Discovering (My) Vocation - Part II

One day, I saw the making of Michael Crichton’s Sphere (starring Sharon Stone and Samuel L. Jackson, if I’m not mistaken). It was a bad movie by the way, but I was drawn into the visual effects (CG) animation process. And decided that I’d like to do that. So I dropped my grade-A entry that I got at Binus and decided to go for design school at Untar instead, following my sister’s footsteps, and against my parents’ approval. Not knowing that it (CG) actually has everything to do with computers (and programming) – the result of lack of information, silly me.

By then, my sister was already a freshman in design school, with all the endless late nights-consuming art projects – things that my mother doubted I could do. Originally, (my sister) wanted to take fashion design – she was a true fashionista ever since she was a kid. But she decided otherwise because (fashion design) school was just so goddamn expensive. While I had been the star-student in the family – the good girl cum geeky nerd, she had always been the artist in the family – rebellious but gifted with such true talent.

Discovering (My) Vocation - Part I

What is your (true) passion?
What is it that you really want to do in life?

These questions have been haunting me, nagging me, for the last two years.

Some people are lucky enough to have found the answer to those questions. Some found it out early, some found it out late. Some never found it. And some, like me, are still searching – endlessly – for the answer, for our vocation. For that call that would make our life (more) meaningful.

It has been two years since I left school (university), and here I am now. Still nowhere. While around me, I see people that I know accomplishing things or paving their ways to it. I can’t help but feel (slightly) jealous. I feel like I’m still standing in the middle of a crossroad. I’ve taken a few courses, but I always stopped in the middle and returned back to square one, just because I felt that they weren’t the right courses. Or maybe it was just because I was (so) easily discouraged.

[Coelho's] Two Stories About Mountains: Contemplating The Desert

Contemplating the desert

Three people who were passing in a small caravan saw a man contemplating the sunset in the Sahara desert from the top of a mountain.

“It must be a shepherd who has lost a sheep and is trying to find it,” said the first.

“No, I don’t think he is looking for something, especially not at sunset - that confuses your vision. I think he is waiting for a friend.”

“I bet he’s a holy man looking for enlightenment,” commented the third.

They began to discuss what the man was doing, and got so involved in the discussion that they nearly ended up fighting with one another. Finally, to find out who was right, they decided to climb the mountain and ask the man.

“Are you looking for your sheep?” asked the first.

“No, I don’t have a flock.”

The Circle of Life: What is Acceptable and What is Not?

Once upon a time, not so long ago, I received an email containing a file with pictures of the sacred Tibetan burial ritual, the Celestial Burial.

Celestial burial refers to the Tibetan tradition of feeding the dead to vultures and other birds of prey on mountaintops. The body is first ripped open, mutilated, and then squashed with a large hammer to ‘soften’ – I forgot the exact term for this – the bones, before it was finally devoured by vultures.

It is closely related to the Buddhist practice in the Himalayan region. Buddhists believe in the recycling of life. The dead person's spirit is believed to leave the body upon death. His body is fed to the birds of prey as a final token of charity. (Xinhua News Agency January 12, 2006)

(SFX: ‘The Circle of Life’ - Elton John)

Some people may see this ritual as savage. Brutal. Primitive. Mean. Inexplicable. Someone told me that, even though he thinks the value/thought behind the ritual is good, the act’s still unacceptable.

I wonder.. Is it?

Interesting Facts

Here’s some random interesting facts I’ve gotten to know quite recently, over a few course of conversations with a few interesting characters.. =)

Indonesia’s spy agency is actually listed as one of the top 10 best spy agencies in the world. I forgot the exact rank. But if I’m not mistaken, we’re on the top 5 (Number one is of course Mossad). Wow.. I was really surprised when my friend – who’s a military freak – told me that. I mean, who would’ve thought?

‘Tara’ means star (from Sanskrit I think, or maybe Hindi, not sure..). Beautiful option for a name, which a friend of mine used for his pretty little daughter.

History crash-course! Islam was actually brought into our country by Chinese (via The Silk Road). And the Wali Songo are Chinese (well, at least half of them). Wow.. turned out we brought in something more than just noodles and wontons, huh?