Cross-Posting (Multiply-Blogspot) Problem

I cannot believe that it has been a year since the last time I wrote in this blog!
Of course, I still write in my other blogs, but this blog is meant to be my landing page, and I have been neglecting it! It is definitely unacceptable!

Anyway..

Lately, I've been posting to my blogs from my 'Multiply' account, in my attempt to centralize my cyber-world. However, it turned out that all the photos that I uploaded on 'Multiply', are only linked to my blogspot blogs, whenever I cross-post. The photos are not actually copied and pasted. Therefore, whenever 'Multiply' is offline (for routine maintenance, for example), the photos are not visible in my blogspot blogs!

Aaarrggghhh....

There you go.. I'm learning the hard way again...

I guess, I really have to keep reminding myself to be consistent to upload my photos into 'Picasa' and work on all my photos from there.. I suppose by doing that, I can lighten the burden of my computer memory too.. :-)

Well, for now, please click on one of the links to my other blogs, above, to keep up with my news..

I'll see you again next time.. and I hope you have a nice day.. :-)

Lomba Blog Depok - Top 10 -

Voting Time..

In English or Bahasa Indonesia

Ariq's Ghost Stories..

Waiting for fast breaking time.. Ariq wrote two ghost stories based on the pictures he and Aza did the other night..

Please have a read of the stories here and leave comments for him in his blog. He would be very happy.. ;-)

I only made corrections on errors that he was already aware of -the ones he has learned in school-. Other errors, I left on purpose.. so that one day he can see how far he has developed.. ;-)

Ariq's E-Diary

I have great news!

Ariq has started his own blog.. so, I'm including his blog on my list.. :-)

He is currently still writing in Indonesian, but I'm pretty sure that soon he will start writing in English too, so.. watch out for his new posts..!!

pssttt... Ariq really loves receiving comments on his blog posts.. and if you write short comments in English, he tends to reply in English too.. :-)))

Welcome Ramadhan..

Ramadhan (fasting month) is starting tomorrow..

It is the time for muslims to forgive each other, cleanse oneself from past mistakes and do better in the future..

If I ever do anything that make any of you feel uncomfortable, or even angry.. at this moment I will ask you to forgive me, so I can enter the month of Ramadhan without any burden from my past..

Hope our fast will be full of blessing.. :-)

Scary Saturday

You might refuse the idea of preparing a self-made ID card for your children to be carried with them every where they go, because some bad people might misuse them, so you teach your children to memorise your address and phone numbers for emergency cases.

Then, you might regret telling your children your mobile phone number because they are calling you all day long, every time you are not at home.

One of these days.. you might feel as lucky as I am for doing the things you are doing, after reading my story that happened last Saturday.

Spaghetti Bolognese Sauce

Ingredients:
300 gr. minced beef
1 kg red tomatoes (peeled and grated/blended)
500 gr. onions (very thinly sliced)
9 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
2 spoonsful of grated carrot (if preferred)
salt
black pepper
oregano
olive oil
parmesan cheese (cheddar if preferred)

How to Make:
1. Boil tomatoes for about 1 hour. Put a little bit of salt, pepper and oregano while cooking. Remove from heat and let it cool

2. On medium heat, stir fry onions with olive oil, add garlic once the onions are soft.

3. Add mince beef to the stir fried onions, add salt, pepper and oregano to taste. Stir fry until the meat is fully cooked.

4. Add tomatoes to the stir fry and add salt, pepper and oregano if needed.

5. Serve while hot

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Orcalion's Bookshop: A New Addition to Orcalion's World

Hi Everyone

As you have noticed, I have slightly changed the menu buttons (underneath the Blog Title):
Journal - to - My Journal
Storyland - to - My Storyland
Favourite - to - My Favourite

There is also a new addition to the menu buttons, which is 'My Bookshop'.

The bookshop is a great new addition, as it is a link to items I handpicked myself from Amazon.co.uk's collection to offer to you. You can see the samples of the items in the bookshop in the banner below the blog posts.

I hope this bookshop can be useful to all of you.

Have a great day!

This Should Be It..

