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.

More Magic

Magic is definitely in the air lately. A work colleague of mine, an Indonesian of Javanese ethnicity, confided in me this morning that his house is haunted. He has recently purchased a new house but he and his family have not moved in yet. They are still living in their previously rented accommodation for a little while longer. However, my colleague has slept alone in the new house on a couple of occasions, without his wife and daughter.

During these sleep-overs he heard a baby crying and heard someone running around outside and inside the house. My colleague visits a sufi master every week and when he talked about these events, his master explained that his house was occupied by a gondoruwo, a cruel, Yeti-like ghost who has two ghost children, a baby and a teenager. They were apparently there before the house was built. This particular gondoruwo has the capacity to cause a lot of mischief and disruption to the future residents unless it can be removed.

Apparently ghost-busting remedies are available but they do not come cheaply. What is required is an apelgin, a term that translates as ghost apple, and it costs about US$200. I'm a little unclear about what it actually looks like or how it is used, because our conversation was disrupted prematurely. The device is imported from the Middle East and contains special fragrances that can effect the exorcism. I'll certainly report back on my colleagues ghost-busting progress.

In the meantime, it's fascinating to realise that there is not only a recognition of distinct categories of ghosts but also clearly defined methods of dealing with the pesky things. A few months ago, I was introduced to a particular category of ghost known as a tuyul. This type of spirit takes the form of an unseen small child and obtains wealth for its human master. It can enter people's houses and steal wallets and other valuables. In return, the tuyul is afforded a special bed in the master's house and may be breast-fed by the woman of the house.

I had been in Indonesia six years and I'd never heard mention of a tuyul, but of course I'd never asked. Once I did, every Indonesian I talked to knew about this type of ghost and was happy to share stories he or she had heard about them. No one ever scoffed at the idea and it was quite clear that such creatures were simply regarded as a fact of life. It was about this time that I realised I had no idea what was going on here. I was and still am a stranger in a strange land.

Magic in the Air

As you live in Indonesia, it slowly dawns on you that magic colours every Indonesian view of the surrounding world. Some regions of the country have a reputation for magic that is particularly potent and every region has its own distinctive type of magic. The Dayaks, native inhabitants of Kalimantan for example, are famed for the power that their women's love magic works on hapless males whom they meet. The dukun or magic man can be found in every corner of the country and people visit him when deciding on a course of action, trying to woo a lover, seeking a job or just wanting some good luck to come their way.

This drives the followers of the strict and supposedly pure Islam of the Arabian Peninsula to absolute distraction but there is nothing they can do about it because the traditions are so entrenched and they themselves are in a decided minority. Some of the magic is black in that it seeks to harm others or sway them in some way. For example, it might be used to make someone fall in love with a person whom they might normally not have been interested in.

Most people feel a very real connection with relatives who have passed on and often seek their advice or feel their presence in certain situations. They often feel that a grandmother or grandfather is protecting them and looking out for their best interests. What the objective truth of all this is I can't say but it permeates everyday life in Indonesia and, rightly or wrongly, people believe in its reality. The more educated and cosmopolitan an Indonesian is, the less involvement he or she will have in this magic business but a deep-seated belief in its reality will always remain.

Whatever the truth, if this magic business continues to cause apoplexy in those Moslems who are pushing for a Saudi Arabian type of Wannabi-Islam in Indonesia, then it can't be a bad thing. The reason Islam took root in Indonesia in the first place was that it was accommodating of local traditions and fortunately the majority of Indonesian Moslems continue to embrace an interesting and syncretic form of the religion. God bless magic.

Truckies

Apropos the psychic consequences of my twin prime days, all I'll say is that I've had some very strange dreams and quickly move on to something much more concrete, namely truckies. Whereas truckies in Australia are apt to display paintings of semi-naked women on the mudflaps of their trucks' rear tyres, their counterparts in Indonesia have transcended such low carnal urges and taken a more spiritual approach.

The figure on the left is praying, her hands held up in supplication, and the caption says "DOA IBU" which I'd translate as "a praying mother". The figure on the right is holding some Muslim prayer beads and the caption says "MEMBAWA BERKAT" which I'd translate as "brings blessings". I assume there is a connection between the two paintings and that the overall meaning is "a praying mother brings blessings". I should check that translation with Desy but she's asleep now (it's after midnight).

Currently, there is a dangdut concert raging on the other side of the wall of our house, so I don't know how much sleep I'll get tonight. Tomorrow is another prime day, number 21323, and I can probably expect more strange dreams tonight. Desy's biological clock continues to tick as well and this coming Thursday, August 23rd, she'll turn 43. This is the day that the Sun enters Virgo.

