Searching for Utopia

Don’t you just love PETA? After asking women around the world to go naked rather than wearing fur, now they also urge Ben & Jerry’s to replace cow’s milk in their milk products with HUMAN BREAST MILK. Seriously, would you buy it? Here’s what they’ve got to say:

September 23, 2008

Executive Vice President

Have you ever got prank calls? You must have, once in a while. No doubt, everyone can benefit from having a telephone — even those pranksters. They’d ring you in the middle of the night, only to hang up when you do pick it up. If you experienced harassment from such calls, don’t forget to keep a phone log of each time you receive the call. Harassing phone calls are creepy.

For that, folks, Caller Identification is important. If you’re curious about your unwanted phone calls, visit calleridentifier.com to find out who they were.

Yay, the Formula 1 Grand Prix is coming to town! Are you ready for the action? Me and my bulging tummy are. With Zsolt, three of us will head to the track next Friday. If you have the same plan, don’t forget to first check this guide from the official website. Just a gentle reminder, you’re not allowed to bring your own food and drink inside the circuit park. See you there!

For Javanese mothers, Baby Slings are must have mothering essentials. They have been around for so long that even nowadays many mothers still prefer them to strollers.

And indeed, in many cases baby carrying not only benefits the baby, but also for the mommy and daddy.

I’ve experienced this with a friend of mine at a shopping mall. We had to wait for at least ten minutes in front of the elevator, before finally giving up — being in Singapore, there was never enough space inside for us two and the stroller. So we decided to take the escalator. And it was our luck that it happened to be stopped for maintenance. At 38 kg, it was quite a challenge for me to carry the 13 kg stroller down from level 4 to level 1. I just couldn’t imagine if I had to carry both the baby and the stroller alone.

Another thing, carrying your baby would give you better bonding with him. Just like when he was still in your womb, he could hear your heart beat, and moreover, it helps you to breastfeed in discreet. It won’t benefit the daddy, of course, unless he too breastfeeds, but it will help the child to become familiar with his movements.

For the baby, to be carried in sling is also more comfortable. He could communicate with you easily, because he is close to you physically. You’ll find out sooner when he’s hungry or needs a nappy change, just from his facial expresions. He wouldn’t need to cry first to attract your attention.

The only disadvantage of it is perhaps you should consider your own fitness. If you have any back problems, for example, then it might not be for you. But then again, carrying a 3 kg baby on an overhead bridge is still better than having to carry 13 kg stroller with the 3 kg baby in it.

Nowadays slings come in many styles, colors and types. They’re not just comfy, but they look good too! Visit this site to purchase yours.

Best gift for teenage daughters, Mommies?

Many times people asked why I never post photos of myself and family, let alone uploading videos.

My reason is one: I want to protect them from being misused. OK, I’m not a celeb and don’t intend to be one anytime soon, but you can never be too careful — especially online, where people can trespass our territory easily.

I’ve heard cases when sexual predators searched for their prey online from people’s blogs and sites. So beware!

Luckily Megan’s Law will restrict these predators’ movement. But of course, that doesn’t mean you wouldn’t need to do anything to protect your loved ones from them.

Do you own Sexual Predator Search to make sure to make sure that your neighborhood is safe from the threats. If you haven’t known, 1 in every 460 people in the US have been convicted for some form of sexual crime. Keep your family safe!

My apologies, I haven’t updated much lately, mainly because I haven’t felt well. I’ve got a little pregnancy complication and will have to spend more time seeing some different specialists in the future. I’ll share the experience with you when all is well, which is soon, hopefully.

Meanwhile, it’s only 13 days left until Hari Raya Puasa. I still won’t be able to celebrate it in my kampung like the old days, but I’m feeling full of anticipation nonetheless. My bulging tummy might prevent me from doing too much cooking and baking, but food is never a problem here in Singapore, not even during Christmas week. We might as well stock up some cookies from the Ramadan Bazaar. Surely it won’t be a bad Hari Raya at all.

The most important thing is that I’ll celebrate it with my hubby, and meanwhile we could watch our baby practicing his no-shadow kick. It won’t be long until he joins us

Marriage is definitely a major event in one’s life. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always last forever. People divorce for different reasons, some are good but many are craps.

In Indonesia, only 0.8 percent of married couples divorce in any year, while in Singapore it’s 17.2. Overall rate in Hungary is 37.5, which is quite low compared to the US with 54.8 — although it’s still arguably inaccurate.

For more accurate Divorce Records in the United States, you can visit the Nationwide Divorce Records. Whichever state you need, they have it all there in one click.

You can find out whether your future husband is a divorcee, as well as getting other records, such as public court records, public arrests, and public bankruptcy records. You can never be too careful.

Just happened to stumble across that thing on Blogsome front page. I wonder whether their people read the ads at all.

Calling all Take That fans. The band is on the potential nominees list for Best Act Ever award at this year’s MTV European Music Awards.

Please click here to cast your vote. Remember, five bands with the largest number of public votes will be nominated.

OK, you’ll have time until November 6.

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A recent survey by Jakarta Legal Institute found that many of the people arrested in Jakarta between January 2007 and January 2008 were subject to abuse.

The Jakarta Post reported that not less than 80 per cent of nearly 400 inmates who took part in the survey had experienced torture of some kind. Some of them were shot in the foot and had their chests stomped on by police, and some others claimed to have been electrocuted. Not only that, police also threatened them at gun point during investigations.

A police spokesman, of course, had refused to comment on this.

I never lived in Jakarta, but I heard similar case from my own neighbor in a small town in East Java. I was still in Junior High at that time, and that neighbour was arrested for stealing a chicken. During his term in jail, he was given electric shock — as well as being beaten. Well, he wasn’t the best neighbor I ever had, but being tortured for a chicken doesn’t really sound fair.

Another time, when I visited my cousin who was hospitalized with dengue fever, an inmate was also treated in the same hospital. He was shot for trying to escape when police caught him. He was guilty of stealing a log of wood.

Unlike Anggun who abhors capital punishment, I think to some extent it’s needed. However, torturing prisoners is another story. It’s just plain inhumane. Unfortunately, this is not really something new, even our most famous author, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, had to experienced it himself.

But of course, police can treat their inmate very well too. Just look at the Ganja Queen Schapelle Corby. In the past, people in Australia condemned Indonesia for refusing to deport her to her homeland. They feared that she’d be mistreated during her term. The truth is, this is what happened to her:

“Australian drug trafficker Schapelle Corby, who is serving a 20-year jail term in Indonesia for smuggling marijuana, spent several hours having her hair and nails done in a Bali beauty salon on Wednesday.
The 30-year-old beautician, whose case is the subject of a documentary film and is frequently in the media spotlight, was convicted in 2005 of smuggling 4.1 kg (9 lb) of marijuana from Australia to Bali.
Flanked by two armed officers, Corby went to a beauty salon in the Balinese capital located near a hospital where she has been receiving treatment for depression, witnesses said.”

Hm, do Australian police also take their inmates to salon when they suffer depression?

Another convict, Tommy Suharto also had no complaints of any mistreatment when he was jailed back in 2002. BBC even described his situation as ‘incarcerated in style’. While other inmates had to share a cell with nine other people, Tommy’s cell had three rooms, 53-centrimetre (21-inch) Sony Trinitron TV, fan and a food container holding various flavours of instant noodles — oh and a branded toilet.

Some inmates are better off than the rest.