Day 06 | Toodles, Mr Milky Way

“Maybe I could have loved you better. Maybe you should have loved me more. Maybe our hearts were just next in line. Maybe everything breaks sometime. I'm so sorry this love made me hollow and left you empty.”  ~ Jewel

Day 05 | One Face and the Other

God has given you one face,

and you make yourself another. - William Shakespeare

Banyak manusia yang lupa untuk bersikap jujur dengan kesederhanaan dan kekurangan yang menempel di badannya dan kesehariannya, salah satunya adalah saya. Selalu berpikir dirinya lebih sempurna dari orang yang dia pikir tidak lebih sempurna dari dirinya. Tidak sedikit pun dia menyadari bahwa kadang kala tindakannya juga meninggalkan kesan kurang pantas di benak orang yang dia pikir tidak lebih sempurna dari dirinya. Lupa bahwa dirinya juga memberlakukan standar ganda untuk banyak hal. 

Kita terkadang malah terlalu berkerja keras untuk membuktikan sesuatu hal yang tidak perlu selalu diungkapkan dengan tumpukan kata-kata intelek yang mungkin hanya akan membikin penat, dan membuang waktu percuma. Tunjukkanlah dengan sikap, tanpa segudang kata-kata. Banyak orang saya yakin memiliki kemampuan untuk menilai isi diri kita sesungguhnya dan menilai bahwa yang terlihat adalah sebuah skenario fiktif akan sebuah sosok yang semu.

Berlakukanlah sikap sederhana dan rendah hati (bukan rendah diri) ketika kita menyikapi setiap kelebihan dan ketika kita meraih keberhasilan. Praktekkanlah kejujuran, ungkapkan rasa keberatan dan kekecewaan kepada mereka yang terkait dengan cara yang beradab, atau terimalah saja dengan ikhlas. Tetapi, jangan menyebarkan konsep diri seputar rasa keberatan dan kekecewaan kita, dan menyumbang kepada berkembangnya sikap penuh kebencian. Terlintas sejenak di kepala, binatang pun mungkin dapat menyortir manusia mana yang memilki sikap seperti ini dan mana yang tidak.

Sebelumnya mohon maaf seandainya saya menyinggung siapapun yang membaca tulisan ini. Saya hanya sedang melakukan evaluasi diri.

Cita-cita saya yang akan saya terus upayakan hingga waktu saya berpulang tiba:

Jangan buat perilaku - menyebarkan ketidaksempurnaan manusia lainnya - menjadi salah satu ketidaksempurnaan kita. 

Selalu ingat bahwa banyak sisi dari suatu cerita.

Lebih banyaklah mendengar, daripada berbicara.

Jauhkan sikap menggurui. 

Hiduplah selalu dengan sikap sederhana.

To be continued - maybe.

Day 04 | Presidential Rebuke

During a consolidated meeting participated by local regents, mayors, among others, the President sharply rebuked one participant for dozing off while he conveyed the country's critical issues. A tolerable manner. I might have done the same. Who'd supposedly be more tired, and excusable to doze off during a meeting you think, a president or regent? It just reminds me of many similar incidents I had back in high school.

Day 04 | Cozy Lofty

May it be newly weds, couples who live together for convenience, not to test marriage, singles who just landed a big account and got himself/herself a larger studio apartment or house even, whomever at this moment is planning or in the process of decorating your crash pad, here's a website, apartment theraphy, I recommend. 

Day 04 | Uniquely Perfect

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON

"uniquely perfect and enduring" 

Am a fan. I claim the right to say "Go get the DVD, and watch this movie!" 

Day 04 | Facebook Hysteria

25 random things about facebook 
It’s not a computer virus, but it sure is starting to feel like one.

Hail to Mark Zuckerberg!! :-P

Day 04 | Counter Knowledge

Dr. Aaron Carroll and Dr. Rachel Vreeman of the Indiana University School of Medicine presented a counter knowledge to oppose a set of health-related misconceptions, some we commonly know and practice. I find this is interesting to share.

Top Seven (Ten) Health Myths

According to a new study, even doctors fall prey to common medical misconceptions. Here's the straight story on everything from postmortem hair growth to Halloween candy hazards.

