Animoto

This video comprises photographs taken in one of my computing classes. It was created at a site called Animoto where you can upload your photographs, chose an accompanying sound track and then wait while a 30 second video is created using a variety of fairly impressive special effects. The site allows you to embed the video that you create into Blogger, so I thought I'd try it out. You can create longer videos on the site but that will cost you.

UPDATE: April 13th 2022

Clearly the Animoto video is no longer in existence!

Dreaming in Indonesian

I guess it's a sign of how long I've been in Indonesia that occasionally I hear snippets of Indonesian in my dreams. A couple of nights ago, I awakened with the word "rohani" ringing in my ears. Now "rohani" in Indonesian means "spiritual" and in the dream, I was with a small group of white-clad Moslem men. This is the fasting month of course and the focus is supposed to be firmly on spiritual matters. I'm not fasting but nonetheless maybe I was being reminded that this is a good time (with holidays almost upon me) to focus on "batin" or inner matters.

In an interesting instance of synchronicity, I opened Skype tonight and noticed that somebody called Rohani had tried to make contact with me back in May. I usually ignore these sorts of random contacts and the request had just been sitting there all that time. When I looked at Rohani's details it turns out that she is a 49 year old female living in Singapore who provides these details about herself: "EEG Neurofeedback Practioner, helping children to improve their school performance. Especially good for the hyperactive, lack focus and concentration and reading challenges. I have a proven record."

I've recently done a Tarot card reading for myself and one of the cards indicated that a person who could help me is close at hand. This was a week or so ago and since then I've been watching my dreams and the external world for signs as to who this person might be. In my mind, the help I need relates to how to stay on in Indonesia after I turn 60. At the moment, I'll be given my marching orders in June of 2009 unless I can figure some way around the fact that expatriate teachers who have turned 60 do not have their visas renewed.

It's still a way off yet but I can't afford to procrastinate. I remember my English teaching back in high school asking the class one day to complete the proverb "procrastination is ... " and while the rest of the class were still absorbing his words, I spat out " ... the thief of time". Heads turned, I remember it well. Even at that young age, I knew all about procrastination and life would later expose me as a champion procrastinator. So I've belatedly accepted Rohani's request to chat and maybe she'll make contact. Who knows? She may be the one who can give me a clue as to what to do.

I'm thinking of course that if I can't stay, then Singapore is not too bad a location. Flights between Jakarta and the island state are quick and cheap. Of course, the Singaporeans may have a similar veto on ageing expats. Ageism is alive and well and living in Asia, despite a supposed respect for the elderly.

Yipe, Yoghurt

A couple of weeks ago I got it into my head that I ought to eat a small carton of zero fat yoghurt every day. I decided to mix it with fruit, usually mango from our mango tree, and consume it when I got home from work about 4.30pm. Intermittent pains and rumblings in my intestines followed but I didn't make any connection between this discomfort and my yoghurt consumption. Even worse was a chronic fatigue that seemed to be always with me. I was nodding off at work and crashing out when I got home. As usual, it was Desy who alerted me to the fact that maybe the yoghurt was causing the problems.

At first I was dismissive of the idea but then I accepted it after I returned to my normal self after not eating it anymore. I couldn't really understand why yoghurt had had that effect on me. A little Internet searching however, soon threw up an answer in the form of lactose intolerance. To digest lactose, you need an enzyme called lactase. Humans stop producing this enzyme about 4 or 5 years of age and thereafter don't easily tolerate milk or milk products in their diet. This is true of about 70% of the world's population, including most Asians. Due to a genetic mutation about 4,500 years BCE however, most Europeans still produce lactase into adulthood.

Even in Europeans however, the production of lactase falls off as they get older. It seems that zero fat Yoghurts are especially high in lactose and so my daily dose of yoghurt was putting my digestive system under continuous stress. There wasn't any mention made of fatigue as a symptom of lactose intolerance but that was certainly one of the effects it had on me. So I'm back to normal and wiser for having learned about the source of my problem.

It seems that lactose intolerance develops naturally in most animals shortly after weaning. In certain situations, it is genetically advantageous to maintain lactose tolerance into adulthood. For example, while most Chinese are lactose intolerant, the Mongol tribesmen on the border of China are not. These tribesmen are heavily reliant on horse milk. A similar thing seems to have happened with Europeans and cows milk. There is some evidence that the European genetic mutation originated in Sweden.

Horse and Carriage

Here's a photo I was able to take with my camera phone on my way to work this morning. The traffic was crawling along and in front of me was a horse and carriage. I'd allowed the driver in front of me when the two lanes of traffic converged into one. Just something a little different. There are quite a few horse and carriages wending their way around Bintaro Sektor IX. I suspect that they are owned by people in the kampungs (local villages) and rented out during the day.