Project 365

Welcome! This is my own 365 project of creating at least one post per day about the stuff that I learnt, achieved, and found, the stuff that made me happy, or the new thing I did every single day.

The project was started on 21 February 2010. It has stopped for few times but I am determined to continue!

This project is dedicated to myself. I want to feel grateful for every single thing I have. I want to be thankful for my own life. I just want to feel that I have enough.

Category: Link

Date A Girl Who Travels

I accidentally found this post and I loved it. Let me quote some of the things she wrote:

A girl who travels has developed a deeper appreciation for life. She won’t judge you, or pressure you to do things you don’t want to do. She knows too much about the importance of identity and self-efficacy, and she will appreciate all the more if you won’t pretend to be who you’re not.

Is a girl who travels worth it? Yes, she is. So when you find her, keep her. Don’t lose her with your insecurities and doubts. Because when she says she loves you, she really does. After all, she’s seen so many things, met so many people, and if she had chosen you, better grab that opportunity and thank the gods that you were lucky enough she’s chosen you and not that bloke she met watching the sun rise in Angkor Wat, or while whitewater rafting in the Padas Gorge in Sabah.

Date a girl who travels. Make her feel safe, warm, and secure. Make her believe that no matter where she goes, and however long she’s gone, you’ll always be there for her, the one that she can call home.

Of course, not all girls who love to travel have those characteristics. But some do! 😛 LOL

Islam-Related Links

I take great precautions when reading about Islam on the Internet. There is misleading information posted everywhere. There is also an information which is probably not misleading, but does not fit to what I believe in. So I need to make sure that the websites that I browse are reliable so as to prevent misguidance.

So let’s start off with the website that I frequently visit, which is MuslimMatters.org. This website is a great source for all sorts of Islamic related topics. Yasir Qadhi is one of the scholars who contributed to the website. Obviously there are quite a number of articles that I have read there and I can’t be bother to find them again. But the ones that I recently read and I especially like are listed below:

  • Parenting Series — well, I looove reading about parenting, so don’t blame me! I especially like this one because it talks about “Islamic parenting” 🙂
  • Like Father Like Daughter — discussing about father-daughter relationships, some mistakes that fathers make, and some tips what they should do instead. I have to say, a lot of fathers in the Arab world do not know how to deal with their daughters when they get older. So this is a good article for them!
  • Pornography Addiction Among Muslims (Stories & Tips) — the title speaks for itself. Pornography is one of the major problems in the Muslim society. The article is SO long but it has a lot of information in it: from husband’s point of view, wife’s point of view, and scholar opinions regarding this issue. Good stuff!
  • Yasir Qadhi: The Definition of ‘Travel’ (safar) According to Islamic Law — a very interesting post discussing about different opinions of scholars regarding the distance that constitutes ‘travel’. The second part of  the post talks about distance in modern measurements. I haven’t read the second part though. Will do it soon.
  • The Best of Stories: Pearls from Surah Yusuf — I have only read some parts of this post because it’s so long (but it’s awesome!). It’s still on my to-do list and I think I’ll watch the video instead. Recommended!

Another website that I like to visit is SuhaibWebb.com. These are the recent posts that I read which I find to be interesting:

Besides those two websites, my favorite way to increase my Islamic knowledge is to browse and watch videos on YouTube! You probably know that I’m a big fan of Nouman Ali Khan, but there are many other people that are as good as him. Below are the list of channels that you should subscribe if you want to learn more about Islam:

  • Khalifahklothing — most up-to-date channels containing all sorts of talks and speeches about many topics in Islam
  • NoumanAliKhan100 — most of the talks delivered by Nouman Ali Khan can be found here
  • QuranWeekly — containing short videos discussing about some verses or short chapters of the Qur’an. A great way to learn the words of Allah more deeply beyond their translation.
  • ICNATV — ICNA is a Muslim organization in the States. It organizes the annual ICNA convention — and thankfully, through this channel, you can watch some scholars and prominent Muslim preachers talking about different Islamic topics.
  • Ummahfilms — Baba Ali reminds you just in case you forgot :). Very funny videos!

Hope these links are useful to improve your knowledge in Islam, especially during the month of Ramadhan :).

Need Some Entertainment?

These are some of the websites — ordered by my most favorite ones — that I always read whenever I’m stressed out 🙂

Nguping Jakarta (Indonesian)

http://ngupingjakarta.blogspot.com/

I think most of, if not, all Indonesians know this website. Inspired by Overheard in New York (you should check that one out too!), it showcases some funny quotes that are overheard in Jakarta.

Instruktur Bahasa Inggris: "Can you tell me about your family. In English."
Mahasiswa: "Sorry, sir. I don’t have a family in English."

Kampus di Bintaro, didengar seisi kelas yang merasa program pelatihan bahasa mereka gagal total.

