393

Blog udah mati? Bahkan salah satu seleblog mengamininya. Paman Tyo juga membahas tentang blog yang bukan blog (di sini dan di sini), seenggaknya, berbeda dengan yang kita bikin di taun 2004 itu.

Hehe, ada apa dengan 2004 ya? Yang jelas dulu sempet ngalamin "kopdar" di mana eggophilia_dot_blogspot_dot_com jadi kartu nama gue. Dat good ol' 2004.

Tapi pesta blogger kemarin masi dihadiri lebih dari 1000 blogger (pengecring, hehe). Komunitas-komunitas masi tumbuh, berkembang, dan berkopdar. Pelatihan ngeblog kayanya masi jadi jualan yang laku.

Ketika pertama ngeblog dulu, rasa-rasanya si bukan karena blog lagi "hip" :D Emang si gue pernah bilang bahwa ngeblog itu semata-mata eksistensi dan narsisisme. Jadi apakah ini saatnya blog rindu komen ini ditutup saja?

Ntar dulu ah. Masi senang di sini. Senang itu penting (Tanka, 2007).

392

When Lebak Siliwangi was on fire (literally) back in 2004, rumor has it that the guys who worked in PAU (Inter University Centre) ITB immediately jumped and run after hearing the news. Not to the scene, which was only 400 meters away, but to their computers, to check the newest update on the internet.

Couldn't care less (nor trust, probably) about prakiraan cuaca in Indonesia, here I've become sort of dependent on weather forecast. With Holland's crazy North Sea weather, at least you should check whether it is wise to wear sneakers instead of boots (slippers are long forgotten). Mostly I check AccuWeather, and occasionally local weer.nl and neighbouring Haarweg Station.

But now, I also have gmail to tell me what's the weather outside. Yaaaayyyy!!!!! :D


-rani, posting from her desk beside a 2x2 square meters window. this post is dedicated to gmail team for the cool themes :D

391

Gue ke IDFA, International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, kemarin. Cuma sehari, itupun cuma nonton tiga empat film. Puas? Tentu tidak, hehe. Pingin lagiiiiiiiii...

Kalo pas ke IFFR dulu sak-Rotterdam rasanya suasananya festival banget, kali ini gue ngerasa kehebohan cuma di jalan kebab dan sekitarnya. Hehe, tempat jualan tiketnya di Regulierbreestraat, yang di situ banyak rumah makan Turki jadi gue nyebutnya jalan kebab. Pathe Tuschinski juga di situ. Jalan dikit, ketemu Pathe Munt. Halah, gak jauh-jauhlah pokonya.

Gue agak-agak telmi dalam memilih film, baik di rumah maupun di lokasi, sehingga ketebaklah: kehabisan. Huhuu... sedih. Pingin banget nonton film pembukanya, Enjoy Poverty (berdoa, mudah-mudahan diputer di Cinemec atau Movie-W).

Film pertama, Playing, dari Brazil. Idenya bagus si, tentang beberapa perempuan yang diaudisi untuk menceritakan kisah mereka dalam sebuah film. Terus kisah mereka diinterpretasikan ulang oleh aktris profesional. Masalahnya adalah filmnya statis banget. 100 menit isinya cuma orang cerita. Paling ngubah sudut pengambilan gambar dikit. Satu-satunya variasi adegan cuma naik tangga. Cape aja gitu nontonnya.

Film kedua dan ketiga biasa aja. Lucanamarca lumayan menarik si. Tentang pembunuhan massal di sebuah desa di puncak gunung oleh PKI-nya Peru. Maksud gue, menarik karena lo bisa ambil benang merah dengan apa yang (pernah) terjadi di Indonesia.

Dan film ketiga, juga tentang komunis. Hehe, hari gini? (soalnya film-film tentang Islam fundamentalis udah pada abis tiketnya) Yodok Stories, gue kasi 6 skala 7 ni film. Ceritanya edan, tentang korban-korban yang berhasil kabur dari kamp konsentrasi di Korea Utara. Dan cara nyeritainnya juga asik. Film ini made my day.

Tapi tentu saja tetap ada tukgling-nya (suara latar Edo: "Rani bangeeeet..."). Gue ga beli kartu diskon karena mahal banget, 20 euro dan baru impas setelah 8 film. Ga mungkinlah gue nonton sebanyak itu. Ternyata... kartu diskon itu bisa didapatkan gratis dengan menunjukkan studenkaart, dan gue baru menyadarinya dalam kereta menuju Wageningen. GUBRAKKK!!!

390

ngebalesin, apa susahnya si?
balesin imel apa kabar yang nampak ga penting.
balesin testimonial di frenster.
balesin komen di fesbuk.

ga usah sok sibuk.
ga usah takut disangka kurang kerjaan.
ga usah ngerasa ga punya kehidupan di luar dunia maya.

balesin aja kenapa si?
daripada ntar nyesel.
daripada terlambat, ga ada gunanya ngebales lagi.

