Jack In and Enjoy

The Obamania

2009-01-21T19:49:00.003+07:00

So, America officially got a new president, Barack Obama. I watched the inauguration ceremony last nite, cancelling the CSI Season 8 that has been waiting since last month hehehe.. I am sure that this ceremony is a lot different than any other before it. They just elected the first afro-american president, a leader that came from many backgrounds that for sure have shaped him into a great leader with vision.

Here in Indonesia, the reaction from the people are various. Some are very proud and happy because Mr. Obama spent four of his youth age in Indonesia. He went to an elementary school here in Jakarta, spent his days with some of our local residents. Many of them still remember him as "Barry", a big dark colored foreign student who -at first- spoke little Indonesian language. Then he moved to Hawaii and started his teenage time and career in the States.

His father is Kenyan, Hussein Obama, who got married with American woman. They got divorced and she married an Indonesian man, Soentoro, who at that time worked for Pertamina (state owned oil company). Of course, even his time in Jakarta was only short (about 4 years), but this enough to ignite a thing what they call "Obamania". People talk about him, read his biography and book, even visiting the school he was once attending. They also founded a fans club for him, where his picture is idolized just like they did with Martin Luther King or JFK.

As for me, Barack Obama is a very unique figure. Not because he spent some of his childhood here, but because of what he represents. He represents freedom, equality and hope. I'm sure it's a big challenge for the Americans when they knew that Obama will run for presidency. C'mon, who are you kidding here? Even many countries have claimed to be a democratic society, racism and stereotyping are still the biggest culprit in their social problems. Hatred and negative suspicion are common in almost every society. So, this is a challenge that needs exact proof of democracy, proof of equality.

This could be seen as a freedom realization that every citizen has the chance to run for presidency. They are no longer limitations that focus more on what color is our skin, whether our hair is straight or curly, do we have blue eyes, or which faith we believe in.

These things had attracted me from the beginning of his campaign. Of course I didn't follow his day-to-day campaign or speech, or rally. What I mean is, from many of his speeches, many of his promises, and many of his extraordinary approach, this man is a promising leader. A leader that would not only lead Americans out of their crisis, but also a leader that hopefully will re-shape the prominent image of American Government and society.

Barack Obama represents equality, that all mankind are the same. Each of us needs wealth, needs a comfortable zone whether at workplace or at home. The projection of our hope and needs are as real as the life itself. We all hope that this equality will bring us out of these global problems and it will start in America.

He represents hope, the last thing we have and beyond our dreams. People put their hope on him. Not only his people, or his political party. But people from every layer of societies and countries. People from many backgrounds and ethnicities. Those who have been waiting for so long to see the dreams our previous leader unable to create. This marks the beginning of a journey, not only for the man himself, but for us as a citizen of the world.

Too bad that I'm not an American or I could try to be there in National Mall, listen to his voices of hope and unity. Then perhaps at the end of his speech, I could scream out and do standing ovation with the other two million souls out there in the cold day of January. And perhaps... perhaps I would also shed a tear with the others for we just got one great leader that would shape our modern history into a new beginning.

Congratulations Mr. Obama, and congratulations America.

Things do not change; we change.
Henry David Thoreau

Another Day In Another New Year

2009-01-12T00:47:00.004+07:00

It's been exactly one month since my last posting *sighs*. What can I say? I've been too lazy and busy lately with all the errands. So, now I will try to sum up what have happened in my merry life for the last couple of weeks.

I or we to be precise, have moved into our new house (yay). As some of you already know, moving houses just sounds like an easy stuff to do during holiday. Things that most of us might think, "Oh, hell, what's so hard moving things from old place into a new one?". Well, it is actually more than that. The more time I, again, we, spend in the our new house, the more things are needed to be fixed. Ceilings, bathtub, lights, door handles, and the list goes on.

Another thing is, I already have enough routines everyday. Teaching in the morning, another teaching outside the school time in the afternoon, going home, watering the plants, spend time with wife and daughter, dinner, then movies or computer games, perhaps one or two cans of beer. Repeat that for 5 times a week, and weekends is unpredictable. We could have a relax weekend, or just truly tiring hehehe..

Like now, it's already 1 a.m. but yet I'm still awake writing this entry. Well, the only good thing this would bring is that some dudes are lucky enough for not have to play against me in the Battlefield 2 servers lol! I still enjoy the game until now. Maybe because it's more complex than DoD: Source and of course much more complex than the infamous CounterStrike. To be honest, I miss playing DoD: Source and CounterStrike: Source for some reasons. Not the repetition gameplay, but in CS:S and DoD:S, I've met players that are not only enjoyable to play with but also to have a chat. More of them are already aware the needs of teamwork and positive communication.

Heck, even I've played with a housewife who enjoys spending the Friday night havoc playing DoD:S as a machine gunner. That was when I'm in Australia tho. As the community in here, people are tend to spend time on trash-talking or insulting others hehehe.. not a pretty thing to have during weekends, but what can you do?

Back to the moving house topic, moving into a new settlement also needs extra time and money. After almost a month, now we are agree that we need some more items for the house. First, we need a portable air-conditioning device. The thing that blows air (cool air, that is) and can be moved around the room. I don't care about any brand because of the tight budget.

Second thing is we need another extension of our desk in the study room. A bigger space is needed to put all the peripherals of our desktop computer PLUS a laptop. Now it's just too small for anything that an computer screen and printer.

Third thing that is also importantly needed is an office chair, the one with comfy arm rest and good for the backside hehehe.. if we're going to spend much time on the Internet or computer, than this is a strike one item that would make things a bit easier.

Our fourth items needed is a mail box. The real mail box, the one that you can put outside your front door. Because this is a housing complex, all houses don't have fence. So, anything that the postman put in our front yard or terrace would also easily been accessed by anyone. Not good when you're having or expecting important postage.

The last but not least is a microwave. The-God-blessing-invention is very helpful for reheat the food or defrost meat. Of course we can always go natural like letting the damn meat sitting for hours just to sweat hehehe..

But I can't deny that moving into our own place is one of the greatest thing you could get. I mean, you arrange what you want to eat, what you like to watch, which channel you want to tune-in, etc, etc. Anyway, don't forget that "with great powers come great responsibilities". Meaning that if something is needed to be fixed then I have to drag my sorry @ss to fix it first hehehe.. also checking that windows and doors are locked before I hit the hay.

As for weather update, it becomes cloudy here. The rainy season might hit our place faster than they are expected. Example for today, it's been raining all day long since brunch time. It is a good thing, because the air is so much cooler and easy to enjoy. It's just the flooding thing that makes me worried. Two years ago Jakarta was forced into a complete stop as 85% of our region was flooded. By "flood" we don't mean a water as high as your leg. Our definition flood could go up to 7 m in some places and on average it's about 60 cm deep. The scene is also so surreal. Our flooded capital will make swamp looked like a heavenly paradise.

Oh well, that's everything I can think of now. After this, I might hit some rounds of games in Facebook or trying harrassing my friends mwahahaahha.. cya when I cya (WTF??)

Chapter I : A New Beginning

2008-12-13T00:29:00.002+07:00

So I have to admit that I've abandoned this blog (for many times before). I also can't deny that I had been too busy with things that I wasn't be able to spare some extra minute just to update my blog *sighs*.

Anyway, I decided to have some changes with the blog. First, I changed the main title, and I'm now looking for a simple and calm layout. If I can find the one I feel most suitable for my blog, then I will change it. If not, then I'll stick with this one for a while.

How's everybody been doing? I hope the late global economic crisis won't drag you into deeper sh#t, than it already is. Many might find difficulties to pay the mortgage, and little money to spend on our family. I feel deep terribly sorry.

Just today, I or we had moved into our own new house. It has been postponed so many times because so many occasions. Some were nice to be remembered, the others were just like endless nightmares.

I took a day-off from work and had been busy since the morning. Exactly minimum rest and my stomach was kinda acting uncomfortably. BUT, *drum rolls* we are in now! I can't believe that this will happen hehehe as the house has already finished months and months ago. Then we have to sort things out such as water system, garden, kitchen, etc, etc.

Now it's already pass midnite, and I'm seriously sleep and tired. My wife even already fell asleep hours ago. Poor her. Well, because now I live in our own place, I really hope I could -at least try- updating my blog in more regular manner.

I hope you will enjoy it too...

Cya in the next posting.

Zero Sugar = Zero Fun?

2008-06-27T13:23:00.003+07:00

So last Monday I've got my chance to try the infamous Coca Cola Zero. It means that the every can or bottle will give its loyal consumers zero sugar. What's the difference than Diet Coke? Well, CCZ is designed with the real taste of cola, while Diet Coke has a very very subtle coke taste.

Then why they don't just name it Diet Coke Zero Sugar? Apparently, in the States they call it "calorie-free" instead "diet" since the young males always associate "diet" with women. LOL. Can't agree more on that anyway.

So, I took one slim can of this little bastard and had a sip. Good taste on the palate tho, even I was expecting a good sweet taste. Usually, when some 'diet' drinks that claim have zero sugar aka calorie, it still has a very decent sweetness.
But I kid you not that CCZ has no -if not then very weak- sweet flavour. It is still carbonated drink, but the taste is so light. It's not flat, it's just missing something, there is no kicking in the taste hehehe..

For me, zero sugar is like watching Jackie Chan's movies without the funny stunts, or , watching Jerry Springer's show without the midgets. However, if you're one of those healthy-life enthusiasts then you will probably like this little bastard.

I don't have anything against it, just not enough sugar for me hehe.. Enough babbling for now. I'm on holiday, taking days off before I rejoin with the class for the new term. I will teach primary class. They said it will be very challenging, and I'm sure it will.

Little update on my blog, I've put some funny, if not, smart quotes. They're randomly set and it will show different one everytime you refresh the page. Have fun!

Reporting For Duty

2008-05-04T21:52:00.004+07:00

For about the last couple of weeks, I've been 'away' from my ritual and sacred activities on the net. That includes e-mail, chatting, browsing and playing games. Perhaps I was too tired and I got some withdrew from this mighty cyber world. Now, it started to kick back again. Starting from last week, I've got myself a chance to re-enter the realm that has shaped me hehehe..

One of them is getting back into Ultima Online, a cyber realm where we could take a role of magician, paladin, thief, merchant, knight, necromancer, even ninja. A world that has painted me with memories, with moments that would stay until the end of my timeline. (Ok, I think I gotta stop exaggerating now hehehe) Also I'm starting to gear myself up and taking position into the world of Battlefield 2. If Ultime Online is a medieval world, Battlefield 2 offers a world of modern day combat experience. Taking up yourself with a challenge being a Spec Ops troop, Medic, Sniper, etc.

It gives a very fast phase of fight, with a split second being a victorious army or a defeated enemy. The intense battle in places from all over the world, fight for every inch that will turn the result of the war. I re-join this brother-in-arms, and I realized, this is actually my world. A world with fake blood and damn pixels of bodies lying around. Corners where you see your enemies' rifle muzzles, dust where you think you see a silhouette of your damned enemy, or rooftop where snipers will ambush your sorry ass without any hesitation. Well, that what have been happening lately.

I play in an unofficial server. It's better than nothing tho. Some players are great and challenging, some are just trash talker as usual but nothing to worry hehe.. I'm still down in the low rank officer, but it doesn't mean it has no fun to play it. They also provide each soldier's status in a website, and this is my status page. You're free to browse and have a look around.

Ok, have a great week everyone!

I Hate Monday!

2008-04-06T12:40:00.002+07:00

Perhaps most of you will say "That's not new, we all hate Monday already!" haha.. well, I have my own reasons. Because on Mondays, I have to do PE. Yes, PE - Physical ~~Ejaculation~~ Education. Jumping and stretching, hopping and kicking! Hehehe.. IF I have to do it with some hot, young chicks, I might enjoy it, LOL! But I have to do it with underage kids. No, you got it right, underage kids. As young as 5 years old. So, yes, this is my other confession that now I'm a kindergarten teacher. I know some of might already rolling on the floor laughing your ass off or fall off the chair haha.. I teach kindergarten B, that means my students are at the age of 5 and 6 years old.

So, while most of you enjoy your weary days in some freaking cubicles or got abused by b*tchy superior comrades, I spend my days with kids. I'm being thrown back in a mixed-and-weird realms of Power Rangers and Barbie dolls, a world where Naruto will meet with Cinderella. Thank God, we haven't got anybody with the idea of marrying Naruto and Barbie. That would be awesome, wouldn't? A kicking ninja with legs like Paris Hilton lol..

Anyway, also on Mondays I will spend the time on swimming pool with these kids. Even until now, I'm still saved that I will spend the Mondays on an elementary school because my boss actually want me to be a teacher in her elementary school. Anyone who knows me in real person might still laughing until now.. so.. shusshh hehehehe.. It's because I'm a person with great appetite of sarcasm. If this is American Idol, I would be Mr. Cowell.

I can't believe that now I am a teacher, and I enjoy it. Even I enjoy more teaching and spending the day with female kids. They're more calm and easy to take care. While the boys always jumping around, kicking around, and no, I don't hold any personal grudge against it, I'm just worried that my balls would got kicked one day hahaha..

Ok, that's the latest update from me. I hope everyone enjoy the day. Any comment, sarcasms or just silly opinions, feel free to write them down hehehe..

One Month Old!

2008-03-14T22:46:00.002+07:00

Last week we celebrated the anniversary of our daughter, she was 30 days old. It was not only marking her age but as well my survival being a dad lol! We were preparing for the food and we also ordered some pretty tarts with her pictures on them. Clarissa was so excited, even she couldn't say it but we KNEW that she was. Usually, after morning bath, she falls asleep, but not that day! Not at all. Since morning she was truly awake. She knew that she was the queen of the party!

And because everyone wanted to hug her, she was excited that she didn't sleep at all. So she kept awake until about 5 p.m. then we decided to take her into our room because she was tired. She slept so well the whole night, only awake one time I guess asking for milk around 4 a.m. She is getting bigger now and people keep saying that she looks like Liv, the others said she looks like me. Even some of them said that she looks like my sister-in-law. I guess we have to wait a while until we know whom she really looks like hahaha..

Now she could see further and further, and every morning she refuses to sleep. She wants to see things like bottles, paintings, hanging lanterns, fan on the ceiling, etc. I guess she was curious and attracted with those colorful things. We also found out the she could sleep with white noises. However, she also would easily startled with loud noises. She also now knows the difference between days and nights. It's a good thing tho that she sleeps longer during the night. But it has been her bad habit that she doesn't want to be put in bed. She always want to sleep in someone's arms. For a few minutes, this is ok, but after 30 minutes or so, your arm could go numb.

Anyway, I'm off now. Will put the pictures next time.

I Need To Put A Title????

2008-03-06T14:58:00.004+07:00

Last night I got myself a chance to have a short chat with one of my friends. I've known her for years and we met through an IRC channel. She really made me realize that time flies, and sometimes it's a lot faster than you think. I could still remember those days when I was still actively involved managing an IRC channel on DALnet server.

At that time, we usually had around 8 to 12 people at a time. I accidentally stumbled into the channel during my first months of using IRC. Soon, we actually had some little gathering (only about 8 or 9 people) and the channel's owner gave me an authorization to manage the channel on her behalf. The channel's main purpose was to gather any Indonesian student who was living and studying in Perth, Western Australia.

I was really trying hard to maintain the channel to be occupied with more people and friends. As I was also into the mIRC scripts and bots, I was able to build my own bots. Bots are automatic program that can do a lot of things, from replying a message, greets users to stand guard the channel against spammers, and also provide some games and entertainments. So there we were, expanding and the number of visitors were growing fast. With the helps of my other friends, we were able to have about 80, even during weekends we could have about 120+ users. It was one of my glorious Internet moments LOL.

Anyway, I (or I should start use the word "we"), we were able to do more gatherings. Bbq parties at Millpoint during weekends, continued by going to the cafe afterwards, or catching movies, etc. Truly, we had a bonding more than just virtual friends, some of them, like me, have been friends until now, some had became a very close friend. Even we don't chat much as we have our own hectic days, we still keep in touch with each other. I would not be very proud with I had done with the channel, as there were also disputes and most of us were involved. That's the thing I'm not proud of.

And now, with the vast arrays of community website such as Friendster; Facebook; and MySpace, keeping touch with friends have never been easier.

We have to be very grateful for we still have the chance to access the Internet. Its revolutionary of information sharing systems have brought another dimension of human's interaction. Friendship over the Internet is no longer seen as a weird thing, people even end up in a marriage with people they met on the Internet. We learn how to interact, communicate, even we learn how to fall in love over the Internet. Indeed, it is an amazing tranformation on how we communicate these days. So people, expand your horizons, take your chances, who knows that your soulmate or best friends are yet to be found on the Internet.

Next time I will upload the latest picture of our daughter, Clarissa. She'll be 30 days old on the 9th April.

"Each friend represents a world in us; a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only in meeting them that a new world is born."
- Anais Nin

Little Update

2008-03-01T14:03:00.002+07:00

Yesterday, our ISP suffered a massive blackout throughout the country. Their fiber optic network was cut-off due some unxeplained incidents. I called them in the morning (for those who know me well, this is not something new!) hehe.. and they said that the fix was still undergo and hopefully by mid-day everything would get back to normal. But it took more than just some hours, until midnight last night, the only site I could browse was my ISP ~~homopage~~ homepage.

This morning I could access my Internet again. I did some couple updates on my blog such as changing the friend list, I also removed the media player tool which used to play a song. This time I really hope that I could post entries in a more regular manner.

Anyway, another cloudy and rainy day again today. Trying to write some poems but I'm afraid it's gonna be another gloomy one hahaha.. Maybe I should try to listen to some warm-hearted songs hehehe...

Another Babbling Posting

2008-02-26T22:18:00.004+07:00

Lately I allow myself to sink watching the videos of Jeff Dunham. He is ventriloquist, and has about five or six talking dolls. He's so excellent, no matter how many times I watch his videos, they always made me crack. He had released two DVDs: Spark of Insanity and Arguing with Myself, they are very brilliant! My fave doll (I know it sounds so wrong!) is Walter. Find or rent the DVDs, I'm sure it will be a very different stand-up show you ever seen.

Last night was a bit hard for me and wifey. Our daughter could not stop crying. We have no idea what made her cry all night long. I mean, we had done all the things we could think of. Changing nappy, checked. Giving her milk, checked. Dim the room's light, checked. Adjust the room temperature, checked. Sing her lullaby, checked. Pray before go to bed, checked. Every loose end has been checked and re-checked, but she couldn't stop crying. It last from 1.30 a.m. to 5 a.m. Even I used to live as an insomniac, last night was very very tough hehehe.. Anyway, we hope tonight everything would be manageable. Now she is sleeping safe and sound in her cradle. I'm just waiting for her next milk schedule.

Usually I spend my waiting time by playing emulator games. It's really fun and very nostalgic to be able to play some old games we used to play in our young age. I always have a soft spot for old school games. By "old school" I mean really really old. It traces back to the days when Atari with their Atari 2600 was really a hit and popular video game console for household. With a long history of video games or computer games development, you also could play sh*tloads of old games. Games that were so popular during the 80's and 90's, but you couldn't find the consoles anymore these days.

My fave emulators are Nintendo, MAME, and Sega. Using these emulators you could enjoy the nostalgic journey of Link from Zelda (Nintendo) to the famous Sonic in Sega platform or Golden Axe (arcade version). These games were awesome because they had the originality of storyline and characters, games where graphics were not the only selling point or value. In giving a more comparative picture, imagine the current computer games that come in 1GB or even more in size, some even requires a massive 4GB space and another 2GB free space. Nintendo games on average reached only some KB in size.

So, if you grew up with NKOTB, used to listen Sinead O'Connor's Nothing Compares 2 U, watching Elvis on TV, or drooling over Jane Fonda's ~~sex~~ sexy scenes on TV then you might also like to play these emulators. For a start, you could use ROM-World as a basic guideline. Don't worry about other people saying "What a corny game", tell em to go and stay in the kitchen (wtf?). Only a true gamer would understand the beautiful nostalgic memories of old games.

"We do not remember days, we remember moments."
Cesare Pavese

Our Beginning

2008-02-25T23:08:00.000+07:00

Slowly, life has begun a different pace. Streaming down the memory lane, I could still remember the points of my timeline. Junctions where I was required to make a decision. Some decisions that had shaped me, my life, and people around me to become what we are now.

The roaming will of creating a new life with family, which subdues all my selfishness, our selfishness for a little love that have just arrived into our life. An eternal seal sent by God, will keep reminding me about one unconditional love, a love without demanding something to be paid back. A love that will create a delightful memory, that one day we will cherish together and stay forever as long as there is life.

Welcome, Clarissa. Daddy and mommy love you so much. Thank you for bringing a new color for us. Let us stay simply as a family where love and warmth are our daily bread.

Jakarta,
25th Feb 2008

Good to be back!

2008-01-13T22:24:00.000+07:00

Good to be back in Perth again, it's also a good reminder on how life could go so easy. And to enjoy it, one shouldn't have to worry about nothing. Weather is nice even sometimes it's just too bloody hot. The transportation system is even a lot better than before, at least that's what I think. I've went to the city, there's nothing much changing since I left Perth one and half years ago. Only some new cafes and bookshop, the rest are still the relax and lay-back downtown.

However, I haven't got myself a chance to visit Northbridge during weekends or especially on Friday night. Gotta hit there to visit some good ol' Chinese restaurants I used to go with my friends. Well, sometimes it's just too humid and hot that make you feel that you won't to do anything except staying home. Ya know, couch potato, with cold icy beer and watching some good movies. Because I'm not a type of person that can enjoy sitting down a beach and having some tanning, I never really plan my time to pay a visit to the beaches.

Oh, I hope everyone had a nice new year party this time. Although I just spent the rest of the night staying home. I can't really see the points to drag myself out under the rain just to blow some silly trumpets or screaming along the street hehehe..

This time I allow myself to stay in the most eastern part of Perth. It takes about 20minutes to go to downtown by train BUT as long as the train is safe and comfy, I don't mind it at all. Compare to what we have in Indonesia, it's a lot safer and comfortable taking public transport in here.

The Internet is good (oh yeah...), in fact, it is more enjoyable that it used to be hehehe.. Ok folks, I wish you all have a lovely week!

Lag Country

2007-05-06T11:28:00.000+07:00

Just got our own ADSL here. They said the speed is 384kbps, the truth? I've been only on 64kbps since the first day we go it. Never even reach 128kbps. Scam? I don't think so. Misinformation on purpose? YES.

While accessing local sites is pretty ok, trying to open overseas sites is another story of struggling and patience. Sometimes I can't even access Yahoo! Mail for instance. So I think I'm back to square one again. The foreseen needs of fast information flows (that includes Internet) haven't been reached to the top priority here. Anticipation to avoid the emblem as 'lag country' seems never been taken as serious matter. We enjoy more on fighting over some religious-based disputes; gossip about our celebrities; who got killed on last night robbery; supertitious TV programme; and corny-cheap-stupid-irrational-plagiaristic sinetron (soap operas). It's sad, but our society is very consumptive. Example, like the malls here. In Jakarta itself, we currently have above sixty malls, while some others are coming. And that info was written six months ago on November 2006. Being consumptive is good, however it needs a wise justification and consideration.

If someone asks about the keen of our people about technology especially electronics devices and gadgets, the answer is clear. The people here are very keen, well at least down here in Jakarta. Some do have a large amount of sources to feed their needs such as mobile phones shops, computer shops, game shops (even almost every of them only sells pirated copies) and stereo systems shops. However the government haven't concentrated wholefully on providing the adequate Internet facilities for the country. I know it's hard, even they decide to issue a tough copyright protection law and cyberlaw, the practice will be far from what they wish. Then as the others might feel the same, the only thing we can do is waiting.

Have a good weekend, everyone.

Over and out.

Jakarta's Under Water World

2007-02-28T20:05:00.000+07:00

Jakarta is recovering from its worst flood in national history. About 70% of its area was covered with muddy water, mainly came from its thirteen rivers that run through the city. Yes, thirteen, one three. Imagine if everyone one of them is filled with rubbish, households and industrial wastage that are being dumped everyday. Then imagine they do it for, let's say 5 years. When the raining season comes, people will worry more about the flood than the crime rate. It is actually a cycle, a 5-year cycle. Yet there are not enough efforts to prevent the seasonal flood (it sounds wrong but hey it is what happen here).

During the disaster, the city was forced to halt its daily activities. Everything and everywhere was flooded. Commercial areas, shopping malls, offices, and of course people's houses. How high was the water? some might start to ask. Well, I'll give one example in an underpass, with 5.5 m height. The flood almost touched its ceiling, only leaving about 20 cm from the top. Some worst area, the flood covered up to 7 meters height. Some lucky citizens only got the muddy and thick water up to their ankle. Then problems started arise from it, starvation, not enough medical supplies and evacuation area, including the poor health and sanitation, and the most critical one is the inadequate amount of clean water. The floods have forced the closures of several main roads across Jakarta, electricity and water supplies remain cut in large areas of the city. Some major rail lines and some roads have been closed. Most schools also stayed shut, as forecasters warned that more rain is on its way.

Thousands were forced to flee from their houses, leaving their belongings behind. Many even haven't got chance to take any single thing. Between the 2nd to 4th February, there was nothing I could do except watching the news. Can't really go anywhere. I had to take emergency day off from work. I'm a bit lucky as we live near the outskirt of Jakarta and it's higher than the capital town. So heavy rain wasn't a problem.

