The full moon provides a rare spectacle. A moon lit night has a peculiar attraction to it, and the Thai’s definitely know how to make the most of the night that only comes around once a month.
On the Koh Phangan’s Haad Rin beach, once a month when the moon rises with all its beauty, crowds gather to view a most enthralling view of the moon. Almost 10,000 people gather on the beach at various venues that host the party like the Backyard Club, Beach House Club, Drop Inn, Cactus Bar, Paradise, Orchid and The Rock to name a few.

The party starts at dusk and the tables are laid out along the beach, lamps are lit and soon enough the moon light takes over and creates the perfect setting for a night out with singing and dancing. There is food and drinks to keep the partiers going through the night. With the perfect warm waters through out the year, the party becomes even more special with many taking a plunge and enjoying the party from the water as well. Anyone and everyone is welcome to join the party as there is no entry fee to the beach and you can enjoy the atmosphere till your hearts content. The only thing you pay for is the food and drinks you enjoy during the night.

You can surely plan your next vacation to Thailand and enjoy this special party as well as the dates for the event are already set, once a month from January to December and also on Christmas Day and New Years Eve.

A few things to keep in mind always, when you are planning to go to a crowded place are to make sure you leave any valuables, or travel documents, back at your hotel.Keep your wallet and money in front pockets or in places where you will know if someone tries to relieve you of them. You can always find pick pockets at crowded places, be careful and alert to them. Keep your shoes on as there is always a chance of stepping on some broken glass.

Be weary of accepting any drinks from strangers. Party drugs are not uncommon here and the drug related penalties are far more stringent than many other places and often times the consulates can’t provide much help in such matters.

All in all, stay safe and enjoy a great beach party that you will get a chance to be a part of.

1. Things happen when you least expect them to.

2. Patience is being hopeful.

3. Time away always helps.

4. Daydreaming is as essential as reading.

5. Choices will always be there for you to make.

6. Go with the flow.

7. Live in the present.

8. It’s better to be preoccupied than to have nothing to do.

9. Lie in the sun sometimes.

10. Admit things.

I wrote 50,000 words in twenty-five days. Five days ahead of schedule. I am so proud and so tired.

This is what happened when I posted my most recent update. I was surprised. I didn’t even expect it and then this popped up on my screen.

And this is my winner badge.

I’m so proud of myself. I know all the other NaNoers are going to be mad at me for saying this but I never thought I wouldn’t be able to finish. I actually found it quite easy to do 1667 or more words a day. But that’s probably because I’ve been developing this story idea for three years and this finally gave me the excuse to write it. Still, I’m quite shocked. I never thought I’d actually get to 50,000. Well, here I am. I did it. Now I can get back to blogging.

The intent of this document is to bring to the attention of the readers of this blog the great spiritual benefits of the blessed nights and days of the Sacred month of Dhul Hijjah.  One is encouraged to derive benefit from  practicing the prescribed acts of worship.

Virtues of the Sacred Month of Dhul Hijjah

Source: www.IECRCna.org

I’m honestly feeling like a productivity powerhouse right now.

Today consisted mainly of Drama rehearsals, both for my graded piece at the start of 2010, but also for a small musical I’m participating in. That made me feel good, because I’ve done a damn lot today. Plus the 5000 words towards my NaNoWriMo novel I’ve done in between acting. Did I not mention that?!

I – to my horror – realised that I need to write 3000 words per DAY in order to complete this, but I figured, if I can do 5000 words in about two hours, then why not dedicate two hours for the rest of the month, each day, and work on the novel. It’ll be done in no time.

Especially because everything is getting a lot more exciting now. Granted everything – and I do mean everything – will change when December comes to edit the novel, but for now I’m happy to say that this is a good first draft. First drafts being one of my many weaknesses.

Today I want to share a short passage I’ve only just written. The main character has been kidnapped by the main antagonist, and is an undisclosed location, trying to deal with the situation and the revelations he has been presented with.

