not so egg-nymore

648

2012-01-27T21:22:00.000+07:00

29-04-2010 22:31
K dpan pasti lncar ran,
jangar dikit gpp.
Worth it lah.

AYO SEMANGKAAAAAAAAA!!!!
Makasih, you :)

647

2012-01-26T08:39:00.000+07:00

I'm a friend of the earth! I just circled the +Earth on Google+.

PS#1: Of course most of my friends are on facebook instead of G+ so it doesn't make sense to post this over there, amirite?

PS#2: You can circle the +Sun and the +Moon as well :)

646

2012-01-19T10:59:00.000+07:00

According to this, I have 75% changed. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though :D

Still the question from last night chat remains:
Why do people hangout at Circle-K? I mean, Joko Anwar going there naked only happened once (and only in one outlet), right?

645

2012-01-02T21:46:00.002+07:00

Berkah 2011 buat gue adalah kindle dan library.nu ;))

Lagi baca 1984 dan Filthy Lucre. Iyaaa gue baru baca 1984 sekarang :P Malah nonton Brazil duluan (dan jadi pingin nonton lagi). Filthy Lucre: Economics for People Who Hate Capitalism ditulis sama Joseph Heath yang The Rebel Sell-nya bareng Andrew Potter gue cinta banget. Ini buku tentang kapitalisme dan 'sosialisme', pake tanda kutip karena bukan sosialisme klasik apalagi komunisme yang terbukti gagal, tapi lebih ke politik kiri dan negara kesejahteraan (welfare state—eh masa ga ada wikipedia Bahasa Indonesia-nya sih?) Heath menulisnya dengan mendedah kesesatan-kesesatan (fallacies—sumpah, cek di wikipedia) baik yang dia sebut kesesatan sayap kanan maupun kesesatan sayap kiri.

Lucunya 1984 menyinggung hal-hal seperti kelebihan produksi yang dikategorikan sebagai kesesatan oleh Heath. Baca dua buku ini kayak baca Supernova-1 dan Quantum Physics for Beginners :D Ngga ding... terlalu ekstrim. Kek mana pula gue bandingin Dewi Lestari sama Orwell.

Gara-gara Filthy Lucre gue jadi berpikir bahwa BLT itu ternyata gak salah-salah amat. Dulu gue anggap itu ide yang buruk luar biasa. Tapi gue terbeli dengan argumen Heath bahwa membiarkan harga ekonomis itu jauh lebih efisien ketimbang menyubsidi semua orang (ini intinya sama kaya spanduk di pom-pom bensin ya?) Hanya apakah yang berlaku di Kanada bisa diterapkan di Indonesia, itu mesti dipikirkan lagi.

Kasus BLT cuma menunjukkan bahwa kebijakan ala negara kesejahteraan sangat rentan terhadap penumpang gelap. Soal konsekuensi yang tak diinginkan ini terpikirkan gara-gara tak sengaja baca twit-nya Tuvok yang menaut ke sini.

Ini tulisan ga-penting-sekali-banget sih. Ga ada bahasan. Ga ada kesimpulan. Cuma lewat aja, daripada ga bisa tidur penasaran.

Selamat malam, malam (bLG)

644

2011-12-24T21:07:00.001+07:00

I wanted to write a review for the awesome Demi Ucok but when I started, I realized the movie got me deeper than I thought it would. It became personal so I stopped and write this post instead.

You see, this week was horrible. I spent most of my energy in anger, restraining myself from either shouting at people or crying. The reason is, my work had been delayed because I didn't have materials to start my experiment. I finally got hold of some, but when I wanted to work, I found my lab was stripped from the equipments that I need.

Absurd, right?

I mean, in the movies, you have stuffs from lab stolen by evil genius who wants to take over the world. Or oil company that wants to prevent the discovery of a new renewable energy source. Or secret society that wants to bring down Vatican. But no, not in Indonesia.

In Indonesia, you have stuffs taken away because they're not in the inventory list. True story.

Let me take a deep breath.

Gloria Sinaga in Demi Ucok says that we do what we do out of either fear or love. When I made decision to do the things I do, seven years ago, I weighed those two things. Fear. And love.

As mundane as it may sound, love is what I do now: being a researcher in a governmental institute.

And fear is the baggage that comes with it: stupid bureaucracy, apathetic working environment and a thin line between (legally) right and wrong.

Fear is what I had this week.

What makes it even more horrible is that the fear hasn't hit me with its full force yet. Before I went to NL and within a year between finishing my master and starting my PhD, I wasn't in charge of anything. I did the lab work, wrote the proposal and report, but I was not the lead researcher in the team who was also responsible for personnel and financial matters. But three years from now (fingers crossed), I will be forced to face the fear, full forte.

And that scares the sh*t out of me.

Before the screening, Atied said that there was only a thin line between love and fear. Demi Ucok wittingly showed that the two are not mutually exclusive. There will always be an element of fear in whatever choice you make in life, but it maybe something you need to compromise for love.

So three years from now, I will have to face my fear. With a huge hope that I will be stronger, and a tiny weeny hope that the system will be better by then. ~~Or else I probably can start searching for a research job in Singapore or Malaysia or Australia.~~

But somehow it's enough.

643

2011-12-21T16:32:00.000+07:00

kacida.
marah.
mau nangis.
pingin teriak.
kesel.
ambek.

ambil napas.
tenang.
ambil napas.
ambil napas.
mikir.
ambil napas.

mending gue bikin film deh

642

2011-12-17T12:34:00.002+07:00

1. There are more than 7 billions now, thank you very much.

2. I belong to 'Team Pierce Brosnan' for all it's worth.

Anyway, instagram quote rebuttals are the next best thing after demotivational posters :D

641

2011-12-11T21:34:00.000+07:00

I miss L.2.10. Weekends were always felt better afterwards. Not after a week embracing the glory of our science education #facepalm

(Teto kicks in on third month. Meh!)

640

2011-12-11T09:59:00.002+07:00

This is ~~what blogs are for~~ always fun :D

Pterodactyl

You wouldn't be satisfied with being a dinosaur. You also have to be a bird. Everyone is very impressed. Now please get back on the ground and be normal.

