Luck and Luck

Well, this is the first post after a month and half I’m being hiatus from writing blog. Many events happened due that hiatus and… well, like I said in my facebook status, seems like all my luck being drained away.

The most unfortunate one is the postponed of the project agreement I handled. I know it’s a silly mistake I made and… ah… speechless. It’s like I’m being framed in really-really bad situation and the problem is, I’m the one who made that happened. Arrgghh…

Second, my old monitor finally can’t last longer to fulfill my needs. And the worst, I didn’t have enough money that time. Fortunately, my friend named Harry lend me some so I can buy the new one. But this happiness not last longer. Three weeks after that, my speaker (yeah, this one also an eight year computer device) was broken by the short-circuit when light and thunder storming my house. Speechless.

Still not enough? Third, I’m the one who take all academic financial responsibility of my sister and like I said before, I’m in short of money. Within a week I’m really stressful. I’m patiently-yet-carefully thinking how to allocate and accommodate all expenses so, without sacrificing my sister college life, I can fulfill that all. Good enough, I can accomodate some but still the problems go on…

I hope my bad luck will end soon…

Is it Holiday?

That question was in my mind all these days. As you know, governmental leaves took place from Friday last week till today, Wednesday, and seems majority – if not all companies – took the same time for its employees. Thus, it means holiday… but, you know, holiday with no money means bad (or even worst) holiday. I couldn’t go to anywhere because of no money

So, what did I do to fulfill my boredom? First day… I just slept all day long… recovering my mind state from stressful job. Seems good? Not exactly because I couldn’t sleep that night. I guess I slept too much.

Second day… well, the planning actually go to my friend’s house (Hengki’s house) in the morning with two others (Subur and Meickel), but it slipped away to afternoon rubber time. That day, we just talked and ate, shared thoughts to each other, etc. My boredom quite fading a little.

Romance of Three Kingdoms

Third to Fifth day… My boredom tightened me up. Just watching anime and… well, it’s quite a good TV series, it’s Romance of Three Kingdoms. I watched it from episode 31 to 45, it’s the part when Zhuge Liang go to East Wu (Dong Wu) to make an alliance for fighting Cao Cao armies and the Battle of Chibi occurred in this part. But ya… just this

And the final day, which is today, I don’t know what should I do, thus this writing appear in my blog

Volturi and Hotness

Well, I know I’m late to post this news, but better than nothing, right? The Twilight Saga: New Moon, a sequel from Twilight movie and also the second novel in Twilight Saga, finally released their 3rd movie trailer two days ago which showed more Volturi members and their actions. Curious about it? Here is the trailer:

Well… don’t know why, but I’m very excited to see the cruelness of the Volturi members, especially Jane (casted by Dakota Fanning) since in the book she’s so damn cruel. But ya… I think we have to wait a little bit more time because this movie will be in theater on 20 November 2009.

And this one is my complaint… I don’t know why but these days, Tangerang is so damn hot, as well as Jakarta. All days are sunny and if I correctly remember, there are only 4-5 rainy days along this August-September. I easily have dehydration and can’t lasting at outside more than an half hour. And unfortunately, my air conditioner recently looks like going to broken. Another old electronic in my home and I guess I have to replace it soon or later, depends on how much my money will be sigh… why oh why?

Earthquake, Face, and Smiling

According to Kompas and DetikNews, another earthquake occurred this morning at 07:52 WIB with magnitude 5.9 SR and the epicenter located 15 km deep in the sea, north west Ujung Kulon, Banten. It seems that this one is an after shock, following the two days ago earthquake. The shock itself felt in Lampung but not in Jakarta Hope there will be no earthquake anymore.

Illustration of Earthquake (courtesy of Kompas)

Many of us felt that the earthquake these days is a sign from God to remind us to behave properly. And it’s just not about the earthquake too. Like the one happened on Nordaustlandet in Svalbard archipelago, Norway (you can see the news here and here), a glacier in the melting ice wall seems like a crying face. See… many of us believe that the mother of nature was crying too. It’s just not about the climate changed but the human itself. We must behave properly on these bad days and use the resources God gave properly too. Do you agree with me?