A week after the flood, more problems arise. Diseases started to spread. Diarrhoea and dysentery are the main threat including illness spread by rats. It was clear that there was an epidemic in most refuging area. It took another 4 to 5 days before the condition become a bit better. However, the government was facing a renewed criticism as it hasn't done enough to prevent the disaster. Then we watched people started to blame each other. The people blamed the government for the inadequate programs and plannings to anticipate it. Within government, people also started to point their fingers on others. Of course some politic parties took this moment to discredit the current government and expose their inabilities to provide what their people need.

Aside from the blaming and the pointing fingers, we should really re-assess ourselves. Have we done enough? Do we start the "do no litter campaign" from ourselves? Have we built enough awareness among ourselves? In my opinion, it's not someone's fault, but everyone's fault. I do feel guilty for those little rubbish I threw on the roads. Tissues, ATM receipt, shopping receipt, candy wraps, etc, those little things I admit threw away on the streets. Eventhough many said if the government could fix its east flood canal and west flood canal, the flood won't be a problem anymore. At least it won't be this bad.

So, rather than trying to find the scapegoat, let's adjust our behavior and consciousness that flood is harmful. Houses, properties, and even our lives are at stake. Everyone should do something -no matter how small it is- or else in five ears the flood ravage one day might become a tourism commodity if we don't do anything about it.

"Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned".
Peter Marshall

Movie Muncher Mark 1

2007-02-16T22:19:00.000+07:00

Ok, I want to make something different. From now on, any post that discuss, share or a review of a movie would be titled "Movie Muncher". The number will continue starting from number one. What I expect and hope from this is people could read information or even discuss the movie on subject. And perhaps, the viewers might get a recommendation of what movie is good. Some movies might be a little bit too old, but I'm sure not everyone has watched them. Ok, here we go.

The first movie I would like to share is The Sentinel. A story behind the daily basis work of a Secret Service Agent. Starred by Michael Douglas, Kiefer Sutherland, Eva Longoria and Kim Basinger. Douglas is a veteran agent who has been on duty from the Reagan's era. He is old but he doesn't loose his touch. Suddenly, his job was getting complicated especially when his love life got into the line. He had to prove that he is the good guy who is trying to stop the bad guy from killing the president of the United States of America and his marriage. While on the other side, Sutherland is an agent that adore rules, strict and always play by the book. The two were racing against the time, to stop the bad guys and to prove someone's innocence.

Overall, the movie is good. It shows the common procedures of Secret Service agent, how they work or organize the daily schedule of an American president. Storyline is average, simple plots and good characters especially Basinger. Even you might forget about the movie pretty fast, however you could enjoy every bit of it while you are watching it. Rating: B-

Next is Crash, a movie of inter-related of some characters in L.A. It shows how prejudice, stereotyping and racism still exist and strongly affect our everyday life. People treat others based on skin colors, physical appearance ignoring the dividing line of social status. Being Afro-America, being Hispanics, being Asian, being Mediterranian, and so on. That is our status. People are labelled and marked with invisible stain that focus more on our accent rather than your nationality status in your passport.

This movie quite a stirring. It brought 3 Oscars, another 37 wins and 56 nominations. The storyline will show how explicit we could be sometimes. How prejudice directs us away from compassion, and stereotyping that tears a society apart. Starred by Brendan Fraser, Terrence Howard, Matt Dillon, Thandie Newton, Ludacris, Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock, and Ryan Phillippe. Full of dedicated and talented movie stars, this movie surely would bring something different. And you might start to re-think if the shop-attendant of the exclusive boutique you visited last week, served you based on your accent, your expensive clothes or simply on your nationality without any prejudice. Rating: A+

Have a nice weekend, everyone. Happy Chinese New Year for those who celebrate it. Gong Xi Fa Cai. Xin Nian Kuai Le, Wan Shi Ru Yü. Zhu Ni Shen Ti Jian Kang, Gong Cuo Shun Li.

"Our thoughts are unseen hands shaping the people we meet. Whatever we truly think them to be, that's what they'll become for us."
Richard Cowper

Newly Wed

2007-02-16T21:40:00.000+07:00

Phew.. All those plannings and discussion had met its end. Our preparations took about a year. It includes the early reservation for the ballroom, decoration design, to pre-wed pictures. Everything went well, no major problems arose. Couple things were going off the schedule but it's not a big deal tho. Now I'm a married man, joining the oldest club in the world lol. Can't say much tho as it's only a change of status. We've known each other quite a while. We know what our other half feels, thinks, likes or dislikes. We would like to thank everyone that participated in our wedding reception. Friends, families and close relatives who had spent time and effort in helping us to held such a wonderful reception.

Special thanks to our friends Zarija and his sister Anuskha Stankovic from Perth, Western Australia. Also to the notorious Michael Kleger aka znacke from HK (ok, he's originally a Swiss-German) hehehe.. The pictures are half developed, including the video coverage. I hope I would be able to share some of them here.

"Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place."
Zora Neale Hurston

Hohoho!

2007-01-02T22:10:00.000+07:00

Merry Christmas 2006 and Happy New Year 2007. May Lord bestows a heavenly peace and earthly blessing for thee and thy loved ones. For this Christmas we might enjoy a simple joy, a love to be shared and fond memories to be remembered. Also in this new year, our dreams and hopes will come true. Ok, y'all know I'm not good with words hahaha.. Happy holiday!

"Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful".
Norman Vincent Peale

Going Places part 1

2006-12-07T20:27:00.000+07:00

If you are happen to love travelling, which destination do you love the best? Or which place you really really love to go? A place to die for. Be it a landmark, museum, historic site, landscape, shopping malls, or even a red light district. I have erm, let's call it the "T Project" hehehe.. T stands for Travelling =P

I don't put them in order as they're all exciting spots for me:

1. North Korea. (1,2,3)
Some of you might think "WTF is this dude gonna do in NK?" Well, once I've read a posting (most prolly a Russian, seeing from his language) that told this dude's trip to the unfortunate land. Even though it's strongly ruled by communist government, doesn't mean it's forbidden to go there. Well, at least because I'm not an American as NK is one of the country that shows a great anti-America attitudes. From the storytelling, it sounds that NK is pretty left behind. Socially, economically, or technologically. He even said being in NK feels like in 1950's. While the whole world is going forward, NK on the other hand is crawling back into the stone age. Ok, it might be too exaggerating, but from the pictures he showed us, it really looks that everything is venerable. Why I chose NK as a holiday destination? Because by then we will get the chance to see the real living in a country where the government oppress their people strongly. And it could glorify our understanding to be thankful of what we have. It teaches us the value of humility.

2. Omaha Beach, Normandy
Normandy was the concentration of Allied Troops' landing in 1944 during the Operation Overlord to liberate Europe from the grip of Nazi. With some 326,000 troops from Allied forces, Normandy was one of the bloodiest battlefield known in our modern history. The first wave of the liberation was happened in Omaha Beach. Another place I'd love to go is Pointe du Hoc. The liberation showed that bravery -no matter how small or big it is- could change the whole world. For me, visiting Normandy might teaches us the true meaning of valor.

3. Hiroshima & Nagasaki
Most of us have known the history of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These two Japanese cities were bombed in 1945 by U.S.A. and marking the end of WWII. Thousands of people died within seconds after the atomic bombs were dropped on them. In both cities, we could still see the ruins that left from the bombing. Standing quietly just like a silent witness of something that is dreadful. Frankly, being there could give me a chance to honor and commemorate the victims. And perhaps, we also could learn that such calamity would never happen again. From the ruins and what are left, we might be able to understand more about compassion.

4. DMZ (Demilitarized Zone)
For what is standing between North Korea and South Korea, DMZ also is one of interesting holiday destination for some people. Acting as a clear borderline that divide the land that once was one country, with same origins and culture. DMZ offers more than just a place to visit but also the crystal clear sign of the dispute. There is a room in DMZ where we can find a soldier or military police from each party. They can stand for hours, as indication of each country's present. Anyway, it's always best advised to visit DMZ from South Korea. Different than its counterpart, South Korea has always been one of the most attractive holiday spots after Japan and Thailand. DMZ can give us the little glimpse inside the dispute that is preserved, be it for good or bad reasons. Should we surrender a peaceful future for something that is not even tangible? However, from visiting DMZ we might be able to taste the meaning of sacrifice.

5. Tibet
Why Tibet? Because two things, I love quiet place and mountainous landscape. I heard that in Tibet you can feel yourself so close to the nature. The tranquility can give a deep peaceful feeling, where we also might realize that humankind came from nothingness. From quietness. From peace. That is why we should always cherish the amity of the world. Peace can teaches us about the goodness of spirituality. I don't mean in religion context but as human's spirit.

Whew, ok at last I've completed my entry this time. I've always wanted to write such posting. It's not because I want to brag what I know about world's history. But because by visiting those places, it won't solely allow me to see the world, it will also open our eyes. Learning to be more beholden of what we've had in the past and we are having now. I hope by reading my blog, we can learn much from each other.

"I am a part of all that I have met."
Alfred Lord Tennyson - English poet

Congrats!

2006-12-05T20:46:00.000+07:00

For the last three weeks, four of my friends have been blessed with lovely and cute babies! One of them is Jeffry Setiawan, he is my supervisor aka team leader. His newly daughter is Vanessa Patricia Renata. He turned up at work one day with the biggest smile we've ever seen! Hehehe..

The next one is Stephanie, one of my closest friends. She and Sam name their son: Sergio Jaco Rachmat.

Third one is a funky couple, Miracle & Firdaus. Their son's name is Fernando Firdaus Widodo. I believe he will grow up and familiar with cars and big bikes from his dad's hobbies hehehe..

Last but not least is a cute daughter of Novie. Her name is Vaneska Maira Lee. Exotic name, dare I say.

Congrats guys! I believe your kids will grow up to become great people and great personalities just like their parents. Really, I can't describe how happy I am seeing all my friends are blessed with such cute and lovely babies. We'll see them as a better generation. Once again, congratulations and God bless we all! Suddenly I'm feeling so old hehehe... now they're gonna call me "uncle" soon! Yay! LOL.

“Only mothers can think of the future-because they give birth to it in their children.”
Maxim Gorky

What A Day!

2006-11-29T20:24:00.000+07:00

Today is very unproductive (I hope there's such word in English) for me. Nothing much to do and the weather is really f*cked. It was showering for a while, then the next minute the sun came up again. Mixing humidity with rain is like having a milkshake with chilli powder LOL!

Well, I hope tomorrow is gonna be a lot better for me. To be honest, even my work is so challenging, but I don't feel like giving up. That's why everyday I believe that there is no bad day until you pass it through hehehe..

Anyway, the wet season has came! No, not that 'wet' ok? I mean the raining season. I love rainy season. Not because it feels romantic as some people think or feel. Rainy days are giving something peaceful and calmness, well at least for me. In the other side, I also love thunderstorm. Weird isn't? :P

Time to go, enough with my babbling! I need my beauty sleep haha.. I'll leave you guys with one very beautiful quote. Over and out!

"By seeing the seed of failure in every success, we remain humble. By seeing the seed of success in every failure we remain hopeful."
Mel Ziegler - founder of Banana Republic

Killing Me Softly

2006-11-28T19:42:00.000+07:00

Ugh, the traffic in Jakarta is really unpredictable. It's ruthless even sometimes can be so forgiving. Every morning, I left for work around 0630, and the trip cannot be predicted. In some days, I arrived at the office around 0800 or the latest at 0815. But this morning was different. I was already in the office at 0730, yes 7.30 in the morning LOL. Perhaps it was because I had less breakfast, so the car ran faster haha (it's possible tho... theorically mwahaha..)

However, I still enjoy looking at those high rise buildings around the city hehehe.. Indeed they are pretty things. I haven't seen much of this city anyway, so travelling around is an exciting trip for me. Even though I still could got lost easily here (boy, I think my grammar is slowly decreasing) So, killing me softly, Jakarta! But I gotta admit the city has a lot to offer.

I've just finished watching X-Men III: The Last Stand last night. Great movie, cool visual effects, even for me the storyline offered nothing special. The sub-plot were also not that great, but the whole package could satisfy the curiousity from the audience and fans. Same thing happens with The Matrix: Revolution.

I was hoping that the X-Men III's main plot could get more complicated and contains many twists but at the end, it was pretty simple. There's a movie I really want to watch, James Bond: Casino Royale. I heard that the movie itself is cool beside the on-going arguments about Daniel Craig as Bond.

Ok, I'm pretty tired and I don't know what else I gotta write. So, that's it for now. I'll see you guys later.

"Patience will achieve more than force."
Edmund Burke

I Went to the Toilet... for the 14th Time!

2006-11-12T13:45:00.000+07:00

Yes, I think I got a diarrhea (what other proof do I need? Hehehe..) So, yesterday morning I woke up about 6 a.m. it's a rare occassion considering it was Saturday. I went to toilet as my stomach was acting weird. Then after that, the show continues. By 8 p.m. yesterday, I've went to the toilet for the 13th times! Ugh, it's really bad. I don't what I ate wrong. I just had what the others did, and everyone is ok except me.

It's getting better now even tho I can still feel something wrong with my body. I hope it will gone away by tomorrow morning as I'm gonna have a very long day *sigh* The only good thing about this diarrhea is it makes my belly's shape better hahaha.. Ok, everyone, have a good Sunday!

Canis Canem Edit

2006-11-12T12:36:00.000+07:00

It’s Latin, means Dog Eats Dog. The motto that is used in Bullworth Academy. Welcome to the deepest shit hole you could find in the education world. The game was created by Rockstar Game, the same game developer who also designed the GTA Series.

Bully aka Canis Canem Edit offers a quite broad adventure game. You can do a lot of things, and it gives you an endless gameplay and gaming experience. You’ll play as Jimmy Hopkins, a broken home kid who had been expelled from many high schools because his ‘charming’ attitude. His first year in Bullworth is tough. Help the nerds to get their books from lockers and they might get friendly with you, but the bullies will try to kick your sorry ass even more.

The game itself is cool. It will record just about anything you do in it. The number of sodas you drank, the distance you traveled by foot, the numbers of art class you’ve skipped, etc. You can sneak into the girl’s dorm, and do your own business there. Or lockpick some lockers, maybe the one that is owned by that hot chick you’ve been watching, where you can steal her pinky underwears LOL. Just joking! But it’s true that you can do some lockpicking to the lockers in the school. And you can steal things inside them such as clothes, slingshot, marbles or even textbook (who the f*ck steals textbook these days?)

However, as it always happen in this fair life (FYI: I’m not being sarcastic this time hehehe), the game itself has created some debating topics. Many people or gamers –like myself- think that this game is cool. Beside of what it allows us to do in the school, I love its offer of freedom. In one game time day, there are classes you can attend (you don’t have to). So you can choose either to go to the class, be a good student and licking your teacher’s ass. OR you can roaming freely in the school, doing your own things, or even go to the nearest town (or perhaps village) for your own pleasure. There is no obligation or frame to follow, unless when you’re doing a mission, or errands that are asked by your friends.

While me and some thousands gamers think that the game is great, some think differently. They refuse to let this game come into the market because the nature of the game encourages its players (especially underage students or young kids) to do things like bullying, vandalism, violence, theft, etc. Or at least, they ask the game to be classified as R Rated. They are afraid that more and more students will do and follow what they can do in the game. It sounds fair though, because you can at least try to shoot those poor football players with your slingshot while they’re doing their stupid warm-up exercises. Or you can bully those skinny nerds with a reading glasses that is bigger than Oprah’s bum LOL.

However, it’s now depending on how you’re gonna see the game. For me, the game itself is a reminder for all of us that no matter what country we live in, or which school we are or were studying, the practices of bullying do exist until this minute you’re reading this. It is a very clear and blunt reminder that kids in school do these types of behaviors. So perhaps, with this game we could pick up the morale value on how we are gonna avoid such situations.

The debates around this game reminds me when “Gone In 60 Seconds” just about to have its premier screening couple of years ago. Many people also refused to have such movie in the market. The reason: it will teach the audience how to steal cars, and it is very inappropriate because it could trigger more social problems within the society. Well, if someone said that to me now, I’m gonna say “Give it a break”. It doesn’t show you exactly how to steal a Porsche that always parked next to your house. Of course in the movie, you’ll see that to access an automatic garage –the one that using a remote- you have to have a reader device to see on what frequency the garage’s automatic transmitter is operating in. C’mon, do you really think it’s gonna be that easy? It’s not a walk in the park. Even you can open the damn garage door, but do you really can handle the car’s lock?

Many movies had shown us that to open a locked door or car door, we need two little bars. Then just slight them into the hole, do some twirls, and voilà! The door is unlocked. Or a fake key that is made to copy the original one. Is it really like that? Even IF there’s a company which specializing in producing and selling such tools, unlocking a key lock won’t be that simple. At least you won’t be able to unlock it within 3 minutes or without triggering the damn alarm. For me, what in that movie was no more than a glimpse insight on the world of grand theft auto. It never actually teach you how to overcome the freaking car alarms or how to start the engine using no keys. However, on the other side, the movie itself might encourage some nitwits to try stealing cars because they think it might be cool for them to do so.

Banning a movie or video games nowadays is like mixing black and white. You’ll end up in gray area. Allow it to be sold freely in the market, then it might create a new wave of social problems. Classify it into R Rated (Adults Only), then there is still chance underage kids could access or play it. Remove it from the market, this is a big no no, with a global commerce like today including online transaction over the Internet, it is gonna be a tough job. Banned in Australia, then you still can buy it off the Net from some 40 years old ~~pervert~~ nerd who still lives with his parents in a peaceful country house down in Sweden. Beside, even the game itself possess or threatened the society especially to the young teens, the budget could be spent elsewhere such as public medical services or helping homeless off the street. (Even though you can learn how to do it effectively in GTA Series *winks* hehehe)

So, even I have to admit that Canis Canem Edit does possess a chance of creating new social outcasts, but it is now up to us (adult gamers) how we are gonna handle it. We could just ignore the debating crap and keep playing, and let your 15 years old niece to play it too. OR, we can, at least try to be a responsible adult, which keeping R Rated games from the reach of young teens. Never induce them to try the game or give it as birthday or Christmas present. Maybe, with the less numbers of adults who let underage kids to play a R Rated game, indirectly we are helping and supporting the game community. Also we could still preserve our title as a gamer and our responsibility as a parents. Remember, guns don’t kill people, but people with guns do.

"Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom."
Raymonde Uy

Back to San Andreas

2006-11-11T19:03:00.000+07:00

So here I am, just finishing my visit to San Andreas. For quite a while, I’ve avoided San Andreas with all its lurking temptations and challenges. However, since three weeks ago I’ve been running some (or perhaps so many) errands. I did some jobs for some ruthless people throughout San Andreas. One of my fave place is Las Venturas. The city offers so many great things including various entertainments in some casinos, strip clubs and bars. And one of the most famous features of Las Venturas is its long and wide main roads. People also park their cars (fancy and fast cars too) just on the street. So it is a hard temptation to refuse not to hijack those hehehe..

In San Fierro, I met a cool Chinese dude name Wu Zi Mu aka Woozie. He is blind though, but he is a great character. Wise ass who thinks that his way is the best lol. But he respects the people around in wholefully. He runs a casino –Four Dragon Casino- in downtown Las Venturas. He took me into robbing Mr Salvatore Leone’s famous casino, the Caligula. Oh well, shit happens. Even he threatened me that he’ll get me and my next generation and my next next generation, but I’m sure I’m gonna be ok. He is getting older by the minute and most prolly I’m gonna attend his funeral before I even hit my second puberty LOL!

Also, I’ve revisited the lovely Los Santos. I took care of everything including removed those damn drug dealers off the street for good. Now at least I find less homies in neighborhood consuming those damn shit anymore. The Vagos boys probably would never show their balls again in Los Santos for sometimes in the long future. I’ve took over all of their territories. Of course there are some prices to get them… their freaking life, and their rotten bodies perhaps still stinking on some street corners. It’s now the time for me to show to those Ballas Boys who had been acting tough. I’ve fought em many times, even most of their territories has fallen into the Grove Family’s hand, but the Ballas are still messing around sometimes. They’re like cockroaches, they just wont die even you try to hit em some hundreds times.

I’ve paid my debts to that jerk police officer Frank Tenpenny. I hope he likes for everything he had got so far. Now my hood is back to normal. Cesar is still running his damn garage in Doherty, San Fierro. Along with the noisy Zero lol. He just cant stop annoying everyone with his stupid accent. Ok he’s a genius but his brain perhaps doesn’t know a processor that would allow him to be aware when he has to stop yapping hehehe..

So everything’s back to its track now. I’m sure this will last long. Ok, I gotta hit the road now. I still have to jack some cars and drop them in Easter Basin Docks in San Fierro. The money is not bad though, even that’s not the reason I’m doing it.

"We could shit on you from such a height, you'll think God himself has crapped on you".
Officer Frank Tenpenny - GTA San Andreas

Noob On The Loose

2006-08-09T18:17:00.000+07:00

So, eventually I'll be a citizen of Jakarta - our lovely capital city. The biggest challenge is to adapt and remember the streets of Jakarta. I mean, I can get lost very very easy here. It's so complex and the most frustating thing is the traffic. Miss a turn, then you have to go many kilometres before you could get back. In some days, it takes only 40 minutes from here to go to downtown. Sometimes, when the traffic jam is awful, it could take more than an hour and half.

I don't know how long it will take for me to remember or get to know around in Jakarta. Many days, I've tried to remember the roads here by looking at advertisement boards. Boy, that is one fatal mistake considering how many thousands of them out here. So, this would be a tough job. Just wish me luck (no, really, I'm gonna need it a lot).

Perhaps, I'll buy the best map in town, then I can start erm learning the road map. I dunno how many millions people living in this city now. For sure it's more than 6 millions. Well, more people means more places to go for food, unless you live in North Korea hehehe... Eating out would offer a great thing in Jakarta. The basic thing is your budget. If money is not an issue, then for you Jakarta is a food heaven. Oh well, I guess that's everything for now. I hope I could write more. Hamlet signs off.

"We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."
Thomas Stearns Eliot, aka T. S. Eliot

Where Am I?

2006-07-30T19:24:00.000+07:00

Well, well, now I'm back in Indonesia. Currently I'm staying in Jakarta. Many things have to be taken care of hehehe... it's actually good to be here after all those years I've spent abroad. At least now I can taste how it feels living in a forsaken land where things that are wrong seem right, and vice versa lol.

The weather is ok down here, still humid. On average, it's range between 70% to 92% humidity. Yes, we are very tropical down here. The good thing is for the last couple months I had been living in Beijing where the weather is no different than here. Nothing changes here, the capital town is still crowded, with bad traffic jam, and very high air & noise pollution. It's pretty bad that if Michael Jackson has to spend just one day in Jakarta, he would suffer a comma and respiration problems. Aside from the melting nose hehehe..

So now I'm only on dialup, and it's suck big time. Loading websites could take minutes or sometimes timed out :( Oh well, life must goes on. What I enjoy the most at the moment is the food (even though eating out is also costly now), and the ease of getting games hehehe..

Last week I went up to Hanamasa with some friends, then we head out to a karaoke place. It was fun! Oh, I have to find the contact details of my old friends. It's quite a challenge as many of them haven't talked or contacted me for more than 5 years. I just found my Year Book the other day, I might need the help of my close friends to gather all of the information.

I guess that's it for now. I try to write more often from now on. Take care and have a good one!

Orient Journey Episode I

2006-05-12T22:03:00.000+07:00

Whoa, been ages since my last posting. Ok there are so much things to catch up, or to tell hehehe.. First, now I'm in Beijing, China. A capital with about 17 million people (if I'm not mistaken). Two weeks after I left Perth, I was busy took the round trip between Jakarta and my hometown. Met up with some friends, catching up things with them, and as usual, having fun with them. Not much tho, and nothing out of ordinary.

Then, the trip to Beijing was definately one of the worst I've ever been. Our flight left around midnite from Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta Airport. An hour and half flight to Singapore. This part was the disaster for me. For some unknown reasons, my ears were hurt during the flight. Either the cabin pressure was f_cked up or we were really in high altitude. The thing is, I've been flying from Jakarta - Perth and vice versa for sooooo many times, but I never experience any incident. Oh my flight from Jakarta to Singapore was with Garuda Airlines.

Second, to top my uncomfortable trip, the plane was shaking so badly. It shook worse than Collin Farrel's bed (just don't ask me where I got the idea lol). It was like riding one of those cheap ride in a cheesy theme park. Anyway, visiting Changi Airport is kinda a pay-off for me eventhough I couldn't do or go anywhere. We only had about 40 minutes transit. Not much difference since I visited it in 2002 tho, but I always like Changi Airport. Maybe because it's very comfortable and reasonably big so you can roaming around freely.

Well, the flight from Singapore to Beijing was okay. No incident, and my ears were gradually healed up. That is so strange. I mean, considering the flight time from Jakarta to Singapore (1 hour 20 minutes), how come it could hurt my ears so bad? While the flight from Singapore to Beijing (about 5 or 6 hours) didn't cause anything to my ears.

