Some Kind of a Cure All

I was rather on the sceptical side when I stumbled upon some essential oils that my sister gave to my son for his high fever during one of the monsoon months.
My son was much better the next day, he went back to school and checking up on him in the afternoon, he claimed that he didn't feel that he was sick yesterday.

Logically speaking, experience taught me that there’s no such thing as a cure all. No guaranteed item that will suddenly fix every ailment or concern you could ever have. No product that can instantly transform you into the happiest, healthiest, most vibrant version of yourself. But if such a thing did exist, I was finally convinced it would be essential oils.

Second time was after I accidentally bang my feet to the edge of my wooden furniture when I was hurrying to answer the phone. It was bruised. I tried the left over oils my sister gave before, 3x that day and the next, the bruised was gone!

Third time was when I applied those oils to my nephew that had a terrible cough. The next day, the cough stops

I was like... "What???"

So stay tune and I will post more about this.

I am not selling, so don't ask to buy from me! This is just to express my amazement and awe in these bunch of essential oils.

Who knows somebody will need some of this recipe and find it useful.

Me as an "inactivist"

I recently read a few articles about lack of exercise after contemplating whether I should start a gym membership or not. After a few times trying to brainstorm me, a friend who is a gym-junkie seemed to have finally given up. Not that I have a weight problem or anything, but it was just to take on a healthier lifestyle by being more active. After including sleeping, working and watching TV or sitting at a computer the result was less than 1 hour per day of actual physical activity for me. Where I lived, it is not such a good idea to walk or cycle anywhere.

After considering or rather pondering about it, I came up with the most standard excuses: lack of time, weariness, living in a metropolitan city, and many more. I reminisce about the times when I was in college and there was no Internet or cable TV, I obviously did a lot more. I walked to campus every day, took the bus into town to meet friends, participated in volleyball and many other activities. Even in my earlier professional days, I took the stairs everyday to my 3rd floor office instead of elevators. So what happened to me in the last 10 years?

I’m the first to confess that :

• I drove every day, everywhere, never even consider the option to walk instead.

• The furthest I walk is from a mall’s parking lot to wherever I need to do my shopping (we happen to have giant shopping malls around here).

• I watch far too much TV cable

• I sit at my computer a lot to either work, read emails, or just surf.

As a summary of all the above, I am basically in the wrong side of my 30’s, I knew I have to make some changes! Most of the time, I could be sitting on the couch or lying in my bed while telling myself to get up and do some exercise. But instead I got pushed back by the hot weather outside and decided to stay inside in the comfort of nicely air conditioned room.

So I do have only myself to blame, for letting myself became part of the metropolitan pandemic! Are you as inactive as me? Have you looked at how much exercises or activities you do every day? I would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions about whatever you did to motivate yourself to exercise.

Land of the Giants?

First of all, it is my own thoughts and opinion, similar to my paper assignments during years of my studies. You can say it is a continuance of my apparently never ending learning process. Most of all, out of period of tedium!


I can name a few retail businesses around here on top of my head that used to have obscenely long queues; American style burger shops, Bubble Tea, Floss Bread, Glazed Doughnut shops, and the most recent one, Frozen Yogurt (you may go on if you have some more to mention). Many of these businesses entered the growth period so fast, unfortunately only to have a short span of success, as they entered maturity level soon after. The lucky ones gets to keep their business running at stagnancy, the rest choose to close down after the declining revenue. Similar to a behavior and life span of a fungus!

In another area, market demand is always high for food business, one being fresh seafood products. Let’s name a few; sardines, tunas and prawns. But as I read the news morning after morning, certain areas that used to be fishermen’s haven, where harvesting capacity used to reach more than 50 tons of fresh seafood a day, now have to settle for 5 tons a week. Due to the rapid decline in domestic supply, many seafood companies have no other choice but to import raw fish to keep their businesses going and on top of that, the cost is 5 times the normal price. How sad! This fact just gets me thinking, businesses rely too much on exporting our own raw natural resources and less effort of rehabilitation. Current generation now is paying the price.

