decadence in gaming..

i havent been writing for my HD World chapter, so today i'll be writing about Alienware, a company in high-performance gaming that's in my one-day-i'll-get-it-if-i'm-wealthy list (which is a tremendous list given my small hedonistic perk hahaha)

Okay, so most of you had probably crossed in your lifetimes, one way or another, the idea of video gaming. For some people it's the thrill, for some people it's the storyline. For me its mostly about sheer technological appreciation these days. I've been a gamer all my life, and when i say this i do not in any way impart that i'm very good at it, but i see gaming as a way to channel your stress. Eversince i was in early childhood my parents introduced me to video games, starting with the classic Nintendo (NES --Nintendo Entertainment System). Okay so i wasn't born in the day Atari was still a trend, but nevertheless if i remember Mario Bros, or that Duck Hunting game, i always cherish the moments.

Some of you may have grown out of it. I haven't. I think that's whats compelling about video gaming nowadays, it appeals in categories that spans pretty much all ages. Heck, even my dad still enjoys playing Sim City (from the first version, 2000, 3000, until the recent SimCity 4). And that's not wrong, games are now available that contain the bulk only adults can bear. So in my defense, it's not childish :D

For me now, it's all about the technology. I am always amazed at what mankind can now create. If we remember those games like Mario, or Contra, where you see the guy from the side, then you have a look at the graphical power games like Crysis of Far Cry 2 has, with all its interactive environment. Madness.

A company that i've been eyeing for a while is Alienware. As other hobbies, it takes a serious kind of gamer to appreciate the raw gaming power that Alienware can unleash. And it takes another level of gamer to understand why some would churn out USD 5,000 for a single gaming CPU. But as with other hobbies; it's not fair to be measured by money. Cheap is absolute, but expensive is relative.

"5 grand? On a CPU? Did i hear right?" i hear you say. And no i didnt pull a typo. A service Alienware dishes out is that we can order our CPU online as if it's some ebay stuff. Buying gaming rigs is now like going to the tailor; what processor, intel extreme or AMD Phenom? How many RAMs? Good VGA, how bout crossfire 2 powerful VGAs? Blu-Ray or just DVD burner? The sky's the limit..

Ordering a gaming CPU is like a game itself in Alienware. The fun starts from even before your CPU is delivered to your door. After picking your unique specs, the team at Alienware will assemble, and test-run your CPU to make sure that when you're in the middle of that last chapter level going against the WarShip in Crysis, your CPU doesnt do a David Seaman in 2002 World Cup and flop..

They also have gaming laptops pre-built to suit your needs. But usually one would prefer a PC to use for gaming. More stable is what they say. I've no idea really.

The point of the matter is, if you do have the resources, and you are someone who understands what it means to sink in your thousands into "just" a gaming device, i'd say Alienware should come up in your list of potentials. This is a company who grosses out USD 170.000.000 in revenues annually, that's how trustworthy their market are to them.

If you wanna know more on the company profile, take an easy reading here but if you want to dive directly to seeing the major gaming products in Alienware's lineups, then do click here. 

So who wants one high-performance ultra reliable and fashionably cool CPU to go, eh? I do. :)

panic at the karaoke!

My life lately has been boring, mundane, dull, the whole package laah! So i was quite excited and worried at the same time when the ALSA team from my campus persuaded me into going for a round of karaoke.. i was excited because i've only been a couple of times to the karaoke but i find this a relaxing leisure to channel stress out, and i'm worried because with the ALSA kids coming, there's sure to be a risk on getting kicked out by the employees there, because we're a group of lunatic people who tend to wreck havoc.. read on :)

The lunatic people involved in this story is;

- Me obviously

- Jiwo (you've heard of him before)

- Andit (the guy who wet my matress on the stairs --")

- Meiske (she was the one i thought was drooling before realizing the flood)

- Adi (housemate and the guy who let his room get flooded)

- Lena (specializes in Melayu songs :p)

- Luksi (a girl who likes to scare people while remaining a scaredy-cat herself)

- Irma (Adi's best friend who came from Solo for a one-night visit)

- Nanda (a magical and "special" housemate --Adi's alleged little brother--)

- Tasya (Nanda's girlfriend, apparently doing ice skating lessons in a country who only knows ice as a friend of drinks to cool it)

Okay this isnt the full strength of our lunatic people, but it should've been enough to bring the house down.

Jiwo picked me up and i was surprised that the karaoke thing was gonna be on that day, because no one told me (i would've prepared heavily for it had i known; you know, sufficient rest, vocal tests, fasting, the lot, hahahaha). We felt quite stupid during the journey there, shows just how tropical and undecided weather Indonesia has (we went from the house with pouring down raining cats and dogs, but the other half of the journey was sunny like hell, and apparently people find it amusing to see 2 guys in raincoats in the sunny weather the north par of town was having)..

Upon arrival we find that we were among the last ones to come, all the rest was eagerly waiting for us (it concerns me that the kids are very punctual when it comes to games and fun while in debate trainings it usually an hour behind schedule --"). I'm a person who learns from experience, and i know that when you karaoke, you probably are gonna need lots of liquid, so me and Jiwo stopped by a Circle K shop on the road to get some drinks (i wont be detailing the "drinks" we bought, its just another one of those echi echi plurks :p)..

So we finally managed to book one of those mid-sized rooms they have, with a capacity of like 10 people (i personally consider this very large already.. i mean who goes to the karaoke with like 20 people? The Twilight Orchestra??).. We immediately turned most of the lights out to simulate a wannabe disco ambiance, i had difficulty to see everything else but whatever..

A few observation results of this karaoke place from me and probably lessons learnt for you;

- Don't get a heart attack once you see some of the video tracks playing along with the song, as some songs dont actually have a video track (or either the place don't own the official videos who knows), so they would improvise the video that you see. Women in this case is discriminated, because you either get a video of this chick in bikinis doing some poses on the beach (woohooo!!! kawaiii for the men) or you get a video of a horse prancing around ON THE GROUND as if it just had an ephilepsy(i've no idea how to write the word)  attackand was going round and round on the grass. Okay there's one footage of a guy, but he was both old and unattractive, and apparently was doing moves with his hands which he calls "dancing" or "tripping" or "jojjing", whatever, my word for it is "fiasco"..

- Pick your song list wisely. Because of the very very  genious list we picked, we went from beat, to a kiddy song (yes! a KIDDIE song! fun nonetheless ^^), to rock.. all without paying attention to art, harmony, and ethiquette.. One, it just sounds like you're in a bad merry-go-round carnival, and two, it depletes your energy.. hahaha

- Don't be easily fooled. Luksi and Andit was doing a duet on the song "Lucky - Jason Mraz and Colby whatshername", and it was Luksi's turn to do the piece, in the first 5 seconds we thought her voice was extravagant! we started applauding and i was thinking of giving her flowers in awe when we realized at a point her mouth wasnt even moving. Curses! Apparently it was the voice of the actual singer. Not so lucky Luksi :D

- Do not let me and Jiwo and Meiske on the same side. We're pure rockers hahaha.. as the three of us was sitting side by side together and as major fans of songs with people banging their heads and shouting and rapid drumbeats and major DJ action, when the others were singing like mellow and love songs we had to stay quiet (since we dont know the song. That is until we started the rock revolution and demanded more airtime on songs that we claim we like and can sing it. This is a bad idea to agree to. We went crazy and at a moment i thought Andit was going to faint listening us basically shouting, not singing.

- Never trust the scoring system. Jiwo apparently had nothing better to do up until a point where he identifies that ALL the songs we always get 90.. This is probably some shitty marketing strategy, so that people dont get embarassed, thus if people thought they did great and have potential, they'll return for another good time at the karaoke. Most do this, some of the rest became so narcisistic they signed up for idol competitions, which is why you see lots of "tragic" singers int eh audition (yep, result of overcomplements from their environment haha)

- If you go with a crazy bunch of people, make sure to lock that room door tightly. Every time i go the karaoke i find at least once or twice the employees take a peek thru the door hatchet. Now for those who is optimistic they might think its because their singing was so good. Fools, its because the employees was pretty sure you guys checked in with 10 people but you're making noises as if the whole Cirque du Soleil crew was in there training the monkeys and elephants to sing in harmony..

