THE HIP

New PC Yayness!

2010-02-06T20:00:00.000+07:00

After 4 years of being satisfied by using outdated laptop for my gaming and everyday need, I finally able to purchase a full blown medium performance gaming rig. With brainpower of Athlon II X2 245, bloodstream of AMD 785G with 128MB HD4200 integrated graphic , 4GB (!) of RAM, RADEON HD 5770 (!) and some 600 GB Harddisk with integrated sound card. Praise Allah for allowing me to purchase this rig.

I finally able to play 3D RPG games with cool framerates again. My last 3D RPG games is Sword of The New World: Granado Espada (US Version). I remember two years ago that I have to grit my teeth everytime we went clan war and boss raid. I got expelled once from a clan because my laptop can not cope with the load during boss raid. Pity, pity me.

I remember I was baffled because I can not even play Sim City: Society. I know that my life on my Toshiba laptop will be limited to Colonization, and I can not even play Colonization right..not with its stuttering and slowpokeness.

So yeah, I finally decided to bust my bank, liquidify my mutual fund, and contacted a forum recommended PC builder for a spec and quotation. I got the quotation, agreed on the spec, and transfer the fund away. I don't really care if they stole it and runaway. I was that desperate.

And it seems my trust got paid off. I can now play Modern Warfare 2, Risen, Civ IV:Colonization right. Here's hoping that I can play CnC 3 and Last Remnant right too :)

And yeah: Windows 7 rocks!

So, What's Up?

2010-01-19T07:43:00.000+07:00

This is just some random posting, like so many random postings that I have made before. Nothing in particular is themed for this posting. Nothing at all.

Probably a dash of Blackest Night? Shameless, shameless plug there, Zenstrive!

Home Ownership Loan, Syariah Way

2010-01-10T10:19:00.000+07:00

My brain is a wonderful thing. Sometimes ideas just popped out like that after my nerves chew on ideas inputted by my sensory system. One of those ideas today is on how to do home ownership loan, syariah way.

The idea is simple: In Islam, you must not put interests on loan. You can only demand a portion of the ownership of whatever activities that is funded by that loan. Now the trick is for banks not to call it a home ownership loan, but home ownership capital. That way, a bank can demand a portion of home ownership legalized in a form of certification of ownership. The bank can then sell this participation of ownership to investors, for a profit of course. That investors can then claim a portion of profits if the home owner decide to sell the house or rent it.

The catch is the assumption that a price of a house will always increase or there will always be renters. That's a normal assumption, and an assumption that can be justified by the bank or investors: they will not agree to sell a house or rent it if the price is not right.

See, how simple can it be? No interests, no bubbles, no worries.

Forex and Stuffs

2010-01-09T15:49:00.000+07:00

t First Twitter, and then Facebook allow people to express their feelings in short notes. It makes people lazy. It makes me lazy. You see, there are times when I can write long and nonsense articles (just browse around this blog) if you like.

Anyway, I have profited steadily from forex lately. What is forex, you ask? Formally it is an abbreviation of Foreign Currency Exchange, where you can get profit from changing exchange rates of different currencies, mainly US Dollars (USD), Poundsterling (GBP), Swiss Franc (CHF), and Euro (EUR). Forex market is the most liquid and biggest monetary market in the world. It's the biggest, and also the cruelest market you can ever be in. The profits could catapult you to the moon, or drown you to The Mariana Trench. Really, it's that liquid, that scary, and that addictive. Just take a look at me: three times burn out of capitals, but come back for more punishments. So far, I am doing okay for three weeks. Let's see if I can last a year. If I can, and I am on the profit rate that I am in now, well, bye bye 7-5 work. Bye-bye bosses. Welcome lazy life and all day playing.

Hey, one can dream, right? So, if you want to get a taste of forex, register to Marketiva, the best poor man forex broker you can find. It's so poor man's friendly, it gives real US$ 5 dollar and virtual US$ 10000 for you to train with. Train yourself hard, understand the charts, the indicators, and how to put positions. This is my personal tips: learn MACD and the power of compoundings.

So, what else? Oh yeah, I found myself becoming more and more militant on the case of Islam. Not as militant as some terorrists ("Islamic terrorists" are really CIA's work to slowdown the imminent return of Islam as dominant power in 21st century) but militant enough to challenge the minds of those "liberalisms and pluralism thingkers" (read mind terrorists). So hopefully I can help, albeit a little, on culling those vermins and keep Islam pure. Do you know that Liberalist Jews have been having homosexual rabbis for years? True.

Anyway, have a good day :)

Scaffoldings in My Garden

2009-12-27T04:49:00.000+07:00

I live in a row of homes that are attached to one another. We share walls.

About two months ago, the next door's home began an expansion project. It expand the house on the backside and upside. Soon, my lawn got messy from their cements, sacks, cigarette boxes, and debris. One day the foreman came and I asked them, rather furiously, to order his men to clean up my lawn.

One month ago, when I came home, I found that the labors from the next door's home expansion project had erected scaffoldings on my lawn, since they need to do something to the heightened wall of that house. The problem is, nobody told me about this and I got furious and asked the labor who ordered them to erected the scaffoldings. They told me that their foreman ordered them to do it. I asked them why didn't the foreman ask me first. They said because no one was at my home. Then I asked them again would it be polite to erect something on someone's lawn without the owner's permission. They said no. I said pull down the scaffoldings and they did it. I said clean up my lawn from your cements and they did it.

Two weeks ago a new foreman asked me whether they can re-erect the scaffoldings or not and I said no. Not without compensations.

Yesterday the foreman and another guy give me a letter saying that they will clean up any mess caused by the erection of the scaffoldings. I said letter or no letter, scaffoldings or no scaffoldings, IT IS THEIR OBLIGATION TO CLEAN UP ANY MESS caused by their project. There is no mention of compensations of using my lawn on that letter, so I gave them the letter back.

