-

2011-11-01T14:58:00.002+07:00

So I was looking at this tumblr http://fuckyeahganeca.tumblr.com/ , and I found it quite... interesting. See, I've never been to uni in Indonesia. After I graduated high school I went straight to Melbourne to do whateverit was that I did for 5 years. Anyway, anyway. Fuck I forgot what I was going to say. Anyway. Look, here's the thing. There is this one meme of the fuckyea guy (from the ragetoon comics) imposed on top of the Obama election poster. You know, the corny one, with the word 'hope' on it. Anyway, the poster said "made one tweet, got famous, don't need to be in the student committee to be famous". Now that got me thinking. That got my head workin, and that just got me thinking of what it would be like if I decided to go to school in Indonesia instead of Australia. First of all there is the problem of language. That's pretty obvious. I went to this school where I spoke English to the teachers. In hindsight I went to a school in Indonesia where everyone speaks, surprise surprise, fucking Indonesian. Well, I was just thinking if I actually go to a school in Indonesia, would I be able to communicate with anyone else? I don't think so. I wouldn't have a single goddamn clue how to write a technical essay in Indonesian, let alone a proper essay. Before I know it, I'd be the guy they would call 'bule' even though I clearly look more Indo than most Indos.

So anyway, that got my mind on this massive spin, right. I went through all the possible cross-points that lead me to this point. And of course, I wonder if I turn the other way, would I even be here? There is this massive understatement that it would be difficult to transition to a life in Indonesia. I think it'd be a bloody difficult thing. The culture, the people. Truth be told, I would probably quit the job on my first day because I have no intention of calling my boss "pak".

2011-10-20T17:18:00.000+07:00

Somewhere down, down
Down in the ocean of sound, sound
We'll live in slow-motion
And be free
With doors unlocked and open
Doors unlocked and open
Doors unlocked and open

2011

2011-09-15T10:16:00.002+07:00

So.

It's been a while since I write anything.

A while is a fucking understatement...... where should I start? Many things have happened between the last time I actively post stuff on this blog, which is May 2009, and now, September 2011. If this is a tv show, this hiatus would have its own flashbacks to show the audience what happened between the two seasons. So I might do that. I might jump back and forth in the narrative. And I got stories. Some of them are pretty sweet. Some of them are, eh, enlightening.

Why should I write again though? Is it because of this craving, this urge, this need to be noticed, to be loved, to be liked, to be funny, to get that attention that everyone so urgently need like air and water and sex? No, not really. See, the thing is, I like writing. I've stopped writing for a while. I've run out of ideas. Not because I have a mindblock, a writing block, whatever, it's just because I've stopped giving a fuck about writing. I got a whole lot of stuff, no joke, going on between two certain periods in my life. And the joy I get when I realised that I am willing to start writing again after such a while... it's almost exhilarating.

Exhilarating, huh. Where should I start..

Airport

2010-12-11T17:45:00.001+07:00

Baggage, check.
Passport, check.
Gifts, check.
Shirts, jeans, shorts, cold weather jacket, check.
Phones, camera, charger, check.
Turn off lights and close all windows, check.
Why do i feel like ive left something behind?

I feel fucking awesome.

2010-08-29T00:20:00.001+07:00

I can't help but wonder why..

2010-08-28T09:09:00.005+07:00

.. lalalalala is illegal.

I loved how I was walking down between Collins and Bourke St and it felt like I've walked three blocks already, and how the city felt so.. different. Twelve hours later, it started to fade out. And out. It is awesome but it is something I shouldn't do everyday, just like drinking. And apparently I needed my speakers to be extra loud when I was still 'up', and so I pulled my speakers really really close to where I sit.. imagine my surprise when I come home to discover how fucking loud it is. But jesus fucking christ, last night was pretty sweet. So I went to my friend's place in Chapel Street, then we went to Carlton Bar. It's this bar somewhere in the city, I wish I remember where we walked last night, because I couldn't remember anything from the station up until we reached the bar. Then we went to this other dude's place in Flinders Street. His apartment is a two storey apartment with an effin mezzanine. It was the coolest thing ever. Then we had some more lalalala. Until about 3 in the morning, then we went to China Bar, we were the only ones there because they were doing last call (Oi China Bar, don't be a pussy, how can you compete if you don't open until 5 in the morning..). Anyway that was pretty sweet. I was walking home with Nathalie, and it felt so fucking surreal. Not because I was walking home with possibly the prettiest girl I've met in ages (if you're reading this, then kudos, and sorry if this is super creepy, but you looked fucking amazing last night). I mean, I've walked home at 4 in the morning before, but the city never looked so fucking beautiful. And now I'm feeling normal again. Boo. Ah well, now I know if I do lalalala that much, it does not fade out within an hour, nor two hours, but for a whole effin day. It's like being tipsy, but without alcohol, i.e. this is pretty sweet. On my way back today I've never looked at the city and felt so different about it. It's like I'm falling in love with Melbourne for the second time. Fuckyea.

Even I hate myself.

2010-08-27T10:18:00.003+07:00

~~So you're not the only one.~~

What the shit was I on about.

There is nowhere else to go but up.

2010-08-27T09:05:00.003+07:00

Sometimes, in life, people fuck up. I fucked up. I don't know what rock bottom feels like, but this sure feels like hell. There is nowhere else to go but up. Give it time.

Time has been given, and time says "fuck off, I can't help you this time, buddy."

Nature can't speak for each and everyone of us.

2010-08-27T02:58:00.003+07:00

This is the day that I realised I haven't grown that much in the past five, five-ish, years. I am still the same egoistical, angsty, ungrateful bastard that I was back then. But I'm still here, and I feel great. It's not that I don't feel I should change. I do need to change. This .. maybe these are just words, but I am sure of it. I will. And I am. But I'm moving forward at my own pace. I am evolving, and evolving hard. I'm like a fish thrown out of the water and forced to grow legs by nature. But let me tell you something, nature can't speak for each and everyone of us.

I have not slept in 18 hours. I probably wouldn't sleep until later in the late afternoon. I will probably clock in 28 hours without sleep by the time I go to bed. This is normal. This is probably normal. I'll sleep past Friday night, past the busy lights of Friday night, and the sound of the crowd of Downtown Melbourne. When the city sleeps, I'll wake.

And I'll start all over again.

I didn't think I slept until the 40ish hour mark. Badass.

The Return

2010-08-15T10:31:00.002+07:00

Hello kids,

I'm back.

Truth be told, I'm struggling to remember the details of what happened in the last 15 months. I'm not kidding. I remember bits and pieces of it, but the last one year has been a blur. So many things happened in so little time.

Maybe if I start writing again, I'll remember.

I'm not too old for this shit.

2009-05-02T14:42:00.002+07:00

Pub crawl from 8 to 12.

Eve from 12 to 5.

Slept from 6 to 12.

Assignments from 12 PM onwards.

Am I too old for this shit? Fuck no.

Autumn

2009-04-26T14:46:00.001+07:00

OH COME ON

Waterworld

2009-04-21T16:52:00.003+07:00

Now, before you say anything, I am not here to preach about how global warming is going to royally screw us all. Ok, maybe in a way I am. The image below shows the extent of area under water when sea rises by 7 meters. Pretty much most of Jakarta will sink to the bottom of the sea. And add to the fact that global warming causes crazier weather, even a single flood season can inundate the entire city. Impressive. If this does happen, I'm so going to be there with my harpoon gun and a jetboat. It'll be like Waterworld, minus Kevin Costner and his man-gills. Ew.

What a douche.

Check this link to see more of these sea level rise map and stuff.

2009-04-19T20:32:00.003+07:00

I knew I should have spend that 250 bucks on an effects pedal. Instead of an acoustic guitar that I only use to write sappy love songs. Sappy love songs makes me sad. But this pedal makes me feel strong. Manly. Dashing. Charming. Handsomely charming. Invincible. That's the word, bloody invincible.

It's a Digitech Hardwire Looper/Delayer, it's basically a delay pedal that lets you record small loops up to 60 seconds long (that's about 30% of a regular pop rock song, if you think about it), and it can be looped so that you can play some crazy lead and shit on top of that loop. It's fucking crazy. I tried this at Cranbourne Music (fantastic store, by the way) last week and I was baffled. It doesn't cost that much (I know I can't really compare this to a Line 6 DL-4 delay modeller, but it basically offers the same features but with more channels and crazier sounds, obviously because it's a Line 6 pedal which is pretty much like the Benz and Beemer of effect pedals), and it's pretty damn good - not that I can tell the difference between a shit product and a good product with my noob ears, but I was stunned as to how easy it is to create loops and play over them.

Needlesly to say, I gotta have myself one of these. Now. I know that it's going to be easier now to create a 3-piece band with a drummer and a bassist. The sound layering could be incredibly complex. Add a distortion pedal to the bassist, and we could really start something huge. Epic wall of sonic awesomeness raping your ears, that's what.

2009-04-15T21:23:00.000+07:00

Where the hell were you?

Sleeping sickness

2009-04-14T20:05:00.005+07:00

I found that the best cure to feeling like shit is a six pack of beer and an all nighter of Morrowind.

Embedding a youtube video may be the laziest thing I can do as a blogger, but I've been listening to this song a lot lately.

2009-04-08T22:52:00.002+07:00

Aren't Tegan and Sara awesome? They sure are entertaining.

In other news,

I am going to my first ever election tomorrow. I am not a registered voter yet, so I'm not sure if I'm actually allowed to vote. But imagine how fucking cool it would be to barge in, saying: "I gotta vote, the fate of the country is in my hands!". But yeah, fuck that.

As if I'm going to cast a vote anyway. Why would I vote for a legislative candidate that represents a district that I wouldn't even be living in in the next 5 years? (i.e. the length of a candidate's time in office).

Radio Ipul

2009-04-03T21:06:00.003+07:00

Say, chaps, have you heard of the Ipul Radio? I heard it's the shizzle. It's basically two Indonesian guys bantering in front of a microphone for ten to half an hour duration. It's pretty fun, so if you have a spare half an hour or so, do listen to these guys at http://radioipul.blogspot.com

Thanks guys.

5 AM

2009-04-02T01:16:00.004+07:00

It's 5 AM, and I can't go back to sleep. I have this weird habit of waking up about 3 hours after I fall asleep after a big night out. I finished my 'big night' much, much earlier last night, and so I fell asleep after Letterman finishes. That's right, 1 am. Which is pretty much when a 'big night out' should start anyway. Minus shitloads of cool points there. So technically, I only slept for about 3 hours, woke up because I had to drink to stop the dehydration, and now I can't go back to sleep because I can't stop thinking. And what's to think about? A surprising amount of things. Like, WHY ARE YOU READING MY BLOG. Nah, just kidding. But seriously, a lot of things. I wish I could just skip to 11 am.

I hate autumn

2009-03-31T22:09:00.003+07:00

Just to remind myself that epic fall foliages will start to appear during late April / early May. I browsed Flickr for good Melbourne autumn photos, and looks like there's heaps of places I can go to to take photos. And epicly make out with a girl underneath the epic falling leaves. AWWWW SO SWEET. Yeah right. If I got a cent for everytime I see that happen, then I'd be stinkin' rich right now. Like, apeshit rich. Here's a tip for epic make out sessions for those of you who happens to be in a relationship right now, which is pretty much most people I know, don't do it in front of me. Or I'll be throwing those autumn leaves at you. While doing a reverse moonwalking. Hmm. Picture that for a second.

Ladies, look here.

2009-03-31T20:54:00.004+07:00

What I look for in a girl:

Kind-hearted, independent, mature, can get along with my friends, religious, knows how to cook, knows how to do the laundry, funny, smart, attractive, sporty, kind (did I mention kind?), understands my joke, likeable, friendly, patient, funny (did I..? You know what, forget it) etc etc etc .. fuck that shit, dude. Here's why.

