Shame Part 2

(You might want to read the post Shame Part 1 before reading this) Hey guys, I promised you a few days ago that I would complete my post about the embarrassing events that happened to me (e.g. the swimming incident), and here it is. The wanted post's sequel has returned. So I can hear many of you asking, "So what was the second event that happened?". Well, you're about to find out...

On Monday (the same day as the swimming incident), my school has a kind of assembly that gives important announcements and today, speeches were given about the election of vice captain. Candidates stood up and gave amazing speeches with great expressions. But it was after the speeches when the embarrassment started...

In the school there is a policy that you must wear black shoes. And when I say "black shoes", I mean TOTALLY, fully black sneakers without any markings of any other color. They're quite strict about their "shoe policy", too. If you can't manage to get totally black shoes, you must put black paint or a black marker to cover those revealing marks. If you don't, the consequences can be dire. I once heard that a kid in school didn't follow the rules by rebelliously NOT trying to cover up the other-than-black colored markings on his shoes. Eventually a teacher took his shoes and painted the markings (messily) for the kid. It wasn't very tidy, but what do you expect from a maddened teacher who's sick of looking at your unlawful greaves? So remember this sentence: "Teacher can turn fantastic footwear into ink-smeared sabatons".

Alright, let's get straight to it. The embarrassing moment started when a superior teacher marched up onto the stage after the vice captain election speeches. He made a few compliments about the growing discipline of the school, and went straight to the shoes. Here's the shoe bit:
"-but I'm still noticing many of you still having other-than-black markings on your shoes...". I noticed that as he said this, his eyes were directed at my fellow classmate (who was obviously not following the shoe rule) who was wearing black shoes with VERY REVEALING white "decals".

But that wasn't it. It's not just the "shoe rule" that made some people want to hide under their chairs. The teacher also dropped this little bomb:
"-and it's also amazing that ALMOST everyone didn't bring their bags or water bottles into the theater (there is also another rule that it's not legal to bring water or bags into the theater). Compared to the results in the previous year, this start is amazingly rule-obedient.". This is a very huge praise, but not to the very few people who DID bring their bags and water bottles into the theater. I noticed that every time the "shoe rule" and the "no water bottles and bags" statements were fired away, people in the place started looking around for the rule-breaking (supposedly) outlaws.

This brings me to the end of my small summary of my first embarrassing day at the school. I might make other posts like this if possible.

Shame (Part I)

Embarrassment is a very weird thing. People laugh at other people's pain and embarrassment, while when the teasers THEMSELVES get laughed at because of a shameful fault, they try to defend themselves. You might be wondering why I brought this topic up today instead of some other psychological problem or a book report. Well, it's because my day at school today was revolving on this post's topic: Embarrassment. It's what made my day in school, well, exciting and at the same time embarrassing. Here are the horrible highlights of today's shameful screw-up:
(Disclaimer: There's only one shameful happening today, so this post will be divided into tow parts. It might not be as hilarious as anticipated, but nonetheless still spine-busting-ly funny.

-Today I expected it to be a chance to impress my friends (and my coach) with my supernaturally incredible athletic ability in swimming (It's not such a big surprise that I'm significantly more skilled at swimming than my friends, seeing as my brother and I have been taking swimming practices from a very young age. Our practices started in the morning from Monday to Saturday from 4-6 a.m. with occasional evening practices from 4-6 p.m.), and I prepared to dazzle my friends (despite the fact that they hardly pay attention to me. Anyway, read on). But that practice was more of an embarrassment than a display of pure talent when I discovered that I WAS THE ONLY GUY IN THE CLASS WHO WORE SWIMMING SHORTS. The rest of the class were wearing swimsuits. You could imagine the looks on their faces as they looked at my revealing swim gear. The rest of the practice went downhill after that. At least one of my friends tried to console me by saying: "It's OK Jason. At least it was swimming shorts. It could've been worse. You could imagine if it was a THONG." (This was actually quite comforting, because I've ever worn one of those extremely skimpy swim trunks.

Since this post is continued, I'll continue with the afterword on the next post. Sorry for the brief afterword, But I promise I'll make up for it.

