Taking an ojek

Huh? What the heck is an ojek? In Indonesia, it is simply a motorcycle with a rider giving rides to strangers for a fee. Sounds like a taxi? Yep, it's unregulated motorcycle taxi.  They are usually for short trips up to 3 miles or so, though it's possible to go farther, not that you want to risk your life (or knees) for any longer than necessary.  You come up to a street corner where most of them congregate and negotiate a price. There are no meters on this motorcycle taxi.

You then get on the motorcycle as a passenger.  Most of them will give you a helmet to wear since it's the law in Indonesia to wear helmets. Indonesians are known to strictly follow traffic laws. If you don't mind the cooties, sweat and other unsavories from countless other people who have worn the helmet, by all means wear it.  Though the way these guys drive, it's a good insurance.

The motorcycles here are mostly what's called an underbone motorcycles. It doesn't have a backbone and a tank that you straddle like most in the US. It looks a little bit like scooters, but without the flat floor for your feet.  Also, the maximum legal displacement for the engine is 250cc.  Most people get a 125-150cc, rarely do you see anything larger. With them not being allowed on the toll roads (the only kind of freeway they have here), there aren't many places that you can go fast on a motorcycle.

Because the bikes are so small, when I got on, my knees are spread out away from the bike. In a V formation. Quite a bit wider than the motorcycle and the rider.

As we zoomed in between cars and other motorcycles, getting up on the curb and onto the sidewalk, avoiding people, I feel quite safe. Despite not wearing the helmet provided. The reason I feel quite safe is because I'm worried, quite worried about my knees. Either I'm lucky or my rider is one heck of a rider.  My knee would scrape other cars and motorcycles ever so slightly. If he had missed by 1/4", my patella would have been crushed when it hit the back of the car or the motorcycle, or another knee.

More photos in this album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/andreosae/Pftt#

My daily trek home

This morning was the beginning of my second week working at Contained Energy. I live in Bogor, and the office is in Jakarta, about 40 miles or so.  My cousin Alfa is kind enough to take me with him in the morning even though it's a slightly longer route for him to take. I get up between 4-5 am and leave with him by 6-6:15am.

I would arrive at the spot where he would drop me off by 7:30-7:45.  If we leave any later, traffic would be so bad that I wouldn't be able to make it to work by 9am.  

From this point on I have an option of taking a mini bus, a medium size bus or hoof it on my own.  So far, I've only taken the medium size bus once and the rest of the time I walk in. 

Even this early in the morning, I am already feeling the heat and would be sweating even if I was just standing there. By the time I get to work, it takes me over an hour in front of the AC at full blast to stop sweating.

In fear of standing out from the rest of the crowd on my walk, I usually wear a tshirt and shorts.  The road I have to walk on passes by the courthouse where they're currently having a high profile trial. This trial already caused one riot resulting in several deaths and dismemberment. Funnily enough, that riot happened during my interview for this job.

The walk is not far, just about 3km (a touch under 2 miles).  But it is more like a trek. Sidewalks are practically non existent and I have to be on the road with the motorcycles and cars. When there are sidewalks, I have to watch where I'm stepping lest I fall into the hole that leads to the open sewer system underneath the sidewalks.  If the sidewalks are still intact, it's not really for pedestrians, but mainly for the motorcycles. But most of the intact sidewalks are neither for pedestrians or motorcyclists. Rather they are for entrepreneurs who set up shop willy nilly where there's space for them.

The road is narrow, barely wide enough for 3 cars abreast, but the lines indicate that it's for one lane each way.  No one follows this convention.  When the traffic is bad, there not even enough room for me, a single pedestrian to walk through it. Despite my willingness to risk getting burnt by the motorcycles' exhaust pipes.

Coming home is slightly different. I still need to walk the slightly under 2 mile walk to the same area where my cousin drops me off.  There, I pick up the bus that go straight to Bogor on the toll road.  If I'm lucky it will take between 40-50 minutes, up to 75 minutes if I'm not lucky.  One the bus is in Bogor, Dina might be able to pick me up or I have to take another bus home and about a 1km trek.  

Check out the road conditions and sidewalks on my picasa page, starting from this picture to the end:

http://picasaweb.google.com/andreosae/Pftt#5529322000144611410

New post on my cooking blog

I have another blog where I put my cooking ideas and recipes. Here's one on how to cook with your rice cooker:
http://andrerecipes.blogspot.com/2010/10/and-im-not-just-talking-about-rice.html

What are we worth?

Are we worth so little to ourselves that we rely on others to define us? We listen to “experts”, “academics”, “learned ones” without question. Where is our critical thinking skill? Were we not given brains? Where is our compassion? Were we not given hearts? Where is our intuition? Were we not given guts?

This is blasphemous to the gifts that has been given to us. All of us, as humans, have been given three incredible tools to help us make decisions. And they are our brains, our hearts and our guts.

Working together as a team, they help us make our decisions, big and small. Each as important as the other, we shouldn't ignore any of them. Often we're too lazy and too busy to listen to the quiet whispers of our guts. The gentle voice of our hearts. The soothing reasoning of our brains.

Our guts are given to us as a gift of intuition. Somehow, deep within ourselves, we know what we should and shouldn't do. Our guts, our intuition, sees what our eyes cannot see, hear what our ears cannot hear, touch what our touch cannot feel, taste what our tongue cannot taste and smell what our nose cannot smell. Then it whispers to us its suggestion, like Jiminy Cricket to Pinocchio.

Our hearts are given to us as a gift of feelings and compassion. It is there to keep us in check, to keep us human. It lets us know whether we're being humane in our decision making. How do we feel about the decision at hand and its impact to the people around us?

Our brains are given to us as a gift of logic and intellect. We are able to reason cause and effect, have deductive reasoning, and have critical thinking skills. It is there to deduce the logical decision that must be made given a series of facts.

Separately, they can help us make decisions. But seldom there are problems in the real world that are purely intuitive, emotional or logical. Most if not all life's problems have aspects of logic, intuition and emotion. If we simply take our logic and attack a problem purely academically, we will surely fail to take into account the irrational human behavior (this is where our intuition helps us) and we will surely fail to take into account the emotional issues that are always present (this is where our emotion helps us).