Tears of Mother Nature (courtesy of Barcroft Media)

And the more important thing is we must face every problem with smile. Yeah… true smile. And today, still related with the smile, Kompas have a news that the smile Indonesian gave to tourist and based on Malaysian tourist experiences, the smile seemed like a fake smile! OMG… another sensitive issue. Well, it may be true that we, Indonesian, give many “fake smile” to Malaysian tourist on these days because, as you all know, Malaysia and Indonesia these days have a “hot-and-bad” relationship. At one side, Malaysian “often” claim Indonesia cultures (i.e. Batik, Angklung, etc) and properties (i.e. Jemur Island, etc) and at the other side, Indonesian feel disappointed and angry with Malaysian’s claims. So, I think it’s still common-sense for people who face this problem to give a fake smile to the “enemy”, don’t you?

But… okay… let settle this with cold head and true smile. IMHO, we as Indonesian have a mistake and Malaysian also have a mistake. The mistakes are: Indonesian people seems very easy to be provocating with the Malaysian issue and still many of us don’t know well our own cultures. On the other side, Malaysian people are often provocating Indonesian people anger and seemed that they have careless control on tourism and cultures issue on their hands.

As the host of tourism, we shouldn’t give any differentiation for Malaysian tourist since they pay for the trip (like many other tourist, domestically and internationally) except that we don’t have any relationship with them (of course not, the embassy itself located in Jakarta) or the nation itself is the source for terrorism (like USA did to a few countries). Why do we give them that? I think it’s more comfortable to give them a true smile and good hospitality so they know that we, Indonesian people, are good people. And also, we must know well and preserve our own cultures and properties so foreign people, including Malaysian, know that the cultures and properties are our own. In fact, there are a lot of things that we can do to preserve our own, right? Share your thoughts here if you have, readers

The Music of Sissel

It’s been over a month I’ve been hearing Sissel Kyrkjebø songs and I do like her songs. Actually I know this soprano singer a long time ago, while I’m still a junior high school student. At that time, my parents bought two CDs containing Christmas carols and one of the CD, titled as “Christmas in Vienna III”, containing her songs. Since that time, I guess I fell in love with her voice but not buy any more of her CD because of economic crisis in 1997-1998.

Sissel Kyrkjebø - Into Paradise - Norway version (courtesy of Edvard Grieg Lodge)

Well, right now, I really like to hear her album named “Into Paradise” and like I said before, it’s been over a month I heard this album. This album contains 14 songs, which are:

1. In Paradisum
2. Sancta Maria
3. Bachianas Brasileiras
4. Dido’s Lament
5. Wachet Auf Ruft Uns Die Stimme
6. Dusk
7. Ingen Vinner Frem
8. What Child is This
9. Marble House
10. The Sleeping Princess
11. Vitae Lux
12. Sally Gardens
13. Ave Verum Corpus
14. Like an Angel Passing Through

I especially like her “Wachet Auf Ruft Uns Die Stimme”… don’t know why Her song titled “Dusk” also gives me an impression of Zelda soundtrack… yeah… maybe that’s because of her voice sounds like a wolf song in Zelda: Twilight Princess. Her “Sally Gardens” also sounds good. It had minimal music, with just a piano, a percusion, and a flute, so it sounds like an acoustic version of “Sally Gardens”.

If you do want to try classical music, especially the one with soprano singer, try Sissel’s songs. Her voice much lighter yet powerful, clear, and wonderful than others. But if you like a songs with “full” and “heavy” soprano voice, I’ll recommend you to hear Sarah Brightman or Katherine Jenkins.

Jakarta Magnitude 7.3

It’s a little bit surprising for me because today, a rare event happened in Jakarta. Yup, it’s an earthquake. I still don’t know how much the magnitude is and where the epicenter is but it’s happened at 14.57 WIB. Okay, from the DetikNews, the epicenter is on the south west Tasikmalaya city at 14.56 WIB and it’s 7.3 SR! Well, still according to that news, it might be triggering a tsunami as the worst case. Hope that won’t happen.