 

Dilbert Daily Strip (English)

http://dilbert.com/

Do I need to say more? 🙂

Dilbert.com

 

Clients from Hell (English)

http://clientsfromhell.net/

A collection of anonymously contributed client horror stories from (web) designers. Some of them can only be understood by those who are familiar with web designing and IT, but most of them are not hard to understand and it will make you laugh for sure 😉

Client: “I googled my name and there is some nasty stuff about me on the Internet. There is this guy saying in his blog that I am an idiot. I want you to remove that blog and block the Internet if they write shit about me.”

Us: “We cannot do that.”

Client: “Well, get someone else to do it then. I want every nasty stuff about me removed from the Internet today, and make sure nobody can write bad things about me. I want you to control the Internet.”

Us: “We can’t control it and neither can you.”

Client: “Right, if you won’t do it I’ll find someone who will.”

Us: “Good luck, let us know if you succeed.”

 

Lajang dan Menikah (Indonesian)

http://lajangdanmenikah.com/

A collection of stories about single, dating, and married life. Although the stories are too long, they’re very entertaining 🙂 Love the way the author wrote them!

 

Nguping Teknologi

http://ngupingteknologi.tumblr.com/

TEDx

image

 

… and some more:

  • Chicken Strip (Indonesian) — an online comic strip about IT and current events
  • xkcd (English) — a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language
  • NiceTry.me (Indonesian) — a collection of funny and interesting pictures

 

Worth-visited but outdated blogs:

  • Serasa — misspellings and weird things captured in pictures.
  • OhMy!gle — a collection of some hilarious chats 🙂

Parenting & Favoritism

I stumbled upon an interesting post titled Mom Confession: I Think I Love My Son Just a Little Bit More. Although I may not agree with her approach by publishing it online (what if her daughter read it in few years time?!), it is quite interesting, because she had the courage to say it. All this time I always wonder, how can you treat your children equally? How can you equally love them with all your heart? It’s surely not easy and it reminded me of my childhood, actually.

When I was around 8-15 years old, I used to be so jealous of my sister, because I used to think that my mom loved her more than me. I did tell my mom about it and (of course) she said she loved and treated us equally. But after I went to high school, I realized that I was indeed the source of the problem. I was a rebellious kid, very hard to control, and often got scolded (you can see how messed up the adult Amalia is right?! hahahaha). My sister, on the other hand, never got scolded, because she almost always followed whatever rules or orders that were given to her. She was very quiet and lovable. And you know the stupid rule of "you are older, so you have to give your younger sister the chance"? I hated that. It’s so unfair. I always got scolded and I had to give up whatever things I wanted to do. LOL 😛

This parenting stuff is veeery interesting. The thing I hate about it is that you can’t really "practice" it. You practice and at the same time jump into it. And the fact that every child is different makes it even more interesting and challenging. So things that work out with your first child may not work out with the second one.

I know what you’re thinking, "it’s about time". Don’t ever bring that topic up!! 😛

Success?

I was browsing the list of best blogs of 2010 from Time magazine and I ended up myself in this blog. It’s a very interesting blog, I have to say, even from the moment I read the first post! Then I found myself reading this: Why I don’t care about success and I couldn’t agree more to what was written! It’s been in my mind for so long and I didn’t know how to actually say it. But everything was explained perfectly in this post!

If all you’re striving for is money, you’ll do horrible things to get it. If all you want is a successful business, you’ll screw people over to get it. If all you want is fame, you’ll give up your dignity to achieve it.

Success isn’t about achieving something in the future, but about doing something right now that you love.

So forget about “success”, and just find joy, passion, love, awesome-ness right now, in this moment. *That* is a success you can achieve, without any self-help course, without any method. Just go out and do it.

I have been walking this journey of life for quite awhile without carrying the burden of success with me. Many people around me do not agree with it, however. They think that I’ve spent most of my life studying and earning degrees, so the only thing I should be doing next is to find a decent job with a decent pay. But I’m not looking for that anymore, I’m sorry. I may want to have a lot of money just because I want to travel or set up a school or community project, but the term success is far from my mind right now. Is having a top job the only result or advantage that I can take after my years of efforts in academic fields? I just want to enjoy everything and do something I’m passionate about… It’s a simple wish and it’s a flexible one. It’s more flexible than having a good high positioned job in a well-known company, right?

Wanna visit the Netherlands for free?

Link: Wanna visit the Netherlands for free?

A great chance for you, all Indonesian bloggers, to take this great opportunity. Who knows you’ll be the winner? 😉

Dutch East Indies

Link: Dutch East Indies

Found a very interesting site about the youth life of Elizabeth van Kampen living in Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), including during the occupation of Japan.

After living more than 1.5 years in the Netherlands and meeting many people who are of Indonesian heritage, I became interested in their stories back in the days when they were still in Indonesia.

Just something interesting to share about 🙂