San Francisco Vacation Rentals

Ever wanted to travel to San Francisco but lack the budget for the expensive accommodation price tag that comes along with it? Now here's your chance to do so. San Francisco Vacation Rentals is part of Airbnb which is the latest traveling trend by backpackers all around the world. San Francisco Vacation Rentals lets you list (if you're a home owner/renter going for a holiday) or book (if you are a traveler looking for a place to stay) a place within San Francisco.

You get to view pictures of the place you're interested in staying, view feedback by previous travelers, and post your own feedback after your stay. Airbnb facilitates the payment and holds the payment from the tenant for 24 hours after you have checked-in and are satisfied with the place.

Here's a short video clip on how San Francisco Vacation Rentals works:


San Francisco Vacation Rentals currently has over a thousand places to choose from. Ranging from 1 bedroom apartments in the city to huge 5 bedroom houses by the seaside. The whole concept is pretty neat and I would most certainly want to give this a go when I pay my friend a visit in the United States one day.

So if you're planning a trip to San Francisco anytime soon, check out San Francisco Vacation Rentals first before googling for hotels to stay in. You might save yourself quite a bit of cash which you can use to fund other things during your trip.

The Natural Movement is nothing new! Kathleen Cleaver discusses briefly

Black is beautiful. Texture is an awesome thing when we can mentally wrap our hands around our cultural roots. Great conversation regarding some thoughts about it in this clip... Thanks www.wetheurban.com ...

- Jeyski

@jeyski @baileysociety @adusalon

Batas Sebuah Kesabaran

Saya pernahmenanyakan kepada diri sendiri mengenai keberadaan kesabaran. Kesabaran yangada dalam diri manusia. Orang bilang “Sabar itu tidak adabatasnya”. Benarkah hal itu adanya.

Sekarang marikita lihat sisi lain dari manusia. Bagi saya manusia adalah makhluk Tuhanpaling unik karena manusia memiliki hal-hal yang tidak dimiliki oleh makhlukTuhan lain. Rasa cinta, benci, nafsu, semangat, dan kesabaran. Semuanya milikmanusia. Semuanya ada dalam diri manusia. Setan, iblis, atau bahkan malaikatpuntidak memiliki semua sifat itu dalam satu raga. Tapi dari semua itu ada satuhal yang membuat manusai juga unik. Manusia memiliki batas. Sebuah jarak yangtidak bisa ditembus bahakan oleh makhluk yang menjadi pemimpin di bumi. Manusiamemiliki batas untuk berfikir tentang sejauh mana keberadaan akhirat. Manusia memilikibatas untuk memiliki sebuah material. Manusia memiliki batas untuk melakukanhal. Karena jika manusia tidak memiliki batas, apa bedanya manusia denganTuhan. Zat terkuasa di jagat raya yang tidak memiliki batas untuk melakukansegala kehendakNya.

Permasalahannya adalah:Apakah batas yang dimiliki oleh manusia juga berhubungan dengan kesabaran?

Manusia memilikibatas dalam mencintai karena mereka juga punya rasa benci.

Manusia memilikibatas dalam berusaha karena mereka juga punya rasa malas.

Manusia memilikibatas dalam kekuatan fisik karena mereka bukan mesin (toh mesin juga memilikibatas kekuatan).

Semuanya karenabatas. Lalu saat orang bilang “Sabar itu tidak ada batasnya”. Apa artinya?

Apakah manusia hampirsederajat dengan malaikat yang mau melakukan apapun dan tetap bersabarmenjalaninya.

Tapi kita bukanmalaikat. Kita adalah manusai. Dengan segala pernak-pernik yang tidak dimilikioleh makhluk Tuhan lainnya. Kita berbeda.

Jadi wajarkahjika seseorang memiliki batas dalam kesabaran? Karena pada kenyataannyaseseorang itu adalah manusia.

Jawabannya ada dalam diri kita untuk sejauh mana bisa menahan kesabaran kita.

Here I come (again)!

Here we are!

Finally I write my blog after sucha loooooong time I hadn’t written.

I miss writingactually and this is the thing that becomes my runaway. After finishing mythesis about Class Struggle I feel that my time is getting ineffective so Igotta find something to do and writing could be the one. Writing my thesis isnot as easy as I though. I was thinking that it was going to be me and mywriting but I was totally wrong. In fact there were a lot of things related tothis final project. Yes, it is about my other activities, my family, and alsomy thesis advisor. The last one should got a spot light (underlined, italic,and bold written). I won’t blame that my thesis advisor is the reason why mythesis took such a long time to finish but there is something beyond that. Ilearned something! I learned that life is not like a straight line made byelementary students with their ruler. I was such a stubborn that think time isthe barometer of success. People especially my friends who could graduate inOctober always pursued time graduation while I didn’t. The reason was quitesimple. It was because I thought that it is not worth that I could graduate assoon as possible while my thesis became like an uncooked scrambled egg. Thus Iknew the fact that it would be impossible for me to graduate along with thosepeople. However I have to emphasize something else that I have mentioned beforethat I learned something. It is not only about the understanding of my thesisbut also patience. In Javanese people say “Sopo sing sabar bakal subur.” Ithink it is suitable for me. I learned how to be patient, patient when facingmy thesis advisor or even myself. Maybe I won’t get this learning elsewhere.