The lady who sold me my house then called me and asked me what's the problem, and I asked her back: would you let someone put a scaffolding on your lawn, without your permissions, and without you being compensated for it? She said no, and I said that's the problem. I also said that my water tandon has not been fixed, my walls has not been repainted, and my garden lamp has not been installed, not to mention the cover for the drain hole on my bathroom has not been installed yet.

And yesterday my ground floor's ceiling was leaking.

So there. The problem have not been resolved yet. What do you think? Would you be furious if someone erect a scaffolding on your lawn without you being told and compensated for?

Pickpocket on The Door

2009-12-22T17:28:00.001+07:00

Jakarta is truly a beast that feeds on the greed of the rich and desperation of the poor. It inhales their hopes and kindness and exhales a mood of gloom.

I have known Jakarta since 1990, almost 20 years ago, and Jakarta back then is the same as Jakarta now: unruly, choking, and exudes excessiveness while proud of being vainglorious.

It's been a while since I am in touch with the low way of lives of Jakarta, live of Metromini, smokers at every corners, and of flooded street and criminals on every spot.

These are my two horrendous experiences when doing so.

One: I almost got rob by the "Door Stoppers". These pickpockets and robbers in neat costumes of shirts and long pants and good shoes do their operations using the fact that a metromini (that orange bus that you see everywhere in Jakarta) has two narrow doors that people can use to get out. Two of these Door Stoppers will block each door when someone has signaled that he wants to go down. They will block this (or these) passenger(s) with every reasons possible. Their friends will then pickpockets or open the zippers of their bags while the passengers panic. You need to bulldoze your way out of the bus if this kind of things happen to me. I did it as soon as a man blocked my door and repeatedly telling the driver to keep on going while I want to go out of the bus. I then knock the bus roof hard and bulldoze my way out through the man. I found my bag's zippers half open. Thanks God nothing was stolen.

Two: I hate smokers, and I hate smokers who SEE that there is a no smoking sign around and STILL SMOKE ANYWAY! God, the IQ of those stupid smokers. You can find it everywhere in Jakarta, even in AIRPORT, and even after the good officers herd them to the smoking areas. I hate smokers, they are the cause that the earth is heating up!

I still hate Jakarta

I Am A Celebrity

2009-12-14T18:30:00.000+07:00

For this year alone, I have been in local newspapers (by local I mean provincial wide) THREE TIMES! The first two are related to photography, and the last one was related to the fact that I spoke in front of 200+ petroleum engineering students, giving them some education, freely.

What have I done to deserve this spotlight? Surely something, right ;) ?

Wohoo! I am celebrity!

Forex Fellowship

2009-12-06T14:06:00.003+07:00

I don't know what to write, but I want to write something, so I write this post.

Let's see, what should I write....

What about my 77%+ loss on Forex last Friday? That is, boys and girls, the result of a forex trader being greedy gambler. When I was being a technical trader, I can change 1.1 to 6.6 in 2.5 months, but when I was a gambler, I changed 1006 to US$ 237 to in a blink of an eye.

Ladies and Gentlemen, if you are forex traders, don't gamble.

What's next?

What about Fellowship? This D&D styled fantasy game is the closest you can get on facebook to playing pen-and-paper styled RPG. It has unique playable races: Faun and Undead. Really, UNDEAD! As in people who has died and decided to be alive again. They are around, normally unliving among the people. One of them even decided to become pharmacists and can be found selling healing potions and magic scrolls. The others are standard Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs. The classes are thieves, mages, knights, warriors, clerics, and hunters. The quests are basic of one single type: monster killing. Looks boring, but strangely this type is addictive to me. I guess fighting and making strategies are two things that can be combined to please me. Try it. it's good.

Another game that is built upon Fellowship engine is Underworld. It feels the same, but using mafia-type characters and quests as its world.

And oh yeah, I have updated comics on my little project. Tales of Vanima Forest, A Present:Tales of Valeshka, and White Dragon are updated. Thanks for your visit there.

The Regression of Soesilo Bambang Yudhoyono

2009-12-04T17:53:00.002+07:00

Once an icon of Indonesia's renewal, Soesilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been slowly regressing into an icon of continuation of the old regime of Soeharto. He bowed down to the wishes of USA, he protected the donors of his party from the trial for corruptions, and he began to lay foundations for his dynasty to rule Indonesia by raising his son into prominence.

His act of quickly kicked out of office two vice chairmen of the Corruption Eradication Comission, Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra, after they were forcefully captured by the police due to charges and quickly installing his own people to replace them showed that SBY wants to put this important Comission under his thrall to be molded as he pleases.

His concerted effort together with Chief of Police and General Attorney quickly ignited a resistance force from 1.3 million of Indonesian facebook users. A man formed a group to support Bibit-Chandra and in two weeks, 1 million people joined the campaign, triggering a media circus of Chief of Police explaining his men acts with stupid logics and legal mumbo-jumbo. During this media circus, the General Attorney also acts like they are sure that Bibit-Chandra accepted a bribe because they have proofs: parking tickets and photos of the cars parked in the supposed place of bribe taking.

One public hearing of some recorded wiretap later, Chief of Police and General Attorney had their collective face smeared by Anggodo, little brother of Anggoro (the chinese taipan who bribed so many people he exiled himself to Singapore, the country that protects corruptors). Anggodo clearly, on some wiretap recordings, can be heard ordering police officers, notably Head of Police Criminal Investigation Bureau, the things he would like to have them write. Soon Anggodo got tangled into the media circus and turn it into a cesspool of lies, deceits, disgusting oaths, and bare stupidities.

And what SBY did was washing his hands off the case and told an ad-hoc "verification comittee" to see to it and give recommendations and then left to enjoy sucking uncle sam's balls.

Even after the comittee gave him some recommendations, SBY didn't do anything but gave speech that give absolutely no clear indications on what he wants to do. SBY, once again, washed his hands off.

