My Lord, it is time...

Waktunya lagi untuk meng-[evaluasi] blog ini, sebagai salah satu wujud, hehe, narcistik diri. Sesuatu yang dimulai dari ke-tidak-terlalu-seriusan, akhirnya bisa menjadi blog 2 chapter ini. Chapter kedua ini total memuat 22 entry yang terdiri atas 26530 huruf, 5458 kata, atau 153 paragraf. Yang kalau diklasifikasikan jadi:

• 5 entry mengutamakan bahasa Indonesia
  
• 17 'ditulis' dalam bahasa Inggris (nggak tau dibacanya)
  
• 4 tentang bahan tontonan
  
• 4 tentang urusan baca-tulis
  
• 4 (sedikit) menyinggung refleksi diri
  
• 4 bercerita wawasan umum
  
• 4 tentang usaha 'ngimod-dicabak-aya'an'
  
• 2 entry, khusus tentang Tora Sudiro :)

Terus terang nggak pernah terlalu disangka sebelumnya bisa jadi 'agak' seserius ini. Ditinjau ulang, ada beberapa hal yang ditemukan:

• Di tengah jalan blog ini berubah menjadi less-personal, dan bergeser jadi lebih bersifat public.
  
• Blog ini kemudian, dengan berusaha ngimod tadi, di akhir-akhir juga jadi agak belok kiri, kiri-jauh, jauh sekali.
  
• Jadinya lebih cenderung memakai bahasanya Inggris. Bukan bermaksud sok, tapi maksudnya belajar, dan kadang-kadang memang idenya datang dalam bahasa Inggris. (Well, bahkan kadang gue juga mimpi dalam bahasa Inggris, berwarna, tanpa sub-title, tapi gue bikin tetep bisa pakai fasilitas bilingual, just-in-case)
  
• Lama tidak bergaul dengan bule, ternyata grammar gue sudah jadi sangat-sangat parah dan betul-betul butuh bantuan editor.

Permohonon maaf perlu disampaikan dulu buat yang mungkin kurang berkenan dengan beberapa hal dalam blog ini. Termasuk mungkin guru bahasa Inggrisku dan Om George Lucas. Tapi betul, kalau ada yang tidak berkenan, atau menyinggung, atau memojokkan, mohon maaf. Tidak terlalu bermaksud untuk begitu.

"I would also like to thank all of my fellow nominee,
and most of all to the Academy!"

Ucapan terimakasih untuk banyak pihak yang langsung maupun tidak langsung telah membantu kejadian blog ini:

• Tentunya Blogger, yang memberi ruang untuk berekspresi. Biz Stone, tambah lagi dong desain template gratis-nya.
  
• Google, search engine terbaik yang menyediakan stock illustration untuk semua entry dalam blog ini.
  
• Geocities, yang merelakan spacenya dipakai 'hanya' untuk menampung ilustrasi yang tidak tersedia secara publik.
  
• The omniscience Wikipedia, atas bantuan referensinya untuk beberapa materi blog di sini.
  
• Thefreedictionary, atas penegasan arti dan menunjukki ejaan omniscience dan banyak kata lain yang tiba-tiba menyeruduk di kepala.

Juga kepada perorangan yang telah menjadi sumber inspirasi, dan terutama buat kamu, pembaca yang mungkin masih sudi membaca, the one who gave me the impetus to write a blog, karena untuk kamu alasan blog ini ada.

Kasarung, -Signing off.

Because We're a Gentlemen

I know this elaboration will be regarded too trivial by some. If you think as such, just read the subtitle of this blog, and take a rest. You'll see that this entry do have one important point to tell. It's about the delicate art of men's public urinal. We deal with this problem on daily basis. Only men would understand how these things work.

Now, picture a five slot men's public urinal. There's some kind of 'rules' in choosing the 'right' urinal. The rules can easily be described by the following carefully-selected examples:

Let's say, the A urinal is taken, for the obvious reason we would never-ever choose the immediate-next urinal B. We will go to the waaay farthest possible, the E urinal. Alternatively we can pick C or D. But D is not really recommended, because it will give the next (the third person) a 'pairing dilemma'.

Now, if the B urinal is taken, we wouldn't go to the C or (God forbids) the A urinal. A gentleman will then go to the cleverly selected D urinal, because picking-up the E urinal will also give our next incoming comrade a 'pairing dilemma'.

Urinal B and D are taken. This is one the 'pairing dilemma' I've mention before. We would not choose neither A, because it would paired us with B, nor choose E because it would make us pairing with D. This problem can be solved elegantly by choosing the middle slot, C.