Similar conditions happened in mineral industry. This country is one of many countries that are blessed with so many varieties of natural resources. We have coal, natural gas, iron ore, gold, silver, oil, cooper and many more, due to the country’s biodiversity existence in various ecosystems. But current circumstances have forced the industry to import all of those products to supply domestic demands. Why? The decline in domestic supply is also the effect of regulation that allows the export products in raw form, allowing companies the flexibility to maximize their profit through export opportunities in shocking volume. There are finally talks about prohibiting the export of raw products. The plan was said to take place in 2014 (the year of the next election, hm… go figure!).

In the midst of the above conditions, the public realized that only giant corporations around here can keep surviving in these moments of ambiguity. However, it doesn’t mean they are running without problems and concerns of their own. Many that are running on a thin ice (though not necessarily) developed partnerships with overseas corporations. Okay, though I would like to continue writing about automotive, telecommunication and technology industries, I better stop it here. After all, how much could I possibly know, right?  I’ll leave that discussion to the more knowledgeable ones, who I happened to have lunch with just now.

One example from numbers of international companies and corporations that are able to maintain their strength in the business world is because some of these businesses are running as they embrace a cause. It can be to preserve cultural heritage, organic, saving environment and many more CSR substance, which require a large sum of additional capital to communicate it to the consumers. But it does make sense because nothing builds brand loyalty among today’s more-difficult-to-please consumers (tell me about it!). Their level of toleration increases when dealing with a company that stands for something beyond profits. And above all, these corporations are providing continuity for generations to come by giving back to the community and environment.

Whatever the strategy is, the execution requires consistency that is able to keep being implemented and updated according to the most recent market trends throughout the years. In short, apparently once one is determined to be successful in a business venture, the learning process will never end. There goes my early retirement plan!

The Very Famous Cookies & Business Expansion

My favorite snack? Mr Amos's chocolate chip and pecan cookies is definitely my favorite since childhood. Now that I am a mother of a son who also loves them, I now have more reason to keep dropping by their counter to purchase even only a mere 100gr of these wonderful cookies.

Out of so many home made snacks that have been around for ages, I noticed these cookies have the taste that never change!



Mr Wally Amos, used to send his own home-baked chocolate chip cookies to celebrities to entice them to meet with him and maybe sign a deal to be represented by a talent Agency he used to work for in Los Angeles, California. In 1975, he finally opened his first store with the name that we all familiar with, "Famous Amos".
*Geezzz the cookie recipe is waaaaaaay older than me :D

The growing popularity of "Famous Amos" brand lead it to sell cookies in supermarkets, but I don't really like how the supermarket version taste like. I prefer the freshly baked ones! Aren't we all? :)

Anyhow, I am just writing this to get some inspiration. I would love to develop some ideas to expand our company's field of work, similar to what Mr. Amos did to expand his products. Currently our facility is running at its maximum capacity on a yearly contract. It is a bit worrying since we can never predict what will happen in the following year. I am just collecting some ideas to form strategies on what to do next. After all, time moves fast and we will soon be entering the second semester of the year.

And I am doing that while eating my chocolate chip and pecan cookies as my afternoon snack... there goes my low calorie diet trial :)

The Fashion Blogs

I still have 20 more minutes till the end of the working day. I've finished my work stuff and decided to kill the time writing this little blog of mine.

I really had to go shopping to get my self a gown or dress or dressy pants... anything... for a wedding this coming Saturday. It has been awhile since the last time I seriously shopped. I’m just not in the mood to buy dresses. If I forced my self today, at the end I'll just be walking aimlessly, exhaust myself and let my mind drift.

I did try to shop online.. but not successful hahahaha... silly, I know! I guess I have to drag my self tomorrow *maybe* to get that done and over with.

But I was finding some fashion blogs that are out there to be very amazing!!! These writers are so inspirational, and the designers and fabrics they highlight are a continual source of ideas for the readers. And to my surprise, I found many more well written fashion blogs owned by girls from as young as 13 years old.

There is this one particular blog, written by a 21 year old girl from Yogyakarta in Central Java and the blog was featured in US Teen Vogue!! Amazing! The whole blog was all in English and very well written, too!

