don't worry be happy

My friend show me a picture. The picture itself, a funny cartoon character, is not important (I like cartoons though). It is the texts that interest me. It says:

Remember the five simple rules to be happy:
1. Free your heart from hatred
2. Free your mind from worries
3. Live simply
4. Give more
5. Expect less

This is a good reminder, indeed. Be happy, everyone. Give me a big smile :)

message from the president

After lunch, I met with some people to do field work. Suddenly the cellphone of one of the worker beeping. There was an incoming short message. Guess what? It was a (unsolicited) message which the sender stated as "Presiden RI", the President of the Republic of Indonesia. The message says

Stop penyalahgunaan dan kejahatan Narkoba sekarang. Mari kita selamatkan dan bangun bangsa kita, menjadi bangsa yang sehat, cerdas, dan maju.

Stop drug's misuse and crime now. Let's save and build our country to become a healthty(?), smart(?), and advance(?) nation (thanks to Nana for forwarding that message to me; sorry for the rough translation; and for a screenshot of the message, you can see on Jay's posting). It is true that a couple of days earlier, the President has announced the presidential number for short messaging so that people can send one directly to the President, or at least someone close enough to him. Questions: Are these messages that people receiving real? Are there no other more important messages than drug problem? And I wonder how much profit PT.Telkom made just by the President sending short messages. And can it be considered SMS spamming? No offense Mr. President, but sending short messages to other people randomly and unsolicitedly is not quite polite (except in case of emergency or national security?). So people, what will you do if you are the one receiving it? I, myself, maybe saving it to my memory since this may be a rare moment when the President sending me message. Thank you, Mr. President, but not too often please.

UPDATE: Well, it seems that it is really the presidential short message (should we call it, SMS One?) as you can read it in Kompas Cyber Media. And I've just chat with my friend. I get a new perspective from this case. That this (or maybe other things too) can be considered special case. Although by definition what the President doing may be categorized as spamming, but we must considered what most people feel upon receiving such message. Don't you think most of the people will be happy receiving message from "Presiden RI"? What the President and his team need is a "little" thing that fair for ALL the receivers. Option. Whether we want it or not, should be the receivers choice, not the sender. That "little" thing would have made so much difference. But spam or no spam, I will stand by my word above. IF I receive such message, I will keep it. Happily, Mr. President, but not too often please :)

a fresh new sidebar

Okay, it's not actually "new". I've just re-organized it's layout and content. For a better look and easy to use, I hope. The biggest difference would be the Google AdSense. Maybe this is the only kind of advertisement that I can tolerate having it on my blog. I have been using several AdSense layout, big, small, back to big, and now I am using two rather big layout. I somehow you feel disturbed by the advertisement, feel free to give me some advice (I could use a good one). Next would be the banner below the profile box. I find it as a good place to put a banner. Maybe not a commercial one, but something like Technorati Live 8. Last, I have change the appearance of my blog links. I've made it more.. compact. To save more space and to reduce the scrolling down activity. So, this sidebar now is different. I don't know anything about freshness. But I certainly hope it will not stop all of you from coming to this blog from time to time, reading from post to post. Thank you.

rainy saturday

It's been a clear blue sky at the morning, but dark-grey-cloudy at noon. Eventually the rain poured down in the afternoon. I wonder if the people in southern area of Bandung got flooded. I hope not.

My friend and I stop by a shop that sells iPod. I think it was a great inovation by Apple. It has functions as well as good look. Although iPod hasn't been popular in Bandung, I wonder if someday everyone will be using the white earphones.

Today is the opening of Bandung's Pasupati Fly-Over. A time-consuming project. Built to reduce the traffic-jam problem in this city. But as Sisil said in her blog, the first impression was not good. I hope it will work out fine soon, or it will just be a sore in the eyes.