Overseas Vacation Without a Family

Everyone I know loves vacation as much as the next guy, but although I've went to quite a lot of places on vacation, there's one rule that exists in all my vacations: I always go with my family. So I've never went on some kind of trip out of the city (let alone out of the country) without my family. So that sparks quite a problem between me and my family when I received a letter from my school to go to a camp in Jogjakarta (for those of you who don't know, Jogjakarta is a long way away from my home in Jakarta you will have to take a plane there). Today my family was quite excited (and a bit unsure) about their son going out to some camp out of the city. The next paragraph will tell you about their responses to this never-before accomplished trip:

My mom was the first one to read the letter. She was quite doubtful about me going to camp, but she was quite fine with my new experience. She questioned my dad about the camp and if I should go to it or not. My dad had a totally different response. "If you ask me, it's going to be quite an exciting journey for Jason! He gets to socialize more, make more friends!" My dad cheerfully responded. He kept on explaining the upsides of this camp until my mom told me to break the ice. "Tell Papa the price of the camp." She said. And so I told my dad that for five days in the camp, it will take up Rp.7.000.000 (approximately US $700). His reactions went downhill from there. Let me tell you something about my family: They love to express their feelings in a hilarious way, so if we're showing our jealousy, we 'mock' each other.

It was one of the longest comparisons between privileges of my parents and me. My dad 'jealously' exclaimed, "Rp.7.000.000! And look at this! You get to fly in Garuda Indonesia! Even I didn't get to fly in Garuda! (That's quite true, because if we fly, we usually fly in either Lion Air, Air Asia or Citilink Airlines) And look at this! You get to stay in FOUR STAR HOTELS!!! When I went with MY school overseas, we had to stay in a small, cramped INN! Look at this! You have breakfast at KFC before you go! (Shortly after this statement, he slapped me on the knee) And look at this! You visit the SULTAN'S PALACE! (Another knee slap) CANDI BOROBUDUR! (I managed to dodge his deadly strike this time) Rafting in the Elo River! (No physical attacks. Phew) He jokingly expressed his jealousy on and on. He was joking, so I didn't take his ranting seriously. After he finished debriefing me, he noticed a 'parental agreement' at the end of the letter. "Oh HO! So both parents have to sign the agreement, eh? I won't have to sign the agreement if I don't want you to come! I never thought of that!" (For a moment there I thought he was really thinking of not enlisting, but luckily he was also joking about that bit) he exclaimed jokingly. But the punchline of the whole thing was the money issue. My parents found a part in the letter that stated that parents who had issues may contact the school 'treasurers' about how the money should be handled.

My mom saw the part of the letter about the money issues and joked, "If it's possible for the money to be paid as instalments, tell Jason to dress up as a beggar and start working on the streets as a homeless boy! That's bound to get us enough money for the camp!Haw haw haw!" (At this, I could picture myself in ripped clothes out on the streets carrying a sign, "PAY ME AT LEAST RP.7.000.000 TO GET ME OFF THE STREETS"). Luckily, my dad 'protected' me from getting owned by my mom ("Just do it like this: Ask for a 7-month instalment, and every month we take it off Mama's shopping money! HA HA!).

But despite their sarcastic and hilarious arguments, my parents were still happy to send me off to the camp. Although they said that they were less fortunate when it came to THEIR overseas journeys, they were happy that I finally got the chance to see what was it like to survive out there without mommy and daddy. I'll be going on the 23th of September and I'll be back on the 27th. I'll probably write about the journey when I get back. Wish me luck guys!

Bad Jobs: Army Infantry

In my previous post I explained about my (almost) foolproof plan to get a job when I'm all grown up. This post is mainly focused on the jobs I definitely don't want to sign up for. (unless there's no other job to sign up for) One of them is the army. If any of you reading this post doesn't know the dangers of enlisting in the army, let me explain: War is not like a game of Call of Duty. The difference between a first-person shooter video game and a real-time, deadly experience in the battlefield is as follows:
Death
Game: Everytime your video game character dies, you can always choose to respawn either from your spawn point (in multiplayer) or from your last checkpoint. (in a singleplayer mission)
Real life: Everytime you die, you'll wake up playing a golden harp.
Difficulty
Game: Choose the difficulty yourself: Private, Commander or General.
Real life: Your superiors choose the mission AND the difficulty for you.