Jakarta Magnitude 7.3

How did I notice it? Here’s the story… When I tried to fix some CSS and images for product-prototype presentation, suddenly I felt moving. Then I saw the water in my glass shaking. Finally, I and my friends in the office started to get out immediately and calmly. But see… I still feel the earthquake while outside of the office. I think it’s lasted for 2 minutes.

PS: Both the title and the image I used here are inspired by an anime TV series, that is Tokyo Magnitude 8.0.

Many Thoughts While…

Well, to be honest, I’ve many thoughts these three weeks that sometimes made me bored or sad. Well, the latter one, especially because of no money, sigh…

My almost-8-year CRT monitor finally crashed, or to be exactly (I guessed) it had short circuit in its tube that made its OSD menu went wild (made the screen more red or more blue or too dark because of its low contrast or too left or too right or too trapezoid, etc, made me had eye cancer!). Good news for me, it still turn on although its condition like I mentioned above. Bad news, I don’t have enough money to buy the new one

Thanks for Wita help, my best childhood friend, I could borrow her old CRT monitor although it stood for 3 days only at my home. Why? I guessed it also had short circuit that made it totally off. Well, I didn’t expect it to be as good as the new one because it’s old monitor too. How bad fortune I had

Now, about the job… I really have much free time right now since my company still don’t have any project to work on. Yeah, and it’s almost three weeks (minus one day, that is tomorrow). And while in this state, I thought I would do something, i.e. make a little project for myself (to be exactly, it’s an anime database program), go on vacation to somewhere (I would love to go to Bangka-Belitung then Bali then Thailand and last, Vietnam), practice video subbing using Aegisub for my own self, and many more.

But the reality… ha-ha-ha (in a bitter way)… The first one (about the anime database program), until this time, I still don’t finish it although the planning itself had started in my first free week. Why? I’m too bored with programming and such. I need something green and cool to feel (my missing-mountain sick). And goes there second plan, go to somewhere else for vacation…ha-ha-ha (again, in a bitter way)… I don’t have enough money to go to else where. Uuhhh… so sad to be poor. Well, even if I have the money, I still can’t go to outside Indonesia cause right now, I don’t have a passport and a digital camera (of course, it’s important because I would like to have those sceneries for my own purpose).

What about my plan for practicing video subbing? It’s totally undone. Till this point, I never open the program itself (that is Aegisub). I’m too lazy and too bored to do such things. If you are an Aegisub user, you will know how time-consuming to do the timing… matching the first sound of conversation to the end sound of the conversation, one-by-one, uughh… so lazy to do that. Well, I guess I’m still a beginner in this subbing world.

“You can write a blog then”, that maybe one suggestion from you. To be honest, I’ve just get this idea two days ago. As you can see, there’s a post in my blog two days ago and that’s the result of the idea. Damn, why don’t this idea come faster! But still, write a blog is not easy as you thought. You must know what exactly the topic you want to write and sometimes, it’s hard to find a suitable topic. You won’t write a line or two, will you? It’s your Twitter or your Facebook status stuff, not a blog.

Zelda Minish Cap Snapshots

And right now, I’m very happy that finally, I can finish almost-totally one of the Zelda series, that is Zelda Minish Cap. Almost of all the secrets, such as: kinstone fusions, side quests, and figurines, are finished (as you can see from picture above, I got Mirror Shield, Tingle Trophy, and Carlov Medal). I’m so satisfied. You know, how frustrating to fuse 100 kinstones when many of the fusers are fickle. The figurines also so frustrating, especially when it’s below 50%. The last thing I never made it finish is Cuckoo Catching Game, it’s so damn hard to catch all those cuckoos (I’m stuck in 5 cuckoos per 50 seconds). But somehow, cause of it that made me feel excited too. Sounds paradox isn’t it? Well, you know, Zelda is one of the best game ever. Dreaming that someday I will have one Wii console and play another Zelda series with big LED TV… ha-ha-ha, no money, like that would ever happened so sad being poor.