Ater two hours of jumping up and down (both physically and in musical notes) vicariously, we were flopped. The room was like an aftermath of the Battle of Ardennes in south France in 1944 or the wrecked Forts of the Maginot line after Operation Barbarossa in the Sovyet Union in 1941. I'm pretty sure the floors were wet because a couple of times our drinks went spilling and i swear i can see a tiny crack on the large flat panel screen on the room hahahaha *run*

I think karaoke is not as overrated as i thought it was in the past (i was against the idea of going for like 4 years until the first time i went, i think they had to issue a restraining order to get me not to come veryday hahaha). It's good for the soul, its good for the bond (no this isnt something you could do alone for reasons i dont think i even have to explain), and its worth every penny, especially since Sunday's jam session was fully financed by Jiwo ^^v *cleterrrrrrr - whiplash*

So when's the next time you're going to the karaokes? Take me us with you, we'll have a blast!! :">

*pics and videos of us there will be up soon as Irma sends 'em to me, hold on your puke for now, you'll wanna puke even more after seeing them hahah*

wet bussiness..

As the scholar law students that we are (hahaha), my group was dutifuly doing our assignments. Now this is not a subject that's student-friendly, meaning that it takes quite hard work for one to understand as it involves heavy theoritical demands for the students to be able to learn. We were composing this presentation about "Encumbrance Rights" --basically the right that a creditor reserves to take freehold or acquisition upon an immovable object that becomes collateral in a loan agreement shall the debtor fails to fulfill their obligations-- but maybe some other day i'll write you a whole lecture about this hehe.. read on

Now i must tell you that today was quite a bliss, noting the fact that my International Law class was vaccuum (the lecturer is out of town or something for a week.. kawwaiii!! ^^v) which means i could stay in bed a little longer than most Monday mornings. My groupmates came a little late in the day, i'd say 11-12ish, and we rapidly started discussing things here and there. Rain started to pour down, giving us nice cold breezes. At this time me and the boys was in the middle of a very very seriosu heated discussion (about the game GTA IV hahaha), i was sitting nearest to the entrance of my room, the one adjacent to the middle hall.

After 30 minutes of tense argument on which games ruled 2008 (at this time we were taking turns in writing the presentation, so the others just had to discuss on more pressing matters :p), i started feeling wet (now don't start getting wild echi imaginations). At first i thought of 2 possible scenarios; Meiske, a girl member ofthe group was asleep near to where i was sitting so i thought she had drooled hahaha (cleterrrrrr i hear her whiplashes *run*), the other is that i thought someone foolishy spilled water behind me. Tooke me 3 seconds of frantic search for both criminal and evidence of water spill. There were none! I started to feel the floor in font of me and what d'ya know? My house was flooded with water!!

Spent a moment of panic; the usual series of thoughts occured in my mind (wet, my mattress, my pillows, my carpet, the electricity plugs!!!) before i reced to the middle and held up the electric extensions that was there. Along the time i held the thing i prayed to God that i dont get electrocuted, it is not a good time to have spiky burnt hair (tommorow's the presentation and i dont think the lecturer will be impressed if her students smelt like burnt beef ==;).

After detangling all the electric plugs i ran to the middle of the hall frantically looking for the source of flood.. As i ran, i past Adi's (my house mate) room, and lo!! He was nicely tucked on his bed and was surfing the web, then looked at me with puppy eyed innocence (the fool!!).. I gave a panicked howl telling him he was in a flooded room, which in 5 seconds it took him to process my message and started to jump about the room like a war casualty avoiding raging bullets and started to save his electronics (again, the fool --"). At this time water was 5cm high, i felt like a glorified duck..

Having put off the power surge off, my study groups ended this productive noon by becoming housecleaners. We mopped and mopped and mopped and mopped till the water was dry. My matress which i've dilligently heated under the sun a whole day was under a saviour attempt, the logic Andit (a group member) had is that higher places are dryer, later we found out that the water came from upstairs and my mattress ended up wet. Nice >,<

Jiwo, another loony member of the group (whom silhoutte picture you can see in the article "one-size-fit-all in photography") decided to make the house and the flood a theme park ride. Ever seen those ninja movies where the kids in the academy slide from one floor end to another to polish the floor? Jiwo the fool did exactly that, thinking he was in some Aquaman theme park coaster ride or something. Using my pillow too! Casualty number two for me --"

Wanna know the reason that it flooded? The house has quite excellent irrigation system, yet this time it failed us. After going up to the rear balcony, i found that some idiot left a black plastic bag and ended up clogging the drainage. Smart! o.O

So all in all, very very pleasant evening, eh? A day under the sun, an afternoon swamped with assignments, and ending the day with a nice swim.

What lessons learnt can be taken?

1. Make sure to check your drainage system when it rains heavily. Trust me, it works wonders. You can do with some excersise of lighty sweeping the house, instead of ending up with a nasty wet bussiness.

2. If you ever do decide to live with house mates, run a psychotest. This idiocy can cost you a whole evening. And the guy who allegedly did this was not home at the time.. Touche!

Have a brilliant week everyone :)

the men in blue helmets...

Have you ever seen Hotel Rwanda? If you have, you'd totally get what i am about to write in this article. If you haven't, read this article and you might want to rent a copy the next time you're in a video rental. This is pretty exciting and unnerving stuff.

The film i mentioned above gives you an illustration that is pretty accurate on the happenings of the 

Rwandan crisis, peaked in 1994. This is a conflict where approximately 1 million people died victimised bay atrocities and ethnic profiling that happened there. The civil slaughter between Hutu and Tutsi clans are amongst the most gruesome conflicts the world has ever seen, to date.

In that movie also you'd notice a bunch of military looking troops that attempts to assist people there, but you also notice that they're not really waging war. You'd notice that they do have guns and standard military equipments, but you also notice that seeing their behaviour, they're not so far from the other opressed casualties that flee into this Hotel. Ladies and gentlemen, i'd like to introduce them; these are the men in blue helmets..

United Nations have authority to pool up military resources from member states, although their participation remains voluntary (meaning a state can choose to or not to contribute military powers). Upon having the ability to pool up these resources, it does not then imply that UN have their own army, as there is no such no concept.

Peacekeeping operations (the usual term fro the deployment of the troops) can consist of military personnel, but can also contain civillian and journalists. A clear indicator of UN Peacekeeping troops is the contrast helmets in blue that they sport; hence the nick name of the troops are blue helmets.

Now, since it is tied to UN, as a nature of most UN operations, it does pose massive problems. If you read Linda Pollman's book, We Did Nothing, you can see her testifying how the troops in the Kosovo crisis never really managed to do anything, and ended up becoming witness of the atrocity that Slobodan Milosevic did, which resulted in 5,000 ethnic Albanians dead.

Most of the problems imposed within these troops are the nature that they are peacekeepers. They are mostly soldiers but they are not authorized to wage a full scale war and use agression to settle and extinguish the flames of a conflict. Their goal is among them are; monitor the withdrawal of combatants, supervise elections, and provision of reconstruction aid. They are not here to make peace or creat peace, but to provide aid. That means they cannot unleash fire at will, their weapons exist but only usable for means of self defence. 

Another problem is support from states of the world. To pool in resources and convince states to contribute military personnell to be under the UN authority takes time, and while that time of negotiation and advocating to countries happen, people die by the day in the conflict zone. It took many moons for the UN to pool in the military power they needed in the Rwandan crisis, and as a result of the prolonging conflict, 800.000 - 1.000.000 lost their lives, children lost their parents, and families were torn apart.

Don't get them wrong, it's not like the UN does not realize the flaws of their peacekeeping operations. The Brahimi report was issued in the year 2000 to evaluate the humanitarian operations the UN have been conducting over several conflicts of the world. It does impose remedies for the UN to rectify the situation, and there is pressure for the UN to start implementing the mechanisms proposed in the Brahimi report in future operations, circa 2010.

Conflicts is never an easy thing to settle. But as hard as it is, it is still the responsibilities that UN carries in their mandate to bring world peace post world war 2. We live in crucial years here, dear readers, and it will be interesting how the UN tries to change the way it works, how they settle problems in the future. Because the worls is dynamic, its always changing, and it is the flaws of the UN in being conservative and traditionalists that makes them loose in the race for world peace.

freerice.com

Ever thought that you spend more and more time on the internet day by day, ever realized that as other forms of human indulgence in the world, access to the world wide web has become "addictive"? I sure do. Since morning till the minute i write this article, my internet experienced a system failure, meaning that i couldnt hook up to the web for the first 8 hours of today. About 1 year ago this would have been fine, and I wouldnt even bother talking about it like it was something big. But today i felt my addiction to this luxury. To be completely honest remembering last week's hectic weekend (read "the things i do..." and "fiasco at the airport") i decided that i should have a simpler week, a sort of "quitter" week. So this weekend would've my couch potato day (a day where i sit in front of the monitor and surf all day long ahhaha). This obviously failed, and i was pretty grumpy.

