Sam

My favorite author, Samuel P. Huntington just died on December 24th 2008. I read his books for his straight to the point and never boring line. Perhaps, strongly, because the minute I read his Who Are We? I found the elaborative explanation of what I had in my entangled mind, that Culture is the heartbeat that makes people march everyday,including to the war.



Jonah Goldberg said that Huntington's 1996 "The Clash of Civilizations" work:

"was deeply, and often willfully, misunderstood and mischaracterized by those who didn't want it to be true. But after 9/11, it largely set the terms for how we look at the world. In it, he argued that culture, religion and tradition are not background noise, as materialists of the left and the right often argue. Rather, they constitute the drumbeat to which whole civilizations march. This view ran counter to important constituencies. The idea that man can be reduced to homo economicus has adherents among some free-market economists, most Marxists and others. But it's nonsense on stilts. Most of the globe's intractable conflicts are more clearly viewed through the prisms of culture and history than that of the green eyeshade. Tensions between India and Pakistan or Israel and the Arab world have little to do with GDP."

2009

Year : 2009
Mood : Pessimist Optimistic
New Year’s Eve : Mediocre
I think God is : Funny and doesn’t like me partying
New Year’s Resolution : Think Less
Hair : Longest ever
Bod : Bf said no changes since 2007
Age : turning 25 (ouch!!!)
Thought : saving for car, house, children’s education
Dream : master degree, travel all over the world, read,
write, having a small creative store or magazine,
working with arts, culture, creative things,
mastering striptease
Philosopher : Edmund Burke
Hunk : Dane Cook
Prophet : Bob Marley

xmasy

I had two conversations with two different friends from two different countries in two different places. The first one from the sandy beach Australia, the later from Austria (but he never seen the “Sound of Muziek”). In café au lait and shisha cafe. Both asked me the same question, about how I feel living a country with the biggest number of Moslem people. How could I ask for more, Indonesia is a tolerant country which has religious holidays from five (not only one or two!) but five different religions. And, each religion has more than one holiday. That is the simplest example. Could anyone mention more countries with the same attitude?

I am a happy Catholic living amidst Moslem friends and boyfriend.

Anyway, I put a perhaps case in that. Perhaps, it’s just because I am surrounded with tolerant friends and family. May this tolerance go around without an end.


And,
Merry Christmas

deaden

I know what it feels like when they told you not to pass but you still trespassed. The chill the blood the anguish bitter cold numb. Though it is a bliss to see ladybugs sometimes in the dark. I cannot go climb the oak tree and surf to the other dimensions afar. I just wish this frosted and blazed rainforest will turn itself into a warm weather landscape with flower and butterflies where I can submit my whole tiredness to. Your sublime is a mask. I detest all pains and lax that forms your gigantic darkness. I need your regular everydayness.

ithink

people who have got nothing to lose are either those who have nothing or everything

1980

i was born in 1980s and I always think that decade hugs me. Just like a night with its glistening lights that I leave the morning after for a more sunny future. But I cannot ever forget the night. And Barry White is the epitome of the night's soundtrack. Dian Pramana Putra, Vina Panduwinata, Guruh and his Gypsy,Barry White, Ally McBeal (I know this is in 1990's, but most of its soundtracks are White's), ABBA, The Doors, late Queen and Beatles. Except the first three names, the others actually marked the seventies.

And yes that is my elementary school for music. 1970s and early 1980s. It is like moving on from a philosophical search to a more steady, warm, familiar, comforting, and a disco-ey quixotic nights. When you can dance on the rooftop of your apartment, without siding whether to go to war or not.

This ia a Love Orchestra Unlimited Video, conducted by Barry White in "Love's Theme". Released in 1973, it became one of few pure orchestral songs ever that proved to reach number one seat in Billboard Hot 100 in the history. "

when i wake up

i would shower and dress and open the door and walk down the stairs and i would meet tiny men who guard our residences playing guitar. And i would walk the small path which has just recently ashpalted, together with a traditional market odor blended with traditional treats people buy for breakfast. a brown sugar coated sticky rice, deep fried cassava, and coconut milk stirred rice. I would stand on the pavement and looking for an empty cab. My gesture would be the same as the young men, girls, mothers who stand on the pavement, stretch their arms and point their index finger, waiting to be picked up by cars which need the second or the third passanger or both within theirs.

