And it's coming to a close

I feel like I'm trying to squeeze the last of the juicy bits of yumminess and pleasure out of this long holiday. So here I am, back again.

Frank has been egging me on about being absent from this blog. So here I am, partly out of guilt, partly because what else should I be doing here at SMS, with his laptop and him sitting beside me? Of course he's gonna ask what I've been doing if I don't do at least a bit of productivity. Hehehe....

Next week I'll be back to work. Back to the monotony of getting up early in the morning, driving to work... trying not to be late again. Back to the stress of teaching preparation. Back to panicking because I haven't done the Java learning I've been meaning to do this holiday.

But before we face the grey boringness of work, tomorrow the Mamahit family will take a day off and visit the zoo. We've got chicken in the fridge, snacks and drinks. We're ready for a nice picnic!!

After that Frank will be joining the choir team to a mission trip to Yogya. Then, after he returns it will be my turn to go out of town. Just Bandung. But I HATE being away from the family. Anyway, that's all for now. Hopefully I'll be more enthusiastic about keeping the blog up to date starting next week. :D

Guess who has nothing better to do?

Your Emoticon Is Laughing

You've got a wicked sense of humor. You're everyone's favorite IM buddy... at least today!

A new distraction

I've been having another artsy itch. So a couple weeks ago I bought a sketch book. But then I only filled in two pages. I keep saying to myself that this will be a sketch book just to pour everything out on. Any ideas, any thoughts, any ramblings, but mostly I'm itching to draw. I have a dream to create something that I can decorate my house with. Something that I'd be proud to display.

When I was at the Giant Store near my house, I went upstairs to get some cash out of the ATM machine. Adriel, who was with me, rushed to the machine games. He likes to sit at the racing simulator games and play with the steering wheel. He has such a passion for cars.

So I let him run off while I attended to my cash withdrawal. On the back, there was a book store. I told Adriel where I was going to be and went back for a browse through the book store. As I was browsing through the hobbies section, by chance, I saw this book on how to draw cartoon characters. Well, okay, not cartoon, but they call it chibi. On impulse I bought one for myself. I also got a couple of activity books for Adriel.

Then we went down (with a lot of threats to Adriel, since he was glued to the games) to do our grocery shopping.

After reading through the book, I made a few attempts. Check it out:
Attempt #1

Attempt #2

Attempt #3

Okay, so I won't be able to make a living out of a hobby like this, and I won't put it up as decoration, but it serves well to get the drawing itch out of me. I've got more recent ones, but I won't bore you with them :D

PS. Sorry about the low quality pics, I just snapped them using our webcam. Hehehehe....

Old Friends

Been getting a bit too serious with all that psychological nature vs. nurture stuff, so I thought I'd be a little lighter today. Even one of my friends started to pick up on a debate with me after I told her I read this book. But in the end we agreed, so that was ok.

I've been really happy and upbeat the past few days cause I recently received good news about my friends from way back. Yeah, I know it's weird how such simple things can put a smile on your face.

First, Kristen just delivered a baby boy. Her first! And I can't wait to see more pictures of the baby. Kristen was one of my best friends from back then. She and I spent countless nights having sleepovers. She did most of the talking during our talks way into the mornings, but I needed her friendship.

Then Wendy, who I get all the good scoop from, is kind enough to email me all the news. Wendy is also one of my best friends from that time. The two of us found a lot to talk about. I think she must've been the one to really draw me out. I'm just so happy to get back in touch with her. It means a lot for me to know what's going on with her and her family.

Then Karen, who is on the way with her first too! She's due this September I hear, so congratulations to her. Karen is the only one I've seen since I moved back to Indonesia. Their family went on a vacation to Indonesia and I got a chance to see her and her family. But again, that was years ago. Which reminds me, gotta get to Facebook and drop a note to her myself.

Then Anna, who I just knew from Wendy who is a wonderful photographer. My goodness!! I can get more tips from her! I didn't know she was a photographer. Go say hi to her here. I just now fired off an email to her. Hopefully we can get reacquainted.

Last but not least, Michaela. Wendy says she experienced so many rough things in her life. Thankfully there's good news for her too. She's engaged!! Yippee... good news. Now let's see how I can get in touch with her.

And that's it. Those are the few people that really touched my life back in Arlington, Texas where I spent my teen years. The teen years are terribly tough to get through, especially in America, so I'm glad I had these sisters to help me out.

Out of the Loop

I read the book in 24 hours. It was fascinating. But I knew that it was published in 2000 so a lot would've happened since then. I knew I had to google it to find out more information. I wanted to know how the missing years have progressed.

As it turns out, the tragic story of the boy who was raised as a girl, ended on an even more tragic note. He committed suicide in 2004. His twin brother died earlier in 2002 from alcohol poisoning. Nothing good came out of this story. If you want to know in brief what happened in the life of David Reimer, read this article from Wikipedia.

For me, what the most tragic part of the story is how a person, could toy with someone's life, making an experiment out of him, mess it up completely and still insist that gender identity is determined by nurture and not nature. This guy, Dr. Money, was the psychiatrist who convinced David's parents to bring up Baby Bruce as a girl after a circumcision accident which burned off the baby's whole penis.

For me, I believe gender is determined mostly by nature because I believe that God has made male and female different. He knew what he was doing when he made us different.

But I also believe that nurture does play a part too, although not enough to change what you are into something else. The reason I believe in nurture is because I do the same thing with my son. I give him male-type toys to play with, and I tell him why he's different from a girl. If I don't teach him these things, how is he to know?

So yes, nurture does play a part, but nurture cannot overturn or change what you are by nature. I think it enforces what nature has pre-programmed. As it says in John Colapinto's book, this one case of course does not prove it singlehandedly, but it does make a strong case. Good job Mr. Colapinto.

