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Immortality

From their 1994 album Vitalogy. My favorite song by them. Covered by Seether on their live album.

More:
Pearl Jam - Immortality

Immortality - Lyrics So this is who I am, And this is all I know, And I must choose to live, For all that I can give, The spark that makes the power grow And I will stand for my dream if I can, Symbol of my faith in who I am, But you are my only, And I must follow on the road that lies ahead, And I won't let my heart control my head, But you are my only We don't say goodbye, We don't say goodbye, And I know what I've got to be Immortality I make my journey through eternity I keep the memory of you and me inside Fulfill your destiny, Is there within the child, My storm will never end, My fate is on the wind, The king of hearts, the joker's wild, We don't say goodbye, We don't say goodbye, I'll make them all remember me Cos I have found a dream that must come true, Every ounce of me must see it through, But you are my only I'm sorry I don't have a role for love to play, Hand over my heart I'll find my way, I will make them give to me Immortality (oh baby) There is a vision and a fire in me (ohh) I keep the memory of you and me, inside We don't say goodbye We don't say goodbye With all my love for you And what else we may do We don't say, goodbye

Originally posted here:
Celine Dion - Immortality

Book 1 - Current Status

First of all I want to give everyone my deepest apologies for the terribly long delay in getting you a copy of this book.

Since my last update, I ran into some personal issues, along with my editors, which have caused delays in getting the book editing done.

Right now, we have about 2/3rds of Book 1 ready to release; with an ongoing full court press in getting the remaining chapters in Book 1 done a.s.a.p.

By now, all of you should have received a free copy of my first book "Wake Up ... Moments of Inspiration". If you have not please contact us right away.

If you have requested Chapters 1 & 2 in electronic Adobe PDF format, you should have received them by now as well. If you have not received them, you are still welcome to request these chapters via email.

Free Gifts

In appreciation of your continued patience, I will now be adding another free gift which you will receive as part of your order.

As part of your pre-release order of the hardcopy version of "Secrets of an Immortal - An Eyewitness Account of 2,800 Years of History", you will now be receiving the electronic version (in Adobe PDF format) of Book 2 when it becomes ready. Books 2 through 4 were partially written when the first version of Book 1 was written. Like Book 1, it will have to be revised and edited before it will be released. Therefore Book 2 should be following shortly after Book 1 is finally released.

This new gift is an addition to the previously mentioned free gifts you will be receiving for pre-ordering Book 1 which include: (1) Book 1 in electronic format (Adobe PDF), (2) an Audio CD of select podcasts about the Secrets of an Immortal book series, (3) a Data CD of select eBooks which related to Book 1, (4) a copy of "Wake Up Moments of Inspiration", and Chapters 1 & 2 from Book 1 in electronic format.

p.s. the radio interview scheduled today on BlogTalkRadio had been rescheduled to a later date.

Do Immortals Really Exist? by Ben Abba
http://www.Ben-Abba.com

Source:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/DoImmortalsReallyExist

(Melbourne Notes - Written in 2009)

By now y’all must have figured out that despite my headscarf, I actually have a secret fashionista in me (fashion-ista, not fashio-nista!). So when I was told that Australian office dress code is quite formal, I hastily rummaged Mal Ambasador to procure some decent shirts and jackets (or “blazer” as you call it) to wear at work in Melbourne. Quite a fortune spent, that was, for a proletarian.

Months went by since I first came and those jackets never once find the occasion to leave my closet.

That bloody person who tipped me off must have not acknowledged the fact that I am an *engineer* working in *oil industry*, not some high-profile admin staff in a private bank. As far as the eyes can see, ladies here dress more or less the same as in Jakarta. Or should I say, less!

For isn’t it a miniskirt that she’s wearing? Like 15 cm above the knees? Isn’t it a body-fit cotton tee that I see over there? And anticipating summer, I swear the ladies are all flaunting their “yukensi” shirts & dresses! Who actually wears a jacket? Supervisors. And those putting on “minimalist” tops when they actually have an important review coming up (old trick!).

So pardon me for going about this Melbourne office in my usual fashion statement. That is, “tadpole fashion” like you used to see me back then in Jakarta. And pardon me if those jackets eventually fly back to Indonesia with their price tags still on. Because it is highly unlikely -and against my favour- that I’d suddenly become a supervisor within these 18 months, ha ha =)

Note:

- For the gents, it is true though, that the dress code is quite formal. If you can get away with short-sleeve shirts in Jakarta, here you must grope further into your long-sleeve drawer. And don’t forget your shiny patent leather shoes. Putting on a tie all day is pretty common, too.

- Summer is really a fascinating time for fashion studies. Look at the way the ladies dress (do so with your shades on, ho-hum)! Some just have no clue they look downright hideous, I can tell ya!

(Melbourne Notes - Written in 2009)

I never thought my supposedly smooth transition will be crippled by such a trivial thing as everyday how-are-you’s. I coped gracefully with bigger things: the new job, the language, the cold (imagine a tropical creature journeys in winter), the settling-in, the food. But in the first weeks, there were always those awkward seconds before I could respond to a simple “How are you?”.

I believe it is cultural! We do greet each other with a genial “Apa kabar?” (how-are-you equivalent in Bahasa), but certainly we don’t apa-kabar each other every 5-minute! In Indonesia, if you see them & interact with them on a daily basis, a nice good-morning and an occasional “hi” every time you bump into them will be sufficient. But in Western culture they fire on with how-are-you every time they set eyes on you. Or so I felt.

Then followed the awkward seconds in which I struggled for an answer.

It was hard for me to respond readily because I could not tell if they sincerely wanted to know how I was or if it was just something mechanical; something meaningless that did not demand meaningful answer.

If I were honestly feeling low, should I just say it? Would they care or would they brush it off? If they cared, I might have to elaborate. But would I care to? I’m not someone who could just pour my heart out to a perfect stranger.

But if this whole how-are-you thing is just mechanical, why bother answering it anyway? Could I just brush it off?

See? All these “philosophical” questions passed through my mind every time a random, well-meaning person asked me that simple “How are you?”. And if I was an idiot for taking three days to realize that the office has no tea girls, I must have been a bigger idiot for taking three WEEKS to get it into my system that I shouldn’t worry about the (in)sincerity of the meaning; I should just take it as a cultural thing and produce a prompt “Good. Yourself?” with a genuine smile, both in the ups and downs of my day.

So I got over it now. You can how-are-you me every 5-minute and I wouldn’t bother. Except that now I’m feeling a bit bored with the words good/fine/well as universal answers. Surely there are better ways to respond to this standard greeting! “Never been better”. “Still hangin’ on”. “Getting there”. “Fabulous”. “Sensational”. “Like sunshine!”. "Living my dreams". Oh, I can invent other things and heaps of them. So you’ll be surprised the next time you fire your “How are you?” at me! 🙂

PS:

This is something that happened during my Uni years, when I was a part-time Bahasa teacher in Jogja. One of my favourite students, a British diplomat, came to me and idly asked me to translate “Mustn’t grumble” to Bahasa. “Why would you need to say ’mustn’t grumble’ anyway?”, I was sincerely curious. “Alternative answer to how-are-you”, he said. NOW I know what he meant. “Good” is just sooooooo boring! 🙂