Now that we know the three tools we have to make decisions, why don't we use it more often? This fact is used every 2 years for political elections. It is used every second in advertisements. They will tug on our heart strings and make us decide solely on our emotions. Ignoring our brain and our gut instinct.

Then there are the academics who will appeal to our logic and our logic alone. They make themselves look and sound intellectually superior to us. Then our brain says if they're smarter than us, then whatever they say must be right. We blindly follow these men of science.

We need to use these gifts and overlook the glitter and flash. We need to use these three gifts and do our own critical thinking. Are these people right, logically? Are they compassionate and are they emotionally intelligent enough to do the right thing? Does my gut say these people are to be trusted?

Let's rise above what other people tell us. Rise above what other people expect of us. We are strong, intelligent, and beautiful men and women of this world. We are one, yet we are many. Each of our individual is worth more than what we give ourselves credit for. Start valuing ourselves, think on our own, be aware of who we are, not what other people expect of us and not what they say we are.

A boat ride across the Strait of Sunda

First, an explanation of the pictures. First one, see the cigarette in his right hand?  And then see the black rubber tubing near it? That's the fuel line. Under his feet? the fuel tank. Scratch that I meant a10 gallon water jug that is full of fuel with a hole punched out for the fuel line and the lid not quite tight (I can smell the fumes).

Second one, focus on the young man with a small water container. yep, he's bailing water out of the boat. And at this time, the water was calm so no, the water in the boat was not from the waves.

Third one, it just shows the state and size of the boat.

That night was a bit of an adventure. We chartered a small boat to go to this island across the strait.  Well I guess we stayed too long and when we came back, the evening winds were picking up.  Basically we were in the white caps condition on this rickety boat with a small, old outboard motor.  One guy was bailing water out of the bottom of the boat. It's open so we were all getting wet. But we made it safe and sound.

When I saw the guy with the cigarette, my brain calculated many scenarios as to what might happen and what I would do if such event occurs.  I would dive to catch the cigarette as it falls INTO the fueltank...I would grab the wet blanket they used to cover some dubious pile of stuff on the side...I would grab the water container and threw water at it...I wasn't that worried about having to swim, I can see both the island we're going to and the island we just left. So I can swim toward the closest one if the boat was gone.  The boat ride was over an hour long so at worst I'd have to swim for an hour or two.

Once we arrived at the island, snorkeling, seashell hunting and exploring ensued.  I was told that the Japanese (who used to occupyIndonesia for 4-5 years) used this island as a lookout station.

Since we stayed a tad too long, our ride back was risking the darkness (no lights on the boat, either indicator lights or to see with). Though there is a lighthouse, which I was hoping was still functioning if it came to that. *It was*

But the worst bit of news is the fact that we'll be sure to face the evening winds that will whip up the ocean, plus the currents.  This is not the open ocean, but a strait (look up Sunda Strait). So there area lot of conflicting natural forces at play here.  Hence the whitecap conditions that is sure to happen every day past 5:00pm.  

While it doesn't take much for the waves to be bigger than this boat...it was still unnerving for some people on the boat. Even my thoughts of just swimming to shore is now a scary proposition.  So again my brain came up with several solutions to different scenarios to ensure our survival. But I didn't count on the freight ships crossing our path! And the wakes they leave that are even bigger than the size of the waves (it got bigger after the ship's wakes).

I picked the windward side rather than the lee side of the boat.   So as the boat crashes into the waves, the wind would blow the spray onto my side of the boat.  This way I figured I would catch most of the water spray and save the children from it.

When we arrived back on shore, we were about 4 miles from our hotel(we could have taken the boat directly there but everyone was scared so we crossed the strait in a straight line).  We then took a public transportation that is a minivan with bench seats around the edge rather than in rows.  It fit 11 of us in the back, the driver, and the boat driver safely inside. The other 2 deck hands on the boat were hanging on the door throughout the whole ride.

I wasn't worried or anything for me. I was sure I could survive anything this little adventure threw at us. But it was both funny and disconcerting to watch how worried other people were (luckily the boat crew wasn't worried, if they were, I would be too).

Yep, that was our boat

Anyway, I thought this was a fun adventure.

Note the cigarette in his right hand

Bailing water out of the boat

Barbers and chiropractic services

I don't know if the two should be mixed together, let alone being performed by the same person. But that's what I experienced today. My first haircut in Indonesia that was not by my mom's hands. Not being able to articulate the necessary commands to convey that I wanted a haircut mimicking David Tennant as Dr. Who, I went with my cousin's recommendation; “pendek”. Short.

So what I got was a buzz cut with a trimmer, with 3 different lengths. He paid pretty close attention to the strays that are quite common with a buzz. The buzz procedure took less than 10 minutes, then commences the finishing move. And yes, with a straight razor. The edges were trimmed and shaved with a disconcertingly sharp but not quite hair splitting sharp razor.

No big deal so far.

Then came the all too familiar wafting smell of baby oil. No worries, I told myself. It's probably normal here instead of a hair gel or hair wax. There was a refreshing complete lack of expensive, of dubious use hair products here. I was correct, my head was rubbed with baby oil. And his hands came down to massage my neck, and my shoulders.

OK, that was quite pleasant.

When he put his hands on opposite sides of my head and cracked it sharply, I was quite surprised. There is quite a fine line between a trained killer performing a neck snap, a trained and experienced chiropractor adjusting one's cervical vertebrae, and someone untrained, but experienced adjusting one's cervical vertebrae.

One would hope that at the very least the untrained would have enough experience and learned from his failed experiments that by the time he's adjusting yours, he knows how to do it. At best, he was trained by his predecessor and he has enough experience WITHOUT any failed experiments.

In the end, I survived a quite pleasant, expedient and inexpensive haircut in Indonesia. Without being turned into a quadriplegic. Would I go again? For the equivalent of $1.25, you bet. But I probably won't go as often as my cousin. Currently, I look like an Asian Telly Savalas.