Somehow slot A and D are taken. Big problem. All of the three available option will give us the perception of pairing. We usually avoid this situation before hand, like the aforementioned 1st and 2nd example. The best thing we can do is to choose slot C, which of somewhat in between.

Or, in a real crowd: urinal A, B and E is taken. We would surely not pick the D slot because that would make the four of us in an awkward situation as 'two couples of peeing gentlemen'. That would not be so funny wouldn't it? A gentleman with the right mind shall then wisely choose urinal C.

On the rare occasion, maybe somewhere in a cold-rainy day, sometime we find the entire five urinal are taken. What should a gentleman do? Although the ladies rooms are ussualy smell much better, we definitely would not want to go there. Why? Because we're such a gentleman. We simply just have to hold it in.

These sacred ritual are called the 'Unwritten Rules of Men's Room Etiquette' passed-on from men-to-men only, from father-to-son, for generations. You girls would have none of it. So what's all the bother? All these are here, just to show you that we are nothing like you always accuse of. We, men, do have a 'highly-civilized' manner. Unfortunately we only show it where you ladies can't see it.

Notes: It was the refferal log wasn't it?

History 101

Ah pupils, come gather 'round. Time for a quick quiz. The hardest part of history class for me was memorizing the time occurence of historical events. Though my teacher said the essence of the events is much more important, the knowledge of the time occurence will give us more lateral understanding of the connection between events. Such, what were happening in Europe while Sengoku Jidai era in Japan (answer: Renaissance) or right over here when the Roman first establish the Great Republic City 'Rome' (answer: uh, not sure, nothing much maybe, perhaps a great-great ancestor, still a nomad in the early age of bronze, musing the idea of settling down).

Now let's observe if you still remember your history lesson well. Watch if you can correctly recite the years associated with the following events. Don't worry, the list are mostly common ones, the ones that we usually (well, at least ought to) remember by heart. Let's begin:

1. Columbus set foot on American Continent: [1492]
   
2. The Start of France Revolution: [1789]
   
3. First Man on the Moon: [1969]
   
4. The First World War: [1914-1918]
   
5. The Establishment of VOC! [1602]
   
6. The Second World War: [1939-1945]
   
7. The Discovery of Penicilin: [1928]
   
8. US Declaration of Independence: [1776]
   
9. JFK Assasination: [1963]
   
10. Perang Diponegoro!! [1825-1830]

Write it down and count how much you can correctly remember. Find the answers by dragging over your mouse, highlighting the list. And just to show you what a nice person I'm, if you hit a single year correctly within the years span of item 4, 6 and 10, you can count them in too. Now let'se see how you're measure it up:

• Less than 4. Shame on you. Track down your highschool history teacher now, tell her how sorry you're that you either drooling your mind away, taking nap during the class or skipped her classes all together.
  
• Between 4-6. You're doing OK. You have what an average person typically remembered. Pay more attention and let's try to do it better next time, shall we?
  
• Between 7-9. Well done 'mate! You're a very well-informed person, your history lesson has done you well. A bright future is secured upon you.
  
• Perfect 10/10 Uh, come on. Really? You remember the year dr. Flemming discovered the antibiotical effect of Penicillium Notatum? Me think you are my history teacher. "How're you doing Ma'am?"

Do You Know? (Show Must Go On)

>Fa, kl udh bs slow, minta lagu Diana Ross dng, jdlny lupa, pokoknya Theme From Mahogany"
>nganu, yg judulnya do you know where youre going to ya? beres mas"

Nggak lama, (lama juga sih nunggu slot untuk waktunya slow oldies, lewat jam 10 malem) disetel deh lagunya. [cue-music]

Do you know where you're going to?
Do you like the things that life is showing you
Where are you going to?
Do you know...?

Enak juga punya temen yang kerja jadi operator di radio. Tapi ini juga terpaksa request lagu, soalnya sudah dicari di mp3 server kampus, lagu ini nggak ada. Ada juga sih, tapi bukan versi yang ini, adanya yang versi Richard Carpenter sama yang J-Lo. It's just not feel the same. Dulu rasanya pernah punya versi yang asli, tapi lupa dimana disimpennya.

Once we were standing still in time
Chasing the fantasies
That filled our minds
You knew how I loved you
But my spirit was free
Laughin' at the questions
That you once asked of me

Somewhere around this month, six years ago, I was humming this very song. Almost at the end of my service in a Jakarta office, and somewhere in between jobs. Then later that year ended-up having the best three years, -the time- of my life.