:S

dan sesungguhnya, semua milik allah dan kembali ke allah

389

Ada tiga alasan kenapa gue bersiap-siap kecewa ketika membaca The Afghan-nya Frederick Forsyth. Pertama, hampir semua ulasan di amazon dan goodreads bernada negatif. Ulasan yang positif biasanya datang dari pembaca yang baru pertama kali membaca Forsyth. Ya iyalah, buat yang baru baca, sejelek-jeleknya Forsyth tetap mantap. Tapi kalo dah baca Forsyth yang laen, keknya muke lu jauh.

Kedua, agak-agak nyambung yang pertama, karena gue membeli buku ini sebagai buku bekas, tapi penampakannya masi bagus. Maksud gue, lo gak akan ngejual Forsyth men, kecuali lo bener-bener kecewa (hihi, teori asal).

Ketiga, karena gue menyelesaikan novel ini dalam waktu kurang dari dua minggu. Hehe, ini sebenarnya alasan sesudah baca novelnya ya. Buat gue, kecepatan membaca tidak selalu berkorelasi positif dengan bagus-tidaknya sebuah novel. Untuk Forsyth, rata-rata gue butuh sebulan. Sebagus itu, karena Forsyth adalah bersabar di setengah novel pertama untuk menikmati setengah novel sisanya. Dua minggu artinya ceritanya sudah masuk jalur cepat dari awal, dan/atau gue mengabaikan banyak detail. Maka dua minggu=jelek.

Dan setelah membaca, yah, gimana ya... Forsyth tetap Forsyth. Artinya, gak akan sejelek itu. Tapi tetap, hmm..., yah, gitu deh. Pahlawan kita ternyata dipinjam dari The Fist of God, yeah, ok deh. Tapi yang membuat gue kecewa, tak cukup Castle Forbes dari Icon dipake lagi, bahkan beberapa dialog disalin-tempel langsung. Huhuu... Om Freddie, sudah sebegitu dikejar-kejar penerbitnyakah dirimu? :((

Akhir cerita, menurut gue untuk novel-novel berjenis ini sebenarnya gak selalu gak ketebak. Secara umum pasti jagoannya menang, cuma gimana-nya yang mungkin masi mengejutkan. Buat gue, yang gak ketebak adalah pelintirannya. Forsyth jagoan dalam hal ini, dan gue adalah pembaca yang malas berpikir. Tapi dasar sial, sudah mah akhirnya ketebak oleh gue yang malas berpikir ini, gak ada pelintirannya pula.

Tapi kalo dipikir-pikir, mungkin juga subyektivitas gue yang membuat novel ini terasa... umm... mengganggu. Gue tidak banyak tau tentang Al Qaeda ataupun wahabisme, tapi gue tetap merasa ada yang salah. Hehe, jangan-jangan selama ini Rusia-nya Forsyth juga tidak sama dengan Rusia sesungguhnya. Dan novel ini akhirnya meletakkan Indonesia dalam peta spionase dunia dong. Sebelumnya cuma disebut-sebut dikit Jakarta sebagai tempat perekrutan agen KGB atau Borneo sebagai lokasi perusahaan kayu Inggris, tapi sekarang beneran ada tokoh dari Indonesia (walopun nama Lampong agak unlikely).

Dan, ya, gue membaca novel ini ketika tiga pengebom Bali dieksekusi. Gue bertanya-tanya sendiri, apakah 1) gue terlalu banyak lurking di Indonesia Matters; dan/atau 2) novel ini ternyata gak sejelek yang gue kira. Karena gue sama sekali ga bisa nerima alasan orang-orang yang bersimpati menyebut mereka syuhada. Come on!

*kehabisan kata-kata, lagi, setelah berkali-kali selama seminggu ini*

PS: ternyata ulasan novel ini gak semuanya jelek si, tapi saya tetap kuciwah

388

I hate the way you talk to me, and the way you cut your hair.
I hate the way you drive my car. I hate it when you stare.
I hate your big dumb combat boots, and the way you read my mind.
I hate you so much it makes me sick; it even makes me rhyme.
I hate it, I hate the way you're always right. I hate it when you lie.
I hate it when you make me laugh, even worse when you make me cry.
I hate it when you're not around, and the fact that you didn't call.
But mostly I hate the way I don't hate you.
Not even close,
not even a little bit,
not even at all.
(10 Things I Hate About You)

387

Malam ini kutulis syair kesedihan.

Mungkin, dapat kutulis, "Malam berkeping-keping
dan bintang-bintang biru gemetar di kejauhan."

Angin malam hari bergulung di angkasa dan bernyanyi.