Take the quiz on BuzzFeed.com

639

2011-12-06T21:31:00.000+07:00

Any one of this can be a Teto, except the pink one!

Oh society, why do you stigmatize the color pink?

(excerpt from IM chat with mumun)

638

2011-12-05T19:23:00.003+07:00

These ~~photographs~~ cinemagraphs are so cool!

Cinemagraph: an image that contains within itself a living moment that allows a glimpse of time to be experienced and preserved endlessly.
More on http://cinemagraphs.com/

637

2011-11-28T21:49:00.000+07:00

Just need to shout out loud for once.

AM I KIDDING MYSELF WITH THIS S**T?????!!!!!

There :D

636

2011-11-27T17:06:00.002+07:00

One of the major problems encountered in time travel is not that of becoming your own father or mother. There is no problem in becoming your own father or mother that a broad-minded and well-adjusted family can't cope with. There is no problem with changing the course of history—the course of history does not change because it all fits together like a jigsaw. All the important changes have happened before the things they were supposed to change and it all sorts itself out in the end.

The major problem is simply one of grammar, and the main work to consult in this matter is Dr. Dan Streetmentioner's Time Traveler's Handbook of 1001 Tense Formations. It will tell you, for instance, how to describe something that was about to happen to you in the past before you avoided it by time-jumping forward two days in order to avoid it. The event will be descibed differently according to whether you are talking about it from the standpoint of your own natural time, from a time in the further future, or a time in the further past and is futher complicated by the possibility of conducting conversations while you are actually traveling from one time to another with the intention of becoming your own mother or father.

Most readers get as far as the Future Semiconditionally Modified Subinverted Plagal Past Subjunctive Intentional before giving up; and in fact in later aditions of the book all pages beyond this point have been left blank to save on printing costs.

Restaurant at the End of the Universe - Douglas Adams

Picture was taken from here

635

2011-11-26T17:10:00.003+07:00

awkay...

I still love the sparkles in your eyes
I still love your passion when you talk about nearly everything
I still love the way you make me feel when I'm with you

but that's that
I'm outta here

634

2011-11-24T12:21:00.000+07:00

What if our understanding of life, the universe and everything is wrong? What if there is no universe? What if the universe is not universal?

I'd argue that it won't change our lives a bit. But that's probably what laypeople thought when Einstein proposed his freak theories way back when.

Speaking of Einstein, a critical part of the theory of special relativity is that nothing can move faster than the speed of light. Last September, scientists had found that a subatomic particle called neutrino can move faster than light. This result was verified with subsequent experiment, although later challenged by critics, including other scientists from the same lab.

Another story from another day, scientists also found that a constant called alpha that makes the theory of electromagnetism may have different values at different places. Granted, we talk about places that are separated by million light years, but it implies that nature's law may vary across the universe.

Naw, I'm not a physicist and actually have no idea what these guys are talking about. But I'm always fascinated with the idea that the universe is held together with series of physics constants. I don't know how else I can put it. It's... divine.

So I don't think these discoveries (which still need to be proved anyway) will affect my day-to-day life. At least, not in my lifetime. But will it affect the way I see God?

633

2011-11-21T12:30:00.000+07:00

Larung - Ayu Utami

632

2011-11-18T09:57:00.001+07:00

Tuhan itu memang Mahalucu ya?

Maliq tertinggal di bis Semarang-Solo. Kenapa bisa ketinggalan? Kenapa Semarang-Solo? Ini cerita soal satu hal memicu hal lain yang memicu hal lain dan seterusnya.

Gue ke Kebumen menghadiri kawinan Jiman dan Emmy. Di gereja, haha. Detail ga penting. Rencana awal adalah minta diantar atau naik bis ke Kutoarjo, satu jam perjalanan, langsung naik Prameks ke Solo. Jadi gue sudah siap lahir batin naik kereta. Kenapa jadinya naik bis? Kombinasi bujuk rayu teman-teman lama yang sangat gue hormati dan sayangi, plus keawaman terhadap geografi Jawa Tengah, membuat gue mau-mau aja ikut mereka bermobil ke arah Semarang untuk diturunkan di Bawen (diturunkan kesannya ga enak banget ya?). Bawen itu sepertiga perjalanan Semarang-Solo. Maksudnya sepertiga ke Semarang, dua per tiga ke Solo. Heh, meneketehe?

Jadilah berangkat dari Bawen sudah gelap, tak bisa baca, tas terlalu besar untuk bis ukuran sedang, dan mas-mas di kursi seberang memutar Ayu Ting-ting dengan volume bersemangat. Hore. Lalu gue turun di pinggir jalan (iyalah, masa di tengah). Maksudnya gak di terminal, biar lebih gampang cari taksi. Dan Maliq yang lupa dimasukkan lagi, tertinggal.

Hiks.

Kemarin sore gue ingat Maliq. Dan mulai terjangkit pikiran-pikiran tak sehat. Kalau saja gak kemaleman... kalau saja gak naik bis... kalau saja gak mesti turun di pinggir jalan... kalau saja gak... Pikiran jahat bercampur perasaan bersalah karena kambing hitamnya, seperti gue bilang tadi, adalah orang-orang yang sangat gue hormati dan sayangi. Toh kepala gue tak henti merancang status mukabuku untuk curcol cari perhatian.

Sampailah gue ke rumah. Sekitar jam setengah delapan malam. Dan saat itu, di depan pintu, gue baru nyadar bahwa kunci segala kunci gue tertinggal di kantor. Rentengan kunci yang juga mengandung kunci lemari di mana gue menyimpan Maximilienne. Meh, mau buka facebook dari mana?

Jadi bukan karena bis. Bukan karena kemaleman. Bukan karena mas-mas Ayu Tingting. Ceroboh mah ceroboh aja. Dan kejadian-kejadian kayak gini (Edo secara ceroboh sering mengelompokkannya sebagai 'Rani banget'), membuat gue yakin Tuhan sayang sama gue. Karena seringnya Dia menyintreuk gue dengan lembut tapi kena, ketika gue sudah, atau hampir melewati batas. Ngomong-ngomong nyintreuk bahasa Indonesianya apa ya?

Begitulah. Akhirnya gue ikhlaskan Maliq. Semoga dapet pemilik baru yang baik hati ya :)

631

2011-11-12T17:52:00.001+07:00

Let's just call him The Time Traveller. As Wells did.