Twin Primes

Blame my recent drought of postings on "blogger's block" and let's move on. Today is a prime day and by that I mean that a prime number of days has elapsed since I hatched. 21317 days to be precise. It turns out that the next odd numbered day (21319) is also prime, thus forming a set of twin primes and engendering within the psyche, for a time at least, a sense of stability, foundation and centredness.

As for the silly photograph, well I've been teaching image editing lately and have been tinkering with photographs. The words are from the first line of Brian Eno's song "Spider and I" which I was listening to while manipulating the image using GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program).

Tomorrow, which is almost upon me, will be a tween day: a day sandwiched between two prime days and thus a day to be savoured. Looking ahead, the next odd numbered day is not prime, because 21321 is divisible by 3, but the next odd number (21323) is. Such a concentration of primes is unusual and may have interesting psychic consequences. Watch this space.

Sylvan Silence

It's been a long time since my last post. I don't know why. Staying in Jakarta over the long holiday break didn't generate a lot of newsworthy postings I guess. Anyway, in an earlier posting titled "Gengsi", I talked about the popular habit of cutting down a perfectly healthy, shade-giving tree that stands in front of a house and restricts the view of passers-by . In the photo, Sabina sits atop what remains of an obviously healthy tree that once stood on the footpath outside someone's house. It's just around the corner from where we live. Unfortunately, there are many more examples to be found within walking distance of our house.

I'm reminded of the Joni Mitchell song lyrics: they cut down the trees and put them in a tree museum, and charged the people a dollar and a half just to see them. I recently heard a great new version of that song (Big Yellow Taxi) by the group Counting Crows, with Vanessa Carlton contributing vocals. If cutting down the tree is too difficult or expensive, then savage lopping is often carried out instead. Indonesia is about to overtake Malaysia as the world's largest producer of palm oil. The forests with all their biodiversity are disappearing rapidly and massive palm oil plantations are taking their place. Big but illegal profits are to be made, firstly from the timber (that is sold to China and other countries) and secondly from the palm oil itself. Within a few years, tree museums will be the only place to view Indonesian rainforest trees. These museums will be little pockets of rainforest, left standing in an effort to attract tourists who will be charged a dollar and a half (around 15,000 rupiah) just to see them. So it goes.

Engage brain first

My granddaughter is currently on holidays from school. She started in January at a private school that shall remain unnamed. On her final day of school, she received her report and a copy of the school's yearbook. Nothing unusual about that. A closer look at the yearbook however, shows photos of all the children, their full names and the names of their mothers and fathers, the children's dates of birth, complete addresses and telephone numbers (handwritten by the children themselves).

Now this is a country where kidnappings of students for ransom money is on the increase and initiatives like this just make the kidnapper's job easier. It could be argued that the yearbook only goes to the students and their parents but the reality is that it would have gone off to the printer first where many people would have had an opportunity to peruse the contents. In addition, yearbooks are often just put down somewhere and can easily go missing. As far as I know, there was no consultation with parents about whether they wanted these details disclosed in the yearbook. The privacy issue here is that the information originally supplied by the parents to the school should have been used for administrative purposes only and not serve as content for a yearbook.

What were the staff at the school thinking when they got these children (four years old and upwards) to handwrite this personal information onto a sheet of lined paper that was then scanned and attached to their photographs? Clearly they weren't thinking at all. Amazingly, I don't think any of the parents have complained about the issue. The culture here is to just accept these things and not make trouble. Educational commonsense is not in plentiful supply in Indonesian schools and that's not going to change anytime soon because NOBODY COMPLAINS!

Gengsi

One of the things that sets Indonesians apart from Westerners is the concept of "gengsi". It was well explained in an article that appeared in The Jakarta Post this morning. Here is a quote from it:

Maintaining gengsi (pride, prestige and appearance) is of the utmost importance for many people in Indonesia. People, especially in the big cities, try to maintain their gengsi in order to keep in with their peers, and please the people around them. They are status and power oriented, with a strong need for external and social affirmation. Indonesian society is often described as collectivist, as compared to individualist. This is maintained in a close long-term commitment to the "group". The "group" could be a family, extended family or extended relationships. Acceptance from the whole group is extremely important.

It's hard to capture the full implications of the word with the translation "pride, prestige and appearance", although that's certainly a part of it. The phrase "keeping up with the Joneses" also conveys a sense of it. Indonesians who can afford it love to buy homes beside busy roads where more people are able to admire the house's facade. The more impressive the facade the better. What's inside doesn't matter nearly as much as the external appearance. Shade trees that impede the view of the house from the street are brutally lopped or cut down entirely, replaced by palms that are less obtrusive and cost a hell of a lot of money. As many cars as possible need to be stacked in the driveway of course. As an individualistic westerner I prefer an outwardly modest-looking home hidden behind trees and located in a quiet street.