Twenty-six years old Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) did it again in MotoGP in Assen. He wins for the sixth time, that is the fifth in a row. Although Honda engine believed to be more powerful, it is the skill of the riders that matters. Yamaha should be thankful to have Rossi on their side. Read more here >>

introspection

Pronunciation: "in-tr&-'spek-sh&n
Function: noun
Etymology:

1. Latin introspectus, past participle of introspicere to look inside, from intro- + specere to look
2. a reflective looking inward : an examination of one's own thoughts and feelings

When you are walking/running your life, maybe it is best for you to give yourself a chance, a time, to stop for a while and do this. Introspection. Looking inward. Examining one's thoughts and feelings. Compromising. There are hopes and dreams. There is also reality. Negotiating. Reality should not holding your pace. Hopes and dreams should be challenging, not burdening. Life is not always about running but also enjoying every step you make. Don't think just feel. You lose something, didn't do lots of thing. But you also gain more things and do many wonderful things. Life's like this. Everybody has their own "mission" in life. And everything you do has purpose in it. You are special. To be able to live your life another day, to be able to wake up in the morning, it is a gift. To be able to feel pain, sadness, misery is making you realize that you're alive. In the end you should be realizing how fortunate, how beautiful your life is. Hopefully. Eventually. Thank God for giving me another day to live in.

Now move on with your life. And I'll do the same with mine.

musical baton

I got this Musical Baton from Nana. I am not sure what this is, but since I do have some spare time I said "Why not?". So here we go.

My music collection contains of many kind of music. From old song to the latest. There are pop, rock, jazz, ballads, instrumental. There are Indonesian, Western, Japanese. Bottomline is I don't listen to a specific kind of music. I hear whatever I like :)

Total volume of music on my computer:
There a couple of hundreds songs in my computer. But I do have more songs on CDs.

The last CD I bought:
The Corrs Live in Dublin.

Song playing right now:

1. Ayumi Hamasaki
2. Do As Infinity

Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me:
There are many, but I have to choose 5,

1. Superman (It's Not Easy) -- Five For Fighting
2. Jejak Langkah -- Tohpati feat. Glenn Fredly
   
3. Damainya Cinta -- GIGI
4. Blurry Eyes -- L'Arc-en-Ciel
5. At Your Side -- The Corrs
   

Five people to whom I'm passing the baton:

• Budi
• Hanindyo
• Alice
• Linda
• Vilen
  

live 8

When I blogwalking through Joi Ito's blog, something caught my attention. There's a "movement" in the blogosphere to help the campaign Make Poverty History. On their site, they said that "It's a chance for ordinary people to call on world leaders at this year's G8 summit and tell them to put a stop to the needless deaths of 30,000 children every single day." For your information, the G8 summit mentioned will be held on July 6th, 2005 in Scotland. For me, this is quite extraordinary for us in the "virtual world", the blogosphere to be able to participate in something big such as the G8 summit. Thanks to Technorati and Live 8.

I don't know if this will work, but I always interested in the issue of helping developing countries. I just hope that my participation in this campaign may help, even for a bit, and may the voice of the blogs will be heard.

Technorati Tags: live8

most popular blog

Have you ever wondered, who/what is the most popular blog in the world? And how can it be measured?

Well, I find something in Technorati. It seems that they ranked blogs, measured by links as they said in their page: "Popular Blogs. The biggest blogs in the blogosphere, as measured by links." Fair enough. Although there are many reasons to put a link to your site, but indeed the more links you have on your blog, it can only mean one thing. That your blog is popular. So here is the top 10 most popular blogs (in blogosphere):

1. Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things
2. Instapundit.com
3. Daily Kos
4. Gizmodo
5. Drew Curtis' FARK.com
6. Engadget www.engadget.com
   
7. Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall
8. Davenetics* Pop Media Web
9. Eschaton
10. dooce

For your information, the number 1 blog has 15,458 links. Amazing. And some blogs that I read actually are quite popular. Jason Kottke in number 14. Scobleizer in number 30. Joi Ito in number 54. Stopdesign in number 69. Seth Godin in number 89. For comparison purpose only, Indonesian blogger Priyadi are in the number 4,751 Technorati rank. Goblogmedia rank in number 52,726.

As for this blog, my blog, I only rank as the number 206,775. It doesn't matter actually since I don't blog for fame or fortune (yet?). But it is quite fun to see my blog ranked. How about you?

