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.

The True Face of Evil

When I mention the word "evil", what pops into your head first? Is it a big, evil demon that is hell-bent on destroying humanity? Or is it disguised as a temptation to tease your boss and get you into trouble? In popular media, "evil" is a big devil bent on destroying the humans, who they despise. But in real life, evil mostly goes into hiding on Earth as (almost) irresistable temptations. The devils we despise are disguised as money, video games, and other manipulating devices. Mostly humans fall for this, and fall into the hands of sin, and evil makes a laughingstock out of their victims. Yes, demons really are tricksters, and they can even be disguised as seemingly harmless entities, but can slowly manipulate us before we realize they are bad influences. Now that's the true face of evil.

One unique form of evil is (drumroll, please) a lucky charm. Yes, the small little thing you carry around in your suit and gives you good luck is actually possessed by a demon. If your lucky charm has given you good luck, that means you are trusting a devil. (No offense to anyone wearing a lucky charm out there, but according to religious beliefs, this is actually true) That's the reason why I don't wear lucky charms. I'm too afraid that people will think I'm part of the Illuminati or something.

I hope that this post will help you readers out there understand what evil truly looks like. (Once again, no offense on the lucky charm thing) Feel free to check my other posts on religion if you desire.