He need to stay away from his failing efforts to rule CEC and focusing on evading another potential bomb: The Century Bank Bailout.

6.7 billion rupiahs, roughly 600 million dollars, was poured into a cancerous bank who had shown no good intentions to be healthy and got robbed by its own owner. Said to be done to prevent "cascading failure of economic system", it was shown that the monetary authority had severed several of its own rules to help this stupid bank.

There are rumors that those 6.7 billion rupiahs were sapped through labyrinthine process by Democrat Party's treasurers to be used as their campaign money. If this process got proven, then SBY will fall along with the entire Democrat Party.

SBY swore his innocence and has been dodging this accusations for weeks, without actually giving out proofs of his innocences.

The former governor of Bank Indonesia, now Vice President, had said over and over again that during the turbulent world financial crisis (and surprisingly healthy Indonesia's condition), Century Bank's ailment need to be cured instantly. This didn't sit well with Financial Auditor Authority of Indonesia who found inconsistencies and omissions done by Bank Indonesia in regards of this sick but favored Bank.

If SBY shows no clear acts for both Bibit-Chandra and Century Bank problems, his rule might be seen as tainted and Democrat Party could be well join the Pariah rank of PDIP and Golkar.

That if SBY has not been doing black ops to ensure Democrat Party victory in 2014.

Faith and Sacrifice

2009-11-27T09:17:00.001+07:00

Happy Ied Al-Adha for muslim brothers and sisters all over the world. This is the day when we remember the faithful father who was willing to slit the throat of his beloved son. His faith so unwavering, his son's faith so soothing, and their willingness to follow Allah's Commands to the fault is inspiring. They questioned His Order minimally and did what they are told. For that unwavering faith, they are immortalized by the billions who follow their faiths. Ibrahim and Ismail are the greatest examples of faith so strong they are willing to kill themselves.

But Allah was not willing for a father to kill a son, so he replaced Ismail with a strong, healthy, fat goat. Allah made them pioneer of the rites we Muslims are doing today: sacrifice lambs, goats, cows, camels, and other cattle but not for Allah but for our brothers and sisters who are not so lucky. Allah only want our pure intentions and not the meat and fur of the cattle.

So follow Ibrahim and Ismail, make sacrifices with pure intentions to follow Allah only and you will be rewarded fully!

Good Foods in Balikpapan

2009-10-31T10:51:00.002+07:00

Some of the good eating place in Balikpapan I found after one month living in Balikpapan:

Rawon Empal (meat with black soup): At Balikpapan baru front commercial place, next to an electric shop. Rawon Empal from this place is soooo good it makes me always want to go there. They also sell Soto Ayam and Bakpau (meatbun).

Ayam Goreng Presiden (President Fried Chicken): on Balikpapan Baru Fantasy Junction, try to locate this place. It is on the outer side of the Fantasy Junction near the road that lead to Sungai Ampal. The fried chicken in this place is so delicious it melts my mouth.

Solaria on Hypermart Balikpapan: Rawon in this place is delicious. Try it if you go to Hypermart Balikpapan.

Ayam Goreng Penyet: if you go from Sungai Ampal toward Index Furnishing direction, take a left turn and take the road toward Kimia Farma, but watch out for an eating place offering this ayam goreng penyet (squeezed fried chicken). Good taste, good price.

Seqo Ayam Lawuh Lodo: If you go toward Sungai Ampal from Gunung Guntur or Karang Rejo, don't miss this place. Only open at night, placed right after the motorbike only fuelstation. The spiced fried chicken in this place is top notch!

A Week of Masuk Angin and Et Cetera

2009-10-25T08:43:00.003+07:00

There are lotsa things happening for the last week. Many-many things. Let's see.

From Monday to Wednesday I tried to replace my breakfast of Nasi Kuning (Yellow Rice) with four loaves of bread with jam and peanut butter. I can hold on for three days and but my body went haywire on the third night. At first I thought I was just tired. I reverted back to Nasi Kuning as breakfast but with no luck. For three days my head was pounding with headache. On Friday my back got hurt. This is the classic signs of "Masuk Angin (wind intrusion)". You won't find this in medical reference, this is one of those Only in Indonesia items :)

The medical reference tells me about deposition of lactic acid on my body that is caused by cold draft of air conditioners or winds. Make sense. I drive motorbike each day to get me everywhere and causing me to be pounded by wind drafts on my chest. I have air conditioner on my house to cope with Balikpapan hot and humid climate. Plus, the rainy season seems to have come to Balikpapan.

So I decided to do what traditionally have been done by many people: back scratching. I applied warming balm on my temples, back of my neck, and my back and then scratch those places with a singaporean coin. Not much help there. When my cousin who accompanied me each night came home, I told him to scratch me because I have Masuk Angin. He then scrathed me. The results? I feel better and able to sleep deeper than previous three days. So deep, I awoke this morning at 7 a.m although I slept at 9 p.m last night. I slept for 10 hours. Probably because my body demands those lost sleep hours.

Okay, enough about that.

I lived in a row of newly or being built houses that are built close to each other. My neighboring house on my left has been undergoing expansion for more than week now. The pounding of hammers, the cutting of the woods, the grinding of the grindstones, the screamings of the working labors now accompany me each weekend. Not that I am that bothered with the sounds, I am simply worried that their works will collapse my walls because you can feel their pounding on my walls. Yeah, the house were built that close.

This week also marked my first week returning to after office fun volley ball session after so many weeks absent. It was fun. We play simply for the laughs and to find some good sweat to let go that feel of cold and dryness we get after a day inside a cooled box that is our office. It has been a fun occassion for participants every thursday. Besides biking and walking, this is my only sport ;)

Two guys come to my house yesterday's afternoon. They offered me curtain making to adore and protect my house. I agreed to their offers and but I told them that I can not pay them right away since I have budgeting allocations already for my wedding, my housing loan annuity, and day to day lives. They understand that and will be waiting for my call. Always good to have people with good skills come to offer their services directly at home. I have had a guy offered me to make a canopy on my carport but I refused cause I have no car, just a bike. I also had a guy offered me to make precipitation tank for my water supply but I refused cause the water supply is in adequate quality already.