Ah, kumbangnya* aneh niy. Ga tau deh. Padahal gak lagi sedih apa gimana.

Mendengar malam yang lengang, semakin sunyi tanpanya.
Sajak-sajak berjatuhan ke dalam jiwa bagai embun di padang rumput.

Lagi berdiri di pinggiran. Iya. Dengan sengaja. Dan mungkin akan tambah ke pinggir. Masi dipikirkan.

Malam sama putihnya dengan pepohonan.
Waktu itu, kita telah sangat berubah.

Kehilangan. Hmm... sedikit. Tapi gak juga si. Karena lo gak bisa kehilangan apa yang gak pernah lo milikin.

Dan kata Mas Bono, apa yang gak lo milikin berarti sesuatu yang emang belum lo butuhkan.

Ya.

Ya no somos los mismos.

Hmm... bahasa aslinya terdengar seksi sekali. Mas Bono juga. Halah! :D

Udah ah.

*Aah, udah pada tau kali ya. Kumbang di telinga ini judul aslinya Puedo Escribir los Versos más Tristes Esta Noche karya siapa lagi kalo bukan Pablo Neruda. Bahasa Indonesianya, Malam Ini Kutulis Syair Kesedihan, diterjemahkan oleh Cecep Syamsul Hari. Lengkapnya di sini.

386

This and That. As always.


Subject: Your Report.

from: Smidt, Hauke
to: "Ye, Z*** W**", "Widyarani, Rani"
cc: "Kruse, Thomas", "Sack, Eveline"
date: Fri, Oct 31, 2008 at 10:06 AM
subject: Your report

Dear Z*** W** and Rani,

Yesterday we received your report on the Microbial Ecology experiment. We have read it, and found that it was very similar (to a large extent identical) to the report of another group (group 10). Of course, we can not prevent that the students from different groups help each other. That's perfectly ok. But please avoid plain copy/paste from other people's reports. Thát's in nobody's interest.
In this current form, we don't think that the report is of sufficient quality, but you can of course submit another version. No problem.

Cheers,
Hauke

from: Ye, Z**** W**
to: "Smidt, Hauke", "Widyarani, Rani", "Kruse, Thomas"
date: Fri, Oct 31, 2008 at 1:58 PM
subject: RE: Your report

Dear Hauke

I am sorry for that, I do reference from group 10 about the material and methods part, and I did not make very big modification. This part need to be done by the Dutch guy who has been disappeared. I had seperated the task, Rani for introduction part, the Dutch guy do the material and methods, and for me is the ''results and discussion" and conclusion. We will rewrite the material and methods again soon. Then we will send to you.

best regards,
Z******

from: Ye, Z*** W**
to: "Widyarani, Rani"
date: Mon, Nov 3, 2008 at 4:42 PM
subject: RE: Your report

Dear Rani
How is your modification going?

Shall we hand in it on tomorrow or wednesday?

Z******

from: Widyarani
to: "Ye, Z*** W**"
date: Mon, Nov 3, 2008 at 8:23 PM
subject: Re: Your report

don't worry, it's been taken care of. I spent the weekend and half today to do it. it's not merely just modification, I basically had to rewrite the report.

I just don't understand how on earth you could do such stupid things like that. it's really a disgrace. we're lucky that hauke was kind enough to us. to be honest, if I get into trouble because of your stupid mistakes, I won't be bother to write this email.

but trust me, if you keep doing things like this, you're gonna get into trouble. don't ever think that everything can be 'modified' according to your wish

Why I stopped using (graphic) emoticons. At least for the time being. Because their size is bigger than my font size, and it makes the whole thing looks a little bit messy. And I like keeping my blog simple and clean. And the look of those ASCII emoticons is sometimes intriguing. Such as this.


On Stupid Conversation. Me, not him.

"Rani, do you drink coffee?"
"Yes."
"Wow, I've never seen that."
"Well, I drink coffee."
"I thought it may be forbidden for you (by your religion) or something."

Sigh #:-S

There's too many misunderstanding and I wish I were a better spokeperson.


When the Last Time You Lost Your Flashdisk Cap? Should I add, your 512MB flashdisk cap? :D


I Tend to Re-discuss Things from My Sideblog in My Main Blog, Don't I? Because at first I just think it worth mentioning. And sometimes I don't have time (or inspiration or whatever) to make a real blog post.

Anyways, here I do it again. My deep condolences for the death of Michael Crichton. Just three days after I wrote this :(

Well yea of course I don't dig all his books. But he was truly a good writer. Timeline and Airframe will always be my favorites. In his almost four decades career, he's built his reputation as "a great storyteller that challenged our preconceived notions about the world around us".

Good bye, Sir. Thank you for all your wonderful works.


