BM#10 - Life Has A Funny Way...

Life has a funny way of helping you out... [1]
***

Frank Slazak had always dreamed of becoming an astronaut. He held on to his dream.Then one day, NASA opened application for civilian to become austronaut. He filled the application, prayed and continued to dream. But he was not selected. Although many of his friends consoled him, he still couldn't get over it. “Why, God?”

"Tuesday, January 28, 1986, the day I had dreamed about for 25 years, found me gathered with those that I had shared my failed dream with: my students, my family, and people from my community, along with members of the media. We all came to witness history. We watched as the space shuttle Challenger lifted off the launch pad. As it cleared the launch tower, I challenged my dream one final time. God, I would do anything to be in that shuttle. Why can't that be me? 73 seconds later, God answered all of my questions and invalidated all of my doubts as the Challenger exploded, killing everyone on board, including teacher Christa McAuliffe." [2]

***

Someone I know was desperately in need of money to continue building his house. And then he prayed: “God, please give me fortune from any unexpected direction.” What happened next? His office was acquired by bigger company from overseas and many employees were laid off, including him. Why, God?, he asked. He still couldn’t believe what happened, because it was totally the opposite of what he wished. But then God show his ‘funny’ way of helping us out. The employer gave him enough ‘golden shakehand’ money to finish the building of the house. And not more than a month, he was accepted in a new company with salary almost double than the previous one. Isn’t that amazing?

***

Does God grant your wish and deliver it in a beautiful package? No, God does not deliver what you wish in its beautiful form. Instead, He deliver it in an ugly, complicated, and uneasy-to-open package. The question is: why?

That is because He wants to see you to open the gift with patience, one wrap after the other, little by little, minute by minute, on and on. Never stop nor quit, until the last wrap is open and you finally find exactly what you want inside the package.

Truly, there is nothing we can do except to always have a good prejudice on every gift from Him, whether it is pleasure or pain. For even the pain is just a wrapping, where we must have faith that we accept the pain only because He wants us to open the wrapping with love.

Let’s accept anything that happens to us, be it a good or ‘bad’ thing, with love. Og Mandino once put it in beautiful sentences:

“I will look on all things with love and be born again.

I will love the sun for it warms my bones;
yet I will love the rain for it cleanses my spirit.

I will love the light for it shows me the way;
yet I will love the darkness for it shows me the stars.

I will welcome happiness as it enlarges my heart;
yet I will endure sadness for it opens my soul.

I will acknowledge rewards for they are my due;
yet I will welcome obstacles for they are my challenge.” [3]

[1] Ironics by Alanis Morisette
[2] A 3rd Serving of Chicken Soup for the Soul by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen
[3] The Greates Salesman in the World by Og Mandino

c) created by MZ

BM#09 - Where Am I?

1983, a Korea Airlines Flight 007 was flying over the Sea of Japan. The weather was clear with some scattered clouds. Everything seemed normal, but the pilot didn’t realize that they flew over the prohibited Soviet airspace. Suddenly, two Soviet Sukhoi jet intercepted the aircraft. Two missiles were launched and struck the aircraft, causing it to spiral down and crash into the sea. All the passengers and crew aboard were killed.

The incident was caused by a navigational error and it could have been avoided by using a GPS. What is GPS? The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based global navigation system using 24 satellites launched by U.S. Department of Defense. GPS was originally intended for military applications, but following the Korea Airline incidents, President Ronald Reagan ordered the U.S. military to make the GPS available for civilian use so that navigational errors like that could be averted in the future.

GPS provides reliable positioning, navigation, and timing services to worldwide users on a continuous basis in any weather conditions, any time of day or night, anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day. And what’s best: it’s free.

How does GPS work? GPS 24 satellites broadcast signals from space that are used by GPS receivers to provide three-dimensional coordinates (latitude, longitude, and altitude). For user, this lat-long information does not mean anything unless they use a map. The map is a road database where every square meter is encoded as geographic coordinates. Every time you move, your coordinates change. The GPS receiver will calculate your coordinates, find the exact coordinate in the map, and then display your location in the map. Hence, it is important to have an accurate map. Inaccuracy of the map will lead to navigational errors.

The map viewer can be in any forms. It can be a standalone GPS receiver with LCD display, a cellular phone with GPS capability, or, like what I am currently using, a GPS bluetooth combined with cellphone.