David Tennant
i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc23/DoorQPictures/
doctor_who___david_tennant_by_jenni.jpg

Telly Savalas
Telly Savalas
www.alternativeconsumer.com/wp-content/uploads/Ross/2009/
Fall_Winter09/1telly_savalas.jpg

Asian Telly Savalas

   

Energy Solutions For Portland From Afar

No matter how much new energy sources are found, how many new kinds renewable energy, if we consume more than we produce, it will run out. The key to the energy crisis and economic crisis is understanding the finite nature of our resources. Someone, somewhere has to pay the cost. It may not be you, or your neighbors or your city or your state or your country. At the very least, someone, somewhere in the world will pay for your actions. So the best thing we can do with our resources is to be efficient with it. Not just finding new energy sources, but to do more with as little as possible.

1. Know what we're consuming and where it goes. There are now many devices that you plug in to the outlet you're using and tell you how much each device you're plugging in is using. This is useful in finding out which device you need to unplug when not in use. Audio/video systems, TV sets/computer monitors and chargers use a surprising amount of electricity when "off". One solution is to use a power strip for the things that you can turn off. Your computer systems, your TV, your chargers, for example.
Here's a device that can tell you how much a particular appliance is using:

http://www.p3international.com/products/special/P4400/P4400-CE.html
Here's that same device built into a surge protector power strip: http://www.p3international.com/products/consumer/p4320.html

2. We all need to do our part in being efficient and save energy. This simple idea is so simple, I don't know why Portland hasn't done it yet. Prepaid electricity! Yes you heard me right, prepaid. This will require a new meter, one that allows you to put in a long PIN that you've purchased for a certain amount of money. Let's say you put in $30 into the meter. You're then responsible to make sure it lasts as long as you want it to be, when you run out you will need to put in more money. This doesn't prevent you from consuming more, but it definitely make you more aware of your consumption. You're already billed according to consumption. The less you use than average, you get a discount. If you use more than average, you get to pay more per kW/h.

3. Localize power production. Much of the electricity used come from far away power generation plants. Even Bonneville Power Administration buys from other far away sources including gas-fired power plants. So here is the idea, each smaller communities (studies need to be done on the size of the community most economically viable to do this) buy a small power generation station to cover a certain amount of their electricity if not all of it. Again, this determination will require some economic study for long term success. Any surplus will be sent back to the grid, and the grid will supply the extra energy not covered by the station. This way the local power station can be tailored to what is best for the area. If it's in a sunny area, it could be solar power. If it's windy, wind power. On the ocean, waves. Because the need is relatively small, the footprint of the power station can also be small. This does not require any change in the existing infrastructure. Only that the power generating station be allowed to be connected to the grid as well as the homes so it can sell the surplus power. What's the advantage? Several:
- less large power stations are required. The hydro power can come from micro-hydro dams in small streams. A lot less impact to the environment
- higher efficiency because each power stations are tailored for the local conditions for local consumptions
- personal stake of the users so they're more apt to be aware and to be efficient with their energy usage. Thus reducing power consumption by consumer behavior
- a lot less transmission losses, more of the power generated are used within a short geographical distance
- ability to use smaller, more efficient power generating technologies that are currently not feasible for large operation

The disadvantage? Initial cost to the local neighborhood involved. But the net cost to the large infrastructure should be much reduced. Especially if this can mean the reduction of large power plants.

4. Publish the top 1% with the lowest consumption and the top 1% most improved homes for each month. We do need to be careful with privacy concerns when publishing this information. However the point is to identify the best performers and maybe ask them how they're able to achieve it. A compilation of best practices, as it were. From the human emotion side, we might be more receptive to receive suggestion from someone who we think are "one of us" rather than a pamphlet from "the big evil power company".

This is by no means a comprehensive list of all the issues and solutions plaguing the world in regards to energy. This is focused mostly on electricity consumption. There's still the issue with oil consumption, water, forest products and many others. The concept to me is still the same. Efficiency. Using less resource but getting more out of it. Overall efficiency, not just one aspect where it might actually hurt other areas. We should use recycle as the last thing to do. Focus on reducing and reusing.

As always, I'll add more when I have more ideas.

Be prepared to be deported

While most of the advice here was gleaned from the American deportation system, it applies to other countries also. If you're an illegal immigrant in any country, these tips should make your eventual deportation more pleasant and bearable.

You have to be prepared mentally, emotionally and logistically. We will deal with mental and emotional preparation in depth at a latter date. You must think that you will get deported some day. Every day may be your last day as a free person in this country. That fear is what will get you motivated to be prepared. When the time comes, the process will be less painful than if you hadn't.

Lets think about logistics. What happens when you're captured and detained, during your detention and if you're unlucky, deportation; what can you do to be ready?

Here's the short story of immigration detainment and deportation. They can and will detain you wherever they find you. At your workplace, at home, at your friend's, at a restaurant, at a gas station, basically wherever you happen to be when they decide to take you after they stake out the places where you are likely to be. The worst case scenario is if they come to your home.

This normally means they'll do some snooping while they're inside to "let you" bring a few things such as your wallet. They might not let you bring your bug out bag either. So try not to be home very much, they might know your address so that's the first place they will stake out. Spend as much time outside of your home as possible.

You will be taken to the closest processing center, often this is the immigration center building. You will be processed here and then within the same day you will be taken to the detention center. Most likely you will not know how long you will be in detention for. At best you will know the day before you are deported that you're leaving in 24 hours. At worst, you will be woken at 5am and by 10am you are at the airport awaiting your flight.

When you're detained, your personal belongings will be kept for you. Your friends and family cannot give you anything other than clothes and money to be added to your personal belongings. When you're deported, you'll be allowed to have what you came in with plus the clothes and money your friends and family might have brought you while in detention. In short, you'll be deported with whatever belongings you had on you when you were detained and little else.

I don't recommend a huge, humongous bug out bag. But that is up to you. There is a pretty good chance you won't be able to bring this with you to detention center. But you should have it anyway. At least, this lets your friends and family know what you think are important for you to have. You should have this bag on you at all times.

The only thing that might suck is if they come to your home to detain you. They might let you bring it with you, but probably not. So other than when you're at home, have this bag on your person at all times. This way when you're detained, this bag could be with you, then when you're deported you get to keep the bag and its contents.

I am going to split what you need into two lists. What you carry on your person and what you need to carry with you at all times in a BOB (Bug out bag; a bag you grab to be with you when you're detained).