Now looking back at all we've planned
We let so many dreams
Just slip through our hands
Why must we wait so long
Before we'll see
How sad the answers
To those questions can be

Siang ini mau dateng ke resepsi pernikahan salah satu temen. Terus terang gue kurang suka dateng ke pesta pernikahan. Terlalu banyak orang, yang biasanya nggak terlalu saling kenal. Mingling-mingling, smiling-smiling, eating-eating. Tapi nggak apa apa deh, buat temen ini. Dan kebetulan berangkatnya bareng-bareng staf yang lain. Dan mungkin pulangnya bisa karaoke bareng-bareng. whohoo..

Do you get
What you're hoping for
When you look behind you
There's no open door
What are you hoping for?
Do you know...?

Today I turn 'twin-digit' again. Last time it was 11 years ago. And this is the third. By now I can fully understand, why a middle-age salary-man, can enjoy a karaoke bar immensely, especially if accompanied by a fine beverage. Kampai!

(Oh, dan untuk kepentingan legal. gue nggak pernah nyimpen atau donlod lagu mp3 bajakan, di kampus juga nggak ada kok yang namanya mp3 server. gue cuman bercanda doang.)

Is That For Me?

A friend once accuse me of being a person without a principal whatsoever. He was wrong you know. I have but ONE important key principal in my life. The one that I have hold dearly even eversince I was only a toddler.

Principle #1: I don't touch my food

I was very proud of that principle. Everybody known me long enough may eventually find-out my hatred toward getting a hand dirty over food left-over or become icky-greased.

Holding to that principle, I have mastered the very art of 'not-touching-your-food'. To everyone's amazement, I can deep skinned and gutted a fried-chicken, clean down to its last crunchy bones without even once, touching it with my bare hands.

In non-domesticated locations, I always try to find the way to a local-nearby kitchen and borrow any food utensil they have: spoon, fork, or chopstick. In delicate situation, like in some fastfood, I always try to ask for any extra food-utensil, or anything that resemble one of those, anything that prevent me from touching my food, like toothpick, or straw ..or tissue. SICK huh?

Imagine, an awkward situation, you get treated to a street side food stall by your bosses. The menu: 'nasi timbel'. In a middle of nowhere. No food utensil anywhere within sight. Everybody eating, touching their food, getting their hand icky greasy. What to do? What to do? Ah, what the heck! My very principal is then crumbling at that very moment. Now you can trully call me:

"A Man without Principal"

Cat: dapur gue ketauan.. sebel! Cuek dah.

Most Wanted Blog (Revisited)

OK. Akhirnya. Gue udah mutusin ide cerita apa yang bisa gue tulis tentang Tora Sudiro. Ternyata, tato yang menghiasi kedua lengannya itu sama sekali bukan tato. Tapi, itu tanda lahir! (birthmark, seperti trade-mark Gorbachev yang terkenal itu) Kalau dihitung-hitung semuanya total dia punya 13 tanda lahir. Walaupun tidak secara jelas juga dirinci lokasinya ada di mana saja. Hal ini pulalah yang mendorong ayahnya untuk memberinya nama 'TORA', kependekan dari taTO-nya RA-me!

(Buat yang nggak percaya cerita ini, dan lagi kurang kerjaan, bisa silahkan crosscheck ke wikip.. [DINK!] aduh! iye-iye gue tau garing. Kira-kira dong nimpuk pake batu batre. Dikira kita laler apa?)

May The Blog be With You

It's opening week for the last installment of the Star Wars saga. Make me remember a joke I heard long ago. See, it was the premiere night of 'The Empire Strikes Back' (SW Episode 5). You can ruin anybody day just by walking to the crowded movie ticket line-up, and shout:

"Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father!..."

Science fiction movies has always been followed by fanatical fans that is close to a cult. If I had to choose side, I was much more of a Star Trek fan than a Star Wars fan, and we Trekie traditionally don't get along very well with those of Warsies. Har-har. In the risk of inciting flames from hordes of warsies, I will tell you what I think of Star Wars movies.

I never care much for SW. It's not like I can't enjoyed it, but it's just something I don't get excited about. Some critics put SW as nothing more than a 'children opera told in grandiose scale'. Altough I still think the movies have many good quality in it, that comment really turn me off good. But I'll always love the John Williams's score. I can even still hear the Darth Vader entrance music whenever I read his blog (haha, everybody keep a blog nowaday, even villain!)

One thing that George Lucas dude has. He has this funny idea about movie. He treat it like a weekly TV serial. Except that -in order to see the next episode, the audience had to wait for three long years. I can't really imagine how the fans deal with the ending of 'The Empire Strikes Back'. You see, in that episode the protagonist side was lost -big time- and the story left there, hanging. They had to wait for another three years before they can see the good guys win and how it end.