UPDATE: Something just crossed my mind. I am curious. Who/what is the number one Indonesian blog according to Technorati? If anyone happens to know the answer, would you mind sharing it here?

a fresh new look

As I browse through the Blogger template collection, I found an interesting one. There's a template named Minima, designed by Douglas Bowman, the same person who design my previos template (Rounders). This could be the template that come closest to what I've been writing in "is it possible?". So, I've decided to give my blog a new look. Here it is. Still under many development of course, but I hope all of you can enjoy it. And as I've always said to Budi, "In minimalist design, there's almost no difference between the genious and the lazy" Ha!

UPDATE: I've also change my blog's font, from the original Georgia to Arial. Although lately I've been using Trebuchet, I find it disturbing in a long post. So I'm using the font that I used in my school-days, Arial. Back to the old days, back to the minimalist.

english or indonesia?

Ga kerasa, ternyata udah ada 3 posting saya yang ditulis dalam bahasa Inggris. Antara sengaja dan ga sengaja batasnya tipis. Kadang-kadang memang saya merasa lebih nyaman menuangkan pikiran dalam tulisan berbahasa Inggris (terlepas dari grammar yang berantakan dan vocab yang ga banyak). Ada kalanya saya merasa bahasa Indonesia tidak efisien untuk menulis. Ah, tapi saya rasa dalam berbahasa dan menulis, efisiensi bukan yang utama bukan? Menurut saya, bahasa yang baik adalah ketika maksudnya bisa tersampaikan dengan baik. Jadi kalo saya nulis dalam bahasa Inggris kacaw, atau saya nulis bahasa Indonesia yang agak slang, asalkan kalian yang baca masih bisa ngerti, no problem kan? (tuh malah kecampur antara Indonesia, Inggris) Atau malah kadang-kadang bisa juga kecampur dengan bahasa Sunda hahaha, ya sudah lah.. dinikmati saja. Just Relax, everyone!

wordpress, mac, 24hrs internet

Right now, I don't have them (yet). I was considering to move this blog to a WordPress-blog. There is nothing wrong with free-blog like Blogger, but I guess I am the type of guy who wants more with less money spent (if you haven't heard about it before, WP is an open-source blog engine). I also have been waiting to trade my PC with Mac (any kind, but for financial-reason Mac Mini would be more realistic). As for 24hrs internet connection? The internet-service-provider here still put a high-price tag on it. Can you imagine blogging with dial-up internet connection and a PC? I can and I did and I assume this is what most Indonesian blogger doing all this time. (Oh, when will we have the chance to get a hand on cheap-reliable-cheap-broadband-24hrs-did I mentioned cheap already-internet connection?). So, I am planning, waiting, dreaming to have a fast and 24hrs internet connection, a powerful and reliable computer and a blog that I can fully-customized. Just the way I want it to be :)

blackout

it's a blackout, what do you expect to see?

Sunday night, when I'm spending the last of my weekend time in front of my computer, suddenly the power went off. It was a total blackout. I think it was a power failure from central since one of my friend experience the same thing. It was late in the night and it was dark. So what should we do? In the good old times, I would usually pick some candles and lit it (the process of lighting the candle up is fun, and putting it out is even more fun, it's like having another birthday). Now, I just pick my cellphone (which haven't finished its battery-charging) and turn on the light. Next, I could have been thinking about our rights as a consumer (if we have one). Instead, I thought "Hm, so this is the closest thing we can get to feel blind" (there must be something we can learn from everything that's happening, right?). And instead of wasting my time by cursing the government, I know a way to do something useful... thinking of writing it all into a blog-posting. (And if this went longer than I thought, I could always use more sleep time).

What did I learn from yesterday?
I learned that now people can't "live" without electricity (and I cannot write this post without one). I learned that business monopoly is not good for the consumers. I learned that the people in Bandung are very tolerant (were there any complaints?) or they just tired of complaining. I learned that when the visual sense is not active, it is true that other sense will be more sensitive. When you can't see, you can always "hear" and "feel" the night. And while this "incident" should not be happening next time, I do realize that this kind of moment also have its benefit. If the lights in the city went off, I can see the star more clearly :)

(A couple of minutes later, the power went on.. my thought about blogging about this stopped, and I turned my computer on again only to find that later on that night.. the power went off for the second time. That moment I've decided to went to bed no matter what)

is it possible...

... to build a blog without lines?