Here is the link to her blog: http://www.theversicle.com/

Btw if you happen to find her thanking a 'Clarisa' for an opportunity, don't get too excited! It was just a funny coincidence! hahahaha...

Knowing When You Have Enough

I am not a mind reader, but at least I can tell when a person is feeling contented or discontented.
During lunch time today, I saw this elder. A few years ago, he used to be one of the most-talked-about businessmen. Among his business and hobbies, all through the years he has also developed his own signature attire. What I meant with signature attire is far from anything fancy that one might be guessing. In a simple khaki shorts, humble short sleeves white shirt, with hair that has turned grey, sitting by himself in the middle of his restaurant smoking pipes… some of you Jakartans might know who I am talking about.
He was sitting down reading some papers, once in a while his staff approached him to report him about something and he just calmly gave instructions that were noted by the staff and executed immediately.
To the customers that were leaving the premises, he waved as he smiled, often followed by a warm words of gratitude for their patronage.
I saw him as an entrepreneur who has done enough in his life. With his current business, he seemed to feel so content. In his old age, he is still doing what he loves. The place was not the most crowded place in the city, but its famous name has been forever carved inside customers’ hearts due to the warm welcome they have always received on their every visits.
The lessons I took just by watching him sitting there was: ‘knowing when you have enough and embracing what you already have’.
On my way out, he also waved and smiled to me, I replied his gesture by saying; “…have a good day, Om”.

Canon vs Nikon

An SLR or A Single-Lens Reflex Camera is normally type of camera used by professional photographers. For most of us "common people" it used to be just a simple pocket camera that captures everything we want in film rolls. It did the job once :D

Nowadays, it is totally different. The digital era have also presented us with DSLR or Digital Single Lens Reflex Camera that has made it all easier for people to learn photography without having to get into a special photography course. And if one does not invest in too many crazily expensive professional photography additional equipments (like some people I know), photography in the not-too-long-run became cheaper than it used to.

Noooo it is not peer pressure like what I wrote about a couple of years ago. I have always been interested in photography, but price of the equipment and doubts of will I ever master the skill / do I have enough talent, have been standing in my way long enough.

About six years ago, instead of purchasing a DSLR camera, I decided to save the money and bought a 10MegaPixel digital camera that looks like a DSLR hahahaha... silly me! Although it doesn't really do the job (especially night shots) but it has accompanied me through many memorable events for 6 years before I finally let it go and bought a REAL DSLR! Before I made the decision, I was contemplating between two major brands, Canon VS Nikon.












I soon realized that whatever one start with will almost certainly be what one prefer. Since I started with Canon digital camera, of course right away I was able to recognize the functions and what to do. (Yoohooooo... Nikon R&D + Marketing strategy people,... look what Canon just did to you!!)

But anyhow, just like mobile phones, whatever the brand is, at any particular moment, one of the brand will come up with some new design, features or some other kind of new improvements. Less than a year later, it will be the other way around and on and on it goes.

After comparing the shots of two of my good friends, where one is a Nikon user and the other is a Canon user, through my own eyes, I can see that for me, Nikon captures sharper images, much too sharp for me... as where Canon captures softer images, which is good enough to my liking.

So finally I choose Canon 550D with 17-35mm kit lens, and one month after, I bought a very-cheap-but-good-enough 50mm f/1.8 lens and received a 70-300mm f/3.5-5 lens from my brother in law. Almost everyday for a whole month, I carried my camera bag everywhere I go. I asked so many questions from different sources and constantly experimenting on capturing a lot of different things, from standard group pictures, portraits, plants, buildings, animals, moving vehicles that got me started on 'pan shots' and some more... it certainly opens up new horizons because through serious photography, I realized that I was looking at my surroundings in a more detailed way. Different!

But after a while, the cloudy sky of the city and its stagnancy got me bored out of my wits. So now I am waiting for the right time to go on a proper holiday, maybe to another town/city/island and with my camera with me, I'll try to do more practice shooting new scenery *ahhh... can't wait!*

If anyone interested in photo hunting around here, please do let me know. I would love to come and join you :)