He opened his eyes only to see the girl with such beauty he haven't ever seen before. Not in his time, not in his world nor in any other worlds he'd visited anyway. Then the girl smiled, rather bashfully. But it was without a doubt a smile that changed his world.

Their world.

Or not. Years went by and he still felt he didn't belong. He wanted to bring his wife and their baby daughter to his world. Therefore he prepared his wife and his time machine for the journey. Alas, an accident happened. He died and his wife was badly injured.

Other years gone by. The Time Traveller's daughter was the prettiest girl in the country, but everyone's scared of her scarred mother. They knew The Time Traveller's Wife had a secret, some unknown power that they didn't understand.

Then a mysterious epidemic started.

630

2011-11-11T05:51:00.000+07:00

Pelajaran moral minggu ini:

Kalo ada telpon dari nomer tidak dikenal, tidak usah diangkat. Kalo penting kan dia ~~bakal nelpon lagi~~ bisa SMS.

Susu evaporasi ternyata tidak setahan lama susu kental manis. Sebelum problem penyimpanan terpecahkan, lebih baik beli susu kental manis aja.

Istiqomah-lah dalam memilih moda transportasi. Terutama kalau membawa tas berukuran besar.

Ngemeng-ngemeng, gue tau ini #lebay berat, tapi setiap keluar rumah, gue nyadar Maliq ga ada. Hiks :(

629

2011-11-03T21:46:00.000+07:00

Setelah baca lagi, baru nyadar bahwa ulasan Sang Penari gue kemarin permukaan banget. Gara-gara sok enggres, padahal cuma buat satu kalimat (gak berhasil nerjemahin I want it to be ugly ke Bahasa Indonesia euy, 'rasa'-nya ga dapet). Tapi ga pa-pa deh, berharap ada temen gue di Belanda yang baca trus kepingin nonton.

Ada beberapa, ehm, banyak hal yang menggelitik dari film ini. Gue seneng penokohan Rasus di sini. Kemarin pingin bilang sebenarnya (tapi takut terdengar seperti LSC) kalo badannya Rasus masih terlalu sedap untuk seorang anak desa kurang gizi. Tapi seenggaknya ini tertolong sama akting yang keren dan cukup meyakinkan. Di bukunya, Rasus sejak awal sudah terlihat sebagai anak desa yang berbeda dari sebayanya. Di film ini, di awal Rasus terlihat culun sangat, dan baru bermetamorfosis menjadi seorang yang berhasil di luar Dukuh Paruk setelah menjadi tentara.

Fenomena ronggeng pastilah menjadi kunyahan para cerdik-cendekia dengan teori-teori canggih mereka. Bagaimana nilai-nilai ronggeng itu terbentuk dan disepakati. Bagaimana seorang, eh, kasarnya pelacur bisa begitu bermartabat. Adegan ibu-ibu yang berdebat soal suami siapa yang bakal mendapatkan perawannya Srintil itu menurut gue dahsyat. Ga masuk nalar.

Walaupun ronggengnya Srintil itu kan sebenarnya jadi pertanyaan juga. Kalo bukan gara-gara Rasus, Srintil tak bakalan diaku jadi ronggeng. Serindu apapun warga dukuh terhadap ronggeng, toh mereka masih tunduk sama Kertaredja. Ngomong-ngomong gue suka adegan Srintil menari sama Kertaredja. Di situ keliatan narinya kayak kesurupan (atau mungkin gue berharap dia menari kayak kesurupan ya? Ga masalah si sebenarnya).

Kembali ke ronggeng dan nilai, terlihat 'kekuasaan' Srintil bukan hanya di Dukuh Paruk aja tapi bahkan meluas ke daerah sekitar. Berarti, seenggaknya pada saat itu, keronggengan itu menjadi norma yang umum saja di masyarakat. Mengingatkan gue sama penggambaran Romo Mangun akan Desa Juranggede di Burung-burung Manyar (kapan ya novel dahsyat satu ini bakal difilmin). Adegan Pak Sersan yang sedang solat itu, apakah juga dimaksudkan sebagai penanda jarak antara Rasus dan Dukuh Paruk? Agak wagu sebetulnya.

Sebenarnya, pertanyaan-pertanyaan ini hanya muncul sayup-sayup sepanjang gue nonton filmnya. Kayaknya gue emang lagi cenderung menikmati film apa adanya, gak berusaha dalem apa gimana. Saat gue bisa keluar dari bioskop (atau mematikan pemutar DVD) dengan senyum, biar saja hati dan alam bawah sadar gue mencerna film yang baru saja gue tonton dan merekonstruksinya di perpustakaan otak gue perlahan-lahan. Jadi ulasan kemarin itu udah betul sebenarnya. Halah.

628

2011-11-02T22:35:00.005+07:00

Sang Penari (The Dancer) tells a love story between Srintil and Rasus, both were children of Dukuh Paruk, a poor village in Central Java. Srintil, an orphan, grew up to be a prima donna dancer known as ronggeng. A ronggeng was not just an ordinary dancer. She was not only the most beautiful girl in the village, but should also be blessed with indang or ronggeng spirit. Therefore the dance was a spiritual one, a means of communication between the villagers and their sacred ancestor. Ronggeng dance was a laku, a ritual that determined the destiny of the village.

"Ronggeng itu tidak cuma perkara urusan nari. Tapi juga urusan kasur, urusan dapur, urusan sumur..."
Ronggeng is not only about dance, but also about bed (sex), kitchen (cooking) and well (household)...

A ronggeng was a symbol of perfection. Every man wanted to sleep with her, and every woman wanted her husband to sleep with her as well. Sleeping with ronggeng was also a ritual.

But it was one ritual too much for Rasus. Heartbroken, he left Dukuh Paruk and became a soldier.

It was 1965. For some years, the notorious Communist Party had started to gain influence. Even Dukuh Paruk was decorated with communists propaganda even though the villagers were unable to read. Srintil was initiated as Ronggeng Rakyat (People's Ronggeng) and her colourful costume had changed to red. When asked by his commander, Rasus confirmed that Dukuh Paruk had become red. We all know the aftermath. Following a failed military action in Jakarta, the Communist Party military wing was defeated. What happened next was the ugliest episode in post-independence Indonesian history. Thousands communist party members, their family and friends, even those who only remotely connected, were captured, interrogated, tortured and murdered. Srintil and other Dukuh Paruk villagers were among those who were captured. Rasus abandoned his duty and tried to find Srintil.

