Wet Sunday

Yesterday I went out after church with some friends to a local restaurant. We went by Ankot (public transportation) and had a great meal together. Of course just as we get up to leave the rain starts pouring. I didn't have an umbrella and didn't ride my bike so I had to run about half a mile to my house. i had sandles on and jeans so I rolled them off and took off my sandles and just ran. I was still soaking wet by the time I got home. So much fun.

Later that night I went and saw Constantine. I found it enjoyable but the theology was all over the place. It was written from a very heavily catholic tradition with some occult thrown in. I was sad that they minimalized the involvement of God in our lives and increased the power of the evil ones. It seems a little silly to me to think that we have to save ourselves against these awesome forces. I know I sure couldn't. Other than that is was fun and somewhat original.

I've been having some good discussions recently about religiously themed movies such as Signs and Bruce Almighty. Signs I found interesting philosophically but boring as a movie. Bruce Almighty I found very enjoyable and it dealt very well with some difficult religious questions like love, free will and power. Bruce Almighty I would highly recommend to anyone. Constantine I would recommend to fans of action and thriller movies but don't read too much into it. Signs I wouldn't really recommend unless you like M. Night Shmhamamalanannnnn.

Garbage Collapse

Here in Bandung (pronounced ban as in flan and doong with a sound like pool only different consonants) it has been raining very hard for the last month or so. This floods most of south Bandung pretty bad every year but this year it is really bad. We live up north on the slope of the mountains and so are pretty unaffected by water except for when the roads turn in to rivers. In fact, I have a theory that the roads are just dry creek beds that they have tarred over. Anyways, in the south, apparently someone has been piling garbage into a huge mound instead of disposing of it properly. Right now it appears that some of the city garbage has been dumping there instead of the official garbage dump to skim a little money off the pot. Well, the garbage got really wet and collapsed like a landslide or an avalanche and cover a neighborhood or two. Right now about 160 people are dead and it is estimated that the garbage was traveling at up to 250 Km/h. Hopefully the government will fix the problem and prevent a tragedy like this from happening again.

Animal Sounds

After having lived in several countries and learned several different languages, one of the things that really strikes me as funny is the way different languages perceive the sounds that animals make. Teaching students from several different countries it is always fun to ask them what sounds a certain animal makes and listen to the different responses. Not the best use of a computer class but fun none the less. Here are some funny examples:

Rooster:
English: cock-a-doodle-doo
Chinese (Mandarin): gou gou
Indonesian: kikeriku
Korean: kko-kki-yo
Thai: ake-e-ake-ake

Cat:
English: meow
Indonesian: ngeong
Japanese: nyaa
Chinese (Mandarin): miao miao
Korean: (n)ya-ong

Toke Gecko:
Indonesian: toke
Japanese: tii-tii
Thai: took-gae took-gae

Bee:
English: bzzzz
Korean: boong-boong (/wing-wing)
Norwegian: sum-sum
Japanese: bunbun

For lots more fun with world animal sounds, check out Sounds of the World's Animals

Aceh trip update

Couple of real quick updates. We have gotten the team together. It will consist of 9 students and 6 adults.

First of all we have founded a new group called the Bandung International Student Association or BISA for short. Bisa is the Indonesian word for the verb "can" as in, we can. This organization is the one we will go and represent in Aceh and connect with a school up there. We will basically be adopting the school and helping them rebuild. The goal is to have students from both of the International schools in Bandung to help with this effort.

Here are some stats on the high school.

Before the Tsunami:
1100 students
60 Teachers and employees
34 Class rooms
4 Office lots
3 Laboratories (Physics, Biology and Chemistry)
1 Library

In the Tsunami:
200 students were killed
700 students lost everything
50+ students were orphaned (both parents killed)
20 teachers were killed
22 classrooms were completely destroyed
12 classrooms are in very poor condition
All the offices were destroyed
All the labs and library were destroyed

Our goal on this trip is to try and get the schools in a place where they can start. School uniforms are extremely important to students and they are to shy to go without them because they will be made fun of. We will be bringing 700 uniforms and 700 school starter packs with pencils, pens, notebooks, erasers and rulers for these students. We will also be working on cleaning up the school and trying to return the 12 remaining classrooms to a useful state. We will also be bringing some white boards, sports equipment and other helpful stuff.

