Why Superman Can Fly

The son of Krypton is no doubt the most prominent superhero of all time.
One of his special traits is that he is able to fly!
Not many superheroes can do that, especially the earlier ones.

Well, it turns out that he hasn’t been able to fly all the time. There was a moment when all he could do was jumping over buildings. And no, I’m not talking about the time when he hasn’t worn his costume (being the young Clark Kent).  I’m talking about the time he HAS worn it and been called Superman.

In the earliest comics, Superman was not all that powerful. He was only faster than a train, as strong as all you need to lift a car, and he couldn’t fly.
All he did was jumping over distant buildings.
When the comic was going to be made into a cartoon film, his jumping ability proved to be a problem.
There was too much production cost to draw a man jumping over different buildings all the time.
So, naturally…
He was made able to fly.

Regardless of the actual reason, I still love the idea that he can fly. It would be un-cool to see a man with a large piece of cloth on his back jumping around mercilessly.

The End of What??

2012 EQUALS the end of the world.

Everybody knows that.

So it’s not strange to overhear a conversation about it in a bus on my way home.
It was between two working women.
The conversation went like this (it’s in Indonesian).

1: “Lo serem gak nanti 2012?”

2: “Iya. Katanya bakal kiamat ya? Emang gara-gara apa sih?”

1: “Gak tau ya. Gue denger sih gara-gara radiasi matahari naik besar-besaran. Jadinya semua kena. Cuaca bakal gak jelas, banyak bencana, penyakit aneh-aneh, banyak orang yang mati, sampe komunikasi aja, internet, HP gitu semua bakal mati.”

2: “Hah! Jadi gak bisa facebook-an lagi dong?!!”

1: …

Mm…

There’s something terribly wrong about this.

A Student of Everything

Do you know the kind of people who say, “I study all religions”, sometimes with a cocky smile on their face?

I used to hate that kind of people.

The DANGEROUS Group

Can you guess what group it is?
It has the following characteristics:

Times When God Hits Too Hard

I think God hits us in our lives every once in a while.
And I know, His hits can be very painful.
The pain they create helps us to flourish, though.

By holding against it, we become stronger.
By localizing it, we know what part of us still needs corrections.
By acknowledging it, we’re in our way of becoming mystic.

Jesus is one great example of a mostly successful story about pain.
He endured lots of it, and hardly lost His grip.
It makes you wonder what enabled Him to do so.
Was it faith, hope, or a unique way of seeing the world?

But anyway, this post is not about Jesus.
This post is not even about a success story.
Quite the contrary, this post is about those who failed badly.

Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: A Thriller Perfection

I very rarely say the word 'perfection', but I have never read anything like this book before.
It’s by far the best thriller and one of the best books I’ve ever read.

Pigs of the Future

Two days ago, a friend of mine told me about another friend of mine who just did her mandatory service in Papua (a mostly untouched region).
She told him about how the natives there valued their pigs highly.
They cared for them, nurtured them, and even sometimes breastfed the piglets, so it’s not strange to have a tribal war because of the pigs.

She then commented about how she thought of it all as primitive, the idea of valuing pigs, and thought that it had to be left behind.
Upon hearing this, my friend gave his disapproval.
His disapproval would have been the same as mine, had I heard the story.