Theoretically, yes. While it seems impossible to build a blog without text, it is possible to build one without any lines on it. Yes, it might sound weird and didn't make sense to you, but maybe you should free your mind. Lately, I've been encouraging one of my friend to do so (making a blog without lines). In my opinion, a border in your blog doesn't have to be composed of lines. Your text can also designed to make a good border. For example, if you are reading this post, I am using justified-text-alignment. Even without the line-border, your mind (should) perceived the text as a box (isn't it? well, it should be hehe). And now, that my encouragement has succeed, you may want to see its result. Just click here for an example of it. It still doesn't look good since it is still under development every day, but should be enough for now.

p.s. that blog actually still has lines on the linked-text :) but for now this is as close as it can be to a lineless blog, isn't it?

once more for the finals

2005 NBA Eastern Conference Finals Det(3) - Mia (3)

lima ribu rupiah saja

Hari ini, pulang kantor saya ikut dengan mobil Yonald (nebeng pulang mobil triple-x hehehe). Sebelumnya saya mampir dulu ke ATM untuk ambil uang. Ada satu orang sedang ngantri. Cukup lama juga orang yang di dalam ngambil uangnya. Beberapa menit berlalu, akhirnya tiba juga giliran saya masuk. Dan di dalam saya sempat tertegun. Di dekat tombol ATM tergeletak selembar uang lima ribu (rupiah tentunya). Sejenak saya berpikir. Apa perlu saya tinggal saja? Tapi ketinggalan uang di tempat yang begitu mencolok (rasanya) ga mungkin. Saya liat di luar tidak ada orang. Dan apabila saya tinggal, kemungkinannya cukup besar untuk diambil oleh orang berikutnya setelah saya. Jadi, apa perlu saya ambil? Saya adalah seorang karyawan kecil di kantor kecil (perusahaannya sih cukup besar, tapi kantor saya kecil... oke lah kantor baru saya sekarang "agak" lebih besar). Gaji tidak bisa dibilang besar, tapi untuk saya saat ini.. cukup. Apakah saya perlu tambahan 5000 lagi? Ah, ini kan "cuma" 5000 perak doang? (hmm, apa pikiran seperti ini pernah terlintas?) But wait a minute.. saya punya ide yang lebih baik. Buru-buru saya selesaikan pengambilan uang di ATM itu dan sebelum keluar tidak lupa saya ambil uang itu. (lho? bukannya kata orang ngambil uang yang tertinggal begitu kan bisa bawa sial?)

Buru-buru saya cari Yonald di lantai parkir basement dan saya ceritain aja ide saya ini "gimana kalo uang 5000 ini kita bagi 5 aja, terus kita kasih ke 5 pengamen/anak jalanan pertama yang kita temui nanti di jalan?" Yonald setuju dan langsung uangnya dituker dengan 5 lembar uang 1000an. Jadi, mobilpun dijalankan tapi kali ini bawa misi sosial (bisa dibilang sosial ga?).

Akhirnya di perempatan Rajiman-Pasirkaliki, kami ketemu dengan 2 orang anak jalanan yang masih kecil. Sesuai rencana, selembar uang 1000 diberikan pada anak itu. Muka yang tadinya kucel dan memelas (entah disengaja atau ngga) tiba-tiba berubah jadi berseri-seri :) anak yang satu lagi ikutan minta lagi, namun dengan halus kami tolak dan kami sarankan supaya uang tadi dibagi dua saja. No problem, dia setuju dan pergi ke tempat anak satunya lagi (yang keliatannya setuju untuk berbagi, anak yang baik ya?). terus Yonald bilang begini "Kalo setelah dia mau berbagi dengan temannya kita kasih selembar lagi, maka nantinya dia pasti belajar bahwa kalo kita mau berbagi dengan sesama, maka nantinya pasti akan diberi lagi" Betul, saya setuju, Nald. (Kamu bijak sekali ya? :) Bisa jadi calon ayah yang baik)

Saya dari dulu sebenarnya sadar bahwa satu hal yang bagi kita (mungkin) tidak/kurang berarti tapi bagi orang lain bisa jadi sangat berarti. Tapi waktu melihat senyuman kedua anak itu.. saya baru benar-benar merasakan: betapa banyak orang di luar sana yang masih berkekurangan, betapa puasnya kita melihat senyuman anak (sama seperti tulisan saya sebelumnya children's laughter is joy to the world), betapa nikmatnya berbagi kepada orang lain secara langsung begitu, dan betapa berartinya uang yang "hanya" 5000 itu.