During the second phase, probably this summer, we will hopefully be bringing up curriculum books, computers, library resources and other big items to get them back to running. This is going to be a huge effort but hopefully it will be extremely successful and cement a relationship between us and them.

Another team, consisting mostly of students that are interested in nursing, will be getting some training from the World Health Organization and be flown around in helicopters to administer vaccines.

Please be praying for us as we have tons of preparation still to go.

Information and misinformation about Aceh

There have been lots of incredible stories floating around about the tsunami in Aceh. Two in particular are getting a lot of attention.

The first is called, Miracle at Meulaboh or sometimes A Praise Report. It is an e-mail that has been going around about how the Muslims would not allow the Christians to celebrate Christmas in Meulaboh so they went up to a hill and were spared the wrath of the tsunami. I can positively say that this is a hoax. I have talked to at least 6 people that have come back from Aceh and been to Meulaboh and all of them think it is rediculous. One I talked to was in Meulaboh a week after the Tsunami and talked with the Christian leaders there. None of them mentioned anything of this nature to him. All of the rest of the people I have talked to said the same thing. Not only that but there are plenty of questionable things in the e-mail. First, there are many denominations in Indonesia and to get them all together for one Christmas celebration would be next to impossible. Secondly, one version I read claimed that many Muslim Communists were coming converting to Christianity. There aren't any Muslim Communists here. By definition the two groups are at odds with each other and don't agree on anything. I can't imagine there being very many of them, if any. Finally, it says that the Muslims were saying that it was a punishment from God that they didn't allow the Christians to celebrate in the city. This is also false. The general feeling up there is that the Tsunami, like everything in our lives, was their fate or the will of God. None of them think of it as a punishment. They are very fatalistic in this. For more on debunking this myth, go to Urban Legends: Miracle of Meulaboh.

The second is a story about how indiginous people survived the Tsunami because of folklore handed down about how massive tremblings of the earth are followed by huge walls of water. This one is actually true. Many indiginous groups had no casualties because after the earthquake they all headed inland. There is an article about it in The BBC.

Be careful about what you read about in an e-mail or even what you hear about on the news. Recently Newsweek reported that fighting between GAM and the Indonesian Military (TNI) had flared up in Aceh. The truth is that a gunshot was heard somewhere in the city and nothing has happened since then. Just because it is in the news doesn't mean it is true.

Ketchup or Catsup?

One of the first things to get used to here in Indonesia is that ketchup is not ketchup, or at least not the same stuff as back home. Here ketchup is more what we would refer to as soy sauce. There are also two kinds of ketchup, manis and asin, which mean sweet and salty. Ketchup asin is similar to soy sauce in the US but still a little different. Ketchup manis is thick and sweet (also one of my favorites).

Do you think maybe they got it wrong? Not even close. Turns out ketchup is derived from an Indonsian (Malay) word for "fish sauce" that was carried back to Europe during the 1700's. It originally was used to refer to any sauce that contained vineagar, usually with soy. So, if anything, we got it wrong.

Here in Indonesia they do have a tomato based sauce but it is sweeter and has chili sauce in it as well. It is called Sambal. Everyone eats it on everything. Even at MacDonalds instead of ketchup dispensers, there are sambal dispensers. You have to ask for ketchup by the name "saus tomat" to get some.

Wanna learn more about the fascinating history of ketchup? Check out Answers.com on ketchup.

Lightning

Today we had yet another severe lightning storm. This one was during the middle of the day so I unplugged all the network gear in case we got hit again. We have been hit twice in the last two years and I never sleep whenever there is lightning in the area. Luckily this morning the electrician I hired began installation of the new lightning protection and grounding I'm having installed. Soon I will be able to sleep soundly again.