That's my update as Lord of A Small House :)

Incompetencies and Snobs

2009-10-17T05:47:00.003+07:00

I work for a multinational company that is proud of their excellencies in work ethics and punctualities; a bastion of qualities, if you will. I have been working for this particular companies for a year and four months after having my tenure for other company of the same field but lesser remunerations (and qualities).

This week, from wednesday to thursday, I attented training on MERAK PEEP, a software that help petroleum engineers and business planners to asses the value of a project. It was a good training, both refreshing and eye opening. There are more to this software beyond what I have been doing with it. It's a good training all and all, although the room where the training was done could benefit more from less air conditioning. Felt like I was in the mountain but without the fresh air.

The weather was not altogether sunny. Gloom with heavy rain poured several times during days and nights. Not that I have trouble with the weather. Transports are available on call if I want to go somewhere in the complex where the training was held. They are usually reliable.

But there is no such things as 100% reliable. The last day in the compound, where I was supposed to be picked up at 6.30 a.m, turned out to be a day where incompetencies accumulated. The story goes like the following:

My friend and me have a flight at 9.10 a.m. We need to be at the airport at 8.10 at least to have proper check-in. This being Indonesia and all, you can not at 100% sure that the schedule would go as planned. Sometimes they are late, but surprise surprise, sometimes they are much earlier. So we Indonesian need to go to airport TWO HOURS earlier than flight schedule just to be sure.

So yeah, we wanted to be picked up at 6.30 a.m jut to make sure.

So then it was 6.45 a.m. Several pick up cars went by and none of them were scheduled to pick us up. We were curious, so we call the transport dispatcher. He said the car is rolling.

7 a.m. No cars were coming. My friend go furious and called the dispatcher again and this time they said that the car has just been rolled out. Stupid, my friend said, we clearly ordered 6.30!

7.15. No cars were coming. We got furious. My friend called the dispatcher and unload his anger to him. The dispatcher apologized and said the car was in another location, picking up some guys who are still eating.

At this point our anger welled up.

7.30 the car came, bring with him two other passangers. Young, inexperienced, but looked like spoilt brait and downright snobbish.

So we got in the car, and the driver gave no apologizes whatsoever. I kept my silence, but my friend blew up in anger and got furious with the driver. The driver pointed at his early passangers. Then my friend got furious with the early passangers who looked like a bunch of new recruits with no field experiences and ego as inflated as the wall street before the toxic credits meltdown. My friend lashed out time and time again during the drive from the compound to the airport. He blamed the other passangers for not attentive to the times and for making us suffer because we were forced to skip breakfast and wait for an hour while they enjoy their morning with breakfast. He then looked at the supposed scheduling of the driver and pointed out that the other two passengers supposed to be picked up at 6.30 too but they showed their incompetencies, non-punctualities, irresponsibilites and their insensitivities by ordering breakfast at 6.30 and kept us waiting while they eat.

Finally, after my friend lashed out for half an hour or so, one of the young ones, the snobbiest looking of them, explained that they ordered the car to be arrive at 7 a.m.

So my friend then lashed out at the driver and said why didn't he picked us up first if their schedule was 7 a.m? The driver said it was the dispatcher who told us to pick them first. Then he grunted and got furious with the dispatcher.

At this point, we are not sure whose to blame. The fact is that we were discarded, misinformed, and kept hungry due to the non-punctuality of the transportation.

It was ten minutes after checked in that we are told to board the plane. What if the driver picked us up 50 minutes past 7?We would be discarded even more!

And to our surprise, the snobs were nowhere to be found, so we assumed they are flying with company plane that the passengers supposed to be get picked up by BUS AND NOT BY CAR!

The incompetencies baffled me.

It was good that the driver and those two snobs utter their apologizes, otherwise we would curse them forever.

Miyabi as potential Autocatalyzed Demoralization

2009-10-12T09:55:00.001+07:00

One: By acknowledging that some parts of our college students or college graduates have Miyabi embedded so deep in their culture, deep enough for them to write a story about a storymaker who are so enthralled by Miyabi he wants to kidnap her; deep enough for a filmmaker gang to consider the story worth filming and not hesitant on doing so is so...I don't know, not signaling a good paths on the way the culture of this nation will go forward.

Two: By putting Miyabi, a proven, open wide, full frontal, pornographic cultural icon into our fledgling modern movie industries which already filled with half-baked pornographic elements will potentially be setting back the Indonesian movie industries clock to a decade or two decades ago where the movies produced are either crotch oriented or scream oriented. The industry will fall into a trap of easy movie making instead of going the way of more intelligent movies like Ada Apa dengan Cinta and Merantau. You can point the blame on moviegoers also, but if the industry refuse to go the way of Gadis Metropolitan and strive forward to produce modern, good, and educating movies (hey, even Knocked Up and Pineapple Express is an educating movie, albeit a little "adult"), then the moviegoers will get educated, and soon the entire industri will autocatalyzed into something better.

But if Miyabi is set on stone and make into a trend, then, wow, can not imagine what if there is a story about kidnapping Julia Perez or kidnapping Sarah Azhari in the future.....

Three: The underlying problem about religion, especially in an Islam dominated country, will trigger several morale and cultural debates, aside from obvious religious debates. The fact that some of you already pointed out that it is given that Indonesian people are morally hypocritical is not helping either. Pointing out the obvious is easy, painting people's value by using general stereotype is not helping, and acting like the cultural perversion is not a big thing (everybody does Miyabi, so what?) is aggravating the already confused grass root people.