I'm pretty sure you people who actually do have time to log on to the net and actually read blogs, then open mine, you do have excess time on the net (implying not that you're wasting my time, keep reading my blog haha but just saying you probably spend quite some time on the virtual network). You probably share my griefs today.

This friend of mine, in the Red Cross, introduced me to an interesting website, in which now i pass on to you, lucky readers you ;) The website's called freerice.com (also works if you type in freerice.org). Now this is not your everyday facebook or myspace, it's actually something different in philosophy. This website is maintained by the United Nations World Food Programme (UN-WFP), and it's only a baby; 2 years old. The UN-WFP wanted to kick start an internet campaign to fight world hunger; a problem that may be for us seems a little far fetched, but believe me in the depth of countries like Malawi, and a large portion of Africa, is an actual imminent threat of death. Famine is a problem, and this website has worked sort of like a panacea (Greek mythology's God of healing).

It's displayed in nice greenish themed layout with the background of grain rice "plants" (i'm sorry i've no clue what to call them haha). This website is nice since it attracts people to donate, and what better way to capitalize on basic human nature; where you can give to others without actually compromising something from your own pockets (look i know this is a rude way of saying it, but you can't deny it's true in most cases). So what must we do in the name of nobility in this site? We must play! So you can keep doing this for 24/7 straight depending how noble, unemployed, or sad you are, as the website gives you a word in which you choose the correct synonim of it (closest meaning to -red). You can also change this with other subject questions apparently, your choice. For every answer you get right, you donate 10 grains of rice to UN-WFP's program. You might say "pffft, some contribution.. 10 grains??". Let me play with your statistics; there's around 10-20% of world population that are accessible thru the net, that makes it roughly 500 million people, if every person every day plays once, and gets just one question right every time, you'd have 5 billion grains of rice per day, in a month you'd have 150 billion grains of rice, and in a year you'd have (let me put in the zeros to show you the figure) 1.800.000.000.000 grains of rice (1,800 billion). You can figure out how much that is in metric tonnes, but it does sound a lot don't you think? Helping another human eating a plate of rice every day is already noble, but imagine feeding a whole country? Below you can see statistics of this program so far from year to year, compared to the amount of grains donated.
So how does a single click translate to 10 grains of rice, you ask me? Well, this website uses the "google adsense" system just to give you an illustration in a nutshell. Donators, sponsors, good samaritans, philantrophies helps this program obviously, but for corporate interest, it's like an ad-click system on a blog, for every click the blog owner gets an incentive from the advertisee, in return they see their corporate logo on the web. The economical scheme makes sense.

"a simple click of a mouse is the difference whether that poor girl in africa eats or not tommorow.."

The beauty of this programs is that it takes advantage of so many elements to make it work, they get to buy the rice from sponsors, who get advertising benefits on the page, and we get to donate, and have fun at the same time.. Ingenious!

So, ever thought that donating is hard? Ever thought that you'd have to compromise a lot to help others? What if you can do it all for free, while you're waiting for that movie to download? All it takes is one click, and this website up to 2008 have gathered 1 billion grains, enough to feed 50,000 people per day for a year. Is one click really too much of a price to pay? I don't get paid to write this, i just think that its ridiculous that no as many people that can join and help is doing so, and my only merit is that; now you know.. click!!

one-size-fit-all in photography

it's usually vertically correct, but i thought i'd spice things up a little :D

see the picture above? besides the fact that the model is ethically wrong, and the fact that it might make you puke or faint or worse; kill yourself.

 Don't. This is a good example for what i have to say, read on..

In photography, there's many styles of capturing a moment. There's a whole culmination of lighting, apperture, focus, ISO, angle, etc. The model or subject of the piece is also relative upon its beauty, and what people would like to call "photogenic".

This article is true upon the statistics that i believe myself, and please understand this is not a mockery, but a mere result of observation. 80% of profiles in facebook, friendster, myspace, or whatever other "networking" sites available on the web has this; a picture taken like the example above. Pretty much you hold a camera, and you pan it towards yourself, usually a bit lofty in position, and you make a wide smile. This will result in a photo that has an angle that covers a large portion of the upper hemisphere of your head. My statistics also show that in more profiles than not, females have at least 1 picture using this style. And also more often than not, it is a "comparative edge" of their profile, meaning they put it on as their primary picture.

Why you ask? I have several theories;

1. There was one photo with this style decades ago, looked good, everyone suddenly had to have one

2. It actually is a style of photo, and i need to learn so much more about photography (maybe i'd call it "narcisism")

3. Through an impossible sheer of coincidence everyone has photos like this without knowing the fact that other people, actually millions of other people has the same style (unlikely, i know, this one's a bonus answer hahaha)

4. People generally feel this kind of photos focuses a lot on the upper hemisphere therefore can pardon the misfeits of someone's looks

There's many things to analyze this phenomena (i'm sorry i couldn't answer why people do this; human phenomenons are truly inpredictable o.O). But at least we know that photography definitely is a trend, it influences people, it has style, and if its good, like fashion, the next day people will be wearing it. We also know that photography does unite our taste, in a worl of globalization people are throwing themselves to be different, but in this case people actually look all alike (style-wise). I get more fascinated with photography by the day.

"Camera ready, ready, pose, click!!!"

Now, altho there's a universal agreement that photos using this style is "good" and "attractive" and "hot", doesnt always work folks.. have look at my picture, used it to show how it can have devastating implications given the wrong model/subject. Do puke now if you want hahahahaha

I was thinking, if you don't fit the style of this photo, you can try and experiment with the model of "silhouette". Like such :

This works regardless how you look, only that you gotta find the right lighting background. Take it at night, use night shoot (if you use slr, try; ISO 400, apperture 1/30, f 2.8) to get a dark pic of your object and exploit the light source behind it.. hahahaha i'm joking

"Its not who you are underneath, it's what you do that defines you - Batman/Bruce Wayne"

But still i think people do have rights to self-express and they're all fine by me. It just makes me wonder in awe, because this style is so common it enters into my attention span, and i'm a pretty ignorant person! Cheers, have a good weekend everyone :)

the most precious possession for a man..

At the Singapore Botanical Gardens, 2008

If seeing an actual statistics of the world, what i'm about to say might not be true; i really believe i was born as one of the most lukiest men on earth (okay i don't know if lunatic people can survey and stat the ranks of the lucky people in the world, so my stats are valid hahaha). I think that every person in this world has their own parameters of "luck", but i'd like to think if there are people who love you for who you are, and that affection is pure; you can give yourself a pat on the head and consider yourself one club with me :)

I'm lucky because i was born into this family. I'm the firstborn from the couple; Djonet Santoso and Titiek Kartika (my Dad and Mum). I have a smaller sister; Safira Diah Pranidhana, and i have an older step sister; Riayati. I love them all. I think our number is just right, which is why when i hear friends who have big families i can imagine my sheer confusion of how to handle such relations with so many family. My parents are both lecturers in a state owned university in the small town of Bengkulu, south western tip of Sumatra island, Indonesia..

My parents both studied their masters and doctoral degrees out of the country; the Netherlands and Australia. I've been observing a lot how my family operates and observe how other families work, and i happen to believe our long stays abroad do have a significant effect of how my parents raised me and my sister, i also believe that the way we think is a little different than the stereotypical Indonesian. I see that my parents are a lot democratic in many ways.

"A man can only be a real man if he spends time with his family - Don Vito Corleone"

One day Dad promised that once i enter the age of maturity, he'd give me more freedom to decide. I'm very happy that he delivered, gradually i'm given more freedom to think and express myself in everyday life. Decision making, when it comes to my life, is something that 90% i take, and they impose that i will be the sole bearer of the consequences of my actions. To some people its overwhelming, but not to me, as a regular growing boy i was naughty here and there, done bad things in the past, but nothing significant to actually ruin my future. I think the key to wanting more trust from their parents is if you can answer yourself can you be trustable; would you steal from a jar of cookie you're not supposed to open even if no one's watching? If you can answer yes, then i dont believe you'd have much trouble.

I think this article can never substitute the feeling of gratitude that i believe me and my sisters share. I'd like to always think that, in the world statistics, we're only a puny number; 1 out of 5 billion people of the earth, and whatever we do is just a tiny ripple in the open seas. And i think it matters most in the world if you can come home to people that makes you feel not just a number, but you actually matter, that even though there's 5 billion other people that fits the definition of "human", things would just never be the same without your pressence. I think that's important, most important actually.