So now I'm in Beijing, roughly in North-west direction from Tian An Men Square. About an hour driving from there or perhaps 5 hours walking hehehe.. Oh don't get me wrong, Beijing is really a BIG city. It is as big as half of Belgium (I'm serious). Never trust the map where you think it's okay to walk just three or four blocks away. It could take you about two hours. (I know it for sure because some of my friends did the same mistake) =P

There are a lot to tell about Beijing tho. First, its f_cked up traffic. Second, how insanely cheap to buy meals or shopping in here. Third, the spitting (oh yea baby, they spit like there is no tomorrow). Fourth, the spitting again. Fifth, still the spitting. And sixth, the random weather.

My apartment is pretty close to our uni (where we are tortured everyday from 0800 to 1600), only about 15 mins walk or 10 mins by bike. As a matter of fact, I can see the campus gate using binocular from our apartment windows. We live in 23rd floor, so the view is a bit neat from here hehehe...

So, what about the traffic here? Well, they actually have done some pretty good jobs here. Dividing lanes for cars and for bikes. For cars, the lanes are consisting of 4 or 5 lanes, and for bikes we have 2 lanes. However, for some unknown reasons (gosh, I think this is gonna be my fave line for the next three weeks hehehe) the drivers and road users here don't obey the traffic lights. About 6 out of 10 drivers here don't give a crap for whatsoever reasons about traffic lights. When it is red, you would see cars stopping, but some will keep driving passing thru the lights. It's like there is no rules for them. The pedestrians are also crazy in here. For some unknown reasons (you can start counting how many times I've been using this line tho hehehe) they don't like to walk on the pedestrian path. Because the bicycle lane is next to the pedestrian path, some or dare I say most of the pedestrians always walk on the bicycle lane. So they create 'little' discomfort for the other road users.

And since I ride bike to go to campus everyday, this habit has been driving me insane. But I like to ride bike in here, at least it gives me chance to keep practice my swearing abilities and my vocabulary up to the standard level lol. Usually I start calling names (mostly in English or Indonesian), from brain-dead motherf_ckers, stupid ars_holes, numb nuts, stupid d_ckheads, etc, etc. I know it is bad, but struggling on the street of Beijing, everyone could go nuts so fast. The thing is that they ride their bike without looking straight. Either looking down at the ground in front of them, or staring around at sign boards, people, advertisement board, trees, etc. I find it is very disturbing as I always be careful as I could on the road, but these numb nuts don't give a sh_t about it. But I'm sure if they hit me (which is because their own fault) they will blame it on me.

They cross without looking around first. They just cross the road like they cross their dining hall. I've seen so many times pedestrians that almost got hit by cab or bike. Oh well, I think I gotta end it here first. Almost midnite and I need my beauty sleep lol. I can't read my own blog tho, as the government here is banning www.blogger.com. I can login but I cannot read any blog in www.blogger.com

So I gotta ask my friends to check my blog for me. Anyway, thanks for reading. I will post again soon. I still have to tell about the shopping and the food here, the weather and more about my experience in Beijing.

"Do you know that places only yield up their secrets, their most profound mysteries, to those who are just passing through?"
Salman Rushdie

Multiculturalism Is Covering the Underlying Racism

2005-12-21T14:25:00.000+07:00

Ok I haven't posted for a while. Even I'm not sure of how many of you that still visit and read my blog, I appreciate your loyal attention (or maybe you're just bored and don't know which site to browse).

Anyway, on the beginning of December, Australia was shocked by a social incident that triggered by a race-hate feeling. It attacked in one of the popular beaches in Sydney, Australia, the Cronulla Beach. In December 11th, crowd as many as 5,000 turned up on the beach and started to chant racial slurs and bashing everyone who looks as Middle Eastern or Mediterranean. The tension was caused by some people who bashed two lifesavers on the beach on the previous time. They were said to have Middle Eastern appearance.

This incident has divided the nation by two main reactions. Some might couldn't believe what they saw on TV when the brawling was aired on national TV. The others might just shook their heads and probably murmuring "I knew it's gonna happen sooner or later here". It's like sitting on a time bomb. Australia has been promoting their 'multicultural' society, that claim to be a well-blended and stable society. Different backgrounds from cultures, customs and beliefs are said the strong foundation within the people of Australia. However, if you live long enough in here, you could still see the strong antipathy feeling towards people that are 'un-Australian'.

The distinctive definition of "Australian" is dominantly for being white for many. Immigrants - that were not born in Australia - are never defined as 'true' Australians, even they have the Australian citizenship. Over the years, the dislikes feelings and negative prejudice are growing with the antagonistic media coverage that have created a more tense and fragile relationship between population to population.

While many Australians are trying to unite indifferently, for many others the concept of multicultural society is still an elusive idea. There is no single thing can be used to justify us to single out someone just based on their physical appearance. The disputes between members of the society should be taken objectively. Really, seeing the news today would make us wonder whether these 'nationalists fighters' are just looking for adrenalie rush or are we really looking at a new breed generation of neo-Nazis?

This also has proven that racism does exist in every layer of society. Be it a poor or Third World nation or a prosper and savant nation like Australia.

Many also knew and aware for years about the existence of underlying racism in Australia. One of the major TV station held a polling relating about this matter, where 81% of the participants support the idea of multiculturalism in Australia, 75% of them agree of the underlying racism in Australia. It is no different than what happen in Indonesia. The concept of Bhinneka Tunggal Ika (Unity in Diversity) that has been inherited since the 14th century, has failed to unite people in the region. Tension is created by the gap and difference on collective perceptions, culturals and religion also education background. Although maybe the Sydney riot came from different circumstances, the foundation of the hatred share the same value as what we have in Indonesia. I just hope it won't get any worse as the Australia that I know is a peaceful country and has a deep tolerance and acceptance on differences. Xenophobia does exist in every community, however it is time to show a manly declaration that multiculturalism is a core Australian value.

"Those who hate you don't win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself."
Richard M. Nixon

Who Is Dumb and Who Is Dumber?

2005-10-03T19:34:00.000+07:00

Another bombing in Indonesia. This time in Jimbaran and Kuta, Bali. Last Saturday night, Kafe Raja's was packed of diners and tourists, which had been choosen to be the target. So far, the casualties is 23 people died, which more than 100 injured. Police said this is a suicide bombing, where they got a video recording just moment before it happened. It the recording, it showed a young man wearing black T-shirt and medium size backpack.

Anyone who planned this attack is clearly stupid and ignorant. In the time where oil prices have just been risen; and the wide-spread Avian Flu epidemic; the bombing will only take the situation into deeper sh*t. This will only bring another hard time for the investors and stocks market. Deeply sorry for anyone who lost their loved ones from this cowardice action.

Talking about dumb ass, I had this interesting chat in MIRC just yesterday evening. He said that Internet connection in Australia is just as slow as it is in Indonesia. ROFL! He never been to Australia, but he WAS arrogantly proud to claim that Internet in Australia is just sh_t too.

Further more, he heard this from his friend, who apparently lives in Singapore. Then this friend heard it from the sister who studies in Australia. Oh, c'mon, man. I know people sometimes say silly things, but what he did was over the line. Those three with a simple script and cheap handycam could make a comedy show like "The Three Stooges" =)

Even comparing ADSL with same speed: 128 kbps in Australia and Indonesia will proove that what we have here is more stable and reliable than in Indonesia. I know he said that just to entertain himself as he is stuck with slow connection. And he tries to deny that there are people who could enjoy fast-speed Internet connection with a cheaper rate than what they charge on slower speed in Indonesia. Self denial is really a do-it-yourself cure for losers tho.

Keep acting big! It's still free of charge anyway, and while I can enjoy knowing that there are a lot of people that are dumber than me.

Joe Valachi
"In the circle in which I travel, a dumb man is more dangerous than a hundred rats".

I'm on Diet

2005-09-22T00:40:00.000+07:00

Yes, that's right. Me. Je. Mim. I'm on diet. Diet. A word that I never expected to do in my entire life. As when I was in my early teen age, I was skinny. Even after finished my high school, I only weighed about 53 kg (including wallets, clothes, jeans and cell phone). So all my life, I never expected or even thought about diet, how to do it, and above all, why I would do such a strict lifestyle.

I grew up in a society where diet was a symbol of struggle to achieve beauty and curves. Especially during my last years as senior high school student. Many of my female friends idolized and practiced diet. Some were very strict, some were just being on and off. Surely, because we were such young souls, it was not a surprise if most of us practiced diet on such wrong manner. I started to realize how young people understood died wrongfully when I heard my ex-girlfriend refused to have dinner for some days during a week.

Most of the girls, and I'm sure even until now, still believe that having zero dinner for some days would give them a good and positive result. I just couldn't believe it when I got some confirmations from some of her friends. That they all agreed no dinner = diet to reduce one's weight. Even I was never been in any diet program at that time, I was aware that such belief was wrong. It was a fault image and understanding of diet. Of course, I never told them that what they were doing was wrong. High school girls were able to create such mob and havoc, you know. For me, diet is not limiting your frequency of meals, nor eliminating daily meals such as dinner. Diet is limiting the portion for each meal. Starts from choosing carefully your dietary consumption. Get more fruits and vegetables instead of oily or fatty meat. Consume a moderate snacks in between meals, etc.

Anyway, the reason why I start to do my diet is not because I feel too chubby. I just try to reduce the wealth on my face. As I'm happy with my weight, I realized that when I'm over 66 kg, my face starts to look like Fat Albert. But of course, I'm a bit different as I have lighter skin color hehehe.. So since yesterday, I try to consume more fruits and vegetables, I reduce my meals portions. Be it lunch or dinner. For dinner, if I get my dinner after 8 p.m. then it means I could only eat salad with fruits as desserts. And dinner before 8 p.m. would be regulard dinner, only in smaller portions.

For snacks, my only options are fruits such as apples, rock melon, pears or watermelon; and fresh salad. So, salad and fruits will be my very best friends for the next couple weeks. I hope this will work just fine. I have to restrain myself not to have garlic bread for my midnite snacks or cornflakes (yes I love to eat cornflakes for my midnite snacks).

I do some little exercise just to burn up some fat especially around my belly. Of course some little indulgencements are acceptable for sometimes. However, I have to limit them into a moderate portion. So wish me luck!

Where Were You?

2005-09-14T19:25:00.000+07:00

Four years ago, on 11th September 2001 to be exact, world once again was shocked and surprised by a man-made tragedy. Two planes hit the World Trade Center (WTC) at the downtown Manhattan. A deliberate attack on America's soil that is considered as a superpower country.

Where were you that day? Do you still remember how that day was like? Of course, I won't ask such questions to the victim's families or whose relatives were unfortunate enough to be the victim of the attack. But for those who saw or heard the news about the attack, do you still remember how you then spend that day? Do you still remember what your reaction was when heard or watched the news? Did you hope for something? Did you pray? Or did you wish something about it?

I do. Soon after the North Tower was hit, I heard about it from a friend who got a phone call from his family. Me and my friends were still awake and playing Counter-Strike in an Internet cafe. It was about 10 or 11 p.m. (FYI: I live in Australia). Soon afterwards, I went home, and watching the news while chatting on the net with my friends. As I lived in a studio apartment that day, the room was designed that I could get the PC just next to my bed and TV facing towards me.

I was there when the towers started to collapse, bury everything and everyone underneath it. I could not believe what I saw, for couple minutes I wish that it was just a bad dream. But it wasn't. After couple minutes, there were no more WTC. The sky of Manhattan was missing something, missing an icon that once represented one of America's pride.

I'm not going to discuss who is guilty or how that such tragedy could take place in America's own yard. I just want to show how sorry I am for those who lost their loved ones from the attacks. Thousands perished, most of them didn't leave any last message to their families and relatives. For their families, it's even hard to accept that the person they love so much was gone... without any single trace. All that prove they had gone is that they never went home. Everything that was left behind was buried under the ruins and debris from the buildings. Even at funeral and commerations, they never be able to find their bodies. Only those two straight beams to the sky where Freedom Towers are gonna be built that show the strength of the people would never die as long as they still breathe.

Any attack on civillians are meant to be condemned. Indeed, sometimes it is an inevitable act that planned to terrorize public. To spread and create anger, shock and tears among the society. However, a deliberate attack on civillians are an act of cowardice.

The September 11 was a tragic day that will be remembered for generations. It was a day that shocked and changed the whole world. Maybe, in the future, when we look back, we might ask ourselves if mankind is meant to continue living and explore the universe. Or will our race survive the devastating resulf of war among ourselves?

"Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind."
John Fitzgerald Kennedy

"This little writing is to tribute all families and relatives that lost their loved ones in the September 11 attack, 2001. May we learn and stop the wars before it's too late"

Numb3rs

2005-08-27T17:15:00.000+07:00

Numb3rs is a hit TV series in U.S. It's just finish its first season in States. While other action TV series -mostly cops, detectives and crime scene investigators- offer a pack movie about chasing bad guys, solving cases using DNA technology or crime profilers, Numb3rs approaches from different angle. Not only showing a solid and professionalism of FBI's trademark, it also shows us how mathematics help them to solve crimes or criminal cases. An FBI special agent has a very smart and genius younger brother who is a math professor, together they start to cooperate intensively to solve crimes, murder cases using math formulas.

Undeniable, math and numbers can be found in our everyday life. Even human behaviour which at most of time counted as random or unpredictable, but actually human do have pattern. And when this data are gathered, one can calculate the highest possibility of someone's next action. So they use math to trace the distribution of counterfeit bills, bank robbery pattern, serial killer hot spots, etc. It is a very good series, at least it offers a quite different vibe. Even they don't explain in detail about calculating using the formula, but it explains and gives examples -logically too- about patterns in this universe. You will be surprise how we actually form patterns in ways that we never realized.

Talking about surprise, some of you might already knew about the Mars hoax. This hoax is spreading via emails, saying that at the 27th of this month, we will witness one of the wonder that comes only once in about 200 years. So today I went to downtown to buy some hair gel for myself, and I passed Australian Geographic Shop where I decided to buy Swiss Army Classic, to start off my collection. While I was there, three dudes came in to the shop, then one of them was asking the staff about a telescope. And I overheard that they wanted to buy it because they want to see Mars tonite. I couldn't help myself, so I interrupted them politely and told them that it was actually a hoax. They seem pretty upset about it.

I don't know what will happen if I kept my mouth shut and let them buying the telescope. Maybe they will spend whole night trying to figure it out which side of the sky where they can find a big red planet hehehehe...

Oh, I've been collecting a special 13-part commemorative series from The Australian Newspaper. It contains a series of some momentum events during World War II. So I have to collect each part every day for 13 days. Then in about the 8th day, it was raining whole day. We even had this hail rain in the morning. It kept pouring until about 7 p.m. I went to the mini-market just around the corner to buy that day's edition. However they're sold out. Strike one! From that, I decided to walk another half K to a nearest 24-hours petrol station. Unfortunately, the lady said they're all sold out too. Strike two!

I was a bit upset, because it was a damp night and cold, while I had these two plastic bags of groceries from the previous mini-market. When I was home, I tried to call some people, to ask if they can drive to their nearest news agents or fuel stations to buy the newspaper. But help was nowhere to be found. My calls weren't answered and some hadn't got enough encouragement to get out from their warm house. Strike three! Next day, same thing happening, different circumstances but same sh_t result. So I missed two series. I almost give up the effort when I passed by a news agent in downtown. Strangely, they had newspapers from the last two or three days.

Nice try, thirteen, but my guardian angel owns you! =P Ok enough babbling here. Have a nice weekend everyone!

"Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise"
Alice Walker

Happy Independence Day

2005-08-16T23:38:00.000+07:00

The Indonesians celebrate their Independence Day on 17th August every year. That was when we declared as a free nation, escaped from the suppressions of The Japanese in 1945. For about 350 years, Indonesia was under the ruling of The Dutch. We were a colonization but yet we had some little freedom especially for loyal families and landlords. Before we gained our independence, we were under the control of Japanese Empire for about 3 years. Then when the U.S. dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, everything changed so rapidly.

So this will be the 60th Anniversary of our Independence. But still we have so many things to fix. Corruption, unfair justice systems, dirty politics, are some of the problems that Indonesian Government still struggling to fight. Also the tag as country that let terrorism to spread its wing, radical movements including public vandalism and how easy to turn people power into something destructive.

Oh well, Happy Independence Day. May we will heading into the right direction, for not only bring wealth and joy to our people but also raising our remarks in front of the world.

INDONESIA RAYA
Written by :W.R. Supratman

Indonesia tanah airku, tanah tumpah darahku
disanalah aku berdiri, jadi pandu ibuku
Indonesia kebangsaanku, bangsa dan tanah airku
marilah kita berseru: Indonesia bersatu

hiduplah tanahku, hiduplah negriku
bangsaku, rakyatku, semuanya
bangunlah jiwanya, bangunlah badannya
untuk Indonesia Raya

Indonesia Raya, merdeka merdeka
tanahku, negriku yang kucinta
Indonesia Raya, merdeka merdeka
hiduplah Indonesia Raya

Darkest Time

2005-08-16T22:40:00.000+07:00

Today, 16 August, is one of the day that we all will remember and commemorate, and our children, our children's children and their grandchildren will not stop doing it. Today, sixty years ago, in 1945, we put an end one of the bloodiest war in human history, World War II. Started on 15th March 1939 when German Army invaded Czechoslovakia, then six days later they tried to claim the city of Danzig in Poland. From there, the wheel of evil started rolling, leaving blood marks in the timeline of human's history.

The invasion then followed by so many twist and surprises. The world was like watching a fierce murder drama. On the stage, leaders of the nations move their soldiers as their pawns to gain victory over the other. Communism and Fascism for once were feared more than death itself. The War affecting not only the countries involved in the dispute but also the whole piece of Europe. Its tragic bloodshed then reaching out far more into Africa region, even Russia suffered in agony from the war. Countries formed alliance, stalking and deployed their army forces in coordination for an achievement. For a goal to be the strongest faction that might to dominate the global power stream. Troops were marching like zealots of the darkness to country by country, eliminating them who resisted the oppression.

German's NAZI army subjugated most of the European countries. Their Swastika flag was seen as powerful force that was in hunger of superiority from other nations. Their leader, Adolf Hitler, that once was just a messenger soldier during World War I, command a band of highly talented and higly dedicated generals. War engineers that able to work at their fullest will and loyalty for the great concept they were holding, the great Aryan regime.

One by one, European countries was swallowed and sunk under the undefeated army. Battles were seen by German soldiers as a lifetime test to be the great warriors of the perfect human race. Unstoppable. The world has no prediction when the war will end, if it was ever been an ending.

Not until six years later, on 6th June 1944. The involvement of U.S. army in the war was a turning point that started to show a breakthrough against the German's Army. Operation Overlord or D-Day took place on the early morning of 6 June 1944. After years of painstake planning, decoys and trainings, the invasion of Normandy was a first sign of the defeat of the Axis Army.

With about 2,727 ships and 156,000 troopers on a front of thirty miles, it was the largest and most powerful armada that ever orchestrated. In the next couple days after that, another 156,215 troops were deployed into the Western Europe frontline. They fought a battle that human never experienced before. Not a battle between human and nature. But between each other. A fight based on a belief of one's imminent vision, ideology. Dogmas that for certain resulting the death of armymen and civillians.

Between April and May 1945, German Army suffered major defeat in their European fronts. The war was ended officially on the May 8th of 1945. It was then declared as VE (Victory in Europe). Six years of bloody dispute. While the ending was glorified by every citizen of the world, the casualties of the war were staggering. Resulting the death of more than 55 million people. It left the survivors of the war with city in ruins, destroyed societies, further more was deep wounds in their souls. The remembrance of the war will never be gone. Not only for us to commemorate the braves, but shall it always remind us that once we were in the darkest time of our history.

"People who cease to believe in God or goodness altogether still believe in the devil. I don't know why. No, I do indeed know why. Evil is always possible. And goodness is eternally difficult."
Anne Rice

In the remembrance of the World War II. Dedicated for all who died in the event, also for their families. May our generation and generations after us will put aside hatred as war itself is an ideology. An ideology that destroys our good deed as mankind.

August 1945

2005-08-11T12:36:00.000+07:00

New Frontline
Sixty years ago, on the month of August, the world witnessed a momentum event that changed the main stream of how we look and define power. During that year -1945- the Allied forces was facing a tremendous confrontation from the Japanese arms forces. The defeat of German didn't bring the war into a halt. Instead to fix and rebuild what they had from the war, the world had to witness one of the bloodiest wars.

Japanese troops were expanding like a wraith of god. Their movement was unstoppable. Because of the loyalty and high dedication from their soldiers, Japanese was seen as a monstrous nation that will destroy anything in its path. The attacks done by Kamikaze fighters on Allied freights and ships have given enough headache and loss. Somehow, the war has to put to an end. Casualties fallen in great numbers from both side.

New-born Evil
Long before that, American had started their atomic project. Date from 1939, when Albert Einstein warned Franklin D. Roosevelt that Germany was trying to develop atomic weapons based on an isotope of uranium, U-235. After years of intense research and experimenting, a bomb was 'born' in Los Alamos, New Mexico.

Seeing as an necessary act, it was then decided to drop the bomb on Japanese soil. This was what shocked the world. On the early morning of August 6, 1945, a single B-29 Superfortress flying passed Hiroshima. The largest city in the Chugoku region of western Honshu, the largest of Japan's islands; Hiroshima acted as a major supply and logistics base for the Japanese military, a role that it continued to play during World War II.

The plane, Enola Gay, cruising over the city around 7.25 a.m. Its mission was simple, to drop a new weaponry nicknamed Little Boy. An uranium gun-type device, its force was an equal to 13,000 tons of TNT. The bomb, weighs about 10,000 lbs (4,500 kg), was released from 26,000 feet at 8.16 a.m. It took about 46 seconds before it exploded at 1,900 ft (580 m) above Hiroshima.

Seconds after that, Hiroshima was gone. The bomb was so powerful that everything in 1 mile range from the detonation center was incinerated. People turned into ashes just in a matter of second. 80,000 people perished in a single go, leaving a city with mushroom cloud that reached 8 miles (13 km) over the city. Another 70,000 were injured. Many more would die from cancer and radiation sickness, causing leukemia, pernicious anemia and other illnesses. Many children were born with deformities. Estimated toll reached 200,000 dead within five years. These survivors are the sole eye-witnesses of the shattering event. They are called "hibakusha". These people are the first group that experienced the effect of atomic radiation on human. Some of them are still alive until today. Every year, they tell the same story, share the same bitterness and tears. Their strength are one of the fundamental essence of campaign against nuclear weapons and why mankind should not repeat the evil.

What the world saw that day was a devastating destruction men can make. Mankind had given birth a new form of evil, a new hybrid death angel. A bomb made from a lump of uranium of the size of an orange, but one of the destructive man-made creation. A creation that gives no chance to anyone or anything to stand against it. A pure evil.

A release of forceful energy that can dematerialize anything within its explosion range. Should mankind think to use it against their enemies, they also have to consider the effect of such an act. The bomb proved and replaced a conventional weaponry. Countries are racing to build and make their own atomic bomb. It is now seen as a trump card to be considered as "strong nation". We just hope that when they are building the bomb, they can still remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki. An atomic or nuclear attack on a country that also possess nuclear weaponry will not only trigger a massive destructive war, but perhaps global war.

To Bomb Or Not To Bomb?
However, until now, sixty years later, we are still left with controversy and arguments that questioning if the bombing was necessary. Japanese forces had suffered enough damage that could make them to end the war. Unfortunately, they kept persistent to fight and continue the battle. Some said that this was an utter stupidity comes from stubborn war generals. While others have different perception and point of view. Japanese, especially the army forces at that time, were practising and think highly of their famous Samurai Codes. A dedication that can makes one believes and willing to go and try at any measurement for the Great Empire of Japan.

Some people claim that even if the U.S. did not drop the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese will surrender. However, some skeptics say that Japanese generals were still believing in their power and capabilities. They showed no sign of stopping. This was the basic decision made by President Truman to allow the bombing.

The bombing on Hiroshima had shown to the world that U.S. was capable to do damage in such magnitude. That is why people asked if the bombing on Nagasaki (on August 9, 1945) had some sufficient reasons. Many others confront and accusse that the U.S. Military Force was testing a different type of atomic bomb on Nagasaki. They did it to measure the level of destruction. So Nagasaki was seen no more than a testing ground. As the fact talks, the "Little Boy" was an uranium-type bomb. While on Nagasaki, they used a plutonium-type bomb, nicknamed "Fat Man" that had an expolosive force (yield) of about 20,000 tons of TNT.

Which side you will be, it is up to you. But we all know that atomic bomb is not the answer to end or start a war. Many generations will suffer, not only because of the direct effect but also traumatic level, fears, and bloody memories. Many generations to come will always see and remember the scars. Sooner or later, any dependent trust of atomic weapon will bring mankind to an end.

"“War does not determine who is right or wrong — only who is left.”

This writing is dedicated for the victims of atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Also for those who are affected by the radiation, those who lost families and loved ones from the bombing.

Thank you Mr. Lucas

2005-06-08T21:42:00.000+07:00

Well, last Friday, I watch the final and last installment of Star Wars Saga. The Revenge of The Sith is really a satisfying movie. As a dedicated fan of Star Wars, I was so excited to watch the third episode. I've been waiting about 10 years for this! Maybe same as the other millions of Star Wars fans around the globe. So many questions arised since George Lucas introduced us to those shiny lightsabers, sturdy Stormtrooper armors, and funny Ewok language. Questions about the origin of Darth Vader, who made him so powerful, why he hated Jedi so much, etc. One by one, and episode by episode, Mr. Lucas provides us the hungry audience with pieces of puzzle that create a better picture of Star Wars' timeline.