Sang Penari was 'inspired' (for not to say adapted) from an Indonesian literary masterpiece, Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk trilogy by Ahmad Tohari. Book adaptation is never easy and I can imagine there were a lot of traps to be avoided in making this movie. It took place in one of the most important events in Indonesian history, and a still controversial one at that. On the other hand, it portrayed an untouchable Indonesia, a village that was too poor, too unimportant even to be mentioned at all. You don't even wanna be there. Yet you need to capture their spirit. And I'd say writer/director Ifa Isfansyah and his two co-writers had made it. Beautifully shot, beautifully acted, beautifully composed.

In fact, it was sometimes a little bit too beautiful. Reading the book(s), I imagined Dukuh Paruk as a barely inhabitable place, only the most stubborn people with faith in their ancestor would stay there. I missed it in the movie. I enjoyed the chemistry between Prisia Nasution (Srintil) and Oka Antara (Rasus), but again, it was also visually too beautiful. I wanted it to be just ugly, I wanted it to be rough, I wanted it to be painful.

A few days before watching the movie, I saw street performers, well, on the street. They were a person with portable tape player and a dancer wearing an unidentifiable mask (it was like a kitsch cross between Cirebon topeng and Betawi ondel-ondel). Seeing these performers always remind me of Cemeng 2005, a 1998 movie from Teater Koma director Nano Riantiarno. It was a tragic story about a traditional dance group, how internal conflict and, later, modern time had eradicated them. What left were the formerly prima donna and a musician from the group, with portable tape player and hair accessories from decorative paper, wandered down small streets and villages. That movie, even only the thought of it, always give me an unpleasant feel in the stomach. A part of me wants Sang Penari to be beautiful, but a part of me feels it should give me a pain in the stomach just as Cemeng 2005 does.

The ending, then, was a compromise. For Rasus and his pain. For Srintil and her pride. For time, the past, and the future.

627

2011-10-31T20:10:00.003+07:00

Waktu tak sengaja tersandung tulisannya mpokb tentang pepaya california ini, saya terkejut sejadi-jadinya.

Pertama, kok bisa-bisanya ada pepaya bermerk? Setau saya pepaya itu buah paling murah ~~sedunia~~. Waktu masi jadi komuter Serpong-Jakarta dulu, kelas-kelas kereta bisa diidentifikasi dari buah-buahan yang dijual di dalamnya. KRL eksekutif resminya sih gak boleh ada yang jualan, tapi kenyataannya ada aja kadang-kadang yang nyelonong. Yang dijual bisanya buah-buahan rada mahal kayak anggur tanpa biji dan apel impor. Di KRL biasa (dulu belum ada AC ekonomi), jualan standarnya mangga dan jeruk. Ini juga kadang-kadang ada di KRD ekonomi yang rutenya dari Rangkasbitung. Tapi yang paling melarat ya itu, pepaya. Maksud gue, pepaya tu kan berat ya? Dan ditawarin keliling-keliling. Dan harganya kek cuma dua ribu perak gitu. Dan gue gak beli pulak, cuma ngomong doang :(

Kedua (kembali ke topik), pepaya california??? Gusti nu agung, kenapa pepaya aja mesti dari California sih? Saya haqqul yaqin kalo food miles itu cuma mitos adanya, tapi dengan argumen begini. Kalo lo tinggal di California, dan mencoba menanam pepaya sendiri, itu lebih tidak ramah lingkungan ketimbang lo mengimpor pepaya dari Indonesia. Kasus sebaliknya tidak berlaku.

Etapi ternyata... pepaya california téh ternyata bukan dari California. Pengembangnya adalah Profesor Sriani dari ITB, dan nama aslinya adalah pepaya callina. Yang ngasi nama california itu pengusaha supermarket. Aduh, naha atuh Bapa? Da upami namina california mah abi moal mésér.

#Dan ternyata pepaya ini sudah mulai populer sejak tiga taun yang lalu. Euh, ka mana waé?
##Gambar dari sini

626

2011-10-29T08:00:00.002+07:00

What's your number?

625

2011-10-24T23:33:00.001+07:00

Just a small finding that I usually put in my sideblog, but anyway...

Global warming 'confirmed' by independent study. It's been 'confirmed' for the 43723583th time, right? So why bother. Well, first of all let's also wait for the published articles. And if you're really really into it (I'm not, by the way), you can check the data yourself, and, who knows, maybe find something fishy.

Speaking of fishy... A couple of months ago there was an article published by Roy Spencer and William Braswell, that 'debunks' the global warming. You also know it's been debunked for the 42684489th time, right? Mainstream media like Forbes picked up the story, as well as website like PhysOrg. This in turn caused a debate (yeah, the usual) in scientific community over the article. And in the aftermath, the editor of the journal that published the paper finally resigned, acknowledging a poor review process that was his responsibility. Of course the conspiracy theorists (~~slightly~~ more radical than global warming agnostic I once was) might still speculate that he resigned due to pressures from selling-out climate scientists.

The other downside from this fiasco is that, beside a renown climate skeptic, Roy Spencer also gains fame as intelligent design proponent. It sometimes stirred the debates to ad hominem attack and religion was dragged into them. As if all religious people don't believe in global warming and evolution and million years old earth. Of course, global warming itself has become a religion with Al Gore as the prophet. Well, it's something to think about for my unsinkable rubber ducks post :-?