So, when was the last time you hugged your mum? When was the last time you had that father to son talk with your Dad? When was the last time that you realised you're lucky to have them? If you havent, i can tell you you're missing a lot of things. Because you know what? It's cold out there, and there's probably a lot of people that would come to you and offer you their jacket, but it's not a lot of people that has a jacket that fits you exactly, and that when you wear it you find in the pockets a toothbrush, some warm snacks, and a note saying "you'll be fine, we're right here.. love, mum-dad"

So, when was the last time? I hope the answer isn't "yesterday" or "5 minutes ago".. i hope your answer is "there's no last time, i'm still doing it" :)

a bunch i'd like to call family

On the eve of 4th April 2009, JDF (Jogja Debating Forum celebrated it's now annual 3rd JDF Awards. A small background, JDF was established in the midst of 2003-2004, formed as a union to unite debaters in Jogja, Indonesia, together. At the time Jogja teams felt the need to be one in competitions. It usually has it's weekly gatherings on Saturdays, late evening (although lately it has been dying out a little in terms of its weekly thing). We travel to competitions together, we eat out together at times, and we produce t-shirts at times, to show our identity. It's been home since day 1 i joined them, and things haven't changed much from that day.

3 years ago, a co-founder that calls by the name of Iponk initiated that we need something more, the people in JDF has given the union a lot, and its time for JDF to return the favor. JDF Award is where members gather, inviting along as many nubies as they have to socialize them, then grant awards to debaters (rookie of the year, team of the year, debater of the year, etc), then finally elect the president.

It's a good thing that JDF can manage to cling on into this "tradition" for 3 years now, remembering that we have issues of people not being so active anymore in the JDF gatherings. This fact is sad, and the new president must address this, this is simply a problem of organizational culture.

Besides that the 3rd awards this year was fun; it was held in our frat house, we kinda turned the middle hall to an improvised dance floor (which peopla ended up sitting in --"), invited an exotic cart that contains food and drinks and stuff. As alcohol and the sort would cause too much problems with the neighbourhood we stuck to simple good ol' Indonesian delicacy like tofus, soybean cakes, rice, ginger tea, etc (like an "exotic" version of a free flowing bar laaah:D).

We also had live music that played around 20-25 songs in accoustic, which was pretty nice. For most the party ended at 10-11, for some others who went on, lasted till 2-3 in the morning hahaha.. it was good! :)

I was dripping with sweat at the time having to help monitor the event for Agung (ex-President), so when the guys hit it off for the late session i was close to faint and decided to call it a night, that it until at 3 one of the guys woke me up and dared me by taunting i didnt have the balls to play "Counter Strike" over the local network. So, in order to prevent my pride and modesty, I came online and played with them till 8 in the morning. It was quite a blast (a little geeky, i know, but we're very proud of it hahaha)

I just hope JDF can maintain this rythm, i hope it doesnt die down simply to the low animo of the members. Like the cosa nostra of Italy, we've grown quite close to each other, and when my actual family is quite far away, it's nice to have a home to come to even though we're not blood related.. JDF Rocks!

Idiot's guide to all-you-can-eat

Based on my own experience expertise before my current carb diet ^^v this is a comprehensive to guide to how you can all conquer the challenges that is posed when you enter an all-you-can-eat restaurant.

What you must remember;

- Pay up front, don't let the house take advantage of you by then claiming "i'm sorry sir this is an all-you-can-eat-but-pay-per-meal restaurant.. the scumbags

- This is a mission. This is not your everyday meal, not "just another lunch". But you have paid a lot, and you don;t want the house to win. Beat capitalism by being more capitalists! hahaha.. This is you against them, this is war!

The guide;

- Plan your trip ahead, do not go without planning less than 24 hours ahead.

- Go with friends. Besides the fact that if you go alone, you'd look like a stupid hermit, briniging friends can help kill time in the "recess" sessions. Don't go with a person you like romantically, they'd think you're a glob if you eat a lot, and if you keep yourself from expressing freely, whats the point? Remember, this is war, not a theme park ride.

- Make sure that you "vaccuum" your stomach (this is why you plan more than 24 hours before). I usually go at early evenings, and not munch a single thing from morning, so thats about 12 hours (it really depends on how much you wann rip them off hahaha). But you can still drink a few, or eat very very little snacks; stomach are muscles too, so if you warm up before, they can stretch better and have bigger capacity.

- When you park your transportation, make sure you park closest to the entrance door; this is useful for after the meal, as you would be bulging with food, long walks in the carpar will make you vomit.

- When you pay, make sure to use as much change as possible, this will help lighten your wallet. Every little thing helps for the journey home.

- The choice of seating is also an art. You don't want to be too close as you still need to exercise your body by taking advantage of the commute between table and food parlour. But you also don't want to be too far, as you'd end up having too much fun in your conversation with friends you;d forget about your mission. You really wanna look for a place that has ideal walk lengths, yet still you can smell the aroma of the food to keep your appetite up.

- Start with light food. You may take some veggies, but keep the mayo down (it's full of fat, you'd fill up too quickly) and if you must take the soup, but pay attention; don't take the bread slices with you and see the type of soup (some soups are highly concetrated, you'll fill to soon, corn cream soup is a good example; it is a nemesis, don't take it). Fruit is a good idea, but oh God don't eat it with the fla, that's just idiocy right there.

- The order of the food shall be like this; very light/starters - heavy - light - heavy- light - dessert - extra dessert - drink (you are free to repeat the heavy - light sequence as you please, this is your war, not mine)

- If you drink, DO NOT drink soft drink (besides its bad for your blood sugar, the soda is filling), i have heard that some all-you-can-eats preserve their soda for a few days; and although this does not reduce quality of fizz and taste, it does give more soda complexion in it, so be careful. Juice is fine, but have lots of water. If you want to enhance this process even more, drink warm liquid. They say that cold drinks disturb the process of extracting food in your system, which leaves residues of fat and stuff, we don't want too much residue.

- Avoid eating food that contains heavy fiber in nature, such as; rice, mash potatoes, breads. They, again, fill you up too much. Ice cream is a good idea, but for dessert, eating them in between meals is sheer lunacy.

- Take breaks between meals, let yout stomach digest and manage the room in it. This is where bringin friends come in handy. This "recess" time you can have light drinks, light fruit, etc.. give 10-15 minutes per "recess".

- Be as relaxed as possible, have fun; comment on other people, hit on ladies, do calculations if you had this kind of bussiness would it be profitable or not. Don't stress yourself out.

- Don't go to one single restaurant too often, it'll bore you as the food choise is usually stagnant. Once every two months should be fine.

So that's that then. This is only for people that looks to gain as much returned value as possible, as usually these parlours is a bit costly. Some of you might say, having these rules just hinder the fact that you're there for a good time. I'd agree, which is why this guide only applies if you wanna wage the battle against the food house. I myself let my expression freely, as i eat a quantable amount anyway hahaha

But my real suggestion is; avoid these place as much as possible, don't make it a hobby. I think it's already a default mistake that i have enough resources to write a guide, meaning i used to go a lot. Keep healthy, be fit, eat only what is necessary. All-you-can-eats are all overrated anyway.

Just my two cents :)

A walk down botany lane

This time i want to talk a little about my walk in the Singaporean Botanical Gardens, end of 2008, with my family on our annual holiday trips. I'll be posting some pictures taken using a cheap-ass camera with macro mode on, and i'll be taking of my usual macho, gung-ho suit off (hahaha) as they are pictures of flowers..Okay, let me give you a little illustration on where this nice gardens are; I've been to Singapore a few times but it doesn't mean i know the streets well, but what i can tell you is this garden is a lot like New York's Central park when it comes to location. It's a few bus stops from Orchard Road, so you can imagine that when you arrive at the bus stop and see the gates of this garden, you can see all around it are city landscaping; shops, sky-scrapers, huge roads, etc. I've been to the botanical gardens we have in our country (Bogor, Western Java, Indonesia -red) and it has been ages since the last time i was there so forgive me if my memories of it is faded, but what i can remember is the gardens that we have is uninteresting, it lacks maintenance, and the infastructure like the buildings, facilities, or simply overall cleanliness is just appalling, there's no way one can really appreciate it. Because my theory is such; nature is all about purity, it's about going back to basic, without traces of human civillization; now how can you enjoy the show of nature in a garden that has garbage here and there?