Even some movie critics said that Episode I and Episode II were not very satisfying, but for me those two are pretty cool. I'm not talking about the visual effects, but the storyline. It might had some minor unnecessary plots, but overall each episode provides answers that we might have been asking for years. Also for years, Star Wars has becoming a legend. Not only among its fans but for movie community and history. Each episode has made good remark for being one of the greatest movie of the year. Jedi too has became a kind of 'religion' for the fans. New dedicated fans keep appear each year, adding the immense numbers of Star Wars fans around the globe. For them, Lucas is more than a director, more than a story writer, for them he is their Jedi Master or Jedi Hero hehehe..

Anyway, last Friday we went to the cinema. We've booked Gold Class seat, it's where we can sit on a comfortable couch, with our own table to put meals and drinks. So we can order anything we like at front lobby and it will be delivered to our table by the staffs. Things such as pizza, steak, pasta, beers, wines, etc can be ordered. It was good, good seat, comfy, great movie. I was very very satisfied with the Episode III. We were about to watch it weeks earlier but the sessions for Star Wars were always crowded or full.

So, even you are not a die-hard Star Wars fan, have a go, watch it. It has different vibe from the other episodes. In my opinion, this third episode has a darker story, more bloody, cruel, merciless and sad. Well, I don't want to post any spoiler here as I also hate people who spoil or reveal movie story to us without our consent! Hehehe.. I have to admit, Episode III has give an emotional enjoyment, well at least for me. Now I just have to sit and wait patiently for them to release a full collectible DVD set from Episode I to Episode VI.

Thank you Mr. Lucas, for us, you've done a tremendous job thru all the years. The dedication and vision to bring Star Wars to be one of the greatest movies in human's history will be remembered for generations. It is not an easy task to satisfy everyone, but this last episode has completed the puzzle. Star Wars Saga now can be enjoyed completely with less questions left behind. We just hope that they will create some additional movies about other Star Wars' characters such as Hans Solo, Lando Clarissian, or even young Yoda hahaha..

Satisfying indeed! Well, in case some of you think this episode sucks, please listen to Yoda's words of wisdom. LOL!

"You will find only what you bring in."
Yoda - Jedi Master

For my Love

2005-06-07T16:19:00.000+07:00

Thank you for my girfriend. Who has always been there for me, to hug and to hold. Two days ago, on 5th June, it was our 3rd anniversary. Three years ago, we promised to love each others. Time runs fast, it has been three years even for me it still feels like yesterday. The day when we both believe and trust in each other's honest dedication and simple love. Of course during the journey I've made mistakes, silly errors that make her upset and I'm sorry for that. Shall this anniversary will even give us a stronger guidance that is built from every moment we've spent together. Memories of us when we cried, memories of our laughter, the joy and cheerful days we've been through together. May also our closeness can give strength for people around us, and witnessing our love that becomes strong day by day. I've never met any woman that understands me so well (except my mum of course hehehe..), also able to always support me, holding me in any situation. We've been in so many ups and downs, those won't make us weak, but make us strong.

There is no greatest feeling to love and being loved.
I love you...

"I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me. I love you for the part of me that you bring out"
Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Rice munching primates

2005-05-28T23:03:00.000+07:00

At least that's what one of them think about us, Indonesians. Slurrings and racism rants towards Indonesian is a result of shocking verdict of Schapelle Corby, who was found guilty of possessing about 4.2 kg of marijuana in her surf board bag in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia. As most, not all, public opinions said that they believe Schapelle is innocent. The scoldings and curses have turned into a wider layer, public petition to boycott Bali and even Qantas for not providing a crucial evidence to prove Schapelle's innoncence.

The unfortunate lady was -as said by the public- a victim of big syndicate of drugs smugglers, who oftenly use traveller's bags to transfer illegal drugs between cities in Australia. There has been some investigation about the bag-handlers in Australian airports, but until now there hasn't any proof found and linked to Corby's case. There are some aspects that attached to her verdict. First, the reputation of Indonesian justice systems and courts which are shadowed by corruption practice, money power and just simply politics. Second, the arresting of Bali 9 where the vibe of politics is strong. Then, I might say, the last, is the profile of Schapelle herself. Her illuminating figures as beauty therapy student is supporting her image that drag more people to believe and argue for her, that she's just an innocent victim. Even Derryn Hinch, one of Australia's commentator and radio host, quoted
"the 27-year-old Gold Coast beauty student had become a cause celebre in Australia because of her sex, appearance and a well-oiled PR campaign". He also said:

"I think she's a far more worldly girl than which has been depicted in Australia," he says. "I said I believed that Corby has been championed in Australia becuase she was young and pretty and white and Australian and had big boobs, and I stand by it."

and...

"What the public are seeing here, the veteran broadcaster says, is an extraordinary defence-by-media, rather than the trial-by-media we're used to. And it's been so successful purely because she's portrayed as a "beautiful, innocent young woman."

Anyway, those three aspects are enough to drawn a wide and big reaction from Australian public. As most of them support Corby's innocence, they were shocked and disgusted by the court's decision last Friday. While Corby's family couldn't resist their anger and disappointment after hearing the three judges' decision, the sparks in Australia has sunk into a different level. Many, of those who are angry with the verdicts, calling a boycott to Bali. Asking the other Australians to cancel and not to spend anymore holiday in Bali, or buying Indonesian products. Online forums, chat rooms and even online petitions have created a public dislike towards Indonesian people in general. In some or most of the comments were just over the line. From sending nuke to Indonesia, hoping for another tsunami (which they won't send any aid anymore), asking refund for the aid for last December tsunami appeal where 300,000 Indonesians perished, to stupid ideas about invading Indonesia and destroying our economy.

Now, if we can just take a moment to think about it. Is it right to do such things? Apart from the fact whether Corby is guilty or not, do you think we have rights to commit such actions? We might scold our government or other governments because we are not satisfied with their jobs. But having boycott or even hating other nations based on racism is just over the line. What they don't realize that they're acting worse that the people they hate by being so stupid and racist. It is really hurting me for reading those racism comments against us. They have every right in the world to dislike the justice system in Indonesia, to hate the three judges but those racism slogans towards us is not necessary.

I don't have any grudge againts Corby or Australians in general. Even there are some incidents between Indonesian Government and Australian Government, it never reduce my respects for the Australian people. However it's really shocking seeing the public reaction about Corby's case. She still have chance for appeal for crying out loud. Even they have had a verdict, it's not final yet. There are still some hopes and ways to make a better outcome about this case.

Thankful for those who said more positive comments about Corby's case. Even some of them have taken a different point of view. Some interesting blog entries about not to boycott Bali, including the weight of the bag. She made some interesting points tho, and one of them is about the idea of another mule. Of course these are one-sided and are not back-up by any professional evidence. I'm just giving a chance for you all to read a different type of opinion.

But of course, I'm agree that the way the Indonesian Police handle the case was quite unprofessional, ignoring the crucial moment to secure any evidence. It might be reviewed as same incident of Chika Honda's case in 1992.

Anyway, in my opinion, there is no need to slur any racist slogans. I know some might or will link this to those trial of Bali Bombing where hundreds of Australians were killed. While the dead counts were just shocking, it is also shocking to hear that some of the people involved in the bombing only got about 10 years jail, etc. Well, what can I say? It's not simple as playing paper folding, it's politics, it's dark, deep and disgustiing. Oh, well I've typed too much here, now let me rest in my warm bed and listening to Frank Sinatra. LOL.

"Race hate isn't human nature; race hate is the abandonment of human nature."
George Orson Welles

They're here!

2005-05-19T17:20:00.000+07:00

The war has been waged between the three giant console game companies. Microsoft initiated the opening attack by unveiled their product, Xbox 360. With the upgradeable 20Gb HD, 512 MB of 700 MHz GDDR3 RAM, a ATI Graphic Processor, it promise the market to deliver the most sophisticated, realistic game experience. More facts about Xbox 360, and here are some screenshot of it.

Then just at the beginning of this week, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. answered the 'war' by introducing their luminary champ, PS 3. The link also provide the specifications of PS3 console.

The last but not least is Nintendo, joined the battle just a day after Sony revealed their PS3. Nintendo has named their latest diva as Nintendo Revolution. Both Xbox 360 and PS3 have claimed that they're gonna deliver one of the most powerful game consoles ever created. They have upgrade their 'power' to give its customers a new beginning of new era of video game. While Nintendo, they don't rely their product on powerful processors or graphic accelerator, even they claim that Revolution's processor will be at least 2 or 3 times stronger than their GameCube. As quoted, Nintendo's President, Satoru Iwata said:

"Different also defines our approach to our next home system. It won't simply be new or include new technologies. Better technology is good, but not enough. Today's consoles already offer fairly realistic expressions so simply beefing up the graphics will not let most of us see a difference. So what should a new machine do? Much more. An unprecedented gameplay experience. Something no other machine has delivered before.

"The definition for a new machine must be different. I want you to know that Nintendo is working on our next system and that system will create a gaming revolution. Internal development is underway. When you see it you will be excited because you will experience a gaming revolution."

I hope he is right. I can't wait to try one of these babies.

Each console has their special game title to represent and symbolize themselves. Microsoft, will trust their banner to Call of Duty 2 and The Godfather. While PS3 will try to rise its vibe with their famous Metal Gear Solid 4 (MGS4), and Nintendo's ascension goes to their favorite titles such as Zelda, Mario and Donkey Kong. For Zelda, Nintendo has gave a glimpse of The Legend of Zelda: Princess Twilight at E3 this week.

So for the next couples of months, it's gonna be interesting watching the game market. As NPD Group recorded, that until 2004 in North America alone, Sony's PS2 dominated the market share with 56%. Microsoft Xbox comes as runner-up with only 25%, while Nintendo had to be satisfied by placing themselves with 19%. And as in global market scale DFC Intelligence counts that PS2's domination is unchallenged with USD 25 billion or about 68% of total sale. While Microsoft and Nintendo only share 17% and 15%. But Microsoft is confident enough that this year's holiday sale for their Xbox 360 will bring them up in the first place in the market. PS3 and Revolution are scheduled to be released in 2006.

Now, it's up to the game developers to make some kick-ass game to suit these consoles. Seeing their specification, we will realize that the era of video gaming has changed. This is a revolution. This is the future of fun, welcome to the future. Before you realize it, these consoles will take over your home. You will not only use these consoles for sorely playing video games. But with them, you can watch DVDs, convert your music CDs, store your audio files, pictures from your digital camera, online chat, email, etc. Imagine that those high stack of audio systems in your house will start losing their functions as you -might- rely more on these awesome consoles.

Only one thing is worrying us. The price. Of course their technologies will sooner be upgraded or changed into a better one. And these consoles might be cheap at that time. But for now, they won't be.

"The digital revolution is far more significant than the invention of writing or even of printing"
Douglas Engelbart

Sue the bastards episode II

2005-05-18T22:47:00.000+07:00

We have heard about this website called Friendster. This is where, as a registered member, you can find and list your friends (if they're registered too). Then from there, you can expand your friendship network. And most of the time, we find our old friends whom we have lost contact with. So did I. I found some of my old friends, friends who were in the same class as me in Secondary School and High School. And since I was graduated from my high school, I haven't got many contacts of my friends. Some are still keeping in touch with me via e-mails or messengers, but the rest are unknown.

So, Friendster has helped its members to find old friends and to make new friends. Of course, there are still so many complaints about Friendster as their database is sometimes just being a prick. Anyway, so last week, one of my friend -let's call her G- who told me about one suspicious account that she found in Friendster. There was this one friend of ours. I've known him since we were very young, Primary School I should say. We grew up in the same school. Even only couple times we were in the same class, but we used to hanging around with same group of friends. The more we spent time together, in school and outside school time, the more I realized that there was something dark about this dude. Let's refer him as "DY" (even I don't give damn about mentioning his full name here, so just call this as journalistic etiquette hehehe..) Later, during our time in high school, I found that he was a deceitful person. He will say different things about a thing to different people. Two-faces, backstabber are prety much explaining it all. He is a smart and witty person, but he choosen the wrong way to apply his knowledge and ability. His skill to convince people is very good, a sweet or smooth talker. He can persuade people so easily but.. he was impatient. Wanting to be in high status in a fast way, wanted to get respects and reputation from his community. So he took the fast way, scamming.

Ok.. then, as I went to Australia, I lost contact with almost of my friends. First, because only very few of them that actually has access to Internet. Second, from those who has access to Internet, most of them were rarely able to be online. Third, the cost of international call is so hurting me and my wallet and fourth, most of us are not a fan of writing letters.

After a while, I went home for the second time in 2000 for Christmas Holiday and at that time I met "DY". Oh boy, he was fat and looked wealthy. Coz we were skinny even at the time we were on Year 12. He told me that he was in charge for a mobile phone shop, dealing with big assets and talking with important people in our town. Many of us were convinced, even he paid out the whole bill we spent for a little reunions (about 30 of us) in a cafe. It was quite expensive especially, during that time, most of us were just in first year of university life. So, all of us believed that he was a success businessman, even he didn't finish his university degree. He told us how easy it was to earn a profit from selling mobile phones, etc, etc.

Years go by, then in 2003, when my parents were here for a mid-year holiday, they told me a shocking news. That "DY" was actually a scammer. He scammed three shops (all mobile shops), and even scammed his ex for a quite large amount of money. That, in result, as his scamming was found out by his employer, he flee. His mum, dad, brother and granny, fleed from our hometown. So it was a big news for my town. Then, just last week, my friend told me about an account in Friendster that using "DY" name. Here's an interesting part, he didn't add many of us, he only added some of them that -might- still don't know about what happened with his 'business history'. And the more interesting part, that he has two testimonials in his account from some of his 'friends'. Both saying the same thing, that "DY" that actually a nice and young business man. And he is gold at heart, generous with people around him, always been found in route Singapore - Japan - Indonesia, etc, etc.

Well, some of our friends might believe it black and white. And that is pissed me off. We all know that the officials are still looking for him. He is responsible for the loss of -at least- three shops, the assets, debts that he made. Coz he was trusted by his employers to order and stock items for the shops. But beside doing it, he spent the money on soccer betting, gambling, and having many parties with his 'important' colleagues. Anyway, I'm very sure that all those testimonials are fake. He is still in Indonesia, not Tokyo, not Osaka or Singapore as mentioned in the testimonials.

So who made those testimonials? Him. How do I know it? Because both testimonials accounts were made at the same exact date and day. I know it is possible but the chance is so damn small having same people sending testimonial to same person. Both accounts were owned by his 'female employees'. Funny thing, one of them only has two friends in her list, there are "DY" and the other girl. All accounts haven't been accessed since last year. It is pathetic. He thinks that he can still scam people as he used to. He thinks that people, especially his ex-friends, could be easily fall for a simply stupid fake testimonial. Well, for "DY", if you are reading this (I'm sure you will eventually somehow), just cut the crap ok? People won't ever accept you, nor forget about you for you keep doing the same freaking shit over and over again. I just want to warn, especially for my old friends, not to trust this individual at any stage for any reason. The safest way is reporting to authorities. I know I won't be hesitated at all.

"The good people sleep much better at night than the bad people. Of course the bad people enjoy the waking hours much more."
Woody Allen

Sue the bastards episode I

2005-05-18T18:34:00.000+07:00

We watched Supersize Me, a documentary movie about this guy who tried to deliver a message: fast food is a killer. So to prove it, he ate ONLY McDonald's for breakfast, lunch and dinner, for 30 days. He bought nothing outside McDonald's food outlets, not even a single candy or water. And after 30 long days, he -technically- was killing himself. The last medical check-up of his general condition, he had gained about 24.5 lbs, claimed for a high cholesterol and glucose, a high chance of getting Heart Disease, Diabetes, and some other medical terms =P

Watching it actually was like a jab to my stomach. Seeing him visited the golden arch over and over again was a bit depressing. But from this brilliant documentary movie, I got some fascinating facts about McDonald's. Do you know that -everyday- McDonald's serve food for about 46 million people worldwide - more than entire population of Spain. McDonald's operates more than 30,000 restaurants in more then 100 countries, it's more than Burger King's, Wendy's and KFC outlets combined. McDonald's distributes more toys per year than Toys-R-Us. And in Manhattan, with its total area is 87.5 km², there are actually 83 McDonald's outlets. He said something like every 3 or 4 outlet for couple block (I'm trying to find the exact size of Manhattan lol).

Anyway, we might be a casual consumer of fast food. While in U.S.A. where 1 in 4 American goes to fast food restaurant at least once everyday, the affect is just worrying, 100 millions of Americans are overweight. Some other countries, where the population is smaller, the numbers might be lower. But it doesn't mean that the percentage of people who have a high chance of obesity is gonna be lower also. Again, he only wants to show us that eating fast food without having regular exercise or moderate your dietary, could end you up in hospital.

Talking about bastards, I have this story. But I'll post it in the next posting. Coz if I put them together here, it will be pretty long and some of you might bored hehehe.

To be continued...

Hip Hip Hooray!

2005-05-09T22:58:00.000+07:00

Happy B-day to me! So, today, I'm the king hehehe.. Jk! Today is my birthday, nothing much happening tho. Got some SMS from friends and families (phew, they're still remember me!) Some of them even called me. Then just night, I went to Hog's Breath for an exquisite dinner with Liv. Too bad it wasn't a candle light dinner hehehe.. I had this 400g steak, medium rare as usual, was delightful. Just give it a day or two before those fat starts to work in place on my bold body (LOL). Anyway, thanks everyone. For those who always been there for me. My mum and dad, my sis and bro, my beloved friends, who share some great moment and sh*tload of fun and silly things. Thanks for those things that have constructed me, my personality, my desire, likes and dislikes, even my physical appearance hahaha..

I'll leave you all with a poem sent by Liv thru BlueMountain:

A stranger you were once.
Then, with a gentle look you took my hand.
As our lives engaged,
you lit my life and I held both your hands.
Now that decades have passed,
ours souls have indeed become one.
How fortunate we are
that we have found the love so true.

If I could have just one wish,
I would wish to wake up everyday
to the sound of your breath on my neck,
the warmth of your lips on my cheek,
the touch of your fingers on my skin,
and the feel of your heart beating with mine...
Knowing that I could never find that feeling
with anyone other than you.

May today be a gift you'll always treasure. Happy Birthday to someone who always makes me smile!

Love,
Livia

Really, what else do you need when you have people that love you so much, ignoring your negative sides and just keep trying to accept who you are? *sobs* Thanks, my dear.

"Love rules the court, the camp, the grove,
And men below, and saints above:
For love is heaven, and heaven is love"
Sir Walter Scott

yawn

2005-05-07T16:05:00.000+07:00

Well, it's Saturday. It's fine weather. It's a comfortable day. And it's day of relaxing. Maybe I should go to Freo, enjoying some fish and chips, enjoying the day. Hehehe..

Now I'm at the campus, while Liv is trying to finish one of her assignments. Nothing much happening lately tho. We've got new DVD Burner Dual Layer for $95 (or around that price). So we can freely burn files -in bigger size- to fit into one disc. Got another 4 trials for computer games. One of them is EverQuest 2 and Mourning. And as I don't have anything special to be told today, so let me talk about computer games hehehe..

EverQuest 2, being developed by Sone Entertainment Online, covers some comprehensive hallmarks. One of them is the details of characters' appearance, the sway of trees, the foaming beach. Everything is ellegantly designed to give a touch of real experience. It took me about 20 minutes just to design my character appearance, a rare thing that can be found among other online games. Its world is massive, offers not only hundreds of hours of exploration but the vivid mystery of unknown terrains, unknown creatures, and quests. Talking about quests, they're superbly designed so while you doing them, you can learn more about the game, its history, its famous heroes and legends, its infamous evil myth, etc.

I like it tho. Since I play Star Wars Galaxies, I fell in love with SOE's designs. If you like playing RPG, and want to try it online, go fetch one of its copy.

The other one is Mourning. I've been waiting for this since last year, beginning of last year. I have been queueing up for their closed beta testing (which I missed) LOL. So this morning when I checked my email, I got an offer to download the client and try it. I gotta check the client tonight. Oh, we got shaped into 64Kbps! OMG, that the second time for the last two months hehehe.. It seems 80Gb download quota is not enough for us hehehe..

Anywayyyyy, gotta go now. I'm hungry! Me hungry! See you all later. Have a nice weekend!

Do we create image or image that creates us?

2005-04-29T23:08:00.000+07:00

I just read the newest entry in Mijung's blog. Unfortunately, for some of you, it might hard to understand as she wrote it in Indonesian. Anyway, she said that she got this dream about went home to Indo where everyone greet her and happy for her. But one thing that made her sad, thing that we sometimes do not realize. It's the assumption from most of the people that being small, or skinny is the most ideal body size. For this, we might ask, whose fault is this? Is this simply because we feel being challenged to keep our body slim and sexy? Or is it because we only have clothes in S size? I'm fully agree with her that it's the media's fault, especially magazines.

We've been reading magazines since what? 10? 12? 15 years old? How many, let me rephrase, how many hundreds times we flip over pages in a magazine and seeing slim, skinny ladies in the newest fashion? How many times we stuck at a page looking at some cute skinny women in their colourful dress? Maybe it's nothing, flipping over pages of magazines might only take 15 to 25 minutes at a time. It feels like nothing, but without our consciousness acknowledging it we are being shaped by them. We are being transformed. Our mindset has been constructed. We -maybe most of the female readers- will think that if they don't have skinny or slim body, they couldn't wear pretty dresses. Not wearing pretty dresses means that we might attract unpleasant staring or presumption. And nobody will gonna have crush on them. :) That is silly isn't? If you think it through, it is indeed silly.

Do you really think or believe that if you buy those fancy, cute and colourful in the magazines, then you can just wear it in daily occassions? You can wear it to visit your old granny in that? Or attending a seminar about Global Warming in those funky dresses? Think again. You're not gonna apply those many skin foundations or lotions to your face, are you? That will show that your face has layers just like a lasagna you had for lunch the other day. Most probably you wouldn't have enough time to wear so much make-up (unless you work as a clown in a local circus) =P No, I'm not being harsh to females. I just want to make them to start realize, to quit dreaming of things that are sold by marketing people. This is their jobs, they are paid to create image. To create such an imaginative promises and dreams to the readers. Of course, those marketers smart @ss can't be blamed. It's now our turn, us as readers to start moderating ourselves.

We create images, so many of them that shape our acceptance, our understanding of someone's appearance. We follow images that sometimes we treat ourselves and others based on that simple judgement. Be aware that sometimes images also tackle us, giving us wrong direction, false impressions about our own images. Images should be no more than marketing tools, that is used by so many business establishment to raise their profit up. Society itself is the one who should control images, which society? Who is in a society? You, me, they, us. We are as the creators, the readers, and the consumers of images should have a grasp. Like Mijung said in her blog, "What is it for you to keep reading magazines that will only give you guilty feeling?" Guilty for not being slim, that makes thousands of females and women -as young as Year 9- are crazed about diet. Wrong diet. For most of the females I know, diet means eating as least food as you could. And this, most of them, will give bad effect such as long term damage to their stomachache, or feeling weak, some have pale face in the most of the days. No, ladies. That is wrong. The real diet is limiting yourself not to consume things like saturated fat from unhealthy food or food with excess oil. Further more, the conception of today's youth is supporting those false images. How many times we saw someone is left out by their friends because they don't have a build, muscular body, or don't have good curves and slim in size? Sometimes we force ourselves to follow the "trend" in the local friendship network just to be accepted as a 'member'. We deny and stubbornly accept that this is how it should run. Fat = ugly = no friends = weirdo. Can we blame on those type of friendship? No, they are also the victims of false imaginary dreams. That to make a better friendship, everyone should be slim.

Why torturing ourselves just to satisfy some people on the street so they can stare at us? Our images shouldn't be limited by curves in our body. Magazines that offer strict dietary is only a guide for those who might exceedly overweight and need a support or guidance. But don't take it as strict rule or requirement that if you don't do it then you're not cool or as trendy the rest of the readers. So, the bottom line here is, don't be afraid to eat. I'm not suggesting you to drink a full glass of fat or to eat a big lump of steak full with fat. Just be moderate. Limit and balance your dietary with healthy stuff, fruits, and of course regular sports. After all, why we should follow someone else's created images? Or some magazine's images? Isn't nice that we also can make our own images? And by the end of the day, you could simply ask yourself that do we really create image or that image creates us?

