Kabumpkan says

Boring is a door to a new interesting.

How to Score at Tennis Here

Kelly picked up tennis scoring in Indonesian within a few games.


In English of course the scoring goes love, fifteen, thirty, forty - for zero, one, two, three, four. In Indonesian it's kosong (empty), limabelas, tigapuluh, empatpuluh.

In English  thirty or forty for each side is called deuce and in Indonesian sama (same).

Add or avantage in (server's side) or add out (receiver's side) is wan in and wan out. Don't know what that means, just know how to say it.

They say in and out like us when a ball's in or out but that may just be copying us. Not sure. Same for serve.

They say net for let (when a serve touches the net and goes in) but a lot of English speakers say that too.

My favorite is that when someone wins in Engish it's game. In Indonesian it's limapuluh (fifty).

That's all I know so far. - dc

Turtle Bay Hideaway

Thanks John Steiner for getting us in touch with most cool Emerald Starr. We met him at his Turtle Bay Hideaway, toured the masterfully built traditional Sulawesi cottages and pools, organic gardens, had an amazing lunch. I told him the only problem I had with the food was my mind was conflicted about which dish was best. More about Emerald later.


Dessert was a tour of the place where they ferment the incomparable Uforia Chocolate with Peter, cacao master whom Kelly, a true chocolate officianado said answered every unanswered question he had about chocolate.

  

A Story with a Dragon

One and Another Incarcerated

Two are in a prison cell, One and Another. The walls have lines of dust running along the mortared spaces between black stones. The floor and ceiling are aged cement with cracks and algae. The door is rusted steel with a small yellowed, distorted glass window up top and a rusted steel plate on the bottom which slides open with a piercing scraping sound announcing mealtime.

There’s a bare light in a wire cage in the center of the ceiling that goes out at nine at night and comes on mornings at six. A toilet hole on the floor in one corner with a pipe in the wall next to it that slowly drips into a ceramic bowl that shows the stains of long use. There are wooden platforms for sleeping on the side walls and a bench against the back wall.

Using his height and foot size as yardsticks, One has measured the length, width and height of the surfaces and objects in the room. Above that bench there is what One figures is a 28.5 centimeters high, 92 centimeter wide 58 centimeter thick opening with three iron bars 2.5 centimeters in diameter. He has estimated the age of the cell by the amount of rust on the iron, and periodically announces numbers for the humidity and temperature. Another stands on the bench and looks at the river flowing below and across to the river’s far bank, freedom in the land beyond. She can stick her head between bars and barely see a straight drop into the river.

A dragon lives in the river. Noting its bicuspids, One says it is waiting there to devour anyone who tries to swim to freedom if someone could swim that far if they could swim if they could get out. One estimated the dragon’s length and width, how much it weighs, its species, family, class, the size, thickness, and number of its scales, claws and teeth, the amount of water it displaces. He can’t discern whether it’s male or female. Another looks into its black eyes and sings to it. She does so first thing in the morning and last at night. One wakes and goes to sleep by her song. The dragon listens and looks toward the window.

Three times a day comes the metal scraping sound and mush is delivered on steel plates with steel spoons. One eats right away sitting on his platform. Another stands on the bench and looks out the opening, taking an occasional bite. When there’s a knock on the metal door, the plates and spoons must be returned. Another waits until the guard shouts to return it now! After the guard is gone, Another throws a ball she’s rolled with most of the mush into the waiting mouth of the dragon. She’s thin. One is plump. The dragon is just right.

Days pass. One counts them and announces how long they’ve been there, the number of days, weeks, months, seasons, years, hours, minutes, seconds. One has told Another the number of stones in the wall, their average sizes and estimated weight and individual size and weight. He knows what type of stone it is and substances it’s composed of. He can announce the time by looking at shadows below. Another always expresses appreciation for One’s facts and figures. Then she gazes at the dragon.