A look into gender identity

I had to lug a load of library books to return them to the library today. As school will be ending soon, I need to get the books returned or face the wrath of the librarian.

But as it turns out, I quietly returned most of my books and asked the little lady in charge there if it was alright to borrow more. She smiled back politely and said yes. So I gave her a wide grin and headed back into the sparse library.

While picking out a few books to read over the holidays, I absently picked up a book that I had seen sitting there on the shelf for some time. The title is As Nature Made Him: The boy who was raised as a girl. I didn't really know what to expect of the book, but I read the back cover. It peaked my interest so I flipped the first few pages. Then I read the Preface. It was like a hook. And I was caught.

I read more, standing there in the library. Then decided this book would come with me out of the library.

Now I've read more than 40 pages and it's gotten quite boring. Medical stuff mostly about research. I'm sure the author is trying to lay down the foundations for what happed to this guy who was given a gender change while he was very young. Anyway, I hope it gets more interesting soon.

I'll keep you updated.

Ticking Time Bomb

Whispers here, comments there, precautions given... Everybody is worried that the riots like the one in 1998 might happen again this year. Oh no, don't say it aloud... yeah, everybody keeps whispering about it and saying, don't say anything to anybody, just be careful. But it's like EVERYONE is talking about it.

My first reaction, was one of optimism. I guess, by nature I try to look at things from a positive point of view. Naaahhh... it can't happen again. Everyone saw what happened at that time and none of it was good. Surely people have learned their lesson. I think it was culmination of so many things, all happening at the same time, to cause people to go berserk temporarily.

But then I thought twice, and as I was thinking about the possibility, about my feelings about it, I started to browse the net looking for something to help me understand it all... I noticed that Indonesia Matters started discussing about the riots in May 1998. If you check it out, read the comments and discussion going on there. It's enough to make your head go round.

From what I gather, some believe that riots like that tend to happen in Indonesia because of the "amok" culture. Again, some say, that this culture is unique to Indonesians/Malay. So if that's true... then it is only a matter of time and it only needs some soft of trigger for it to happen again.

And man, oh man, that is such a bleak outlook. I cannot think like that. So I can only hope and pray that it does not turn out to be that way.

Home Alone

This morning I took my boys to be picked up by the bus our church was using to go on a retreat. Yup, Frank and Adriel are at a church retreat without me. Did they take Laela the helper? Nope.

Yes, I agree with you that Frank is VERY brave. :-) I don't even know if I'd attempt the same thing. To go somewhere, spend a couple nights away from home and without anyone else to help. Of course there are hundreds of church friends there to help, but it's still stressful. On top of that, my very dear hubby is taking on responsibilities during some of the activities there. You know, like leading and emceeing.

I did talk to them just a few minutes ago, and they seem to be doing just fine without Mommy.

And me? Just being a couch potato. Watching cable and playing online games. Aahhhh... reminds me of my single years, hahahahaha.....

Taco Salad

We're going to have a potluck next week. So I've decided I'm gonna bring my favorite potluck dish to bring. It's SO easy to make and it can stay fresh cause all you have to do is mix it before eating :-)

Taco Salad Recipe

(from About.com)

Ingredients

• 1 lb lean ground beef, fried and cooled


• 1 head of lettuce, broken in pieces


• 2 diced tomatoes


• 1 diced onion


• 1 can drained light red kidney beans


• 1/2 to 1 lb graded cheddar cheese

Preparation

Mix all together in a large bowl. Stir in 1 large bottle of Western Dressing. Chill and when ready to serve add 1 bag or crumbled Doritos or corn chips.

Okay, sounds nice right? Except I'm going to have to make a few modifications. I don't know if we can get Western Dressing. So, I looked up how to make it from scratch.

Western Dressing

(from About.com)

Ingredients

• 1 cup sour cream


• 2 tablespoons vinegar


• 1 tablespoon lemon juice


• 1 tablespoon green onion


• 1/2 tablespoon salt


• 3 tablespoons sugar

Preparation

Mix all together, chill and serve

Now it's almost perfect, except I remember making it with Taco sauce before. And since we don't have pre-prepared packages of taco mix, I'm gonna have to come up with it from scratch too. I'll mix in this with the ground beef. It will give it that Mexican zing.

Taco Seasoning Mix

(from About.com)

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup instant minced onion (fresh will work too won't it?)


• 3 tablespoons chili powder


• 2 tablespoons ground cumin


• 1 teaspoon salt


• 2 teaspoons crushed red pepper, to taste (gotta put lots :0))


• 1 tablespoon cornstarch


• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder (gonna use fresh again)


• 2 teaspoons oregano, crushed

Preparation

Combine all ingredients and store in an airtight container. Use generously to season meat or poultry, or use in recipes. Makes about 2/3 cup Taco Seasoning Blend.

Oh, and last of all, I think I'll add a bit of cilantro in there. To make it even more Zingy!! Try it... I think you'll like it :-)

And so it begins

Just recently Adriel learned the word: Why?

And so the next phase in our life has begun. We are now subject to why questions. A truck was stopping on the side of the road.

(I'm driving and Adriel is sitting beside me in his car seat)
Adriel: Look Momma, truck stop.
Me: Yes, Adriel.
Adriel: Why?
Me: Maybe it's broken.
Adriel: Broken? Why?
Me (in an attempt to stop his stream of whys): Well, maybe it's broken because it hasn't been taken care of. If you don't take care of your things, it will break easily too.
Me (before he has time to ask another question or more specifically another why question): Adriel, will you take care of your toys?
Adriel: Yes.
Me: Good, because if you don't it will break just like that truck.

And so his thoughts have turned elsewhere and no more whys. Whew... that time I was lucky. At other times he's more pressing with his whys. It's just gonna take my creativity to divert him :D