What to have and what not to have on you:
- some cash. At least a couple of $100 bills and at least $50 in small bills
- no fake IDs on you, it's best that you never had them. But I know some of you do
- a list of phone numbers, email addresses and contact info for your friends and family
- a debit card and/or credit card that works internationally. Preferably from an international bank (HSBC, Chase, etc)
- do not bring more keys than what you need. Leave keys to your extra vehicles, storage, safe, etc at home

In your BOB (Bug Out Bag):
- your important documents such as birth certificates, diplomas, etc
- your important digital data such as pictures, documents, your resume, etc. If they're on a computer, back them up to an external hard drive and carry it. If they're on a laptop carry it
- extra clothes (rain jacket, coat, light blanket)
- your bag shouldn't be obnoxiously large so that they might let you take it as carry on in the the plane

Be prepared at home for your friends and family to have to sell/store your stuff:
- put your keys together, easily labeled and easily found
- organize paperwork for your vehicle(s) and belonging
- things you want to keep clearly labeled or organized well, so you can tell your friends and family exactly what to keep and what not to keep
- it is best to have a "will" as it were, instructions for the people who will have to take care of your stuff. A list of what to do and where to find the things you need them to take care of

Remember, this list is just the minimum. The most important thing is that you are already thinking ahead about "what if I'm detained then deported". You will have to add your own personal touches. Maybe you want to bring some of your pen collections, or a favorite book. Just be smart, and be afraid. That fear will help you prepare, don't let it paralyze you. You've chosen to stay in a country other than your own illegally, be ready for the consequences.

Transportation Solutions From Afar For Portland

We can learn from both successes and failures. By that I mean just because something failed under a certain circumstance it would not work under another. We can study failures, and understand why it failed. Then we know how to fix it and how to implement it in a situation where it can succeed.

In countries such as India, China, Singapore and Indonesia, traffic is a big problem. Many of the cities are overcrowded and the combination of private and public transportation solutions has not worked to rectify the situation.

But this doesn't mean that those solutions have merit. Many of them make sense in a city such as Portland precisely because of the successes it already enjoys. Portland has the resources to properly implement these solutions that have not worked in places such as Indonesia. Lets review some of them. Just remember this essay is meant to touch the surface of this issue. If you have any further questions, please feel free to let me know.

Intra-city Transport
In Jakarta and its surrounding areas as well as the larger cities, there is a public transportation system called Angkot (short for Angkutan Kota; City Transport). These are small mini buses with specific routes around town. They are buses for all intents and purposes. But they're very small, each can seat maybe 10 people maximum. The ones I have seen are all Suzuki Carry vans.

While I think the Suzuki Carry is a perfect vehicle for this task even in Portland, any SUV or minivans will work. The Suzuki Carry comes with either a 1.0 or 1.3 liter engine with about 60 and 75 horsepower respectively. The point is, a vehicle with space enough to carry 10 or so people powered by a small efficient engine is a perfect vehicle for this task.

In short, I am proposing two things using the smaller vehicles as public transports:
- passenger load management, during light passenger load hours, use smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles
- service fringe areas normally not served, often would be public transportation users cannot use buses because of the distance they would have to walk or ride their bicycle

How would these things work in Portland?
- These small vehicles can reach the fringe neighborhoods, especially with the narrow streets
- During the hours where the buses only have a few passengers, these small vehicles will save fuel
- The smaller vehicles will replace the full size buses during slow hours. When there's a sudden spike in ridership, either more of these things can be deployed quickly or the regular buses can be put back in service
- These things can serve additional routes inexpensively, especially the fringe neighborhoods. These small vehicles can make a circle around mall neighborhoods as its route, picking up passengers at the end of the regular bus lines.

These things are not meant to:
- be on the freeways or highways
- replace the large buses during heavy bus use (morning and early evening)

Advantages:
- efficient mileage per person transported during the hours when regular buses are empty
- able to service more fringe areas so more people will be able to take the bus
- many models of widely available vehicles can be easily used for this duty

Disadvantages:
- it is another vehicle that the public transportation company will have to service and manage
- passengers might feel crowded because the vehicles would often be already full
- passengers might have to wait for additional vehicle deployment when there's an unexpected heavy ridership

Here are some pictures from the web:
http://jakartadailyfotolagi.blogspot.com/2006/03/angkot.html
http://jakartadailyphoto.com/index.php/2006/03/28/angkot/

And here are some pictures I took:




The first picture shows the angkot only lane (on the left of the concrete barrier)
The second picture shows the side door where you would come in
The third picture shows how angkots serve small neighborhoods where buses can't go into

Inter City Transport
Craigslist already does this function, if a little hectic. There are companies in Indonesia who you would call to travel between cities. The mode of transport are regular vans/SUVs.

With Craigslist, you would search for people already traveling to the city you want to travel to on the date acceptable to you. On the opposite side, you would post the time and date and destination of your departure. If you're lucky enough, you will find each other.

In Indonesia, these companies supply the vehicles to travel between cities and they will get the people together who are going in the same direction at the same time. The companies will dictate the time of the day they are leaving and they will pick you up at your residence.

There is no reason an enterprising web programmer cannot parse the existing information from Craigslist and put them all in a single website. People will then be alerted when what they're looking for is available. This business can then expand slowly to include a few vehicles of their own, serving common routes.

This is something that is lacking in the Northwest. Many people are already living a life without a car, but many others kept a car strictly for long distance trips. If this mode of transport is more prevalent, these people will have even less of a reason to own a car. In addition, people who own gas guzzlers for their own needs can use this service if they don't really need to drive their gas guzzler once they've arrived at their destination. They can rent a more fuel efficient car at the destination city.

Carpool restrictions
Another thing I saw was carpool restrictions during heavy traffic times. Many major roads are restricted to 3 or more people during these hours. This will work very well in many neighborhoods in Portland. There are more than enough side streets to be used by single riders, leaving more room for the carpoolers on the major roads. I am thinking of Lombard, Powell, Barbur, Broadway and many other major thoroughfares.

Actually, to be fair, this idea is really about separating different users and focusing on the most efficient ones. I would like to propose separating the bicycles from the major thoroughfares WHEN CONVENIENT. I don't think the bicycles should be punished and relegated to crappy side roads. But when the side roads are just as good as the main roads, why not let them use that road almost exclusively?