Thank you, everyone, for your patience.. :-)

I have now come to a decision about how to structure my blog. I really need to move on to doing other more pressing things, and I am quite happy with how the blogs look now. So.. here is what I'm going to do:

All my old posts will stay where they are now, in this blog. I only changed the blog title, from 'Colourful Days of Orcalion' to ' Orcalion's World' to better reflect the general theme of my blog series. This blog, will now be my 'home' page. There are 5 blogs linked to this blog;
1. Orcalion's Journal
2. Orcalion's Storyland
3. Orcalion's Favourites
4. Space for Sharing
5. Freelance Flash

'Orcalion's Journal', from now on, is where I will be sharing my colourful days with you. This blog will most likely be the one I update the most often.

'Orcalion's Storyland' is where all my writing pieces, will be posted. I might re-post some or all of my old pieces here to this new blog if there is a need for it.

'Orcalion's Favourites' is where all other people's blogs on my 'Blog List' will be moved to. This is also where I'm going to post reviews and comments on all the things I come across and like in my life.

'Space for Sharing' is a blog that I maintain with my best friend(s) -some writers are still in progress-. There are topics about everyday living, and everyone is welcome to send us a topic/article to share to our listed email addresses. Posts are currently presented in either English or Indonesian and we are progressing towards presenting all posts in both languages.

'Freelance Flash' is my new blog about internet freelancing. I will put interesting updates and links that will be valuable to everyone interested in internet freelancing.

You are more than welcome to browse through all of my blogs and links. You might find one you really like, but you might also end up loving them all :-)

Please leave a comment or a shout. I would love to know what you think.

Thank you all for visiting my little world :-)

3rd Step of Blog Makeover

Now I have to face reality that this blog carries too much 'burden' because I tried to put every aspect of my life here.

I have to make a drastic change!

I am planning to maintain a blog for each topic (family, writing, freelancing, etc.), but they will all connect together. I will see how I go with that.

The next time you come in here, you might find things are very different from how they are now, but I promise you that you will not be missing anything. Instead, you will see how this blog has moved forward from its basic-initial shape.

Thank you for your patience.

Second Step of Blog Makeover

I have finished the second step of making over my blog.

I think it now looks more alive.. :-)

I am happy with it for now..

First Step of Blog Makeover

Wow! I cannot believe how long it took me to play around with images and colours to pretty up this blog!

Not to mention the self-learning of some HTML and CSS codes. Finally, those 'Pascal' sessions during high school have some use in my life :-)

I know that this is not perfect yet, as this is only my first attempt at blog makeover. I will see whether it hurts my eyes tomorrow..

Please let me know what you think..

Thank you.

My Blogspot Makeover Coming Soon.. :-)

I finally found the book that I needed when I was in the book store yesterday, 'Teknik Makeover Blogspot' (in Indonesian), by Dominikus Juju. The Book gives a few examples of little things we can do to our blogspot account to make it look a litter nicer.

I have always thought that blogspot has very good basic templates and I have seen the modified versions that people have. Those modified templates look really good with the combination of Blogspot's original simple but professional look basic template and the individual makeover that makes the blog represents the owner's personality.

The biggest problem that I have is that I don't have any knowledge about HTML or CSS. However, this problem can be solved (in the most basic ways) with a little codes provided in the book. Once I am familiar with these simple codes, I can always learn the more complex ones.

I really like my current template, as it provides the widest post area. However, I would like to try to make some modifications to make it look more 'ME'. All of you are most welcome to give me any comments about the changes that I make.

Have a good day!

Dark Shadow in The Water

The sun feels so nice and the water is very warm. I am swimming with my eyes closed, enjoying the sun as it is warming the water.

As I open my eyes, I see it, dark shadow growing beneath me. I know that I have to swim faster. No, I don't want the dark shadow to catch up with me.

I keep swimming.. faster and faster.. Whatever it is behind me, it is not going to get closer to me..

I try to steady my breathing. Keep my arms and legs move in rhythm. I cannot stop, I cannot have cramp, I cannot drown. I have to survive.

