QuickLink: Daily Surf

• Cutting travel cost [via dumblittleman]
• Firefox/Flock extension: Book price comparison [via lifehacker]
• Manage multiple gmail [via dumblittleman]
• Free online college courses, podcast, and videos [via lifehacker]

A Short Tint with Scientology

Tom Cruise has been on the news too much lately, for his on-off wedding plan with the kutie Katie ["k" is deliberated] and his sudden urge to perform a Scientology mass conversion.

Curious to know what this buzz surrounding the mysterious “S” was all about, I signed up for an introduction course at a Scientology Center in a city in the Bay Area where I lived only temporarily. I really liked the materials at first since to me they were more related to psychology than religion. Also, psychology is my newfound “religion.” I digged the concept of clear and reactive mind in addition to the questioning-answering procedure called auditing, “involves re-experiencing incidents in one’s past life in order to erase their engrams.” As an amateur psychologist wannabe, I love to grill people nut with my lines of questioning and then psycho-analyze them. I remember reading some thing like if you are a psychologist, you psycho-analyze the neurotic, but if you’re not a psychologist and psycho-analyze people, you’re NEUROTIC. [lol]

I probably would have stayed and took a few more Scientology courses–in fact I signed up for the Dianetics course– if I did not feel pushed and pressured to work for them. The director there said that he/she liked my personality and would like to have me on staff. (He/she was really a nice person.) I repeatedly refused as I did not want to associate with any religious group. Yes, I’m curious and try learn as much as I can about all religions but to identify myself with one is something I try to avoid. Actually, I would have considered to work or volunteer with Scientology, but the moment they showed me a 2-year contract, repeatedly called me, I decided that it was time for me to go. Plus, I was moving to another state. Later I received a 7-dollar bill for some books I don’t remember buying as I paid everything up front for the course.

I still want to learn about Scientology and I think many other will too which is a good idea since there is too much misconception and rumors about this strange religion. “Is that the religion which believes in alien?” A friend of mine asked when we talked about Scientology.

However, their pushy approach might scare and turn people away. [I met a bunch of them. They seemed very nice.] In my case, I was too paranoid of being brainwashed, so I took the escape route. As you can see, I even use “brainwashed” and “Scientology” in the same post; this proves that I might just be one of those people who are affected by so many scare-tactics, misconception spread about this so-called religion.)

The article “Inside Scientology: Unlocking the complex code of America’s most mysterious religion” by Janet Reitman is an interesting read for those who are curious and want to know more.

[Link via Rolling Stone]

C.D.

Business School, Any Thought?

I have a technical undergraduate degree, and after a few years working in non-technical environment I would like to be more on front-end side and learn more business skills. But I have observed from my experience:
1. I don’t learn much from a traditional schooling system: going to school, doing homework, passing the exams, getting a good marks. "It’s too structured for you, eh?" A friend of mine said.
2. I don’t like to owe money. I currently have a problem with school loan although I never receive any money from it. A business program costs a lot of money, not counting prestigious ones. My undergrad study was financed strictly by grants, scholarship, and part time jobs; so I prefer to do the same when I return to school for a grad degree.

It’s difficult to find a good business program with grants, scholarship at the same time. The only loan-free route I can see right now is to work for a company which pays for my pursuing an MBA degree after sometime working for them. Until I find such company, I have to considerate whether it’s worth the time and the money to return to school and get a business degree. Of course, having a degree is always good, but it might not be as essential and beneficial to future career as many people think.

…Is business school really the best way to learn entrepreneurship? Will it really make you more money in the long run? As my friend Paulie Sabol points out, it might actually cost you money in the long run to go to business school rather than just going ahead and starting and investing the expense of business school wisely in something else.

