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: Video

Living Wholeheartedly

This is an excellent talk by Dr. Brené Brown. And yes, she’s a research professor who has spent the past ten years studying vulnerability, courage, authenticity, and shame. So this talk is actually based on her decade of research into this topic! I’m not going to write all the things she said, because you really need to watch it (she’s a great storyteller!).

But there’s one thing that kinda struck me, which is of course vulnerability. I hate to be vulnerable. I really hate that because I feel so weak. And I don’t like to be weak. When friends asked me if I were okay, I would say yes, although I felt like crying inside. When I felt betrayed, I barely wanted to admit it. When somebody didn’t treat me right, I acted as if I didn’t care, but I actually did. The point is,  I never wanted to admit that I was affected, hurt, or broken-hearted, especially to the person who caused me so. And I never wanted to let myself loving someone so deeply because of fear of separation. This is all related to weakness (and being looked as a weak human being), fear of something, and my image (of being strong and the urge to keep that image with me).

Then I questioned myself, WHY IN THE WORLD DID I DO THAT?!

Clearly, I’ve been unconscious! And I was awaken by Brene, this video. She taught me that it’s okay to be vulnerable. She said, "Vulnerability is at the core of fear, anxiety, shame, and very difficult emotions that we all experience. But vulnerability is also the birth place of joy, love, belonging, creativity, faith…."

We tend to deal with our vulnerability by "numbing" vulnerability. Evidence includes debts, over weight, addiction to alcohol or drugs or even busy-ness. But the problem is that, we can’t selectively numb emotions. If we numb "the bad things" like vulnerability, grief, shame, and disappointments, we automatically numb the other good things, like joy, gratitude, and happiness. That’s when we feel miserable, looking for the purpose and meaning of life, etc. And that’s bad, isn’t it?

So how do we do it? How do we live wholeheartedly?

We have to fully embrace vulnerability, not deny it. We’re not only have to embrace our vulnerability, but also need to embrace the vulnerability of others. It’s our vulnerability that makes us beautiful. The willingness to love others first with our whole hearts. The willingness to do something where there are no guarantees. The willingness to invest in a relationship that may or may not work out (ouch!).

We also need to have the courage to be imperfect and let ourselves deeply and vulnerably seen. Tell the world about who we really are. Be honest about it and never let what other people think about us in any way paralyze us. And that’s the first step of worthiness, believing that we are worthy of love and belonging. That’s really important in order to live wholeheartedly. We also need to be compassionate. Caring others genuinely and loving them with our whole hearts. To practice gratitude and joy is also essential. Being thankful for what we have and honoring what’s ordinary about our lives: our loved ones, friends, community, and nature. And lastly, to believe that we’re enough 🙂

We want more guarantees. We we want to believe that we we’re not going to get hurt and that bad things aren’t going to happen and they are, but there is a guarantee that nobody talks about and that is that if we don’t allow ourselves to experience joy and love, we will definitely miss out on filling our reservoir with what we need when those hard things happen

I’m going to start to embrace my vulnerability for now. Somehow I found it much easier to embrace other’s vulnerabilities than my own. Bismillah. Let me be free.

Changing Education Paradigms

Last March, I wrote about Sir Ken Robinson who is the world-renowned education and creativity expert. I watched his talks on TED and YouTube and I actually really like some of his brilliant views on education.

One thing he said about the current education system is that it is "modeled on the interests of industrialism and the image of it". For example, schools are still organized on factory lines: ringing bells, separate facilities, and specializations into separate subjects. Children are also educated by batches. They are put into the system by age group (a great analogy for products grouped by the date of manufacture), when in fact some children of the same age perform better than the rest of the group. Some of them are also flourished when they work in smaller groups, large groups, or even alone. Children are not like products, in which they are the same. They have different capabilities. When products do not pass the standardized tests, they are destroyed or be sold for cheaper price. But we can’t do the same thing to these children. Some children perform better in some disciplines than the others. And what’s the used of these tests or exams? Why is getting high grades the most important thing in this world? (I still see most of job advertisements in Indonesia requiring future employees to have certain minimum grades. How sad!)

Sir Robinson said: "if you are interested in the model of education, you don’t start from the production line mentality." 🙂 We don’t need a reform in our education system. But we certainly need to transform the system.

Symphony

I always love Mozart’s Symphony No. 40. I don’t really understand music and all those weird looking notes, but THIS is a beautiful piece of work! I’ve been watching different performances done by many orchestras and I have to say that this version conducted by Leonard Bernstein is by far my favorite one! The tempo is just right on the spot.