And, everytime i get to get a cab, some of them are still standing outside.Some see their friends get lucky, already hitchhiked to an airconned car. I wonder whether they wished to be me who can control which cab I want and do not have to stand still for two hours just to get a ten thousand rupiah.

Just exactly what I feel when I see women buying a Dior Saddle bag.
When that kind of feeling vents out, remember it's all just a mental slavery.

"Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds. I've no fear for atomic energy cause none of them can stop the time," said Bob Marley, Two most powerful sentences I have ever heard.

witness

I am so lucky to be a witness of a historical event. White Anglo Saxon Protestant to African American Protestant. It is like a day when Indonesia being ruled by a Chinese-Papuan descendant who believes in Buddhism. It is a long way to go.
Today, Barrack Hussein Obama elected as the 44th US President. May it inspire the whole world.

Like, take from the easiest one...not using sawer-able Dangdut singers as a way to promote party's promises.

Btw, of his victory speech, this is my favorite line: "It grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation’s apathy."

Bandung

Bandung is a destination to fill your primordial needs. From food, relaxing, having a conversation over a cup of bandrek, sleep in the car, food again, and smooching around behind your friends’ back.

I went to Bandung two weeks ago with my friends. Disclaimer, I am not a Bandung fan. I am not a girl who spends her once a month weekend to Bandung. I go to Bandung for about once a year. So, when I went to Bandung two weeks ago, I searched for different template activities rather than nongkrong at some coffee shop or shopping.

That being said,

we stayed at Concordia





and
we went to:


1.Kopi Selasar

To, clearly, nongkrong, have some coffee, you can choose also several kinds of liquor coffee and some smoothies, although they are too sugary. Have a conversation with a gallery-ish architecture surrounded with abstract wood statutes and mountain view breezy air.






2.Sari Ater Hot Water Spring.

To play flying fox, go-kart, and to raft. Since this place is pretty far from the city, that you can even have a siesta on the way there, Go there before noon, so you can catch up the last go-kart schedule, which is at 5 p.m.






3.Sapu Lidi

No need to ask. The food will get you bloated like blah. I mean, if you feed yourself excessively. Find various kinds of sambal together with your dish. We agreed that it was the best food we’ve had in the last one month.




4.Congo

Feel the masculine atmosphere from big logs of wood as their basic of architecture. You could use the air-coned room with glass on each side if you will. But, sitting on the sofa with cozy pillows could steal your heart out until you fall asleep on it. It’s like being a guest in Aiden’s, Carrie Bradshaw’s ex, house








5.Boemi Joglo

Order its lychee ice, coconut ice full of coconut milk (they are so generous giving away those), beef satay, tofu, and its chicken and mushroom steamed rice. Perfect meal to defend your stomach from the cool air.


And, of course, Bandung fired up our most primordial selves, being idiotic.

my baby

For you who are questioning, what happened to my plan buying Nintendo DS, well, I kind of altered the plan into buying a sleek all touch screen mobile phone. No, not iPhone 2.0. But, LG Viewty KU9900. It featured 5 megapixel camera, with DivX video recorder, Google package, HDSPA, 3G, you name it. It was so flashy that the video was crystal clear as well as the sound. And someone robbed my two weeks baby two days ago while I was inside a bajaj.

My personal belief is, whatever the reason is, stealing one person’s possession away is intolerable. Whether it is about your phone or your life. Whether you are poor or not, stealing or robbing or killing, is unjustifiable.

I am not planning to drown myself too long. When will iPhone 2.0 arrive in Indonesia?

wrath. i am a kid losing her popsicle. they took away my dance classes. you name it: dance show, hip hop, R and B night, belly dancing, all. as a replacement, they made classes with wieght lifting movements. What? sexiness and movement coordination is overrated now??
ah well, i am digging Joshua Radin.

women pay

We learned from our infamous cultural classes, that we have to embrace, at least know the concept of feminism. We learned, and yes we cursed guys for enjoying the patriarchal system, their male gaze, and for departing the sexes into two binary oppositions (thanks Mr. Edmund Burke). We blessed the philosophy that women need equal chance as what men have. But, did we mean it?