Also notice that funky numbering: Ep.4 (1977), Ep.5 (1980), Ep.6 (1983), then Ep.1 (1999), Ep.2 (2002) and Ep.3 (2005). How would you feel if you already knew (from the first three movie) that Anakin, hailed as the main protagonist in the last three, will turn into a main antagonist by the end of Ep.3. And that's how they suppose to end this 28 years saga.

Finally what's up with that title? Foul language!

'Revenge of the diah diahoah dyah the Sith'?

(Oboy, I sure am gonna get some flack from random SW fans reading this. May the Force be with you brother. And live long and prosper to you too.)

Oh, one last thing that has been bugging me from the last three batch of SW movies (here we go again). That actress playing queen Amidala is sure remind me a lot of.. hmm (I'm not gonna say it) harharha!

My Favourite Writer

Anybody may notice that I've been having a bit of writer problem here: a Blog-Block. Not really sure what more to say here. Then I thought for an inspiration, I should turn to none other than my favourite wordsmith. And just to show you what an interesting writer he is, here are some of an excerpt taken from his books. Ladies and gentlemen, presenting... Neil Gaiman

Whatever happened to me in my life, happened to me as a writer of plays. I'd fall in love, or fall in lust. And at the height of my passion, I would think, 'So this is how it feels,' and I would tie it up in pretty words. I watched my life as if it were happening to someone else. My son died. And I was hurt, but I watched my hurt, and even relished it, a little, for now I could write a real death, a true loss. My heart was broken by my dark lady, and I wept, in my room, alone; but while I wept, somewhere inside I smiled. For I knew I could take my broken heart and place it on the stage of The Globe, and make the pit cry tears of their own. (Shakespeare, Sandman #75)

I've been making a list of the things they don't teach you at school. They don't teach you how to love somebody. They don't teach you how to be famous. They don't teach you how to be rich or how to be poor. They don't teach you how to walk away from someone you don't love any longer. They don't teach you how to know what's going on in someone else's mind. They don't teach you what to say to someone who's dying. They don't teach you anything worth knowing. (Rose Walker, Sandman #61)

Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life...You give them a piece of you. They didn't ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like 'maybe we should be just friends' turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love. (Rose Walker, Sandman #65)

Deep stuff eh? Typical materials for a blog I say. He should be a natural in blogging. Infact he kept some kind of a blog here. Though it's nothing to write home about. He keep the good stuff for his comercial work. You know he wrote this seven stanza poem (the one with 'you can be me when I'm gone' bit, the one that closing up the 1st chapter of this blog), but publish only two of them. This guy is driving me nuts! And of course my favourite quotes:

F@#&, I won a Hugo! (Neil Gaiman, upon winning a Hugo Award)

I wonder if he ever face a case of writer's block. And for that, who did he turn into: a muse or other ethereal being and made some sort of devilish pact with it. Whoo...

Most Wanted Blog

Malam ini malam 'Extravagansa'. Dan berkaitan dengan statistik kemunculan kata-kata di penghujung Ch.1 blog ini, gue sedang memikirkan bagaimana caranya menyinggung-nyinggung nama 'Tora Sudiro' lagi dalam blog ini (oh? +1!). Tapi masih bingung berita apa tentang Tora Sudiro yang bisa diceritakan (hey! +2). Mungkin tentang gosip calon anak kedua Tora Sudiro itu (yay! +3). Tapi gue berusaha nggak bergosip di sini. Apalagi tentang Tora Sudiro (whohoo.. +4).

Atau tentang tatoo yang menghiasi kedua lengan Tora Sudiro itu, (yess +5) yang memaksa Tora Sudiro harus memakai special sleeve cover tiap kali shooting (heheh +6). Tapi di mana menariknya? Gimana kalau tentang acara Extravagansa yang jadi kurang lucu tiap kali Tora Sudiro nggak bisa ikutan main (dum-dee.. +7!). Tapi acting Tora Sudiro lebih baik ditonton sendiri daripada diceritakan (+8). Hmm, atau mungkin tentang film Banyu Biru yang dibintangi Tora Sudiro itu (+9). Tapi gue nggak pernah tertarik nonton film Tora Sudiro yang satu itu (+10). Yang bisa kepikir sama gue cuma film klasik tahun 1970 tentang perang Pearl Harbour itu. Judulnya, "Tora! Tora! Tora!" (..+13??). Kan nggak nyambung banget?

Jadi apa dong yang bisa gue ceritain tentang Tora Sudiro? (+14) Tentang pesta ulang tahun Tora Sudiro tanggal 10 yang lalu? (+15) Atau tentang Tora Sudiro di Friendster? (+16) Dua-duanya gue nggak pernah di-invite. Jadi apa dong?