After I saw her for the first time, I know exactly what I want.

This.

Fuckin' A, son. I didn't regret that Sunday afternoon spent alone at home with a reasonably fast internet connection because everyone in my building is either at uni or outside actually enjoying the fantastic weather that day. But I chose to stay indoor and discover this beauty.

I may need to go out of the house more often. But fuck that.

And oh, the girl's name is Bailey. Bailey Room. Bailey's Room. Alright, I admit it. She's a mammary model.

Skripsi

2009-03-25T19:32:00.008+07:00

Just a reminder to myself that I have exactly 30 weeks to finish my final year research project, aka thesis/skripsi, and 31 weeks until the presentation for that research project, aka Sidang/Seminar.

So I have plenty of time. About 8 months, give or take a couple of weeks.

Here is the current situation:

I am rather convinced that my research topic is absolutely brilliant (It really isn't, it's really just smokes and mirrors.. mostly a lot of smoke). This is because I came up with the idea myself during vac work last summer. But coming up with the idea myself doesn't mean that the idea itself is brilliant. It doesn't guarantee that everyone else will think that it's a brilliant idea. I am still convinced that it's a pretty damn good idea for a research project, though not that brilliant. I guess why I think that way is because I strongly believe that if my idea is implemented correctly, it could save oil and gas companies shitloads of money, resources and valuable time.. etc etc etc, basically the stuff those company bigwigs doesn't want an undergrad like me to think too much about.. they'd like it if I stick with looking at rocks and making maps on AutoCad or some shit.

Without going into details, here is what just happened: I spoke to a group of industry reps from (large, really large) oil and oilfield service companies, and I pitched my idea to them. Most were rather impressed that I have the initiative (and the guts) to be willing to pitch an original idea this huge to those guys. But one guy, I wouldn't mention the company name, wasn't entirely convinced of my ideas. Then it got me thinking, does my project even make sense? So I spent the whole tram ride home just thinking about it, and I realised that some things are still missing from my plan, and that some things are just implausible in business terms. Sure, it makes a lot of sense from an academic point of view, because hey, this is science at work. But those big companies are after the big bucks. Always. So it got me thinking whether my idea could actually be applicable or not. And being an engineer, that's what we always have to aim for: applicability. To actually make things better.

A friend said this to me earlier tonight: "From what you're saying, I think what they're trying to say to you is: 'We like your idea, mate, but we wish we come up with it first'. That's the thing about them, companies, especially big ones like *************, fucking hates academicians and university people, simply because we come up with the best ideas all the time".

So I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm pretty sure my idea is quite decent, but there are several flaws that I will need to fix. And once I do that, hopefully it's going to be smooth sailing from thereon. Even if everyone else thinks it's a massive pile of crap, in the end I'll still be glad if I put enough effort in it. After all, there's no point finishing a five-year double degree without pulling off one last massive bang.

I have come to the realisation that...

2009-03-19T23:16:00.003+07:00

To be perfectly honest, moping sucks. It's perhaps one of my least-favorite activities, other than cleaning the bathroom or cooking stir-fried beef, because frankly, I suck at cooking stir-fried beef. If you ask me what could go wrong with cooking a pound of stir fried beef, well, heaps of things can go wrong. For starters, it could totally taste like utter shite. And I'd only know when it's in my mouth, because it would smell really nice, but ended up rather bland, and gives you that FUCK-ID-RATHER-GO-TO-KFC-IF-I-KNOW-THIS-IS-GOING-TO-HAPPEN feeling. Ever had that feeling? Me? All the time. That's why I stopped trying to cook stir fried beef, because, fuck I never got it right.

Pasta is much easier to cook. And I happen to make killer pastas from time to time. I can smash out a massive bowl of tasty penne with tuna, olives and pepper.. and rather quickly too. Switching to pasta was totally worth it. Aside from easier to cook and tastier, it happens to be pretty cheap too to prepare. And it doesn't has that much fat stuff in it, unlike rice. Rice sucks. I used to eat rice for dinner every night. You should look at me a year ago, I was a beast. Massive pot belly, chubby face, long hair. I look like that nasty kid from the little rascals or some shit. Fuck that. Nah, I think I'm getting thinner now. I noticed that I don't have a huge pot belly anymore. It is rather flat now, which is awesome.

Now I can fit myself into that lovely pair of Nudie jeans.

Just kidding.

Good night everyone, and oh, moping sucks. It totally is. I'm glad I got a guitar with me, but more on my mad guitar playing skillz later.

2009-03-19T19:31:00.004+07:00

You know what, I was going to write a blog entry about 'Feeling like shit', but then I figured out writing about it hurts as much as actually feeling about it, you know what I'm saying? It feels like, ok, try to picture running against a brick wall.. except that you can't really avoid that brick wall, you know? It's just THERE, hitting you with full force, I know it's physically impossible for a wall to proactively hit you, but that's just what it feels like right now. It feels bad, but there's nothing I can do because the brick poles and walls are running towards me with full speed, and I WASN'T EVEN RUNNING TOWARDS ANYTHING. That, is how seriously fucked up it feels. But there's nothing I can do except to drink it away. Or smash it with .. I don't know. You know what, it doesn't matter. Why are you still reading this? Here's a good website, xkcd.com, it'll cheer you up. It didn't do the trick for me, but it might make your day somewhat more awesome.

Why am I whining anyway? Not worth it. Where's my beer?

THE BEST DRINK IN THE WORLD

2009-03-17T17:57:00.004+07:00

1/3 teaspoon of (somewhat dodgy) Javanese Coffee
2.5 teaspoons of Milo
1/6 cup of milk
A cup of hot, boiling water

Equals to:
A damn good fuel for an all-nighter / Epic wake up call / An all-around fantastic drink

Plus, it doesn't make me want to go to the loo every 5 minutes, unlike regular coffee. This shit is the shit.

Although the storm blocking...

2009-03-17T08:19:00.004+07:00

Best English subtitles. Ever.

Although the storm blocking
Remember I always faithfully guard you
Together we go through
The sharp winding road
The restless that you feel
Will be a part of my life with you
Put all the sorrow at my shoulderrrrrrr

"Masih (Still)" - Ada Band

BUT THIS ISN'T EVEN THE BEST PART. Look at the subtitle for the whole music video, from start to finish. It's so goshdarned epic. And if you ask me why I put this up is because I've been singing this song since I woke up this morning.

I think she's got the right idea.

2009-03-15T18:27:00.003+07:00

I think this is one of the best lyrics I've ever heard in a while.

All the boys are begging for her,
reaching long to grab her clothes to
pull her in every direction and
throw some game that won't win.

This girl, she's looking at me
A glance over then down at her drink.
I think she's got the right idea.
I think she's got the right idea.

'You come with me, we should leave,
there's more things interesting than this joint
You pull stares from this whole crew,
and you act like you never even knew.'

We move out to the street
It's raining hard - coming down in sheets.
She takes my hands, pulls hard,
and then we make the dash to her car.
I think she's got the right idea,
I think she's got the right idea,
'We're not going anywhere,'
she says, 'We'll just stay here.'

'You come with me, we won't leave,
I'll show you something interesting.'

Her hair streaked her shirt with rain
and that did something to me.

- "I lost all my money at the cock fights", Minus the Bear

This is the sort of music I want to make. It's not a love song, it's more of a .. in-the-moment, feel, you know? That 30 minutes where everything felt just right.. without any expectations, hopes and dreams, knowing that I might not be able to have this moment ever again. It's like, talking to that random someone at a party, and just enjoying the fact that there's a connection, like something just clicked. Although that was the first time we met, that three-hours was good. I don't know if it's because of the drinks that I had then, but there was something. And it turns out I was wrong. My point is, it's these little things that count, the way I felt that night. It made me realise that.. ah fuck it, I'm not making any sense am I? This is a very corny entry, and a bad new post after a week-long hiatus. Ah well.

MS Word 2007 is sexy.

2009-03-09T09:43:00.003+07:00

I think I got a small boner from looking at my own resume and vac work report. It's not because they're good (in fact, they're quite shit; my resume is full of repetition and trivial information such as the fact that I like to throw rocks at passing cars and so forth, I claim that it's in the name of geology to do so), but it's because I wrote it in MS Word 2007. And saved as PDF form (anything in PDF looks sexy). MS Word 2007 is so awesome. I don't know why, but it makes anything I write looks smart. I can write a cooking instruction for mac and cheese, and it's still going to look incredibly decent and professional. I guess that's they key word I was looking for: professional.

I've written a lot of essays, reports and technical manual (yes, a technical manual for operating a software that was particularly bad so they told us to write a damn manual for it) in my 4+ years of uni, and I've had my share of incredibly bad reports. I did this report back in my first year of uni where I practically bitched about how hot it was on the field that day: "It was a very hot day and a result we only took measurements where there were shades". The marker's response to that passage was: "Nobody cares"

Sure, suppose that if I add the fact that I spent most of my time in the field looking at girls on the running track, I'd probably get a harsher response, and it would be funnier too. But nevertheless, I tuned my report writing skills. Instead of bitching about how hot it was, I learned to be more subtle: "It was a very hot day and the instrument couldn't cope with the heat so we had to stop taking measurements halfway through the control points".

In fact, in my later years of uni, I learned to insert my own personal stories into my report, such as: "It was a very hot day and I had to sit in the sun to mope about how she wouldn't talk to me ever again because I accidentally called her a byatch or some shit".

Where was I? Ah, I can't remember. This entry was rather pointless anyway. Good day.

Oh putra don't stop, you're such an awesome writer, bla bla bla..

I said Good Day!

I hate Bundies

2009-03-07T12:33:00.004+07:00

I'm not a huge drinker, but during the past few years, I've tasted a variety of beverages. Some appealed to me from the very first sip, some tasted quite nice at the first sip, but quickly turned ugly after a few drinks, and so forth. Here is a list of drinks that I avoid. Some I can't really avoid because of its ubiquitous nature, while some I would only drink once and never again.

Smirnoff Vodka: Drinking shots in a drinking game is fun. It's fun when everyone's drunk off their ass, but it's not fun when I'm the only guy getting pissed in the room. It's also not fun when I always get shitty cards and have to end up chugging dozens of shots. Aside from that, I find drinking Vodka in any form is bad for the mouth and the stomach, even when mixed with Coke or Lime juice. There's that ugly burning feeling in the back of my throat and the ever present feeling of wanting to throw up. I try to avoid these.

Carlton Draught: After 4 years of uni, where 3 years of it was spent at South Lawn scrounging for free keg beer at BBQs, I find Carltons to be distasteful. I once thought that this was the best drink in the world, better than Teh Botol. I guess I just had way too many of these. Be it during geology field trips, faculty BBQ, a visit to the local student-pub, or anywhere in and around the university, Carltons are everywhere. It's ridiculous. The good thing about chugging a lot of these is that it actually increased my tolerance for drinking beer. I find that I can drink a tall glass of Carlton in under 30 seconds now, which is pretty impressive compared to this time last year. I also learned that I shouldn't drink too much of these before lectures, which I have done quite often in the last few years of uni. Maybe if I stop doing that, I could actually get more H1s. Whatever.

Bundaberg: Or Bundies, for short. I have unfond memories of Bundies. The first time was at the mega-day-long-bbq at the end of semester last year. I destroyed 3 cans in less than 10 minutes, kudos to the engineering kids who figured out that poking a hole at the bottom of the can increased the flow of liquid substantially. As a result, I visited the library a few hours later, trying to get that shitty stuff out of my stomach. Unpleasant. The second time was at geology camp, where there was a mix of Bundies, Goon, Gin and Carlton in one tall glass. It tasted quite nice, to be honest. Afterwards, not so much.