By Sarah Kliff | Newsweek Web Exclusive

Without a medical degree, sorting medical fact from fiction can be daunting: does reading in the dark actually hurt your vision? Do we really use only 10 percent of our brains? It turns out that even MDs have difficulty with widely held medical maxims like these. A study in the British Medical Journal's December issue looked at seven medical myths that doctors often accept as truth. "The problem is that a lot of people take what [doctors] say as gospel, but sometimes it's not backed up by science," says Aaron Carroll, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Regenstrief Institute in Indianapolis and co-author of the study. "Patients and parents should feel free to ask about why the things they are being told are true. They should be upfront about it." To start your year off with a little less fiction and a little more fact, here are seven of the most common medical myths debunked:

1. Reading in dim light ruins your eyesight.

While this is one myth that parents around the world have loved for generations, it has very little scientific backing. Reading in the dark can cause a temporary strain on the eyes, but it rapidly goes away once you return to bright light. The practice has been blamed for increasing rates of myopia (nearsightedness), but Carroll says those claims don't align with the evidence—we're living in the best-lit conditions the world has ever seen. "Seventy years ago we were reading by candlelight and weren't going blind," says Carroll. "There's no evidence for this whatsoever."

2. Using cell phones in hospitals is dangerous.

Despite the signs in most emergency waiting rooms, studies have found little to no significant cell phone interference with medical devices. In 2005 the Mayo Clinic ran 510 tests with 16 medical devices and six cell phones. The incidence of clinically important interference was a mere 1.2 percent. A 2007 study on cell phones "used in a normal way" found no interference during 300 tests in 75 treatment rooms.

3. Fingernails and hair grow after death.

"Growing hair and fingernails is a very complex hormonal task," says Carroll, one that can't happen after one has died. So how did this myth get off the ground? It could be because after death the skin begins to contract, which could give the appearance that the nails are growing.

4. We use only 10 percent of our brains.

The notion that our brains are not running at full speed simply doesn't hold up. "Numerous types of brain imaging studies show that no area of the brain is completely silent or inactive. Detailed probing of the brain has failed to identify the 'nonfunctioning' 90 percent," Carroll and Rachel Vreeman, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine, write in the British Medical Journal study. Carroll says the notion may go as far back as the snake-oil salesmen of the early 20th century, who used the myth to sell a tonic that would increase brainpower.

5. You should drink at least eight glasses of water a day.

The source for this myth may be a 1945 article from the National Research Council that claims that a "suitable allowance" of water for adults is 2.5 liters a day, although the last sentence of the article notes that much of that water is already contained in the food we eat. Existing studies suggest that that often-omitted fact is key to understanding water intake. We get enough fluids from our typical daily consumption of juice, milk and even caffeinated drinks. And drinking too much water can cause water intoxication, a severe electrolyte imbalance in which cells swell with excess fluid, and even death.

6. Shaved hair grows back faster and coarser.

Wax, shave or cut—no matter how you choose to remove your hair, you won't change the texture or speed at which it grows back. Leg hair will, however, appear coarser right as it starts to grow back. "The hair that initially grows back is blunt, hasn't had time to taper off, so it might look darker," says Carroll. But as it gets a bit longer and is exposed to the sun, it will look exactly like the hair you started with. (For more information on this myth check out this recent NEWSWEEK story.)

7. Tainted candy from strangers is a Halloween threat.

While not included in the British Medical Journal study, this is one of Carroll's personal pet peeves. Each Halloween brings a slew of stories about poisoned candy—some hospitals will even set up X-ray stations for the particularly cautious trick-or-treater—but there has never been a documented case of a stranger poisoning Halloween candy, he says. There have, however, been a few instances of relatives doing so.

Additonal statements from the two doctors:

8. Night eating makes you fat.

Studies show an association between obesity and eating more meals, but that doesn’t mean eating at night causes obesity, the doctors point out. Eating more at any time of day will cause weight gain if it results in ingesting more calories than you need.

9. Hangovers can be cured.

The researchers found no scientific evidence supporting any type of cure for alcohol hangovers. Because hangovers are caused by drinking too much alcohol, the only way to avoid one is to drink very little or not at all.

10. Sugar makes kids hyperactive.

The researchers cite 12 controlled studies that couldn’t detect any differences in behavior between children who had sugar and those who did not. Even when kids had a diagnosis of hyperactivity problems or were said to be more sensitive to sugar, they did not behave differently whether they ate sugar-laden or sugar-free diets. In fact, the biggest effect of sugar may be on parents. Parents rate their children as being more hyperactive if they are told the child has consumed sugar — even when the child hasn’t really had any sweets.

Their book is entitled "Don't Swallow Your Gum: Myths, Half-truths, and Outright Lies About Your Body and Health."