Don’t we all love fresh air, people? Oh, I miss fresh air (in a state of while NOT riding my motorcycle).

I miss walking.

And as I’ve told previously, I’m currently (still) saving at one bank until I get enough hard cash to get a bike (or should I ask my family to buy me a bike for my next birthday? ).

I envy people who can just bike or even walk to work.

Can’t wait to get my very own bike (I assume… next January?).

Here’s an inspiring motivation from Jacki as cited in Zandria (doesn’t this look like a thesis writing format or something? ) :

Fresh air is linked to working out more. According to a blurb in the September 2007 issue of Good Housekeeping, people who walk, hike, or bike on trails at least once per week are twice as likely to get 30 minutes of exercise almost every day as those who don’t head outdoors. This doesn’t surprise me. Fresh air is refreshing, invigorating, and the scenery is so much better than indoors. It’s motivating to witness the wonder of nature while exercising. So in the spirit of the great outdoors, I say: Skip the gym. Head outside.

You don’t have to stop driving to fight global warming, but you should know an average car produces 6 tons global warming pollution each year.
—www.cooldriver.org

To get clean air and cool planet, we all can be cool drivers with these simple steps (still cited from the above site):
1. Drive (or ride your motorcycle) no more than you need to.
2. Keep your tires properly inflated.

Or change your vehicle into the eco-friendly hybrid one (is it possible for us in Indonesia, or even in Pontianak?).

Or you can just take the bus or other sorts of public transportations, if possible (for those of you who live in my city must already know the situation here).

Or just ride a bike. Well, yes, almost all cities everywhere are jammed with cars and motorcycles, no space left for bikers (or even, sometimes, for walkers), but when you know that you can reduce a little CO2 emission, why not? Jakarta gets traffic jams every single day, but still, many workers united in the Bike to Work (B2W) community cycle to work when possible.

So, why not join with me of doing an effort to save regularly on a term-deposit account. What for? Of course to buy a bike (unless you’ve got enough money at present, then off you go to the nearest bike shop). This way, you are reducing the fossil fuel use that can reduce CO2 emissions—the primary contributor to global warming.

In terms of teaching, never call me creative, let alone innovative. For the matter of preparing materials and giving tasks/assignments, most of the times I rely on my last-minute-popped-up ideas. Including this final assignment I gave to my three General English classes — find and list as many simple present tense sentences as they can from several blogs I told them. Why blogs? English books and magazines are rare here, so why not benefiting from the internet, especially blogs that have so, so, so many sentences?

It’s just interesting knowing that these following blogs are the most listed as references for many of my students’ assignments:

^^ Dinie Hazel’s The Kupu blog

^^ Zandria’s Keep Up with Me blog

^^ Indonesia Anonymus

^^ No Pasa Nada

^^ Angel’s blog

So, good bye already to January. New year always seems running pretty fast, don’t you think? Well, I never thought that I would have accomplished 6 (yes, six!) items from my 101 list, only in January

#15 Make a good-bye post on the previous I Taste Chocolate blog.

Hopefully this supports my new promise to keep things small and simple, reduce, reuse, and (if possible) recycle. For this matter, I have reduced the amount of blogs I own and manage. Now my eyes can clearly see that it’s wise to integrate the I Taste Chocolate section in this Gorgeous Inspirations blog. Now plan to delete the account on Blogger. FYI, I’ve decided not to eat chocolate for an unplanned range of time ahead, since I’ve just gained new knowledge that many chocolate industries use children to work and some tend to treat them as slaves. Horrible and horrifying! I wonder if my country is already aware of fairtrade-certified food/products (including chocolate). Anyway, it wouldn’t be impossible if I post some of my past ‘journeys’ with certain chocolate products that I haven’t shared with others. Just wait

#19 Plant something from seed.

Never like gardening, frankly speaking, but I remember once I enjoyed nurturing my chili plant back when I was a primary student. So, in view of my effort to be green, I targeted one seed to be planted (and by my very own hands). At first, I planned to buy the seed, but then changed that (personally uncomfortable) idea as I saw a nice opportunity to get the seed from my significant other who routinely goes to an area named Sambas. I asked him to bring me one once he got back, and he turned out to bring several (but so far he handed one only) — a flower by the name of asoka, if I’m not mistaken. It took pretty long for him to deliver me the seed, so by the time he came with the seed, I would say that it was ‘a big seed’, since it already grew a few centimeters taller. And it took me pretty long as well to get the plant to the soil, but still, I made it eventually (though it was planted by a pair of amateur cold hands), and I felt (and still do feel) green! Later I’ll show you the photo of the plant, okay

#21 Turn the radio off and unplug the power cord before bed every day for 2 consecutive weeks.

As I’ve explained previously, it was always pretty hard for me to bunk without any sounds. When (I thought that) my radio was broken, I was inclined to keep the (noisy) ceiling fan turned on, even though the weather actually did not permit. And how happy I was finding out that my radio wasn’t broken (at all) so that I could always and always turn it on even when I’m asleep. Now I know it’s not wise for the earth (and for my dad’s financial management). So why did I only make it for 2 weeks? I did not have the courage to promise to leave the radio off at sleeping time every day for 1001 consecutive days, so the 2 weeks were kind of trial or something (it’s never easy to do something drastically, right?), so that later on I can be used to it. And yes, now that I have accomplished the 2 weeks, I’m already more used with the no-sound state when sleeping (but I still like the noise and the wind from the ceiling fan).

#74 Eat at least one traditional food once a week for 4 consecutive weeks.

I suppose I should do this more, as there are many great traditional food out there in my area (and the food isn’t only from local, but also from other areas in Indonesia. Isn’t it nice to know (and taste) your very own food (even though there are also so many burgers, pizzas, and on, and on)?

#87 On 1 January 2008, read the letter I wrote to myself on the last New Year’s eve.

#92 Open a new savings account at a different bank from mine now.