...Life is perfect, life is the best, full of magic, beauty, opportunity... and television... morning coffee... and surprises, lots of surprises...
Have a nice weekend everybody :)

385

Kepala gue lagi penuh ama Meneer T, sebenarnya ga niat nulis palagi yang berat-berat. Tapi kok penasaran ya?

Sejak lama gue ga abis pikir sama orang-orang Indonesia yang mendukung Obama. Kesan yang gue tangkep, tanpa alasan yang kuat. Tapi mungkin gue emang gak nyimak. Enda menjelaskan di sini. Baiklah, gue terima. Walopun gue ga yakin semua orang yang mengaku mendukung Obama itu menangkap alasan-alasan Enda, atau cuma ikut-ikutan. Tapi kita tidak berbicara tentang itu.

Gue ga ngikutin perkembangan kampanye dan pemilu Amerika. Kesimpulan ga penting yang sempet gue tarik cuma, Obama lebih pintar melontarkan lelucon dari McCain. Atau kebalik, McCain ga bisa ngelucu. Kalo gue warga negara AS, mungkin gue akan memilih berdasarkan kriteria itu. Tapi ada dua hal yang membuat gue berpikir bahwa 'perubahan' itu tidak akan terjadi semudah membalik telapak tangan.

Pertama, sistem tata negara AS, sebagaimana yang gue pelajari dari novel-novel Forsyth (fufufufu), tidak memungkinkan perubahan kebijakan secara drastis. Kedua, kebijakan Obama sendiri, khususnya kebijakan luar negeri, yang gue baca sekilas kok ga terlalu menyenangkan ya. Mungkin gak se-jingo Bush tapi garis besarnya ga jauh beda. Tapi ya mungkin juga gue salah. Emang ga nyimak.

Tapi dengan memberi dukungan seperti ini, apakah kita ga memberi terlalu banyak legitimasi pada Obama? Kok gue ngerasa kita seperti ngasi cek kosong yang bisa dia pergunakan seenaknya. Dan kalo ternyata dia melakukan sesuatu yang ternyata gak sesuai harapan, baik di dalam maupun ke luar negeri, dia bisa berkelit, "Dunia internasional kan mendukung saya."

Cuma dua rupiah gue.

384

"Hello everyone. My name is Rani and I am a movie trivia quiz addict."

383

SPOILER ALERT!!!

Just finishing State of Fear. After 3 days for Rahasia Meede, Crichton had lost his charm :D I felt especially annoyed with the obsessive timing. You know, location and time as the chapter head. Hated to have to keep track on those. Or just too lazy, perhaps :P

But halfway trough the book, it turned out not to be that bad. Although, hello..., footnotes all over the novel? Footnotes that refer to scientific journals! Yea, yea, we know you did your homework, Mr. Crichton.

Is it strange that I was more annoyed by the chapter head than the footnotes? :P

Anyway, really, the book was ok. I'm through with climate sceptic/climate sceptic sceptic before so it's not like an environmentalist MacGyver could change my mind just like that. And in a way, it's really Spaargaren 102. I mean, suddenly a sociology professor came out of the blue and explain all this theory of state of fear (in brief, environmental issue is the tool to create fear post-Cold War and pre-terrorism. pfiuh... I thought it was neo-Nazi).

I sometimes feel irritated to face how people from what-so-called developed countries envision us-from-developing-countries, environment-wise. And it's sarcastically portrayed by Ted Bradley character. It's over the top but part of my mind agree to that. That you just romanticize the idea of living in harmony with nature, helping the primitives and so on and so on. While you don't know what it's really like. And sometimes there are more urgent things so that kind of help is less needed. It's just like talking to the tree.

Or it's just the voice of underdog? A cynical, post-colonized mentality? A hidden envy?

Whatever, hehe. As referred to the quote of the year, why so serious?

In a way, this book is a little bit clairvoyant. I mean, it was first published in 2004. And the ultimate bad guy plan was to create a tsunami. Hehe, I know you scratch your head. It's very Joe Vialls, isn't it? But here I think, the bad guys didn't do their homework. I can't see tsunami has anything to do with global warming. Just google it. (Winda, can you help me out here?)

By the way, as to defend his point of view, Crichton made a postscript titled "Why Politicized Science is Dangerous." He gave the example of Lysenko, a Russian guy who "claimed to have invented a procedure called vernalization, by which seeds were moistened and chilled to enhance the later growth of crops." In a nutshell, he was a charlatan who had convinced Stalin that he could do magic in farms. Ring a bell? *fufufu*

Two other (unimportant) remarks about this book:

• I thought the character development of Peter and Sarah is very similar to Kate and Chris in Timeline. The ending is not that explicit, but still...
• There are two many people with name started with B. Pfiuh... Me and my overwhelmed left brain poor memory.