[Link via About]

QuickLink: Daily surf

• DailyLit
  Online literature delivery. (I receive 3 daily emails, each contains parts of whichever literary work I subscribe to.)
• del.icio.us
  Online social bookmarks (now I don’t have to worry about using multi browsers, multi computers anymore.
• Federate Media Publishing
  Connect blog authors, marketers, and audience. (I use this site to find the best, most influential weblog there are for inspiration.)
• Lulu Self Publishing
  Let authors publishing their books without a traditional publisher. (I will publish my first story book this way.)
• reddit: what’s new online
  User submitted news, articles, posts, blogs, etc. (Since the discovery of reddit, I barely read news elsewhere.)
• Tabblos
  Host images, create collage of images.
• Top WordPress plugins
  Useful plugins for WordPress blogging software.

QuickLink: Flock, the coolest thing

When I discovered Firefox in 2004, I thought I found one of the coolest web browsers compared to IE, Netscape, built-in browswer inside AOL. I digged the tab feature and completely switch to Firefox or a two years until I found another coolest web browser, Opera. Opera has Firefox’s tab feature, built-in mail and rss feed reader, cool widgets among other things. I’m happy with Opera, and using it for the past month now.

Until yesterday, I discovered Flock, a browser built based on Firefox. Oh my gosh, this blue baby is the darnest thing: great baby blue GUI, integrated with flickr, youtube, gmail, blog editor in addition to gazzillions darnest extensions.

From now on, I will use FLOCK and FLOCK alone.

QuickLink: Daily surf

• Free dictionaries for Windows: Available in many languages which share a common user interface. I download a single dictionary file (.exe) once and four word list (for each language). I’m currently using Spanish, Czech, Croatian, and Vietnamese.)  With Vietnamese, I have to install the extra font. I really like these dictionaries: free, light-weight, easy-to-use, easy-switching from XLanguage<->English, XLanguge and English word appear at the same time I’m typing eliminating typos, typo tolerant, and I can add words and phrase to the word list. 

  

• Sync Google Calendar to MS Outlook: This post gives a detailed tutorials on how to sync your online Google’s Calendar with Outlook (I use MS Outlook 2003). It took a little bit of time downloading and installing, but I finally got it to work.  However, this is only one way sync as I don’t think Google’s Calendar can retrieve info from Outlook.

Powered by Qumana

Credit card charges

I called up my credit cards companies to inquire about international transaction fees.

CaptialOne: no fee 
Chase : 3% of the total amount.

It’s crazy since I’ve been using mosly Chase card for the past few years including all the time I spent overseas. How much extra money I paid for using Chase instead of CapitalOne.  The reason I used Chase was that I had more money on the card, thus more convenient. 

Yah. I should have researched and know more about my credit cards instead of just simply using them.  Just some research, carefully read the statement, and simple phone calls, I could have avoided all those extra charges.  (I had a bad habit when it comes to dealing with money.)

Okay, a lesson learned.

Update: Target Visa card charges 1% for international transaction. 

I’m writing a children book

I’ve always thought that someday I’ll write a children book, not any kind of book, but the kind which sets a high standard for others to follow, the kind which make people think a little, …no…alot, the kind which changes their thinking…

I’ve entertained this idea for quite long time and actually set out to write short script, but I threw it aside ’cause it was too much jumbo, mumbo and uh SUCK. However, I know so well if I don’t write what-i-want-to-do down and stick to it, surely I will not. Human has the tendency to act in auto-pilot mode, to stay in the comfort zone. I used to be like this a lot.

You probably heard of the song “Losing my religion,” the best song of R.E.M. Michael Stipe, the song writer, said in an interview that he was inspired by a song from The Police: “Every breath you take.” He thought that it was a great song about love obessision, and determined to write another just like that if not better.

If “Everybreath you take” serves as a benchmark for R.E.M. “Losing my religion,” these following stories and books are well kept in the back of my head for inspiration:

• The Little Prince (French) – Antoine de Saint Exupéry (a story about a little boy’s view of the world)
• Totochan, The Little Girl by the Windows (Japanese) -Tetsuko Kuroyanagi (a book about a little girl’s view of education)
• My Heart’s in the Highlands (American) – William Saroyan (about an impoverished poet and his son who worry about their household income)

In case you question about my English writing skills. Hmm, I think in order for me to achieve the highest standard I set for myself, I should write my book not in English, but in my native tongue, and later translate into English.