"The more vivid your imagination, the more dangerous the world becomes."
Matthew Lotti

Scribble, scribble

2005-04-26T22:56:00.000+07:00

First, congratulations for Irwan who just won a basketball competition. We have a brand new champion in this town! Rock on dudes! Hehehe... He is so happy when came home bringing back the trophy and his medal. He has every right in the world to be happy and proud. His hardwork to assembly such a strong and solid team, even to take them to be a winner was not easy. Indeed he is a good motivator and speaker (even sometimes he can act and looks like no different than my 15 years old cousin lol). So, anyway, now he can sleep sound and easy as this winning was one of his goals in here. For the last three days he keeps staring at his trophy and I wouldn't be surprised if one day I'll find him sleep while hugging the damn thing hehehe... His team is The ~~Jerks~~ Jetz. :P Sorry bro, I'm just joking ok, I don't want to open my front door and finding your whole team standing right there holding baseball bat. =P

Anyway, so far I haven't been discussing about one of my sacred hobbies... eating. Yes, food is like music to my tongue. Especially after I met my spouse. Before that, I was just a skinny boy who only eat if I feel hungry. Hehehe.. Believe it or not, in the last two years, I've been gaining enough weight to sink a small steamboat to the bottom of the lake. Jk! For the last two years, I've been throwing away about 12 jeans, 6 or 8 baggy trousers, a good kg of fine clothes and God-knows-how-many underwear. Why? Because I had been a good settlement for another 22kg of my body. I went from size 28 or 29 to staggering 33! Yes, you got that right, I've gained about 22kg for the last two years. No wonder all my friends in Indo - who hadn't seen me for 4 years - almost drop their jaws when they saw me. But by gaining this much of weight, I'm not only gaining fat alone, but confidence. Hehehe.. All credit goes to my spouse =P

So, I've been enjoying new habit, eating. I used to enjoy cooking tho even I don't have many recipes to share but at least I can tell the difference between spring onion and lemon grass =P Being a food lover is not an easy task. Some of my friends have the same hobby too. One of them is Mr. Z. Standing tall at 195 cm and weighs about 150 kg, he is the real man for the job. Steaks, Sushi, Pizza, Pasta, Chinese cuisines, you name it. This dude will do the job and finish it well hehehe... We talk about food like others do about cars or footy =P Sometimes we go down to Northbridge (our small Chinatown) just to have a full-loaded, heavy dinner or just to spend time over a complete and satisfying Dim Sum. I wouldn't be surprised tho if one day he show up at my place turn out to be a Chinaman hahaha... I even sometimes suspicious that he speaks a fluent Mandarin =P

My another favorite type of food is steak. Which steakhouse? I'll answer it would be the only one, Hog's Breath! If you are happen to live in a town in Australia where you can find one of Hog's Breath's branch but you never tried or visited, then you're really missing something good. And you're entitled to get a free slap from Mr. Z, unless you're a true vegetarian or a devoted member of CRPA (Cow's Rights and Protection Agency, if there's such a thing tho) hehehe..

Lemme tell you, Hog's Breath has been known for their juicy and succulent steaks. I lost count of how many people I took there for dinner or just a quick lunch, and every single of them said the same thing by the end of every meal: "Oh, my, that was one awesome steak" And maybe I also responsible for their increasing profit margin for the last two years hahaha... jk! After their first visit, I'll later find out they have become the dedicated worshiper of Hog's Breath =P It has one of the best steak I ever tried, the creamiest mashed potato -that melts in your mouth- (the fries is great too but I'm not a fan of combination of fries and steak), and the coolest restaurant design. It has a very good atmosphere that you could bring anyone there in any occassion. Be it your mates to talk about next weekend's fishing tour of duty, or your colleagues, your in-laws, or the girl next door that you're trying to hit on. It will always be a good place to dine-in*

Ok, I think I have enough scribble here. So, listen to my soul, brothers. Go there, experience it yourself, then you can decide. LOL. I sound like I work for them, don't I? Hehehe..

* The standard of services and cute waitress will vary from one branch to another. Please refer to the closest branch in your area. =P

Ancient Dynasty plus Hergè

2005-04-19T11:58:00.000+07:00

For the last two weeks, I've been drawn to ancient timeline, building deserted towns. Designed housing for 2,000 people with their prick needs, ruling it to be one of the finest place to live in. Then moved on to other towns, tried to make a path for my career to be the greatest emperor of all time. Hehehe... No, it's only literally. I've been playing Emperor: The Rise of Middle Kingdom. It's basically a city building game, where you are given an area that where you can build things like housing, mill, farming area, ~~brothel~~ etc. It's a bit like Sim City Series but this time with goals which you have to fulfil to continue your journey as a dynasty ruler.

The game looks good, for me it's the best so far. Has more details than the rest of the games in the same genre, such as Pharaoh, Zeus, Caesar III, etc. The funny thing was, that one day when I was playing it, our housemate, Irwan saw it and he wanted to install and play it in his laptop. Then off he went. For the next four days or so, he locked himself up in his room. God knows how many hours he had for sleeping or how many days he haven't seen sunlight :)

Anyway, if you like computer game and love playing city building game, Emperor is a must for you. It has a wide options such as invading other towns, paying homage for heroes aka gods, defining your tax, your alliance, etc, etc. The game has a good skin and coloring. It even has some funny animations. Talking about animations, recently I just bought myself a full series DVD collection of Tintin. I'm very sure that most of you that read this actually know who Tintin is.

I've been reading comics about Tintin since I was 7 or 8 y.o. It's one of my favorite comics. There are some distinctive characteristic in him. For me, Tintin has represented himself as the basic and primary of the most modern hero in our time. Of course Tintin is the simplest cartoon hero I've ever seen. I'm talking about those who are in human shape. Look at his face, only two dots for his eyes, cute little nose and funny hair. Tintin is James Bond minus the hot chics or sexy sidekicks. Tintin is James Bond minus the weird and kick-ass gadgets but Tintin is as brave and lucky as Bond. Tintin is Indiana Jones minus the whip :), Tintin is MacGyver minus his magic Swiss Army Knife. Tintin also Ethan Hunt minus the Impossible Mission Taskforce (IMF). And the list could go on and on. Tintin might be only a young journalist travelling with his wits dog, grumpy-short-temper Capt. Haddock (he has a quite broad ermm defining curse words), clumsy twin Thompson & Thomson, and almost-deaf scientist Cuthbert Calculus.

Tintin is not only smart (he spoke more than 3 languages perhaps), he also brave and honest. Of course in the movies, most of the time he is saved by his lucky angel. But hey, it's a comic. No difference from those James Bond and Indiana Jones' adventures tho. Anyway, I gotta finish this off. I'm at uni atm, and the Internet is freaking bad. I'm sure some f*ckwits are downloading sh*ts from the net. At this times, the lab sometimes full of people who wouldn't bother to turn their mobile off or at least put it on silent mode. And they like to talk loud. It's a lab for God's sake, you should keep your voice down. *sigh* Oh well.. Take care, everyone.

Here's the picture of Tintin & friends:

The picture is © Herge Moulinsart.
(Click here to enlarge)

Oh, if you claim yourself as a hardcore and die-hard fans of Tintin, here is a good trivia quiz about Tintin and everything that relates to him. Good luck!

White Flag n 18 Hole

2005-03-19T01:01:00.000+07:00

LOL. You maybe wondering "what the.." Well, Liv just bought two new PS2 games, Sing Party and Disney Golf. The Sing Party game is where you have to sing some songs correctly based on their original rhythm, the pitch of your voice, and the game will calculate it to determine your score. It is pretty good game, you can either sing solo or duet. It has 30 songs to choose from. And after trying most of them, only one song I can sing pretty well. White Flag by Dido. I never thought that I could sing it, as originally it is sang by a chic whose voice pitch is so damn high hehehe..

The Disney Golf actually was educating me and Liv about golf. We never understand about it before, especially the scoring system, where the winner is the one who can get the lowest number. So when you play a computer game about golf and you score +18, don't dance or feeling happy about it. It means you're the big L hehehehe...

There wasn't any good movie on TV last nite. We only had "What Women Want"; "Charlie's Angels 2; and "Pearl Harbor". We decided to spend the time with Kate Beckinsale, even it also means we have to watch Josh Harnett and Ben Afleck playing hero hehehe.. Miss Beckinsale (I hope she's still a Miss) =P was great. The role of sexy and charming nurse suits her very well. Anyway, during the movie me and Irwan were discussing a bit above the Japanese attack on American's Fleet in Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. We both agree and very sure that if that time the Japanese kept forcing and pushing their attack wave thru deeper American shore, the world would never be the same as it is now. It might change the global power pole, it might not only change the superpower countries 'brotherhood', but also changing the history of so many nations globally. But sometimes we don't know how it's gonna be. It might make a better scenario or it might even create a worse situation. Anyway, I'm not gonna take you into some boring political-historic crap hehehe.. First, you might start scold me, and second, it's almost 3 a.m. now, so half of my brain is already dead. =P

I think I'll hit the hay now. Have a nice weekend, everyone.

i R back!

2005-03-17T02:18:00.000+07:00

Whooppp! I'm back, people! Ok, I dunno how to start, so I'll try to sum up what have been happening lately. As some of you already knew, I just came back from Indonesia for a special occassion. I proposed my lovely girlfriend =P wait, wait, no need to send us flowers or wedding gifts.. not yet at least hehehe.. anyway, everything was good and smooth. To be honest, I was a bit nervous, as I didn't expect it to be held this year.

If somebody ask me what else I did during that holiday, I'll answer "Food Festival". Thanks to my lovely girlfriend who introduce me to the joy of eating. So I spent most of the time eating and trying to adapt myself with the weather. There was some awful day when the temp was sooooo humid that I couldn't stop ~~swearing~~ sweating all day long. :(

But the rest are good, I enjoyed my time there. Even I still forgetting some of the name of the streets at my hometown. Or how scared I was to cross the road, coz in Indo they drive like there is no tomorrow lol. The more I think it, the more I found how contradicting my country is. It feels the same, it smells the same. It's still the same country where you (those who never been there before) might be amazed about how our people/government do ~~stupid~~ things.

So now I'm back again, doing my role as a full-time Internet junkie LOL. Talking about Internet, thanks to my ISP for upgrading their services. So it was possible for us to upgrade our 1.5Mbps connection into faster one. They have loosen the tide now so we can have the speed as fast as 8Mbps. Wootttt! Too bad they still give us download quota. But with 80Gb quota, it's still a steal deal, isn't? I just hope the price will go drop in the near future.

Oh, we got a new toy now! We sold our GameCube in eBay, including the rest of the games as well. Actually we planned to sell it to our local Electronic Boutique Shop but they were being irrational again as usual (details will come soon). Anyway, we bought a brand new PS2 console, silver color. No, it's not the slim version. Because of some little technical judgement, we decided to buy the first breed. Even my girlfriend bought the vertical stand and remote control, all comes in silver. Andddd the eye toy! The little twit is really amazing. You'll can't help yourself seeing your image in the TV. The game requires you to move around, or jump up and down like those poor fatso in The Biggest Loser. Hehehe... it has some good games like the Soccer, Kung-Foo, Baseball, or Drummania. It's good if you love video games and want to loose some of your weight. Go ask your oldman for one if you don't have it =P Go burn some fat! *giggles*

Ack, almost forget to tell this. Declaring ourselves as brave human and heroes with p*nis, me and Irwan crowned one game to be our national icon. It's called Winning Eleven, a soccer game. Boy, if you love sports and a big fan of kicking ~~some balls~~ ball in the field, you're gonna fall in love with this one. Actually this game has been improved and expanded for years. I remember back to my high-school time, some of my friends already played it. Because PSX was not as famous as it is now, not many play it. It was quite expensive to own PS console at that time. And the reason why I didn't play it, because I just couldn't play the damn thing. I found it pretty hard to control 11 players in such big field with only one ball hehehe.. But as I've played it recently, I think it's one of those must-have game. The graphic will blow you away. It has a great detail of players movement and attitude. You can play either as a ~~sucker~~ soccer club or you can pick your fave country (sorry yours was beaten last time we played it, Mr. ZARcastic) hehehe.. Of course if one wants to compare with "FIFA Soccer" in XBOX, the two would show a great difference. As some of us already knew it that XBOX consoles have smarter and faster 'brain' the graphic display would be better than PS games. But I dunno why I never liked XBOX. Maybe because its gigantic size, or maybe its superb weight (that I'm sure if you throw it to the wall it will go thru, goes into your neighbor's house and kill the bastard) hehehe, or maybe because its ugly duckling controllers? =P Anyway, me and Irwan play it more than Marilyn Manson does drugs in a week LOL.

Oh, yea about EB. I called them up last time to find out about trading in our GameCube console and its games. We thought, perhaps by doing so, we could got some in-store credit for us to buy the PS2 with them. BUT, they are really cheapskate if I could say it. They just price the console $32 (OMFG), and some of the games (about 7 of them I guess) are even priced only at $11, the most only $30. So I told Liv just to put them up in eBay. It didn't take long, three days later we are $400+ richer. Yay!

Damn, now that's everything folks. Sorry if it takes me this long to update my blog (Blame it to GTA San Andreas!) Keep reading, and thanks for visiting my blog!

Take care!

"The years are too short, the days are too long."
(Joseph Heller, Something Happened)

Oh ffs!

2005-01-29T03:12:00.000+07:00

Well, I'm in Indonesia at the moment. I arrived on the 3rd Feb at 2300 local time. The flight was enjoyable as not many passengers that day. From 170 capacity (if I'm not mistaken) only about 40 people were on that plane (assuming my eyes and poor math was at prime condition hehehe)

Anyway, I made a posting while I'm on the train to my hometown on the next day. I borrowed Mr. Z's laptop and I saved the posting in my flash disk. But guess what, when I was about to upload it from the local cyber cafe, their PC's don't even have USB port. Argghh!! What a waste. The PC was soooo original that it will look very ancient comparing the laptop I'm using now hehehe.. My girl's sis just got this new laptop yesterday afternoon. I gotta admit it that I fall in love with this one hehehe.. Intel Pentium M Processor 725 Dothan, 1.6 Ghz, 512DDR RAM, ATI Radeon 9100 Series, 15.4" screen with 60 Gb HD, it gives the joyful of computing hehehe... The Dothan technology allows the laptop to save energy more than the older generations. Well, if you're looking for a good laptop, this one is very recommended. With USD 1500, you can take this babe home hehehe =P

Oh, I was amazed yesterday. We went down to Orion Mangga Dua, where you can find hundreds of shops for computer needs. From a simple transfer cable, to the latest version of sophisticated motherboards. I know that people who haven't been to Indo (such my famous friend Mr. Z) would think that Indonesia is only full of crooks and bad people where you can get mugged everyday, anytime. But if you see the condition in here.. lol. Big malls, overcrowded computer shops, and the growing numbers of mobile phone shops, who would believe that Indonesia is one of the poorest countries in the world? I gotta take pictures so I can show him how Jakarta looks like. I remember clearly when I was still so young, I don't like this city. Crowded, traffic jam, confusing roads, etc, but now, it would be an exotic experience if I can live some of my years here.

Ok, I gotta go now, Happy Valentine! While some or most of you will be in a romantic candlelight dinner and listen to the love songs, most probably I will spend my Valentine evening eating with my girl and listen to the hawker's songs LOL.

Ciao!

Advanced Australia Fair

2005-01-26T14:58:00.000+07:00

Australians all let us rejoice
For we are young and free
We've golden soil and wealth for toil,
Our home is girt by sea:
Our land abounds in nature's gifts
Of beauty rich and rare,
In history's page let every stage
Advance Australia fair,
In joyful strains then let us sing
Advance Australia fair.

Beneath our radiant Southern Cross,
We'll toil with hearts and hands,
To make this Commonwealth of ours
Renowned of all the lands,
For those who've come across the seas
We've boundless plains to share,
With courage let us all combine
To advance Australia fair.
In joyful strains then let us sing,
Advance Australia fair.

Happy Australia Day! May Australia keeps getting bigger and stronger, have a stable and healthy politics, more wealth and prosper in the years to come. Also may it will strife away from the big brother's influence. *giggles* Sing it loud, lads! Advanced Australia Fairrrrr...!! Hip hip hooraaa!!

Go Maria! (again)

2005-01-26T13:25:00.000+07:00

So last night I was switching channels and found an Australian Open quater-final tennis match between Svetlana Kuznetsova vs Maria Sharapova.

It was a tough match, not because they both played very well, but also the hot and burning weather. Under 34 degree Celcius it's not a very bright idea to play tennis in an open court for more than two hours straight. I've experienced the brutal and 'naughty' Australian summer hehehe.. Both players were tested physically and mentally not to give up to their rival or weather. Or referring to the news last night, he said that the match was a civil war. Not because they have their own supporters carrying guns or stones but because they both come from the same origin, Russia. They speak same language, come from same motherland, the great land of Russia. But their play-style is different to one another. Kuznetsova, with her strong and firm look, while Maria has this kind of 'girl-next-door' look hehehe.. Kutznetsova has this powerfull swing that made her looks like an intense wall, and able to return the relay in a fast and sharp hit. In the other side of the court, Maria was being so swift and sneaky, she has a good agility. It gave me an image of a naughty little girl who tries to trick her big and bulky friend :D

Anyway, 3 sets were good enough for them to witness the tough summer in Australia. Maria won it with final score 6-4 2-6 2-6. She'll meet the famous Serena Williams Yay! Oh, btw, Maria is at rank 4 now! Go Maria!!

Bigbadaboom!

2005-01-24T19:55:00.000+07:00

Nothing much happening for the last two or three weeks. Only some couples little incidents like: I blew up the good ol 512Mb RAM last Friday. I didn't know what happened to the computer as I restarted it, just three long beeps. So I called two of my computer experts. Both had the some conclusions, something is broken or perhaps just detached. Trying to open the CPU tower, I just realized how tight the screws and what I got only some stupid spectacles screwdrivers. I can't even stab a mouse with it hehehe...

Anyway, Mr. Z paid me a visit, we checked it and it was confirmed the RAM was gone :( not the motherboard as I suspected before. After a quick search thru the net, we went to downtown where I bought 2 512Mb DDR PC3200 400Hz, cost me almost $300 *double frowns* Shortly after that, we put everything back to the tower and head down to our fave Chinese restaurant at Northbridge. Yummy yummy..

Now it runs good except I'm feeling tempted to upgrade the processor and motherboard :P I might buy the parts as I'm going to Indo this Feb. For sure I need a bigger HD, this one is starting to scream when I install things.

Oh, btw, what is your fave web browser? I still use IE coz some plugins and website only like Microsoft products :( But beside that, I use Mozilla Firefox regularly. It's cool, lighter than IE. When browsing some websites, you can have only one window in your bar instead heaps of them. And the plugins plus the theme skins are kick ass. And last year I read that Mozilla is considered safer than IE. Anyway, Mozilla just released their newest version, Firefox 1.0. Try it, I'm sure most of you will love it.

Ok, gotta go in a jiffy, dinner time! Oh, I wish everyone has a very fresh start this year. Excluding the hangovers hehehe..

My personal thought

2005-01-03T00:39:00.000+07:00

The date is 26th December 2004, while many of us still celebrating the Christmas and spending holidays with our loved ones, one terrible event has hit in some regions in Asia. As we all have noticed, the tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia has claimed more lives that we could ever predicted. On the 26th evening I watched the news, and seeing that the earthquake (measured at 9.5 Richter scale) had caused a big tsunami waves. The earthquake is said been caused by the breaking between Asia plate and Srilangka plate at the bottom of the sea. That day, in the news they say the biggest casualties come from the offshore line of Srilangka, about 5,000 people. Indonesia had about 2,500 casualties. It sounded weird to me because Srilangka is 1,000 km away from the epicentre of the earthquake, while Aceh, a province of Indonesia in Sumatra Island, lies only 149 km from the epicentre. But I didn't really pay attention at that time.

The next couple of days have been attracting the world's attention. As the experts flew in, they told the world a news that would never been forgotten. The casualties is might reaching ten times that what we expected. In every updated news session on T.V. the number keeps getting bigger and bigger. One week after the disaster, the record has shown more than 150,000 deaths. This is really a mourning day for the world. Many countries are affected -direct and indirectly- by this tragedy. Indonesia has claimed about 94,000 casualties as the region with hardest hit.

This terrible disaster has once again bring us into another reality. That us, human, won't stand a chance against the mother nature. The movement of the earth plates at the bottom of the Indian Ocean had managed to conquer civilization. Tsunami, just like any other natural disasters, it doesn't discriminate its victims. It doesn't single out us, they never discriminate based on race, gender, age, profession, etc. It is different than a man-made 'disaster' such as terrorist acts. Tsunami hit everything, everyone that stand in its path. Nothing can stop it, yet prevent it. What we can do as a part of this natural system is to be aware and ready.

For the survivors, the nightmate is far from end. They've lost everything, their loved ones, their precious possessions, their shelters, even some of the worst, lost their will to live. Most of them have nothing left, only the clothes they wore that morning. Buildings were flattened and ruined, blocks of residence buildings were wiped out and looks like made from cardboard. For most of the survivors, only little hope and keep them alive. Hope to find one of their loved ones even deep inside they had a great doubt about it. This catastrophy had made another great fear, an outbreak.

The tsunami, eventually found out, has destroyed shore lines, changing the geography map. Even moved away some little islands, destroying the deep sea ecosystem and its natural resources. Also, one of the most fundamental needs for us, water. The water beds were polluted by rubbish and sea water or salt water. In the areas that hit, sanitation is the biggest concern. Water wells are no longer available or able to function. This could lead the survivors into another phase that is normally could take far more numbers of victims. The disease like malaria, dysentry, cholera are the familiar trio to show up at this chance of event.

The countries that affected by this tsunami asked from the world to help them. They didn't have to ask twice. Australia, one of Indonesia's closest neighbours acted immediately and promptly. Since the first day, the Australian Government has rallied so many aids to help the victim countries. Medicines, food, water supply, medical experts keep being flew in. Followed by more wealth countries like U.S.A., Japan and China, they together helping the unfortunate one.

So, thank you for those who has helped us, especially for the Australian Government and its people. If any of you live or reside in Australia, you already know how the people in Australia react about this tragedy. Donations come not only from the Government but from the people, taxi drivers, teachers, accountants, social workers, waitpersons, housewives, etc. During the Old & New on the 1st January itself, they have gathered an easy one million dollars for just an hour. The Australia Unite programme even earned more than 20 million dollars which was held by the three major TV stations in Australia.

Anyway, I hope this tragedy would at least give us some precious lessons. Scepticism would always exist but then hopes would keep us alive.

"Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart."
Anne Frank

Welcome to year 2005

2005-01-03T00:29:00.000+07:00

This is it lads! 2005, the new year, new journey, with its curses and blessings. I hope everyone gets a special memory in celebrating the new year party. But I hope we don't forget about those of the victims of Asia Tsunami, which currently reported has caused a staggering 150,000 deaths. Official workers from all over the place claim that the number would still increasing. As many of the victims are still uncounted, some are might still buried under the heavy ruins, lost in the sea, etc.

I hope also everyone can get reflection of what we've done and haven't done in the previous year. 2004 is ended by the tsunami disaster that is claimed one of the strongest since 1960. But the casualties of this tsunami is exceeding and might be the worst in human history. I want to pay tribute for all the victims from Aceh to Colombo, Srilangka, India, and Thailand. May God bless us all.

Merry Christmas!!

2004-12-27T21:09:00.000+07:00

Merry Christmas everyone! May the joy will fill you and people that close to you. Let we all rejoice for unto us a Son is given. Unto us, a Savior is born. The Almighty Jesus Christ. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, it's not about the gifts, it's not about the new clothes, it's not about the new jewelries, or new kick-ass gadgets, etc. But it's about the reflection of the true meaning of Christmas itself. About realizing of who we are in this small planet. And thanking Him for sending His only Son to save us from the evil. Once again, Merry Christmas, may it be jolly hehehe..

Officer down! Medic! (Paintball 2004)

2004-12-06T12:42:00.000+07:00

About a week ago I got an invitation from Mr. Z to play paintball. So yesterday, Sunday 5th December, we went to the designated meeting place. We arrived there about 0845, and waited for the others, at 0920 everyone was there, 28 people showed up. Not bad huh, the bigger the merrier hehehe..

So the organizer guy showed up and took us to the 'killing field'. We got a short briefing about safety and rules to play the game. Then everyone started to get their gears. Basically they gave us an overall suit to protect our clothes from paint and dirt, mask to cover the vital area of our face, and some other guys they bring their own gloves.

Then we were devided into two groups, odd numbers and even numbers. We started playing about 0945 I guess. I lost count how many games we did yesterday. I only remember some scenarios such as Capture the ~~fag~~ Flag, General, Satellite Disk, etc, etc. It was very fun tho, because at first I felt a bit uncomfortable as I only know two people hehehe.. but it turned up very well. I made some frags in every round. 4 frags is the most I could make from one round hehehe..

The sh_t thing was that the guns have crappy aiming. No matter how steady I tried to aim it, the paint bullets keep running everywhere. It's too low sometimes, and sometimes it runs too high, etc. But that what makes the game fun anyway. We got a lunch break aroun 1330, mainly just hotdogs anyway. But all of us just need rest and drink. Forcing yourself to run, hop, crawl, squat, etc in four straight hours is just wrong hehehe.. I don't do sports anymore so my body is not familiar with all of these sudden rush. I was breathing like a freaking horse that just finished one long day of orgasm hehehehe.. We all were sweating because the weather was getting warmer and we had to keep our overall and mask on while we were on the field. Some poor guys forgot about this and they had to stand in front of the firing squad. Five players were allowed to shoot him from 10-steps distance kekekeke... it's just nasty, trust me.

Anyway, during the in-game time, I got a chance to check if I got some wounds hehehe.. I had so many bruises now about 8 of them. Only one that is... ermm.. fatal :P The first hit that hurt me was on my fingers. I was taken out by our enemy and I was about to get out from the field when someone from my group was shooting at the enemy but silly me, I walked into his firing line. It hit my fingers so hard, it bleeds for a while and I couldn't use my right hand. It was shaking and I felt so weak lol.