One day after dinner, Another did not throw a mush ball to the dragon. She just kept gazing into its eyes. When it came time to sing she did so. With One asleep and the dragon looking up, Another quickly went to One, kissed his sleeping head, returned to the window, lifted out an iron bar she’d been digging away at for countless days with the spoons during mealtime. To the dragon she tossed the last mush ball containing the day’s powdered concrete which gave the morsel a distinctive taste the dragon had grown to love. Thinly Another slipped through the opening, clung to the remaining bars with her hands behind her and with her heels against the walls pushed and leaped into the water with a splash by the dragon which bowed down so she could slide over the back of its neck and straddle it. The dragon swiftly swam to the other shore and gently lowered it’s head so Another could step down to freedom, bow to the dragon, and walk home.

One awoke the next morning to find himself without Another. He looked at the bar lying on the bench and the opening too small for him – and anyway there’s that dragon and all that water. He wondered if she was in the water or the dragon or, looking across, no – that’s impossible. He decided after eating to calculate the number of gallons that passed by each day. He started sharing his observations with the guard and in time there would be unexpected practical applications and improvements to the prison.

photo - River Dragon in Fog by Gregory Scott - lifted off web

At the Theater

Went to see Mockingjay 2 at a real theater, my first in over two years,  in a modern Bali mall. That's Danu with me, photo by his mate Alice. Katrinka's taking her own. Doesn't look like me to me - I'm not that thin. And Danu's not that scary looking. That's our tickets in his mouth. They are for specific seats.

You know how in the US there are sometimes PSAs or ads at the cinema about not pirating DVDs. Here there was one saying it's forbidden to film the movie in the theater. Made me laugh. As far as I know there's no such thing as a non pirated DVD of a film here though there must be somewhere. But when you buy them the thing is to get ones that are copied off of DVDs and not filmed in theaters. One way to avoid that is not to buy one that's not available as a DVD in legit markets - wherever they are.

Thank You on Thanksgiving

And eight of us are having Thanksgiving late lunch early dinner today at Art Cafe in Sanur. An unusual mix - seven from USA, one from Java. It's an American thing. As usual the image is just lifted off the web. About once in two months I go to the Art Cafe to work and drink tea. They make tea from good leaf - though they offer Lipton tea bag first as if it's special. - dc

Words and Plasticity and ???

I was reading an article from BBC Future on neuroplasticity when an email came in suggesting a Radiolab show on Words - thanks Rick Levine. Then Katrinka returned from a walk and we listened to the whole show while she roasted oatmeal, seeds and nuts, and prepared fruit for a super muesli while I did yoga. Excellent and a great tie-in to the article which maybe I'll read aloud while she does dinner and maybe she'll finish reading it while I clean up.

I love science stuff. Went through the Tyson and Sagan Cosmos this year and got into PBS Space-time science shorts on Youtube which are to me at a difficult and mind blowing level. I always experience these fascinating and excellent shows though as missing half the story - not a mathematical half. So often the world of science and the world of spiritual inquiry are like separate islands (to draw on an image from one of the Radiolab segments). I know there are people who span the gap, but mainly we get one side or the other. Actually, I'm sort of prejudiced and see the main dummies in this regard as being on the science side. When I was at Sogenji in Japan a year and a half ago, much of what the abbot, Shodo Harada, and I talked about was the cool science stuff we were tuning in to. It's funny, phenomena studies are something we all share, but the big picture of numena/phenomena is not on most people's radar. Wise folks like Shunryu Suzuki and Ramana of Tiruvannamalai called the big picture reality and the partial picture a dream or a reflection or whatever.

But to me we're all dummies in one way or another so all is forgiven.

Oh yes - Here's the link to the BBC article on neuroplasticity which goes on about all the ways we're learning that we can keep fixing ourselves and improving in ways thought impossible by most until recently. I grew up in a home where I'd say we believed in extreme everything-plasticity. I'm more in the duh school of everything now but that doesn't bother mc cause I see us mainly as being in the lap of that which can't be improved. - dc

Bulgarian ATM Experts

Blind Phillip next door and sidekick Nyoman have not been so entertaining recently because he's not drinking, but Kelly and I have had some nice sober chats with him while he stood in the pool listening to his radio, Nyoman sitting nearby on call in a sun chair. He still can't use his card at an ATM, only in stores, because he says some Bulgarians have emptied a bunch of bank accounts here by fixing ATMs and getting a camera honed in on the place where people write their pin code. I go to a bank ATM with a guard and haven't heard of this nullifying other people's cards but I have heard of the empty accounts. Phillip said the head Bulgarian account thief is in jail now.