And the most frightening thing in the battlefield:
Deadly Surprises
Game:  You can die multiple times, so when you encounter an unexpected enemy monster (big bad tank, snipers, artillery strikes, land mines, etc) you can easily anticipate the enemy's next surprise attack after you respawn.
Real life: You need to stay alert. If a big fat vehicle equipped with a cannon and a machine gun rampages out of a building, you'd better hope it doesn't see you, or you're as good as dead. Its wild cannon can turn you into worm food with a single pull of its trigger, while the machine gun can mow multiple soldiers down faster than a kid stomping on ants. If you didn't know a team of hostile snipers were in the same area as you were cluelessly wandering, they would put a bullet in your head and that's it. But out of all these deadly surprises, I hate surprises that make you die before you even know it, such as land mines, which can be accidentally stepped on while cautiously trudging through the fight. Artillery strikes and mortar team assaults are particularly nasty, since at the time of the sudden bombing you might be admiring your survival a few seconds before the whole area you're in goes boom boom pow.

Obviously you already know how much I hate being in the infantry. If you're wondering why I don't hate being in the army, just the infantry, it's because these standard, low-armored, under-armed, typical ground units are dispatched with ease. There are lots of other places in the army I'd rather be than the infantry, such as the general (I get to watch the battle in a Real-Time-Strategy camera view) or a vehicle driver (unless in a tank, where I'll DEFINITELY be the tank's gunner, with the sweet cannon and the big guns. I won't be in a vehicle with less protection than a tank, like a truck. Too risky to be either the driver or gunner) or even an aircraft pilot. (the only downside is that being a pilot takes truckloads of flying practice, and if I actually FLY the plane in battle, it's easy for me to be taken down, but at least it's better than infantry)

So that's why if I had a job, I wouldn't want to be part of the land troops if I could be something else. I hope that this post can be used to help prevent other young souls commiting suicide in the army when they grow up to get a decent job.

Awesome, isn't it? Well, you're the ground troops, not the tank. (Sorry)

Working My Way Up In Life

There is one question I constantly ask myself: "What am I going to do when I grow up?". I've seen many other people experience either the beauty or torture of being adult: To be independent: To survive on their own. I have lots of worries about being an adult. I have seen lots of people who weren't ready for their adulthood and suffer fearsome fates when they grow up and possibly, die. Here's what I think about being self-dependent, about being the master of my own fate:

I've always dreaded having to feed my own family, to provide shelter and supplies for a whole group of people. Judging from my parents' observations, a too-spoiled kid, who's given anything he wants and never spares a thought about the less fortunate people than him, won't be exactly the richest guy around. Quite the contrary, if he's lucky, he'll manage to find a job application as a common-or-garden office worker with low wages to feed his wife and brood. (that is, if he does have a family) If he's not that lucky, someday you might find this guy out on the street begging for money and probably using some kind of beggar trick to persuade passersby to "donate" him extra cash.

My parents were quite good when it came to surviving adulthood, as it was proven through this computer I'm currently using to type this post. Fortunately, I've got a plan on how to (almost) guarantee survival for my later years.

Jason's (Almost) Foolproof Plan to Surviving Adulthood

 The first and hardest part of my plan is to study my way through school until I'm old enough to get a decent job. (way easier said than done) Than I plan to fill in for a minor job (possibly as a dishwasher or some other employee in a restaurant or some office) and while I'm at it, I'll go sign up for journalism at the college. (this is where my plan starts to fall down) Hopefully through my experience in writing, I'll be able to work as a better kind of worker, like a newspaper journalist or if I'm really lucky, an author. So far I'm only at step one, (Surviving School) but I'm sure I'll survive and have a good life. You readers out there can also use my plan for your own ends, as that is the main point of this post.

Book Report 2: The Dangerous Days of Daniel X

(Reading Book Report 1 will help define the first paragraph)

Other than reading way-too-hard books such as Angels & Demons, I started to read less adventurous books by sixth grade. Now this post is another book I have managed to complete in a single day: (Not such a big surprise there, considering I was already in sixth grade and the book looked like it belonged in the "young adult" section of the bookstore. Anyway, read on) The Dangerous Days of Daniel X by James Patterson. At first I never knew that James Patterson was famous for creating other such mind-numbing books such as Cat & Mouse, Along Came a Spider and other adult literature. But since I didn't know that yet, I thought that this guy was an expert young-adult book creator and had hardly any experience in adult literature. So anyway, here's how the book goes.