A little more.. Just a couple more breaths.. And I was there, holding on the edge. Away from the danger.

I look into the water. The dark shadow is still there. No crocodile, no shark, no monster. Just a faint mirror image of the clouds..

The water is now still. I am still alone as I look around.. But this is just a pool. Not the river, not the open water..

Ah, no wonder I never swim well..

-24 March 2009-

Day Trip to Ancol Beach

Last Sunday we finally decided to go to the beach, Ancol Beach, to be precise. As it was a long weekend, and Ariq did not have school on the Monday.. so yes, we thought it would be a good time to go on a day trip.

At first we were planning on staying overnight at the hotel as we had a free voucher, but when we called to make a reservation, the hotel was already fully booked for the weekend. So, we stayed at my parents' house instead and planned to have a day trip on Sunday. The kids wanted to go to Fantasy World (Dunia Fantasi), with all the rides and everything.

So, on Sunday, the kids were already excited about going away for a day. It was no problem at all getting them to get up, have breakfast and have a shower. We left the house at around 9.15 a.m. The streets were still empty and we got to the beach in less than an hour! When we anticipated about 2 hours drive.

As it was still early, first we drove to the beach area where we could a traditional boat ride (without engine). The sea was still calm and the waves were low. We were basically making a big circle in the shallow water (not really shallow for my swimming expertise, though). We crossed the path of a jellyfish about the size of fist. The guide/owner of the boat, picked the jellyfish up with a small net and put it in a bucket filled with sea water. It was really a good idea to keep the children on the boat busy and calm during the ride.

The first thing I found out that day was that my 2.5 year-old son had much more confidence than his 6 year-old brother. He would just walk around the boat as if he was walking on a steady surface! I remember his brother when we first took him on a boat ride, he wasn't afraid to hop on the boat, but he would just sit still, not walking around.

After the boat ride, both boys saw the people playing on the beach. They wanted to play on the sand too and get wet in the waves, of course! Gladly, I had thought about the possibility, so I brought a bottle of antiseptic shampoo and body wash, some towels and a few sets of change of clothes for them.

As their dad played with them, I took pictures and videos (don't worry, I will put them up here). They were sooo happy that I was glad I was prepared for this, rather than telling them that they could not play on the beach.

After they were done, and showered, we were ready for lunch. The closest outlet was McDonalds, so, there we went. As we were walking away from the beach, people had just started coming and the place was getting really really crowded. Again, I was glad that we arrived early.

It was about 12.30 when we finished lunch and we were considering going home straight away. Ariq, my 6 year-old however, still wanted to go to the Fantasy Land. After considering for a while, we decided that we wouldn't know when we would be coming to the beach again, so, we thought that we might as well do what we wanted when we still had all day.

So, we went to Fantasy Land. Aza, my 2.5 year-old, had a little sleep in the car on the way from the beach to the Fantasy Land area, due to the traffic inside the beach recreation area. The beach was close to the entrance, while Fantasy Land was towards the exit.

When we finally reached Fantasy Land, Aza woke up. We sat him on his stroller, but once he felt refreshed he chose to walk. First, we went on the merry-go-round, then the giant wheel. After that, we went on the doll palace ride. The doll palace was little kids favourite place, it had dolls dressed in different outfits from cultures around the world and there were songs which the dolls move to. The decorations were colourful and some of them were glow in the dark materials.

After that, Ariq wanted to on Crazy Ball game. The two of us (Ariq and myself) were put inside a balloon that was inflated by air. Then, we were floating on a river for about 10-15 minutes. It would've been cool if the weather was not so hot!

From the Crazy Ball, we went on the mirror house and took pictures with some fixtures outside the mirror house (horse, carriage, etc.), then Ariq wanted to go on the bumper car ride. The one that he could go on was the kiddie one, so he was the only one who could go in there. He went on three times! (Gladly in Fantasy World the ticket was all-in, so we didn't pay for individual games anymore).

While I was waiting for Ariq outside the bumper car ride, Aza wanted to see the carnival. Every weekend the place has a carnival walking around the area. Aza enjoyed it very much.