Goon: Box wine. Pretty much the worst shit I have ever tasted. It's undescribable really, aside from the fact that it's like drinking motor oil mixed with a glass of rotten apple juice that's been left out in the sun for days. Even the Germans thinks that it's the worst drink ever. That should give you a good idea as to how bad it is. Avoid. And oh, by the way, it happens to be incredibly cheap at around 2.5 a litre. That's right, two dollars and fifty cents for a litre of box wine with up to 15% alcohol content. If you want to quickly get smashed in the shortest amount of time, and being economic (i.e. tight ass) at the same time, get yourself one of these.

Melbourne Bitter: A bit like Carlton Draught. I hate the colours. It's red.. and light gold brown thing. And by colours, I mean the colours of the packaging. Yes, I'm that shallow.

Cascade: Any variants. Tastes like water. I don't get it, if you want to have a drink, please drink something that actually tastes like.. something.

Corona: I find Corona to be much too girlish for my taste. It doesn't have that EDGE, you know. That KICK. And yes, I have to type both of them in caps.

Guiness: Seriously, what the fuck is up with Guiness? It's pitch black and tastes so damn bitter. And the fact that it's black doesn't help either. For one, I don't know what the hell's underneath that surface of black stuff. For all I know, there could be toenails or hair or some shit. If it tastes good, it might not be much of a problem (i.e. Rawon has a black soup, but at least you know what's in there and it tastes so damn good), but Guiness is just.. weird. It's not bad. It's just a bafflingly weird drink.

Cocktails: I am a man, etc.

So now you ask me, what do I like to drink? I'm sorry, but I don't drink beer because I have realised that it's a waste of time and money. Plus, it's not that good for your health and religion says it's wrong and and and and..

Just kidding. I like Kirin Asahi, Bintang, Beck's and a couple of random Asian beers that I've tasted somewhere but forgotten the name. So if you want to impress me, all you have to do is buy me a six pack of one of those (or a combination thereof), and I'll praise you for the rest of my life. Maybe not for the rest of my life, more like a month or so. But eh..

And that, kids...

2009-03-07T10:55:00.003+07:00

Kids, you may think your only choice is to swallow your anger or throw it into someone's face, but there's a third option: You can just let it go. And only when you do that, that it's really gone and you can move forward. And that, kids, was the perfect ending to a perfect love story. It just wasn't mine. Mine was still out there, waiting for me.

- How I Met Your Mother, "Happily Ever After"

Southeast Asia 2009. Anyone?

2009-03-02T20:52:00.005+07:00

Hi guys, I am back. I have been away for a bit. There was that geology field trip, my two days with Minus the Bear, Soundwave and a quite interesting last weekend of the summer holiday. Without going into too much details (because I couldn't care less myself), I'll say that it was an exciting 10 days that wrapped my summer holiday like a massive fireworks coated layer. I don't fucking know how that would work, so shut up. Moving on.

Tonight, I came up with this idea to backpack Southeast Asia in the summer of 2009-2010. Why Southeast Asia? Several reasons, such as:

- Asian girls
- Cheap, tasty beer
- Picturesque Beaches
- Everything is cheap

The following combination can therefore be made:

- Asian girls with large prosthetic mammaries
- Cheap, tasty beer served by asian girls with large prosthetic mammaries on picturesque beaches where everything is cheap, including the beers

And so forth.

But seriously, it's mostly because it's budget travelling and because I'm a 21 year old who wants to see the world before I'm placed in a cubicle somewhere. I'm planning to go to Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand for about 4-5 weeks at the end of the year. If I can successfully plan this, and pull it off, it's going to be legendary. It would be nice to remember an Indochina adventure when I was a 21 year old uni graduate. Sounds awesome.

Anyway, I'm back. That means more updates, and if you used to go here, please stay tuned.

EDIT: I'm considering the Philippines as an additional destination. Mostly because it's a well-developed country, and everyone there speaks English. It might be nice to stop there for a bit to catch some breath, and to experience some civilization for a change. And to Valerie, yes, I think what you suggested is an excellent idea. I've been having this idea to do the same thing anyway for the last few years, I just got held up by work and stuff. I'll have a think about it.

Minus the Bear

2009-02-19T17:21:00.005+07:00

Did I say I was going to stop posting until I sort out the mess inside my head? Fuck that shit. I'm here, and I'm ready to rock this blog. My God, I rhymed. You know what else I'm ready to rock? I'm going to see this band called MINUS THE fucking BEAR live on concert. TWICE. If I'm lucky.

So here's the plan: I'm going to the ride out the unholy storm that is of my geology field trip (They stole the last week of my summer holiday for a field trip to the middle of fucking nowhere), and when I come back to Melbourne, I'll be treated to the goodness that is of Minus The Bear live in concert. Twice.

About this time last year, Minus the Bear actually performed live in Melbourne. But guess what happened? I didn't know they were here because I was too busy playing this stupid, pretentious videogame called fucking Bioshock. Then I prayed to God, "God, please let me watch Minus The Bear live in concert, I really, really need this, I promise I'll be a good boy, I'll stop spanking the monkey, I'll stop being a total dickhead, I'll be half-dickhead if that counts, please O'God, please please pretty please".

And shazam. I might actually get to see these badboys live. TWICE. Booyah.

And oh, I'm back to blogging. You wouldn't think that I'd gone off just like that, didn't you? Not a chance in heck, kids. ~~There will be more awesomeness in form of extra supersized blog posts when I get back from this unholy geology field trip. Later.~~ Just kidding, I'm not going to spend my waking hours rambling about some random bullshit that no one gives a shit about. But yes, I'm actually going to start blogging again (and I know it's only been a week, but eh I was going to stop writing for at least a month, and no I haven't got all my stuff sorted out, there's still a huge mess in my mind that I have to take care of, but fuck that), which is a contradiction to the previous sentence, but still, I'm going to be here, dishing out the love, the love, the love...

Ugh.

Housecleaning

2009-02-12T17:41:00.004+07:00

To the fine, very fine readers of this blog:

I'm going away for a while. For a while now, I've considered the comfort of my shoes, or that storm-shelter in the eye of the storm in my mind, as my home. Not Melbourne, not Jakarta. It's going to be a busy few weeks, if not months. So there might not be any updates for a while. At least until I sort out the Spaghettic (yes, that's a new word) Mess that so well describes the current state of my mind. When I'm done with that, I'll treat you guys to a drink at a bar somewhere at the edge of the known universe.

Cheers,
Putra

My second open letter to Joko Anwar

2009-02-10T09:14:00.003+07:00

Dear Joko Anwar,

I'm going to a far, far away land soon. Therefore I wouldn't be able to re-watch your movie, Pintu Terlarang, for the second time. At least, not here in Indonesia, not for quite some time. And so I want to ask you,

VCDnya keluar kapan? :P

Regards,
Someone-who-actually-wants-to-watch-that-movie-again

2009-02-04T20:37:00.001+07:00

This is an open letter to Joko Anwar in regards to his newest movie, Pintu Terlarang.

Dear Joko,

Can I call you Joko?

Joko, you are a very talented dude. Your movies rocks so hard I think I peed a little when I watched Kala for the very first time. And it’s not because it was scary (and it was a bit scary, but we’ll get to that later), but because it was so awesomely fresh and so pleasant on me eyes. The direction rocks, the story is goshdarned epic and the cinematography totally owns on all level. +50 cool points, dude.

And despite my reputation for writing utterly sarcastic rants on this blog, no, I wasn’t being sarcastic. I liked Kala. I watched Arisan too. I thought it was fresh. Joko, you are like a mint flavored bubble gum. Fresh.

Now, Joko, I watched Pintu Terlarang yesterday, and I had to say, I enjoyed the cryptic first 30 minutes of the movie. It kept me on the edge of my seat, waiting to scream like a little girl when a ghost or vampire comes up on the screen. But as expected, nothing much happened.

Except for the part where Gambir (protagonist, Fachri Albar) stuffs the dead fetus into a statue’s womb. I was like, OMGWTFFETUSSLAYEEEER this is so twisted yet I think this is going somewhere good, in an artsy film-school kind of way. So I was like, sweet, looks like this is going to be an awesome mind-fuck movie.

Then something happened.

I’m just going to summarise the rest of the movie. Skip to the next paragraph if you don’t feel like reading my wall-of-text summary.

gambir was tormented by seeing what he thought was the apparition of a little kid asking for help, which lead him to this time where he was playing squash with his friends and when he looked in his gym bag he saw a note left behind saying “HELP ME” and so he was like “who the fuck put this here”, and bam, a kid was standing in the doorway and I was like “whoa creepy”, and Gambir chased the kid, right, but he didn’t get a hold of the kid, obviously, but shit, I forgot what happened next. So anyway Gambir was then lead by clues left by the kid to this place called Herosase. Turns out it’s a place where people can watch other people getting beat up and shit through hidden cameras like in the big brother house or something so that’s cool. But it’s not cool because it’s so twisted especially the part where there’s a kid getting beaten up by his parents (same kid that left the cryptic clues). This part was actually repeated every 10 minutes or so which is some seriously pretty fucked up shit and by then I was like AAAAWTF because really, seeing a kid beat up by both his parents for several scenes.. dude that’s just fucked up. I mean, I get the idea, man, but you don’t have to be a douche and repeat it every single fucking minute, you know? But I toughened up. When I just started to get my shit together, there’s this scene where the kid killed his parents with a kitchen knife. There’s blood spurting out of the parent’s throat and by then I was like AAAAWTF. I’m not a pussy, and I’m not that squeamish, and I can handle seeing blood, but the kid just fucking killed his parents on screen, man, that’s not cool. And oh, then he slit his own throat and there’s like blood everywhere and I was like WHAT THE FAAAHCK. That’s not cool, man! THAT’S NOT COOL! Then the first plot twist came, which shows that Gambir's wife is actually being screwed by his friends, yada yada yada. So Gambir got pretty pissed off and he killed everyone. Yeah, we totally saw that coming, dude. So then he got curious, he went downstairs to check the Forbidden Door (did I tell you about that door? You know what, whatever, it doesn’t matter), and turns out the door LEADS TO THE HOUSE WHERE THE KID LIVED (the kid who killed his parents). And I was like oooh snap, it’s actually a decent plot twist because that scene has awesome directions with really freaky music and shit, +50 cool points, dude. Then there’s that part where suddenly the kid lives again and says something creepy to Gambir, but whatever. The next thing I know, we’re lead to this scene showing Gambir in a mental institution. SAYYY WHAAAAAAT Yes folks, IT WAS ALL IN HIS TINY LITTLE HEAD, the whole movie, the whole murder thing, it was all a dream. GAAAAH

That was my first thought, but then I realized that the whole movie actually describes the journey of his tormented psyche to unlock the Forbidden Door, which holds the memory of his past when he killed his parents. The whole movie can be described as a metaphor of Gambir's behavior as a child. He was weak and powerless as a child, and in his imagination, he was thought of as a weak man in front of his wife, parents and wife. The scene where he killed everyone in the dinner table is a lead up to the opening of the forbidden door. By killing everyone in this imagination of his, he unlocks that part of his brain that locked away the tormented part of his past. There’s also that part where he saw the family photograph of the kid, but the mother’s face is blurred. Then he went to the parents’ bedroom, looked at the mother’s face and bam, everything started to came together for Gambir and the kid came back to live and the mindfuck realization slowly came to the audience… a few minutes later, we were treated to a scene of Gambir in a mental institution.