624

2011-10-23T19:34:00.002+07:00

Nick Hornby has a heart for -ahem- losers. An old record shop owner, a former TV guy who screwed up and wanted to top himself, a guy who lived off of his dad's once too many song royalty and did pretty much nothing else, those kind of guys. You can see Hugh Grant right away :D

Juliet, Naked started with a musical pilgrimage of a couple, Duncan and Annie. Duncan was a huge fan, no, a devotee, wait there's a grander and more specific term for that, a Crowologist. That is an expert of Tucker Crowe, a late-seventies-early-eighties rock star. Apart from his short but brilliant career, what actually made Crowe a legend was an abrupt halt of the said career and even public appearance altogether after a mysterious incident in a bar's restroom. And Duncan wouldn't dare call himself a Crowologist if he just happen to own all six official albums and thirty seven concert bootleg tapes (only a tape from a Swedish concert was missing because nobody cared enough to make a record, can you believe that?). He also owned a website dedicated to the musical journey and enigma of Tucker Crowe, wrote tons of essays and books-to-be, not to mention dedicated tremendous amount of time trying to decipher Crowe's brilliant lyrics and their significance to modern life.

I'm not the kind of person who takes music seriously. At least not so for about fourteen years and according to Chris Brookmyre I'm 'two testicles short for that' anyway. Most of the time, the reasons I like a particular band or singer or song are trivial, shallow and irrelevant. But as much as I'm amazed that people like Duncan do exist, I still have an inexplicable arrogance for the music that I listen. That is what iTunes-YM-sync is for, right?

And oh, by the way, Nick Hornby's lovable loser in this book was not Duncan. This post isn't really about the book, or indeed about anything at all. I haven't even finished the book, so I'm going back to it with High Fidelity soundtrack playing on iTunes (synced to my YM status of course).

PS: The picture also doesn't have anything to do with the book. I just find it very funny, don't you think?

623

2011-10-19T07:00:00.000+07:00

What I'm grateful for:
Having a friend who knows me all my life (at least, all significant part of my life), knows me enough to counter my hesitance with 'Gue kan tau elo Ran.'

#justsaying

622

2011-10-15T17:50:00.001+07:00

Belum sempet pamer di sini, gak kerasa si kindle umurnya udah sebulan aja. Belum bernama dan masih gak jelas jenis kelaminnya sih, tapi gue menyesal. Menyesal kenapa gak beli dari dulu-dulu! Tadinya gak kebayang orang teledor yang suka baca buku sampe jatuh-jatuh karena ketiduran kayak gue bisa pakek pembaca buku elektronik. Setelah ngerasain, sekarang udah lupa alasannya kenapa gue sempet resisten dulu.

Buku-buku yang gue selesaikan selama sebulan-lebih-sedikit ini:

SuperFreakonomics - Stephen J. Dubner & Steven D. Levitt

Airframe - Michael Crichton (novel yang sangat cocok dibaca di pesawat, eh?)

Timeline - Michael Crichton (diloncat-loncat sih, bagian dikejar-kejar di abad pertengahannya agak membosankan. eh, itu setengah buku sendiri ya?)

Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell

A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away - Christopher Brookmyre

The Sacred Art of Stealing - Christopher Brookmyre

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! - Richard P. Feynman

Buku yang secara teknis gue selesaikan di kindle juga adalah Halting State-nya Charles Stross. Gue baca edisi pohonmatinya sejak dua bulanan yang lalu, tapi gak kelar sampe gue mesti balik ke Indonesia. Daripada berat-berat bawa buku yang cuma kurang 30 halaman, gue cari edisi elektroniknya dan masukin ke kindle. Sungguh ironi yang manis karena buku ini adalah novel fiksi ilmiah yang bercerita bahwa dalam waktu kurang dari dua dekade ke depan, semua tata kehidupan kita akan ditulis ulang dalam bentuk elektronik dan internet. Sayang novel ini ternyata masih terlalu canggih untuk gue yang merasa sudah geek ini, makanya gak selesai-selesai kalo gak dipaksa.

Buku-buku yang lagi gue baca sekarang adalah Not The End of The World-nya Christopher Brookmyre (iya, gue tau, gue tau!) dan Harry Potter en de Steen der Wijzen. Yang masuk kandidat untuk dibaca menggantikan Feynman yang baru aja selesai, kalo gak Selfish Gene, A Brief History of Time, Aramis or The Love of Technology, mungkin Six Easy Pieces (ini juga buku udah mulai dari kapan gak selesai-selesai). Dan sekarang tempat tidur gue gak berantakan ama buku lagi. Pun si buku-buku itu bisa gue bawa ke mana-mana tanpa harus keberatan. Oh senangnya!

Etapi gue belum lupa caranya baca buku biasa kok. Buku di bawah ini dikasi Budi Warsito dan gue baca dalam waktu beberapa jam saja. Hihihi, sepertinya gue cuma kebanyakan waktu luang :P

621

2011-10-14T01:42:00.000+07:00

Dan gue masih dendam karena selisipan (lagi) sama Pearl Jam #sebel

620

2011-09-15T04:23:00.000+07:00

as much as I want it
still doesn't feel right
oh well...

619

2011-09-04T19:43:00.003+07:00

“A squirrel dying in your front yard may be more relevant to your interests right now than people dying in Africa.”
(Mark Zuckerberg)

Well, this isn't exactly new(s). In fact, when I googled (yes, I still google) for Zuckerberg's quote at the beginning of this presentation, I found bunch of links that referred to this video instead of the quotation origin. Looks like it came from David Kirkpatrick's The Facebook Effect, the book that was used as the basis of David Fincher's The Social Network. I actually pictured the obnoxious Jesse Eisenberg's Zuckerberg saying that.

Where was I?

Oh yeah, the filter bubble. I and I guess everyone that ever uses Google or Yahoo or Facebook (so basically everybody) had suspected it for quite sometimes. When Google started localized its search a few years ago (redirecting to google.co.id automatically when you're in Indonesia), it started annoying me but not as much. I actually quite welcome Facebook's top post thingy. I also don't really mind Google snooping my email *gasp*, that's the price I pay for the excellent email service. But when it starts deciding what I want to know, well, that's a wee bit too far.

These guys 'cracked' EdgeRank, the algorithm that Facebook use to decide which friends you interact most (i.e. who's you're secretly stalking). They've warned that the result can be quite embarassing. It is. Apparently I'm so narcissist that I stalk myself :D

So how much does it matter? I don't know. I suppose it does have potential to alienate you from the world, in the sense that you only see dead squirrels and forget about people dying. Eli Pariser offers 10 things you can do to pop your bubble, but if you read them you'll notice that what make the bubble are the things that make your browsing experience convenient. So yeah, maybe the most important thing is to be aware of the bubble's existence. And if you're searching for, I don't know, current news on Obama's foreign policy or financial crisis or whatever, comparing your Google search result to DuckDuckGo's maybe important as well. Not so much if you're searching for cheese cake recipe or Syahrini's latest catchphrase. Or is it?