(Having referenced 16 times, let's see if Googlebot will start associate this blog with that most wanted bloke! Or even better, associate the most upper right picture with him... Uh, don't hold your breath there son)

Absent Without Leave

Stumble upon "Urban Legends Reference Pages". A website which sole purpose was to debunk myths and rumours abound in the Internet World. As we know, we always tend to forward our newly received emails which we find quite amusing, while not being really sure the authenticity of the content. Such (1) the photographs claimed to be of recent tsunami, to (2) of a very uninformed third world protesters, or (3) of a cursed epitaph in Montreal, to (4) of some city with an unmentionable name in Europe.

The site also feature other hilarious entry. Quite amusing too. Here what were claim to be excuses letters received by high school attendance offices, presumably from parents:

• Dear school: Pleas exkuse John for being absent on January 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 and 33.
  
• John has been absent because he had two teeth taken out of his face.
  
• I kape Billie home because she had to Christmas shopping because I didn't no what size she wear.
  
• John was absent yesterday because he had a stomach.
  
• My son is under the doctor's care and could not take fizacal ed. Please execute him.
  
• Please excuse Joey Friday, he had loose vowels.
  
• Carlos was absent yesterday because he was playing football, he was hurt in the growing part.
  
• Please excuse Sandra from being absent yesterday. She was in bed with gramps [cramps].
  
• Ralph was absent yesterday because of a sour trout [sore throat].
  
• Maryann was absent Dec. 11-16, because she had a fever, sore throat, headache, and upset stomach. Her sister was also sick, fever and sore throat, her brother had a low-grade fever. There must be the flu going around, her father even got hot last night.
  
• Please excuse Sara for being absent. She was sick and I had her shot.
  
• The basement of our house got flooded where the children sleep so they had to be evaporated.
  
• Please excuse Pedro from being absent yesterday. He had diah diahoah dyah the shits.

Shameless Filler Entry

Smeakin dweasa sesoreang, smeakin cangigh kceatapan pkiirnay. Spereti tulsian nii. Wlaau eajannay aack-kaudt, ktia msaih bsia mmebacanay dngean baik bkuan? Itu kraena ktia tiadk lgai melhiat huurf-per-hruuf, tpai sduah mmebcaa ktaa sceraa kseelruhuan. Anak kceil, aplagai ynag msaih breljaar mngejea, bleum tnetu bisa mmaehami tluiasn ini. Ktia cboa dngean bhaasa Igngirs.

Elngish aollw shroter wrods, lses chraatcers. Taht wloud mkae it
hraedr to scarmlbe adn keep tehm rdeabale, athluogh msot of yuo wlil sitll be albe to raed tihs (I hope). Now, ulness yuo aer gifetd wtih an ealge eye, yuo wuold not be abel to fnid a tpyo in the ylleow sgin blleow, qkuicly.

Yes tehre is a tpyo. ..Oh, so yuo do hvae an ealge eey.

Teurs treang (udah ah..), terus terang entry ini diinspirasi dari Deddy Corbuzier. Dia bilang huruf dalam kata-kata bisa diacak sampai sekitar 30% dan masih akan bisa terbaca asalkan huruf pertama dan terakhirnya tetap. Dan tentang gambar yang di atas, teorinya, setelah beberapa saat pembaca menjadi terbiasa membaca secara sekilas, dia akan sulit menemukan the yang ganda itu.

(Jadi garing euy.. biarin lah. Daripada bengong. Buat yang mungkin belum faham makna kata 'garing', dan mungkin lagi nggak ada kerjaan yang lebih penting, bisa baca artinya di wikipedia)

Everyone's a Critic

What make a good movie experience? The answer is, of course, not a simple one. Because of the 'everyone's a critic' factor the criteria of a good movie can be varied depending of whom do you ask. Here are some I've come up with:

• Strong and smart plot, with an unpredictable ending
  
• Good characterization and cast, of someone you can relate to
  
• Lavishly illustrated: verbally, visually and musically
  
• Interesting premise, one that hasn't been overused yet
  
• Has nice songs and beatifully coreographed dance in it
  
• Not accompanied by annoying friend in a very talkative mode
  
• Not having viewers get-in and out of the toilet too often
  
• >Fries, popcorn and bubble tea, always ready within reach
  
• Starred and directed by none other than Shah Rukh Khan!
  
• Uh..et cetera, (you can add your own here)

But for me, the answer can be quite simple. What constitute a fine movie is a different case. It may will be answered by combination of complicated factors above. I can go on here telling you why I think "Forrest Gump" is the best movie ever for me. But what set a good movie experience apart from the bad ones is simple really.

It's the felling afterward. You get into a theater, being something, and after the start rolling of closing credits, you get out and feeling something else. A good movie will make you feel elated. Not the kind of feeling that make you thing 'what the heck was that?', or give you awkward moments with your movie-mate not being able to discuss the movie, when what you really want to say is 'what a horrible movie', but can't because you're the one who made them watch it in the first place.

