Bagi kalian yang suka menulis. Ada tantangan untuk menulis script untuk film atau film tv atau lainnya, termasuk untuk comic. Menulis dalam 30 hari sebanyak 100 halaman. Dimulai tanggal 1 April 2010 hingga 30 April 2010.

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Hurry up, guys n gals
The time is running out

A blonde woman was speeding down the road in her little red sports car
and was pulled over by a woman police officer (also a blonde). The cop
asked to see the blonde's driver's license. She dug through her purse
and was getting progressively more agitated. "What does it look like?"
she finally asked. The policewoman replied, "It's square and it has
your picture on it." The driver finally found a square mirror, looked
at it, and handed it to the policewoman. "Here it is," she said. The
blonde officer looked at the mirror, then handed it back saying,
"Okay, you can go. I didn't realize you were a cop."

I am a graphic designer by profession, specialize in packaging graphic design.
It means that everyday I deal with so many new products that should be launch and I have to design the packaging. And there are so many brand names, from the simple ones till the complicated ones.
But never I found brand name as weird as in this photo.
Even though the brand speaks the benefits of the product when you use it, but come on please try another brand.

Effects of caffeine

Caffeine acts as a stimulant to the heart and central nervous system, and is also known to increase blood pressure in the short term, although there's no conclusive evidence of long-term effects on blood pressure.
The effects on blood pressure are most likely when caffeine is taken in excessive quantities or by people who are highly sensitive to it. People who are hypertensive (have habitual high blood pressure) are advised to avoid caffeinated drinks, and pregnant women should limit their intake of caffeine to less than 300mg a day.

Caffeine and weight loss

Caffeine has been shown to have very modest effects on increasing metabolism, and is sometimes added as an ingredient to weight loss pills. These pills often make claims about speeding metabolism to 'effortlessly melt' excess fat, but in reality the amount of calories that slimming pills containing caffeine would actually burn is very small.
Caffeine may also suppress appetite, but without making other changes to your diet and lifestyle caffeine is unlikely to make a significant difference to your weight.

Coffee

Coffee has been linked with a number of the risk factors for coronary heart disease, including increased blood pressure and raised blood cholesterol levels. But no relationship has been found between drinking coffee and the likelihood of developing coronary heart disease.

Coffee may be beneficial in some areas of health - for example, research has found it may reduce the risk of developing gallstones and kidney stones.
It's difficult to suggest a safe limit for coffee intake because of the huge variation in caffeine content across different brands and an individual's sensitivity to the drug. People with high blood pressure and pregnant women are advised to limit their caffeine consumption.
For the rest of the population, there's no evidence coffee does any long-term harm. Caffeine does have a very mild diuretic effect but, drunk in moderation, you don’t need to increase fluid intake to any significant degree as the loss of fluid is very minimal.

Tea

Tea contains some useful minerals such as zinc, manganese and potassium, and scientists are researching its potential to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease and some cancers.
Tea contains antioxidant substances called flavonoids, which have been shown to help slow or inhibit the chemical reactions thought to take place during the development of coronary heart disease.

Green tea

There's also a lot of interest in the health benefits of green tea, particularly in relation to cardiovascular health. Again, this is due to flavonoids, which are powerful antioxidants found in high concentrations in both green and black teas. The concentration of these compounds depends on how long the tea has been brewed, but can range from 125mg to 140mg.
Some studies have compared the concentration of these antioxidant compounds to that found in fruit and vegetables. Flavonoids bring potential benefits to heart health, as well as possible reductions in the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative conditions.

Caffeine and iron absorption

Both tea and coffee contain polyphenols that can bind to iron, making it difficult for our bodies to absorb. Avoiding tea and coffee during and around mealtimes is important for people at risk of iron deficiency.

The article is taken from:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/healthy_living/nutrition/healthy_caff.shtml

Many people asked me how to make a good presentation.

Well, it is hard to answer because to tell the truth, I really don't know how.
When I teach and present my presentation using powerpoint, I just flow like a water in the river streams.
I just throw the stories, say this and that and put a beautiful meaningful images in my presentation.

Well may be it is in my DNA, presentation. I prefer to say, telling a story, than presenting a presentation. I always see myself as a storyteller.

And I just found a slideshow about making a presentation, and I feel that it is good. Even though it is for geography teachers but the principles for making good presentation is there. So i decided to put it here.

Hope it will help you in making your presentations.

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

The first time I know about The Hurt Locker, when I saw the trailer in FX Jakarta last year. About a month after that, I saw the movie.

It is a one good war movie. Anti-war movie, to be precise. It is like Saving Private Ryan for the Iraq war.

