Marhaban ya Ramadhan

Welcome O Ramadhan.

Today, Muslims in Indonesia started the one-month fasting month during the holy month of Ramadhan.

We are not allowed to eat, drink and have sex from dawn to sunset. Doing these things will cancel your fast of the day. But conforming to this is only the lowest, mere physical level.

The true test is how to be calm, not to be angry easily. We must also take care of our mouth, eyes, ears, heart and the rest of our bodies. While gossipping will not cancel the fast, it will surely ruin it so you fast for nothing but hunger and thirst.

This year all Muslims in Indonesia start the fasting together. But I don't know yet whether we will end it together. An Islamic lunar month may have 29 or 30 days.

There are two ways to determine when a month is started or ended: Hisab or calculating and Rukyah or direct, visual observation of Hilal or the lunar crescent.

You can get more information by visiting Islamic Calendar.

Indonesia have witnessed several times different timing of starting and ending Ramadhan, depending on the way being used by particular groups.

For me, I will just follow the government's announcement.

They say difference is a blessing.

May we all be blessed during Ramadhan this year.

What's happened with Technorati?

I can't ping Technorati to announce my new postings!! Is there anybody out there who can offer any suggestions to fix the problem?

When I ping technorati, my last post was 260 days ago or so. Even though I have just posted new contents. A delay of a couple of days is still reasonable. But the strange thing is this only happens with this blogs. My three other blogs are just fine.

Sigh.....

Adisucipto Airport, Yogyakarta

A Batavia Air Boeing 737-200 on the apron of Adisucipto Airport in Yogyakarta.
Another aircraft on the apron after landing. Adam Air's Boeing 737-400.
A Lion Air MD-82 is taxiing ready to take off from Adisucipto Airport in Yogyakarta. I was in Yogyakarta in March.

The airport is also an Air Force Base and hosts the Air Force Academy.

Merpati offered Chinese planes

Merpati Nusantara Airlines is being offered a loan of US$ 250 million to buy 50-seater planes from China. This is exactly the N-250 class!! Curse you IMF!

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Added on Sept.10:
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The planes are 50-seater MA-60 produced by Xi'an Aircraft Industry (Group) Company Ltd. It looks like Fokker F-27/F-50. The aircraft derives from Y-7, Chinese version of popular Russian transporter An-24.

Claiming my blogs with Technorati

I have just claimed all my four blogs using Technorati.

My three blogs in Blogspot have embedded functions such as search and links using the advanced option. Unfortunately that's not the case with Friendster blog in which I can only use Post Claim.

I learned how to claim my blogs using Technorati when I bumped into Refleksi dan Blog Tutorial while I was browsing Blogger Indonesia A. Fatih Suyud Weblog. So, thanks to both bloggers.

Can't wait to claim my blogs using other engines. See ya