Ideally a good movie should be a compleat two hour distraction. The one which kidnap your state-of-mind, bring you somewhere else, and never ever leting your mind wandering outside the movie. Some good movie can somehow make you fell quasi-enlighted. Well, at least for the first couple of hours or so.

Watched 'Kingdom of Heaven' the other day. What can I say: marching armies, fluttering banners, trebuchet siege, whistling arrows.. suffice to say that I'm a sucker for these kind of things. Plus it made interesting references to medieval history (the Knights of Templar!). You simply can't get any complain from me there.

But through-and-through during the movie, two things keep bugging me: (1) That actress playing queen Sibylla sure remind me a lot of ..pfft, -bwahaha ehm sorry, 'Meriam Belina' and (2) uh, my friend Miman, the one who ussualy lock-up my weekend office at the end of the day, sure is a dead ringer of Mr. Bloom there. (Oh, and you can always check him out at FS with the same ID.)

Enrich Your Word Power

Buat yang belum tau, sini dikasi tau. Bahasa Inggrisnya 'kasim' itu 'eunuch' (baca: yu:nëk). Lucu aja, kosakata-nya. Apalagi kalau dibaca keras-keras, dan berulang-ulang. Tiap tiga kali diakhiri dengan '..yuhaha' (hmm, got a nice rhyme and beat to it. You can almost dance with it. You should give it a try too. I think I like it enough to give it an 8 points out of 10.)

Buat yang mungkin belum faham apa itu makna dari kasim atau eunuch, dan mungkin lagi nggak ada kerjaan yang lebih penting, bisa baca di wikipedia. Ouch-ouch-ouchie..

Personal Messaging Circa 1980’s

The past booming of Chat Application and Internet Messaging reminds me a lot of two things from the past: (1) amateur radios trend in the early 80’s and (2) neighborhood intercom craze in the late 80’s.

Amateur Radio was also known as CB for Citizen Band. Or some prefer to call it 11m Radio for its length in radio wave. I remember the ORARI and KRAP sticker are everywhere and considered cool. Every rich teen need to have one towered station complete with a registered callsign, such as YD1HKS, to be considered hip.

While Amateur Radio was much played by the rich, the following Intercom trend was much more disperse, even rural. They come relatively cheap. You just need two set of terminals (which come with do-it-your-self electronic kit) and a long-long-long wire. Back then, it was common sight, to see bundles of long wires crossing back alleys, waterways, railroads and even paddy fields.

While I’m too young to participate in all that fad at that time, I remember I never quite understood the fun of it. What was the fun in all that talking. Even up until late 90's, I gave a funny look to fellow online chatters. But now, in the span of no more than 2 years, I have collected 60 odd names in my YM list. How time has change.

Unexplained from SJHC Hospital

Medic found a strange phenomenon couple years ago. In a Saint Joseph and Holy Cross hospital's ICU room, patients always died in the same bed, on Sunday morning, at about 11:00 a.m., regardless of their medical condition.

This puzzled the doctors and some even thought it had something to do with the supernaturals. No one could solve the mystery as to why the deaths occurred at around 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, so a reknown team of medical, including supernatural experts, was assembled to investigate the cause of the incidents.

On the first week of April 2001, the next Sunday morning, a few minutes before 11:00 a.m., all of the doctors and nurses nervously waited outside the ward to see for themselves what the terrible phenomenon was all about. Some were holding wooden crosses, prayer books, and other holy objects to ward off the evil spirits.

Just when the clock struck 11:00, Pookie Johnson, the part-time Sunday sweeper, entered the ward and unplugged the life support system so he could use the vacuum cleaner.

Bent Twig (2005)

"You don't talk, you listen
There are two ways we can do this
The easy way, or the hard way"
I was mistaken...

Some days, feel like chucking these all out
Some nights, would love to raze the world

Never really did forgive them
Wear the vengeance like a crest

...I was naive and simplistic:
Blaming others for our ills is easy
Pulling a trigger is easy
Victimizing ourselves or others is easy

Some days, thin glass of the dome cracks
Some nights, fail to recollect the salvation

Surounded by world went passing by
On blissfull moments, sometime I say "thank you.."

When it comes to real personal growth
Facing our pains, our fear, our demons
There is just one way to go through it
The only way.

If not himself, then he has naught

We get to meet a shrink last week. Surprisingly, it came with the job. A new follow-up method for the new recruits. Luckily it was only a group session. After minutes of motivational pep-talk, they took several written test on us. She closed the session with an interesting point: The key of survival in this job is the ability to do things that you don't really want to do. Got a chuckle out of that.