I sort of get what this movie was trying to say. What I don’t understand is why it has so much WTF moments. And why does it have to go through all this trouble to explain that he’s in a mental institution? Can’t we just do that from the start? There’s so many things that can be improved here, and it has the potential to be an absolute mindfuck masterpiece (I keep thinking of Apocalypse Now for some reason, but eh) if it’s done more properly. You can start by cutting the last scene at the church. Then how about making the mental institution background story more relevant to the main story line?

I think I’ve rambled for far too long, but you get the idea. It’s not a bad movie, it has some brilliant ideas, and it’s so close to getting +238592365 cool points from me. So, so close. But I guess you don’t care if people like your movie or not, I mean, Kala wasn’t exactly mainstream, you know. All I’m saying is, why not go all out and make this more accessible? Make it somewhat easier to understand for us plebs so the person sitting in front of us wouldn’t have to ask this at the end of the movie:

“Why is he in a mental institution? And who is that girl.. oh wait, IS THAT HIS WIFE?! OMGWTF IS GOING ON?”

2009-02-03T02:44:00.006+07:00

I just got one of my wisdom teeth pulled out last Friday. Local anesthesia, pfft, whatever…

I thought one of these would hurt really bad (in a OMGWTF sort of way), but nah. It was so fucking epic though, because it turns out the problematic wisdom tooth was growing horizontally. The doctor had to break that tooth down into several pieces with a drillbit and shitloads of water, and pull it out with some sort of scalpel, a hammer, a 12 foot long rope and a fucking gigantic tractor beam usually found in an intergalactic starship to pull those bits and pieces of tooth from the cavity where it used to be. Here’s an artist impression of what the operation looked like.

I admit I was a bit liberal with the term ‘artist impression’. Sure, it wasn’t that epic and it sure wasn’t set in space with a badass dark lord and a whinging farmboy, whatever, but the fact that I was rocking out to MGMT on my iPod when my tooth was being ripped apart by a fucking huge drillbit, that’s something. For one, it kills off the sound of the drillbit pounding through my molar (which was OMGWTF scary, to be honest), and secondly it calmed me down when I thought the doctor was going to destroy my whole mouth with nuclear explosives down the hole he digged with his orthodontic drillbit, Armageddon style. Fuck.

The doctor gave me prescription to a lot of painkillers, which was totally awesome. But fuck that, I don’t need painkillers to kill off the pain, because it’s not even painful in the first place. I guess the doctor was so good he didn’t hit a nerve or does something stupid like leaving a tooth-shrapnel behind. Oh, let’s hope he didn’t, by the way, because that would terribly suck.

And it didn’t suck because I was up and running by Saturday morning. Fully functional with most definite awesomeness. Sweet.

I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about

2009-01-29T20:07:00.003+07:00

I don’t usually write political entries, simply because I’m a jackass who doesn’t know what the fuck I’m talking about most of the time. But fuck that. This morning’s paper says that a certain ex-president who’s running for president again was taking potshots at the incumbent president. This was done in the form of criticism that the current government isn’t doing its job properly. I think we’re doing fine. I read the January (or December) issue of Newsweek, and apparently this country is one of those countries whose economic growth is higher than 5% a year (the global average is 2.5%, by the way). Our economy also consists mostly of domestic economic market thingy, which is about 75% of our total economy. The rest is based on exports or something. As a comparison, Singapore and Malaysia are highly dependent on non-domestic economy, which consists of up to 60% of their economy (which is pretty bad for those guys because of the current global economic fuckup). Don’t quote me on that though, I might sound like a total jackass. But do correct me if I’m wrong. My point is, I think we’re doing fine. Sure, there are some things that could be done differently, but that’s no reason to say that the president and his cabinet have failed. You gotta look at the big picture, man, which is pretty awesome. From the way I see it, if we play our cards right, the next 2-3 years may see this country becoming an epic regional superpower with the capability and capacity to build an army of gigantic, robot dinosaurs that can breathe flames, fly and knock down buildings with purple colored gamma ray shit. Here is an illustration to help you visualize the awesomeness of our gigantic-robot-dinosaur army.

Fucking awesome.

Alt-Tab

2009-01-28T05:44:00.001+07:00

ALT-TAB IS AWESOME

When the boss is near, I’d alt-tab my way to a PDF file on High-resolution 3D spatial modelling of complex geological structures for an environmental risk assessment of abundant mining and industrial megasites. Blah.

When the lab-demonstrator is near, I’d alt-tab my way to AutoCAD.

When my parents knock on my door, I’d alt-tab and alt-f4 my way to Google. Yes, that Google.

Browsing risque material at work is acceptable. As long as you don’t get caught. Alt-tab rules.

I'm 21, and so are you? What? You're 16? Ah fuck.

2009-01-27T18:19:00.002+07:00

I know I haven’t updated this page for a while now, but it’s not because I haven’t written anything new. My browser fucking craps out on me a week ago, thus stopping me from uploading all these awesome blog entries that I’ve written at work. And I’ve written, like, shitloads. It’s so fucking awesome that I’m getting paid to absolutely do nothing here except to write shitty blog entries and upload it to a webpage that serves no function but to dislay piss-poor rant about the universe and its inhabitants, i.e. this page. So sweet.

And oh, I turned 21 last week. Which means I can now get smashed anywhere in the world. I can get smashed, drunk-hitch-hike, wake up in another country and not get caught for underage drinking under that country’s laws. And oh, you know those websites that says in their front page: DO NOT ENTER IF YOU ARE NOT 21 RUSSIAN GIRLS INSIDE. Well, guess what? I’m 21 now, so I can traverse the invisible wiredom of the internets, guilt-free, baby. It’s almost as if the Goddess of Awesomeness popped out of my birthday cake and say: “YOU’RE ENTITLED TO INFINITE AWESOMENESS NOW THAT YOU’RE 21”. Now I can say: “I’M 21, BITCH!” to that bouncer at Cha Gao (a bouncer at Cha Gao once thought I don’t look 18 enough, me and my friends were like WTF, we 20s, yo! But he was like, nah nigga. I went WTF again. Then we went to Max Brenner. Then I went WTF am I doing here with all this chocolate, coffees, waffles and shit. True story). Of course, he’d say: “Fuck off mate, you look fucking 15 to me”. I’ll show him my passport, I’d point to the front page, and say: “YEAH BIATCH, I’M 21 WHATUP!”.

I know the drinking age in Oz-land is 18, but whatever.

But it’s not all awesome. I just realised that next year, I’ll be turning 22. And 23 the year after. And before I know it, I’ll be 25 and I’ll be like OMGWTF. And now that I’m a 20-something-guy, I can’t get away that easily with being such an immature, whinging little dickhead that I’ve been for the last, oh I don’t know, 21 years. I gotta grow up, man. It’s harder than it sounds. Especially when I can’t stop being, oh, I don’t know.. hint, it starts with an a and ends with a weeeeesome.

Peace out.

Expanded Universe-ing

2009-01-17T11:20:00.001+07:00

Star Wars Expanded Universe is one of the better expanded universes out there. Eh wait, what’s an expanded universe? Ok, you know Star Wars right? The 6 Star Wars Movies? You know Star Wars Episode 2? Huge battle at the end, clone troopers versus a droid (or robots) army, epic lightsaber duel between Yoda and Count Dooku.. Ok, what about Star Wars Episode 3? Huge space battle at the start, Anakin (Hayden Christensen) being a cocky little dickhead, etc. Noticed that Anakin has a scar on his face? He didn’t get that scar from the duel on Episode 2, he got it in between the two episodes. What happened between the two episodes are covered in a series of novels, comic books, videogames and tv shows called The Clone Wars Era. The Clone Wars is a multimedia project run by LucasFilms to make shitloads of money and satisfy Star Wars geeks worldwide. It’s a fancy little era, but guess what? It’s not canon. Meaning, George Lucas can deny its existence anytime he feels like it. He’s been known to do this from time to time. For one, the Star Wars Holiday Special was so bad (and so, so good.. in a bad way), George Lucas disowned it. In his mind, the Holiday Special didn’t exist.

The best thing about Star Wars Expanded Universe is that George Lucas still has the ultimate creative control over everything published that is any bit related to Star Wars. Of course, he doesn’t do this by himself, he actually has a guy in charge of ensuring that the Star Wars EU canon follows some basic guidelines. I’m pretty sure explaining the origin of English-speaking humans in Star Wars universe is one of the things George doesn’t want anyone to discuss. Ever. Some parts of the EU are also off-limits to writers, such as Emperor Palpatine’s childhood.

By having the supreme-decision making power in ensuring the EU doesn’t go anywhere dodgy, George Lucas has prevented some major continuity fuck-ups to happen. Except for that part in the Thrawn trilogy with the origin of the clone army and the clone wars. But that was written like 10 years before Attack of the Clones came out. It’s a good thing that is the biggest continuity error in Star Wars EU. I had a look at Star Trek and Battletech EU, and it’s pretty fucked up. There’s so many continuity errors, that the only way to retcon it is by putting ‘space-time continuum error’ or time travel somewhere.

The Star Wars EU is awesome, and I wish more people have known of it *cough * More action figures from EU, please *cough *. I wish someone makes an animated movie based on one of the novels or comic books, because that would be supremely awesome. And I’m pretty sure the story is way, way better than that Clone Wars movie.

May the Force be with you.

Doraemon is a fucking badass

2009-01-15T19:21:00.001+07:00

Doraemon is a fucking badass. For those of you who don’t know who Doraemon is, he’s this badass robot sent from the 22nd century sent to the present-time by the great-great-grandson of a total douchebag who lives in present day Tokyo, Japan. Doraemon has a lot of awesome gadgets, all of which can screw up someone’s day faster than you can say “Awww doraemon you’re sooo cute”, and he’s also so fucking cute. He’s definitely cuter than, say, He-man with his ‘BY THE POWER OF GREYSKULL’ bullshit. Doraemon has a flying-device-rudder-stuff made from bamboo. BAMBOO, man, fucking BAMBOO. Tell me that’s not badass. Several other gadgets:

- A door that can open up to any place in this universe. Within a 10-light year radius. And it’s pink.
- Time machine. Ugliest machine I’ve ever seen. Yet so incredibly badass. Time travel is sexy.
- A flashlight that can shrink or make stuff larger. Can make stuff, like, really-really fucking huge. More on this later.

And a bunch of other stuff. Most of them are awesome, while some are just too freaky. Like, disturbingly twisted. I’ve read the comics (all of them, woo), and Doraemon has a device for literally anything. Thank Nobita for being such a whiny, whinging little dickhead.

Also add that Doraemon’s a cat-robot. That’s right. A CAT-O-ROBOTO. Minus the cat-ears. There should be a cross-over story about ze Terminator adopting Doraemon as a pet. Just think about that for a second, and ponder about the awesomeness of it. A time travelling robot teaming up with a time travelling cat-droid, kicking asses and being awesome and cute at the same time. Shit.

Man, I should write about Doraemon more often.

Suits are cool. Exhibit A...

2009-01-14T20:20:00.002+07:00

Suits are cool. Here’s why. Say, you walk in a bar with a suit. Now say it’s a hip bar downtown. On weekends, people go there to drink and stuff, but none of them has a suit on. What’s wrong, you’d ask. It’s the weekend, dumbfuck. Noone suits up on weekend. Except for you. Because you’re cool. You see, not everyone would do that, but wearing a suit on a Saturday evening outing is just plain cool. When somebody asks, just say you’re a businessman on an international business trip with a multinational company that operates in business. What business? Secret, secret business. Shit, that’s hot!, she’d say. So always say to girls you work in finance… or business, whatever, that’s rule number two. The suit justifies your~~bullshit~~ somewhat-bullshit claim that you work in finance, especially during this global economic crisis party. A worldwide PARTAAAY. Fuck that.