The Dangerous Days of Daniel X reminded me of Superman. (come to think of it, more to Man of Steel than Superman, one of the only differences being that the main antagonist isn't fighting for the survival of his planet and the main character is a more of a teenager than an adult) Why? Well, here's a short synopsis: Daniel X thinks he is a normal kid, but as a toddler he's definitely surpassed the intellect of other kids years above him. Then one day when he was around six, his parents got killed by an intergalactical alien terrorist who was apparently so evil and skilful he's probably received death sentences in a few star systems. Anyway, after this ruthless murderer finished killing Daniel's parents, it proceeded to attempt to pound the boy into oblivion. But amazingly Daniel used his newfound powers to evade the psychotic killer.

A few years later he found the reason why his parents were killed. They were like bounty hunters (only without pay) who were given a list of the most ruthless aliens in the universe to kill. They were dispatched by the number 1 alien on their list (the one who came to Daniel's house) before they could finish the job. Daniel proceeded to finish his parents' duty and the main antagonist was the next alien on Daniel's list. To make a VERY LONG story short, Daniel managed to subdue the alien and the antagonist's underlings surrendered after seeing what Daniel did to their leader.

There is a very interesting thing in the story: Just like I told you before, the story was a lot like Man of Steel (or Superman) because of the following reasons: (in the brackets you will see what that part of the story reminds me of)

-Before the final confrontation, Daniel X meets the inhabitants of the original planet he came from. (Superman)

-The main antagonist is hell-bent on destroying Earth. (Man of Steel, except the bit about "hell-bent on destroying Earth". In Man of Steel, General Zod wants to destroy Earth for Krypton's survival)

-Daniel X is the weirdo of his school. (Both Man of Steel and Superman)

-Daniel's parents die. (Again, both Man of Steel and Superman, except that Superman's dad got stabbed by General Zod while Superman's mom died with Krypton)

There are thousands of other similarities, but God knows how long it'll take for you to read this post if I put in EVERY SINGLE similarity between this book and the Superman saga. I hope this post helps in some way. Thank you for reading and see you until the next post.

Book Review 1: Angels and Demons

If you read my previous post, you may have noted that I may not be a book's Number 1 fan. But I guess readers of this blog might be curious of what books I read back in the old days. Well, to tell you the truth, I may have been a little stupid when I was small, trying to read totally advanced books like Alex Cross, The Hunt For the Red October, and other way too advanced masterpieces. But out of all those books in my mom's shelf, there is one book that didn't prove too "overage" for me to complete. This book was Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. For those of you who don't know Dan Brown, he is a writer that writes other famous works that you might be familiar of: (Although I only know two more) The Da Vinci Code and Digital Fortress. So anyway, let's get straight to the book: Angels and Demons.

This book is about a devious plot apparently masterminded by some Anti-Christ terrorist. This mysterious evildoer has stolen a few miligrams of antimatter (for those of you who don't know, just a few miligrams of antimatter can power New York for days, but its bad side is that antimatter is totally unstable. Antimatter cannot be exposed to anything, not even air. (so don't ask me how the antimatter didn't explode in the first place) If exposed to ANYTHING it will explode, and a few miligrams of antimatter has the destructive power of the nuclear bomb that dropped on Nagasaki, (or Hiroshima, I forgot) so using it is very risky.) This terrorist plans to use the antimatter to destroy Vatican City. (which is a very likely target for anti-religious terrorists, because that's the home of the Pope and thousands of cardinals) Fortunately some camerlengo (a camerlengo is apparently some kind of exalted cardinal) jumps in and saves the day, but in the end it was revealed that this camerlengo was the "terrorist" who planned the terrorist bombing in the first place, and he eventually came to a sticky end.

Me, being quite young at the time I read the book, had to reread it a few times, and until now I'm still confused about the plot of the story, but otherwise the story is good. But one thing you should look out for in the book are these really cool words that can be read upside down and right side up. (look at the picture below) These are called anagrams, and they're branded onto the some cardinals' chests. and I'm still curious how the author makes them. This book may not be of my age, but I understand the majority of it.