Kelly Visiting and Snakes

Here's a photo of son Kelly and me sitting at home. He's here for three weeks. That red thingy at the bottom left is the top of a dry snorkel which doesn't take in water. Today we saw several venomous sea snakes. I pointed out a small black and white krait that was on the sea floor and Kelly saw a few others I didn't, one being quite long. It was scary because we were in water only meter or so deep at that point so there was little room to move. Photo by his traveling companion Mary Eberle.

Sanur Most Zen?

Lists are a big deal on the Internet. The Huff Post had a little fluff list called the 11 Most Zen Places on the Planet with where we live, Sanur in Bali, as one of them.  The photo to the left was featured as representative of Sanur. That's not Sanur. Below is the actual Sanur beach - where we went this afternoon, having just returned from KL.

So we finally got our KITAS or residence visas for Indonesia yesterday. That means we don't have to renew it for one whole year and don't have to leave the country to do that. Up to now we've had to renew almost every month. That meant at first paying an agent fifty bucks each to do it or, once I leaned how to do it myself, pay half that each month with at least three trips to the immigration office each time. We also had to leave the country to renew after two months for tourist visas at first and then after six months with social/cultural visas. The letters from Jakarta we needed to get the KITAS were not ready for our September trip to Kuala Lumpur so we had to return with tourist visas. But tomorrow we return to Bali victorious. There are other advantages to having the KITAS - local prices at hospitals for one. Can get drivers licences and have vehicles which we don't want to do. And we can lord it over mere tourists and social/cultural visa friends. But have to get permission to leave. - dc

Happy Birthday Katrinka!

Or, as they say in Indonesia, selamat hari ulang tahun! Hari means day so it can be in there or not. Ulang means to repeat and tahun year. And the sayangku means "my love!" But we're in Kuala Lumpur now and they say, "Selemat hari jadi or selemat hari lahir." That's congrats day of becoming or congrats day of birth - both of which make sense in Indonesian as well.

Guided Meditation

Guided meditation on Youtube - thanks Rev. Elizabeth Sawyer

New Visas

We're in KL getting new visas, the culmination of over half a year of effort. Residence visas good for a year and extendible from Bali yearly for five years. We'll have to get special permits to leave. Don't know how long we'll stay but now we won't have to extend our visas every month. Was told to come tomorrow at four to pick our passports up. When we get back we take them to immigration and get Kitas cards which have a lot of benefits, one being local price at hospitals.

Such a relief. We just came back to the hotel from the Indonesian embassy and have been watching TV all day. Mainly seeing three tennis matches wherein the Czech women beat the Russians for some title. Haven't watched tennis like that ever. Never watch it. Loved it. Even watched the awards presentation ceremony.

Thunder and Lightning too

Flew to Kuala Lumpur yesterday. Lot of security at the Denpasar airport. Stopping cars on the way in to check in the trunk and look under. Didn't notice anything here in Malaysia which has always been lax in our experience. We always zip right through here. Lot of rain. Muslim breakfast at a Bangladesh run restaurant. reat food and music and staff. Usually we're mainly around Chinese Buddhists here but this time we just want to get our new visas and get back to Bali so we're staying in a downtown hotel. Mainly around super nice Muslims. The price is good too.

On the West's current wars

From the Ron Paul Inst.

Basket roosters and laying hens

We hear chickens and roosters all the time here - at home and all over. There are rooster baskets all over bali. Cockfighting is a big deal. I have no interest in going to one. I feel sorry for the poor roosters. The hens lay great eggs though. Coming back from America Katrinka says the organic cage free eggs here are expensive for Bali - about half of US price, but with the dark yellow yokes like the ones we used to get at Green Gulch before the chickens were phased out there.