So rule number one is: Get a suit. I know I just did, and holy shit, I look good. I’m gonna look so good, all the girls will want to have sexy-time with me and every guy would want to be like me. High five.

I offend people

2009-01-13T20:41:00.001+07:00

I don’t give a flying-fudge about Gaza. Say, champ, have you seen those photos of kids getting pwned by rockets and missiles? Distressing, I’d say. Yawn. Look, here’s the thing about modern warfare, and I want you to listen to me carefully, because this is important: We have bigger guns now. Compared to the shit we used in WWII (fyi, that’s the last major war we had, and it wasn’t pretty), what those guys are using right now in Iraq, Afghanistan, Georgia and Gaza are huge. Like, fucking huge. It’s like comparing a 9 mm handgun with Bart Simpson’s slingshot. A US B2 bomber has the same firepower as a squadron of normal, average-Joe bomber planes. And oh, it flies really high, has a fucking huge flying range, packs more firepower than your average 3rd world country air force, not to mention that it’s stealthy and more quiet than a fetishist creeping up on someone’s wardrobe stealing panties and shit. The B2 bomber even has a fucking PANTRY onboard. Who the fuck has a pantry onboard a warplane? That, my friend, is a testament to just how awesome a B2 bomber is.

I guess the point I’m trying to make is that in modern warfare, the damage caused by weaponries have increased to such a ridiculous level of awesomeness and efficiency. Meaning, more people are likely to get fucked by explosions and shit. Tungsten rounds, AP, AA rounds, depleted uranium shells, smaller tactical nukes. Whoa, fuck me. I’m sorry, what’s that you said? Purposely targeting civilians? It’s war, honey, it’s supposed to be bloody ugly. We’ve been doing the same thing since the dawn of time, and that is because we haven’t yet evolved to that level where we could catch up with our advances in technology. If you ask me who’s to blame in Gaza, I’d say both are to blame. They’re like two kids beating the snot out of each other simply because neither doesn’t want to share a table together at lunch hour. If that doesn’t make any sense to you, then neither does what they’re doing now right there.

Peace out, hombres.

2009-01-12T22:25:00.004+07:00

wow, i can blog from my mobile phone. This is so fucking awesome. Random thought: ~~people change. A lot. I think. Huh.~~ I don't remember what I was trying to say. Ah fuck it.

2009-01-12T20:21:00.001+07:00

When people ask me if my job is fun, I’d say, fuck yes. You know why? Because we have free-flow snacks and infinite amount of coffee and milo. It’s fucking epic. Check this out, since this morning, I have smashed half a tin-can of meat-flavored crackers (shit, if you don’t think that’s awesome, you’re wrong.. anything meat-flavored is always awesome) and I drank, give or take, five cups of milo. I went straight to the loo afterwards. I took an epic number-two, and I listened to MGMT’s Electric Feel while I was at it. It was fucking epic. Did I mention that the toilet seat has a fucking bidet? Does your toilet seat have a bidet? I think not. Win.

2009-01-03T19:38:00.004+07:00

I always think that how I spend my new year's eve is a reflection on how I will spend the rest of the year. Is that the right word? A reflection? I was going to use 'microcosm', but that may not be entirely accurate. Plus, I might risk sounding like a douchebag. Whatever. Reflection sounds great anyway. So I went to this cafe for NYE. The theme for that night was 1980s stuff, apparently. I knew that it was the 80s when I heard Bee Gees on the stereo when I walked in. It was scary. But we'll get to that later. Getting there was a pain. Luckily, I didn't get to drive there. And so I witnessed central Bintaro turning into a warzone. It was like Gaza, man. Gaza. There were firecrackers exploding everywhere. Crazy kids speeding past cars with their motorcycles. More firecrackers. Kids getting run over by motorcycles. Kids getting blown up by firecrackers. Zombies rising from the dead and getting burned down by firecrackers. BURN BABY BURN. So... yeah.

So I got there, noticed that Bee Gees was being played over the stereo. The DJ with epic curly hair was banging his head along to the rhytm of the beat. Whatever. I was ready to bail, but then I saw Omar and his girlfriend. Bail aborted. Then came the others. I ordered a Topi Miring. To use as a toast. When the ball drops. Simply because it's not that cool to toast to a new year with milk.

So there I was, waiting for the new year to arrive. I shrugged off all thoughts of regret. I tried to stay optimistic, and I kept on reminding myself that what went wrong this year has happened, and it's all in the past. Let go. Let go.

But I couldn't. So I said, "fuck it". I ran up to the stage, grabbed the mic and said: "This song goes out to.. her! That.. girl! You know who you are! Alright boys, play me a blues lick in E minor. One, ah, two, ah three..".

Then there's that bit where I grabbed a guitar and played Johnny B Goode. There's also that part where I was so awesome at playing that song, girls started taking off their shirts.. it was legendary.

But of course, that didn't happen.

What really happened in the last 5 minutes of 2008 was me going through the best moments of the year in my head. Everyone else in the table was talking about resolutions. I was sitting there, juggling my emotions, and overthinking.. and overthinking. Then it was 5 seconds to 2009. I had my handphone in my hand. I wanted to call someone, but I didn't know who. I quickly browsed through my phonebook, looking for that someone that I can call and share the awesomeness that is of a new year's eve. I couldn't find anyone to call. Then came 2009.

Somebody asked me if I have any new year's resolution, and I said to him: "Fuck resolutions". And I actually meant that. 2009 is going to be a hectic year. I'd be lucky to even survive, let alone making all these goals that I wouldn't even bother to try to achieve.

So there I was, 2 hours after midnight. The party just got a bit more interesting. Men in tightly fitted t-shirts were crowding the dancefloor. Then I realised that the party has turned its direction into a very scary and dark place. So we bailed. We walked quickly to the car. I peered to the back, and noticed that they were following us. Men in tightly fitted t-shirts. They're everywhere. There's so many of them. And they're following us. I ran. They ran as well. I noticed this, and so I grabbed my sawn-off shotgun from my tenchcoat (since when I wore a trenchcoat? I don't know), and I fired away.

Boom.

Boom.

But there's too many of them. I ran to the car. Started the engine. They climbed on top of the engine cap. I screamed. Not a girl-scream, but a MAN-SCREAM. Like an ARGHHH FUDGE!, not an AIIHHMACHAN. You know. I grabbed my sawn-off shotgun, and fired at the mirror. The glass fragments pierced the zombies' skin. One by one, they fell from the car. I set the car to reverse, pressed the pedal, and watched as my car plowed through a wave of zombies. THEY'RE EVERYWHERE. Then my engine stopped.

So I went up to the roof. I made my last stand. As the zombies came near me, I smacked them with my shotgun's alternate-fire option, i.e. melee attack.

"COME AND GET ME! YAARGH!"

I activated my special powers, such as Iron-Skin or Whirlwind attack, and I watched as the zombies around me fell to the sides of the car, and into the ground. Man, I'm awesome, I thought. But there were too many of them, and I'm surrounded.

I'm surrounded. Agent Penn is surrounded. Now what?

Dun dun dummm.

Stay tuned for more of agent Penn's awesomeness!

2008-12-31T06:47:00.000+07:00

To think of it, I'm rather fond of 2008. It's been a good year. Sure, there were a couple of things that I would like to see happen differently, but then again you can't ask for everything. And you know, everything happens for a reason. Supposedly. If you believe in His Almighty Plans. Speaking of which, I went through an interesting phase this year where I swam in the ocean of philosophical quizzing on the nature of God and religion. As bullshit as that may sound, it was an interesting phase. Plus, it was an entirely substance-free journey. Speaking of substances, I have to admit that I consumed a lot of alcohol in the last 12 months. It's not something that I'm proud of, but oh was it legendary. It was, in fact, memorable. Some of the things that happened to me while I was heavily smashed are the things that will remind me of how fun uni life can be; When I didn't have to go to work, when I can get smashed on Friday, wake up on Sunday afternoon and still feel sane. Then there's that pub that I go to every Thursday. Why Thursday? Because I know there's going to be that ritual where we go to the movies every Friday evening. And when we don't go to the movies, I'd stay in, watch a movie, write a story or play the guitar. Speaking of the guitar, there was a period where my guitar was entirely unplayable. I remember spending 28 bucks to get it fixed, because I learned to never try to fix a guitar's electronics unless I'm absolutely sure that it's the right thing to do. Anyway, it never broke again since. There's also that time when my amplifier broke. I had to buy the amp that I sold to Barli for 50 bucks. I bought it back for 50 bucks. It was the silliest transaction I have ever done in my life. I also remember that time when Tommy and I started this little band called the Trash Motel. We weren't that good. We're somewhat better now. Then I remember when I played that guitar at Barli's house on Ramadhan. I remember getting beat up at Wii by this girl, who I ended up going rock-climbing with several weeks later. That was fun. I remember staying over at Bryan's place, and just talking crap about politics and more politics until 5 in the morning. There's also that time when I took the 5.30 am train from Caulfield to the city. I shared a seat with a couple of blue collar workers, cleaners, janitors, inner city service workers. The people you don't see in morning commute. I remember Mama Duke's and Workshop bar. So much happened in 2008. I think I grew up. Just a bit. I went to my first job interview for a real, professional job. I didn't get that job. I'm glad I didn't. I ended up working for a multinational company that does offshore engineering stuff, among other things. I learned a lot about the oil and gas industry in the last few weeks of December. I went on a lot of geology field trips, I didn't think I want to see another rock ever again. Until I got a 90% for a geology exam back in semester one. I remember jumping into a pool with my shirt on during a warm spring day in Phillip Island. I didn't know why I did that. I remember throwing up inside my sleeping bag, I remember throwing up into a toilet bowl in a seedy motel in Ballarat, I remember throwing up into another toilet bowl in Melbourne Uni's biggest, most crowded library during the exam period. I remember not remembering anything at all for a whole day, which was blissful. I remember thinking so much about everything and everything at the same time. Overthinking hurts. I remember when I started praying to God again after a several months hiatus. I remember talking on the phone with my mother one night, trying to explain to her how things weren't working out. Things were fine. It has always been. I remember stumbling down Swanston St., half drunk, half bitter and somewhat broken. But then I got home and I remembered that everything was alright. I learned that rocking up at 11 in the morning to surprise someone you barely know for her birthday is never a good idea. I remember Bryan's car and all the places we went to in that junk-filled car. I remember Ballarat, and the two Phillip Island trips. I remember that 2 am conversation with her, and everything else we ever talked and laughed about. I remember my first day of work at Fugro. I remember ruining my dad's car. I remember speeding down Sentul's racetrack in a souped up 1960 BMW at 140 km/h. I remember the stories Omar and I wrote on MSN. I remember How I met Your Mother, and how it made my weekday nights less miserable. I remember how Heroes' 3rd season sucked donkey balls. I remember going to Soundwave 2008 and seeing Incubus and Thursday live. I remember reading American Gods on the way from Melbourne to Singapore. I remember seeing my grandmother in a wheelchair for the first time, and how it broke my heart remembering that she used to babysit me when I was 6. We used to walk together to the market. I tiptoed because I didn't want to get my shoes dirty, and she would hold my hand so I don't fall. I remember what my grandfather said on the last Monday of 2008: "When facing a problem, never see it as a burden, but see it as a challenge. And remember, to cherish every moment, and be grateful of what you have".

2008 was a good year.

So this is the new year
And I have no resolutions
For self-assigned penance
For problems with easy solutions
-"The New Year" , Death Cab for Cutie

2008-12-27T10:35:00.002+07:00

I'm going to shave off my facial hair, it's starting to look silly. Turns out I really can't grow a 'legendary-looking beard and mo'. Lame.