For example, Milwaukie Ave in Sellwood. There are plenty of safer side roads paralleling it, yet the bicycles, motorcycles and cars are stuffed together during rush hour. When I was riding my bicycle, and my scooter at other times, I chose 17th ave instead. There are hardly anyone on that road, and if it's busy I take 16th, or 15th or 13th. Why endanger myself on the bicycle or scooter AND slow myself down at the same time?

So for bicycles, I propose when there are alternative roads, make that road mostly for bicycles (wide, 2-bike width bicycle lanes on either side, make it a little uncomfortable for cars to be driving on this street. This way the bicyclists are safer, the carpoolers have a nice road with less people on it, and those who still choose to drive alone will be the one inconvenienced, but still free to do so.

--------------

I will add more as I have time. But these are the ones I can think of for now.

Where is Andre now?

So I am staying at my cousin and his wife's house in Bogor near Jakarta. From the center of Jakarta, it is about 55 miles on the toll roads. There is a palace here as a vacation home for the Indonesian president. I guess you can say Bogor is Indonesia's version of America's Camp David. This year in June, it will be celebrating its 528th anniversary as a city. With a population of almost 40,000 people/km^2 or 100,000 people/square mile, it is one of the densely populated cities in the world. Nicknamed rainy city not only because of the amount of rain, but also for its regularity. Afternoon showers are reported to be quite regular even in the summer; it made the Guiness book of record with having 322 thunderstorms per year. With about 150 inches of rainfall per year, it is almost 5 times that of Portland, Oregon with 35 inches per year. This is not to say that the town is cool and comfortable. The average monthly lowest temperature is 70 degrees and highest is 90 degrees. Daily average humidity is quite high, ranging from 70-90% throughout the year.

Bogor is famous for at least two things, the Bogor Palace (Istana Bogor) and the Bogor Botanical Gardens. The Palace is now a presidential retreat, having been built in 1744 on 70 acres of land. There are deers roaming freely in the palace gardens while the palace guests enjoy the extensive art collection in the now 200,000 square feet palace. Bogor Botanical Gardens border the palace and contains 15000 species of trees and plants, including 3000 species of orchids alone and the world's largest flower, the Rafflesia. The Rafflesia is Indonesia's national flower. Though I'm not sure why, it's a parasitic plant and it smells of rotten meat; its only merit is its rarity. The other two national flowers are much better, the Moon Orchid and the Jasmine. One known for its beauty and the other for its fragrance.








The traffic in Bogor is quite a bit less complicated and crowded than Jakarta. I would drive here (Actually I did, both on the main streets and on the side streets/alleys full of potholes), but not in Jakarta. There are malls, day spas and foot spas (you've got to look that up) here as well as impromptu side of the road markets. These markets are simple stalls made of scrap wood and tarp as roofs. There is one that is actually on the road, a road that's supposed to be two lanes wide is now only one lane because of the market stalls. They sell everything from fruits and vegetables to toys and clothing to rabbits (I don't really know whether it's for eating or as pets).







This city is quite old, it celebrated its 528th anniversary on June 3rd. I am not sure whether it has been a city for that long or what. I know that the area has been inhabited since the 5th century, when it was called Pakuan. Back then of course Indonesia as a nation doesn't exist, it consisted of many kingdoms spread across the different islands. The one that Bogor, or Pakuan back then, belonged to was called Tarumanegara. One amazing thing about this kingdom back then, they had communicated and even sent messengers to China.

Anyway, that is Bogor, where I currently live and while I am in Indonesia, probably will be. As of this writing, I am in Malang to visit my cousins and my aunts (my mom's sisters) and uncles. I was in Surabaya doing the same thing a few days ago. Tomorrow I will be in Bali for a few days, then Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok before I am back in Bogor. My mom will be with me until August 2nd, when she will go back to Los Angeles to my sister, my brother in law and my niece and nephew.

Who are these Indonesian people?

Heck if I know. From what I can tell there are hundreds of different ... hmm ... I suppose ethnicities if you want to call it that. It's more like groups of common culture (language, social structure, etc) because people have moved around so much. The following is my attempt to very much simplify and generalize the complexities and the varieties of the indonesian people.

There isn't a common "look" to an Indonesian. Really, not even native Indonesians in the same meaning as native americans. If you count native Indonesians as people whose ancestors have been in Indonesia since before the Dutch colonization in the 17th century, they all still look different. Indonesia today encompasses an estimated 17,000 islands (no, not a typo) with about 1,000 of them permanently populated. Each of these islands have their own people and their culture that are not at all the same to their neighbors. Often, they differ even within the islands themselves. To complicate things even further, these islands have experienced immigration of different people for thousands of years. Let's look at a few of them who live in the main islands.

*Diversion: Indonesia has 3 of its islands in the top 7 largest islands in the world. The list starts with Australia as the largest island, Greenland, New Guinea, Bornea, Madagascar, Baffin Island and Sumatra. In the top 15 largest, both the islands of Sulawesi and Java also made the list.*

Starting with the island of Java, there are the Sundanese people in West Java. The Sundanese are famous for their angklung, a unique musical instrument made of bamboo, invented by them. Javanese in central and eastern Java with a bit of Madurese (from the island of Madura in east Java). That's just in Java and that's just the major ones. We are not counting the sultanate of Yogyakarta where the Sultan of Yogyakarta is the governor of the province, Betawi people in Jakarta (themselves a mix of people residing in and near Jakarta since the 1600s; Betawi people now are a mix of Southeast Asian ethnic groups, Portuguese and Dutch plus Arab, Chinese and Indian), and many other ones. Also, in this island, there are monuments to Buddhism (Borobudur) and Hinduism (Prambanan) as well as the ubiquitious muslim ones and several Christian ones to mix in religion with the diversity of ethnicity.

In the island of Sumatra, there are the Malay, Batak and Minangkabau people. The Batak people have a history of canibalism, though no longer generally practiced. The famous Danau Toba (Lake Toba) is in the same area where they live. It is famous because it is the largest volcanic lake in the world. The Minangkabau people are probably one of my favorite people in the world, if only because they produce the best food. They are also called the Padang people.

There are the Balinese people, of course, from Bali. The largest population of Hindus in Indonesia, are very dramatic, artistically. Famous for their dances, sculpture and gamelan music.