Lovely Impressions

Eveline Ullmer and Peter Zipser are students of Zentatsu Richard Baker who spend half time in Bali and half in their native Germany. They recently returned. We had a charming morning together. Here's an email they just sent out from their sanctuary on the north side of the island.

***

Hallo dear friends
may we share some impressions with you? 
Tiny moments of our everyday life in our bali hermitage.  

Its dry season. Time of the falling leaves and getting warmer and warmer. 

We already fully recovered from a tenacious summerflu. tired, quickly exhausted and always with headache, so feelings and perception remain easily stuck, entangle within all what doesn’t go so well, stuck within concerns and difficulties. 

so we had to practice 
the big broom:

Sweep away the dry leaves.
no expectations, 
not comparing,
no ideas

Stars dropping from the sky. Quiet peaceful garden.
Step by step by step by step the naked feet find the way through the garden.

The very first sunlight creeping into the zendo through the narrow chinks in the bamboo wall.The bells, the mokogyo, our voices 
Sitting on the outdoor bale porch at study time, our teachers voice from lecture on the computer is as loud as the bumblebee buzzing in buddha’s  flowers.
Little friend, the limping dove on the warm shale stone slabs opens its wing towards the sun.

A swarm of tiny moskitos dances up an down in front of the fan palm.

Our shy fish in the pond flipping so incredibly gently staying in place.

Smelling Incense- the very sweet heavy Balinese odeur around and our familiar johof sandalwood. Caressing the hurting knees.

Ooh - an unknown song?  A new bird in our garden? ... or a telephone in the ricefield?

Cooking rice on our solar cooker
Crushing creaky cardamom pods in the mortar and inhaling the spicy fragrance, deeply filling my lungs with it.

Digging my feet in the hot sand. 

Children's voices, laughters in the murmur of the sea
My body floating on the waves. Water and air equally warm.
Slow motions in <bottomless calmness> being heaven and ocean

Cashews are ripe. the tree is full of shiny red bells. 
Intense sweet smell over long distance. We cook a puree from the tasty fruits.
Sun and heat in the face, mild seabreeze
Always barefoot . . . meeting 

feeling tickling grass, stone slabs, gravel. 
Salty sweatdrops on my lips.

The sound of tractor plows in the wetlands beside the river.
a swarm of bees has ensconced itself in our wooden electrical box.
The striped bronzeback viper catched a frog.

O o o o o o ooo cool drops on the naked skin. The first tender rain here since half a year. 
27 rain droplets - and that was it already ? Very dry season. Mountains of dry leafs. 
Bouginvilleas bloom profusely even throughout the driest brushwood.
Carefully watered day after day, our garden is lush green.
Tailorbirds trill.

Dogs barking. Night falls so quickly!
And what is this rattling noise in the darkness 
from right to left across our stone path? A snail shell !!. .? 
A snail so loudly clattering?? And so fast? 
Aah, look, the shell is inhabited by a hermitcrab!

The fresh crescent on the western evening sky.
Thin Silver bowl, exactly balanced lying on his back
Keeping the dim dark ball. Granting refuge
Just as the mudra of our hands.

All the best of this time to you
Love and take care!

Eveline and Peter

What a Pope

Pope Francis urges church to reject conservatism and fundamentalism. Good for him. May he not have the fate of John Paul, pope for 33 days who "died in his sleep" after saying "the church should be poor" and wanting to reform the Vatican Bank and more.

Green School and Zimbardo

Went to the Green School today with Kelly and his friend Mary to walk around and look at this amazing place, drinking passion fruit and watch kids play, and then to hear Philip Zimbardo talk about the Stanford Prison Experiment and his Heroic Imagination Project.  

2015 a Milestone Year

Three climate records to be set this year! Horray for us!

This notice sponsored by the WSC, the World Suicide Club -  "Working toward the elimination of the human race and taking as much life on earth with us as we can."