Singapore is a small state, this i say in terms of land mass. But as a state, it's one of Asia's tigers. The one thing that always fascinates me about Singapore is that on 

a map its right next to my country, just a few clicks north-west of Jakarta. But on the day that you fly from Jakarta and then land in Singapore, it just feels like you're in a whole different continent, it feels like the 1.5 hour trip seems impossible and that you've gone far far away. I'll explain why; since i was a kid i've already started to question; what don't we have that developed states have? Now as complex as this question is as a 10 year-old i came with a simple answer : it's probably because of geography, that our place is warm all the time all people want it just to sit under a tree, enjoy the breeze and fall asleep. Don't get me wrong, at that time i was backed up by a saying; Indonesians sweat when they eat, not when they work (i don't agree totally to this, i don't really discriminate work, i just sweat all the time hahaha). Okay, so i was convinced because it is about location.

The more i aged the more my eyes opened, i had access to information

 i didnt have 10 years ago (okay so i'm a little old, when i was 10 internet access is not like it is today; there's an internet cafe every 10 steps). So when i put my foot on Singapore, i was amazed! Am i right that this country here is right next to ours? the difference is just ridiculous. Public facilities and the effectivity of it is usually my indicator to judge a state, and Singapore's public infastructure is simply stupendous.

Most amazing woman in the world; Mum!

Back to the botanical gardens. It's pretty huge, to circle it takes about 4-5 hours, and you get a whole mixture of nice green views; trees, well-cut grass, there's an orchid house, there's a green house, and right in the middle i think they have this huge lake with some food stalls around them. If you happen to get there, don't purchase the hot dog; it's way to huge and plain unless you put tonnes of sauce, ketchup, and mustard on it.

Another thing that bugs me is that when i see a lot of the plants and living organizms that they have in the garden, i realize that this is not something we don;t have in Indonesia, i'd say 80% if the stuff is available in Indonesia. Why can't we do this? We have lots of orchids, why didnt we think of making hybrid orchids and naming them after hot shot figures of the world? Isnt this a nice strategy to both attract people to see and to seal good diplomatic relations? I found one hybrid named after the later Ibu Tien (Indonesia's second First Lady, wife of the late President Soeharto), and it's just great that they preserved her name forever in the form of a hybrid orchid. The gesture is very splendid. Entering the greenhouse i'm more convinced; it feels like i'm back in Sumatra, this is exactly how it feels in the SUmatran jungles; the plants, the stream, the humidity, etc.

I'm appalled and nonplussed at the same time. I realized then that it doesn't really take a lot for a state to excell. It's really about paying attention to little things, because in a country people are little, so paying more to little things means great things to the people. And a state i think is only as good as it treats its society. It's not really about the potential of a state, it's about the perseverance of the state to prove itself. Singapore in Fukuyama's quadrant of state classification would be in area 2 (or 4 i forgot) where it has both strict legal ruling and a strong enforcement. Their people are hardworkers, creative, and possess a comparative edge despite their small geographical land mass.

Indonesia is no worse actually. We do have what it takes to excell. But the question is do we have what it takes to take the right steps towards health, wealth, and wisdom? We will see. Maybe all hope is not lost after all...

Playing around with photo editing..

As part of my huge curiosity towards photography and post shoot editing, just a few minutes ago i started playing around with Microsoft's photo editing software.. Apparently its fun!

I played with the coloring, level of hue and saturation.. Suddenly had an idea to make the pics i took in black and white so it adds more realism to the actual reference pics in the internet.. The results are nice, i just need to see more parallel pictures so i can adjust the contrast with the saturation of the pictures.. Woohoo more experimenting!

Below is an actual picture of a King Tiger in the P4 Workshop Regiments

Below is a picture i took for editing

Pathetic Traveller - Fiasco at the Airport!

Okay, so this article is a continuation (the second part) from the article "the things i do.." (so if you haven't read that one, look for it in the archives of this blog, if you have, read on..)

After the magical Saturday that i had noting that a lot of the things i planned and how i imagined would go went pretty much as planned. It was beautiful.. You'd know by now that after that Saturday, the next day i should be continuing my obligations as ALSA's 4th DCA. My plane is once again the all-time famous emerging rookie airliner; AirAsia!!! I've been using much of AirAsia's services; my annual holidays to Malaysia and Singapore have used this airliner the past 2 years. So far in my eyes they have a clean slate of record.

Sunday, 18th April 2009. I woke up at 7, and promised to myself that after updating the blog, facebook-ing, and checking KasKus, i would start ironing my clothes. Fido spent the night in the house as he was consulting with me for his ITP TOEFL test, so by that time he's already left for FE UGM to do this test..

At that peculiar morning i was busy interacting with people thru the world wide web. Called my dear friend Nonie who was in a sorta crisis, then had a chat with Gabriel and challenging him to a LAN Company of Heroes duel once he lands from the US, it was very very productive morning laaaaahhh hahaha..

You should know that my plane, as it says on the e-ticket (e-ticket means you copy paste the itinerary shown on the website after you've paid for them, then copy into word and print it all by yourself.. they say "e" stands for internet related, i think it states for "economic" or in javanese it would be "elek") is at 1245 hours noon, so i'm pretty laid back, no rush, i thought. At 1000 hours i started ironing my clothes, and since i'm a big guy, ironing makes me feel like those guys who warm and smooth the ice on a hockey ring.. At 1100 hours i was packing, made sure my music player was charged, and i bought a book with me for easy reading (actually to help me doze off on the plane and later on the bus)

You should know that I'm typically a punctual guy, and that means i have this nerdy fashion of calculating distance, traffic density, and the time necessary to get to a place. I believed that if i reached the airport by 12 i'd still be fine (usually so). I spent the last 15 minutes checking whether i left something. So Heru took me to the airport; stopping in a supermarket to get myself some undies (i've no idea why but my undies are always dissepearing, my suspicions lie with Adi, it seems to make sense if he had these kind of fetishes) and perfume (the entire UII delegation boys only had 1 perfume, and i refuse to smell the same like them, its just horrid)..

We reached the airport around 1205 hours. At that time i still had time to joke around with Heru. Shortly after i said my goodbye, then he left. 2 seconds later the announcer at the airport shouts "AirAsia flight to Jakarta has just departed" i misunderstood the word "departed" with "landed" for about 3 seconds until i realized what was going on (sheepish, i know, but it happens at times). What goes thru my mind is that i run inside and steal one of the cars in the landing strip and somehow throw my shoes at the cockpit windows so the pilot can stop and let me in. Overacting, I know, but in emergency situations come emergency state of thought..

Immediately i ran (panicked) through the entrance doors, the security there was very astute, they idenfied the signs of frantic/insane passenger on my face (widened eyes, weird facial expression, sweating like a cow, and most obvious i was running) so they let me thru directly. Now normally i'm a good samaritan, an obedient civillian, so i usually pass the x-ray whats-its-name gates with calm, cool and confidence.. But this time I can't relax, my bloody plane's starting to taxi down the runway.. I in the future will propose to the FAA that in cases of emergency, the suspicioun of terrorist passengers should be lifted (let's face it, if you plan to bomb a plane, you'd be well planned, and there's no way terrorists would be in my position, only a lousy one would be late for a plane) and that priority should be given to the careless and obnoxious passengers like me.. But noooooooo, i still had to pass my bag thru the x-ray thing (look, i know that in some movies you see terrorists assembling the bomb in the plane so they can pass the security with raw harmless looking tools, but seriously, i will slap the person that tells me you can make a bomb using 2 clothes, 2 shorts, a pair of sandals, 1 perfume bottle, 1 body splash bottle, and 3 underpants!!!!).. so that just took 10 seconds of my precious emergency right there.. touche!

Once i finally reached the check in desks, no one was there, apparently AirAsia has a policy to leave late passengers alone and fall to their doom.. Nice! This view is even worse than the view of the butts of the baggage loaders you get in T3 Soekarno-Hatta, and no the toilets in this airport has nothing to be proud of --"

Frantically i texted Heru with the last drops of energy in my mobile (i left the charger in Jakarta T.T) telling him to take a u-turn and come back to the airport. I felt lost with anger, loneliness, and despair. Heru came 10 minutes later and helped me ask around. Two notes on this information gathering;

1) The clerks in the AirAsia desk are such bums, the locket says "closed" but there was a guys there, and because this is urgent we thought he'd have some solidarity. But noooo, he ignored us while pointing to the closed sign. I'm pretty sure he was probably playing solitaire or something..

2) The ladies manning the information desks are real cuties aren't they? It's a good strategy to grow the habbit of asking within Indonesians, although it seems a little unethical but it works. I promise to myself to always prepare a question for the ladies in the information desk everytime i have bussiness in the airport..

Okay, so all hope is lost. Although the plane left about 30 minutes early, every passenger is supposed to be in the airport 2 hours prior to the flight, and my mobile was dead remember? So even if they called there was no way i could've known.. From any point of view this was my bad..