When Ariq finally came out, it was 5.30 pm and we were ready for early dinner before we drive home. We were thinking about having dinner at the most famous seafood restaurant there, 'Bandar Jakarta', but when we got there, it was really really full!

Next to it was a new restaurant, a Thai restaurant with the steamboat menu. As the place was quite new, it wasn't as busy as the next door place. We decided to give it a try.. knowing our taste buds, hot clear soup wouldn't be a total disaster, even if it didn't taste so well..

We were glad that we chose the restaurant. The fact that it was steamboat, we pretty much did not have to wait for the food to be served. We also could choose a table with a pretty scenery, looking out to the beach. And the kids.. well.. prawn balls, squid balls, tofu, were familiar enough for them to quickly enjoy. Plus, we were tired and starving too. The restaurant, 'Seaside Suki' turned out to be a great choice! Their steamboat was delicious! We finished everything we ordered.

During dinner, my husband's bike riding friends arrived after riding for about 3 hours, from home (which is pretty much the neighbouring town from South Jakarta, while the beach was in North Jakarta). The kids wanted to play on the sand after dinner, so I thought we could give their dad a chance to catch up with his friends.

Once the kids had enough, we still had a set of change for each of them and the restaurant had an outside bathroom that was wide enough to give a child a shower. So, I gave the kids a shower (The kids' nanny came with us that day, and she was having fun while I could still catch a breath with her around). Once we're done, we finally got in the car and drove home.

Aza fell asleep right away, Ariq, however, was still up unti we got home and had all the pictures and videos copied on to the laptop.

What a nice day! I was really tired, but as the kids kept saying how happy they were that day, I really believed that it was worth it!

Life Achievement

I shake my head and bite my tongue
I hold my breath and blink my eyes
To distract my thoughts..

Calming my heartbeat and my heated mind..

I open my clenched fists and feel my fingers
I count my breathing and smell the scent of fresh dew
To gather my thoughts..

Focusing on my visions and intentions..

I take a deep breath and close my eyes
I feel the flow of my mind and feelings
To direct my thoughts..

Leading them to where they should be going..

The future..
The bigger picture of all separate events put together..
The result of the struggle I have been in for..
The achievement in the life I have been determined to succeed..

-05 March 2009-

Ariq's Herbie Stories (Introduction)

Ariq always wants me to tell him 'scary' stories (sometimes he wants some funny ones too) at night. I can't remember exactly how, but one night, I remember one movie the we used to have (when we still needed to use wall-projector to play movies).. The movie was Herbie, the car that could move by itself..

So, now, I have to make up a new Herbie story each night.

I'm really hoping I can come up with a new name for the car (that Ariq would agree to), so that I don't have any legal issues!

Anyway.. I will share with you all the stories I have come up with.

Aza Really Missed Swimming..

All through rainy season, Aza kept asking me to go swimming, which I kept refusing because of the weather.

This morning, the sun was shining brightly, so after Ariq was dropped off at school, I thought, it would be nice to take Aza for a swim.. (which made him excitedly jumping around the house!)

We quickly got ready, and left the house for the swimming pool.

Here are the videos of Aza having a great time :-)

Really Big Rain..

No lightning.. No drizzle..
From a quiet moment, suddenly.. it was RAINING heavily!! It was around 1.3o in the afternoon.. The front yard and back yard were both flooded!

I decided to wait for the rain to calm down a bit before going back to the Cybernet booth (which I need to have a look almost every day now)..

I finally went there around 6.3o.. yes, that's when the rain finally stopped! Guess what I found? One broken PC and one broken monitor!! The ceiling in the AC chat room was in very bad condition and when the heavy rain started, it just would not hold anymore, resulting in heavy downpour INSIDE the room! Ouch! I thought I was already doing precaution about it by contacting a friend who runs a home-building shop. It turned out that my move was not fast enough.

The flooded PC and monitor have been taken to the house now. Gladly, we did purchase a new set yesterday, so we won't have to miss out on customers if this set cannot be repaired quickly. But still, the ceiling needs to be repaired quickly too, if we don't want anymore broken equipment!