(tambahan: waktu anak kecil itu pergi, yonald juga sempat komentar kira-kira begini, anak itu dapet segitu disangkanya bisa langsung kenyang, padahal gara-gara dikasih 1000 dan merasa puas, mereka jadi ga minta-minta lagi ke mobil yang lain :) dan jangan-jangan mereka malah memutuskan untuk rehat sejenak karena dibandingkan orang lain yang rata-rata hanya memberi 100, ini 10 kali lebih besar. yah, tapi saya maklum saja, karena mereka masih anak-anak yang seharusnya sedang giat-giatnya bermain dan belajar; dan mereka juga mungkin tidak mendapatkan bimbingan atau pendidikan yang cukup dan layak)

(okay. another footnote: karena dari kantor ke rumah saya hanya lewat 2 setopan, makanya cuma 1 lembar yang bisa dibagikan, berarti sisa 4 lembar lagi ya, Nald? Dan untuk orang yang ketinggalan/meninggalkan uang di ATM itu, saya harap direlakan sajalah. Uang anda sudah ada di tangan orang yang lebih membutuhkan.)

my (other) family

the fifth member of my family

Setelah saya menulis tentang Kuro si kucing hitam, tentu sudah sepantasnya kalo saya menulis tentang Mimi yang sudah saya anggap bagian dari keluarga saya.

Mimi adalah anjing (hitam bulunya) yang sudah lama sekali mendampingi perjalanan hidup saya. Kalo saya tidak salah ingat, Mimi (waktu kecil) diberikan pada saya waktu masih SMP. Saat itu Mimi dibawa dengan mobil, dan ketika sampai rumah kelihatan sekali kalo dia mabok (jalannya belok-belok, matanya ga fokus hehe). Akhirnya saya kasih minum susu, and you know what? Sejak saat itu, dia jadi sahabat terbaik saya. Walau dia bukan anjing ras (mimi ini ga jelas statusnya karena papanya german sheperd, mamanya kampung kalo ga salah, jadi untuk memudahkan saya anggap mimi anjing kampung; dan itu bukan hal yang memalukan karena anjing kampung justru biasanya bisa lebih survive dan lebih cerdik). Walaupun dulu sempat overprotective, kalo ada orang yang terlihat mukul saya (walaupun becanda dan itu keluarga saya sendiri) seringkali mau digigit :) apa saya harus marah atau malah senang karena dibela sampai begitu? Dia seringkali menemani saya nongkrong di atap rumah lama. Dia juga suka menemani saya nonton TV (entah dia ngerti atau ngga). Dia rela menemani saya di depan komputer sampai malam (biasanya posisi favoritnya adalah tidur dekat kaki saya, seringkali di atas sendal saya; waktu kecil hobinya tidur nyandar ke kaki saya) daripada main-main di luar. Dia juga sudah melahirkan beberapa anak yang ironisnya justru sekarang banyak yang mati dan tidak ada kabarnya (setelah saya berikan pada orang lain; waktu itu orang tua saya bilang cukup pelihara 2 ekor saja, jadi saya terpaksa berikan pada orang lain sisanya. saya sendiri pilih mimi dan satu lagi, namanya princess yang sayangnya dia sudah mati).

Dan sekarang, tinggallah si Mimi, yang dari umur anjing sebenarnya sudah tua, tapi tetap sehat dan bisa hidup lebih lama daripada anak-anaknya. Saya sudah anggap dia jadi bagian keluarga saya. Thank you for everything.