2008-12-26T11:08:00.005+07:00

The thing about making long term plans is that there are too many variables; No matter how good the plan is, and no matter how many contingency plans you've made, there simple are too many variables to account for. Sometimes it feels like paddling a raft in the middle of an ocean. Storms don't come here too often, but when it comes, there's no way of knowing where you'll end up. I guess it's the fear of ending up in a place where I don't want to be. But what leads me to believe that this isn't where I wanted to be? Is it because that's what everyone else thinks? None of us wants to end up on a desert island, but it does happen, and surprisingly often, too.

2008-12-24T18:44:00.003+07:00

I will not shave my facial hair until 2009. Or maybe, maybe.. even longer than that. I want to see how long I can grow this thing. As of this moment, it's looking rather shoddy. You see, there is a difference in growth rate between the right and left side of the facial-hair-growing-complex. Ergo, my left-hand side grows much faster than the right one, resulting in what I call a Temporary Growth Lapse, or TGL for short. Why temporary? Because I believe if I let it (and by it, I mean, hair, and by hair, I mean facial hair) linger in my face for long enough, the growth rate will synchronize over time, and thus resulting in an epic/legendary full beard and mo'. For the ladies: Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some business to attend to; Namely, my underwater mapping extravaganza. Booyah.

And oh, Merry Christmas.

2008-12-20T08:21:00.003+07:00

"As a group, the supermajors control about 5% of global oil and gas reserves with largest supermajor, ExxonMobil, ranked 14th. Conversely, 95% of global oil and gas reserves are controlled by state owned oil companies, primarily located in the middle east."

So, what do you say will happen if a war over resources breaks out sometime in the next 10 years? What if it will become possible for the supermajors to control more than 5% of global oil and gas reserves? Create the notion that a state has failed (e.g. Afghanistan, Somalia), send in the Marines, take over the government, create tenders to split up the national oil and gas company into equally-sized chunks for the supermajors.

The future is bright. I hope I'll be around long enough to see this happen.

2008-12-08T21:22:00.002+07:00

I thought I was dreaming, but I wasn't. I was floating. Well, not exactly floating. I was held by a flying-man. I can read the symbol on his chest. No Mercy. And we were flying. Streams of awesomeness are coming out of his shoes. I don't get it. How could awesomeness lift someone up into the atmosphere and propel him to a speed of more than 500 miles an hour?

Then I stopped believing, and I fell.

2008-12-08T17:16:00.000+07:00

http://xkcd.com/513/

2008-12-03T19:16:00.002+07:00

The engineering building finally collapsed after a night of fire. We had to come back to check if I, agent Penn, left anything behind. A few hours ago I just found out that my media-playback device broke down in the midst of a cramming session for an exam. Mr. T and I suspect there was foulplay involved. Someone deliberately sabotaged my media-playback device. But who? I shook off the thought as I rappelled down the helicopter. There's nothing much left. A couple of bodies here and there. A couple? Something's wrong. There should be more of them. Then I turned around. I could see their eyes; As red as blood. They're here. The Night-Crammers. A can of coke in one hand, and a bundled set of lecture notes in the other hand. Papers couldn't hurt me. But my eyes can't handle coke. I could imagine how painful it must be to be on the receiving end of that. I spoke to my watch-phone (a phone embedded in a watch.. try to keep up): "Delta base, this is delta-7. Abort mission. Requesting immediate pickup".
"This is T. Listen, Penn, we're in the middle of something here. It seems the barrel-chested engineering kids have created some sort of flying machine.. and it's coming straight at us. Pilot! Turn us around! I'm sorry, agent Penn. I'm sure you can find your way out of this one. It's not the first time, after all. Godspeed, over"
"DAMN YOU MR. T!"

They're everywhere. The collapse of their hive didn't destroy them, it nourished them with some sort of eng-mana. The intel guys got it wrong. I should've known. I threw punches at the approaching eng kids. A straight punch at the beer cans held in the hands of the barrel chested eng kids, and a couple of roundhouse kicks to the greasy-haired kids' calculators. I could win this, I thought. I could. But there's too many of them.

Then the sky opened. A couple of guys jumped from the sky. Who the hell are these guys?

"AGENT PENN! TAKE MY HAND!", said one of them.
"What?! Why? Who are you?"
"I am No Mercy. This is No Regret. We are THE RESCUE ARMY! AND WE ARE HERE TO RESCUE YOU!"
"..."
"I SAID, WE ARE HERE TO RESCUE YOU"

Huh. Odd. I grabbed No Mercy's hand, and off we flew away from the mass of eng kids throwing themselves at each other. I was safe. Then I realised that we were flying.

"Seriously, who are you guys?"
"We are the RESCUE ARMY. Please, save the questions for later"

To be continued...

2008-12-02T08:43:00.002+07:00

I had my iPod since 2006. A few days ago, it broke. I was studying for my last exam in Engineering lab. Damn noisy Eng kids. I turned on my iPod, then I noticed something funny. Nothing came out of the right earphone. I chose to handle the situation like a man. I dove down under the table and whisphered to my watch-phone (a what? a watch-phone, it's a phone embedded in a watch.. try to keep up): "Delta base, this is delta-7, somebody just sabotaged my playback device!"
"..."
"*sigh* Over"
"This is Delta base. What seems to be the problem? Over"
"Somebody. Or something. Sabotaged my media playback device! I require extraction immediately! Over"
"Helicopters are inbound. Standby for extraction. Hold your position Agent Penn"

Then the hungry wave of engineering kids swarmed at me from all directions. My earphones were the only thing standing between me and hell. This was hell. And it was coming from all directions. I grabbed my iPod, flicked the 'Hold' button, and swung it at the nearest Eng kid. He was less than 5 feet tall, with thick, grease-covered glasses. This was the first wave.

Then came the rest of them. Barrel-chested, beer-drinking Eng kids. They threw their stubbies at me. I swung my iPod wildly, deflecting glass shards and spilled beer. It took a lot of effort to deflect liquid, mind you. Especially when it's something as precious as spilled beer. NEVER, EVER SPILL YOUR BEER. EVER.

I was overpowered. They came from all directions.

I was doomed.

Then came the cavalry. I hear the walls collapsing. No such thing as showy-over-the-top performances for these guys. Because it's always over the top. Ha. A group of 5 Arts student rushed into the room from the helicopter. For distractions. The Eng kids swarmed at them. Like zombies from that British zombie movie. Then I ran to the helicopter, as it pulled away from the collapsing engineering lab.

Inside, Mr. T debriefed me. Yes, that Mr. T.

"So I heard your media playback device broke down"
"Yes Sir"
"Do you suspect foul play?"
"Yes Sir, sabotage, Sir"
"I pity the fool who broke your iPod"
"Me too, Sir"

To be continued...

2008-12-01T12:31:00.001+07:00

Hi, I'm in Jakarta.

2008-11-27T09:04:00.000+07:00

With 36 24 hours to go until my flight back home, I can't help but to think how I'll miss this place over the upcoming months. It's hard to not be such a drama-queen about this, but I'm seriously going to miss Melbourne. If all goes to plan, in a few weeks I'll be working at a multinational oilfield service company, doing core-logging and learning a few things about the wonderful world of geophysics. If things don't go to plan, I'll be at home learning how to use FL Studio. Ok, say, if I choose the first option, I'll be a super bad-ass geologist by the end of February. If I choose the latter, I'll be a super bad-ass electro-shit spewing machine. I'll be sexier than Aphex Twin on his sexiest day. Very sexy indeed.

2008-11-23T12:35:00.002+07:00

I think I've run out of things to blog, even though so many things has happened in the last few weeks. Epic things. Well, not as epic as Gilgamesh, but still quite awesome. The thing is, I don't know where to start, so I'll just give you the short version.

I have come to realize that my life rocks. Life is like.. a long, epic road trip. I do have a map, a compass, a GPS and a couple of navigators along with me. However, I chose to stray from the main road. It's not even a shortcut. It may lead somewhere. I figure there might be something else on this road. I roll down the window, feel the wind on my forehead. I opened the door, and jumped straight into the ocean.

Let's see where I'll end up.

2008-11-06T07:37:00.001+07:00

Wow, has it been a year already?

Fuck.

2008-11-05T11:19:00.002+07:00

We live in an exciting time.

Obama won the US 2008 presidential election (in case you've been living in a cave for the last a few years, he's black, his middle name is Hussein and people often mistaken him for an Arab. True story).

The world is in the brink of an economic crisis not unlike the Great Depression. Scary.

PKS and FPI condemns the execution of the Bali Bombers. No surprise there.

PKS is becoming more popular in Indonesia. Heh.

2008-11-03T21:34:00.003+07:00

It shouldn't be this hard. This is not rocket science. It shouldn't be this complicated. If everyone else does it, why can't I? Why am I struggling?

Oh, and by this, I mean 451-447 Photogrammetry.

Not the one you're thinking of at the moment. Not at all..

2008-11-03T09:47:00.002+07:00

Blah blah blah, self loathing, blah blah blah, ramblings, blah blah blah, self loathing.

Repeat.

I'm fine. Turns out all I have to do is.. actually, I don't know. But seriously, I'm fine. As long as I don't think too much about anything. It's like.. you know what, never mind.

Blah blah blah, further self-realization, blah blah blah epiphanies, blah blah blah, more epiphanies.

Fuck grand statements. I don't even know why I'm sharing this with the world. Geez.

2008-11-02T23:09:00.005+07:00

My friends told me to stop worrying. My mum told me to stop thinking too much about the future. Maybe I need to stop thinking. If all goes according to plan, I guess working 8 to 5 every day for 2 months will help me take my mind off a lot of things. Hopefully.

Unless there's another way..

Ah, fuck grand statements. Where's my beer?

2008-11-02T07:37:00.004+07:00

This is me bitterly realizing that I wouldn't make as much money as a commerce student when I graduate from uni. This is me realizing that I should have studied to become an investment banker instead. With my dad's connections, and my above-average mathematics skills, I think I could wing it. I think. I know that the whole worldwide economic meltdown is going to make the job market in that field so much tighter, but it will turn around. And when we've run out of oil, all the money's still going to be there. We'd probably be trading beetroots and carrots by then, but eh, there will still be money going around.

Why the fuck am I studying rocks? Rocks are awesome, and I'm reasonably good at it, but I like the idea of jetsetting around the world on business trips and screwing local girls. And plenty of them. Why the fuck am I studying rocks?! Ah, fuck this idealism.

I think I'd rather drown in a sea of pussy and dollars.

In a sea of..

2008-11-01T20:29:00.005+07:00

If I have a time-machine, I will go back in time to October 2004 and stop myself from sending an application to Melbourne University. Or to any university in Victoria.

"Stop that application. Send one to UNSW and Curtin. Anywhere but Melbourne"

Anywhere but here..

I think I need a drink.. I'd go back in time to Hiroshima, 1945.

Dresden, 1944.

Nanjing, 1937.

Medina, 632.

Rome, 476.

Calvary, 36.

2008-11-01T07:16:00.003+07:00

Let's start from the top.

Friday 31st of October 2008

9 am - 1 pm = Library, studying.
1 pm - 1.45 pm = Prac test.
1.45 pm - 1.55 pm = Walked to systems garden
1.55 pm - 3 pm = Drink. Drink. Drink. Quantity = ?
3 pm - 4 pm (or 5 pm?) = BBQ-Hopping.
4 pm - 6.15 pm = ???????
6.15 pm - 7.15 pm = Home. Recuperating. Shower.
7.15 pm = Took the tram to Bryan's graduation dinner.

