Cantaloupe Grows Well in America

Thursday, May 30, 2019
Ripe cantaloupe

I thought the fruit is a Japanese melon variety, but after searching through google, the cantaloupe is from Europe origin. The fact is surprising me.

Fruit was brought to Italy from Armenia. Papal county namely Cantalupo, close to Rome planted this fruits about 200 years ago. French then gave name of Cantaloupe.

In addition to cantaloupe, some Americans also call the fruit as rockmelon, muskmelon, sweet melon and muskmelon.

America produced 13.4 million cwt cantaloupe per year. Production mainly in the states of Arizona, Texas and California.

Cantaloupe sold in a grocery store

American loves to consume melons, include Cantaloupe. A single American consumes 27 pounds melon per year. One of the highest in the world.

We always buy this fruit, especially during late spring to summer seasons. Sweet and fresh.

Slices in a plate

It is said cantaloupe include as a super food due to its nutrient contents. It riches in vitamin A and C.

Cantaloupe also said as “beauty fruit,” because its extracted could be used to prevent wrinkle, to slow down skin aging and improve skin elasticity.

What do you think about cantaloupe?

What was Relationship between Christian Art and Classical Rome?

Wednesday, May 29, 2019
Basilica, just for illustration, credit to Romewise
Christianity has strong relationships with the Roman empire at early stage of developments, and even beyond. 
At the first century, slow but sure, Christian faith to be adapted by Romans world; many Romans converted to Christianity. 
In terms of art, Romans then bring their own art heritage to their new faith; Christian. Roman’s artistic (motif, form and architecture) was applied with new meaning to a new faith and to a new god. 

One of Basilica plan, credit to Amundson (2016)
Christian had adopted classical Rome architectures after becoming legal faith in 313 CE. Christian built the early churches by mimicking the basilica (please see above Figure). 
As mentioned by writer873 (2012) that basilica is used as a court of law or for public assemblies, and even as marketplaces in ancient Rome. 
Thus, basilica is evolved as a symbol of authority in Roman empire to be symbol of worship in early Christians.
Other unique things in early Christianity that they borrowed many artistic motifs from the Romans, some of them are philosopher figure; shepherd figure and festive meal motif. 
Christ and his apostles are depicted as a philosopher figure with characterized by a teacher wearing a toga and holding a scroll. 
Then, Christians adopted the shepherd figure to portray Christ; a young man with a sheep on his shoulders. In respect to the festive meal motif, Christians adopted the theme for celebration symbol.

References
Amundson, JA. 2016. ARC 231: image collection for Jewish & Early Christian. Retrieved from http://jhenniferamundson.net/arc-231-2/arc-231-image-collection/arc-231-image-collection-for-jewish-early-christian/
Writer873. 2012. Basilicas of the Roman Forum. Retrieved from http://www.ancient.eu/article/24/

Single Price Stores: Everything One Dollar

Tuesday, May 28, 2019
Health and beauty hair products

Capitalists not only about “efficiency” to reduce price, but also about finding market segment and off course profit margin.

Due to economic crisis in 2008, US government provides lower tax to small business. Number of stores which sell one dollar item increases dramatically across America.

In addition to cheap products, the retails give jobs to community as well.

If you never visit America, some stores selling one dollar products are following:
- 99 cents only stores
- Daiso
- Dollar Tree
- Dollar General
- Real Deals
- Family Dollar
- Fed’s
- K dollar

Bows and gift wrapper

What items the stores sell? Almost everything of daily need. From party supplies to toys, from stationery to craft supplies.

You may have a question: how stores could offer cheap products? The answer that store just gains on slim profit margin than any other similar stores.

Items sold are surplus over stock from network companies. Items are often produced from overseas such as Mexico, Haiti or China.

Baby relate things

I will not buy all items I need in the dollar stores, but, yes for some items. They are categorized as:

# Beauty products:
- I always buy perfume

## Stationery
- My pens, pencil and papers come from one dollar stores

### Accessories
- I buy brushes, mirror, comb and any relate accessories from this kind of stores

#### Kitchen tool and supplies
- plates (paper, ceramic, plastic), cups (ceramic, glasses and plastic), bake wares and any kitchen tools.

Hair Accessories

I avoid to buy products such as shampoo, hair dyeing, supplement food, canned and processing foods.

The reasons, first, due to quality and not well known brand. The second is due to that I could find bargain price in other grocery stores, sometimes.

Do You Want to Buy a Reasonable Cheap House?

Monday, May 27, 2019
A simple house with price US$ 4,900, credit to Amazon

Housing prices are increasing in the last several years in the USA, then, modular, prefab or factory houses are booming to fill the gap.

The price is reasonable, you even could buy through online. Many online stores sell these kinds of houses. One of them is Amazon.

The price as low as US$ 4,900 (Euro 4,400) to as expensive as US$ 40,000 (Euro 36,000). But the most favorites are less than US$ 10,000 (Euro 8,900).

Houses with price US$ 7,250 (Euro 6,500) are sold out.