QuickLink:Daily surf

• Tips and tricks using blogger (old and beta version): I tried out beta blogger and so far really excited. Finally after 2 years since I first started blogging with blogger, I can categorize my posts. If blogger has implemented this feature sooner, I would not have switched to WordPress. However, I’m glad I use WordPress. This free blogging software is totall awesome. I think its design and all of those features provided by WordPress play a crucial role in my deicsion to make my Saraj site better and keep updating it for a while until I run out of ideas.
• If you’re sick of the default templates provided by blogger, you can try these designs. They look good, but remember that you can’t edit the CSS since it’s not inline. Such eh?
• I tried Google’s online spreadsheet yesterday. It’s pretty neat. This way I can have an updated spreadsheet version for my time card. I can update it from either computer: work and home without having to email the file back and forth.
• I signed up for a Writely account to use its online word processor. This will be convenient as J. and I are planning to co-write our travel trip. This way, we know we always have the update version and see the other’s edits.
• Free language course (FSI) offers free lessons: text and audio in a few languages: Cantonese, French, German, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish, Vietnamese are one of them. I just examined the Spanish lessons and thought that the courses are taught in a very slow pace. It’s worth a try though.

Finishing this post, I realize 4/6 items I mentioned are Google’s products or those from companies it bought. Pretty impressive this Google.

-cd

Travelouge: Day 5: Wednesday, 6/28: Dubrovnik

We followed a guided group of tourists to listen for free. I was a little bit embarrassed, so I tried to be inconspicuous and kept a distance from them. When I got close, I pretended that I was window-shopping. But shameless Jan, who was more into historical information, museums, and guided trips, saw no problem of blending in with the PAID group and becoming one of them. He explained: “The street is free; I can walk and stand wherever I want.” “I agree, but this is more of a principal matter,” I replied. Warning to the readers: Don’t be fooled by my last statement as there is nothing principal about me; I was simply embarrassed.

The tour guide was a pretty woman in white summer dress and round beach hat. She spoke English fairly well and was quite articulate narrating the history of Dubrovnik until near the end when she got caught up by a harmless political-provoking question: “What was that civilian conflict which happened here?” A tourist asked.
“No, it was not a civilian conflict. It was a Serbian war.” She quickly corrected him.
The group erupted with laughter.

Suddenly, I forgot my freeloader’s status and inched closer to listen to the conversation.
“It was not a religious war either.” She continued. “It was strictly for economic reason. Croatia broke away from Yugoslavia, and Serbia declared war because it wanted to control the Dalmatian coast.” Then, she pointed to buildings which bombed from oversea, in Montenegro territory by the Serbia and Montenegro army.

“Wow, this woman is a madly nationalist.” J. commented.
“What the hell do you mean?” I angrily asked.
“She did not tell the truth. Croatians murdered many innocent Serbs too.”
“But Serbia started it.” I retorted.
“If you want to argue about who started first, it will never end. For example, one can say that Croatia started because it broke away from the country-implied Yugoslavia.”

“But if the central government in Serbia led better or was not too greedy (*), nobody would even think about breaking away right?” I said. ” Look at Czech and Slovakia; you guys broke without a single gun shot. What does it mean? It means that the same event can spawn many different responses and actions depending pretty much on the people involved. If you have leaders like the Dalai Lama (*) or Gandhi (*), wars and massacres would NOT have happened. Too bad for this region having bastard like Milosevic and those radical Bosnian Serbs.”

“Let see it this way. As the president of Yugoslavia, Milosevic was responsible to keep the country together.” J. still calmly explained.