Change Gears Time

So far DPS airport looks good today and tomorrow. Volcano still smoking but winds are kind. Kelly scheduled to arrive with a friend this afternoon on a flight from Taipei. Katrinka same flight tomorrow. Have been out as little as possible since she left on October 6th stacking blocks of symbols and rearranging them into appealing groups. In a few hours must crawl out of this cave and embrace humanity again. Nyoman driver comes in a moment. We go to the flower shop to adorn rooms for the honored ones who come.  - dc

Gremlins

First it was a computer error. Eldest son Kelly arrives tomorrow at 3:20 in Denpasar if the winds aren't carrying volcanic ash our way from Lombok. We'd called it the 9th for months but then receiving the Orbitz itinerary saw the 8th, realized days later that couldn't be as he left on the night of the 8th from Spokane. He said it was the 10th. Got a corrected itinerary showing the 10th but made a mistake and decided the 9th then a day later realized my mistake and corrected to the 10th. Each time I'd called driver Ketut and D & Widya landlords to make and change the reservation. Some places people would be upset, fine me even. Here it was just, OK. No problem, how you doing? I'm grateful for their forgiving attitudes towards gremlins of computer and the mind.

Most ask if I'm Eating Alone

A woman named Kadek comes to visit Bali new mom Rini next door now and then. She came in on her motorbike and was sitting on their porch and asked me where they were. Told her Phillip wanted a bigger car now that they have the baby cause there's the nanny too and family sometimes - so they went to get a new car. She said it was hot. I told her come over and wait on the porch. Asked her what she wanted. Aqua - that's bottled water. I invited her in and showed her we have our own filter system and don't buy water. She opened the fridge and pulled out a small guava juice. I said silakan - please go ahead. She sat on the porch. She lit up a cigarette after asking permission. Gave her a seashell for an ashtray and pointed the standup fan at her - ostensibly to give her a cool breeze. She asked where's my wife. I said in America. She looked at me. Your're sleeping alone?

Song and Video for Katrinka

Thinking of You - a song and video for Katrinka on my Youtube channel.

Here's the Defuser Music page for it.

Below is something wrote about making it.

Wednesday night - been trying to get as much done as possible before Kelly arrives and then Katrinka returns. Took a break. Got out the guitar first time in a couple of weeks. Went through the handful of songs I've written here to keep them in mind. Set the guitar down on the satte and returned to the laptop. A couple of hours later, time for another break. Walked around for a minute. Drank some water. Sat back down. Looked at the guitar and thought, I should write a song for Katrinka. She's been working so hard moving and consolidating our storage. Thirty minutes later it was done and most of that spent refining it.

I don't know where these things come from. Not saying the quality of the artistry is the same, but I'd say the source is the same as what Caruso said about where his voice came from. He said his gift came from god. I'd not use the same terms though.

Then I thought. Hmm. I should get that to her while she's there. I bought a recording setup last winter and have never opened it. And the mike on this thousand dollar computer doesn't work as well as the ones on cheap little office cassette recorders did forty-five years ago. Ah - but tech guy Untung sold me these Seinheiser ear plugs to use with my iPhone. Tried it. It was fine.

Thought, OK, I'll get it recorded real quick, send it to her and get back to work. It was 11pm. I'm usually in bed by then but I was so up for it. Got it recorded fairly quickly - in an hour. 2nd take then tried a bunch of stuff to try to make it sound like a 20s crooner song. Little out of my range but I'm used to a large degree of imperfection with my song recordings. Then - how to get it to her. Put it on Defuser Music dot com, my song site. Made a song page for it. Got that done. Going on one in the morning.

I'd been working with family and ZC videos and had that Youtube site and thought, gee, I could throw up a bunch of photos with that audio and put it on my personal channel there - David Reich Chadwick as opposed to the Cuke Video channel.