What the hell happened between 4 and 6.15 pm? Did I pass out somewhere? The last thing I remember is me staring down the porcelain seat of a toilet in the Baileu library. It's all so hazy. I remember waiting for the elevator to come up. Then I was home. Sitting in front of the television. Somehow Neighbours was on.

Did I meet anyone I know? Did I talk with anyone I know while I was halfway between being ridiculously smashed and still somewhat sober? Did I talk to you? What the fuck happened?

..

Let's just hope there wasn't a camera around.

2008-10-26T18:26:00.001+07:00

It's confirmed. I was slightly more upbeat at exactly this time last year. I think it has something to do with growing old and realising that the great-big-fuckery known as life is going to get to me soon..

2008-10-26T08:31:00.002+07:00

Well, as long as it keeps the people sedated..

2008-10-23T13:34:00.002+07:00

Support your local scene. I support my local scene. I like these guys. They make catchy, whiny music about growing up and making out with chicks. Pee Wee Gaskins are awesome. They remind me what it was like to be a 15 year old. Ah, those were the days.. knee-deep in pussy, knee-deep in sweat from band practice, and knee-deep in massive amount of sheer irresponsibility.

http://www.myspace.com/peskins

For a band named after a serial killer, their music is surprisingly tame. But still, it's good music. When feeling nostalgic and pissed off knowing that you're now 20, and the big, fucked up world is coming out to get ya when you graduate from uni. You're fucked. And this may be your salvation. Or not.

2008-10-21T13:53:00.000+07:00

I think this explains a lot:

One reason why romantic rejection is so common in society is a tendency called falling upward. People generally desire mates that are higher than themselves on such characteristics as status and physical attractiveness, but not ones who are lower.^[22] When someone falls in love with a person who has aspirations that are higher, that love is less likely to be reciprocated, potentially leading to rejection.

2008-10-21T07:40:00.003+07:00

If we look at Darwin's theories, I think what he means by survival of the fittest (...) is not a matter of who's the strongest, but those who survive tends to be the one that is most suited to his environment. The ability to adapt, to change. I think there's a direct correlation between one's level of happiness and his.. you know, position in the whole Darwinian scheme-thing. Hmm. Anyway, off topic, it's confirmed. I'm going to Soundwave next year. Booyah achieved. And oh, I'm going to Jakarta at the end of November. This should be incredibly exciting. Sarcastic, much? No. In fact, it is quite delightful. Ish.

2008-10-18T22:25:00.000+07:00

Fitter
Happier
More productive
Comfortable, not drinking too much
Regular exercise at the gym, 3 days a week
Getting on better with your associate employee contemporaries at ease
Eating well, no more microwave dinners and saturated fats
A patient, better driver, a safer car, baby smiling in back seat
Sleeping well, no bad dreams, no paranoia
Careful to all animals, never washing spiders down the plughole
Keep in contact with old friends, enjoy a drink now and then
Will frequently check credit at moral bank, hole in wall
Favors for favors, fond but not in love
Charity standing orders on Sundays ring road supermarket
No killing moths or putting boiling water on the ants
Car wash, also on Sundays, no longer afraid of the dark or mid-day shadows
Nothing so ridiculously teenage and desperate, nothing so childish
At a better pace, slower and more calculated, no chance of escape
Now self-employed, concerned, but powerless
An empowered and informed member of society, pragmatism not idealism
Will not cry in public, less chance of illness, tires that grip in the wet
Shot of baby strapped in back seat, a good memory, still cries at a good film
Still kisses with saliva, no longer empty and frantic like a cat tied to a stick
That's driven into frozen winter shit, the ability to laugh at weakness
Calm fitter, healthier and more productive, a pig in a cage on antibiotics

2008-10-15T07:26:00.004+07:00

Situasi yang kayak tai tuh kayak gimana sih? Situasi yang bener2 ngebikin lu ngerasa enggak enak bgt, dan pingin ngurung diri di kamar dan merenung seharian (mulai hiperbola deh)? Gimana kalau lu punya tugas grup yg due rabu depan, dan lu udah hampir selese, tapiii di menit2 terakhir, ada nih orang yang gak punya grup yg maksa untuk masuk ke grup lu. Mau diusir gak tega, mau dimasukin ke grup gak enak ama teammate. Kerjaan udah ampir selese, udah ada pembagian tugas yang jelas. Temen satu tim gw gak kenal ama nih orang. Gw juga baru kenal tadi pagi. Masalahnya, gw gak bisa jadi orang yang bangsat dan bilang dia untuk cari grup lain: "Ya salah lo sendiri gak mulai cari grup dari awal!". Ya.. gini lah tainya. Kalo ada job interview one day yang nanyain gw:

"Ini masih tentang topik teamwork ya.. uhm..Masalah terbesar yang kamu pernah alami ketika kuliah? Coba jelaskan apa solusi yang kamu ambil di situasi itu"

Palingan gw enggak bisa jawab. Mau nyoba sok diplomatis tapi kok jadinya kayak gini.. sekarang gw yg diteror2 ama dia..

2008-10-12T20:02:00.002+07:00

Sarah Palin looks cute in this photo. There, I said it. I said it so you don't have to say it. All you have to do now is nod in agreement with me. Let me see that nod.

VPCILF? Ya betcha.

I think the McCain-Palin campaign is struggling with the latest abuse-of-power accusations. Perhaps this awesomely VPCILFish is not going to the White House after all. But eh, it's politics. Who knows how this will end up?

2008-10-12T08:00:00.003+07:00

I think the Second Great Depression is nigh. I went to this job interview the other day, and this guy was talking about how it was hard for him to find a job back in the 1980s during the recession. I know this guy in the industry who told me the other day that it's pretty hard to find a job in the construction business nowadays, simply because there's not enough demand. I think the effects are certainly visible. It's definitely surfacing. Even my parents are freaking out.

Living costs are getting higher. I always keep a note of my expenditures every month, and I'm starting to see a disturbing pattern. Prices are going up, people's rents are going up. World energy price is going down because of less demand, but the energy companies aren't lowering their prices. It doesn't take a genius to see that things are going to shit. Call me paranoid, but everything looks pretty fucked up.

I don't study economics or finance at uni, so I don't really know what's going on. I'm as clueless as most of you. This link's pretty interesting.

http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney02212007.html

I don't think I'll know what to do when it happens.

I was never raised as an enterpreneur. I don't have any skills or aptitude necessary to become self sufficient in such crisis. I'm studying at uni, a 5 year degree, to work in an industry propelled by material demand. An industry fuelled by the world's hunger for more and more things that they don't even need.

What did people do during the Great Depression? How did they cope?

2008-10-10T19:32:00.004+07:00

I wish I'm on a beach right now. I wish I'm somewhere else. I wish I can connect with the rest of the world. I wish I can relate to things that I wish I want to be. I don't even know what the fuck I'm talking about. I wish I can go somewhere where I wouldn't be thinking about anything at all. I think I need a long vacation away from civilization. I think I need a job. I think I need to travel. I think I need to start thinking about my future. I think I need to laugh more. I think I need to study more. I think I need to start living. I think I need you. I think I need to stop thinking.

2008-10-07T19:18:00.004+07:00

I got beaten by a girl in Wii.

A girl can treadmill longer than me.

I'm singing along to James Morrison's You Make It Real.

Oh no.

I think I'm turning into a girl.

2008-10-06T17:37:00.000+07:00

To be lost in the forest
To be cut adrift
You've been trying to reach me
You bought me a book
To be lost in the forest
To be cut adrift
I've been paid
I've been paid

Don't get offended
If I seem absent minded
Just keep telling me facts
And keep making me smile
Don't get offended
If I seem absent minded
I get tongue-tied
Baby, you've got to be more discerning
I've known never known what's good for me
I will be yours

I'll pay for you anytime

You told me you wanted to eat up my sadness
Well jump on, enjoy, you can gorge away
You told me you wanted to eat up my sadness
Jump right on
Baby, you've got to be more discerning
I've known never known what's good for me
Baby, you've got to be more demanding
I will be yours

What are you holding out for?
What's always in the way?
Why so damn absent-minded?
Why so scared of romance?

This modern love breaks me
This modern love wastes me

Do you wanna come over and kill some time?
Tell me facts, tell me facts, tell me facts
Tell me facts
Throw your arms around me.

This Modern Love -Bloc Party

2008-10-05T07:07:00.003+07:00

If my calculations are correct, then this is every bit like last year. Everything's the same, nothing's changed. It's just the names that are different this time around.

Let's see how things compared to last year:

2nd of October, 2007:

I can't stop procrastinating.. ARGH. I got an essay due this Wednesday, and I'm only halfway through. I was supposed to finish it tonight, but I got distracted by Idol, Californication, The Office and of course, Facebook.

Would it possible to procrastinate on procrastinating? So you know, I can get some work done. I was just thinking, if I can stop myself from Facebook-ing and MSN-ing, I could actually finish my essay by now, and I would start on my other assignments, and probably even get some revision done, but no, I got Facebook. And Medieval 2.

To think of it, I should probably blow this computer up. But then again, I can access Facebook on engineering lab's computers..

And instead of writing my essay, here I am writing a fucking blog entry. Very smart.

Same situation. Change the names to:

Idol = Fringe on Channel 7
Californication = I'm still watching Californication.
The Office = I'm still watching The Office.
Facebook = I'm still online 24/7 on Facebook.

Procrastinating = I still love to procrastinate. Just because I can.

Medieval 2 Total War = Rome Total War

And instead of studying, here I am writing a blog entry. Very smart. Thank you, thank you.

2008-10-01T21:17:00.001+07:00

Happy Eid, everyone. Please forgive my fuck-ups. That is all.

I miss my family. I miss Jakarta.

2008-09-29T20:55:00.002+07:00

Fun Times at Job Interviews

Interviewer: So it says here that you like to play music.
Me: Yeah, I play the guitar.
Interviewer: So do you perform live or..
Me: Oh, no. No. We're .. not that good.

-------------------------------------------

Interviewer #1: So tell me why you decide to study Geometric Engineering and.. Geology.
Me: Geomatics Engineering. I, uh, I like maps. When I was seven, or nine, I can't remember, I had to make this 3d-map from paper scraps.. old newspaper.. and..
Interviewer #2: Peta timbul?
Me: Peta timbul. I knew then that I wanted to know how to make.. maps.
Interviewer #2: Interesting.
Me: Yes.
Interviewer #2: Not many people would want to do that.
Me: I know.

--------------------------------------------

(When filling a job application)

Q9. What are your reasons for applying for this position?
Because I like rocks.

---------------------------------------------

I love applying for vac work.

2008-09-28T20:15:00.003+07:00

Now I know why I can't get a job at retail, restaurants or anywhere in the service industry. I'm not attractive and socially average enough to be an asset. There's a template in the industry that guides their HR people and the low-level manager when looking for new employees to man (or woman?) the front-cashiers/desk of their operations. It all comes down to several simple rules. Smiling is one of them. I guess managing a devious grin does not fall under the 'smiling' category. So that's why. But I'm glad I never managed to stick around the service industry for long enough to become affectionate, and God forbid, attached enough to my job. Bless my parents for telling me to concentrate on other things. Such as uni. And slacking off. Bless 'em.

As for me, I'd rather work a shitty full-time job in the middle of fucking nowhere and earn shitloads of money so I can kick back, watch pr0n and play video games at the end of the day. And not having to flip chicken breasts 6 hours a day. I'd rather flip some other kind of breasts, if you know what I mean. What up?!

2008-09-27T01:45:00.002+07:00

I once thought Kirk Hammet of Metallica isn't as good as Marty Friedman. But then I listened to Metallica's And Justice For All, and I thought, fuck Megadeth, Kirk Hammet is God.