‘I want to save you! I want to free us all! We never had a choice, not once in our lives. They get in early, before we have minds of our own. The Voices infect us, and we can’t resist. You know it’s true. You’ll be running around after them until you die.’

What had started off as rage now seemed to have developed into tears of a madman. The flicker of candle light reflected off the Dark man’s sparkling tears, which wiped away a certain amount of dirt from his unclean face, leaving a thin trail of natural skin.

The emotions of the Dark man seemed to be being washed away by this flood of sudden emotion. He seemed so passionate about his opinion, and as much as Tobias fought a small part of his brain, he agreed with his enemy.

Tobias knew with a very small but very significant part of his brain, that the Dark man was partly right. Tobias had never had a choice, and would never again.

I don’t think I’ll be writing any more tonight. As much as I want to get to 40,000 before I hit the sack, I’m incredibly tired, and have been working hard all day. Surely I’ve earned some sleep.

Today was supposed to be the day I get to 40,000 but I think that if I write an equal amount tomorrow as I did today, I can get ahead before it’s over. I’m on 38,000 now – I think – and so 4000 words should be possible. Tomorrow is a lot less of a cramped day.

I’ll probably post when I hit 45,000, but if not, I’ll see you at 50,000! Wish me luck.

 According to legend, Puru Maharshi did meditation at the hill, where the temple of Shiva now stands. It was a dense forest in those days; hence its name Puruvanam, which became peruvanam. The rishi brought the image of Shiva, the Lingam, a half cylinder, to be installed on top of the hill. Afterwards, the upper half of the hill, leaving the small area where the Lingam was placed, was razed down to its present size, making a vast plane, with the central high ground standing tall (MADATHILAPPAN) which is protected by massive walls on all sides, with twin temples of Eratteppan and Madathilappan, the latter standing tall, with a number of granite steps leading to the sanctum, from where, you get a sky view of the surrounding landscape. I am never tired of watching it, from childhood days, as my mother’s home was near the southern Gopuram (gate).

There were several venerable, old trees in the compound, including peepal tree and one perillamaram (meaning- tree without name, as it was a stranger there), all looking very old and about to die. New trees have replaced them.

 The big koothampalam, where chakyar koothu was a regular ritual in those days, is rare in the other temples.

The koothu is a sort of mono act and Ramayanam is the theme. The Chakyar will make fun of any body among the audience, however high his status!

Once, the chakyar came very near to the man, a VIP who had just entered the hall, stood there  for a few seconds, and commented: a real monkey, only the tail is missing!

 One is supposed to suffer and grin, never retort.

Every year, for one month or so, there is thevaruseva, when there will be feasting, both times in the day, only for Brahmins. The dining hall is very long, some four feet in height, cut into three segments to allow devotees to pass through. As children we had difficulty in jumping up on to the dining place.

Throughout the year, there is simple food served to brahmins which we avoided as something below our status. Tamil Brahmins made use of this facility. My maternal grandfather’s brother lived at the western gopuram, eating the free food.

The circular sanctum of Eratteppan ( there is one big lingam and one small lingam by its side, hence this name) is very spacious, with a circular covered veranda, allowing the poojary to go from Shiva in the west to Parvathy in the back of the sanctum. In Keralam, Shiva is alone; in rare cases, where she is allowed inside, she is at the back of the temple.

The eastern entrance, where the gopuram was destroyed by the soldiers of Tippu Sultan, leads to the broad sloping arena, where seven elephants can stand side by side, during pooram festival. Farther down is the spacious temple pond. All the villagers take bath in this waterhole, with steps to climb down and a pucca shed on one side, where the poojary takes bath before entering the temple.The pond will not dry up even in summer, in rainy season it will be full.

Mekavil Bhagavathy is near the western gopuram. Oorakath Ammathiruvady, Thiruvullakavu Sasthavu, and several other temples are in the vicinity.

The location of the temple is twelve KM from Trichur, on the road to Triprayar temple of Lord Ram.