An anagram of all four elements of science

Best, Now Last

I have a lot of problems, but one of the most fatal ones are reading "underaged" books. (next to video game addiction) I'm already in 1st grade high school, and my parents say that my kind of literature is for "kids", which is actually quite correct, considering the books I read. (Garfield, Big Nate, Calvin & Hobbes, you know, stuff like that) But to be honest with you, over time, books became from my ultimate boredom buster into an occasional entertainment source. Why? Well, because books may have been the hot stuff in the years 2007 to 2009, (I was around 7-9 years old then) but entering 10 years old, technology began to completely dwarf literature, and although I didn't instantly get spellbound onto the screen, I turned to technology over time. Why? Well, this next paragraph will explain.

When I was approximately 10 years old, I noticed that technology was beginning to turn my life around. Over the years, board games turned into computer games, pencils and paper turned into Microsoft Office, and encyclopedias turned into Wikipedia. I started to loosen my grasp on old-fashioned ways and started to tighten my grip on technology. Then came the smartphone. Then the advanced computers. The DVD player. (come to think of it, I think the DVD player was invented before I was 10, so scratch that) And last but not least, the even more awesome video games. By then I have almost lost complete contact to books, drawing, and science books. Why bother to search why is the sky blue in a science book when you can just instantly get the result on the internet? Why blister your hands with a pencil when you can just write it on Microsoft Word? Now I don't really depend on advanced literature anymore because technology is already there.

This has everything to do with my "lame" reading, because I've started to lose interest in it, and even my FRIENDS, who used to be way below me when it comes to advanced reading, are now well ahead of me. So I'm still finding a way how to improve my interest in literature. Plus, my interest in technology also comes with a heavy price: My family has a descending gene of some unfortunate sight problems, so imagine how unfortunate I am considering my hobby. If there is any one out there who can help give me some tips on how to look at more pages and less screen, I would love to hear it.

Book VS eBook

The Infinity

Ever since the existence of the cavemen, humans always have questions, such as, "Why is the sky blue?" or "Why is the SEA blue?". Over time, we've managed to solve these simple questions, but when we know the answers to these questions, we start asking EVEN MORE questions instead of getting satisfied for the answers we already got. When we discover why the sea and the sky is blue, we start to ask more questions such as, "Why is the SOIL brown?". When we know why the soil is brown, we start asking even more questions, and so on. This isn't the first time I've ever made a post like this, (come to think of it, MOST of my posts are like this) but this post is the most directed one towards human curiosity.

I'm not saying that human yearning is a bad thing, but it can be a little annoying if you ask a person too much about the mysteries of the universe, because I have personally encountered thousands of questions asked by my younger brother and sister. They've asked me about the mysteries of science and stuff like that, but mostly they ask me about video games and movies. ("Jason, in Despicable Me 2, is Gru the bad guy?") I don't mean to offend any curious youngster out there, but here's my advice to young, knowledge-yearning children: Don't bombard a single person with multiple bamboozling questions. This might anger the question-answerers and they might get impatient and eventually, stop answering your questions altogether. (Of course, unless the "questionee" is the patient type) Tip: To anger the question-answerer, ask the same question over and over. This has been proven by my family and is very effective.

One of the biggest mysteries of the universe are if there is alien life out there. You know what, scratch that. That's not such a massive mystery compared to the following question: "Are there other solar systems out there?". If you ask me, this is the biggest bamboozling question of them all. Why? Because, when we humans know there are even more solar systems out there, we might ask, "Are there more universes out there?". If it's true, God knows what else we might ask next.

I'm not saying human curiosity is a bad thing, but on the contrary, it's actually quite good. Why? Well, when we discover more stuff, we know how stuff works and curiosity helps us understand the way of the world. There will be no limit of curiosity, but other than its ability to annoy people and its existence in science lessons, curiosity is a good thing.