How can GPS be used in everyday life? The basic function of GPS is, of course, to find a destination. After we find a destination, we can ask GPS to create a route to it. The map automatically opens with the route to destination is marked with colored line. Audio instructions will be provided by the GPS to tell us the turn-by-turn direction.



Another basic service of the GPS is to provide information about nearby points of interest (POI). POI can be anything, from ATM machines, hospitals, gas stations, police stations, amusement park, restaurants, hotels, and many more.

More advance service from GPS provide not only precise driving directions, they can also receive and display information on traffic congestion and suggest alternate routes. They can inform you the cheapest hotel available nearby, the cheapest gas stations, or they can even inform you a free space in parking lot. Unfortunately these services are still not available in Indonesia.

My fellow toastmasters, with the abundant capabilities of GPS, you don’t have to worry when traveling in an unknown locations. All you have to do is hit the ‘Where Am I’ button, and the GPS will take care all the rest. And you can proudly say: “Follow me, I have GPS”

[Source: wikipedia, Garmin Mobile XT Owners Manual]

(c) created by MZ

BM#08 - Memento

A memento, or a souvenir, is an object a traveler brings home for the memories associated with it. Derived from a French word, souvenir means "to remember." For many people, it's not so much the souvenir that's of value, but what it brings up — a memory and a good story to tell. One professor at Syracuse University says that "Travel is a special and unique period of one's life, and there's a natural human tendency to bring back a trophy from someplace you have been, to commemorate the event." [1]

Travelers are addicted to buying souvenirs, making souvenir industry to reach more than $1.5 billion a year. No trip feels complete until we've purchased a souvenir to remind us of where we've been.

Souvenir is almost the same as memorabilia. As souvenir is treasured for its memories, memorabilia are valued for a connection to a historical, sporting event, culture, entertainment.

There are many types of souvenirs/memorabilia, that includes clothing such as T-shirts or hats, refrigerator magnets, snow globe, miniature figures, mugs and bowls, ashtrays, spoons, and many others. One example of souvenirs that could be classified as a memorabilia is The Lion Monument. The Lion Monument, or the Lion of Lucerne, is a sculpture of a lion with the size of 6 m high and 10 m long. The sculpture is carved out of a wall of sandstone rock in Lucerne, Switzerland, and portrays a dying lion stabbed by a spear, covering a shield bearing the fleur-de-lis of the French monarchy; beside him is another shield bearing the coat of arms of Switzerland. It was designed as a memorial for the Swiss Guards who lost their lives while defending the French King Louis XVI during the French Revolution.

Many cities in the world have its own souvenirs that portray its city landmark, from Tower of Eiffel in Paris, Big Ben in London, to Statue of Liberty in NY City. Another example of souvenirs that depicts city landmark is Manneken Pis, landmark of Brussels, Belgium. It is a small bronze fountain sculpture depicting a naked little boy urinating into the fountain's basin. There are several legends behind this statue but the one I like is this one. When Brussels was under siege by an enemy, the attackers planned to explode the city walls. As the explosive materials were burned by the enemy, the little boy urinated on the burning fuse and thus saved the city



Everyone has their own favorite souvenirs. Some like to collect small glasses with a writing that says Hard Rock Café here or there. For me, my favorite souvenirs are the one made of pewter. Pewter is a metal alloy, that contain at least 90% of tin, with the remainder commonly consisting of copper, antimony and bismuth. Today, pewter is mainly used in decorative objects such as collectible statuettes and figurines, replica coins, pendants, etc. because they are malleable (can be shaped easily).








Although pewter is heavy and a bit expensive, I like pewter souvenirs because they look elegant, long lasting, and last but not least you wouldn’t find it sold in ITC, not like the refrigerator magnet..

So my fellow toastmasters, the next time you travel anywhere on earth, don’t forget to bring mementos home that will remind you with the places you’ve been to.

[1] Source: http://www.viamagazine.com/top_stories/articles/souvenirs03.asp

(c) images: private collections; words: by MZ

BM#02 - Go Green. Use eBike!