Weekend usually I get to do things of my own, and the highlight of this weekend:

1. Woke-up with weight way under 60K's (has previously championing a successful WR programme: lots of fasting)
   
2. Cooked a special fine dish to celebrate. Mix it all: meat-pasta-cream-egg. Resulting a nice looking gooey of ..pasta??
   
3. Get a haircut. It's been, ..humm nine weeks I think, since last the hair meet blistered hands of a barber.
   
4. Pickup some uh, 'special-books' (i.e. old comics) and 'billing statements' from my permanent mailing address. (My-my, my credit card is overdue)
   
5. Entertained the idea to watch "Kingdom of Heaven", but opt for not to, due to 'just-don't-feel-like-it' factor. Went to bookstore instead.
   
6. Buy two books: Kate DiCamilo's "The Tiger Rising" and, Adele Haft's "The Key to 'The Name of the Rose'" (haven't had acces to the original Umberto Eco's book, but predict that pretty soon a friend will.)
   
7. Found exactly a single copy of original 'Eternal Sunshine' VCD. Decided to buy it, considering the slim chance of finding it again elsewhere, original or pirated (and due to the fact that I missed the theater schedule, by one day)
   
8. Went to the ATM and drain-out what was left of it, following yesterday funny suggestion from a Customer Service of that's how you can close a remote account automatically.
   
9. Finally hit the weekend-office, to find everybody else were already there.
   
10. After a brief briefing, decided to have lunch at a nearby seafood court (funny, they named a drink as 'Day Dreamer' there)
    
11. Back, finishing-up the works a bit and then loudly karaoke-ing with Frank Sinatra's "My Way".

Uh yeah, karaoke is good! (best human invention since TV's remote-control)

Distraction...

Maap, ndak ada blog hari ini. (Terlalu sibuk nonton "Kasoh-Taisho".. Ternyata ada jadwal main siang-siang. Disini, hampir tiap ruangan, ada TV set)

Untangling the Web

Four consecutive days of marathon meeting. And who said that doing a meeting is a walk-in-a-park. Four days, and I'm already this exhausted. Maybe now I should share my worth of 'corporate' wisdom. Seems that I have natural knack about these things (that, if you don't mind I said it so myself hoho..).

In a meeting, it's surprising how you can put a structure in a messy discussion by asking these two simple questions: (1) What is the real motivation for the on-going discussion, and (2) What are the desired goals for doing this. The first is about why we are doing this, what would happen if we're not doing this. The second, more-or-less, is about what should happen if we doing this right.

It's like holding the two end of a messy wire. The rest is about unravel the two ends. Choosing an agreed path, categorizing topics, picking the relevant ones, and weed-out the irrelevants. If the discussion got tangled in between, and this is very common (e.g someone loose sight), just retrace to the agreed points. Well, it's not always that easy.

There are at least four class of items in a discussion topics: (1) the directive agenda, (2) the clarificative informations, (3) the unpredictable issues, and the scarry (4) to-do-list. And never forget the much underestimate hidden determinant of an effective meeting: a minutes meeting.

I see issues that are dissapear or simply forgotten, meeting-by-meeting. Only later, some of it, to blow-up severelly. There's a bunch of books and articles regarding effective meeting, issue management, or project management in general out there. Go find them if you are interested. But for me, the key points in issue management are 4P: (1) piled 'em all in (2) prioritize based on relevance, effort and severity, (3) pick the right person-in-charge, and (4) puh-lease.. a follow-up.

There are various nice electronic collaboration tools that would make the whole process more managable. Surprisingly not many enterprise adopt them. Although in the very-very least, a simple email system would be sufficient.

D'oh! Since when does this blog become Meeting 101. Pardon this illusion of grandeur. Now off you go, muh-head hurts...

The Importance of Being Witty

The first letter I have ever written, is an Email. Well, not really. I do write some manual letter as a kid now and then. But as a serious form of distant communication I do it first with an E-mail. I love the simplicity of it. You just type, edit, and send. No need for paper, no envelope, no sticking your tongue licking stamp, and definitely no walking to nearest postoffice.

We use e-mail so much back then, that even to discuss things with person sit next to you was done by email. Seriously. We have reasons for that of course: (1) to encourage written tradition and promote writing skill, (2) to allow some form of un-attended discussion, and (3) as a basis for factual documentation. The third reason is the utmost. So, if ever in the future we need a reference basis over an argument, we would have it within our mailing system.