618

2011-09-02T10:27:00.000+07:00

Yaa ma'syaral jinni wal insi inis tatha' tum an tanfudzu min aqtharissamawati wal ardhi fan fudzu laa tanfudzuna illa bisulthan.
(QS Ar-Rahman:33)

Laa haula wala quwwata illa billah.

617

2011-08-29T09:57:00.002+07:00

Installing Vienna solely to read my friends' twitter timelines. I mean IRL friends (the twit celebs are listed in the blogroll). Twitter hides the RSS feed but turns out it can be cheated easily. Just replace the xxxxx :D

(meh, I had just linked an SEO tips blog #learningfromtheenemy)

616

2011-08-21T16:25:00.000+07:00

Seminggu terakhir ini, dalam pengaruh PMS, gue merenungi kenyataan bahwa puasa di Belanda lebih enak dari di Indonesia. Bahkan dengan 17 jam, kurang tidur, dan ketiadaan bonteng surinya. Dan kenapa?

Pertama, gak ada yang peduli bahwa lo puasa. Dan percayalah, wahai FPI, bahwa ini adalah hal positif. Hari keempat puasa gue harus presentasi selama satu jam dan semua, maksud gue SEMUA orang masuk ruangan dengan membawa air atau kopi atau teh. Jadi lo tidak punya alasan untuk menurunkan standar lo selama puasa. Pembimbing gue emang sempet bilang 'Don't work too hard' (pembimbing macam apa itu), tapi tidak berarti dia menurunkan ekspektasinya akan hasil kerja gue. Gue juga kadang-kadang pulang jam empat alih-alih jam lima, tapi mengingat gue melewatkan makan siang dan dua kali rehat kopi, gue berani bilang waktu kerja gue tak beda sama yang di kantor 9-5.

Kedua, puasa di Belanda gak riweuh. Seenggaknya jauh lebih gak riweuh ketimbang di Indonesia. Keriweuhan ini sebenarnya yang dibilang Patra sebagai 'Islam sebagai budaya' waktu kita ngobrolin suasana ramadhan beberapa minggu yang lalu (yang juga mengimplikasikan saya kurang berbudaya untuk mengapresiasi Islam sebagai budaya #bletak). Dan di sinilah, menurut gue, pertanyaan Mumun menjadi relevan juga. Puasa itu pribadi kok, hanya lo dan Tuhan yang tau. Jadi kenapa riweuh? Puasa di Belanda enak karena energi lo tidak habis untuk keriweuhan. Kalo gue bilang 'jadi bisa fokus ibadahnya', gue tampar diri gue sendiri karena gue juga belum ke situ. Tapi untuk orang-orang yang mau fokus ibadah (kerja juga ibadah, tah? lagian puasa 17 jam, masih ada 9 jam untuk ibadah ritual), insya Allah di Belanda lebih enak. Setidaknya menurut gue.

Agak tidak bersyukur juga sih kalo gue mengingkari segala keriweuhan. Sekarang gue tinggal sama temen sesama orang Indonesia, jadi tidak seperti ketika di asrama dulu, kadang-kadang buka puasa tidak sekedar minum-makan-biskuit-solat-lalu-makan tapi juga harus ada ta'jil dan kawan-kawannya. Seminggu sekali juga ada buka puasa bersama, riweuh juga tapi ya patut disyukuri sebenarnya karena silaturahmi dan makanan bergizi itu penting. Dan yang jelas, frekuensi keriweuhannya jauh di bawah di Indonesia.

Kalo soal ditanya-tanya, kadang dengan agak sinis, eta mah geus biasa. Orang yang emang dasarnya gak respek sama lo, lo mau ngapain juga ya tetep aja gak respek. Ga usah dipikirin.

615

2011-08-16T04:01:00.001+07:00

What if... you know, just if... the 90's wasn't as great as we thought it was? We love our alternative nation, right? And we read Thought Catalog, where people write about the '90s with nostalgic fondness (just read any piece from Stephanie Georgopulos). But what if it wasn't just not great, but even horrible? What if the TV actually sucked? And yes, that's Jeremy on the list of much loved music videos that are actually terrible.

It doesn't really matter does it? At the end of the day, we still watching Freakazoid, then listening to OK Computer while reading Jejak-jejak. All is well.

614

2011-08-10T09:09:00.000+07:00

Me: Is every person in Finland obligated to use Nokia?
Kyra: (oh-poor-you-people-from-repressed-country look) Well... most people use Nokia. Only some rebellious people use Apple.

True story :D

613

2011-08-05T02:03:00.000+07:00

Had I used real titles in my blog, I'd call this post "The IE Chronicle: A Tribute to Internet Explorer6" ;))

You know how much I hate IE, right? Just have a look here and here. So when I first read this, I was ready to spread the news to the world. And looks like not only mashable pick it up. Other tech website, even freakonomics (and I'm too lazy to look them all up).

And it's a hoax :)) Even, come to think of it, not a really good one at that. The "method" looks questionable, the graphs scream 'Microsoft Excel for Beginner'.

So, for once, cheers to Internet Explorer(6)! :))

612

2011-08-01T13:14:00.000+07:00

'Just supposing,' he said, 'just supposing' — he didn't know what was coming next, so he thought he'd just sit back and listen — 'that there was some extraordinary way in which you were very important to me, and that, though you didn't know it, I was very important to you, but it all went for nothing because we only had five miles and I was a stupid idiot at knowing how to say something very important to someone I've only just met and not crash into lorries at the same time, what would you say...' he paused helplessly, and looked at her, 'I should do?'
-Douglas Adams, So Long and Thanks for All the Fish

611

2011-07-27T10:57:00.001+07:00

No, not to Madagascar ;))
See ya later alligator :D

610

2011-07-24T19:31:00.002+07:00

Screen capture of Google Image Search madagascar+nature

Screen capture of Google Image Search sagrada+familia+facade

Screen capture of Google Image Search parc+guell

Just wondering... :-?