Where should they go if the rise of Ayat-ayat Cinta and Ketika Cinta Bertasbih 1 and 2 is contemporary with the rise of Paku Kuntilanak and Menculik Miyabi? Where should they go if the rise of Jilbab as fashion trend is contemporary with the coronation of Putri Indonesia who comes from a place traditionally associated with Jilbab but doesn't use one?

The (alas) inevitable arrival of Miyabi should be seen with wary eyes to those who feel that something is amiss in the modern culture of Indonesian middle class. That something is clear moral direction.

Lord of Small House - Brooms, Mops, and Laundry

2009-10-12T04:43:00.006+07:00

A task of any homeowners everywhere is to fill up their houses with things used daily: mops, brooms, ironing tables, chairs, racks for dishes, utensils, etc. I just did this task yesterday, bought everything up in the local Hypermart, a giant hypermarket with everything in it. I bought a hammer, dishwashing sponge, two small boxes, an ironing table, a foldable chair, a broom, a mop, dust collector, small dish rack, naphthalene, clothlines, foldable cloth hanger, etc. Those things make my little house looks more like a house than before ;)

Being a lone lord of a small house, I simply unable to wash my clothes alone and have to send them to a laundry. The way the laundry works is that you put your laundry in, they measure the weight of the whole package and charge you accordingly, and you get them after three days.

That's how it supposes to work.

But the thing is: sometimes they are not able to finish it in three days due to varius reasons such as broken washing machine, crazy weather, etc. I need to very cautious with my clothes and use them as required only. I even need to do laundry on my own underwear on my own least I don't have ones when required. I guess being a lone fighter teaches you to be wary of everything.

My Lot

2009-10-09T18:43:00.001+07:00

I am now proclaiming that I have a myLot User Profile

That's it. Enjoy.

My real lot, however, is at the biggest private housing complex in Balikpapan, Balikpapan Baru :)

I Am Stories

2009-10-08T18:38:00.002+07:00

For the past few years, I have been thinking that my true life is to tell stories to people. I love thinking about stories. I also love to simply does random story telling in my head, for my own pleasure. It feels that stories I composed and played in my head are my own tranquilizer, my crack, my dope, my weed. I feel calm after playing them.

Is there any psychological explanation for such condition? No? Then let me compose a story about it anyway, on my own term, for my own pleasure.

There are stories in my head I wish to share to all. This is one of them. Tales of Vanima Forest is a tale of high fantasy set on a world called Earth, where sentient races live and fight to continue for their lives. It features Elves, Orcs, Gnomes, Dwarvs, Goblins, Trolls, and Humans, twenty thousands years since the fall of the Split Star.

Please follow it :)

Hanging There

2009-10-07T08:13:00.002+07:00

There is nothing more shameful than to see the representatives of people DOZING OFF on their first day of the job.

I simply can not understand the mentality of these so called representatives. They spent billions of rupiah each month to enrich themselves and they can not, at least, sit right up and be sober on their jobs.

I simply can not understand...

But what I can understand is the fact that they do something hard, and that something is not being a representative, but being the henchmen of some cabal of manipulative bastards (read: the army and their protected businessmen).

They are like a plague that needs to be get rid of. 550+ people spending billion of rupiah each month for nothing but messing with the executive branch.

The Lost

2009-10-06T03:25:00.000+07:00

Being lonely at night, in a two storied house with two bedrooms and a bathroom, one can somehow get the feeling that he is, in fact, kinda lost.

Lost in his loneliness. Lost in a place no one is seeing. Lost in a place some people would call depressive.

Somehow, I simply love being lost. Being lost sometimes can force me to think, and when I am forced to think, I will simply move. When I move, no one can stop time till I got exhausted or I simply lost the drive behind what I do.

Lately I have been thinking that I lost something that keeps me going. But after awhile, I came to the conclusion that I didn't lose anything, I simply burdened by something I am kinda opposite to. That something is growing up. Become responsible. Become planner for the future. Prepare self for making a family.

Grow up.

For some, growing up could simply mean becoming lost in a world that they have never know how to adapt. For me, growing up is a progress I need to take slow.

But the world has never allowed me to go slow and force me to stroll along in a continuous path. Move here, do that, do this, come here, go there, up, down, left, right, stay, move.

After thinking for awhile, I come to conclusion that I somehow need to get lost. To shed myself of the burden of growing up and take responsibility. For awhile, not forever. Little time to find my core, to truly root myself to something stable.

To truly know who I am and what I need to be, I need to be lost.

To seek guidance from within, I need to let go of the hands that have been holding me.

To truly become me, I need to undo my current self.

I need to become The Lost.

Sunday Walk is For The Health

2009-10-05T09:59:00.004+07:00

Got out of home yesterday, 6.30 in the morning. The sky is cloudy. The housing complex streets were empty. My feet were anxious. So I put on my training and shoes and walk out. Simply walk, enjoying the idle morning and also trying to get to know my new habitat.

It turns out there was an aerobic session held in Fantasy Junction area of Balikpapan Baru. I don't know if that session is weekly or just that. I hope it's weekly cause I think I need to do aerobic.

It turns out my housing complex is only one of so many housing complex that form a megacomplex. There are Balikpapan Baru housing complex, Regional Government (PEMDA) housing complex, WIKA housing complex, and so on. I started from one of BB housing complex cluster and ended up on the mouth of PEMDA housing complex.

It turns out that each sunday morning food stalls are already open. There are various food stalls available for hungry morning walkers like me. I chose two portions of Nasi Kuning (Yellow Rice) complete with chickens and boiled eggs. One for me and one for my cousing who keeps me company each night.

After I bought the nasi kuning for breakfast, I walked home, sweaty and all. Got home, and I eat one portion of the nasi kuning and drink water, sweat pouring from my pores. The thing with me is that I hardly sweat during walking or running, but AFTER walking or running and stop will I sweat. A lot. Especially if I eat something spicy afterward. Hot spice (chili, pepper) and me are enemies.