And yes, I’ve been watching orchestra performances again, after feeling so bored of James Blunt which I played it over and over again.

Not to forget that I’m going to watch an orchestra concert on Thursday night! I wanted to book 4 tickets, but due to some technical problems, I got 8 tickets in total! So I asked my angklung friends to join me. Hope it’s going to be an awesome evening. Can’t wait 🙂

Wish List: Distant Worlds

* NOTE: you have to watch this video in FULL volume. It’s much more amazing!!!

One of my ultimate dream is to watch the LIVE orchestra concert of Distant Worlds (from Final Fantasy). They came to Singapore last year when I was still in the Netherlands. They did go to Sweden to perform, but I didn’t have much money at that time. I hope one day I have the chance to see it live!!!

Song of Do-Re-Mi

This was us, the angklung team, performing at the Angklung Charity Concert at our campus, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven. The concert was a SUCCESS! We all had a wonderful time! 🙂

Alhamdulillah, up until today, we have received a total of 916.52 euro and the amount is expected to increase as people can still donate through electronic transfer until 3 December! I’m so relieved!!!

Thank you all for coming and for supporting the event :). And thanks to the lovely one and only conductor, teh Ida, and to those who worked hard to make this event a success (including teh Desi!). Great job everyone!!!

P.S. this is the video (final version) I made for the purpose of fundraising, which was shown at the concert:

If Time Is All I Have

James Blunt—If Time Is All I Have

 

When you marry
And you look around
I’ll be somewhere in that crowd
Torn up, that it isn’t me

When you’re older
The memories fade
But I know I’ll still feel the same
For as long as I live

But if time is all I have
I’ll waste it all on you

Damn, this is one of the saddest songs ever! His performance was so beautiful! His voice was amazing. He could really relate to the song. He sang the song so emotionally. I never realized that he’s a great singer until recently. I’ve been listening to his songs ever since.

Indonesia Pusaka

Indonesia tanah air beta
Pusaka abadi nan jaya
Indonesia sejak dulu kala
Tetap di puja-puja bangsa

Di sana tempat lahir beta
Dibuai dibesarkan bunda
Tempat berlindung di hari tua
Tempat akhir menutup mata

From YouTube to TV. This is Gamaliel and Audrey Tapiheru singing Indonesia’s patriotic song, Indonesia Pusaka during our Independence Day. They sang other old Indonesian songs as part of the medley. Great orchestra and performance!

The Mood to Rock

 

Breaking Benjamin is one of the best rock bands out there! 🙂

Street Terrorism in Saudi Arabia

 

  • Saudi Arabia has the highest car accident death rate in the world
  • 17 deaths on average occurred daily because of traffic accidents
  • In 2009, 6,485 died in car accidents in Saudi Arabia, while 4,644 died in Iraq because of terrorist attacks

I beg to everyone… please, please drive within speed limit and obey the traffic rules!

Girls’ Education

I just finished watching a TED video presentation by Sheryl WuDunn titled Our Century’s Greatest Injustice. Again, I’m not too keen on writing so I’m just going to write some interesting issues she made in bullet points.

 

  • More girls were discriminated to death than all the people killed on all battlefields in 20th century
  • Girls aged 1-5 die at 50% higher mortality rate than boys in all of India
  • Women and girls aren’t the problem. They are the solution.

If you’re not fully utilizing half the talent in the country, you’re not going to get too close to the top ten

— Bill Gates, when he was in Saudi Arabia, referring to the Saudi women that were not fully utilized.

  • It may well be that the highest return on investment in the developing world is in girls’ education – Larry Summers
  • When you educate a girl, she tends to get married later on in life, she tends to have kids later on in life, she tends to have fewer kids, and those kids that she does have, she educates them in a more enlightened fashion. With economic opportunity, it can be transformative.
  • Research shows that once you have all of your material needs taken care of, there are very few things in life that can actually elevate your level of happiness. One of those things is contributing to a cause larger than yourself.
  • We have all won the lottery of life. And so the question becomes: how do we discharge that responsibility? So, here’s the cause. Join the movement. Feel happier and help save the world.

The presentation reminds me of a quote made by Queen Rania of Jordan:

If you educate the women, you educate the family. If you educate the girl, you educate the future.

So, are you ready to discharge that responsibility? 🙂