But that's not all, here is the best 'wound' I got so far. Caution, some of the user might find this pictures disturbing :P

D-Day:

(Click here to enlarge the picture)

D-Day, after shower:

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D-Day plus 1:

(Click here to enlarge the picture)

Kekekeke it is a bad bruise and pretty swollen. I got it from two shots in two different games but weird it hits at the same spot. Whoa someone has a really good markmanship. Some other minor bruises are on my elbow, chest, hips and left arms. The other players were shocked when they saw it hehehe.. Oh well, that was my first time playing Paintball and it was worth to play and get some little wounds tho hehehe.. Definitely won't be my last time I play it.

Quote of the day:
Paintball marker rent: $25
700 round paintball bullets: $110
Extra round bullets: $15
Getting two shots in two different games but hit at one same spot: Priceless

LOL! That's all folks!

UO memorabilia

2004-12-06T12:13:00.000+07:00

As you all know, I'm addicted to an online game called Ultima Online. The game itself has reached its seventh years of running. We've got so many expansions, seven of them so far that enhanced the game content. Back to the first year of UO, any player who bought the CD would get a map. Map of the entire land, that is called ~~Britain~~ Britannia. It was made from cloth. I only started to play UO since two years ago and of course the cloth map is not produced anymore, but I wanted it. So I was hunting for it on the net, trying to find someone who wants to sell their map. It was hard as in seven years people might loose it, even some still have it but they keep it as collection.

It is a momentum for computer online game that makes UO still has many players, and more people try to collect anything that relates to UO. But I was lucky to find the map for sale in eBay. There were two sellers actually, I bid the first seller but the auction was getting higher price because other people bid it. Then I found the second one who sell the same item PLUS UO pin. Whoa it's even better. So I let my first bid to be outbid by the others. Anyway, I won the auction, paid the transaction with shipment fee.

I got it last week and now I wear the pin when I'm going out in a nice outfit (no, I don't wear any mage robe or knight plate armors hehehe) I got a chance to make snapshot of them:

(Click to enlarge the picture)

(Click to enlarge the picture)

I'm happy coz some of my friends were looking for the map too. Indeed it is a rare item. Even some old software of UO were priced about $99, people want it to be a collectible so no wonder if one day you might find an old CD in a high price.

Breaking news: my girl is having holiday back to our home country, so here I am, alone and lonely again hehehe... She'll go to Beijing, China to visit her young sister who is studying there. My girl will spend about two weeks and celebrating New Year's Eve in Beijing. I heard that it is snowy and chill up there. Well, lucky them, in here the weather is getting warmer. No White Christmas in here :P

Before she left, she tried to leave some cooking recipes. So she explained some in under three minutes time, from soup to rendang hahaha.. just hope I won't do some mix-up recipes hehehehe..

Happy holiday everyone, enjoy before it's over..

"We do not remember days, we remember moments."
Cesare Pavese

Playing God

2004-11-21T21:20:00.000+07:00

Just watched The Butterfly Effect last week. It is good and gives a great message for us. It told us that people should stop playing God because eventually it will just getting more messy. I don't want to spoil the movie in here but it said that everytime we decided to play God, in the end we are the one who has to sacrifice ourselves for the sake of the others.

I like the movie, even more, I appraise Ashton Kutcher's performance. He was great and can create a good deed about the main character. If you are happen to have nothing to do at weekend, invite your mates, grab some six packs, a full stack of ~~porns~~ chips or nibbling foods, and watch it. It doesn't have so much weird and complex points to explain how things happen. And by the end of the movie, you might keep asking yourself many questions begin with "what if". What if he took different item in the kitchen. What if he didn't run, etc, etc.

Oftenly, people try to play God. We, even me, I admit it, sometimes want to change things that already happened. Things that affecting us badly, things that made us embarassed, things that make us want to hide our face, things that what we regret every night before we sleep. Well, it's not gonna happen. Life is ain't a DVD where you can rewind to which part you want to be and change it. It's ain't a ladder game where you can put your pawn everywhere you want. Shit happens and that's what we have to learn to continue our journey.

I have so many things that I regret and hope if they were never happened to me. But aside then dreaming about building a time machine or finding a mystical gate that brought you back into time hehehe.. Get a grip, leave your sh_it behind, and keep walking, keep walking until you realize there is no more regrets. Kekekekeke.. damn why I start to type like this? Oh well, if you find this posting helping you a bit, say thank to Carlsberg I just bought, or if you think I just wasting another 10 minutes of your precious life, you can still blame the Carlsberg.

Oh, if you are one of those lucky people who resides in Perth and didn't go out of your hole today and have your $3000 air conditioner on for all day long, GOOD. Because today, the weather was being a bastard. It was only 32 to 35 degree, but having a cold nights since last week, I'm just not ready to get a hot day. At least not yet. Tomorrow is gonna be 33 degree with thunderstorm, luckily I have nothing to do tomorrow so I could just relax and staying in a cool room with internet and some movies hehehe.. OH!! Talking about movies... Thanks to Mijung who sent me a link to an online portal, it has a list of TV stations around the world. I've been watching TV from all over the place, USA, Canada, China, Finland, Indonesia, Malaysia, etc. Some stations are good, they have decent connection so you won't feel that you are actually streaming from the Internet. Too bad I only understand English so I dunno what the heck the lady in Finland TV was talking about hehehe..

Oh, we went to Cash Converter today because we have some hardwares that we don't use anymore so we think to sell them. There are two scanners and three printers. We were hoping to get some good bucks so at least we can use the money to go to movie or dinner, or things like that. But instead offering us a good deal, the guy only offered us $15 for a really really good printer. We use it rarely and because it was owned by my girl who loves to clean things, it's still in mint condition. I asked him if he could give any better deal, he said he couldn't, $15 is the only amount he can pay. So I was like, sh_t $15?? Even a pack of low quality condoms will cost us more than that kekekeke..

Then my girl decided to give em away to someone else. Perhaps Salvation Army or AngliCare (??), at least we can help someone who might need these hardwares. We could sell em on eBay, but the waiting is gonna be long as so many hardwares already been put up on eBay.

Anyway, I gotta go now. Dinner time, I'll see you guys later. Happy holiday ok? I know some of you might already on holiday hehehe...

"Expectation is the root of all heartache."
William Shakespeare

UO:SE

2004-11-17T10:07:00.000+07:00

Welp! I dunno where to start, so here it is. But this is gonna be pretty long read, so grab your coffee, put your comfortable clothes on, get your teddy bear too if you want hehehe.. We've been waiting for Samurai Empire, UO:SE, a newest expansion of Ultima Online. It was supposed to be released in Australia on the 9th November by Electronic Boutique but until now many Australian and New Zealand players haven't got their copies. Why? Here is why:

1. Because of the nature of the game, where the subscribers are not only Americans, the distribution of the copies is pretty hectic. Players are scattered from Canada to New Zealand. So they have different release date for each regions like USA, Europe, Japan, Australia, Korea, etc.

2. Delay comes from EB for a "custom" reason that the copies are being held in custom. I mean, who the hell is gonna believe this? EB is a well-known computer game retailer around the globe. And it's been in Australia for years, importing heaps of game softwares or other things for gaming needs every single day. How come now the custom held the Samurai Empire? I just don't buy it.

3. Most EB staffs just being arrogant and pretending to be smart. For saying things like: "Oh, if you got the copy not from EB Australia, from USA for instance, the software won't work in Australia"; "Do you know that is illegal to buy the copy not from EB in Australia". LOL. I was like hello???? PC games don't behave like console games where they have some specific settings such as PAL or NTSC. Doh!

4. The staff know something but tell the customers with other things. I know perhaps someone in high position in EB was the one who held the releasing just because some other games were released at the same date. It is funny when we asked why they keep delaying the release, the staff keep answering "Do you realize that Halo 2 is released at that date?" OMFG. I mean, we don't care about that stupid console game. Be it Halo 2 or Homo 2, we just don't give a crap. We need it on the date as it was promised (lol yea, gamers can act like a drug addict that needs a shot) hehehe.. FYI: Halo 2 is a console game and SE is a PC game, wtf is so hard for releasing them at the same date?

And most of the muppets in EB have a high level of ignorance. They don't care even there had been an obligation from EA that EB should release the game on the appropriate date. Perhaps some of you keep asking, why? Why should it be released in time? Because of the housing system. There is a new land in the new expansion where players can explore, build new houses, etc. BUT as many Australian and New Zealand players haven't got the copies because the freaking delaying, it means they will loose a good chance to get a nice spot for housing to some players who already got the copy. Those players most of them are non-Australian player, as in USA the game was released on the 4th November. That was pissed us off. Lucky enough, the Development Team pull back the housing date. So now we haven't be able to place a house in the new land as EB delayed it again.

It was meant to be released on the 9th November, then EB said it's gonna be on the 12th. Then because Everquest 2 is released on that date, they pushed back the release date on the 18th! Now it's getting worse. So I cancelled my pre-orders with EB, and told them another company can send the game faster, just overnight delivery in Australia. Then the staff started to b_tch saying that it is illegal and EB has the "exclusive rights" to release the game. Yea it has the "exclusive rights" but it doesn't mean that other company can't get their own stock from another wholesaler. Damn morons! I hope they all rotten in hell. =)

For those who are new to my blog, worry not ok? This is a blog of a freaking hardcore gamer who built a toilet attached to his chair so he doesn't have to go to "Afk" or "Brb" while playing the games kekekekeke.. No, the last part is only a joke, even I have to admit it's not a bad idea anyway =P Yea, so I'll talk mostly about computer games.

Hehehe.. now if you see I don't update for a while it means either I play the game or I'm being jailed for torching down our local EB shop kekekekeke.. Ciao!

"If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."

CS: Source

2004-11-08T22:11:00.000+07:00

I know this might already be an old news for those who are computer game hardcore. But I want to post something about this anyway hehehe.. so sit tight and let me take you into my world lol.

After almost 5 or 6 years (?), there is a revolution within this game. CS or Counter-Strike is a multiplayer computer game. Where a player can engage in a group battle between Counter-Terrorist and Terrorist. Both group has a main goal, either to blow up a biological weapon crates, escort a VIP, rescuing hostages. We fight using handguns, rifles, SMG, sniper rifle and some grenades. This can be played either using a LAN (Local Area Network) or just jump into any online server on the net.

This game might looks dull after you play it for over a year. But it's actually giving the players a strong ~~orgasm~~ background and basic as so many next generation computer games will be having the exact base as CS. I've played CS since its old version 1.2 I guess. Then 1.3; 1.5; and 1.6. At 1.6 they have renew the whole system called Steam, that you need your computer to be online on the internet as it is now only recognizing player based on their individual account. The old system just works like a public phone, as long as you have a coin then you can make a phone call. The 1.6 works like an ATM, even if you have a card, you have to get the access to give proof that it is your card. I hope you get what I mean, as I might put this wrongly (yea I'm having my beer atm kekekekeke)

Anywayyyyy... this year, they're gonna release Half Life 2. HL2 and CS is made by the same game developer, Valve. And this time they use different engine for the games. Bear in mind that games are like computers, they will have their own operating system or platform. This time they use a new engine called "Source". Source is giving a much strong and better graphic appearance for the game. It enhances the shadow, the terrain looks for the map, how the flashbang behaves, smokes and other skin. In other words, this is a revolutionary way to play CS. Indeed it still has the same old maps with a little newer maps, but the graphic is really a gift to the eyes. As a the first hour after I purchased the game online, I just running around the map like novice aka noob. Why? Just to admire the freaking graphics hehehe...

Oh well, if you are happen to play this game, it's good even still heavily bugged. Like when you throw a freaking grenade, you actually freeze people's screen for some seconds hehehe...

Ok now I'll have some rounds in CS before hit the hay while waiting the alcohol to subdue me even more lol. Oh btw, I went out last nite with my girl and Mr Z to have a bloody snow crab. It was awesome except that now I'm feeling to have another one. Oh, when we went home last nite, we saw the garbage room for our complex. Damn, that was awful, instead in the bin, all the rubbish was on the floor. It was all over the place, and stacking up a huge pile of crap. It's even bigger than J.Lo's sexy ass kekekekeke... And I'm damn sure that our care-taker will be very f_cking pissed when he sees it this morning LOL. Poor old bag. Ok, that's all folks! Be good, and remember, don't drink and drive.

Welcome to the future!

2004-11-08T01:52:00.000+07:00

Ok, here's the thing, while Mijung is still busy with her magnificent narcissistic promotion and mijungism, let me enlight you with some minor facts hehehe...

But before we proceed to the next step please be aware that this 'enlightment' are made only for those who are:

1. Just recovered from a bad alzheimer and need to catch up with fast facts; OR
2. Just woke up from a long long coma and you really have no idea about what is happening

If you are one of those, please read on. For those who doesn't fall into any of those category, you can enjoy this and increasing your intelligence level. If you feel that you're smart enough, need no more 'teaching' and think this just gonna waste the time, then please see this section. Hehehe.. Ok then.. shall we?

Amazing ~~dumb~~ facts:

1. You're in year 2004, yes it has not many differences but no, you can't fly to Mars yet

2. U.N still exists even its functions become pretty dull now

3. USA is now consisting of 51 states. The newest one lies deep inside Middle East. It used to be Iraq, no new name for the state has been announced

4. John Howard just won his fourth leadership by beating up ALP (again), no sign has been given yet of how long he's gonna be up there hehehe

5. Superbowl XXXVIII was won by the mighty New England Patriots. They met Carolina Panthers. Final score: Patriots 32 and 29 for the Panthers. It was a close call :D

6. George W Bush has won his second term in White ~~Blouse~~ House. Leaving his rival John Kerry in a tight 'fight'. 51% - 48% aka 59,459,765 vs 55,949,407. If you are happen to be a strong supporter of the winning president, please enjoy and join the majority

7. The last World Cup was held in 2002 in Japan & Korea. The big party was made at the final between Germany and Brazil. The Samba Team aka Brazil took the cup home with final score 0:2

8. Michael Jackson is still a white girl and jailed for sexual molestation to under age kids

9. Elvis Presley died by the age 42 on August 16, 1977. He's still dead until now, sorry..

10. This thing you're using called Internet. It connects your computer to a big network (yes you can call it The Matrix if you want), through your phone line. Yes you can shop on the Internet but no you cannot kill your friends from the Internet. at least not yet :D

11. We are now waiting for Star Wars Episode III, where surely this time the Jedi Knights will get a really hard kick in the ass

12. You are now living in the age where pizza delivery arrives faster than police. I know this is quote made from someone famous but I dunno who, can't remember. In fact the alcohol might already poisoning me tonite hehehe..

Ok, no more silly thing. That's all I can make for today at least =P Hopefully you won't think this is damn silly and just a waste of your precious time by reading my posting in here. Sad but true..

Disclaimer: This information is solely gathered and provided for personal use only. No education organization nor formal; non-formal should take this as their reference. The content might just some silly opinions made by a damn drunk internet junkie who may can't even spell your names correctly. I DO NOT work for any government nor any non-official government bodies. I'm not a non-official cover (NOC), neither an intelligence agent. I'm not a member of any opposition party or underground movements nor terrorist groups. I merely belong to this world so-called internet as a junkie hehehe..

Ok ok, no further delay, I'll let you back doing what you were doing and have a nice day. What do you expect? I'm bored and half drunk =P

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."
Benjamin Franklin

His name.. err I mean.. her name is Sabrina!

2004-11-04T12:44:00.000+07:00

Meet our next youth generation. Surely internet is moving, expanding and improving our future in a fascinating way and speed. But what Sabrina does is out of league hehehe...

Anyway, so who is this Sabrina? You can watch and chat with her from her main website. Sabrina is a Japanese teenage girl (no further investigation hasn't been made, so hang on a while with this fact ok? =P) But as many anime fans and anthusiasts, will find this as a bless. How often you'll jump into a chat room finding an anime girl who moves and respond properly to your talking?

It's pretty amusing that Sabrina changes her clothes for couple times during the day. No, she doesn't change dress in front of the webcam, sorry guys, just not yet hehehe... Aside she looks girlie or acts like a girl, there's something that keeps me think or take Sabrina is actually a boy. Perhaps a slim Asian boy with a deep obsession about anime.

Oh, you can browse so many pictures of her in that website, pictures where she actually went out to stadium, train station, harbour, mall, etc. While you are doing that (I know eventually you will!) hehehehe... you can also seeing her live with video streaming. But only do this if you are with DSL 128Kbps or higher speed. Otherwise it will look chunky and like a $5 cheap pirated anime movie :D

Have fun, remember... don't get carried away hehehehe..

Dum Di Dum

2004-10-26T14:04:00.000+07:00

How you all been doing? Everyone's ok? Well, time runs fast, doesn't? Now we are already in the last quarter of the year. It's kinda nice and funny if we think flashback to years when we were younger, prettier, healthier and sometimes so naive hahaha..

Oh, Happy Fasting Month for those who are Moslems and doing it this year.

Anyway, I still could imagine clearly in 1992 or 1993, thinking about how and what we are gonna have in the future. I'm talking as in global scale. I was wondering what human will achieved in the future. The things came to my mind was, will human walk again in 2002? Will be able to go out there and trying to find a new place for living? Will we have such great marvel for medicine and health care? How far the technology will affecting our life aspects? Etc, etc. No, I wasn't a thinker, not even now. But let's just call it curiousity which is normally we do. =P

Ok, I'll post another update soon.

This has to be stopped!

2004-10-11T00:12:00.000+07:00

Ok, this madness and plague should end tonight! Hehehe.. (If girls can write "B_tch Mode On" then I'll use "Jerk Mode On") =P

Today I just browsing and browsing like usual. Then I stumbled into some postings and some things pissed me off. Then this reminds me of Mijung's entry a month or two ago. She told me about this thing (habit I assume) that has been infected so many souls (wtf?) =P

Not only about how they pronounce words or form a sentence but the writing style that really hurts me.

Well, perhaps the writer's intention was to make their writing to be looked more cute or cool. Or maybe the 'Shift' button on their keyboard is broken hehehe.. But to be honest, it's just stupidity and silly. Some of you might already or always or perhaps done it sometimes. It is when they start to type LiKe tHiS fOr tHe WhOlE pAgE. Now, I'm sorry if this might offend someone, but it is annoying. Typing in that style won't show any cuteness (if there's such a word) about ourselves. In my ~~very~~ humble opinion, it's just simply a foul. If that's how they write their nicknames for chat programs such mIRC or username in a forum or even just to type a line of signature, that's ok. But if they do it for the whole page or article, there's not a right thing.

I don't know whether I've read articles that I shouldn't have read which talks about a proper writing skill OR they (those cute writers) live in the different world. What is wrong by writing in normal form? FYI: even between 'normal' font types such as Times New Roman and Sans-Serif will affect the speed and comfortness of the reader. I never enjoy reading something when someone writes it LiKE ThIs. So by doing it, the writer just make or try to make the readers feel uncomfortable or tired.

You might say that I'm just a picky and nosy sob. It's ok then. I just want everyone knows that in my opinion:

It's not cute to type like and it won't affect how people will treat you. But indeed your typing will make them feel different or I might say 'annoyed' about your writing. Even sometimes they don't feel it
Silly & immature
Will in fact, create a boredom from the readers
Might make the readers think the writer is not or never serious about what they write
Lack of respect to the readers, as in a way, it can be considered as 'intended' act by the writer to build discomfort to the readers

I've asked some of those 'cute' writers or people (and yes, they are all females) about this. The funny thing, some of them told that it's already been a habit. That they do it 'uncontrollably'. I was like "Really??????" Hehehehe... Well, if there's any of you type like that and give the same answer, then why don't you type your report, project or assignment in the same manner? =P

We all know, that when comes to assignment, uni or school projects and reports, suddenly everyone starts to type as professional as they can!

So, if you are one of those 'cute' writers, please stop now. Isn't will be better if your typing will look neat and professional, regarding the topics you want to discuss. And no, I'm not calling myself a 'professional' writer. I do make some mistakes or inappropriate grammar forms occasionally (as a matter of fact, you might already find some in this posting). But I always try to correct them, edit and use the proper words or forms so anyone who reads my blog will feel as comfortable as it can be.

"Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger."
Franklin P. Jones

Royal Show 2004

2004-10-08T14:08:00.000+07:00

So I went to Perth Royal Show last nite with my girl and met couple of our friends there. Royal Show is held annually in -I think- every major cities around Australia. Back to years and years ago, it was used to show the latest technology or machineries for farming industry. Then it is enhanced with some more other attractions, food stands, arcade spots, etc. And now it becomes a big playground where you not only find farmers but also sexy chics hehehe...

We went to the cartoonist artis and got ourselves pictured. Last year we got that too but only in black & white, but now they can make it in colour. It's pretty good actually, but this time they made a big mistake, my ~~boobs~~ lips are too thick. It made me looks like Angelina Jolie lol..

We are going there again tonite yay! Oh btw, I'm stuck at the computer lab at the moment. While usually we have full class, today we only have about 6 people in the class. So damn boring. Then I run the web messenger from MSN but the stupid program keeps playing sound whenever I got a message. For the result, now I have about 12 windows of Mozilla Firebid. Coz at first time I thought it would be easier for me to navigate the screen if I only have one window with so many tabs. Rather than having 8 windows of Internet Explorer. Gah! So annoying..

Anyway, I gotta go now since I don't have anything important to do. So catch you guys later ok? Oh, have a lovely weekend everyone!

Lock and load!

2004-10-06T12:44:00.000+07:00

Recently I've been browsing thru the net and reading a lot about Airsoft. It's kinda the same sport as Paintball. But instead use paint balls for bullets as the Paintball does, the Airsoft uses the plastic pellets called as the "BBs". The big difference between these two sports are that the weapons, or I can say the appearance of the weapons used. In Paintball, the weapons just look 'unreal' if we can say that. The design, from the barrel, the round clips and as overall it will just looks like one of those water-gun that are sold in toy shops. Aside from that, Airsoft gives more touching and unique feeling as the weapons they use look close to the real-steel. Even the size is just the same as real guns or rifles. BUT they are made mostly from plastic, the 'real appearance' comes from the great and professional way how they paint it. The painting is so good, it gives metal look, with shiny parts. In a glance, people will just think that they are the real thing.

Of course they are lighter, like example the AK-47 model only weighs about 2 kg, while the real one weighs about 3 kg. You can have these models from old-school Colt revolver gun to the big-bad-ass Minimi aka machine gun. Airsoft guns use three systems: Automatic Electric Guns (AEGs), Gas Blowback Gun (GBB), and Spring-Powered (SPG). Each category will have their own advantages and disadvantages.

Not only that, you can even attach other accessories to the guns, like scopes, etc. Of course the scope will be the real scope but they come in wide varieties such type and prices.

Airsoft game can cover in so many scenarios such as: Assassination, Attack and Defend, Building (Engineer Mission), Sabotage, Search and Destroy, Total Elimination aka Last Man Standing, etc.

This game is being played by so many countries, where you will find so many clubs or clans with unique styles. They even will have their own insignia, tactics and strategies, etc. For sure this is a manly game but doesn't mean only males can play this, they are also female players who love to crawl in the bush await to ambush their enemies. Airsoft is would be a fun game to be spent at weekends or holidays where you can get together with your friend and families. Just don't take it as an alternative date lol. Oh this game is not designed only for military freaks (oh please), these players are accountants, doctors, teachers, professional lawyers, businessmen, students, etc.

But here in Australia, Airsoft is banned. Why? "Because the guns look like the real thing and because they are dangerous to eyes". Please someone tell me that's not the real reason. Indeed they look a hell lot of like the real guns but doesn't mean we cannot play it as another way of activity. There has been an online petition to make Airsoft to be allowed in Australia but I don't think it would be happening real soon.

The first Airsoft website I visited was made by one of Indonesian Airsoft clubs called "Code 4". And this makes me wondering, why it is not bannable in Indonesia? Is it because the Government and the authorities give more 'trust' to their people and give more freedoms to have fun by playing Airsoft? Or is it just simply because the laws and orders are not that strong and obeyed by the people? BUT even to play the game in Indonesia, we have to inform to the local authorities such as Police, or Army Installation. And to open a shop selling these gun models, you need a written and legal documents signed by Government, which I'm quite sure will take a lot of paper works. And it's very rarely to hear a crime that has done by someone who only use plastic gun models, mostly they use real guns. (Damn, doesn't it sound bad? I didn't mean to but there you go...) =P

Anyway, I was expecting that Australia has more trust to the people here and believe that they are wise enough to play Airsoft. Of course one might say that this is just a prevention. Do you really think it is? Or do you think the Government and society are just take it too far? Well, I'll let you to answer it by yourself. Someone can call me a military freak (I know you will call me that, Zar hehehe), but do I really want to bring around the plastic models to scare people on the street or even commit a more serious crime like robbery? Indeed I like guns, their models and appearance but I never intent to hurt or even kill someone or some animals that is against the laws =)

"Common sense and education are highly compatible; in fact, neither is worth much without the other."
Donald G. Smith

Indonesian President for 2005 - 2009: Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

2004-10-05T13:21:00.000+07:00

Congrats! After so many months of speculations, we have the winner! Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono aka SBY (not Surabaya or Suroboyo or even SuperBoy) is the winner and scored about 60.62% or about 69,266,350 votes. While our favorite ~~loser~~ runner-up (Megawati Soekarnoputri) only achieved 44,990,704 votes (39.38%) from the total registered voters.