To make things worse, I called my CA in ALSA.. She was understanding, but she also told me that even if i get to Jakarta by train, I'd arrive on Monday (10 hour trip), and I'd be no use since apprently if i didnt judge the preliminaries, i'm not eligible to adjudicate in the elimination rounds..

7 years.. For 7 years my career in debating hardly has any taint in it, and now it does. I realize i was unprofessional; i didnt help out a lot prior to the competition, i skipped 2 days of the competition to return to Jogja, and now i can't even make it till the rest of the tournament. I know now how lousy I can be professionally. I suppose i try to see it on a positive note, I still think this is all worth the trouble. I blame no one but myself.

Apparently, the Pathetic Traveller not only finds travel stupidity in the journey, but it can also be in the form that even before the journey starts i manage to make a fool of myself.. hahahahaha

Birth of the King..

Here's some updated pics on my latest work..

Have been painting and repainting, coating, and washing, and drybrushing, etc etc

and then there were none...

Continuing the awesome tale of the three musketeers and the gigantic mutant rat, where i left you off the story, we lost round numero uno..

But the words of Confucious inspired us; it is only within true champions that the harder they fall the faster they stand. Uh-rahhh!!

After the first epic battle the Anti-mouse division faced vast depletion of energy, courage, and logistics. The troops faced motivational problems; how in the world did 3 members of the human race just lost against a puny rodent? Imagine David vs Goliath, but there were 3 Goliaths, and 1 David.. and we still lost.. P.A.T.H.E.T.I.C. yep that was our middle names; Aditya P. Rakhman, M. Fikri P. Pido, Heru P. Pamungkas.. We tried to assure ourselves this would not look too bad in our Curriculum Vitae (Organizational experience : Waging War against Rats, Status : Participant, Achievement : Great Loss, April 2009)

So it was time for bed (or so we thought so).. I was busy being the vigilant journalist that I am writing a live update on the 3rd Persian War (the Rat was an arabian sewer Rat... not^^) on this blog when i started hearing sounds.. I thought it was Fido up to something nasty in the bathroom.. As a friend of course I tried to stay out his way, whatever he was doing, i try to have good thoughts hahaha..
Anyhoo, the noise became stronger, and after a while, i don't believe Fido could've stayed that long doing his "thang", so I became more suspicious. Went out to the middle hall where the remains of the aftermath of the first encounter still showed.. And lo! There's that wretched mouse strolling as if singing "the sound of music" tippy-toeing into that space under the stairs again! Feeling the need for a full force backup, I called Fido (who apparently was in a closed room with Heru.. i tried not to let my imaginations go too wild) who came out immediately..

I told him where the suspect was, and before we had time to prepare our rackets, mops, helmets, dynamo torch, etc the beast looked out of the space and saw us. We saw it. There was a split second moment where between man and animal we were having a cold stare-off, trying to see if either of us wins in the psywar that happened. Okay, that was over the top.. The next second the Rat started running towards me.. In the time of 2 seconds there was hundreds of kilometres of multiple thoughts, strategies, tactics, and scenarios going thru my mind.. I wanted to kick it, but apprently my brain does not so it doesnt send the electrical message to my feet to kick, but instead to jump and avoid it. It was 1 second moment of personal shame for me that i lost to a Rat when Fido who was behind me also didnt manage to kick the Rat and also did a beautiful jump avoiding the Rat (tomorrow we're auditioning at the Moscow Royal Ballerina for synchronised dancing). I was relieved to know it wasnt only me that acted the goat and became a sissy..

After i fell asleep, at around 0400 hours in dead morning, Fido woke up and saw the Rat once again as if to mock us (this time it was singing "oops i did it again").. So this time Fido made a cunning strategy (which is either due to intelligence or due to the fact that me and Heru was sleeping and he didnt dare to face the thing by himself) to "trap" the mouse in the space and locked the thing till morning..

So morning finally came, and after general field briefing and mapping out the exit strategies for the rat, Fido guided us to his man-made trap.. Heru the Gold miner once again entered the hole (he's beginning to feel like Harry Potter, i'm uncle Vernon and Fido is aunt Petunia).. Fido was about to feel proud of himself when after 10 minutes of careful excavation, and lo! Rat wasnt there.. Curses we didnt expect him to have learned the dissaparating skill from the Ministry of Magic..
Once again our motivation went down like a week-old soybean cake.. That is until Heru shouted from the garage (again, with German subtitles, this time i imagined he had that funny moustache the Fuhrer used to wear).. So like Gestapo ransacking the hideout of Anne Frank, we ran immediately to the garage and plotted a closed room murder (if suddenly sleeping Kogoro Mouri came, we'd obviously be prime suspects). Indeed the Rat was there, hiding among our shoes (I'm pretty sure it was Nanda's shoes).. This time we used more sophisticated tools, last night we were cavemen from the mesolithikum era, now we use wooden sticks from the neolithikum era..

"This is sparta!!!!"

It was me that finally made the first contact, this time using Adi's Adidas sandals, i kicked the thing like David Beckham was unleashing his bender free kicks.. It went back among the shoes where Fido and Heru frightened the thing, it went out again and this time WHAM! I scored a headshot, one knock on the head and lo! RAT'S DOWN RAT'S DOWN.. Fido made a both late and inaccurate throw at the rat with his stick.. He is a truly sad army general.. --"

But hey, this time WE WON..
justice have prevailed.. the hunter has become the hunted. the loosers are now the champions.. we all held our hands high up in the air and shouted "Yataaaaaa!!!!!" like Hiro Nakamura would do..

Round 2 was ours, it was a split decision since it took us a total of 2 attempts, but yet it was a convincing 8 margin win, with a knock on the head..

301st Anti-Mouse division posing with the dead enemy (to make sure you don't confuse Fido with the Rat, the Rat is the one circled with red)

This is a good day to be alive..

Rattaterrorism

Tonight was the night when the endless contest between man and animal (in this case rodent -red) takes yet another place. Reporting live from the crime scene today where me and Heru, 2 out of 5 of the Pitik Fraternity, assisted by a guest star from Luwuk, the famous Fido himself..

In the animated feature Rattatouille we are given the image of a rat who's really smart, kind and has a strong sense in cooking. Well, i gotta tell

 you that today we faced a different breed of rats, apparently the peace co-existence between humans and animals in the house has broken loose, rats have infested the house and they're trying to send us a message through terrorism (people call it pest infection, but this is war!!). Because we're f

ans of Mr. Bush, we will not stand down against such threats, we will not negotiate with the scum of the universe, and justice will prevail!

We've kinda felt this annoyance since the night before actually, where i woke up in the middle of the night and find my pillow was walking by itself, i blinked my eyes 3 times and waved my hand in front of it to make sure i'm seeing right, then i touch the pillow and lo, there's a gigantic rat underneath it, the thing just flustered away (i'm no kidding, it's nearly as big as a guinea pig/hamster)..

Heru is apparently jumpy, so his encounter with the rat is a lot funnier than mine, believe me he jumps and shrieks (yes, shriek! that high pitched shouts girls make, in mangas it is usually expressed with "kyaaaaaa!!!!"). Fido's encounter is even funnier, he was using one laptop in the other room and kinda had a "face to face" moment with the thing hahahahaha.. bottom line is we're all kinda disturbed in a way..

So after my plane disaster this afternoon (a story for tommorow), Fido decided to stay the night again in the Frat house to keep me and Heru company (a guy and a girl in one house all alone is infidelity, but 2 guys in a house is rather creepy and disgusting, so we thought a menage trois is more saucy.. kyaaaa)

When me and Fido came home from dinner and a chat at Agung's, we find Heru locking himself in a room, it seems that he was working on his thesis, but then he said that he saw the mouse running into that trapdoor under the stairs, so me and Fido are convinced that was probably why he was in the room all locked up. Sissy!

The first time we kinda inspected this little space under the stairs, nothing happened, no sounds, no signs of movement. So we left it at that.. Heru started playing CS upstairs, Fido was doing something suspicious in Adi's room, while I was busy utilizing Fido's prosumer camera taking pics of my scale model..

Members of the mouserjagger 301st Anti-Mouse Division

The one time Fido suddenly shouted, asking us to gather, and dramatically points at that same space under the stairs, claiming he saw he rat run in there. At this point, he was like an army sergeant and he should've had German subtitles; "Achtung Achtung! Zer ees a mousze in zat phlasce" (Attention Attention! There is a mouse in that place).. i was about to run to the back to get the Nazi flag we had when i was snapped back into reality..