House with price of US$ 7,250, credit to Amazon

Size for US$ 4900 house is 113 square feet, while size for US$ 7250 house is 172 square feet. Yes, very small size but better than nothing or than homeless on the street.

However, there are houses with size large enough. The price is above US$ 10 thousand, and size is more than 292 square feet.

In addition to permanent house, this 292 square feet house may be modified for business purposes such as to be a private office and a retail store.

If you order from Amazon, then the online company will send to you with no extra cost, free shipping.

This kind of house is “build by your self”. Two persons could assemble the house as quick as 8 hours to as long as 3 days.

The time to complete assembling is quite reasonable. Not long.

Do you want to have one?

What is the Largest Buddha Temple in the World?

Sunday, May 26, 2019
Borobudur temple
I familiar with one of Buddha temples, because I visited the temple several times, namely Borobudur. The temple is the largest Buddha temple in the world. 
Uniquely, the temple was built by two million blocks of stones and no interior for worship purposes. 
The base occupies around 2,500 square meters with a 123×123 meters square in size and 4 meters in high. 
The body (wall) contains 5 square platforms, where each of the platform was diminishing by heights. 
Then, if measured from the ground, the temple has a height of 35 meters (115 feet). Quite higher for an ancient building.
Vertically, the building was divided by three major divisions, they are base, body (wall), and top. 

Stupa (contain holy relics) on the top of Borobudur temple

Base is pile of stones, like strong foundations in other historical building in the world. Body (wall) is carved with “reliefs” to depict daily activities of ancient Indonesia. 
On the top of temple, there is space for Buddhists to perform their worship. Not like other religions, Buddhist come to temple only for certain celebrations. 
The temple is located in central Java, Indonesia. Distance is around 564 km (350 mile) from capital, Jakarta to Magelang regency or close by Jogjakarta, where Borobudur is.
Many public transportations provide service to visit Borobudur: planes, trains and buses. 
You may know (heard) about Angkor Wat, Cambodia. The Angkor Wat temple was originally Hindu’s, then transformed to Buddha. 
Borobudur is consistently used as Buddha temple since it was constructed in 850 AD until recently.
Have you visited any Buddha temples? 

A Small Project to Grow Strawberry in My Backyard

Saturday, May 25, 2019
Two Strawberries

During this year spring season (couple months ago in our area), I planned a small project in my own backyard to grow strawberry in the several plastic pots.

The strawberry likes both shade and direct sun. The berry needs at least 6 hours sun on daily basis.

It is why strawberry grows well in the spring or late summer in nature. Sun light not so strong, but enough as needed.

Yes, Strawberry may grow in the small size containers. I used plastic pots with size of 6 inches height and 4.5 inches width. Very small.

Since growing in small pots, I need to water the plants more frequently, at least once a day.

What is the result?

A strawberry plant in the small plastic pot.

One of plants grew well, and produced several strawberries. The taste is better than strawberries sold in many grocery stores. Little bit sweeter.

I was so happy. I thought that I could grow strawberry at least for my own consumption during spring or summer seasons.


A sweet little red strawberry

Unfortunately, other growing berries from other pots are “stolen” by wild squirrels. The animals starts to pick even “buds” of fruits.

It seems that I invited the wild animals come to my backyard and in front of my back doors.

I need to rethinking other methods, include green house and hydroponic techniques by next year.

Buy What You Need in Home Depot

Thursday, May 23, 2019
Let’s cut it

We always buy home relate tools and construction products from one of American biggest retail companies, called Home Depot.

The first reason is quite fair distance from our neighborhood. The other reasons due cheaper price and variety of supplies.

Many years we wonder how to bring things: woods, plywood, pipes and relate home material if larger or longer than our Matrix 2008 car.

Yes, if we buy such as many wooden beams, woods and wooden pools, then we would rent a small truck. But, if one piece of 5 meter wood, should we rent a truck?

Wood beam sold in Home Depot

We just currently notice that Home Depot provides do it yourself service. We not only cut the wood suitable to carry by our own car, but also pay the price as what we need. Neither more nor less than.

As an example, we cut 100 cm (3 feet) wood beam and pay for US$6 instead of paying US$18 for 300 cm (10 feet). Cheap and easy to carry.

At previously, we wasting our money, since we always buy more than what we need. Un-used material either we store in storage or throw away as a garbage. Unfortunately.

Have You been in Salt Lake City, Utah?

Tuesday, May 21, 2019
One of city entrance

I just passed through Salt Lake City in one of my trips to the North States. The city, in my opinion is calm and peace.

No crowd and rush hour compared to Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and even New Orleans in the southern state.

In respect to population is quite lower, around 200 thousand people only. Surprisingly, 51% is Mormon. We can assume that it is capital of Mormon.

If you never stay or visit USA, you might not know what Mormon is.

I quoted from Google “Mormons believe that Jesus paid for the sins of the world and that all people can be saved through his atonement. Mormons accept Christ's atonement through faith, repentance, formal covenants or ordinances such as baptism, and consistently trying to live a Christ-like life.”

A station for light rail system.