My fellow Toastmasters. What is the first thing that cross your mind when you first heard about the word ‘motorcycle’? This is what I think about motorcycle:
1. They are noisy
2. They are, in addition to cars, are the source of pollution

The number of motorcycles in Jakarta keep increasing every year. Can you imagine how the pollution from motorcycle and cars can affect the global warming? But, the increasing number of private vehicle is undertandable because public transportation in Indonesia is not reliable and hardly comfortable at all.

I live in [deleted], about 18 to 20 km depending on the route I take. It takes 1 hour and 45 minutes to get home using public transportation. 1.30 if I’m lucky, and 2 hours in my unlucky day. I am getting sick and tired of spending my time in the traffic and try to find another transportation mode for commuting.

A Ferrari can go from 0 to 100 km per hour in less than 3 second. But I bet it cannot take me home in less than one hour during rush hour. So I delete the option of buying a Ferrari. My next option is using bicycle. But, using bicycle to the office will make me sweaty, stinky, and tired. Plus there is no place to take shower at the office. So, bicycle is deleted from the list.

And then one day I find out about electric bike. How many of you have ever heard about the existence of electric bike in Indonesia? OK, electric bike, as the name implies, is a bike that use electricity as the main source of power. Instead of using gasoline, electric bike is using a battery, a Sealed Lead Acid battery, to activate the dynamo and the movement of the dynamo will push the tyre of the bike to move forward. So, the main component of an electric bike is the battery, as the main source of power, the controller, that control how many current is delivered to the dynamo. The more current that goes to the dynamo the faster you go. And the last one is the dynamo that moves the tyre. All other component is the same as the ordinary bicycle.


Electric bike comes in many shapes. The first one is exactly like the ordinary bicycle, with the pedal and a box of battery attached. The second one is exactly like the ordinary motorcycle, minus the exhaust pipe (is it muffler), and chain. The last one is hybrid, shape like the motorcycle, minus the muffler but plus the pedal.


I think, electric bike is better than ordinary motorcycle:
1. No gasoline is needed. That means you don’t have to worry about the oil price. You don’t have to wait in queue to fill in the gas tank in your motorcycle. And the most important thing is you don’t need subsidy from government so you save billions of rupiah by not buying a gasoline.
2. They are very quiet.
3. Less maintenance. All you have to do is to make sure that you charge the battery everytime after you use the bike. Make sure that apply the right pressure to the tyre. And make sure that the nut and bolt in the motorcycle is tightened.
4. No driving license or license plate is needed.
5. No need to pay taxes.
6. Last but the most important thing is that electric bike is environmentally green, because there is no pollution at all. No smoke is coming from the bike. Imagine if all the vehicle in the world doesn’t produce smoke at all, the world will become a better place to live.

As a famous preacher once put it: if you want to make a good deeds, start from small things, start from yourself, and start now. By using an electric bike, I contribute to the greener world. So, I will ask you my fellow toastmaster, “Go Green, Use eBike!”

(c) images: private collections; words: by MZ

BM#07 - Save the Energy

We have so many sources of energy: petroleum, natural gas, coal, nuclear, or renewable energy like solar and wind energy. Most of the energy is used for electricity, transportation, industrial, or commercial.

Electricity generation is the second biggest polluter after transportation. Annual carbondioxide emissions from making electricity is 2.345 million metric tons.

Electricity usage is also a polluter. Average annual carbon output for the power used in a two-person home: 16,290 pounds

In addition to the pollution, electricity is also costly.
• Average home’s annual energy cost: $1,900
• Average price for electricity; 10.65 cents per kilowatt-hour

Kilowatt hour: the basic unit for measuring power usage. A 100 watt lightbulb left on for one hour would draw 0.1 kilowatt-hour.

We have to start to save the usage of electricity. Saving a few watts here and there may not seem like much but small savings will add up if everybody does the same thing. The great thing about cutting your home’s power use is that you don’t have to do much anything. Here are simple things that we can do to save the energy:

1. Warm up the fridge:
In United States, there is an agency called Energy-Star. It is a government agency that certifies appliances and rate its energy-efficient level.
Energy star recommends setting your fridge thermostat to between 35 and 38 F and your freezer to 0. Setting them lower offers no benefits for your food and uses more power. To check the temp, place a thermometer in a glass of water in the middle of a fridge and read it after 24 hours with the door closed.