Okay, so this time we definitely hear noises and saw movement. Like the brave infantry th

at he is, Heru started to clear out the space so that we can usher the mouse out. No avail. As we are all academicians and educated people, we resolved to intelligence; smoking the thing out with burning paper (this is intelligence based on cavemen standards). So we did, and I'm pretty sure my insurance doesnt apply if we managed to burn the house down (can't confess we made the fire or we'd be in jail i don't think the insurance people would be convinced that we were casualties of a crime that a rat did). I had the iniciative to blow the fire with some mosquito reppelant, it worked wonders and created cools sound effects..

After a lot of burning things, it looks as if any normal living entity would've died either from the heat or the lack of oxygen (burnt o2 will result in pure co). We were kinda hoping because o

f both, overkill is an art. After taking some inspections, crime scene investigation, and forensic photography, we were convinced that the thing had lost, we had won, and justice has been supremed.

The pride only lasted for about 5 minutes ><

 and Heru took our weapons of mass destruction (a house mop, and my tennis racket). This time we cleared even more things out, and lo! The rat is still moving. We were nonplussed!

Heru once again acted like a gold miner in South Africe and entered the hole, pushing out the rat. Fido came in as a substitute player, using his anti-terror helmet, and Heru with his ballista shades,we finally managed to get the rat out. This is where some funny things happened. Fido was starteled due to the surprise, Heru started jumping up and down making sure his lovely legs ain't touched by the rat, and i was too amazed at seeing the sheer size of the thing to provide an imminent attack (we were about to hit it, before this we checked and made sure rats aren't protected under the Geneva COnvention on the protection of soldiers in war). But okay, due to slow response, the rat fleed, i ran and chased it to the corner of the kitchen where the washing machine used to be. I was pretty sure i cornered the thing, then Fido and Heru came and we were about to read the mouse the Miranda rule ("you have the right to remain silent, anything you say and do can and will be used against you!!") when we realised that there was a hole for piping in the corner.

The mouse got away..

In the night which we thought we won, we have lost. Round 1 goes to the rat, unanymous decision, with a margin of 4, it was a clear victory.

This isn't over, rat..

ICRC in conflict mediation

Eversince i've had my eyes opened about the world and the issues, political intrics that revolves among nations, and the idea of conflict resolution, i've always had this idealism of helping the world in making itselft a better place to live in for people.

I've talked a little about this organization, I've mentioned that in the aftermathof the Battle of Solverino in the 1860s, Henry Dunant resolved that the world needs an organization that can ensure protection of people and their rights in war.

ICRC is the oldest form of Red Cross in the world. Now it divides its work with IFRC --the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies-- where ICRC handles humanitarian operations in conflicting areas, and IFRC handles humanitarian operations in areas of disaster.

In International Humanitarian Law, there's an element of conflict among states that is called "protecting powers".  These are labels for states or international humanitarian organizations that are 3rd party to a conflict among states, meaning that their neutral pressence is merely to provide humanitarian assistance, that includes; setting up camps (safety zones, neutral zones), advocating dispute settlement, and ensuring/supervising that the values of humanity in war is pretected.

An interesting mechanism exists in choosing the "protecting powers" in a conflict. Basically each parties of the conflict compose 2 lists; one is 3-4 states that they want as their protecting powers, the other list is the states that they ban as the protecting powers of the nemesis state. ICRC helps out in this process, goin back and forth among the parties to ensure communication. I'm pretty sure there's a deadline for this process; a couple of weeks if i'm not mistaken.

This is definitely complicated, especially the fact that each party to the conflict has some kind of "veto" ability upon the choice of the oppsitions' protecting powers. If after all the negotiations and list making fails, ICRC will be taking part as the protecting power for both state in mediating the conflict.

This intrigues me. ICRC has 7 basic principles that it thrives to uphold; impartiality, neutrality, humanity, universality, independence, voluntary service, unity. In a world of conflicts with criss-crossing conflicts of interests, it is highly profounding to me how things work, how does ICRC stick to its 7 basic principles? How can an organization that upholds impartialy and neutrality from states when a large portion of its operating funds are fueled from money incoming from donating states?

It's my mission in life i guess to find out. That and exposing more of the actual happenings in a conflict zone through the world of war journalism (which i'll be writing about soon).

a song that repeats itself in my mind all the time

AEROSMITH - I don't wanna miss a thing

I could stay awake just to hear you breathing
Watch you smile while you are sleeping
Far away and dreaming
I could spend my life in this sweet surrender
I could stay lost in this moment forever
Well, every moment spent with you
Is a moment I treasure

I don't wanna close my eyes
I don't wanna fall asleep
'Cause I'd miss you, babe
And I don't wanna miss a thing
'Cause even when I dream of you
The sweetest dream will never do
I'd still miss you, babe
And I don't wanna miss a thing

Lying close to you
Feeling your heart beating
And I'm wondering what you're dreaming
Wondering if it's me you're seeing
Then I kiss your eyes and thank God we're together
And I just wanna stay with you
In this moment forever, forever and ever

I don't wanna close my eyes
I don't wanna fall asleep
'Cause I'd miss you, babe
And I don't wanna miss a thing
'Cause even when I dream of you
The sweetest dream will never do
I'd still miss you, babe
And I don't wanna miss a thing

I don't wanna miss one smile
I don't wanna miss one kiss
Well, I just wanna be with you
Right here with you, just like this
I just wanna hold you close
Feel your heart so close to mine
And stay here in this moment
For all the rest of time

Don't wanna close my eyes
Don't wanna fall asleep
'Cause I'd miss you, babe
And I don't wanna miss a thing
'Cause even when I dream of you
The sweetest dream will never do
'Cause I'd still miss you, babe
And I don't wanna miss a thing

I don't wanna close my eyes
I don't wanna fall asleep
'Cause I'd miss you, babe
And I don't wanna miss a thing
'Cause even when I dream of you
The sweetest dream will never do
I'd still miss you, babe
And I don't wanna miss a thing

Don't wanna close my eyes
Don't wanna fall asleep, yeah
I don't wanna miss a thing

German Pz.Kpfw IV Ausf.F Fahrgestell

German mortars i love, and i love the fact that the Germans had to go a long way to operate their giants..

Just a short article before i sleep, this is my next kit that i wish to acquire (hopefully they still have it in PnPs Jakarta..)  in the pic you can see the actual Morser Karl Gerat 040/041 lined up in action to blast through the fortification of the Maginot line around 1941-1944 (Part of Operation Barbarossa i think)..

I already have the main kit of the massive mortar gun, all i need is some crew men, but most importantly to add coolness to the base later on if i have the loader too, the Munitionstrager. Here's some more pics of the kit, this lovely 1:35 kit is manufactured by Trumpeter, so this will also be my first Trumpeter (previously i have the Tamiya and DML manufactured kits)

So excited to see whether i can manage to have this one by Tuesday or not ^^v wish me luck!

The things i do..

I'm pretty sure you people have done crazy things, i'm convinced that a lot of you have sacrificed things just to prove something, especially when its to that person that matters..

This is therefore a classical story, but i just thought i'd share mine, and the things i do..

Let's not mention names, just for the sake of privacy and stuff.. And no this isn't an episode of the Pathetic Traveller, but apparently when i travel alone i still find that stupid things happens to me.. so here goes me and my story..

I couldn't publish this anytime sooner, because for the last 1 month i've been cooking a plan, a plan to throw this girl a surprise party, and it's not just an everyday party that we're used to (at least that's how i see it)

Credits goes to 2 of her close friends, and 1 of mine, which without them this story would never be able to be written right here right now..

My surprise for her comes a little late, about 24 hours late actually, 1 day after the actual birth day.. I don't mind, i believe that people need space and she probably had plans of her own in this party, which you will read later on that i found this to be true actually.. I planned to throw a surprise party, but not in a hotel, not in a fancy restaurant, not in my place, or her place, but in an orphanage.. Yes, i plotted that this special event will be held in an orphanage with around 50-60 kids.. I feel that there's no better way to share your happiness than to share it with those whom cannot enjoy happiness on an everday basis..

I find out later that this plan criss-crosses with my pledge to help out the team in ALSA E-comp *curses*... i know that because of campus i've been abandoning a lot of my work for ALSA, and i do know that added with me skipping 2 days of the competition would definitely blotch my professionalism, and my reputation in debating. I am sorry to the team in ALSA, but this is just something that i can un-do, it's one of those things that you'd just do even if you know it kills your name, but you also know that you're less of a person if it doesn't happen.. more or less how i felt about this..