Pernahkah anda mengalami kesulitan di dalam mengolah data yang berhubungan dengan tanggal dalam SAS ? Atau pernahkah anda mencoba melakukan perhitungan yang berhubungan dengan tanggal di dalam SAS ?
Bagi sebagian pengguna SAS, masalah tanggal ini memang masalah klasik. Mulai dari bagaimana SAS menyimpan data tanggal, apa saja formatnya, bahkan sampai melakukan perhitungan yang melibatkan unsur tanggal.

Dalam SAS, tanggal merupakan hal yang unik, karena SAS menyimpan data tanggal sebagai bilangan bulat, hari ke-n sejak tanggal 1 Januari 1960. Tanggal sebelum 1 Januari 1960 dianggap sebagai bilangan negatif. Jadi tanggal 1 Januari 1960 dalam SAS adalah 0, tanggal 2 Januari 1960 adalah 1, tanggal 15 Juni 2006 adalah 16,967, dan seterusnya.

Karena SAS menyimpan data dalam bentuk hari ke-n, kita perlu memformat data tanggal tersebut dalam bentuk yang lebih mudah dipahami.  Beberapa format tanggal yang biasa digunakan antara lain :
- mmddyy10. (contoh : 11/18/2009)
- mmddyy8. (contoh : 11182009)
- date9.   (contoh : 18Nov2009)

Format mmddyy10. dan mmddyy8. sebetulnya 2 format yang mirip. Yang membedakan hanyalah pada format mmddyy10. menggunakan separator “/”, sedangkan format mmddyy8. tidak.

Perhitungan dengan tanggal dalam SAS, dapat dilakukan dengan menghitung secara langsung atau menggunakan fungsi yang berhubungan dengan tanggal.

Misalkan kita memiliki data sebagai berikut :

nama        tgl_lahir           tgl_bekerja masa_kerja
harry       21apr1980      03jan2009
susan       10oct1975      10jan2006
donny     01jan1978       05jan2007
betty        30dec198        1 10feb2009
Jika kita ingin mengetahui berapa usia masing – masing orang pada saat mereka pertama kali bekerja, kita dapat menghitung secara langsung :

usia = tgl_bekerja – tgl_lahir

Jika kita memilih menggunakan fungsi, ada beberapa fungsi yang berkaitan dengan data tanggal yang dapat digunakan, yaitu fungsi YRDIF, INTCK, INTNX .

Fungsi YRDIF

Syntax untuk fungsi YRDIF adalah :

YRDIF(start date,end date, basis)

Basis merupakan satuan penghitungan, pilihannya dapat berupa ‘actual’, ‘30/360′, ‘act/360′, ataupun ‘act/365′. Jika kita memilih actual, maka SAS akan menghitung jumlah hari yang sebenarnya dari masing – masing bulan, termasuk memperhitungkan juga jumlah hari untuk tahun kabisat. Jika kita memilih 30/360 artinya kita menganggap bahwa setiap bulan terdiri dari 30 hari dan satu tahun terdiri dari 360 hari. Begitu seterusnya.

Fungsi ini digunakan untuk menghitung selisih antara start date dan end date, dalam satuan yang disebut dalam basis.

Contoh penerapannya dalam kasus diatas :

usia =YRDIF(tgl_lahir,tgl_bekerja,’actual’) ;
Fungsi INTCK

Syntax untuk fungsi INTCK adalah :

INTCK(interval,start date, end date)

Interval diatas mirip dengan basis pada fungsi YRDIF, yaitu untuk menunjukkan satuan penghitungan. Pilihannya dapat berupa : week, weekday (tidak menghitung Sabtu dan Minggu), month, qtr (quarter), year, dsb.

Fungsi ini digunakan untuk menghitung selisih antara start date dan end date, dalam satuan yang disebut dalam interval.