In Kalimantan/Borneo, there are the Banjarese, itself a fusion of the older Buddhist and Hindu culture until the 1500s when the muslim culture and religion became prevalent in the courts and birthed a new kingdom. This island is shared with Malaysia and one of the richest countries in the world Brunei Darussalam (currently 5th highest Gross Domestic Product per capita).

Sulawesi is an easy island to remember because it looks like K. Bugineses and Makassarese people populate this 12th largest island in the world.

Then there are the aboriginese people in Irian Jaya (a large island shared with Papua New Guinea).

So in a somewhat long Facebook note, that is the Indonesian people. I don't know much about a lot of the different people of Indonesia. Of course, the people I'm most familiar with are the people in the island of Java. Between my parents, they have close family from the west side of the island, throughout the island and to the east side and a few of the surrounding islands.

Java is the most populated island, so now you can see people from many other islands in Indonesia and other countries. The food and the people are influenced by Europeans by the Portuguese and Dutch, Indians, China, Malaysia, middle eastern, several southeast Asian culture, and many others. Indonesia is South East Asia's melting pot. Indonesian people are the stew of that pot.

A priori vs a posteriori; nature vs nurture; tabula rasa vs ....?

A priori vs a posteriori; nature vs nurture; tabula rasa vs ....?

Epistemology categorizes knowledge into a priori and a posteriori. A priori knowledge is gained without experience. A posteriori is gained with experience, from outside influences. One use for the idea of a priori and a posteriori is on the question of nurture vs. nature. Were we born with some universal truths/predispositions or were we born "tabula rasa", as blank slates? Doubtless this argument will continue unsolved for generations to come.

However, as we observe our own personal growth, other philosophical ideas and a combination of other information we can deduce a few things. While this method does not produce a scientific theory, it does suggest a workable and logically probable hypothesis. Our lives are rich with experiences that we can use to grow ourselves, let's look at some of them and try to answer this basic question. While many of the theories and ideas we will use to answer this question have its opponents, we have to assume that one side of the argument is the correct one. The combination of these assumptions and how they connect together is how we will answer whether we are born with predispositions toward certain behaviors or we are born as blank slates and we're a product of our nurturing environments.

Humans are arrogant and we assume that we are somehow "better" than plants and animals. This may be true, but why are we better? One of the common theories for this is that we, humans, have logical thought that can overcome instincts. While animals have been shown to be able to think on their feet, humans may be the only species that can overcome their basic instincts. There have been many arguments against this, theories that say that humans are unable to overcome our basic instincts. For our purposes, we will assume that we can overcome our instincts.

The next set of data points we will consider are exceptional humans, men and women who made a name for themselves despite or because of their upbringing. Let's take two of the great minds in the sciences and engineering, Einstein and Tesla. Arguably, both had the predisposition for the sciences from their family. Einstein's father was an engineer and Tesla's mother was talented in making home craft tools and memorizing epic poems (Tesla had a photographic memory). In the spirit of "correlation does (not?) imply causation" let's look at the rest of the population of the world. How many of the current 6 billion people on earth have (or should have) a predisposition for the sciences just as Tesla and Einstein? How many are as prolific of an inventor as they were? Just because you're supposed to be predisposed to a certain behavior, does not mean you will be. Or is that the wrong hypothesis? Should it be: because you're predisposed to a certain behavior you don't have to behave that way. The difference is that the latter hypothesis implies we have a choice and the capability to break away from our predisposition.

On the same line of thinking as above, looking at a person and their background, let's look at Ada Lovelace (regarded as the world's first computer programmer). The only predisposition that we can deduce she might have is that both her parents are supposedly pretty intelligent in their own right. Her father is the famous poet Lord Byron (but Ada didn't have any relationship with him) and her mother reportedly was very intelligent in her social circles. So what made her become the world's first computer programmer? Her mother's obsession in discouraging her to study literary subject and directed her toward the math and sciences might have some influence. It can be argued that despite the weak predisposition on math and science, continual exposure and possibly good experiences in math and sciences (she might have had good/great tutors who fostered her interests) created and later nurtured her interests. So here we have someone who may have a weak disposition for math and science greatness who rose to become one of the great minds.

Lets refrain from continuing the study of philosophical ideas, human experiences and other information to answer our question. This article is merely to show you a method with which you can answer the question yourself. Use your own experiences and deduce your hypothesis from it. Study other philosophical ideas well enough to understand all sides and pick an argument that supports your hypothesis. Learn about different people (not only the famous and infamous, but also those who are indifferent), and deduce what you can so you can then complete your hypthesis. What do you think? Were we born as blank slates or were we born with predispositions and universal truths already wired into our brain?

As for me, using the methods above, I've developed my hypothesis. For those who know me, it should come as no surprise that I straddle the fence...again. My hypothesis is simply this: We were born with some predispositions and universal truths, but we have the willpower to not only overcome them but even change them. My original thought was that we were born as blank slates because I believe and have observed that people can do anything they want bad enough.

There are some exception of course (no one can become a US president when they're too young...until we change the constitution), but by and large we all can do what we want to do. But since then, I've observed myself, my behaviors current and past and noticed a few things. I've always been rebellious, not the AK-4 carrying kind, but I've always challenged status quo. When my parents said I can't do something, I have to try it. While correlation does NOT imply causation, I have to wonder if I've always been predisposed to this. If I have, then I wasn't really born as a blank slate, completely subject to my surroundings and external input.

In short, this article is not for me to answer the question for you. It is merely to show you some of the tools I've used to come up to my answer. While critical thinking has gone out the window just as common sense, that is the one thing I can say that we, humans, have as our most powerful weapon in our arsenal. So go forth, be critical thinkers and be the best person you can be, predispositions be damned!

Mind Over Matter

Last night I was walking down Killingsworth on my way to a meeting. The chill in the air...ok the freezing cold weather, made me think. About other people braving this cold. About how lucky I am to have clothing, shelter and food.

How many are without shelter? How many are families? Women? Children?

Will they at least have “just warm enough” bedding and have enough walls, cardboard they may be, to valiantly shield their frail bodies against the bitter winds?