609

2011-07-21T19:42:00.003+07:00

Ini dari blog-nya Pak Budi. Jadi kepikiran:

1) Perlu ganti Lion gak ya? Leopard baik-baik aja sih, cuma suka kerasa lambat kalo abis dari Maverick ;))

2) Iya neh, punya Google+ belum diapa-apain. Bahkan dipamerin aja belom :P

608

2011-07-20T07:01:00.000+07:00

My morning treats (or what still left of them):
Apple crumble pie
Blend of 1 Balinese coffee + 2 Italian espresso + koffiemelk

Heavenly :D

607

2011-07-18T03:39:00.000+07:00

(Lanjutan ini dan ini)

Jadi... apakah gas-gas rumah kaca menyebabkan pemanasan global? Menurut Ruddiman, ya. Berdasarkan siklus 22000 tahunan, saat ini kita seharusnya sedang mengalami kecenderungan penurunan temperatur. Peningkatan konsentrasi gas-gas rumah kaca sejak 8000 tahun yang lalu (termasuk umpan balik positifnya) mencegah terjadinya zaman es yang seharusnya terjadi sekitar 5000 tahun yang lalu. Namun, bahkan hingga ~200 tahun yang lalu, kecenderungan yang terjadi masih berupa penurunan temperatur. Selama 100 tahun terakhir, temperatur global telah meningkat sebesar 0,6-0,7 derajat celcius.

Ada beberapa hal yang perlu dicatat. Yang pertama, ketika bicara tentang pemanasan global maka kita perlu melihat data temperatur, nee, iklim dalam periode yang sangat panjang. Setidaknya ribuan taun. Tentunya data 150 tahun yang lalu tak seandal dan selengkap data yang kita miliki saat ini. Apalagi seribu atau 5000 tahun yang lalu. Tetapi jika kita membatasi pengamatan pada jangka waktu yang pendek, kita dapat dengan mudah terjebak pada fluktuasi jangka pendek yang seolah-olah mengindikasikan pendinginan atau pemanasan abnormal.

Yang kedua, saat ini berdasarkan siklus alami, kita seharusnya mengalami pendinginan global. Artinya, efek gas-gas rumah kaca sesungguhnya lebih besar dari peningkatan temperatur yang teramati, tetapi juga seharusnya penurunan temperatur yang tidak terjadi.

Yang ketiga, laju peningkatan konsentrasi gas-gas rumah kaca, dus peningkatan temperatur, selama 200 tahun terakhir setara, bahkan lebih laju ketimbang peningkatan yang terjadi sejak 8000 hingga 200 tahun yang lalu. Penting juga dicatat bahwa dengan berbagai upaya yang kita lakukan saat ini, termasuk Protokol Kyoto bahkan jika AS ikut berpartisipasi, peningkatan konsentrasi karbondioksida masih sangat mungkin terjadi. Juga, terdapat jeda antara peningkatan konsentrasi gas-gas rumah kaca dengan peningkatan temperatur, yang berarti kita mungkin akan mengalami peningkatan temperatur dengan laju lebih tinggi di masa yang akan datang.

Lalu, apakah ini kabar buruk? Mungkin iya, tapi Ruddiman tidak menganggap pemanasan global/perubahan iklim sebagai masalah terbesar yang dihadapi umat manusia. Ia menyesalkan debat ekstrim antara propagandis perubahan iklim dan para penyangsinya. Kedua pihak sama-sama menanggung dosa mengabaikan atau, lebih parah, memanipulasi fakta-fakta ilmiah untuk mendukung klaim mereka. Media yang berusaha menyajikan berita dari dua sisi terjebak dalam perang klaim ekstrim dan hanya menciptakan, atau menambah kebingungan.

Di jurnal Science, Ruddiman mengulas Cool It-nya Bjørn Lomborg dan menyetujui pesan sentralnya, bahwa kita harus menyikapi perubahan iklim dengan lebih cerdas. Menurut Ruddiman sendiri, saat kita bisa menikmati energi dan sumber daya seperti tanah subur dan air bersih dengan biaya murah mungkin sudah mendekati akhir. Dalam waktu mungkin tak lama lagi, bahan bakar fosil (kecuali batubara) akan menjadi sangat langka dan sangat mahal. Daya dukung lingkungan untuk meregenerasi mineral tanah dan memfilter air bersih semakin menurun karena penggunaan berlebihan dan pencemaran. Dan menemukan sumber daya dan teknologi pengganti yang terjangkau adalah tantangan sangat besar untuk kita.

-Ngomong2, ternyata tak selamanya gue musuhan sama Al Gore dan Protokol Kyoto. Ini bahkan (justru?) sebelum nonton An Inconvenient Truth :P

606

2011-07-14T13:42:00.001+07:00

Dear tot 13:55 is het droog!,

Nee, het is niet!

Sincerely, watching the rain pouring down.

605

2011-07-10T22:51:00.010+07:00

Plow, Plagues and Petroleum: Bagian 2 (Lanjutan yang ini)

Hihi... kelamaan ;))

Jadi, berdasarkan data orbit bumi, posisi matahari, dan rekaman jutaan tahun, para pakar iklim dan ilmuwan lainnya dapat memperkirakan kecenderungan konsentrasi metana dan karbondioksida. Atau tepatnya, bagaimana seharusnya kecenderungan konsentrasi metana dan karbondioksida jika semua berlangsung seperti biasa. Namun sesuatu yang tidak biasa terjadi 8000 tahun yang lalu. Konsentrasi metana dan karbondioksida yang secara teoretis sedang dalam kecenderungan menurun tiba-tiba bertambah secara konsisten. Hal ini tidak pernah terjadi sebelumnya.

Dan penyebabnya, menurut hipotesis Ruddiman, adalah manusia. Yang mulai dilakukan umat manusia pada 8000 tahun yang lalu, yang belum ada presedennya ketika itu, adalah mulai bertani. Mereka membuka hutan untuk lahan pertanian dan pemukiman. Memunahkan vegetasi penyerap karbondioksida sekaligus, di Asia, mengolah sawah tergenang yang menghasilkan metana. Mungkin agak sulit membayangkan populasi manusia yang tak sampai satu milyar jiwa ketika itu sanggup membuat perubahan setara era industri 150 tahun terakhir dengan populasi tujuh kali lipatnya. Tapi tentu saja perubahan itu berlangsung perlahan namun konsisten selama 8000 tahun terakhir.