Most of my heterosexual female friends have bigger money, bigger salary, and bigger inheritance than their male partners. When the bill comes, and it’s time to pay, unlike any other typical romantic imageries, the female ones pay more than fifty percent of the bill. What do you think? I think it’s is realistic, and it does happen, in fact, in most regions in Indonesia. More women now do have bigger salary than men, or bigger money from paddy harvesting, even.

For most of the time, we are lured by diamond advertisement, clings of wine glasses, happy faces that show excitement, the male counterpart is buying you a diamond stud! And in all media, we see that men pay. Look at our sinetrons, advertisement, novels, television, reality show, gossip show, even from our parents’ mouth. But the trouncing reality has different story. There are women who pay more than their men. I am not saying about the equality anymore, instead, about women’s superiority in financial bit.

In a society which runs both paradigms, feminism and patriarchy, women who already have no problem with equality and now being more than men will feel these tiny weenie feelings:

1.Why do I have to pay?
2.Is he with me just because of my money?
3.Why can’t he pay?
4.I am not supposed to split my money
5.It’s okay to be like this
6.I want to be in a conventional relationship
7.I hate lame guys
8.I don’t like it that my boyfriend is a cheap ass but I like him more for his other loads
9.I have no problem as long as he also treated me conventionally (a.k.a treat you)some other times.
10. etc. and etc.

Have you ever experienced this bummy mushy feeling?

update on our safe trip

The geek corporate guy is now taking a guitar lesson
(very intriguing yet the most uncanny activity I’ve seen so far)

The business woman going to be is pampering and preparing herself for her upcoming journey across Hong Kong and Europe

The socialite diva is now submitting her master degree scholarship application

The family guy is now trying to take a badminton lesson
(I don’t know whether trying is equal to doing)

The happy go lucky girl is now opening (loosening) her chances to accept love from different varieties of guys. Even the weird ones.

safe trip

Introducing my friends:

A guy who won abundant competitions since his high school ranging from science Olympics to social science Olympics, now working in the world’s second biggest finance bank branch in Jakarta. His office can even pay him for the most expensive medical check up he wants to take.

A girl who is so persistent towards her life, taking public administration major in her college. Now working successfully in one of the most prestigious Bank that offers voluptuous package of regional management trainee. She is going across Europe next month for two months for a training paid by her office.

A guy who is always loved by his nuclear and extended infamous family. Always seen by his friend as wise, kind hearted and warm. Worked for a junior consultant company, now he is a partner in that company.

A girl who is so literate in playing cello, English fluent, wins a bunch of best speaker awards overseas, has plenty of boyfriends, lush social life, excellent communication skill, naturally flirty body language and now working at the one of the most well-paid job in Indonesia.

A girl who has liberated minds of sibling, really enjoy beaches, sand, jack Johnson, lay back ness, yet the most vigorous person in commanding youth debating events in Indonesia together with the NGO that she is working with. Beside that NGO, she also works for an NGO which was being attacked by FPI at Monas. Also, she is finishing her second undergraduate degree of Sociology. She has a fun and a very breezy life.

And me.

And we are not content with the present condition. Since someone said that we have to take a LEAP in order to make our life meaningful for ourselves. GET OUT of our COMFORT ZONES.

A vigilant life makes a development. But it’s only leap that can make an innovation.

And here we are cursing at our night life and safe trip, and now rumbling about our quarter life crisis.

comfy is

when i read these books in my childhood, i felt an effortless comfortable feeling around.

10. girl talk
9. malory towers (enid blyton's)
8. lupus
7. agatha christie's
6. other enid blyton's
5. disney's, specially the non-princessy stories, i.e dumbo
4. a tie between little women and garfield
3. lima sekawan (wait..this is also enid blyton's)
2. S T O P

and the winner is....
1. sadler's wells

play i may

My dad has always said, if you want to buy something, buy something that is productive, i.e: a nice suit. This will make you look better, then it will press the first impression button in others’ head, and the conversation will run well, and perhaps you will get some opportunities from people’s first judgment on you: jobs, scholarship, cover girl.