Later I learned from one: Cindy, a.k.a. Big-Funky-Mommy, the art of being witty. She always embellishes a letter (an e-mail that is) with tongue-in-cheek remarks. Even a mundane letter of invitation to a weekly meeting became an interesting read, like:

“…PS: those of you who cannot make it to the meeting on time will get no more cookies from mommy and subject to spanking”.

Some of us then begin to try to imitate her way.

And for trying to be witty, she later dubbed me as the cynical one, with bad grammar. Oh, well..

Don't Bore Us, Get to the Punchline

Tiap Minggu siang ada acara bagus di TV. Nggak tau namanya, disebut-sebut sebagai 'Masquerade' atau 'Body Art', TV Show dari Jepang. Acaranya penuh dengan kreativitas, dan gue selalu dapet ketawa tiap kali nontonnya.

Berisi beberapa sesi peserta di panggung. Tiap peserta, bisa satu orang atau lebih, diberi waktu beberapa menit. Mereka menirukan atau memparodikan sesuatu kejadian atau apapun dengan bantuan properti sederhana berupa baju, kain atau kardus. Yang diparodikan macem-macem: suasana di dalam kereta api, baju di dalam mesin cuci, atau atlet yang sedang lompat galah (in slow-motion!).

Sepertinya ada sistem voting dari penonton. Setiap peserta diberi nilai. Paling tinggi 20. Mereka loncat2 seneng banget kalau bisa lebih dari 15, apalagi 20. Nggak tau hadiahnya apatuh. Ini terutama menggarisbawahi pentingnya punchline. Awal-awal boleh hanya bikin terkesima, tapi yang penting endingnya, harus lucu-mencengangkan.

Satu contoh: Adegan tipikal film samurai. Suara seruling. Seorang bushi berdiri takzim di tengah rawa-rawa. Di kelilingi rerumputan, rumpun-rumpun bambu dengan latar bulan bulat besar. Tiba-tiba muncul mengepung tiga ninja berbaju hitam, mengacungkan katana. Sang bushi mengayunkan pedangnya dengan cepat di udara, dua kali. Pedang disarungkan lagi. Hening. Tubuh tiga ninja pelan-pelan terbelah. Kemudian rumpun-rumpun bambu juga terbelah, ...sampai akhirnya sang bulan pun ikut terbelah. (mereka dapet 20)

Books of Days

Read quite a bit lately. Although sometimes it hard to concentrate on what you read with such short span of attention, or when you have this view smack-dab right in front of you. Nevertheless, these are the list of books I currently try to read:

Hundred Events That Shaped World History by Bill Yenne. Always like history books. They, essentially the telling of stories. And reference to historical fact has always been a background flair for good stories. Historical understanding will also add sense of conformity while enjoying a storytelling. Much like The Hundred by Michael Hart, this book is basically a compressed form of world history. Ranked not by the worth of their historical significant but by timeline. Understably the elaboration of events are too short and rather shallow, but they do encompass quite broad subject. From the rise of religions to the rise of science and the wars in between. Informative.

The Essential Guide to Wireless Communications Application by Andy Dornan. This book is surprisingly a good read for me. Thought to be a deep techie book, but instead this book use encyclopedic approach to describe all you need to know about wireless communication. Friendly elaboration of a broad topic, ranging from basic radiowave, data communication, and various cellular technology, up until recent jargon like Bluetooth or WiFi. It also tell me why FM Radio channels always end in odd number (frequency modulation need 200Khz variance) and the hazzard of wireless devices (stimulation, much like drinking coffee). I wish I had access to more books like this.

The Book of Five Rings by Thomas Clearly. This book is translated and compiled version of Musashi's Go Rin No Sho and Yagyu Munenori's The Book of Family Traditions on the Art of War. Notice my key word is try in 'try to read'. Now, you see- I take the book wherever I went. Read in deep contemplative fashion. Try hard to gain understanding of knowledge from ancient wisdom. Huh! Failed miserably. My mind keep wandering elsewere while reading this. Also fail to see the practical points. Either I read it 400 years too late or I'm too darn pragmatic. Next.

Nice Coda Dude

The stranger sang a theme. From someone else's dream
The leaves began to fall. And no one spoke at all
But I can't seem to recall.
When you came along

Observed a neat trick to add spice of poetry in a storytelling. I don't know what this thing is called, but it has something to do with 'coda'. You put one stanza in the prologue and put another one in the epilogue. Both must have strong link in rhyme. It will bring sense of nice closure to it.

To some extent they can even make repetitive superficial reference to the following verses in the body prose. Analogy for this technique can be seen in a movie theme song. They played it in the opening sequence, play it lightly in the background during the story, and finish it in the closing sequence. Much like this.

The tree-lined avenue. Begins to fade from view
Drowning past regrets. In tea and cigarettes
But I can't seem to forget.
When you came along