How many will instead shiver, their bodies generating barely enough warmth to fight the impending freeze? They impatiently await for the sunrise and the feeble warmth it may bring to an Oregon winter day.

A cold breeze the likes of which I've never experienced jolted me back to reality and my surroundings. My thoughts turn inward, toward my battered, chilled body. Wearing black denim (is that a fashion faux pas these days?) , polo shirt and a light 2-button hound tooth pattern sports coat, I feel feeble against the wind. Old Man Winter's breath, no matter how light, blows through my clothing to chill me as if I was naked.

I am uncomfortable, my skin crawls trying to escape the cold and find any semblance of non-existent warmth. But I will survive, I will be alright, my destination mere blocks away. The warmth of family, friends and a heated meeting room awaits. Infinitely a better option than many.

So why was I so reluctant to get out this morning? I dreaded checking the thermostat, afraid that I would see the red colored alcohol barely breaking through its bulb. That was what I saw. I should have stayed neatly tucked in my blanket on the folding chair that I slept on.

What a difference my state of mind can have on my outlook. From a placid larvae in the warm embrace of my blankets to bravely facing, nay even conquering Mother Nature's challenging cold. With a flick of a switch, deciding to get up and that the world out there is worth taking becomes the overwhelming desire of the day. So I will give you a break today...stay in your comfort zone. Tomorrow, forge the will to conquer the new day and break out of your shell. Seize the day.

On Communicating

Being able to say something in the clearest, most concise manner does not make one a good communicator. As a matter of fact, I have found that the more someone prides themselves as a good communicator, the worse they are. That's like saying they're a giant for being the tallest person in the crowd of 6th graders waiting in line for lunch at the school cafeteria.

One key ingredient is being sensitive to what the audience needs to hear and having the skills to give the audience what they need to understand your point. Listen and watch your audience's reactions. If necessary, explain the concept from a different context. When talking to a literary scholar, I can start with examples or quotes from famous writers. When talking to an engineer or scientist, I have to address the facts and figures that I can back up.

The biggest mistake someone can make is to put the other person on a defensive.

Once this happens, any semblance of logic usually goes out the door. In discussions and arguments, there must be logic. Even if it's one sided, at least one party needs to be logical enough to be able to deal with the other party's emotional outbursts. The best communication circumstance is when both sides are logical and being open to agree to disagree.

When someone disagrees with us, it very seldom means they're not a good person. Each of our experiences and points of views are unique. In our circumstances and point of view something can be correct and appropriate. But under a slightly different circumstance and/or point of view, that same something can be incorrect and inappropriate. We must be aware of this at all times.

Assume the best intentions of someone. Why assume otherwise? It only creates stress and turmoil in ourselves. If you're curious about their intention, ask. Though in my opinion, simply assuming the best intentions work even better. When someone critizes us, assume they're not personally attacking us personally. They are simply telling us what we did that was disagreeable to their point of view. Take this opinion, analyze it against your morals and your experiences. If they're right, do something about it. If you disagree simply say, "thank you for the input, I will be sensitive to your needs if I can" and you continue doing what you're doing.

One thing that really bothers me is when I argue/discuss an issue with someone sometimes we're saying the same things but under different definitions. Or we think we know what each other means by a definition but we don't. This has caused many misunderstandings. Be aware of this. Ask to make sure our definitions of key concepts are the same.

Last but not least, honesty. Not only do we need to be sincere and honest in our communications with others, they need to be honest too. Tell each other what you like AND didn't like. If I don't know that you don't understand my earlier point, we will have what the McMennamin brothers call a Communication Breakdown. By honesty I don't just mean not to lie. But honesty as in don't be embarassed to ask questions or to show dislikes.

Being a good communicator is not easy. The rules change almost every time you communicate with a different audience; sometimes even with the same audience. Don't be arrogant and think you are a good communicator, listen and watch your audience. Make sure to remember these points:

- be honest and let your audience feel at ease for being honest with you

- don't put someone on the defensive

- assume the best intentions

- they're not a bad person for disagreeing with us

- listen, be aware of what the audience needs in order to understand you

- define your boundaries and make sure they're the same with your audience

On Anger and Other Emotions

Some would argue that humans, like animals behave according to our emotions and instincts. I however, would argue that we have logic that can overcome emotions and instincts. Undeniably, we all have emotions and instincts no matter how much we suppress them. The difference between us and "lesser" beings is that we are capable of sorting through our emotions and make decisions based on more than the current emotions and instincts we are feeling.

Emotions and instincts are tools for survival in the wild, they are neither good or bad. Our reactions to them make our actions good or bad, not the emotions themselves. Sadness, anger, fear, even jealousy are only negative in that they don't make us happy in the present. They have their uses. Sadness lets us know that whatever we're doing or experiencing is not a positive one for us. Fear sharpens our senses and makes us mindful of our surroundings...unless we let it paralyze us. Jealousy lets us know that we are in the presence of a rival. Anger lets us be brutally honest and lowers our inhibitions for hurting others.

Yes, even anger can help us. Now prolonged irrational anger is not healthy either for us nor the person(s) we're angry at. But it does let us communicate our disdain for whatever it is that angers us. I always tell my friends that I don't expect them to never be angry at them nor should they expect me to never be angry at them. But being friends mean we'll be done with the anger and we'll continue being friends after resolving the issues.

I am one of the more emotionless people I know when it comes to completing tasks. I can work with anyone no matter how I feel about them because I can set aside my emotions toward them and just complete the task/project. My utilization of the anger emotion is even less; I often don't even feel angry. Not only can I not show anger, most often I don't feel anger when I probably should.

This is unfortunate. Anger can be a great tool, especially in communicating with the people we love. Often times we guard our words and actions in order not to "hurt" the ones we love. This results in masking our true selves to our loved ones. Being angry lets our friends and family know that we cannot accept the current situation and it is a big deal to us.

Yes, we can tell them nicely that we don't agree with their actions, words or whatever situation we find ourselves in. But in a few circumstances, being angry has its advantages. We tend to say what we think, ignoring our assumptions of consequences. Now I don't mean complete uncontrolled anger (that would be like the HULK) or going berserk. More like a logical anger where we let go of our inhibitions of "hurting" the other person. Let them have a piece of your mind, release your tension about the subject and let the other person know how you feel.