2008-09-20T23:29:00.000+07:00

WALL-E

EVE

WALL-E

EVE

WALL-E

EVE

EVE

SHUT THE FUCK UP

2008-09-10T18:15:00.003+07:00

I haven't updated this blog in a while, mainly because I don't think I can handle being a self-centered bitch who thinks that my life is somewhat interesting to everyone else, or value-adding to the whole blogosphere. The stagnation that has been present for the last few months of my life has led me to decide that probably it is best for me to stop blogging for a while. I'll write some more when I decide that there is something worth telling about.

I LIED

2008-08-28T21:15:00.002+07:00

I have been contemplating to get a haircut for this job interview tomorrow. I look like a hobo. An Asian hobo who hasn't bathed in weeks, living in a university computer lab, muttering to himself "Study all day, study all day". But then I figured that I will get a haircut when it's necessary for me to do so, i.e. when I have become a good, law-abiding and productive member of society. And by the time I turn 35, I will have to cut my hair really, really short because of my then-receding hairline. And as I visit my alma-mater 20 years from now, I will look like a creepy old man stalking 18 year olds. Grim, grim.

2008-08-22T21:37:00.002+07:00

It costs $20 to replace a broken plate at Nando's. A larger Fiesta plate costs $30 to replace. I wonder what it would cost me if, one day, I decide that throwing plates at the shift-runner where I was working is a good idea. I don't work there anymore. I don't really want to work this summer either. But it has to be done. And endured. Much like sitting through tv ads.

2008-08-20T17:03:00.000+07:00

I almost forgot how good it feels to listen to Four Tet while tipsy. Good times, good times..

2008-08-18T14:00:00.002+07:00

This is legendary:

http://malesbanget.com/kamus/definisi.php?kata=Download

Lookup your favorite Indonesian slang word for pretty much anything, etc etc.

Example 1:

1. aiihh machaaaaaaannnn!!!

kata2 ini dipake kalo lo ngliat sesuatu yang bkin lo terkrjut sekaligus jijik.....sambil gigit jari atw sambil mendesah....

Contoh dalam kalimat :

eh liat deh org itu..bajunya bo"..aiiiihhh machaaaaannn!

Enjoy.

2008-08-09T19:53:00.000+07:00

What the fuck am I doing? What the fuck am I doing?

2008-08-07T23:06:00.002+07:00

So today is the 8th of August of 2008. Every time I go to a lecture and when I take my notebook out and start to write stuff down, I always wrote the date at the start of the page. So this is what it's going to look like today: 8-8-8

888. If I still retain a conspiracy theorist mentality, I would freak out right now. The Olympics starts on the 8th of August 2008, 888 is the numeric code for Jesus.. or something, 888 freaks me out OH MY GOD THE WORLD IS GOING TO END AAAA

If something happens, to the Olympics Opening Ceremony, I will say to you all: Ha, I told you so. But let us hope that nothing will happen, because that wouldn't be very awesome. Happy 8th of August everyone!

2008-08-03T14:50:00.004+07:00

A friend at uni told me this story about "Going Code Brown". He had a friend who got so drunk one night, and in the morning he was dehydrated from all that drinking. He was so dehydrated, he passed out in his bedroom, that's when his roommate brought him to the hospital. So this guy was given treatments and was told to lie down for a while, but apparently the fact that he was suddenly injected with non-alcoholic fluids for the first time in probably 24 hours caused him to go into "zombie mode". He lunged at the nurses, and was running around the hospital punching patients and doctors. The hospital staff sounded the alarm: "Attention, everyone, this is Code Brown. I repeat, we have a Code Brown".

Code Brown is actually a code for a terrorist attack in a hospital or school. So the fact that you have a guy running around punching people makes for an entirely new meaning to the phrase "Going Code Brown".

I feel like going Code Brown right now. I had a bit too much last night, and too little to drink in the morning after. I feel like crap. It's 7 degrees outside, there's a massive hole in my jacket and I can't feel my balls and hands. No, I don't want to stop whinging. I hate my life, screw this, I wanna go sit on the couch and watch Sex and the City marathon re-runs on the TV.

2008-07-23T09:06:00.006+07:00

I've been learning to play Megadeth's Tornado of Souls for the last few days now. Although I spent most of my waking hours trying to nail this masterpiece, I still suck at it. I can hit the notes here and there, but it still sounds crap.

Then I went to youtube, and I saw this:

I got owned. By a girl. Balls.

In other news, I have discovered this fantastic music on myspace. It's a one-man band, he's armed with a computer, a drum machine, a keyboard, a synth ~~and his computer~~ mentioned computer twice.. dumbass. Badass? Yes. Check out Flesh Peel and Chopsaw Sodomy. It has a jazz-piano interlude in the middle. Even though it's only 20 seconds long, it makes the song that much more badass. So gents, do check out Party Smasher at http://www.myspace.com/partysmasherband

2008-07-18T08:18:00.002+07:00

Watchmen trailer is out. I'm geeking out. This is going to be so legendary. More legendary than The Dark Knight? I sure hope so. Zack Snyder brought us 300, so this should be epic. Judging from the trailer, it looks the movie is sticking faithfully to the book. World trade center is still there, it's in 1985, there's Nixon, Dr. Manhattan and the Comedian in Vietnam..

Even if the movie itself does not fulfill, it's still going to be pretty much like the book, which is ok by me. The awesomeness factor is just too high, too high.

Go here to see the trailer.

2008-07-15T07:14:00.002+07:00

I watched The Dark Knight last night. It was awesome. I need to watch it at least two more times to post a more coherent review.

2008-07-10T19:17:00.001+07:00

Joker: "Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen. We are tonight's entertainment. Only have one question: where is Harvey Dent? You know where Harvey is? You know who he is? You know where I can find Harvey? I need to talk to him about something. Just something, little, huh?? No. Do you know ... I'll settle for his loved ones."

Gast: "We're not intimidated by thugs!"

Joker: "You know ... you remind me of my father. I hated my father!"

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I must see The Dark Knight. Three more days, three more days..

2008-07-07T16:49:00.003+07:00

I was unlucky enough to tune in to the television when Big Brother was on. Big Brother makes me angry. There was this dialogue:

Incredibly old woman: So I was reading this article the other day about Caesarean section. You know, that's uh, when the woman gives birth the unnatural way, instead of, you know, the natural way.

Guy with annoying voice: Why did they call it the Caesarean?

Incredibly old woman: Because Julius Caesar was the first person born through Caesarean. (incorrect -ed)

Guy with annoying voice: Ooooh. Ok. So this was like a million years ago.

Incredibly old woman: Uh huh.

Guy with annoying voice: Or a few hundred years ago. Because uh, Julius Caesar was in Jesus' time. And that was two-hundred years ago.

Incredibly old woman: You mean two thousand.

Guy with annoying voice. No, two hundred. Wait.. yeah. Two thousand years ago.

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I'm out of words.

2008-07-05T13:51:00.005+07:00

I may get to watch Batman: The Dark Knight 4 days before everyone else. I like the idea that I can go to message boards on the internet, and go through a detailed minute-by-minute description for every scene. I also like the idea that I will get to finally see The Dark Knight. I'm so excited. I've got 4 words: Joker and Two-Face.

I read Batman: Year One and The Long Halloween. I notice that Batman Begins has the same gritty feel as those books. I think The Dark Knight will have the same vibe to it. I was reading the Long Halloween for the second time this morning, and there's this image of Batman's rogues gallery:

There's the Mad Hatter, Joker, Scarecrow and yes, Two-Face.

I like how this story arc rethinks the role of supervillains in a comic book. In the Long Halloween, they were mere pawns to the crime families of Gotham. They get to be more major in the third book, Dark Victory. It sort of makes sense when I think about it. It's like, what if superheroes and supervillains exist in real world?

So I was reading Watchmen the other day, and I noticed how it blends contemporary politics of the 1980s with superhero tales. That got me thinking, is there such thing as a supervillain? Is Two-Face a supervillain or a crazed vigilante? Is Ozymandias (from Watchmen) a villain, an antihero, or both? If you are a person with superpowers and an overwhelming desire to bring justice to this world (i.e. The Punisher), would that make you a villain? Even if that means inflicting collateral damage and making sacrifices for the greater good.

Vigilantes in contemporary Indonesia. Discuss.

2008-06-26T19:35:00.002+07:00

I'm going on a week-long ~~geology field trip~~ vacation to this wonderful place called Buchan, somewhere near Snowy river and the Victoria-NSW border.

I don't feel like rambling, but I have a very important announcement to make.

It's about time someone made a Star Wars game on Wii. Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels is coming out later this year. I'm going to geek out from the uberness of being able to go for a lightsaber duel with my friends.

And also, I recommend the readers of this blog to visit http://hermansaksono.com

I'll be back. Stay tuned.

2008-06-23T14:36:00.010+07:00

Armageddon Blows.

When I was a little kid, I used to think that Armageddon is an awesome action movie. Fast forward about a decade later, I'm starting to think that there has to be more to this movie. Back when I was a kid, my dad and I went to the movies every weekend. I was injected with a more-than-average amount of American movies, and so, I viewed movies such as Armageddon or Independence in an almost-patriotic kind of way. Heck, I gave a salute to the tv when the president gave that speech in Independence Day. It's not until recently that I get this urge to re-watch these movies again and realize how bad they were.

Armageddon is such a shitty, cheesy movie with lots of explosions and Ben Affleck. It's so amazingly shit, it has crossed the shitness-awesome line. Star Wars Episode 1 is one example, but we'll get to that later.

The first 50 minutes was alright. It shows the audience that there's this huge asteroid that's going to kill all of us unless we send a couple of geologists and his team of drillers to blow that huge rock to pieces. Using nukes. Because nukes are very powerful. Hmm.

The great animal cracker vs. cookie debate:

Grace: Baby, do you think its possible that anyone else in the world is doing this very same thing at this very same moment?
AJ: I hope so, otherwise, what the hell are we trying to save?
Steve Tyler: "I don't wanna close my eyes.. I don't wanna fall asleep 'coz I'll miss youuu.."

I'm lost for words. Those two lines are either the cheesiest I've ever heard, or the most badass. I can't wait to actually say this to a girl. She'll either laugh really hard, or laugh.. really long and hard.

The speech:

I LOL'd everytime I see this scene. Read the speech's transcript here, or see it here.

I don't know whether to salute to an imaginary American flag, or laugh at the fact that Americans are always portrayed as the ones that are going to save the Earth in the event of a disaster like this. If something like this ever happens, we're probably screwed. We'll be too busy praying, panicking or making sweet, sweet love while we still have the chance.

There's also a ton of scientific inaccuracies here, which I wouldn't go through.

There's a token black guy that only has one decent line:
"Harry, you the man". It's not even grammatically correct, what the hell was Hollywood trying to do?

I just have to make fun of this shot.

Fine, we get it. The US is saved. Oh, and the Earth, too. Peace prevails. Hope, life, freedom, etcetera etcetera.

The last minute of the movie. Harry (Willis) gave his shoulder patch to AJ (Affleck). I thought this actually looks cool. Even though I'm pretty sure there's a subtext in the shoulder patch that says: "For the whole planet to worship us after this whole Asteroid-hitting-Earth thing is over with"

Despite my ramblings, I actually liked Armageddon. As I was saying, it went past the cheesiness/absurdity/shitness - awesome line. Heck, I liked this movie so much, I put it on my iPod for my in-train entertainment. Plus, Steve Buscemi was in Armageddon, and he gave a quite-decent performance. If it was up to me, I'd say he should be the one saving the planet, not Affleck.