Did it. A lot of what looks intentional is just how the cards fell. Then reclined and went to sleep at 8am. I haven't stayed up all night working like that for years. Ketut and Wayang woke me at 10:20 to clean the room. Couldn't go back to sleep. It's late afternoon now. Today's been like a hangover day. Ain't had a wet one in a long time - before 2005. But it was worth it. Won't pick up that guitar again for a week - too dangerous - but I think I'll try to record a song a week - but no more late nighters. Good lord. This one's Katrinka's present - the one I said was waiting for her to open in Oregon. Wonder if she's found it yet.

Update Friday: Poor Katrinka. I tortured her by making her ask questions about where her present was and how to open it. Today after working with our storage for almost the last time she asked for clues. I said I'd been giving them to her. I'd sent her an email with just "Thinking of You" but that didn't help of course. I asked her what had I given her for her birthday and as a wedding present. She named jewelry and things. What else? Is it something to read? Yes, but if I gave you a ring with a word on it, it would also be something to read. Is it love? Yes. Oh thanks so much - you sent love. Yes, but if I gave you a ring, it would be love too. Finally I said, "What did I give Ben (the owner of the restaurant Annapurna) for his birthday." A song? Right. Oh - you gave me a song? You're almost there. After a while she went to Youtube and found it. I apologized for putting her through that and said if it had been me I'd have said I don't like guessing. Just tell me. She's a good sport.

Bali Denpasar Ngara Rai Airport closed

Last time it was a volcano in East Java - to the west. This time it's Mt. Rinjani in Lombok on the east side.

Denpasar airport is open today after having been closed for three days.


Got my fingers crossed for Kelly's arrival Sunday and Katrink's return on Wednesday.


Both of them are flying here from Taipei on Eva Air. I told them if they're stuck go to the National Palace Museum with its enormous display of Chinese art and artifacts taken out by the Kuomintang Nationalists with Chang Kai Shek in 1949 in many planeloads. I read that only 5% is on display at one time. They're opening another branch soon and maybe there are others. Suggested to Kelly that if there's an extended delay, the best place to be stuck for me would be Bangkok and Singapore is good if you're willing to spend more. The botanical gardens there shouldn't be missed. They have a cold house which is like the opposite of our hot houses. They have a special orchid garden within. Singapore's a great town to walk around in.

Sent all that and more to Kelly and Katrinka and added Billie Holiday with We'll be Together Again.

Katrinka - have you opened your gift yet?

Sent Katrinka a Facebook message yesterday reading, "Hi Katrinka. There's a gift for you waiting for you to open. Can you find it?"

That wasn't the only note she got. I emailed her and Whats App'd her asking if she'd opened the gift and she just answered what gift? She and her son and family were at Port Orford all day so we didn't talk till she was in bed at 9pm.
She'd looked on the front porch, in her emails, on Facebook, and on what she called my website by which she meant cuke.com. I wouldn't tell her where it was, said keep looking tomorrow She's busy getting ready to come back to Bali, but I know she'd like to find it. Told her I'd give her clues. Told her I was having problem with online connection because my web sites were all uploading to OneDrive which for Windows 10 can't be paused. Let's see if she figures it out tomorrow.

Kept wondering why this hadn't posted - I pre post most posts these days - schedule them. Why? Daylight savings time has passed in the US. Now were 16 instead of 15 hours ahead. Hope you enjoyed yesterday.

Coffin on War on Drugs (people) full of nails

But it needs more nails - maybe till there's nothing but nail heads available. Addiction relieved by connection. Drug war just persecutes some people and supports a drug war industry. The idea that changing ones environment and social setting is most important in treating addiction is certainly not new but the old ideas die hard. - dc

Bye bye Jungle

Eco-apocalypse: Indonesia Is Burning. So Why Is The World Looking Away? - thanks Eric Arnow. 

Some good more detailed articles featured and linked to from this link at the World Resources Inst.

These fires are allowed because of the importance of development which means letting some investors get some quick short term profit while destroying Indonesia's and the world's precious treasures. And this is all driven by the excessive use of resources of the West, especially the US. But everyone's trying to catch up so it's really just a global human problem.