2. Cool down the hot water:
Some manufacturers set electric hot-water-heater thermostats to 140 at the factory. But you can save between 6 and 10 percent on your hot-water energy costs by cranking the dial back to 120. Your showers remain hot – just add less cold water to the mix. And don’t forget to turn off the water heater if you’re heading out of town for more than a day or two.

3. Put the PC to sleep:
Because a computer needs a surge of power to start up, the Department of Energy recommends shutting it down only if you’re going to be away from it for more than two hours. You should, however, user your computer and monitor’s sleep mode, which can cut power by 70 to 90 percent and doesn’t require a full reboot.

4. Change your lightbulb
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that lighting makes up 20 percent of the average home’s electrical bill. You can make huge impact simply by using energy efficient products. The key is knowing what to replace and when. Saving on lighting is all about using the right bulbs.

Comparison:
Incandescent bulb
Initial cost: less than $1
Average life span: 1000 hours
Cost to operate one year: $17.52 (60-watt)
Drawback: Incandescents use only 10 percent of their energy for light; the rest is heat, so they’re inefficient compared with other modern lighting technologies. They also have short lives.

Compact fluorescent
Initial cost: $2 to $3
Average life span: 8000 hours
Cost to operate one year: $3.83 (13-watt)
A 13-watt CFL produces 800 lumens of light, about the same brightness as a 60-watt incandescent, and it lasts about eight times as long.

So my fellow toastmaster, start saving the energy, start from small things and start from now.
--

[Source: Popsci Genius Guide, July 2009 edition]

(c) created by MZ

BM#06 - Music & Lyrics

Music and lyrics. No, this speech is not about the movie with the same title starred by the English guy Hugh Grant and the ET girl Drew Barrymore. This speech is about, well, music and lyrics.

A song is a musical composition that contains vocal parts ("lyrics"), and commonly accompanied by musical instruments (“music”).

Song without lyrics is instrumental song. One of the major brand in electric guitar has a quote that goes like this: “Lyrics, wasted time between solos”. For every musician, the solo part in the middle of a song is the part they are waiting for to play, since it is the time that they can show off their ability. So, sometimes the musicians do not really like the vocal or lyrics parts. That’s how the quote came up. Well, I couldn’t agree more…

A song without lyrics is instrumental, but a song without music is acapella, that is a song without instrumental accompaniment. One of the famous song with acapella style is [singing] “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.”

Let’s now put more focus on lyrics. According to wikipedia, lyrics is a set of words that make up a song, either by speaking or singing. In addition to musical notes, lyrics is also an important factor to the quality of a song. If chosen badly, the lyrics might ruin the songs. The example of bad lyrics could be the song that goes like this: [singing] “Lupa. Lupa, lupa, lupa. Lupa lagi syairnya”

Some songs sometimes contain excessive use of offensive lyrics. The songs, for example, use the words such as *&@# and *%#$ (sorry, self-censored) This kind of song will usually receive Parental Advisory label in the album cover.

Bad lyrics ruin a song. But, if chosen carefully, it adds the quality of a song. There are many examples of good lyrics in songs. I am sure you also have a phrase that you like to quote from a song. I myself often quote lyrics as motivational or inspirational words. One of the phrases I like is the one from the song called ‘Ironic’ from Alanis Morisette that goes like this: “Life has a funny way of helping you out.” Yes, I totally agree with her. Many times when you’re in trouble, life, or I should say God, help you in the way you never imagined. We could talk more deeply about “God’s funny way of helping you out” for hours, but maybe in my other speech.

Lyrics can also be romantics. And surprisingly, romantics words sometimes come from a band that looks tough. One of the example I like is this one: “I could stay awake, just to hear you breathing. Watch your smile while you were sleeping. While you’re faraway dreaming. I could spend my life in this sweet surrender. I could stay lost in this moment forever. Every moment spent with you is the moment I treasure”.

Songs with their music and lyrics are universal. The popularity of a song can go across geographic locations and across different languages. Currently, I like a song from a Japanese rock band. Never before in my life had I heard a same song for more than an hour over and over again without really knowing what they are talking about. “Oritayatte kanata de, me wo aketara. Egao no mama no kimi ni, aeru to ii na.”

My fellow toastmaster, in a nutshell, quality of a song depends not only by the musical notes but also by the lyrics chosen. A song, with or without lyrics and with or without musics, is powerful because it can bring up emotional reaction in us, either it is happiness, sadness, rage, or feeling of love. Select the songs you want to listen carefully, but keep on keep listening to your music and enjoy!