As quoted, commitment to the group is also a strong part of gengsi. The family is the most important group followed by religious grouping, ethnicity and nationality. In a country as diverse as Indonesia, there are many ethnic groups. The Javanese are the most populous but other prominent groups include Sundanese, Betawi (native Jakartans) and Batak. Most of these ethnic groups have their own language and that strengthens the sense of belonging. Curiously, Indonesians must declare their religous affiliation and can only choose from amongst Islam, Christianity, Catholicism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism. To a non-religious westerner with loose family ties, no strong sense of ethnic identity and only a vague sense of nationality, Indonesia can seem "foreign" at times but remembering the importance of gengsi helps make it more understandable.

Miss Mary

Let it be known that I am not really all that comfortable on social networking sites. I was invited to join Friendster by a work colleague and thought that I ought to accept because, after all, I'm teaching Information Technology to students who all belong to one or more social networking sites. So far I have three friends (all work colleagues) and 512 so-called second degree friends. I'm afraid I'm almost totally inactive on Friendster but so far I've received two emails from random persons who have viewed my profile. The last one, received yesterday, went like this:

Hello My Dearest One,



Dear how are you today? and how is things moving with you? hope fine and you are in good health. My name is Miss Mary, I am looking for a very nice man of love, caring, sincere, easy going, matured, and understanding, then after going through your profile now on this site ( www.friendster.com) i pick interest in you, so i will like you to write me via my email address which is as follow (mary4u_babyreal@yahoo.com ) so that i will give you my picture for further discussion, because i am really looking forward for a serious friendship with you,



Yours New Friend Mary

That's how easy it is to find new friends on Friendster. I like the phrase "how is things moving with you?" It has a Rastafarian ring to it as in "how is things moving with you, man?" but with "man" really drawn out and sounding like "marn". "Miss Mary" has a nice ring to it as well and I'm definitely "matured" but I'll let someone else run with that one. Feel free to pretend you're me.

The Timeless Land

The Timeless Land is a place in time, a four week period in which the school bell falls silent and timetables no longer dominate the day. Any day can be a sleep-in day, if I want it to be, and I can stay up after midnight, any night I want. I can read books. I've already read one called "the curious incident of the dog in the night-time" by mark haddon. The reading of it, completed only a few minutes ago, has affected my writing style, but only temporarily I hope. It's written from the point of view of a fifteen year old autistic boy and the style is similar to the text that I've italicised. The boy has a fascination with prime numbers and loves Mathematics and puzzles.

One of the puzzles that he discusses in the book is the so-called Monty Hall problem about a game show host who asks a contestant to choose one of three doors. Behind one door is a car and behind each of the other two is a goat. The game show host knows what's behind what door and before opening the door that the contestant has chosen, he opens one of the other two doors and reveals a goat. The car must then be behind one of the remaining two doors. The game show host then offers the contestant the chance to change his original selection. Should the contestant stick with his original choice of door or change doors? Intuition suggests it doesn't make any difference: the chances would still be 50-50. A careful analysis however, reveals that if the contestant changes his original selection, the chance of choosing the car is 2/3 while sticking with his original choice offers odds of only 1/3. There is a very good explanation of why this is so at www.answers.com.

This problem does not relate directly to the story however, and the novel is not about Mathematics or problems in logic. It's a story about a "curious incident" that befell a "dog in the night-time" and it is related in the first person by the autistic boy. I found the book quite enjoyable and I intend to go out and about tomorrow and purchase another book, because that's what I can do on holidays. I can also choose to not go out at all and postpone buying a new book until another day. I could stay at home and read an old book, or watch a video, or I could do neither of those two things but instead practise guitar because one day I might have to busk for a living. OK, "enough already" as they say in Yiddish. Suffice to say that tomorrow is full of possibilities and free of school bells and timetables.

The cyber-mice are running a little faster this year

After marking examinations, correcting practical work and writing about one hundred reports, I'm ready for a holiday and finally I have time to blog again. I'm reverting to blogging from Word because I find that I like the output that it creates in Blogger. The ScribeFire that I used last time gives the text a cramped look, the same as what you get by simply editing within Blogger itself. Why this should be so I've no idea.

In reference to an earlier post, the IT article did get published in The Jakarta Post last Sunday but without my name displayed. That's standard practice I think for what is termed an "advertorial" which is presumably a cross between an advertisement and an editorial. Maybe I should try for another letter to the editor. Maybe my blacklisting period has expired. I'll have to choose my topic carefully in case I offend again.

It doesn't look as if there will be much travel these holidays. Home renovations and car upgrading will see to that. So I'll have four weeks or so to do much as I please. I'll certainly be spending a lot of time upgrading my computer skills because lately I feel like I'm slipping behind. It was nearly twenty years ago, in January of 1988, that I taught my first computer lesson and in those pre-Internet times, the pace of change was a lot slower.