Patient. That’sit!!!

Hair Sweet Nothings!: A Lotus Flower Bomb inspired shoot!!

South Florida Hair is a hot topic these days!
Here is a few shots from a hot photoshoot All Dolled Up Salons did with Bailey Society Media. Enjoy!!

Renting in Canberra

I've actually moved out of my uncle's place a few weeks ago now. Since I've got a full time job, it was high time that I started being more independent. I'm currently renting a room in a fully furnished house with an Aussie family. The rent is AUD $200/week or around RM640/week (or RM33,280/year) which is inclusive of all bills; water, electricity, gas and internet. The price is average but you can probably find cheaper rents elsewhere. The main reason why I chose this place was because the house itself is clean and tidy unlike some of the other places I've checked out which were horrible.

My landlord is a pretty nice guy. He and his wife are really friendly and easy to get along with. And because the house is fully furnished, I didn't have to buy too much when I initially moved in here (apart from all the Asian pantry staples such as soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, wan ton noodles, mee suah, etc. and a rice cooker that is). And fortunately for me, my landlord doesn't mind me cooking up the typical Asian stir fry.

I've been cooking the usual stuff the past few weeks. Nothing really interesting. Had stir fry snow peas with prawns with lots of garlic, eggplant with minced beef, fried mee hoon, wan ton mee, fried egg with french beans, stir fried broccoli with beef slices, stir fried ginger beef and so on. I even cooked a steak one day on my landlord's bbq. Just did the basic salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme, oil and red wine marinate and chuck it on the fire. Nothing too fancy.

Anyway, here are some pictures of my room:

 

My current place now is also pretty convenient as it is located quite close to the town centre where all the shops, supermarkets, banks, restaurants and fast food joints are located. It is also where I catch the bus every morning to get to work.

 

The yellow line is the route I normally take to get to the bus stop. It's about 850m or a 10 minute walk. The bus takes about half an hour from there to the city centre where my workplace is.

This place where I'm currently renting is also very near a lake (or a pond). The distance round the lake is roughly 4km. So what I normally do is I go for a jog either on Saturday or Sunday around the lake just to keep fit. I hardly have any time to jog during the weekdays because I normally get home late after work. But I'll be looking to jog more regularly during the Christmas break.

The red line is the path I take when I go for my once-a-week jog. I think the total distance is around 4.5 to about 5km which isn't too bad.

Here are some pictures of my 'neighbourhood':

The Town Centre is all the way down this road where the building with the little 'chimney' is.

The path on the way to the lake

The jogging path at the lake

It's very green with lots of trees and plants all around

The usual ducks and ducklings at the lake. You can see some black swans there sometimes. Some people also go there to fish. Not sure if they ever caught anything though. 

That's all for now. Will update again next time. Am going to be busy with work over the next two weeks running up to the Christmas break. Take care!

New Phone: Blackberry Bold 9700

Just a short update.

I was actually just about to confirm my order for the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc when another rival phone company had a promotion for a Blackberry Bold 9700. It's a pretty old phone, but I get a lot more credit for calls if I sign up with those guys. For the BB plan, I only have to pay $29/month for 1 year (which is good as I can would be able to sign on to a new contract next year and get another new phone) and I will have enough credit to make a phone call to a mobile number in Cuba for around 3 whole hours (assuming my phone's battery doesn't die on me by then). With the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, I had to pay $29/month for 2 whole years and only get enough credit to call my friend in Cuba for 2 hours on her mobile phone.

And because the main reason for getting a new phone was not because of the phone but because of the credit to call my friend, I decided to apply for the Blackberry model instead. This particular 9700 model was released in October 2009. So it's about 2 years old as it is. The specs aren't great, with a 624Mhz processor (which is still faster than my current Nokia N97 mini's 434Mhz), 256mb of RAM (double my current 128mb), a slightly faster bluetooth connection with supporting up to v2.1 (unlike my current v2.0) as well as a longer battery life with the BB having a 1500mAh Li-Ion battery (compared to my miserable 1200mAh). The BB also boasts a slightly higher pixel density although it only has a 3.2mp camera compared to my Nokia's 5mp camera. However, I'm not really in it for the camera, so that doesn't really bother me.

Also, my current $29/month plan includes a 1.5gb of data for video streaming and unlimited Blackberry Email Internet Browsing. It should be more than sufficient as I hardly use too much of my mobile internet.

 

I've already put in my order for the phone. So hopefully my credit check is successful and I would be able to receive it by the end of this week if all goes well.