If you truly love each other (at any level, friends or family), and the anger is fairly controlled, you would have just communicated to each other at the basic level. Sometimes this is what is needed to resolve a situation. The key here is to have love for the person you're angry at (and they for you) and to be done with the anger after a good discussion that should follow the anger episode.

So use your emotions, even anger. Remember they're just tools for us to live life to the fullest, to learn, and to be better. Emotions are neutral, it is our actions and response to them that makes us, our behavior when dictated by emotions, good or evil.

I'm a celebrity...on the web...kind of

Ok ok it's me. OMSI interviewed me for their Sound Science podcast (thanks Kim)last year. I didn't think much of it but recently several people told me they found other cool things about OMSI when they looked for my podcast. So go forth and find yourself cool things to do at OMSI (science pub anyone? Or OMSI after dark?) www.omsi.info/podcast/archive.cfm and look for sound science number 88

A few things I've done

Since connecting to old friends and acquaintances, everyone asks what I've been doing. So here it is in no particular order, you guess the order!

Became an EMT
Flunked out of college
Working on getting enough support for the first annual Northwest Alternative Fuel Vehicle Auto Show (got contacts who can probably get the hydrogen car, Volt, new hybrids, etc from BMW, Toyota, Honda and GM)
Designed, built and raced off-road gokarts
Became interested in girls
Finished high school
Got a Blackberry for $20
Helped build a soap box derby car
Pushed a soap box derby car
Working on a micro-hybrid system for heavy trucks; basically a start-stop no idle system
Fell flat on his booty while pushing a soap box derby car
Raced a soap box derby car
Finished college with nerdy degrees
Fought forest fires
Put on workshops and taught middle/high school teachers how to teach certain science subjects and specific engineering/science topics (math and science in every day life, engineering a mousetrap car, and science is fun)
Working on a method of utilizing shipping containers/trailer roofs to generate power; a method to connect them together when stored in the shipping yard and utilize the same connection to provide power to the truck that's pulling the trailer to increase fuel mileage
Spoken in front of 1000+ people
Participated in a spelling bee (Mondays at Mississippi Pizza, Portland OR)
Spoken to 50 different K-12 classes (~1000 or so students I think) about math, science and engineering
Sold some of his photographs for money
Spent too much money on fountain pens; finally stopped buying one after the last $230 pen
Working on a wireless data transmission for heavy truck electronic controllers (switches and sensors)
Chaired a local chapter of an international engineering society (still on the governing board)
Had the idea and wrote the original bylaws for a leadership club
Working on designing a human-hybrid electric vehicle
Became homeless
Saved too many voice messages from his 4 yr old nephew
Watched Dancing with the Stars on a regular basis
Felt lucky to have met his friends and acquaintances so far
Had a photograph published in a local art magazine
Found out that about 80 feet is as high of a cliff face he can free climb
Found out the hard way that his brain does not transfer the information to his limbs quick enough to survive too many novice level downhill mountain bike races

There are more of course, maybe I'll keep adding to this

Games To Play with Scrabble Tiles

Bananagrams/Gorilla Scrabble:
Why pay for a bananagrams tile set when you can use your existing scrabble tile set? Here's how the game goes:
- place all tiles face down on the table, no need for the board
- each player take 15 letters face down
- last winner say GRRR and everyone flips their 15 tiles
- try to use all 15 tiles to make words in a crossword manner
- first person who used 15 tiles yell out Jungle Feed and everyone take one more letter
- the last person who yell out Jungle Feed when the tiles run out is the King Gorilla
- everyone inspects King Gorilla's board for misspellings, if none, King Gorilla wins
- if there's a misspelling, King Gorilla becomes a Lemur and their tiles gets dumped in the middle and play continues for everyone else
(*variations: take two instead of take one, count points by number of tiles used, count points by points on the letters, etc*)

Snatchagrams:
This is another no turn based game. Basically the only turn is for a person to flip a tile over, otherwise anyone is free at any time to yell out the words he/she sees and pick up the letters. valid words are 3 letters or more. Can use someone else's letters that has been used in a word, but can't simply rearrange the letters, must add to it. Here's how the game goes:
- Place all tiles face down on the table, no need for the board
- first person to go flips 3 tiles, as soon as the tiles are up anyone can yell out the word he/she sees
- first person to yell a word gets to use the letters that are up to make a word and put it in front of them
- that word can be snatched by another player to make another word as long as every letter in that word is used and at least one more letter is added to make the new word
- play continues until all tiles are gone or no other words can be formed
- winner is the person with the most words
(*variant: winner by points as counted by the letters used or by points on the tile*)

Bingoagrams!
Take seven letters, no board needed
First person try to make a 7 letter word, their turn ends when they swap one or more letters
Next person tries to make a 7 letter word, again their turn ends when they swap letters
Play continues until someone comes up with a 7 letter word
If the word is valid, that player gets one point, if not, loses one point and out of play this round
Rounds continue until someone reaches a predetermined point or time runs out (play to 5 or for an hour)
(*variant:turn ends by player turning in the letter(s) they want to swap but does not take replacement tiles until it's your turn; this way you don't get to think unless it's your turn)

Bingo-cross
Same as above, but when someone gets a seven letter word, the word is laid down on the table. Play continues with that player having 1 point. The next winner can use the letter(s) of previous winner that's face up on the table in a crossword manner. So after the first winner, the second must come up with an 8 letter word.

Pick me!
This is not an easy game, at least not for me. Place all tiles face down on the table, no board needed
Turn over 3 tiles. Each player/team that come up with a word using these three letters in order (either left to right or right to left) wins the round and gets to keep the letters.
Game ends when all tiles are gone and winner is the person/team with the most letters kept

Scram!

Every player picks an agreed upon 4-letter word

Divide remaining tiles evenly upside down so no one knows what they have (set aside leftover, don't lose it!)

Last winner (or youngest, or...?) yells Scram! and everyone turns over their tiles

If you can make a new word out of the original 4-letter word by substituting one of the letters with one of theirs, yell out the new word

The first person who yelled out the new word gets to discard the letter being replaced and replace it with their letter to make the new word

Based on this new word, anyone can yell the next iteration of the word

Winner is the first person who gets rid of their tiles

I'll add more if I can think of or find anything else