In terms of experience, I guess I'm qualified to teach about the History of Computing. Hopefully it will be made a formal academic subject one day and when those cyber-mice start running just a little too fast for me, perhaps I can take up the teaching of it. I would be a living fossil who could talk of the dreamtime before the coming of the silicon ships ... oops, I mean chips.

Just in case that scenario doesn't pan out however, I intend to work on my musical skills over the holidays in an effort to boost my busking credentials. It may well be that, for an old IT teacher who couldn't handle the pace of change, the only livelihood will be to provide musical entertainment on the footpath to passers-by. It wouldn't be such a bad life, at least there would be no more reports to write.

The Pace of Change

I've prepared this post from within ScribeFire, a Firefox plug-in, that enables me to post to a blog from within the browser itself. It's very convenient and just another of the many features that are making blogging easier and easier. However, there are just so many new so-called "Web 2.0" features appearing in cyberspace that I feel like I need to spend all of my coming four weeks holiday just trying to catch up with them all. There seems to be an change of pace in Internet innovation or it is just that I'm not keeping up with the pace of change, as in the mice are running a little faster this year sort of thing.

I received a comment to my YouTube video about the Great Wall of Nippon. It was from a 29 year old Australian who wrote "this is such a pointless video and I hate your accent, it sounds very poor". I thanked him for this helpful feedback but explained that the video was intended as part of a blog post and wasn't meant to stand on its own. I was surprised that someone had come across the video from within YouTube but I guess it just goes to show that however obscure you think your posting might be, there is somebody out there that will stumble across it.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Portable Slideshows

I just noticed that Picasa Web Albums, Google's photo sharing service, now provides a facility whereby you can turn any photo album that you have stored there into a slideshow that can be embedded into a web page or blog. You have the option of choosing from a variety of frame sizes. It just illustrates how easy it is becoming to present personal photos and videos on the Internet in interesting ways. To illustrate the facility, I've chosen the smallest frame size and used my December 2006 photo album containing shots taken when Desy and I visited my brother in Australia. The captions associated with each photograph in the web album can be displayed or not displayed, depending on the user's preference. In this case, I've chosen to display them. Various controls become available once you click on the slideshow. Try it and see.

The Jakarta Post

Content has been moved to this site.

The Wall Part Two

I wrote about "the wall" in a previous post, explaining that this formidable edifice, that had once lurked behind a spacious green belt, was recently relocated so that it now abuts the roadway. The wall divides the Japanese International School on the outskirts of Jakarta from the rest of the neighbourhood. Naturally such an expanse of white concrete proved a magnet for graffiti and one day it may cover it all and end up not looking so awful. It's hard to capture the extent of it in a photograph or even series of photographs, so this morning I took a video of it on my way to work. I've put the result on YouTube for all to see. Click here to view.

A Watery Grave

Who says nothing exciting ever happens in Bintaro? This afternoon, at the end of the street, entertainment was provided by a crane pulling a car from a storm water canal. The driver of the car had somehow panicked when behind the wheel and she and her female passenger ended up in the canal. Neither was injured apparently and the salvage attempt was successful as this YouTube video shows. The video size is a little under 8Mb if you're thinking of watching it.

Midnight Special

I'm writing this as the witching hour draws nigh but unfortunately it's Thursday night and I have another day of teaching ahead of me. I've fallen into bad habits lately, napping when I get home from school and then not being able to sleep while most honest citizens, and a few dishonest ones, are snoring soundly.

SBY (the acronym for Indonesia's president) is going to have a cabinet reshuffle soon, according to the political pundits. The reason I mention it is that perhaps he'll replace the current Minister of Education who was responsible for the implementation of the "60 and you're out rule" for expatriate teachers. Would a new minister rescind the rule? It's probably unlikely but even if it did happen, we ageing pedagogues would still feel unsettled because another change of minister might herald a reimplementation of the rule.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking on my stay in Indonesia. Tick. Tock. Soon I'll launch my worldwide cyberspace campaign to keep Sean in Indonesia. Via the blogosphere and the social networking sites, the collective cry of injustice will persuade the powers-that-be here in Indonesia to grant me complimentary citizenship because of my selfless service to the education of Indonesia's youth. As the clock passes midnight, it's comforting to imagine such improbabilities.

I may as well end a gloomy post on a gloomy note by quoting from today's Jakarta Post: Indonesia is losing its forests faster than any other country, with the equivalent of about 300 soccer pitches destroyed every hour, according to Greenpeace. Certainly an inconvenient truth but unlikely to cause much concern in the corridors of power. This rate of destruction will not be arrested because environmental awareness and concern are not a serious part of the national educational curriculum.