Contoh penerapan untuk kasus diatas :

usia = INTCK(‘year’,tgl_lahir, tgl_bekerja) ;

FUNGSI INTNX

Syntax untuk fungsi INTNX adalah :

INTNX(interval, start date, increment)

Fugsi ini digunakan untuk menentukan suatu tanggal tertentu setelah tanggal awal dan selisih intervalnya ditentukan. Interval dalam fungsi ini sama dengan interval dalam fungsi INTCK, sedangkan increment yang dimaksud adalah selisih waktu.

Misalkan kita ingin mengetahui tanggal berapakah 30 tahun setelah tanggal lahir masing – masing orang, maka dengan fungsi ini penerapannya menjadi :

tgl_x = INTNX (‘year’,tgl_lahir,30);

Atau jika kita ingin tahu tanggal berapakah 15 bulan setelah tanggal masing – masing orang bekerja :

tgl_x = INTNX(‘month’,tgl_bekerja,15);

 Demikianlah sekelumit penjelasan mengenai fungsi – fungsi yang berkaitan dengan tanggal. Semoga sharing ini bermanfaat sehingga bila lain kali anda mengerjakan data yang berhubungan dengan tanggal, bos anda tidak sempat lagi menyanyi, “menghitung hari, detik demi detik …” ala KD, karena terlalu lama menunggu anda menyelesaikannya

Weather Report for Paris: Shitty and Cold!

Alright, I can’t exactly call 13 degrees ‘cold’ since I used to wear miniskirts to class in High School whenever the temperature crawled above zero. However, it was raining and the wind was at about an appropriate level of ‘F-You’ – this to me equals ’shitty’. But, it did not ruin my day.

First stop: La Ferme Opera. A cafeteria style café (har-har) with tons of healthy food choices ranging from couscous to croissants (yes, I consider them healthy!). I actually got lost trying to find this place despite mapping out my route to an exact inch. Therefore, I did get to experience something I haven’t done in a while here: getting lost. Although, the experience was kind of ruined when my umbrella was taken hostage by the wind and a cyclist pulled over to vomit on the sidewalk in front of me. Yum.

So here is the outside of La Ferme. Lovely isn’t it? I know, I know. You just can’t get over all the French words.

And here is me in the reflection of the window. Notice my ultra heavy duty gear. Which will actually probably make you laugh at the fact that I took this picture with my iPhone rather than the Canon 5D I’ve got hanging uselessly off my shoulder.

My choice of lunch: Some sort of couscous mix with pomegranate seeds and curry chicken. Seriously, very very good. And very very small. The entire place smells like a bakery, so can you blame me for getting a chocolate croissant as well? No – you can’t.

The ‘dining’ area actually reminds me of a ski lodge in Alberta. Albeit, a very run down and unimaginative ski lodge where all the teenagers drink beer rather than actually ski.

Next stop – Le Cap Bourbon. Just down the street from La Ferme, I decided to stop in for a glass of wine and write for a bit. I mostly just ended up staring out the window and occasionally checking myself out in the mirror that was right in front of me.

It started to really pour (drizzle) while I was inside enjoying my wine and listening to tunes from the 70’s. I headed out with the intentions of going to the gym. But once I got outside I nearly fell over since I’m apparently a cheap drunk – so I decided against it.

So, I returned to my apartment and experimented with my very first HDR shots. So far I only have the trial software so all my images come out with tacky watermarks on them, inevitably leading people to think that they aren’t actually my photos.

A simple Day Two, but I got to accomplish two things that I’ve been wanting to do. Go to La Ferme for lunch, and witness a random cyclist puke on the street during daylight hours.

Time for dinner…

DIJUAL KAMBING ETAWA (etawa sale)
KETERANGAN (description):
UMUR :4 BULAN
KELAMIN : JANTAN (male)
PANJANG TELINGA : 29 CM (29 cm)
HARGA :Rp. 20 JUTA (nego)
LOKASI : ASLI KALIGESING (sibentar tlogo guwo kaligesing purworejo) INDONESIA