The story begins since currently I am pretty intrigued with the lush smooth metallic Nintendo DS! I am playing different scenarios that link Nintendo DS with productivity. As far as I can come into is, playing Nintendo will make me relaxed and happy. In such stage of emotion, I can be more productive afterwards. Hummphhh…..

Does that do me a justice?

on food

Every time I step into grocery stores, my feet would lead me to the processed food and drink, but my eyes would gaze into the fresh veggie and fruit, and also piles of meat, sliced or chopped. I cannot cook. Wait, I have never cooked, but I am sure I have the ability in doing so. Remember the feeling when you see people bike or swim or play the newest Nintendo games, and you knew, you could do it. Time will tell.

Looking at fresh food is a glimmering image for me who is toying amidst the mediocre, instant, and uncreative package of processed meal. It is like a luxury waiting to be apprehended.

I know, or at least I think, I would love to cook. I like reading descriptions about cooking, and dessert making, or drink varying. I love reading recipes, personifications using smell, color, texture, and taste of ingredients. I love eating a unique and well-prepared mixture of dishes, .and I think watching cooking DIY TV shows is alluring. Cooking is an imaginative and creative production, something that would lead me into a gratification.

Someday, luxury will knock on the door. And, I’ll warmly welcome it. But sorry, not now.

No offense for the cooking diva.I am a fan.

important thought for today:

Nelson Mandela is 90 year old. but he doesn't look like so. hmmm...

radical liberal

Marilyn Manson, who mixed his name based on aliases of Norma Jean Mortenson (Marilyn Monroe) and Charles Maddox (Charlie Manson, THE mugshot mastermind), is the embellishment of reasons why there is a lot of parental advisory censored music. hether music will directly effect the listener or not, the debate will wind up in between education, and popular culture (or shall I say counter culture) impact upon youth.

I am not a professor in media or pop culture fad. But sure, I have a glimpse of thought, as usual. Charles Maddox who masterminded several inhuman murders had an IQ for about 121, which means average or above average. An intelligent. His followers, as well, were educated and brilliant women. It is pretty disappointing that although they are that educated, that knowledgeable, but able to stab their victims for couples of tens.

First, Charles Maddox (Manson) is the inspiration for Anthony Hopkins in playing his role in The Silence of the Lamb, that if you paid attention, the character never blinked when he talked, just like the real Manson. As being said before, being a high intelligent person, he had strong belief to what he thought and what he said.

Helter Skelter is a Beatles’ song from the White Album which was being interpreted by Manson and became the reason to murder people. On this case, Manson once said, “it is not me who said that. It is the music.”

In that case of course The Beatles was not jailed just because Manson adored them and interpreted the songs freely. Should the blame be put to Kathleen Maddox, Manson’s illegitimate mother who abandoned him not just once?

The disappointment is where we see Manson as intelligent, and also an antiwar protester, a hippie, a liberal, and glorifying “And in the end, the love we take will be equal to the love we make”, would interpret a song appallingly, and lost others’ life.

Many intelligent people are depicted as troubled by the history, Adolf Hitler, Napoleon, Kurt Cobain. What made them different than Jesus Christ, Muhammad, and Sidharta? Emotional Intelligent? Well, the later three surely outpathed their age, intelligent. But, they also had mother and father who supported them and gave them love in a place so called family that perhaps shaped their emotional intelligence or simply, compassion.

Manson and his followers could be liberal, hippies, love lovers, freedom and free sex and free flow of drugs glorifiers, different than Osama’s followers. But, Manson and Osama have two things in common: high intelligent and lack of emotional intelligent, namely compassion.

love is of no use

people who are falling in love are:

"People who are no longer content to occupy their own space, people who could no longer rely on a new jacket, a bag of grass and an afternoon rerun of The Rockford Files to make them complete," Nick Hornby in About a Boy.

agree?