So when The Academy Award goes to The Hurt Locker, then I think it worths it.

For you who haven't seen it, give it a try. It is not Rambonian type. When you see the movie you will experience the same fear felt by the characters in the movie. You just don't know whether this guy will survive till the end or not. It gives you the horror of war in the miniature scale.

And it will give you the reason (or more may be) why war is not a solution for a conflict.

"And the Oscar goes to The Hurt Locker". Amen.

I am in Gran Melia Jakarta Hotel now for business. This morning when I was about to go to the airport, I read in a local newspaper that the keroncong (Indonesia traditional song) singer, Mus Muljadi, suffers blindness because of his diabetic.

It is a shocking story for me. Even though I don’t know him personally, I know him from his song he sang. In the 70s his famous keroncong song “Rek, Ayo Rek” was a hit. At that times, many of radio station aired this famous song, till this song become an iconic song for the people of Surabaya. It is a song about Tunjungan Street in Surabaya. A street in a downtown of the city, like Singapore’s Orchard Road, but in a much different meaning and reality.

Muljadi admitted that he couldn’t control his eating behavior. Especially in his world tour in 1990-1992. He just eat whatever he liked. And it made his diabetic worst and worst till it bring blindness to his eyes.

As reading it, I spoke to myself that self control in eating is everything whether you are diabetic person or not. I always say to my daughters that in tasting of any food. In the first spoon we taste and the hundredth, the taste is still the same. The difference is in the damage cause by the food to our body. And I shared about it when I spoke in Vita school last Saturday.

My late pastor, Jerimia Rim, once said that some people dig their grave with spoon and fork. That is so true. Many people died because of the way they eat. Something that should be in their control.

There is a big difference between hungry and desire to eat. The first one is to be fed and the second one should be controlled.

And the key is in our hands.

Guys, i just bumped to this article and i think it might be useful for you who like drinking coffee.
You can visit the original site in: http://www.livescience.com/health/080519-coffee-facts.html

1. Caffeine Can Kill You
But you'd have to drink 80 to 100 cups in a hurry, health experts say. We advise not trying.

2. Coffee Can Be Good For You
A study shows that Americans get most of their antioxidants from their daily fix of java. One to two cups a day appear to be beneficial. Or, if you don't like coffee, try black tea, the second most consumed antioxidant source. Bananas, dry beans, and corn wrap up the top five.

3. Caffeine Might Boost Female Sex Drive
It worked on rats anyway. But researchers say in humans, coffee might enhance the sexual experience only among people who are not habitual users.

4. Caffeine Might Cut Pain
Moderate doses of caffeine — the equivalent of two cups of coffee— can cut post-gym muscle pain, a small study found. But the research was done on people who were not regular coffee drinkers.

5. Caffeine Can Indeed Keep You Up at Night
Health experts advise avoiding it for 6 hours before bedtime.

6. Decaf Coffee Has Caffeine!
If you drink five to 10 cups of decaffeinated coffee, you could get as much caffeine as from one or two cups of caffeinated coffee, a study found.

7. Decaffeination Uses Chemicals
Beans are steamed, so that dissolved caffeine rises to the surface, where it is washed off using an organic solvent called methylene chloride.

8. Caffeine Is Not The Bitter Culprit
Caffeine is not the main bitter compound in coffee. Rather, the pungent perpetrators are antioxidants.

9. Great Coffee Depends on Roasting and Brewing
When it comes to great flavor, coffee chemistry boils down to roasting and brewing. During roasting, oil locked inside the beans begins to emerge at around 400 degrees. The more oil, the stronger the flavor. Caffeine content goes up as the water spends more time in contact with the grounds, so regular coffee often has more of it than espresso or cappuccino. Darker roasts also yield more caffeine.

10. Coffee Was Discovered by Goats
A millennium ago on a mountainside in Africa, a herd of goats kept a shepherd up at night after feasting on red coffee berries. The shepherd took his animals' discovery to some monks, and very long prayer sessions ensued. It's a good story, anyway.

Out of my frustration because i cannot edit or do anything with my old blog, I decided to start this new blog.
In this new blog, I want to have a blog where i can post any simple thing that just across my mind.
Not complicated things, just simple stuffs.
That's why i name it "Pratana Coffee Talk".
Imagine when we meet people in a coffee shop, like in Starbucks (my favorite place), then we bump to a friend, know someone new and suddenly we have already in the middle of a conversation. Not a heavy one, just light conversation and fun.
Kinda coffee talk.
Well, I think it is my very own coffee shop, the cyber version, and hope you enjoy with what you read when you drop by in my place.