Well, it was a healthy sunday walk. I think I will try walking again this afternoon, just to try.

Gray Sky Is Not Humanly

2009-10-03T06:48:00.003+07:00

For a week now I have been under a gray sky here in Balikpapan. I have told you about the burning woods in South and Central Kalimantan, and those burnt woods are still smoldering smokes and the fire is still raging. Smoke is nowhere to be gone, even after reaching second week of smokefest.

Now the sky is grayed even more with the rain that came down almost non-stop from wednesday night to friday night. The gray clouds are still hanging outside my windows now, adding the mood of laziness to this already mostly silent neighborhood.

Gray Sky Is Not Humanly.

As I rode my motorbike yesterday, the thought came to my mind. Not only does the gray sky add the overall feeling of gloom to the emotions of human underneath it, but it also reduces the colors of live, and if it persists, the feeling of laziness soon strike the heart of humans that look at it.

It is as if humanity is powered by the yellow sun, and gray cloud are the inhibitor of that power.

As for motorbike riders like myself, we think the gray cloud that hang above us as a spectre of potential hazards. The only things protecting us from torrent of rains that can come down suddenly are the clothes on our bodies and the helmets on our heads. We need to pull over to pull our respective rain deterrent equipments, but that's if we can pull over. If not, then we will be unceremoniously bathed in rain that pierced our bodies as we speed up to reach our destinations and risking to have tire slips or other kind of accidents caused by our helmet visor mostly covered by rain or the slippery roads.

And in motorbike dominated roads of Balikpapan, the potential of having accidents during rain is multiplied.

And I pray that the rain that was hitting my face as I speed up was not carrying acid that was born out of the reaction of the burning woods smoke and cloud-borne moisture.

Overall, Gray Sky Is Not Humanly.

Fire in The Forests, Quakes in the Waves, Tears in Their Eyes

2009-10-01T09:31:00.002+07:00

Indonesia is a country marred in disasters ever since Soesilo Bambang Yudhoyono (popularly known as SBY) took office. First the gigantic Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami that killed hundred of thousands of Aceh people. Then quakes in other major islands of Indonesia such as Java and Sulawesi. Then forest fires. Then mudslides. So on and so on.

Following the Great 21st century Eearthquake, there has been a chain of non-stop Earthquakes happening in west coasts of Sumatra. The latest one was yesterday afternoon. 7.8 Richter scale Earthquake hit West Sumatra Province and has cause unmeasurable damages to the infrastructures and lives of people of West Sumatra.

Condolescences to them.

It will always feels devastating to see people uprooted from their homes, forced to cope with the elements with minimal equipments to do so.

It will always feel devastating to see children, innocent children, being exposed to ruins, elements, and overall feeling of glooms.

It will always feel devastating to see people having Natural disasters in their live.

And it will always feel enraging to see a head of a country, be it a president or a despot, happily, merrily enjoying his trip abroad while his people, his supposed masters, are in suffering.

SBY is having a leisure time in the USA, doing God knows what after G20 meeting and Harvard speech. Probably begging for more money. Probably plotting more conspiracies. Probably both.

Probably he doesn't know or doesn't care that the day before West Sumatra quakes, Jakarta began to suffer electrical brownouts due to a huge transformers went down and take Jakarta with it while giving out billowing smokes.

Probably he doesn't care that days before he left, Kalimantan (a.k.a Borneo) island, the largest island of Indonesia, has also been billowing celestial amount of smoke resulted from "forest fires". This gargantuan smoke has been blanketing Kalimantan for days, making the usually blue sky of Balikpapan gray. Gray sky that reminds me so much of the cursed polluted sky of Jakarta.

It gives me headache simply thinking about it.

Indonesia is country marred in disasters.

Lord of The Small House

2009-09-30T07:11:00.004+07:00

2 years ago, when I left this blog to mess around in Multiply and then Facebook, there was nothing, nothing, that could trigger something on my mind to purchase a house of my own.

But all was changed when I got a much, much better job from what I had that time. Three times the salary and in a city where there are malls but the traffic is not as horrendous as Jakarta. So I then moved to Balikpapan, where the air is clean and the beach is close to home and the traffic is not as killing as Jakarta.

I stayed for a month on a hotel first, courtesy of my new company. Then I moved to a rented room from June to August, then moved to rent a room on my auntie's home.
Come February, I met with a girl. A daughter of my father's friend's sister. An angel wrapped in a beautiful, tall, and slim body. I fell in love instantly.

I then visited her in her home in May, 2009. Got asked by her uncle, the leader of her larger family from her mother side, whether I am serious with her or not.

I said I do. So he asked me to propose.

A month later, I proposed. Got accepted by her large family.

Later that month, almost suicidally, I bought a house. A small house, two stories with two bedroom and a small bathroom. 75 meter square of building area and 140 meter square of land area.

September 2009, I moved out from my auntie's house and moved to this house.

My own house. It feels great. My own house! Finally!

After almost 30 years living in provided-by-company houses or parent's houses or rented rooms or relatives houses, having your own house is an enlightening experience.

Enlightening, because you need to quickly adapt and learn all there is about having your own house.

Such as:
Where are the furnitures? Oh...I need to buy them.
What the hell happening with the water? Oh, I need to call the fix-it guys.
What the hell is that noise? Oh, it's the sound of the gypsum reacting to the air conditioner's cold.
Why are the grasses so tall? Oh, I need to cut it off.

So much I.

Well, living in a house of my own on my own, I will have so many things I need to do by myself.

Thanksfully, I chose to buy a house in a housing complex that already matured and have shopping distric nearby. In that shopping district, there is a 24 hrs supermarket so I can just grab my motorcycle and drive there in the middle of the night if I need to. But then again, I don't need to since that place also have delivery service for items I need. So I simply need to call them and have the items delivered.

While I wash my clothes.