Public transportation is better than other cities across America. City has a light rail transportation to cover inner city and suburbs.

In addition to light train, the city also provide commuter trains and buses. We could access almost any part of city by public transportations.

Airport, ski resorts, public buildings and important public entertains are connected with public transportation networks.

The Mormon church

You can buy a round trip ticket from down town to any available places you wish. You could back to down town quickly and easily.

Do not worry, there are some trains on Saturday and Sunday, from early morning to mid night.

Have you been in or planning to go to Salt Lake City?

What is Purpose of Parthenon in Athens, Greece?

Monday, May 20, 2019


Parthenon in Athens (credit to Google)

The Parthenon is a classical style, a Doric order style of the Temple that built by the Athenian Empire in 447 BC. The temple for the patron of goddess, Athena.

Athena is the smartest and wisest of all gods in Greece. As god of war and peace. She was an inventor and crafted.

Then, Bakula (2018) added that “She was a protector, adviser, patron, and ally of heroic men.”

Parthenon have 8 pillars in front of the entrance. These pillars to support a pediment; a triangular element in upper part of front any classical style buildings.

In terms of political and military viewpoints, the Parthenon is a symbol of Athenian imperial power. 

As said by Martin (1999) that the Parthenon served as a champion of military power, indicated by the present of the goddess in battle armor inside the building.

The Parthenon is a rectangular form; Columns are smaller; and columns in Doric order of classical style.

Parthenon on the hill (credit to Google)

Currently, Parthenon function as a museum, to be one of tourist’s attraction in Greece.

As a great empire once upon time, we could find the remaining of Greek buildings in many places such as Italy, Sicily, and Turkey.

Parthenon was viewed from the sky (credit to Google)

Then, Greek classical style was mimicked and copied around the globe for private and public buildings. 

What kind of Greek classical buildings do yo know?

Reference
Bakula, J. (2018). Athena, Goddess of Wisdom and Artistry in Greek Mythology. Retrieved from https://owlcation.com/humanities/The-Greek-Goddess-Athena
Martin, TR. 1999. An Overview of Classical Greek History from Mycenae to Alexander. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/#q=thomas+r+martin+an...
+overview+of+athena+empire.

Stop by at Art Galleries of a College Student

Sunday, May 19, 2019
Look like a big goat head

We just stop by a college art gallery that close to our neighborhood recently. The students use a wall to show their creativity.

Sure, the purposes are to promote and if the art works are good enough, then the owners sell it.

Since the painting owners are students, mainly associate degree students, the price range from US$ 50 to couple hundred bucks.

I saw the highest price of painting is US$ 480. Male goat head of oil painting. Look very beautiful for me.

Vases and flowers

There are many painting styles as we know, some of them are:
- Racoco
- Barouque
- Realism (called as naturalism too)
- Fauvism
- Romanticism
- Cubism
- Expressionism
- Abstract
- Surrealism

Many vases with beautiful flowers

I know few of artists with their styles:

- Rembrant, a Dutch painter is one of well known artists for realism style.
- Pablo Picasso, a Spanish painter, a well known artist for cubism style.
- Edvard Munch, a Norwegian painter, a well known artist for expressionism style.
- Jackson Pollock, an American painter, a well known artist for abstract style
- Max Ernst is one of well known painters from Germany for surrealism style.

In my opinion that majority students adapted the Realism, also called as naturalism painting style. I love this style. What we see have no hiding meaning.

Few paintings as I saw that depict the light and visible strokes to show the quality of painting. This style could be included as post impressionism painting style.

Vincent van Gogh, a dutch painter is well known for his post impressionism style.

What painting style do you like? Who is your favorite painter?

Regular Visiting of Nursery at Home Depot

Friday, May 17, 2019
Nursery of flowers

We usually visit nursery on late January or early February every year. Temperature is comfortable in our American southern states.

The nursery could be home depot, Walmart or any specific nurseries that available in our city or near by our neighborhood.

In the last several years, frozen (temperature below minus C degree) killed our plants, flowers and fruits.

Some of our trees also died, not because of temperature, but because of diseases. Mainly due to fungi and bacteria diseases.

We need to re-placed the dead plants with new ones. They are include annual and perennial flowers, fruits and trees.

Perennial flowers

From the word “perennial,” we know that this is a kind of “continuation.” The flowers may grow year by year.

The flowers are growing during spring and summer seasons, dormant in the fall and winter. They might re-grow in the spring and summer, depending on many factors.

There are plenty of perennial flowers, some of them are:
- Black eyed Susan
- Day lily
- Daffodils
- Aster
- Gloriosa daisy
- Penstemon

Annual flowers

Annual refer to growing in one season only, no re-growing in spring and summer seasons.

Some of annual flowers are following:
- Petunia
- Pansy
- Calendula
- Swiss chard
- Geranium

Beautiful roses

I like white rose, look lovely. I think Home Depot sells plenty of roses variations and colors.

The colors not only white and red, but also include yellow, vermilion, magenta, apricot and purple.

What flowers do you like? Perennial or annual?