s Phantom Minds : ) hope you guys enjoy it : )

DONT forget to to order the Single ya : )

God is doing something in you. If the going is tough, keep pressing forward. One way or other, the work He’s doing is going to get done, so your cooperation and willingness to play ball will only add to your joy and the end result according to His perfect design. Embrace the journey!

“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. ” – Philippians 1:6

Power Thoughts …

1. The significant problems we face in life can not be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. – Albert Einstein
2. Think like someone of action, and act like someone of thought. You’ll be amazed at the results!
3. Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds. – Franklin D. Roosevelt

I feel like there’s been a lot of discussion on this lately, and I was fortunate enough to stumble on Bill Whittle’s “Forty Second Boyd and the Big Picture.” The OODA Loop is something getting talked about quite a bit, and Whittle’s summary simultaneously shows off the simplicity and mind-blowingness of Boyd’s achievement.

If OODA is as universally applicable as Whittle claims, though – to business, to a love life, etcetera – then is deliberation never the right choice? It remains to be seen whether the new Obama surge in Afghanistan will have the desired effect, but judging from the fairly widespread approval of the new strategy, it was well worth the wait.

Of course, the delay was between orientation and decision, which as Vinay Gupta points out, is the same place corporate change sputters out. The difference between thinkers/doers and senior/junior personnel is no less real at the White House. But can it be overcome?

This is a big step for me. For a long time now, I’ve been a military historian, but it’s only been recently that I’ve begun to explore the future of war, rather than just its past. Unlike some previous music blogs I’ve worked on, I hope for this to be almost entirely original content on a dynamic, evolving field that I’m just beginning to grasp some basic aspects of.  It goes by many names: Fourth Generation War (4GW), ‘Futurewar’, another Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). Whatever you call it, it’s obvious that something fundamental in the way mankind fights itself is changing dramatically, and at times rapidly. I’ll be posting research, interesting links, and keeping you up to date with essays I write for my various classes.

So who am I?

Right now I’m a graduate student at the London School of Economics, studying history and international relations. My background is much the same, but the main difference is that I’ve generally focused on the past. In this blog I aim to write about the present, and especially the future evolution of war, warfare, and conflict. Some of my past professors who have particularly contributed to my current intellectual state include Frederic Smoler, Jefferson Adams, Christopher Coker, and Michael J. Williams.

Much of the inspiration (and for the first little while, I assume, some of the content) for this blog comes from John Robb’s absolutely fantastic Global Guerrillas. Robb is really at the cutting edge of what he’s deemed “open-source warfare,” and while his politics and mine clearly differ, it’s irrelevant to the larger points he has. Shlok Vaidya is also one of the thinkers at the forefront of 4GW and network-centric war. I’m just beginning this journey myself, so as I find new people, new insights, and new blogs, I’ll be sure to share them all with you. Thanks for reading.

This should be an interesting ride.

Republicans are missing a key point in connecting with newer generations of voters. Its this: Republicans aren’t doing enough to explain their positions. Only during campaigns and very little when in interviews with media, do they explain anything.

Now, admittedly the new generations should find out for themselves the reasons behind bills, decisions, orders and what not. But this isn’t about what voters SHOULD do, its about what they HAVEN’T done lately and probably will not be doing anytime soon. And that is – trying to understand how politics affects the varied aspects of their lives.

The younger generations haven’t bothered so much with philosophy and with understanding how things are connected.

Maybe the thought in the minds of Republicans is that when the young get older they’ll get it. In past decades maybe that was true. But these days nobody believes that it really matters what bills we pass and what people we put in office. They believe America will be the same land of freedom its always been. They are incredulous to the thought that America could ever change significantly towards something bad, either incrementally or all at once. They think anyone saying we need to be diligent to wield our votes so that America will last is probably just conspiracy theory. They think voting is a game and that, just like in a video game, if we get it wrong we can just hit the reset button.

Americans for several generations now seem to have bought in to the circular thinking that America will last as we now know it, no matter how we vote.

Republicans can take from this that, when they talk about taxes, calling them evil and speaking of profit as a good thing, the younger media-led generation views them as out of touch. Does that mean they should stop saying those things? No. What it means is, Republicans need to understand that they aren’t just fighting for votes from the same generation that won them a majority in 1994 and it isn’t votes they are fighting for anyway. Its minds. They have to win over the minds of the new generations before they can ever hope to get their votes.

Work needs to be done in the arena of thought. This is why Republicans need to explain things. Republicans need to give the newer generations a reason to vote for them.

…και το μυαλό μου θολώνει…

♫ : Voxtrot

Drilling Holes In My Head

And sleeping on a hard bed, in a very bare room, surrounded by all kinds of strange people with shaven heads. You could be in an alien landscape.

So anyway, Buddhism was a very important influence in my life and for a long time I did consider myself as such.

But over the years, my larger mindset of not accepting things just because my mother handed them to me took over. And I began a philosophical quest that continues to this day.

It began consciously after graduation with Krishnamurti’s talks. I call him the greatest “deconditioner”. Nobody is better when it comes to forcing you to clear the cobwebs of our minds and question many assumptions we have made, believing what others say, or taking accepted wisdom for granted. He really started my journey of true spiritual introspection.

Eventually I moved beyond Krishnamurti because I felt he is a great mental purgative, he clears our minds of a lot of rubbish. But he won’t give us the answers and we have to find them ourselves.

I was fascinating by what Osho was saying. He was absolutely brilliant. I never went to see him because I could not accept his imposed dress code. But he was stunning — starting as a professor of philosophy, he understood the context of belief systems to which he added his own brilliance, contradictions and insights. It was very stimulating. He did a lot of the thinking for us by cross-relating so many strands of thought.

Then, when I went to California, I got exposed to many new age teachers like Ramtha, to Native American sweat lodges, Zen teachers, Tibetan Buddhist influences.

I integrated things from each of them. It’s been a continuous quest. And I have reached my own provisional answers, my state of beliefs valid for the present moment.

I realize the world is an extraordinary mysterious place and I don’t understand half its dimensions. 

Yet, do I believe in a personal God who would take care of me were I to pray Him? I don’t. Do I believe in God as a cosmic intelligence that underlies creation? Yes. Do I think people are wrong to pray to their particular gods for salvation? I don’t, if it helps their spiritual journey. If it takes them closer to happiness, then it’s all good. It just doesn’t resonate with me.

Все больше и больше придерживаюсь мнения что СМИ верить нельзя. Но ведь хочется знать что творится в твоем городе…стране…мире.
Вопрос: Кому доверять?

…откуда брать достоверную инфу?…

I want to be able to have this feeling again.
This feeling to love life again.
Not to be depressed or distressed through out the days of my life.
Some days I just want to scream  and some days I just want to be alone.
I feel like my mind is unstable and no one would understand me.
My mind tells me to think one thing then it tells me another thing.
I just can’t seem to understand this world anymore.