(c) created by MZ

BM#04 - Comfort Zone

Comfort zone is the situation or environment with which one is comfortable, without creating a sense of risk. In other words, it is the feeling of security.

Many people think of comfort zone in a negative terms. That’s why many motivational speakers always encourage us to leave our comfort zone. They argue that comfort zone will make us lazy and that it will decrease our motivation.

For me, a comfort zone is a good thing. Once I am in a comfortable situation, I can enjoy doing what I love to do. Let me give you an example.

I’ve been learning guitar since I was in 5th grade in elementary school. At that time, 80’s rock music was major hit. Rock bands were the idol. You know, a bunch of guys with long hair, wearing tight leather pants, and banging their heads up and down. What I like of course is the rock music itself, with the voice that can reach the highest notes, and the 30 seconds of beautiful guitar solo in the middle of the songs. That’s what made me love rock music. Until now.

In terms of playing music, rock is my comfort zone. Does it make me lazy? Does it decrease my motivation? No! Until now, I am still learning rock songs, whether it is from 80’s era, or rock songs from the newer era. New challenges are coming, in terms of new songs, or in terms of technology. Do you know that that a famous guitar factory release guitars with seven strings instead of six? That’s a new challenge.

Of course sometimes some friends of mine will ask me to play jazz in a band. OK, I’ll accept the challenge. But, since jazz is not my comfort zone, I didn’t play it with heart. It was just mechanical, with no passion at all. So the result will not be as good as the one I love doing.

Let me give you another example. I used to work in one of the top five consulting companies in the world. In this company, I learned so many softwares but the knowledge is not deep enough. So many but not deep. So many zone was available to me. You can say that I was a generalist. And then one day I decided to become a specialist, to specialize in one software only. So, I choose the one that is more promising in terms of career and the one I was comfortable with. I chose SAP as my comfort zone.

Why bother moving to a different zone that you are not comfortable at, when in comfort zone you can give values to the world. So, my fellow toastmasters, enjoy your comfort zone, but don’t forget to take it to the higher level.

(c) created by MZ

BM#03 - Excellence

My fellow toastmaster.

“Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until your good is better, and you better is best.” That is the personal quote of Tim Duncan. Tim Duncan is a professional basketball player for San Antonio Spurs. He is a four-time NBA champion. He has won NBA Most Valuable Player Award twice. He is also one of "100 Greatest Professional Basketball Players of The 20th Century", the youngest player on that list.

For me, the main spirit of that quote is ‘strive for excellence’. In some dictionary, excellence means ‘possessing qualities in the highest degree’. In my company, excellence is one of the company culture value, which was described as, among other things: value added orientation and continuous improvement.

Strive for excellence is a spirit that must inhabit us all. How many times when we deliver an assignment, that we are sure that it is our masterpiece? We tend to stop at the ‘not bad’ level. We are satisfied easily. We stop when we only reach the first base camp. We don’t have the hunger to try to reach the summit, the pinnacle, to soar up into the sky. To deliver our excellence.

Formula 1 Racing is one of the example of sports that require excellence. In F1, the gap between the fastest car and the last car to complete one lap is only one or two seconds. I am also an occasional gokart player, and I know how difficult it is to improve the lap time even just a second. That split second needs practice and practice, the excellence of cornering, when to do the late braking or when to push the pedal to the floor. If you push the brake too hard, the car will spin. Push it to easy, the car will hit the barrier. Only by driving the car excellently that you will get the best lap time.

Perseverance is one of the important things that we need to get excellent result. Without it, we will stop at the first obstacle we face. With it, we will continue amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. When someone questioned Thomas Alfa Edison on why his experiments don’t produce much result, he replied: “Results? Why, man, I have gotten lots of results! If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is often a step forward....

So, my fellow toastmaster.
Our challenges change over time. The methods with which we meet them may be new. But the spirit upon which our success depends – strive for excellence - this thing is old. This thing is true. There is nothing so satisfying to the spirit than giving our all to a difficult task.

If you think you had done your best but your best wasn’t good enough,
never let it rest. Until your good is better, your better is best, and your best is excellent.

(c) created by MZ