Finger lickin' good

Here in Indonesia, fried chicken is a favorite among fast food. Even MacDonalds has fried chicken and rice. There is also Popeyes, KFC and the most inexplicable Texas Fried Chicken. I cracked up the first time I saw a Texas Fried Chicken since we DEFINITELY don't have them in Texas. Since then I've learned that it is another name for Churchs Fried Chicken. I guess having a restaurant named Church's in a predominantly Mulsim country is not the smartest marketing idea. There is also a California Fried Chicken but it is a local ripoff of KFC and TFC and tastes terrible.

Check out some pictures.

Happy Singleness Awareness Day (SAD Day)

I'm still single so I can be bitter about it.

Here are some does and don'ts for singles on this SAD day.
Does:
1. Go for a walk in nature.
2. Buff up at the gym.
3. Stay home and eat whatever you want.
4. Watch a horror flick.
5. Wander around your neighborhood (or campus) with a waterballoon launcher and plenty of waterballoons.

Don'ts:
1. Go to the movie theater.
2. Go out to dinner.
3. Go to any mall with hearts of flowers showing.
4. Send a card to someone (Could be your last SAD day if you do).
5. Tag along with a friend on his/her date.

Happy SAD day everyone.

Newsletter 15

Newsletter 15 is available from the menu on the left.

How safe is your password?

I've talked with lots of people over the years about passwords. Usually the first thing I say is, "the most common passwords are: god, sex, love, secret and password." Invariably, one out of every four people I say that to gets a look on their face like I can read minds. Clearly I've guessed theirs. In fact, many people choose very poor passwords. I've got my own technique for creating passwords but a Microsoft employee is recommending that you not use passwords at all with Windows. His basic premise is that even if you choose a random order of letters and numbers, it can still be cracked easily if it is less than 14 characters long. To counter this he says to use passphrases instead of passwords. For example, "Four score and seven years ago." would be a good passphrase. Windows allows up to 127 characters for a password/passphrase. Why not start using more?

Unfortunately many online sites don't let you use more than 8-10 which requires some more obfuscation. Here is one way that I create short passwords. First, pick someone you like or a favorite word. I'll use "hermaphrodite". Now, replace all of the vowels with numbers (i=1, a=2, e=3, o=0, u=4). We now have "h3rm2phr0d1t3". Now for all of the consonants, move tha characters to the left (or right) one character on the keyboard. So instead of typing an "h", type a "g". Our password would now be "g3en2oge0s1r3". Which is very hard to guess but easy to create if we know that the root word is "hermaphrodite". Throw in a few capital letters and it gets increasingly hard to crack.

One final note, Many online sites ask for an e-mail address and a password. If you forget your password, they will e-mail it to you. I HIGHLY recommend creating a unique password for your e-mail and not using it for any of the sites you use that e-mail address for. If I signed up for a site and gave it my e-mail of randall@hotmail.com (not my real e-mail address) and set the same password as my e-mail, all the admin of the site has to do is go to hotmail and enter the same password you gave him! I always keep my e-mail password different than the password I use for other things.

For your pleasure, here are some more common passwords: admin, 12345, 54321, 111, , 0000000, 11111111, 88888888, pass, passwd, abcd, 123qwe, server, computer, 123asd, ihavenopass, godblessyou, jesus, enable, xp, 007, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, foobar, a, aaa, abc, test, temp, win, pc, asdf, qwer, yxcv, zxcv, home, xxx, owner, login, pwd, pass, mypc, mypass, pw, (blank).

Is your password on the list? If so, you might want to change it.

Fire, Fire!

Just about everyone here in Indonesia smokes. I've never smoked in my life, mostly because I don't like inhailing smoke. When I'm around a campfire I like to sit windward of the fire. Of course Indonesians often want to offer me a cigarette and so in broken English they ask me, "Are you smoking?" They mean of course, "Do you smoke?" but I always check above my head for any telltale tendrils before I answer.