Top of the Heap

Is anyone out there who's not at the community wishing that they were the eldest kid of all others? To be the oldest and therefore, most superior of them all? Well, think again. Just because you're top dog (as in oldest) doesn't mean you deserve the top privileges and get to be spoiled unlike your seemingly inferior other brothers and sisters. Take my family, for example:

In my family, privileges are something everyone gets to have equally, and no one is mistreated or spoilt, (in fact, according to my parents, being spoilt is a bad thing while being mistreated gives you a chance to feel what less fortunate people feel. Fortunately, no one in the family is mistreated or given less rights than another, thank God) so in my house it's something like every man for himself (more or less) when it comes to superiority.

I'm the oldest of three kids, so you may think me as the leader, the Big Cheese, Number One, etc, etc. No. In fact, I try to blend in. Why? Well, you may think that, as the top guy, every time I encounter a problem, I could just tell my parents to help put a stop to that problem. That does work, but most of the time my parents are too busy tending to other more important matters to tend to mine. So I stay quiet. Why, you might be wondering, don't I retaliate if someone pesters me? Well, it's time to introduce you to the new character of our family...

I have a brother named Pascal, and he is more or less the King of Quarrels and Snappy Comeback Sentences, so that characteristic makes him pretty much impossible to beat when it comes to trash-talking. I tend to ignore him when he tries to insult or mock me, because if I ever try to say something back, he'll come up with an EVEN SMARTER backtalk, and if you try to talk BACK, he'll come up with an EVEN MORE smarter comeback sentence. You get the idea, right? He is so good at quarreling and arguments that even my mom can't lecture him without being talked back. (I don't know if he's ever quarreled with my DAD, though, as my dad's FIERCE (note the CAPSLOCK) and if he starts yelling, no one dares to speak, let alone talk smack) So I tend to ignore Pascal, because I know what the ending will be if I attempt to retaliate.

Let me introduce you to another new character in the family: The 4-year-old baby, Ashley. She is a great laughingstock, but that's only if my parents (or at least, my mom) aren't around. Me and Pascal usually form an (temporary) alliance to poke fun at Ashley before being halted by my parents. (or maybe, in rare occasions, before being backstabbed by Pascal) Sometimes even my DAD teams up with us (that is, Pascal and me) and teases Ashley about hilarious (and embarrassing) moments in the past, such as when she threw up in a restaurant for the very first time, pronounciation errors (some too embarrassing to put on this post) and many other provoking memories. The main reason my parents (on rare occasions, even my dad says this) prevent further teasing to Ashley is because (this one may be mainly directed to me) no one a few years older teased us brothers when we were babies. This is quite true, but we still like to bend the rules a bit.

So that's real superiority in my home. There is no such thing as favorite child and mistreated kid. This post is mainly directed to you kids who have brothers and sisters or adults who used to have brothers and sisters in their childhoods.

Reactions towards habits

When you are eating, are you used to crossing your feet? If yes, which one? Left foot over the right foot or right foot over left foot? Do you like to put your hands together during a conversation? If so, which one? Right thumb over left thumb or the other way around? These are all habits we are all used to doing in everyday life. If you don't do it, it doesn't feel right. This post is mainly focused on my general knowledge about habits.

According to my sources, it's possible to form a habit (you probably know this already, but read on), but it's going to take a lot of work. So if you're going to change yourself, it needs a lot of work to do, and as far as I know, there are only three ways of forming a new habit.

The first way to do this is by force. I've formed a lot of habits mostly because my mom forces me to. For example, I've formed the majority of my good habits (waking up at 5:00 at the morning, taking a bath ASAP on a school day, and other discipline habits) are mostly because my mom forces me to do it. It's one of the easiest ways to form a habit. The only problem to this method of habit-forming is that you might despise the process, or more likely, the person who forces you to form the habit (somehow, I don't hate my mom for this, because I know it's for my own good).

The possibly hardest but best way to form a habit is by forming it by will (that is, you practice doing the habit yourself until it becomes a habit). Forming a new habit yourself isn't as easy as it sounds. You need tremendous willpower and discipline. Why? Well, because forming a habit by yourself isn't as easy as it sounds. If you were a lazy person, you might vow to become a more discipline, more energetic person. But it's going to very likely go like this: The night that you vow to wake up at 7 a.m. and set the alarm clock to the destined time, it's very possible that although you DO wake up at the sound of an alarm, you'll possibly get out of bed NOT to get up early, but to turn off the alarm and go back to sleep. I know this will very likely happen because it has happened to me. But although it's extremely difficult to form a totally new habit, it's not impossible, but it requires a lot of work.