Remember that I need to buy my own furnitures? That apply to household appliances too! I have bought the fridge, the gas stoves, the water dispensers, the rice cooker, the iron,but I am yet to buy a washing machine. So I still wash my clothes by hand.

And hung them on my Manfrotto 682B self-standing monopod, one end on the window frame and the other end on the top of my plastic wardrobe. I was going to let the air conditioner dry them up, but I realized that would probably put humidity on my air conditioner faster and could have mold grown on them. So I simply opened the window.

Oh well. Need to wait if they are dry when I got home. That'd be the time when I wash the other clothes and then Iron the ones that are dry.

It's good to be the Lord of Your Own House :)

Paranoid Singapore

2007-04-09T03:19:00.000+07:00

Be careful at Changi.

I got this email from a friend's multipy who got it from a satrioarismunandar@yahoo.com

Apologies if you've read this email.

Regards
--
Eko Prasetyo

A FAMILY HOLIDAY RUINED BY ILLOGICAL SECURITY OFFICERS

Dear Mr. Foo,

My name is Sandra Tan (I/C number 7328669G). It is with great disappointment and distress that I am filing a complaint to you with regards to my situation.

My family (including myself, my husband, my daughter, and my son) planned a Darwin holiday for the March school vacation period and was supposed to depart on 09 March. Unfortunately, we were put in a situation by the security officers at the departure terminal, that was way beyond our control and we were not able to make our trip. The following is an account of what had happened: -

I entered the Immigration gantry at about 7.15pm with my daughter (Belle Lee, 13 yrs old) to have our passport scanned and our hand carry luggage checked whilst my husband (Lee Ming Chong) stayed behind with my son (Caius Lee, 8 yrs old) at the ticketing counter to sort out my son's visa.

After having mine and my Belle's passport scanned, we proceed to the security gantry to have our hand luggage and our bodies scanned. Belle passed the security gantry first, whilst I followed right behind her. A lady officer asked me to remove my boots for scanning, and I did as told immediately and put my boots inside the basket provided, for it to be scanned together with my hand luggage.

I then proceed to the metal detector of which I cleared without the gantry beeping or detecting any metal objects. I was then asked to collect my luggage and my boots. In the mean time, Belle was throwing away a sweet wrapper and retuning to me and saw me putting on my boots.

Belle then asked casually "Mummy, why do you have to remove your shoes?"

Whilst putting on my boots, I replied her and said that "they (the security officers) are afraid that we might keep bombs in our shoes (which is why I need to take it off to have it scanned)"

Immediately, a security officer standing at the conveyor belt (Stephen S Naidira) who was standing in front of me said with a very rude tone "repeat what you just said". I clarified with him what he meant - is it for me to repeat what I had told my daughter? He said loudly again, to repeat what I had just said. So I did exactly what he told me. I said to him that "my daughter asked me why I need to take off my shoes, and I told her that you guys (the security officers) are afraid that we will keep bombs in our shoes."

He immediately asked me to stand aside and said that he had to report it to his superior that I said the word "bomb" twice. Then an Indian lady (Sivamalar) at the customs started hurling at me and my daughter and said that I said the word "bomb" twice and it is against the law and I can be sent to jail and they are calling the police.

She (Sivamalar) was so loud and rude and she shoved us to the side, and refused to listen to my explanation. In fact, she got so aggressive that another officer Ricky Lim (I guess it's her supervisor) had to come forward to stop her from further attacking me and my daughter verbally, and specifically asked Sivamalar to "shut up". I told Ricky Lim that I would like to know the names of his staff because their attitude and rudeness were simply beyond any acceptable level.

Immediately Sivamalar got so angry and aggressive that she started charging at Ricky Lim and hurled "What?! What?! What?! She (she meant me) said the word "Bomb" twice, so what is wrong with arresting her (which is me) and we were told that if we heard the word twice, we will arrest!!"

At that time, Stephen S Naidira came to me again to intimidate me further by asking me to repeat what I said earlier to my daughter again. I refused to repeat again then because I believe he was deliberately asking me to repeat so that he can count the number of times that I mentioned the word "bomb".

I also believe that that the officers were deliberately provoking me by being rude and intimidating, in the hope that I will retaliate in kind, thereby making their unreasonable actions justifiable.

Despite my anger and the fact that my daughter was scared to tears by the situation, I knew I had to keep my cool. I sat aside with my daughter taking down names of the personnel involved on my mobile phone. I was told to wait for another officer of a higher rank to decide on the matter, and I was still hoping whoever the higher ranked officer that was coming will have the logical thinking to acknowledge that what I had said to my daughter was a simple, harmless private conversation taken completely out-of-context.

At about 7.30pm, the Sergeant-in- charge, Amran Buang came. After I explained the full context of the incident to him, he refused to make a decision and decided to escalate it further to the Auxiliary Police and State Police. He said that the word "bomb" is very sensitive and I should not have mentioned it twice.

I explained to him that I did not know saying the word "bomb" is against the law, and I further explained that I did not say the word "bomb" in a threatening context to the officer, the word "bomb" was taken completely out of context as part of an answer to my daughter's question.

Despite my explanation, he said he cannot make the decision and my case has to be escalated to higher authorities.

Meanwhile, at about 7.40pm, my son's visa cleared and my husband and my son came in through the customs. After knowing what had happened, my husband tried to talk to Sergeant Amran Buang, further explaining to him that we are just a family going on holiday and what I have said to my daughter had been taken out of context. Again, no one was bothered to listen.

And again, we were told to wait for another officer with an even higher ranking. With time ticking away and at 7.55pm with no sign of the higher authorities appearing, we knew then our hope of boarding our flight had diminished.

Whilst waiting, Stephen S Naidira (the security officer) gathered with a few security officers at the side, including Sivamalar to discuss how they should present their statement to the police when they arrive later to make sure that they are adequately covered, and that they are just following the rule and doing what they were told to do. They said by insisting that they are taking actions "by-the- book", they would be ok.