“If you say so then why DIDN’TS the president of Czechoslovakia bomb Slovakia? There are many ways to keep the country together. You can always negotiate. If negotiation fails and these people want to leave the union, then perhaps it said something about your character as a leader of a nation. You simple don’t have the respect and support, then you should let them go peacefully.” My voice began to rise and speed up. “Milosevic, being a power-greedy and ill-intent nationalist bastard that he is, he waged the wars and murdered thousands of people. Look at Gandhi and his non-violent approach in his quest which earned him a Nobel Prize, to liberate India from English rule. If he had induced the Indians into killing the English oppressors, I bet you, the world would not have condemned his action.

“Stop screaming at me! Can we just talk?”
“No. I’m not screaming. I just have to make a point. And we cannot talk.” I said.

I admit that I got myself all worked up every single time J. and I talked about the Aggression 1992-1995, and he tried to find some sort of defense for Serbia. I have singled out Serbia as the responsible party for this malicious act and in turn had severely negative images of Serbia and its people, the right-wing nationalists.

J. never lived through any war in which his close family relatives died. He kept bringing up his great-grandfather who was a soldier during WWII, how German Nazi murdered Czech, and how Russia fucked up Czechoslovakia during Communism regime, and still he doesn’t hate the Germans and Russians, and how people should move on, blah blah like that. However, he does not KNOW his great-grandfather, thus his death concerns him little if at all. WWII happened a long time ago, and he did not live through WWII, thus the pain and misery experienced by Czech only caused fleeting and at-the-moment rage when one talked about that. These experiences would never surmount to the level I call PERSONAL as felt by the Bosniaks, many of whom can be as young as 15 years old, who witnessed their fathers and uncles being slaughtered by Serbian nationalist/cetnik. This trauma have long and serious affect, and in many cases ruining their lives.

Phew, we stopped talking and proceeded to a book store to glance at some information about the city. I picked up a travel book about Dubrovnik which mentioned the Aggression. It was funny and fishy as the book mentioned Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro, even Macedonia, everything BUT Bosnia, the KEY figure during this war. I turned to J. and said, “Maybe these people (Croatians) have something to hide. They did not mention Bosnia because they might have to bring up the fact that they betrayed the coalition with the Bosniak army and murdered their former allies in the process. I start not liking it (Dubrovnik) here.”

Food
J. kept asking for permission to eat that delicious Dalmatian seafood dish. After many “no” from me, we resolved to find a cheaper alternative. I suddenly remember Warsaw, an expensive touristy city where Tomek took us to a really cheap, self-service restaurant. We didn’t even have to walk for long as we accidentally stroll past a “Self-Service” restaurant which offered already-made food and a salad bar. I ordered a small plate of seafood rice risotto for only 24KN and a salad plate for 13KN. Of course, the food is good but in no way comparable to the delicious kind people talked about when they talked about Dalmatian cuisine, oh my those seafood plates. What can I say? I was a backpacking traveler on a shoestring and not on a luxurious vacation.

– We sat in front of this restaurant while contemplating about whether to eat there –

While checking out the restaurants, I saw a menu offering Cevapi with a specific description: “Original recipe from Sarajevo.” This discovery made me think that perhaps the people from Sarajevo might be right when boasting they serve the best cevapi. I tempted to try but over here, they insanely charged for a cevapi plate. A regular 10-piece plate cost 35KN/5 euros compared to 5KM/2.5 euros served in the best cevapi houses, Zeljo.

– Cevapi menu –

…to be continue…

(*) Belgrade was the capital of the ex-Yugoslavia, so foreign aid and funding to Yugoslavia concentrated in the capital. Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia decided to break up partly because of this reason. By greedy, I mean that if the politicians and whoever with deciding power in Belgrade were not greedy and distribute the money fairly, breakup might not have happened. However, there are other deeper reasons.
(*) The Dalai Lama is the unofficial highest religious leader among Buddhists. He fled from Tibet during his young adult years followed hunt from the Communist Chinese government who for years tries to censor and minimize his unswaying influence over the Tibetans. Try to google “Dalai Lama” from search engines in China, you will come up EMPTY.
(*) Gandhi is the spiritual leader of India, whose fast and peaceful protests have brought freedom to India from British rule.