The last and most effective way to form a new habit is by hypnosis. Yes, I know it sounds a bit insane, but it works, trust me. In this world, there are actually people who can hypnotize you into doing a lot of things, one of them making a new habit. According to my knowledge you need to be affected by the hypnosis permanently in order to form a new habit (or at least, you need to be hypnotized for the time required to make a new habit). When under the effect of the hypnosis, you won't feel like your main focus is what your hypnosis tells you to do (e.g. you won't be like, "must be discipline. Must be discipline" like a zombie, like in movies). Instead, you'll feel different under hypnosis. Your brain will tell you what you're hypnotized to do is the right thing to do. If you don't do what you're hypnotized to do, it feels that you did something really bad, so you must do what you are hypnotized to do or else. That's how hypnosis is so effective in the process of making a new habit. But on the bad side, being hypnotized to be discipline can ruin your hobbies such as playing with your friends because you must be discipline and you must work or you'll feel bad.

So those are the three methods of forming new habits. I hope this guide has helped you with your habit forming. Thank you for reading.

Are You Really Unfortunate?

(I recommend you read my post "Satisfaction" before you read this one)If you are reading this post, chances are that you're coming from a good, wealthy family. (And by wealthy I don't mean "Bruce Wayne" level wealthy, just wealthy enough to get internet connection, a house, an iPad, you get it, right?) In this post I am going to tell you how to be happy just by thinking about your current status.

Two days ago, I had the idea of writing this post because my dad scolded me about how fortunate I was to come from a good family and that instead I kept on focusing on stuff I want instead of thanking God for the stuff I already have and a few other issues I have. (those are personal issues, so don't ask) So anyway, the main intention of that little scolding was to get me to be a nicer guy, but at the same time, this is the first time I've also recorded his lessons (and also the first time I've ever recorded a real life event) on the blog. Here are the stuff he said (In a much louder voice, of course)

So if you want to be happy instantly, think about how fortunate you are. If you're thinking, "I won't be happy until I get the new iPhone" or "I won't be happy until I get a Porsche" or any other thought like that, you'll (probably) never get happy. Why? Well, chances are that it'll possibly go on like this: When you get that thing you want, it'll go like this: After you get that Porsche, you'll probably think, "Now I want a Ferrari" or "Now I want a Nitrous Oxide boost tank for my Porsche" and stuff like that. The point is, after you get what you want, you'll always want something else. If you want to be happy easily, here's how:

Think of all those unfortunate kids on the street or people who don't have as many possessions as we have. They're begging on the streets for money or working as a lowly typical office worker who's underpaid. They don't have such awesome stuff as we do. They don't have a 15-inch Plasma TV or any other expensive item. They thank God for every single coin that they receive and even if their lives are so miserable, they still thank God for giving them the chance to live at all.

Yesterday in the church, I was quite interested in the story the priest was telling. He told a story about a wealthy, rich and exalted family that passed a family of beggars on the street. The wealthy family saw the beggars on the street and gave them a Rp.10.000 bill. (around US $ 0.97) the family of beggars looked at the money and looked like they wanted to kiss the rich family (they didn't, of course) and began cheering about their unbelievable luck. "Yes! Thank you, God! Thanks to Your good fortune, now we can buy food and live another day! Thank you kind sir, you are His angel!" was one of the beggars' praises when they saw the money.

After looking at the beggars' such happy faces at such little money, the rich family continued their journey. The dad of the rich family (who gave the beggars the money) stated, "Why were they so happy? I only gave them $0.97.". His wife wisely replied, "Honey, look at those beggars out there. They have such little cash in their hands and typical people only give beggars $0.01 to $0.05 around here. When you gave them $0.97, it was more than 19 times the regular amount people gave them. On the other hand, we keep on wishing for more and more stuff instead of thanking God for the possessions that we already have."

So there. Why keep wishing of things you don't have when your possessions are already enough satisfying for you? To be happy, imagine yourself in a poor person's shoes. You are supposed to be happy, considering what you have compared to them.