(tambahan: waktu saya menyusun skripsi, dosen sudah bilang, ucapan terimakasih seperlunya saja, tidak perlu aneh-aneh. tapi toh saya tetap menyebutkan nama mimi dalam ucapan terimakasih di skripsi saya yang super padat itu; yang udah pernah liat pasti tau hehe)

(another footnote ga penting: daftar nama anak mimi yang masih saya ingat: simba (mirip singa, bulu lehernya lebat bgt), nala (mirip singa betina), brownies (satu-satunya keturunan mimi yang bulunya coklat keemasan; paling keren, paling badung, sekarang hilang entah dimana), princess (waktu itu satu-satunya betina diantara jantan lainnya), yang lain saya tidak ingat karena sejak kecil sudah langsung dibagikan, sedangkan yang 4 ini sempat cukup lama ada di rumah saya)

someday i'll be a knight

interesting but nothing special

Ini sebenarnya film lama. Keluaran tahun 2001. (Dan saya nonton baru sekarang? Ketinggalan jaman? No, saya selalu berpikir bahwa semua film, bahkan yang jelek, apalagi yang bagus, tidak pernah ada kata terlambat untuk ditonton). Dapat nilai 6,5/10 dari imdb (lumayan).

Saya sebut film ini film abad pertengahan dengan rasa rock n roll. Lupakan saja masalah apa lagunya cocok untuk film bersetting abad pertengahan ini (film ini dibuka dengan lagu "We Will Rock You" dari Queen) "emangnya jaman itu udah ada lagu ini?" Ga usah dipikir, keep an open mind that everything is possible in a movie, dan nikmati saja lagu-lagu asik sepanjang film ini. Lagipula filmnya sendiri menarik, tapi...

... saya rasa ga ada yang spesial dari film ini. Mungkin olahraga yang diangkat khusus kali ini cukup unik yaitu jousting (adu tombak/lance). Dikemas dalam film yang termasuk ringan ini, sedikit komedi, sedikit drama, tapi semua terasa tanggung (untung ada Paul Bettany yang cukup kocak). Mungkin ada yang nonton karena tertarik dengan aktor utama prianya (Heath Ledger)? Atau dengan pemeran wanitanya? (sekedar informasi, yang cantik itu bukan pemeran putrinya tapi justru dayangnya dan sang woman blacksmith; tapi ini pendapat saya pribadi :)). Apapun itu, setidaknya kita semua harus mendapatkan manfaat dari film ini kan? (otherwise, it'll be a waste of time and money).

Ada beberapa adegan yang menarik dalam film ini. Waktu kecil, Williams pernah bilang "someday.. i'll be a knight". Ucapan/impian anak kecil itu, rupanya terbawa jadi cita-cita (atau malah obsesi) sampai dewasa. Dan ketika kesempatan datang... the story begins. Ada orang yang pernah bilang ke saya begini:

every chance is golden chance, because it never happens twice.

Waktu Williams kecil disuruh pergi oleh ayahnya untuk belajar kepada seorang ksatria,

"i'm afraid, i won't know the way back home"
"just follow your feet" (hm, harusnya just follow your heart lebih pas ya?)

Lalu ucapan Pangeran Edward waktu Williams ditangkap..
"What a pair we make. Both trying to hide who we are, but unable to do so. Your men love you. If I knew nothing else about you, that would be enough. But you also tilt when you should withdraw. And that is knightly too." (sebenarnya saya berharap disini edward bilang bahwa walaupun dia (William) berasal dari rakyat jelata tapi sifatnya menunjukkan sifat ksatria sejati --- but he didn't say these :))

Akhirnya, untuk melengkapi rasa rock n roll yang sudah diputar sepanjang film (dengan daftar penyanyi seperti David Bowie, Eric Clapton, AC/DC, Queen) maka film ini selayaknya ditutup dengan lagu... We Are The Champions. Yes, it's the Queen again. Tapi tunggu dulu... ini sih bukan Freddie Mercury. Ini Robbie Williams. Wah, Freddie-Mercury-wannabe nih Bang Robbie?

We are the champions, my friends
and we'll keep on fighting till the end...

time to get fired up

time to get fired up

Saat tulisan ini diturunkan, pertandingan final NBA wilayah timur game keempat sedang berlangsung antara Miami Heats melawan Detroit Pistons. Saat ini saya sedang mengikuti live score di NBA.com dan pertandingan memasuki quarter keempat. Pistons memimpin 86-75. Walaupun keadaan terlihat optimis untuk Pistons tapi kita tidak tahu apa yang akan terjadi sebelum pertandingan berakhir. Semoga tidak ada pemain yang fouled out seperti game ketiga. Dan semoga bisa mengatasi Dwayne Wade dan Shaquille O'Neal. Well, cross your finger everyone. It's time to get fired up!