Here is one of his picture, for those who never seen or even heard his name:

But there is something different about this time election. People have already predict that SBY is gonna win this election easily. Of course there are so many worries about his background in the military service but people said that he is no longer a military personnel. He is no different than a pure politician, or a civilian (I hope I use this term correctly). There were very strong supports from all over the place, from any level of organizations, political parties, or just common citizens (and there has been a massive support from.. maybe millions of housewives). They all already show deep respect, great support and strong hope about his leaderhip upon Indonesia to restore law, economy and social matters.

Before running for presidency, he was working for Megawati's Cabinet, serving as -I hope this is not wrong information- Minister of Politic and Security Coordination aka Menkopolkam (that's not an english word of course). Menkopolkam is an unique.. organization or governmental body where it doesn't have its own department but they do report their works and they responsible straight to the president. What does it do? Eerr.. you know, politics and securing things what are not supposed to be in the loose hehehe.. ANYWAY.... then he resigned from his post and decided to run his own campaign. That was a big surprise and shock especially from the government (maybe Megawati was choking when she heard about it hehehe) At first, people were skeptical and doubting about his decision to run a campaign against his former 'boss'. But hey, he is the winner now.

We, or at least I, still have this little hope (hey, at least I still have some) that this next government will do, fix, repair or just work their... jobs, you know. I still not giving up my hope that Indonesian will rise again. Not to be the best in South East Asia region as my high school teacher always said that crap to the whole class. But to be a better country for a living, better place to enjoy comfortable and easy way to live and holidays. Even there's still an indication: "Whoever wins, we lose.." Hehehe...

Once again, congratulations for the next upcoming government. I hope they will hear and care about the people, what they need, what they want. And the government will always do the aspirations from the people as much as they can.

Merdeka!

"Hope in reality is the worst of all evils, because it prolongs the torments of man."
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

P2P crap

2004-10-04T09:00:00.000+07:00

I forgot to post about Bittorent that pissed me off. As some of you might already know what it is, I'll just explain a bit. Bittorent is a program to allow us to transfer files and documents from .exe; .doc; .jpeg; .wav; .mp3; etc. It works on a P2P basis. It means, that the program doesn't have database of any documents or files that we are looking for. It only facilitates the connection between the clients to make sure everyone gets what they want. Aside from other programs like Napster where it stores the files in their database servers. That's why Napster got into deep sh_t back to couple years ago because it violated copyright infringement. Anyway, the bad thing about P2P programs that some of them WILL force you to upload instead downloading what you are looking for. So let's say I'm downloading a movie clip advertisement, and so far I've downloaded about 47% of the total size, I might also uploading some certains area of the files to someone who only got about 23% of the total size. The good thing about P2P programs is that allow you to get the files from many sources at the same time. Sorry? What does P2P mean? It means ~~Pimp To Pimp~~ Peer To Peer.

Now, for my case, I haven't -please notice word "haven't"- download any crap from internet since the first day I installed it. So, in a proper calculation manner, the folder should be empty, at least I won't have any downloadable files in the folder. Then one day, I was trying to run my ICQ, it took ages to load, and when I put my password in, the damn client won't load. It had some kind of problem merging the data. First time, I thought the ICQ main servers might be down or under heavy maintenance. But when I asked my girl to load her ICQ on the other computer, it worked just fine. That made me wondering if anything wrong with this computer. So I started to explore all the folder in the computer. At the first try, I didn't notice anything wrong with it, so I just deleted some files I don't use or rarely use. Then at the third try, I tried to open the folder in Bittorent directory, it didn't work. The jerk folder always made the computer crashed. And guess what, when I checked its properties status, its size was 11 Gb. OMFG. It only left me about another 4 Gb memory capacity. Erm for those who cannot imagine how big it is, let's picture this: you drink Coke sometimes ok? In a can. Now imagine you pour every can of those into an empty swimming pool that eventually you can swim in it, with girls if you prefer a pretty picture here =P

I was so mad, 11 Gb equals thousands of files including movies, movie clips, pictures or even mp3 files. I'm 101% sure that I never download anything to that crappy folder. The next second I uninstalled the programs, remove any folder that relates to it. Now the computer is a happy chappy again.

Let me remind you that sometimes P2P program can be fun. You only have to put related words in the Search Box then you can get the list of the sources that can send you the files. But be cautious, all of P2P programs will drag spywares into your PC, and there is NO guarantee about the security of the files. You might think that you are downloading a cute program that will allow Pikachu running around chasing your mouse trail, but behind it, you get a bigger pet, what we call "trojan" horse files hehehe...

Don't tempted by funny names of files you see from the P2P programs. Sounds cute doesn't mean it's harmless. Download files that you're sure about.

Okeyday?

"We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."
Thomas Stearns Eliot, aka T. S. Eliot

Let's play with numbers

2004-10-04T08:46:00.000+07:00

Ok, the other day I accidentally stumbled into this posting. A posting about how words -that's describing our behaviors- can be changed into number that will show how hard we work to achieve something. This calculation was meant to be a joke but I don't know if any of you will take it seriously (hey don't shoot the messenger ok?)

First we have to put the characters in order with the numbers:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

Now, shall we?

H A R D W O R K
8 1 18 4 23 15 18 11 = 98 % Only

K N O W L E D G E
11 14 15 23 12 5 4 7 5 = 96 % Only

L O B B Y I N G
12 15 2 2 25 9 14 7 = 86 % Only

L U C K
12 21 3 11 = 47 % Only

G R A F T
7 18 1 6 20 = 52 % Only

But from those above, there's one thing that cannot be beaten by those words. It's:

A T T I T U D E
1 20 20 9 20 21 4 5 = 100 %

Here's the kick, those words are believed only work in western socities. And these what we have in Indonesia:

G I G I H (hardwork):
7 9 7 9 8 = 40 % Only

I L M U (Knowledge)
9 12 13 21 = 55 % Only

L O B I (Lobbying)
12 15 2 9 = 38 % Only

M U J U R (Luck)
13 21 10 21 18 = 83 % Only

S I K A P (Attitude)
19 9 11 1 16 = 46 % Only

K O R U P S I (Corruption)
11 15 18 21 16 19 9 = 109 % Only (wtf..)

So from calculation above, we can conclude that it's not about ATTITUDE but CORRUPTION that will take you higher.. to be closer.. to anything.

Hehehehe... weird isn't? Sadly but it's true. The wraith of corruption has infected in a vast manner.

And for "SEX" both societies basically will score pretty much the same =P

Thank you come again!

2004-10-01T15:14:00.000+07:00

I watched Harold & Kumar go to White Castle the other day. It's freaking funny movie. Oh well, it is a bit silly but the cast were great and it reminds me of American Pie. The story told about two guys who are housemates to go out finding something unique to satisfy their hunger. But of course their journey was not sound and easy. It involves so many incidents and in some cases were incredibly silly. Come on, what else can get any better than watching a Korean and Indian guy running around street, smoking weed and just can't get enough time to stay away from troubles.

Am I wrong? Hell yea I'm wrong!

2004-09-21T21:23:00.000+07:00

Ok, remember my last post about Nicabate CQ I'm using at the moment? Well, I found out that I was all wrong. I thought that having 5 or 6 cigarettes a day won't make me hooked with nicotine. I always thought that I could handle the need of the nicotine hehehe.. Eventually, I'm sure that I was hooked with it. I followed the instruction that I should commence to use the nicabate in the morning, a night after the last ~~sex~~ cigarette I took. And I found it really works. That day I feel comfortable, no cravings, and looking for a cigarette all over the place in the apartment in case I dropped any hehehehe...

Because my body gets a consistent and proportional (LOL) amount of nicotine for 24 hours, I feel calm and comfortable. I didn't have any thought about going to the mini-market around the block to ~~steal~~ buy a pack of ~~nappies~~ cigarette. It is going great actually. The only downside of using nicabate is that you will have some symptoms and as I told you I have some vivid dreams since the first day I use it. But I look it from the bright side hehehe..

Come on, how often you have a dream about chasing two freaking mice in your house that suddenly turned up into two black and white ~~babes~~ serpents? Or dream about your school got a visit from a famous model that actually you are one of her biggest fan. Then the principal decided to appoint you as her guide while she was in your school? (And because she only speaks English while not many of them understand or speak English fluent enough to make her comfortable) :P Or dream about you chasing something (I swear I didn't know and even now I don't know what the hell I was chasing) in an abandoned construction site. Running around the dark alleys and wet tunnels when suddenly your torch having a flat battery. Hehehe..

The other dreams were not that good tho LOL. Of course we have ~~wet~~ dreams sometimes when we are sleeping. But in my case, my dreams were unsual and different than any other dreams I always have. And I get them for about 4 (or 5?) nights in a row :P

Anyway, that's for now I guess. I'm gonna post again soon. About my anger to Bittorent crap! Hehehehe...

"Holding anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned."
The Buddha

Nicabate CQ

2004-09-17T16:32:00.000+07:00

I'm using those patches now. My girl keeps insisting me to give it a try, so she bought two packages last Tuesday. It's transparent patches even for me it gives no difference. But indeed the side-effect is pretty true. I had vivid dreams and sweating last nite. So far there hasn't been any serious incident done by me such as licking the patch or chewing it to get some nicotine for my ~~sexy~~ dying body hehehe...

I keep thinking that is it really the nicotine that makes some people addicting to cigarette? Because some of the people I know -and myself- think that it's the habit. The repetition, like having cigarette after meal, or before work, or after driving, etc. It might be those habits or regular activity that hooks. For me, I can spend a day or two without cigarette, with no side-effect like sweating, shaking, dizzy or feeling weak. But maybe the regular pattern that makes me go to balcony to have a ~~weed~~ smoke. I smoke about 5 to 6 cigarettes each day, more if I'm having a night out with friends or some special occassions (party, bbq, etc). So I dunno if I'm just a light-smoker or heavy-smoker but for sure I'm not a chain-smoker :)

People, or some of them, like me might already know the downside of smoking. I've seen some TV Programmes and pictures about the torment of smoking. Trust me, it's ain't pretty. I've seen the healthy lungs and 'dirty' lungs which has been wrap by ash and other chemical from cigarettes. But... sometimes giving up a habit it's very struggling effort, it needs commitment, it needs self-awareness and some smokers that haven't got those, will find the quitting process is a freaking torture. It's like eating a steak while you don't have anymore ~~tits~~ teeth. :P

And I feel that I'm in the grey area, I could go to the commitment one, or the don't-give-a-crap one Hehehe.. Anyway, it worths a try tho. If I can be a pure non-smoker ~~hunk~~ person then it's good; and if not I'll take the softer path: social-smoker (pfftt) :P

Anyway... gotta go to downtown. Might watch a movie or just having dinner with my girl. Have a lovely weekend everyone. Oh, I remember a quote but I forgot who said it. It says: "Quit smoking is the most easy thing to do. I've done it sixty-two times" LOL.

Ciao!

Another update! Woot!!

2004-09-14T12:17:00.000+07:00

Ok, here is another update for my blog. I know I've been abandoning this blog for quite a while. Been busy to do some stuffs and cleaning up my old apartment. I've got so many clothes and books that makes me feel like a locak K-mart. ROFL.

I'm sure every of you has heard the news about our country's lastest 'fireworks' aka bomb. This time they hit the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia. It is a pity thing that the attack targeted our neighbour countries. A part from who did this, I really condemn this and may God has mercy on their souls. The bomb was intentionally targeted Australians and westerners yet the victims were local people and staff, who -sometimes- don't give a crap about politic. They just want some little peace in their life, just to get enough food for their families, enough money to send their children to school, and enough money to make a better living. IF the bomber was really targeted westerners, then he's no different than a third-grade sissy. WTF do you think you're doing? It's your own countrymen who were suffer from your bomb, why should make more blood shed in your own yard? And I feel sorry for the Australians, hopefully this incident won't damage the good relationship between two countries.

Well, enough emotion in that part hehehe.. I don't want to be a smart-ass but there hasn't been any claim of who did the bombing. This could be a major dirty political movement as we are heading to our second round Presidential Election. With the election awaits around the corner, the situation -politically- in Indonesia is pretty f--ked, as one cannot really assure about what will happen in the near future. Just keep praying and hope that this year election will run smooth, and we can get a good leader with better cabinet that can take our country out from this sh-thole!

Merdeka! :P

"The good people sleep much better at night than the bad people. Of course the bad people enjoy the waking hours much more."
Woody Allen

Dang it!

2004-09-14T12:08:00.000+07:00

Time runs fast eh? Henry, who is my first best buddy in Australia, went back here for holiday. He's now holding US's Green Card, so for the last four years he's been hiding his sorry @ss in California hehehe.. Anyway, he had summer holiday so he went back to Indo, and he took 2 weeks holiday here in Australia to visit some of his old friends. Not much difference tho, he's still the same buddy the last time I saw him four years ago. A bit skinny but looks healthy. Oh, he talks a lot now LOL.

We had fun while he was here. Even I feel that 2 weeks is too short for friends who hadn't seen each other in years. He seems enjoying his life in California, enjoying the sunny beach, the tanny babes in Santa Monica, and expensive ~~French hooker~~ french fries at local McD. Hehehehe..

Oh well, good luck bro, dunno when we will meet again. Be good, and keep smart hehehe.. get a girlfriend, settle down then you can start another journey. Ok enough for the crap :P Oh, just don't blow anything up ok? Don't get me wrong, but you have potentials hehehehe.. Been fun spending a holiday with you. Hey who knows I can visit you up there, then you can take me around. Fingers cross. Btw, gimme your lastest address dammit, I know you've moved to Irvine. Ok? All the best!

Along time ago, in a galaxy far far away...

2004-08-18T14:59:00.000+07:00

Yup, that was the opening word of Star Wars movies or trilogies. I downloaded the Star Wars Galaxies trial account which gave me 14 days of free playing. Then players can decide to keep continue playing or not, if they do, they have to order the game copy as full version. So I started to play it in trial version. It was good, it is bigger and more complicated than UO. After 3 days running around and wandering from spot to spot as Padawan (aka noob), I decided to buy the CD as full version.

It offers you a massive place to explore, gathering resources, building houses, hunting beasts, etc. And it has a big planetary system where you can travel between planets using starshuttle. Skills? Geez, they have big and wide skills and it allows you to cross your skill to one another. So basically you will get different title when you cross one of your profession with your other profession. Making droids, dancing, healing others, etc.

So, anything news people? I hope you all doing ok. This winter is so cold, prolly the coldest I ever been. It's supposed to be sunny and nice this month as winter has passed but we still have some rainy days and very cold cold icy nights.

What's next?

2004-08-06T22:31:00.000+07:00

Ok, if you think you're just having a bad day or feeling gloomy, worry no more! I'm telling you my day, today which didn't run so well. First, when my girl asked me to go to the bank, to get a balance report of her account. She gave an authorization letter to show that I can get the report on behalf of her. So I went to the bank, queue up for a while, then when my turn came, guess what.. I was in the wrong bank! Strike one! &@#@%! Because my girl has accounts in more than two banks I guess..

Next, I went to the uni, I was in a hurry and... I took the wrong train!! Strike two!! Basically, today I spend half of it in clumsiness LOL. What's next? I've been in the wrong toilet, been to the wrong nightclub! That was funny tho, about 3 years ago, me and Steve, my adventurous, alcoholic, party-addict friend, went up to the Chinatown looking for a good pub or club to land for us to piss all night long. We went up to this little, shadowy night club. We got some booze for us, and went to a corner. Not until when I almost finish my drink that both of us started to realize that most of the couples are.. ermm.. homosexual. Lady danced with other lady, a guy hugs another guy. The next second, we got off thru the ~~roof~~ exit and laughing our ass off next to the street LOL.

Anyway, I'm sure one day I'll take the wrong flight to Himalaya or somewhere remote hehehe

What's next? I went up to Priceline because my girl wanted to get some liquid bandaid. While we were there, I visited to man's section, and browsing thru the shaving blades and shaving cream part. Then my pretty brown eyes glanced at this shaving blade Shick Quattro. FYI: Quattro means four. Yup, you've guessed it. Those little sharp pricks intact side by side to the thing. Mach 3 from Gillette is already good, four is better.. I guess. And they claim to be the world's first four-blade-shaver. Oh hell yeah, sooner or later someone will claim to be the world's first five-blade-shaver. I mean, why we have to do it in order? Why don't we just jump the number up to... ten for example? Maybe at the end of 2020 we will have a shaver with bloody 10 blades attached. Then you can grate some potatoes using it LOL.

What's next? Good question. Yesterday I went to shop some groceries with my girl. While she's looking for something, I waited for her next to the frozen food section. I read some of the frozen food in the shelf. Reading those frozen food was like reading an a la carte menu in a fine dining restaurant. Curry prawns with long grain rice, Sweet and sour pork in fried rice, Sweet soy chicken and honey, etc, and I talked to myself "Does anyone really eat these kind of food?" Have you tried to eat spaghetti in a can? Indeed, they look and sound yummy but I don't really like them. Who knows they have artificial prawns? :P Then I asked myself again "What's next?" Make an instant full-size T-bone steak into powder then just pour hot water on it and voila! a steak on the plate? But don't take it as an offence, this is just my opinion tho :) It's like watching those sci-fi movie or superheroes movie at the cinema.

Talking about superhero, which one is your fave? We've seen Superman fighting for justice for more than a decade, and we've seen Batman and Robin ~~kissing~~ helping each other to fight the evil side. Punisher, Daredevil, etc, etc. But my fave is Spiderman. Why Spiderman? because he's the one that closest to the reality. Cmon, you think you won't recognize Clark Kent when he's in his ~~gay~~ great suit? Hello? It's only glasses anyway. Spiderman is good because he's having a full mask. I think, for being a superhero where your real identity is an absolute secret, you should wear a full mask or not at all. Batman has a mask, half-mask, exposing half of his face uncovered. That is bad, it's like teasing us to find who he really is. So, yeah, Spiderman is my fave superhero. Sorry? How about Hulk? Hulk reminds me of Arnold Schwarzenegger, they both look like a condom fulled of walnuts, except for Hulk, it's a giant green condom fulled with mountain rocks. Hehehehe no offence!

Oh well, I'm off now! Cya later!!

Look who's back !

2004-08-04T17:44:00.000+07:00

Woot! I'm back! *hugs and kisses* (in case if some of you miss me so much LOL)

Well, been busy for the last week, Irwan's girlfriend, Mia aka Mijung, visiting us from Melbourne. So me and my girl went out with them, we went to the zoo, to Freo (they have yummy fish and chips there), watching I, Robot.

And I've been busy to get visa extension. All looks good, hopefully everything will be done at the end of this week or beginning of next week.

PPPoE and PPPoA

2004-07-27T00:41:00.000+07:00

LOL! Sorry for the confusion, I was confused too at the first time but after having zillions of problems with DSL, sometimes I get to learn some things hehehe..
PPPoE means Point to Point Protocol over ethernet. This protocol is common used to establish connection between two computers using phone line. Dial up modems mainly using this protocol.

Now, PPPoA means Point to Point Protocol over ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode). This one is mainly used by DSL and Cable modems. Anyway, I usually connected through the PPPoE as the default setting from the first day we use the DSL. But sometimes when the PPPoE was fault to run, we call up the ISP's technical support staff and usually they can solve the problem. Well, I did call them up but the ~~stupid~~ operator didn't seem fully understand the matter. He only told me that he lodged a fault report and the technician will check it up next morning! OMG!

So after I hung up the phone, I was messing around with the setting. And I changed it into PPPoA, guess what, I could get the connection BUT the anti-virus client keep flashing itself. It shows me that there's an intrusion attempt from an IP, my own IP. LOL. So I called them up again, telling this matter, and now I talked with different guy but he couldn't help me about this. Anyway, I told him I could connect through the PPPoA and I'll call the "advanced" technical support staff at working hours tomorrow.

Oh, this is the last night before I can meet my girl again. Yay! Her flight is supposed to arrive in here around 0800 P.M. Can't hardly wait hehehe.. Ok time to bed now. Long day tomorrow.

"We do not remember days, we remember moments."
Cesare Pavese

It's an Iceberg! Oh wait, it's a red Iceberg !

2004-07-23T02:38:00.000+07:00

LOL. Artists are sometimes hard to understand. They live in their own world, but we need their touch in our life hohoho.. Some people might say find one artist's job is quite weird or silly but the others might think it is an unique thing. That's what Chilean-born artist Marco Evaristti did last March (I guess), he painted an iceberg in somewhere off the coast western Greenland. He mixed about 3,000 litres of the red dye with sea water. At the end of the day, he got what he wants, a 900-metre-square chunk of ~~crap~~ ice painted in red. Extra-ordinary isn't? Maybe someday I'll paint a cliff in pink! :P

Read full article.

I admire his work, it's something you won't find many tho hehehe.. Just hope he won't paint more icebergs in rainbow colors, that's gonna be a problem. :P

So if any of you have some expressions in different or unique ways, just be free, as long as you're not hurting anybody or the environment.

By the way, I called up my girl, she was ~~still~~ half awake hehehe.. BUT I could only have about 7 minutes to chat with her, because I didn't have enough credit in the phone card *argghhh* And the damn automatic operator didn't give enough notice when our credit is in 'critical' moment. So I promise her to call back again tomorrow, prolly when she's having the dinner party. *sighs* I really want to come, what could expect for more in a weekend, hanging around with your loved one, having big-yummy dinner party with a bunch of friends? Life is such a traumatic drama isn't? :P

It's funny when you're still awake in the middle of the night (it's over midnite btw) and you still have some friends who are still online. Tonight, Eca and Leen are still online. And it's 0400 am at the moment! I thought only boys and ~~perverts~~ male vampires that still awake at this time :P

Oh well, I gotta hit the hay now. Be good ok? I'll see you again soon. :)

"An artist is someone who produces things that people don't need to have but that he -- for some reason -- thinks it would be a good idea to give them."
Andy Warhol

Happy birthday Love !

2004-07-22T23:13:00.000+07:00

Happy birthday! Wish you all the best and luck always, I love you so much! *smooch* May all the years to come will be filled with joy, happiness and success. I couldn't go through this far without you. You know our love is real and it is what meant to be. :)

Yup, today is my girl's birthday. Everyone shows the presents please! Hohoho.. Too bad she's 4,000 km away from me now. Oh well, 4 more days to go and I can hold her in my arms again :)

I'm just waiting for the time to call her up (hopefully she's not falling asleep) hehehe..

Once again, happy birthday! Love ya, dear!

P.S: I miss you sooooooooooo damn much!

"At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet."
Plato, 427 BC-348

5 more days to go !

2004-07-22T17:25:00.000+07:00

Yes! Time runs fast eh? My girl left for Jakarta two weeks ago, having 3 weeks holiday, now this is the third week. Woot! 5 more days to go and I can be with her.. again! Tomorrow is her birthday, and I have some ideas about what gift I'll give to her. Cooking utensils, cooking books, novels, music CD, dolls, and the list goes on and on and on.. :P I'll decide it tomorrow I guess. And I won't tell you here, in case she's reading this hohoho..

Yesterday, after finished my unfinished matters with uni, I went to city. By the way, I always pass by the downtown because I just live nearby. So I decided to shop some ~~lingeries~~ groceries. The only place to buy them in downtown is at Woolworth's. I bought some fresh chicken wings, frozen hamburger meats, diced beef, milk, and so on. Anyway, when I was queued up to the cashier, I saw this lady who rushed into the security guard. She whispered something to him, and pointing her finger to a guy who was at the one of the cashier. They waited for this guy, and when he was about to exit from the store -passing the security checkpoint- the alarm went off. So the security guard asked him about what he had in his jacket, and then they took him to the back to the store. Poor bugger lol.

If anyone who ever tried Mc D's breakfast, I'm sure you are familiar with their breakfast menu. One of my fave is Big Breakfast. Hohoho.. I want to make myself my own big breakfast. I'll have American Hot Dogs, hamburger, bacon, and scramble egg. Yay! It's really big portion tho but I love it. What I miss is Mc D's ~~hash~~ harsh brown :P

Oh, crap, I forgot that I put the bacon in the freezer, I just checked it. Now it's no different than a wooden sandals ffs! &#@! But hopefully tomorrow it will go soft again.

I saw a nice band on TV yesterday, Amici Forever. They have wonderful songs and voices composition. Indeed their style is unique (well at least for me hehehe) they consists of two tenors, two sopranos and one bass baritone. They sing Unchained Melody, and it's really nice touch. :)

Okay, I gotta prepare my dinner now, it takes about an hour or so to cook it huhuhu..

"We live in an age when pizza gets to your home before the police."
Jeff Marder

Damn Microsoft ! #@$!%

2004-07-22T01:14:00.000+07:00

Ok, I was browsing the net as usual, reading some latest news, then suddenly my connection went off. Technically, if this happens, I only have to wait for couple minutes then the network will be back on again. But not this time, I waited like 10 minutes and still couldn't connect to the net. So I restarted the stupid modem and the computer. Still nothing. Arrghh! I hate it.

Anyway, I called up the ISP and they put me through to the technical support staff. He suggested me to turn off the personal firewall and checked the modem setting. After around 5 minutes struggling with it, he contacted the technician. He said that it looked like the Windows blocked the modem IP to access the net. WTF! Hehehe..