At last after offering my resignation and selling Sani's name, they decided better to give me the luxury of the time off.. So if you must know this is my itinerary for in between 15-22 April 2009;

- 15 April flew to Jakarta, stayed a night in Sani's place, departed 1345 hours from Jogja

- 16 April drove to Depok, where UI Campus is, worked from 0900 to 1800 hours accrediting judges from Universities all over the country. 3 hour recess, at 2100 hours i continued with motion designing up until 0300 hours, 17 April.

- 17 April, at 0025 hours i slipped for 5 minutes out of the night session to make sure i send her a birthday sms, then continued to work till 0300 hours. From 0300 to 0400 hours had a chat with an old friend about life hahahaha.. at 0400 hours my cab leaves for the airport, got onto a plane on 0600 hours, arived in Jogja at 0700 hours.

- 18 April, from 0900 to 1300 hours prepared the surprise. Event ran from 1400 hours to around 1600 hours.

- 19 April, 1245 hours is my flight to Jakarta, continue my duties for the ALSA e-comp team.

Crazy? Maybe. Necessary? Definitely.

Arriving at the airport at 5 in the morning on the 17th, i find that the cab drivers a little upset for some reason (which i found out later because that i fell asleep on the cab and probably snored, and that before falling asleep i forgot to give him money for toll fares and stuff so he had to take it from his own pocket) so with unease and guilt i gave him extra fares, which then he smiled *me growls* least the guy is happy, I'm on a mission and i don't need a person cursing me with bad luck.

Then i noticed people was looking at me with mocking looks. Apparently i decided to only wear a tee, shorts, sandals to the airport, and people somehow judge that violates like some unwritten ethic code or something. Okay, i don't need this, so i went to the toilet to change. Remember this toilet? At noon you'd see men offloading baggage, but at this time of hour you only see the dark. Okay that's a nice change from the noon views but it still ain't helping, people should be guaranteed that when they pee, they have lovely views, at least thats a slice of happiness we deserve. Went out with changed clothings; semi-formal clothing, jeans, and my air force 1 sneakers. I walk out with confident which then dropped drastically when the cleaning guy knew i changed and passed a snigger at me *curses*

Let's fast forward this a bit; in a nutshell i met some loud group of chinese women out for holidays, met some guy who for some reason were wearing sunglasses at 5 in the morning, then nearly missed a flight because i sat on the wrong waiting zone.. i was sleep deprived, the flight attendants were not nice, and i was alone.. so i slept the flight thru.. Landed in Jogja and AirAsia had a dangerous landing, nearly jumped up again upon landing and into my doom.. Let's skip that part ><

The rest of the day was only catching up with sleep at home and went to the orphanage to lock the rundown of things. At that night, my friend Agung was having his birthday the day before, so he took me and Heru, my room mate, to this seafood place.. Upon arrival we parted with Heru for a while as he's off to sell some goodies.. After getting a table, this conversation happened

- "Dit, i think i saw **** (locked her name, remember) inside.."

- "Oh, yeah?" (thinking of greeting, but decided not to) "Well, lets leave her alone, order in shall we?"

- Agung is extraordinarily quiet, so i had time to think [Wait, she isnt supposed to see me here!! If she does all my plans will crumble to the ground!!!]

What happened next was stupid, we plotted a plan how i can survive without being noticed (seriusly the squid hotplate is too good to pass). So i hid in Agung's car, foolishly enjoying music, realizing one of the guys in the group of friends with her, felt a little uncomfortable with that but who cares. 1.5 hours ladies and gentlemen, 1.5 hours i was trapped like a duck waiting for her group to go.. and when they finally left, the electricity in the place passed out.. Nice..

The next day (earlier today actually), i was busy preparing this and that, ordered food, picking up a cake and prayed the whole journey that it didnt become melted or squashed (imagine a 25-30 cm diameter cake bought by motorcycle), then worked with my friend and the orpahange ids and had a little audition in singing "Happy birthday"..

All in all, I think things go according to plan neatly, and I'm happy. To see that expression on her when she saw the kids was holding out to her a cake with candles on it and the symphony of the imrpovised orchestra of orphan kids singing the happy birthday song with fun and sense of unity as their sole capital of synchronization, for me it meant the world. I have invested lots, I have spent time, i have depleted my energy. But to see the smile carved on her face throughout the event, it makes the pain i had to endure unfelt. There's only certain people who can draw up what i felt today doing this in the composition of descriptive sentences, and i am not one of them, so i wont try.

Tommorow i will be heading back to Jakarta. As dreamy as things are today, it all must come back to reality, i need to face angry people tommorow, but at least i'm facing them knowing that today i'm a man who accomplished a mission.

This is my story. This is what I do for those who are significant in my life. What's your story?

Pathetic Traveller's - Euro Pathetrip

(DRUMROLLLL....) JRENNNGGGGG JENNNGGG JENNGGGG JJRREEEEENNNNGGG ploink ploink (tune of "Final COuntdown" playing) SHOOOOBIDUBIDUMMMMM LALALALA TRALALA TRILILI YOODDLE-III-UUUWWWW (lights, sound, fart.. ACTION!!)

We're back!

From the nasty tales of the journeys of two impoverished students of Jogja, we present to you another product of Vivid Productions.. In this episode of the "Pathetic T

raveller", I will be presenting montage of photos from our euro pathetrip.. the uncen

sored version hahaha.. you know how people say that pictures can talk thousands of words, well we think pictures can also display stupidity!! In this first part, you will see how the kickass duo cope with new environment, cold temperature, and all round hill-billy-ness (popular slang in Indonesian is "ndeso"-red)..

we're almost pretty convinced we look pretty cool in this winter dress-up..

this is us wondering why in God's good world did we ever dare to even sign up for this competition..

i can almost swear Sani has NOT been drinking in the gala...

This is where the brave duo stalls in front of an XXX ADULT STORE arguing and pushing each other on who should enter the store first.. wish there were more of these stores in the old country!!

We thought this could be good for a part of a promotion campaign that UCC can do --that is if they want their students to all resign--

These pictures are copyright protected, any illegal take over of this right will given reward as these pictures contain toxic level of stupidity and we really dont want them..

Okay, that's enough for today's episode, we'll be back from more euro and ALSA actions!!!

The lens assasins - world of photography

When playing games that's themed and tied upon the arc story of an assasin, the stereotype of person you see is that calm, careful, observant, eagled eyed person that in a blink of an eye analyzes his situation and makes split-second decisions with

 satisfying results.

I see that people who's really into photography share this trait; hence the title of this article..

I've come to realize that in this matter i do not differ to much from my Dad, in his years in college, he used to go out a lot into the nature as a mountain climber (this is not the part in which i say me and Dad are alike). Since those days he was fascinated with nature, with the beautiful painting that God created on the canvas normal people like you and me call earth. This is one of the fueling factors of why he loves ph

otography. Now, what you must know is that he doesn't come from a richie rich family, so there were limited restrictions in which he can channel this hobby. Nonethelesss the passion runs in his veins, which apparently thru the wonders of genetics is bequathed down to me.

It took me a long time to realize that i love photography. And i must impose here that me loving something does not mean i'm good at it. It just means that everytime there's something that correlates to it, i get that sparkling tingle in me that just sky-rockets my sense of curiosity.

As you probably know from my Madurodam and King Tiger scale model that i love model kits, things in miniature has always had an interest in me; back then in Australia it was model trains, now it's model tanks from the German World War 2 campaign.

Anyhoo, if you see Agung's Junk Yard page

 he wrote something about how the hobby of a modeller does not stray far from photography, and if you see the thousands of modeller forums in the web you'd realize that photography is a vital element in modelling; the right lighting, focus, apperture, lens adjustment, background, 

can really do a difference in escalating tha value of your work..

I'm not sure whether you're going to believe me or not but the pic i post in your left is actually a miniature scale, not a shot of some random dude's house. You can see how the use of focus on a single object and given the right lighting, this modeller is able to capture a moment in which his work seems very lifelike; this is probably the zen of scale modelling, when people see your work thru photography and inside them rages a battle of that question we always want to hear' is it real or is it a scale model?

This is the time when i admire the sense of the pro photographer. Like movie directors, they already have an imagination of what the picture or motion picture looks like in their heads, and the objects, camera and pther paraphenelia is simply his brush, oil paint, and canvas. Belissimo!

Photography i think is a specialized hobby, meaning that you either know everything or nothing at all about it. I hope that someday i become the former. A real pro. I kinda feel that i have the senses on what to shoot, how to do it. I just need flight hours to sharpen the blades of my senses hahahaha..

Photography rules. Period.