I hope by now you have a clear picture of the situation. My kids were both crying then, with more and more policemen arriving which scared the living daylights of them, and with no hope to continue our holiday plans.

I believe every action inside the terminal is recorded and I would insist that your review the CCTV recordings on that night to know that I am only stating the truth without exaggeration. You can also see that during the entire episode, I was not at any point defiant or rude or refused any further check by the officers, despite the infuriating situation that me and my family were put through.

I know it is important to stay vigilant to protect Singapore. I have young children, I know how important it is, which is why I complied without complaining when I had to remove my boots for scanning. However, here is an obvious case of the security officers trying to get away with their rudeness and aggressiveness by taking things way beyond what was necessary, in the name of following the security protocol.

They were really angry when I asked for their names from Mr. Ricky Lim, and they knew very well then that they can abuse their power to make things very difficult for me and my family.

At around 8.05pm, we were informed by the Tiger Airways personnel that the plane will have to depart and they will off-load our luggage from the plane. At around 8.10 p.m., the State Police and other policemen arrived to take our statement.

In the entire episode, the State Police and the SWISS PORT personnel were the only ones who conducted themselves professionally and offered us consolation and meaningful advice. They have also at some stages expressed their personal views that they acknowledged this incident was gravely mis-handled on the part of the security officers.

The State Police further confirmed that there is no case against us, and they would just need to complete the paperwork.

The Budget Terminal manager came to meet me and said that whilst he empathized with our situation, it is an airport security protocol and frankly, it's "just too bad" that this happened to us.

My statement and my daughter's statement only completed at about 10.45p.m. The counter service staff, Ms Nur Aisah Bte Ali Hassan was very helpful and advised us on our next steps. She was kind enough to ask us to return the next day to change the traveling dates and advised the additional charges involved.

I am not given a report for this case, but my case number with the State Police is P/20070309/0015. I was already told by the State Police that the case is closed without further action.

For the ordeal that my family had been put through, I would want an official reply from CAAS and all relevant authorities addressing the following:

-Whether the security officers were trained to handle passengers with such bad attitude and rudeness and if such actions by them are condoned by authorities. I would insist you to refer to the CCTV recordings during the period of the incident.

What actions would be taken by CAAS and all relevant authorities with reference to both the security officers, Mr. Stephen S Naidira ad Ms. Sivamalar, for their unruly behavior and attitude? Surely, characters as such do not belong to a national airport that aspired to be a world class traveling hub.

What actions would be taken by CAAS and all relevant authorities with reference to Sergeant Amran Buang, who had the authority to end this episode promptly, but instead decided to prolong our ordeal for no justifiable cause?

Is it a protocol that even after establishing the facts that we, as a family poses no security threat, there is still a need to escalate the matter to the authority and have the State Police and other policemen carry out a full investigations only to end up in vain?

Why is it that even at level of Sergeant, whom I reckon is better educated, experienced, and able to make logical sense of the whole situation, refuse to make a simple decision and end our ordeal quickly? Is this a Singapore civil service practice where decision making is pushed and shoved from one level to another no matter how obvious what the final decision should be from the very beginning?

Whether all the officers concern are properly trained and competent to handle such situation. Besides hardware (i.e. the protocol book), are they taught to apply the software (i.e. common senses)?

Is it really a protocol that as long as the word "bomb" is mentioned twice by a person (once being asked to repeat by the officer)??Then no matter what context, tone, situation and profile of the person who said it, it would not be taken into consideration?

What if my daughter instead of asking me a simple question about my shoes, decided to say: "mummy, according to news report, there are speculations that the recent Indonesian air crash may be attributed to a bomb inside the plane." Would your security officer would come up to her and ask her to repeat one more time, and she would be put under arrest?

Your staff kept telling me that saying the word "bomb" in the airport is illegal and I can go to jail. They quoted newspaper examples of how people have gone to jail because of that.

I think your staffs need to be trained to understand and differentiate situations and circumstances. As far as I knew, the people that went to jail had VERBALLY THREATENED staff members in the aviation service or had DELIBERATELY caused public alarm using sensitive words.

My case was clearly none of the above. Even if, I am saying if, indeed its illegal to mention the word "bomb" in the airport no matter what context, the person involved need to be warned ahead of time. You cannot arrest a person for committing something illegal when the person has no idea that the word is illegal in the first place.

Your staff could have given me a verbal warning to say that such sensitive words should be refrained in the airport and I would have walk away remembering the warning. But instead, they decide to let the matter escalate further.

Who is to compensate for the expenses that are already incurred and forfeited for this trip, and our emotional stress and duress during the entire episode?

The total cost incurred, including air tickets, accommodation, and land tours amount to about $4,200. We had to put up with hours of humiliation with more than twenty policemen and officials surrounding us, questioning us, checking our luggage through and through.

We had put up with never-ending questioning from different departments, and best of all, repeated checks on my same pair of boots. My kids were terrified, puzzled, disappointed and exhausted from this entire ordeal.

My husband and I are left with one week of applied leave and no vacation and holiday to look forward to.

I would like to state that not everyone that we came across in this episode had been unpleasant. I wish to take this opportunity to express my gratitude for the empathy shown by the State Police and the SWISS PORT personnel.

I will be waiting for your reply. Please let me know when to expect it in email. In the mean time, I may seek legal advice for my rights and entitlement in this incident.

Yours sincerely

Sandra Tan Hong Lian I/C: S7328669G Blk 148, Tampines Ave. 5 #04-284, Singapore 521148 Mobile: 81236990

Canon Powershot TX1

2007-03-07T18:58:00.000+07:00

I am a sucker for Canon's Digicam, so the moment I saw this baby, I am instantly in love!! Man, 10x zoom (!) digital camera that can do hi-res movie and sized nothing like its bulky 10x zoom brethrens! Gotta have this one! But first, another Canon, but this time Canon Pixma MP800!