He also told me that this is one of the common symptoms that could occuring sometimes. I have no idea how and what reason the Microsoft designed this, but for sure... &#^@! Hehehe..

So, tonight I spend the rest of the night alone again (I need a hug.. badly) :P As Mijung will be staying at her bf's house. She planned to stay here while she's visiting Irwan because some of his relatives will visit his family, but it seemed that they couldn't get the entry visa. :)

Oh well, it's 0230 am at the moment and I'm still full awake. Damn to that little nap!! (I fell ~~over the balcony~~ asleep around 10 pm for about an hour or so) Now I'm fully recharged. I'm a heavy class ~~cleptomaniac~~ insomniac :(

Ok, I gotta finish this up now, thinking to make some poems hohoho..

I'm a poet without a scribe"
By me!! Yay!

@#&*!

2004-07-21T14:55:00.000+07:00

Well, today is so freaking dreadful for me. I went to downtown with Irwan and his gf, Mia aka Mijung aka Jungkray (and some other hundreds nicknames hehehe), because it's so damn windy, I was sure that my hair looked like Cindy ~~Crawford~~ Lauper LOL.

We had a lovely lunch at Jaws Sushi Restaurant (our fave!), then I went to the bank to make a cheque for uni's fee. From the bank I went to uni by myself while the others went home coz they have an 'urgent' meeting with the toilet hahaha..

Anyway, I paid the fee to the cashier and I got the receipt, went to the International Office enquirying CoE (Certificate of Enrollment), but the office was full of new students who most of them have limited english. $#&@! After waiting for a while, I spoke to one of the officer, just to find out that their network was down (another $#&@!) so she suggested I could go back there tomorrow. Because I want to get my result printed out, I went to the Student Central. I had to queue up, then when I talked with the lady there, she told me that she couldn't bring up the result because the network is down too ($#&@!$#&@!$#&@!) OMG! This must be a joke! Is it April Fool? I mean, they didn't have any single terminal computer in any single building, I mean, not even a single one that works fine! Hehehehehe... so I said to her that I'll come back again tomorrow morning and bring my shotgun.. oh wait, I didn't tell her about the last bit :P

Now I'll just entertain myself with some ice cream ! Yay!

Have you ever been fallin' in love ?

2004-07-21T01:13:00.000+07:00

Love is a funny thing.. It can make us do crazy things, it can make us being the dumbest person on the planet or can make us feeling that we are the smartest and the luckiest bastard in ~~bed~~ the universe hehehe..

Oh well, today I witness another love birds hehehe.. A friend of mine is confused to tell his feelings to his crush. They were half the globe apart for the last three years. I don't know what she feels about him, but I know everything he feels lol.

He was my housemate for about one year here before his family won Green Card Visa to USA. Anyway, he is telling how it is now. And I'm telling ya, it's not simple one hehehe.. They have been knowing each other for almost 7 years. So I gave him some advices about what he should and shouldn't say :P

Seeing him in confusion and worried kinda reminds me of my high school time. The time where having a crush on someone was everything in the world. That could turn your whole life up side down. It might only a crush but it might be a love too. It's the most complicated simple thing (if you know what I mean) :P

Good luck bro! Hope you'll find the right way. I'm off to bed soon *yawns* Bloody winter won't give me a break.

"Doubt that the stars are fire, doubt that the sun doth move, doubt truth to be a liar, but never doubt I love."

William Shakespeare

Follow the white rabbit ...

2004-07-20T16:27:00.000+07:00

For those who are the big fan of The Matrix Trilogy, this sentence is very familiar. Anyway, I accidentally stumbled into this blog. The design is very simple but yet rich in meaning (if you know what I mean...) I find it very interesting, and unique. You can try to mess around with it. The owner offers to everyone that interested with the codes can just ask him and he will email them the codes. So I sent him an email, hopefully I can make one for my own hehehe.. might be the ~~best~~ coolest blog I've ever made.

I'll put the link in here soon after I can figure it out LOL.

Please send this to another 15 people in ...

2004-07-20T12:07:00.000+07:00

I'm sure you've got that ~~love~~ chain emails sometimes. I'm always remove them straight away, no question mark. I don't give a crap and I never believe that if I don't send it to another 10 of my friends in 15 minutes, I will have a bad day or bad luck. Pffttt..

Nowadays, we believe more in Hewlett Packard's rather in Hogwart's! (But indeed I believe that Hermione is one of the cutest and sexiest witch that still exist LOL) Do you really think that someone casting a spell when they type those chain letter or chain mails? So when you didn't do what they ask, some evil spirit (somehow) will curse you for the rest of the day? If you say yes, maybe it's time for you to get off from the net otherwise I'll curse you into a freaking mouse hehehe..

Anyway, I checked my girl's email yesterday, because she can't access internet from Indonesia. And I've found some chain emails, as usual, I removed them. I read not many of them, if the subject is catching my eyes, then I read.. for some time.. before I chuck it with the rest hohoho..

Today is raining! But I gotta shop unless I want to spend my day with instant noodles hehehe.. I decide to try some new recipes I found on the net. So fingers cross that I won't kill myself tonight lol. Oh, I've updated my blog. I put a BGM (background music), put a search bar to Google, also I got a trace, hmm.. what else did I put last night? Oh nevermind, I removed it last night hehehe..

I really need suggestion about it, so please, be ~~nice~~ mean to me. Say something. Is it bad? Is it ok? Is it boring? Is it crap? LOL.

Ok, gotta brb in a jiffy. Feeding the freaking fishes! Have a wet Tuesday!

"It is what you think of me that makes me what I've become..."
By me

Isn't lovely? I made this last week!! Go use it! But don't forget to put credit for me! Hehehehe

What time is it? It's linking time !

2004-07-16T18:29:00.000+07:00

You may say "WTF?!" Hehehehe... what I mean is today I'll just put up some links here about couples topics. Why? Because I'm a hopeless sob and I'm bored! So let me entertain you folks!

Ok let's start. Hmm.. Ok! This is a link, animation tho, about how the world will end. You could just click this link and let your PC to load the animation to your screen. Or you can visit Ebaums World to check some other animations. They're indeed very funny.. and silly.

Some of you too might wondering how the hell I can end up playing UO. Well, I'm always a big fan of computer games, and one day I knew about this Indonesian online game, called Nexia, under the management of Boleh Game (These websites might hard to load as their bandwidth are soooo lame sometimes). Nexia an Indonesian version of Nexus. Anyway, when Nexia servers were down for some times (some months) so I gave it up (Pfftt). Then one of my friend, Yudha, he told me about another online game, Ultima Online. So for the next couple days I spent so many times browsing the net and reading about it. It gets so many awards. After reading sooo many websites about it, I give it a go, and ever since, my gaming experience would never be the same again. And about Yudha, he's a mature man who dedicating himself to graphic design, multimedia, finance, economy and of course, games! A smart, talented man with a sharp business instinct. He has a very nice homepage.

Damn! I made this half way when I went to couch, watching 2004 MTV Movie Awards and fell asleep! @#*$% Anyway, let's continue, shall we? I've explained a bit about how I get myself into UO. It's no doubt that UO was the first MMORPG that implemented the non-combat skills such as: cooking, camping, herding, tinkering, fishing even lumberjacking! So if offers not only bashing orc, or slaying dragons but players can interact in so many ways with others. Female players, most of them, love to decorate their own houses, designing them from scretch, put some plants and flowers (oh yes, you can do gardening here). You can even tame animals from a little woodpecker, polar bears, giant serpents to the biggest animal like dragons and white wyrm. So now you understand how UO become one of the biggest, longest and best MMORPG since 1998!

Oh, I got a url where you can some of the flash movies about UO, this made by some Japanese players. And this is one of my favourite. Some of them are nice too, just be patience when you see so many words in the movie, they're indeed very good. Sorry? Cheesy graphic? STFU! Hehehehe (joking), well, we're here in UO care more about gameplay and the interaction of someone can make within the game. Rather having a kick-ass 3D graphic but what you can only do is killing monster, and levelling up your characters.

Oh damn, I think I have to finish this. Too much to do here at the moment. See you again!

Don't try this at home !

2004-07-13T01:52:00.000+07:00

Ok, you might feel that sometimes you eat too much, then you might feel guilty doing bad things to your own body. In fact, you don't have to worry about your weight at all. If you think eating can give you so much fat, well then, take a look at this chap from Japan. His name is Takeru Kobayashi, he just won the Nathan's Famous frankfurter eating contest held each 4th of July at Coney Island in New York, for the fourth time!

In 2001, was his first performance where he ate 50 hot dogs in 12 minutes! This time, he claimed the position as winner with 53 and half hot dogs in 12 minutes! Good God! If you see his pictures, you might wondering where the hell did he put those 53 buns and full-size sausages. He's pretty slim for a guy who can 'swallow' more than 50 hot dogs in 12 minutes. LOL! Like what I suggested before, please don't try this at home, you might got choked to death before you finish your fifth bun hehehe... Oh, read the full story about it.

Are you following the news about Cassini's trip to Saturn? NASA has a big interest about one of Saturn's moon, Titan. Why? Scientists believe the moon could have chemical compounds much like those that existed on Earth billions of years ago before life appeared.

To sum up the crap and long explanation, they sent Cassini to Titan because it's likely that Titan is almost as 'friendly' as the earth. Well, not now, but maybe later... we assume if we don't blow ourselves up with those freaking nukes and warheads, we might get a chance to explore the universe more and open colonies.

Getting sleepy, catch you all later!

What a winter ...

2004-07-12T01:32:00.000+07:00

This evening I watched the news, they said this morning we had a very cold morning. Coldest since winter 1998. It was recorded to be 0.6 degree Celcius. OMG! No wonder I turned on the heater to the fullest but still feeling cold.

Recently I have a big urge to put some songs from Billie Holiday. She was a famous singer in the 1930's era. I love her, she can give the pure singing without many mixing up by computers, if you know what I mean. So many times we find that the simplest thing can fill us to the fullest. It's my own quote. Yay!

Anyway, I spent the weekend ~~decorating~~ cleaning the apartment, cooking (yes I can cook too!), and do some little shopping. I played all songs by Billie Holiday but sometimes I feel so old LOL. I also tuned on some Elvis' songs, it's good to hear them in an afternoon hehehe.. (aren't I such a mellow person?)

Oh, I have this 'incident' last night. Ultima Online has about 21 shards (servers) around the world, so you can play in the shard that geograpically closer to you to reduce lag and high ping. Then I wanted to buy an item in one of the USA shard, and because I didn't have enough gold, I contacted one of UO brokers out there. They can transfer gold cross-shard, you give them gold in your home shard and they will give you the gold in the destination shard with 15% fee applied from the total amount.

So I told this broker that I wanted to transfer 7.5 million from my home shard to other shard, because of the 15% fee, I have to pay him 8.65 million right? (I hope I'm doing the right thing). BUT... somehow... he told me that I had to pay him 8.825 million. I was like "WTF??!" hehehe...

Then I argued with him (no offensive or swearing words were used btw) :P that it should be 8.65 million all come together. But he kept insisting me that was not the proper calculation. Feeling tired and confused, I told couple of my friends about this, and all were agreed that the amount I should pay was 8.625 million instead of 8.825 million. Even I asked my friends if my calculation was wrong (I used to be an eternal enemy of math at school), but I knew it was a simple calculation. 15% from 7.5 million is 1,125,000 (please someone correct me if I'm wrong). Anywayyyyy, one of my friend hooked my with another ~~hooker~~ broker from other company (yes they have a real and serious company dealing with these stuffs in Ultima Online). And the new broker agreed that it should be 8.625 million (thanks God!). I know 200k UO gold might sounds nothing for you, but if you ever try to play it, sometimes you need to work your ass off (no no no, not in the street, in the game! LOL) to earn some couple dimes here LOL

It's too quiet here, tonight. I miss my girl *sobs* She's 4,000 km away from me ffs! It's weird you know when you are apart from someone who always really close to you. Even you know they're doing ok in there but still it's pretty hard to fight the feelings. *sighs* Maybe I should stop listening to Elvis and Jim Reeves hehehehe...

Oh, if you want to try listening to Billie Holiday, find this one: "Crazy They Call Me", if you like oldies song (especially jazz), I'm sure you'll like it. Okay, I think I gotta hit the hay!

"Sometimes it's worse to win a fight than to lose."
Billie Holiday

Hey Hey It's Friday !

2004-07-09T14:04:00.000+07:00

It's Friday and I have nothing to watch *sighs* Oh, I watched The Usual Suspects the other night, and Kevin Spacey played as Roger 'Verbal' Kint, a crippled from New York. The story was very intrique and even the audience might able guess the ending's twist, but the movie will make us feeling curious how it will go to the end. Spacey, as always, he's very good. I've seen some of his movies and he's characteristic, he can blend himself with the role he played.

I don't have any plan for this weekend. As I'm having a sore throat. I learnt the hard way that alcohol, instant noodles and ciggarettes is not a very good mix hehehe... just need to have some rest I guess.

Last night was pretty bad for me. I slept at 1100 pm, then because I'm an insomnia (who isn't?), I woke up around 0300 am! Dang, that was really bad, I tried to sleep again but I couldn't. Then I thought I heard something from the kitchen so I checked it out. There was nothing tho, maybe the noise came from the unit next to me. Anyway, I tried get some nibble food and I turned on the computer to check the songs folder (I was messing around with it the night before). Then I couldn't sleep again until about 0800 am. At that time I was trying to stay awake, but I need some couple hours extra hehehe...

Ok, that's it folks! Gotta check the fishes! See ya later! Have a cool-chill-sexy weekend!

Are You Lonesome Tonight ?

2004-07-07T22:57:00.000+07:00

Dammit! I am!! Hehehehe... (somebody please shoot me) Today is bad weather. Been raining since brunch time, and now we are having hail storm! And to top it up, I'm having Elvis in my WinAmp hahaha..

His songs can make me feel a bit peaceful (maybe because he's been one of my fave singer since I was in high school, around 1996) :P I love all of his songs. My parents were very surprised when they listened accidentally to my songs. I love Jim Reeves, Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley. Those trio have a very balanced voices. Jim had a very low voice, Sinatra had an energic voice, and Elvis, Elvis is just sexy (the voice ok?) hehehehe...

So when all my friends were crazy about Backstreet Boys, N'Sync, 911, Spice Girls, Take That, etc, I tuned myself into oldies songs. They thought there's something wrong in me hehehe.. Well, it doesn't mean I hate Backstreet Boys or Spice Girls. But if I have to choose to watch two different live music concerts (between Backstreet Boys and Frank Sinatra), I'll most probably take the latter one. For newcomer singers I really love Norah Jones. She has very a clear, beautiful and sexy voice... and she's cute too. :)

Other singer is Dido, she reminds me of Sinead O'Connor and Dolores Mary Eileen O'Riordan from The Cranberries. They all have very very unique voice. Anyway, I gotta find something to eat. Late supper. Catch you all later!

"Be good and you will be lonesome."
(Carl Sandburg)

Bloggers rule !!!

2004-07-07T22:36:00.000+07:00

Well, that was what I got when reading TIME magazine last week. They put 5 bloggers that they think are the best. They even have a little special column about Tim Blair, who resides in Sydney. His blog is timblair.spleenville.com, it's Australia's most popular blog, attracting around 4 million hits a year. Some of the readers even support him by sending news, links, updates, corrections. Tim writes a weekly column for Australian newsmagazine The Bulletin, he does some freelances too.

Tim said as bloggers, we can as little or as much we want, no deadline, any subject. We might post a dozen times in a day or maybe once every week. That's really true, bloggers have a very flexible 'working hours' *LOL*

Like now for example, I just fell asleep (again!) and it's 1139 PM at the moment. I can post this one now or later, and even I can post another subject NOW or later. There's no boss who will tell me that I have to hand it in before lunch time, etc. And as for Tim, because he is a journalist, the flexible hours for being blogger is really makes him easy. Tim quote: "It's like some kind of freakin' journalistic paradise"

Even for me, being a blogger is really really fun. I can't write anything that I know, or anything that I pretend I know *LOL*. I don't have to carry a 10-inch book when I'm out of town, no need to find a dry place to place it, no pen either. Sweet isn't?

2004 Euro Champion: Greece!

2004-07-06T14:32:00.000+07:00

I was hoping Portugal would take care of Greece but not in this kind of manner! *LOL*
Most people believe Portugal will win this one at least with a single goal. We don't underestimate Greece but the worst scenario is to have penalty match. But then at minutes 57, Charisteas net the ball into Portugals' goal. Well, I didn't watch the match but I read/heard the live coverage from the net. It seemed Ruis trying to defend his country, but too bad :(

Oh well, congrats to Greece. Hope you guys don't get drunk too much and forgetting to prepare your country as the host of 2004 Olympics hehehe...

2004 Wimbledon Female Champion: Maria Sharapova!

2004-07-06T14:00:00.000+07:00

Some of you might already knew this. Maria Sharapova won the final of Wimbledon Open. Well done! She surprised the world when she defeated Lindsay Davenport in semifinal: 2-6, 7-6, 6-1. On final, she defeated Serena Williams from USA only in two sets: 6-1, 6-4. Here is her picture while holding the Venus Rowewater Dish as the symbol of the winner.

Too bad I didn't watch her last two matches in semifinal and final. Oh well, at least she won it!

It has arrived !!!

2004-07-01T17:02:00.000+07:00

Woot! I've got my 7th Anniversary Edition Package of UO this morning! At last! Been waiting it since they released it on 24th June. But because they only sell it in USA and Canada, I had to order it from Canada. And I bought another package from a friend in USA for 3.5 million UO gold. She's been very kind to me, she'll send it to my address from USA. It might takes about a week or two but I really appreciate it. :)

Anyone has seen The Prince And Me? I've mentioned it before but I don't really feel interested to watch it. Based on the reviews on the net, it's just another popcorn movie, where nothing is so special and you can even predict the storyline. A prince came abroad to study without telling the others who he really was. Then met a cool chic, have a crush on her. Then by a silly incident, they all know who he was and the chic was upset. Then he brought her to his country (Denmark), trying to marry her and of course (as we already expect it), his mother wasn't agree because she's only an 'ordinary' people. Then happy-ending. I think watching it will be like that girl from Ally McBeal, Calista Flockheart (Flockhart?). The movie is like her: flat and boring. LOL

Today is another wet, rainy and cold day. The wraith of winter is really showing its power hehehe.. but anyway I like it. I just had a 6-inch of Subway sandwich. I kinda like it but it can't hold my powerfull tummy hehehehe... no matter how big I eat it, I will still feeling hungry in about two hours. The taste is good and they claimed that the sandwich will have no more than 7 grams of fat.

Any news about Euro Championship? I'm no longer interested to follow it since my fave teams were lost (England and Germany). I was expecting England to be able to go to the semifinal or even final. But too bad. :(

There is a hero inside all of us ...

2004-06-30T22:23:00.000+07:00

That's the quote from Spiderman 2, I watched it this afternoon after having dinner at Jaws Sushi Bar in downtown. Spiderman 2, just like what I expected, was a good movie, with brilliant twists and better storyline, including the visual effects. I don't want to put any spoiler about it here so I'll just recommend this movie to watch at weekend with your partner or friends or family or whatever. Two thumbs up for Spiderman 2, I think I will buy the DVD when they release it later on.

Oh, I was thinking about this joke when I went home from the cinema. As most of you might knew it already, that Jakarta (Indonesia's capital city) is a big metropolitan area with high level of water, air and noise pollution, it's in the top 10 list for being most populated city in the world. My joke is: Jakarta is so polluted, so even if Spiderman is swinging around the downtown, he'll die because of the pollution and hazard gas in the air". (Sorry? It's not funny? Oh screw you, at least I can make up one joke by myself) :P

But it is true! People always said that you can get killed by any possibilities in New York City because the crime rate. In Jakarta, the chance is as much as double, because not only a high crime rate, but we also have one of the poorest medical service, slow and low security service for any lawful forces all over the country (unless you're paying in US dollars lol) and we have one of the highest pollution rate in the world. So somebody could get killed by hazard smoke and gas just as much as they would get killed by gangsters, or mobs, or mugged by a sob jerk with a rusty kitchen knife.

Today I had my first sushi roll for the last one year I guess. Usually, everytime I go to a sushi bar I always order myself a set menu or just take any sushi from the convenyer belt. Mostly I would pick nigiri sushi and ghunkan sushi, but today I picked one of the sushi roll. It was good indeed. My fave? For Japanese cuisine, my fave goes to Unagi Nigiri or Unadon (if you order it as set menu). Hmm? It's a grilled eel on rice hehehe.. Yes, because I come from Asia I sometimes eat 'weird' stuff. But no, I don't eat monkey's brains or goat's penis LOL.

"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt."
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, (1872-1970)

Hotmail takes turn!

2004-06-30T22:05:00.000+07:00

Well, Yahoo! and Gmail have waged their wars, now Hotmail seems doesn't want to miss the chance to slip in. If you're a full subscriber (means that you pay for annual fee) with Hotmail, they give you a bigger inbox than Gmail. You can have 2 Gigabytes! Damn, that's pretty nice, and they don't scan your nasty email or digging up your dirty little secrets. LOL. I think that's a good deal as now more people using Yahoo mail or Hotmail, it will be easier for your friends to remember your email. But if you're comfortable with what you have at the moment, then don't worry about this.

Go Maria!

2004-06-30T21:09:00.000+07:00

So last night I switched on the TV and found that Maria Sharapova was at quaterfinal match with Japanese female tennis player, Ai Sugiyama. Of course, because she was having my full support, Sapharova won the battles in 3 sets hehehe.. the score was 5-7, 7-5, 6-1. It was very hard for Sharapova to beat Sugiyama. Even her world ranking is at number 13 while Sugiyama is at 11 at the moment, that 2 points between their ranks doesn't mean is an easy job to handle. At some moments Sharapova were too fast or too weak to return the ball. But.. she won it anyway! She might meet Lindsay Davenport from USA. Davenport herself is in position number 5 in world ranking. I'm pretty sure Sharapova will find it hard to beat Davenport because Lindsay is far more experienced than her. But what I like from Maria is she always said that she won't give up. "I'm tough" she quoted it all the times. Go Maria!

Sharapova was born on 19 April 1987! Damn! People say that she looks more beautiful than Kournikova and would be a better tennis player than her. I'm agree with them hehehe... Oh, you can find some of her pictures on the net. :)

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear."
(Ambrose Redmoon)

Late Posting ...

2004-06-29T15:59:00.000+07:00

Ah, this is better. I'm at the computer lab now. The computers run faster here and I can enjoy the lovely LCD, rather than those computers in the library that have yucky and sticky mouse (no, I'm gonna go on details about it) :P

Recently, we have Wimbledon Open, and I found about this female tennis player from Slovakia. Her name is Maria Sharapova. I found her as cute and sexy with an above-average tennis skill (what do you expect? She's an international tennis player). Forget about Anna Kournikova, everyone knows Anna, even a third-grade kinky boy will knows her. Maria, in other hand, indeed an unique one. There are so many good female tennis players but because they don't have tight ass or big boobs people tend to know the sexy one.

Last night I was desperate to get some UO gold to buy some more rares to be added to the collections. But I think it is better for me to wait for a while and trying to sell some more sh*ts otherwise I'll end up in a big debt to my friends. :(

Anyway, I publish this from my home. I was kinda rushing to go home. Oh, we watched Mean Girls, starred by one of the hottest teen movie star (well, at least that's what I think), Lindsay Lohan. At last, we have a teen movie, not about some pshyco running wild with a butcher knife or chainsaw, nor about a poor prince charming went to a college and trying to be a common person (if you think I'm talking about Prince and Me, then you are wrong) hehehe... Mean Girls is about simple topic that we found everyday in our daily life. Since we were young, we've seen, done or felt about what they tell in Mean Girls. It's very good, I recommend it to give it a try, besides, Lohan is one damn cute girl that still exist in this mean world. :P

Are you a Yahoo! ?

2004-06-29T15:35:00.000+07:00

Well, the war between email providers had begun ages ago, but this time they declare it on different issue. As we all might know it already, Gmail offers a storage capacity for 1000 megabytes or 1 gigabyte!! Hell, some people even only have 8 gigabytes in their HD. With that size of storage you can still keep your collection of pervert emails. From what I heard and read, Gmail (which is formed by Google) will scan every email you get, then they will show you in the banner about things based on the content of each email.

For some people, this is kinda silly, even we all know that the scanner only a machine or program that won't have personal reaction to some kinky or dirty words in the emails (hehehehe...) but still, we always want to have the feeling that we are the first one who read every email we got.

So, if you prefer big storage for free, you can go with Gmail, but if you still want to have a very secure privacy about your email, you can stick with whatever email provider you are with at the moment. I haven't got any account with Gmail but I might have one or two just to store some of my sh*t in there (no, I don't collect kinky and pervert emails).

There is one thing that keeps me wondering. What will happen if someone send you an email to your Gmail account and saying some extra-ordinary words such as: "nuclear bomb"; "biological weapon"; "VX-gas"; or "napalm in the ground zero". LOL. I'm just wondering what kind of advertisement that will pop-ups to your screen when you read this kind of email.

I'm just waiting for Hotmail to be involved in this unpredictable-long-without ending war between email providers. What will come up next time? Email that can has smell? LOL.

Damn, I gotta log out now, the library is closing. I'll be back online again (as usual) tonight.

"Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind."
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th US president (1917-1963)