419 Eater

Having tried to sell some stuff online and having an e-mail address I have come across a fair amount of 419 scammers. For those of you who don't know what they are, they are the people who offer to give you money for no reason or some stupid reason. In the end they take all your money. If you have some time, head on over to 419eater.com and check out some of the ways that people mess with them. Absolutely hilarious.

Lord of the Rings

Today was the Lord of the Rings Marathon for our youth group, hosted by me. We used the school's auditorium, new ceiling mounted digital projector and sound system to make it almost like a real theater. All three extended movies together were about 12 hours long. I am always exhausted after watching them all. Good fun though.

Gong Xi Fat Chai

Happy Chinese New Year of the Rooster everyone. Today is the lunar new year for the chinese and they celebrate in Indonesia by all the singles go around to married people and say "Gong Xi Fat Chai" and then are given money. Apparently they get quite a bit. Tomorrow is Islamic New Year and Friday is Korean.

Randall Responds

I thought it might be fun to change things up a bit today so I'm creating a new feature called "Randall Responds." I know, stupid name but it works. What I am thinking is for people to ask me questions in the comments of this post and in a few days I will collect them and answer. Feel free to ask about anything at all.

Super Bowl Bonanza

Its Super Bowl Monday! Thats right. Here in Indonesia the Super Bowl is played Monday morning because of the time difference. Unfortunately we have school during this time! Because of this many of us are trying our darnedest (I like that word!) not to find out the score before tonight. There is a rerun on satellite and we are having a party to watch it. A couple of interesting notes are that the game is cut down an hour for the rerun so we don't get all the "boring" plays which for previous games has sometimes included scoring. We also don't get the fun commercials. We get to watch the same old three for English Premiere Football that they have been showing for years. Contrary to the name, it is definitely NOT football. It is just boring English soccer. So for those of you watching right now, enjoy and don't tell me the score.

Sick again

A recurring theme of living here in Indonesia seems to be having a stomach sickness. I tend to get sick about once a month with diarhea, vomiting or both and I'm at it again. I finally ate a little today at lunch for the first time since monday. I've been trying to allow my body to "beat the bug" but after four days of not eating, having no energy and sleeping through my prep periods, I'm throwing in the towel. I'm now on heavy doses of Flagyl to kill off Giardia. We've lost a lot of the elementary kids to a similar sickness. (By lost I mean they are home sick, not that they have died) I can't wait till I am back in the US and don't have to worry about getting severe stomach sicknesses all the time. On the positive side, there is no way to lose weight faster. I've already dropped about 5 pounds!

More on the earthquake

Turns out the epicenter was 43 Km south of Bandung and was a magnitude of 5.2. Not very big. It caused an elementary school to collapse and a few houses to topple but nothing too major.

For more information, News.com.au

There is a good look into Indonesian psychology with the drilling in Garut if you read the article.

Earthquake!

We had an earthquake here at school today. Apparently there have been hundreds of small quakes around the region since the big one. It was a small one and just bumped the desks around and made me feel dizzy. Don't worry about tsunami's here though. We are at around 4000 feet elevation. I'm more worried about the several active volcanos within a few hours of here, one is only a 30 minute drive away and I love going up there to visit.

Funny little story

Here's an e-mail from one of my roomates. This is so Indonesia.

I was sitting in Yopie Salon at Bandung Super Mall getting my hair cut (ok, a creambath, but a hair cut sounds more masculine) when I looked at their calender and it was a picture of my Junior High School in NH.

It was pretty far away, so I kept looking at it in the mirror. Once my "hair was cut" I went over to it and said, "that is my hometown in NH" - that is a picture of my old Church, my Junior High and the field I use to play baseball (typical NH beauty with all the autumn leaves and pumpkins)... They said "you're from Italy". I said, "no, that's NH" - they said "but the calender says that's Italy".

I then turned to February and they had a picture of snow covered mountains and penquins and the caption said "Canada". I told them "there aren't any penquins in Canada, the editor just guessed where these pictures were from". I asked if I could buy the calender and they said "No" but hey, if you're at Yopie in BSM - look at January to see my Junior High School. It was the coolest thing.

Peace, Pete