Hipotesis Ruddiman teruji, anehnya, dengan membandingkan data konsentrasi gas-gas rumah kaca, data jumlah penduduk, dan data wabah penyakit. Wabah yang menyebabkan kematian masif ternyata berkorelasi dengan penurunan konsentrasi metana dan karbondioksida. Mungkin agak janggal tapi perlu diingat, dengan kondisi kesehatan dan sanitasi ketika itu, wabah dapat memusnahkan satu komunitas dalam arti sebenarnya. Di lain pihak, reforestasi atau 'pengambilalihan kembali' lahan oleh hutan ternyata lebih mudah ketimbang menyembuhkan komunitas yang lumpuh oleh oleh penyakit, setidaknya pada masa pra-industrial.

Tentunya, industrialisasi selama 150 tahun terakhir menghasilkan peningkatan konsentrasi gas-gas rumah kaca setara dengan yang ditimbulkan era agraria selama 8000 tahun. Yang lebih parah, data selama jutaan tahun menunjukkan adanya jeda antara penyebab (posisi matahari, pembukaan hutan, industrialisasi) dengan respon (peningkatan konsentrasi gas-gas rumah kaca). Artinya, konsentrasi yang teramati saat ini sangat mungkin akan meningkat di tahun-tahun mendatang.

Lalu?

Hmmm... lanjut lain kali ya :D

604

2011-07-09T16:52:00.003+07:00

I had my first food fiasco last week. I had a course in Delft and we (the course participants and organizers) went for dinner downtown. Naturally they offered a three-course meal: beef carpaccio for starter, fish for main course, and meringue and ice cream for dessert. I had already had a few bites of my carpaccio when a waiter approached me and told me there were sprinkled bacon bits on the carpaccio. I had no choice but to spit the chews in my mouth and asked for a change (salad!). And it got worse. The sauce for the meringue/ice cream had alcohol on it, so they had to make a special one without sauce for me.

Pfiuh...

The thing is, I could, and should ask for non-beef starter even though they did not offer it. A ~~cute~~ facultative-veggie Indian friend of mine did that. And of course I should ask whether they had alcohol on the sauce.

In my defense, they did insure me that it was beef. And meringue and ice cream seemed quite harmless. I didn't want to look picky. I didn't want that me practicing my belief look like a burden for me as well as for others.

I had my fair share of guilt. Not always halal chicken or beef. Tonic with vodka. Wine in various dishes. Gelatine and rhum in various desserts and pastries. E-numbers. Partly just guilt. Partly guilt with "it's not a sin if you don't know" defense. Partly because there was no fish and the vegan dish looked very unnerving. Partly because trying to be polite, and not picky, and not look like a strict, close-minded, believer. But as far as I remember, this was the first time I actually had bacon in my mouth. And the scene!

It makes me realize that it's no use being careless about belief. Alright, Islam. Some people respect you, some people don't. Deal with it. For those who don't, it does little help that you, say, have a pint or two with them. For those who do, it certainly no use that you're being careless and eating the wrong food. The scene it causes is far worse than asking lots of question to the waiter before ordering (they have to deal with vegans and allergic people anyway). Trying to be casual, non-strict and open-minded does not equal being careless.

Another moral lesson of the day is that da'wah, the preaching of Islam, today should not be about persuading people to convert to Islam. That's still far, far ahead. I don't even think that we have to do that anyway, but that's a discussion for another day. Just, showing people what Islam really is. That's already a very difficult task to do, what with right wing politicians and extremists on both sides of muslim community.

And sadly it's not only in Europe, but also applied in the country with biggest muslim population in the world :(

Now... I want beef carpaccio. Too bad my roommate doesn't eat red meat :P

PS: at least it wasn't as haram as this one :D

603

2011-07-08T23:00:00.004+07:00

Haha... masi kacau ritmenya. Kalo udah dapet, pakek Harry Connick Jr juga bisa :D

602

2011-07-07T22:25:00.000+07:00

Remembering a thousand things I meant to say...

-no, not over YM dear

601

2011-07-03T20:25:00.001+07:00

If it was an emotion, it was a totally emotionless one. It was hatred, implacable hatred. It was cold, not like ice is cold, but like a wall is cold. It was impersonal, not like a randomly flung fist in a crowd is impersonal, but like computer-issued parking summons is impersonal. And it was deadly — again, not like a bullet or knife is deadly, but like a brick wall across a motorway is deadly.

(Douglas Adams - Life, The Universe and Everything)

600

2011-06-29T03:48:00.000+07:00

't is niks

599

2011-06-26T16:50:00.001+07:00

Cute, eh? Suddenly I become a fan of meerkats because I just love Maverick. I hesitated to upgrade at first. Lucid worked just fine and it's an LTS. And I read some bad reviews of Natty (the current release), not to mention I'm really discouraged by Unity look. Three reasons why I finally decided to upgrade. First, it turns out that you have to upgrade gradually (from Lucid to Maverick to, if you wish, Natty), so I won't be upgrading to Natty by accident. Second, turns out some people still hang on old (working) releases, not really bother about support. Security-wise, Ubuntu doesn't have any serious issue anyway.

Third and the main reason I wanted to upgrade in the first place, is Lucid doesn't support multitouch gestures, those like in MacOSX :D

Anyway, the upgrade went well (finished a few pages of The Restaurant at the End of the Universe along the way), and voilà, I have Maverick. And boy... I'm so pleased with it. For one thing, it's fast, like, it's so fast that when I returned to MacOSX, I felt it kind of dragged. Well, 'fast' is not really a technical term I guess, but I just feel it.

There are glitches of course. I mean, it's Linux. So let's see.

I managed to configure TouchEgg. Oh well, not really. I followed the instruction here but failed, then I just used the .deb package here. I still couldn't make the gestures exactly like MacOSX (and the desktop environment is different anyway), but overall it's fine. Although when I overuse it, sometimes it turns like this:

(Update: there's a new version, but it says it's for Natty. I don't know if it works in Maverick and I don't think I want to upgrade, so we'll see)

I'm still doubting about temperature/fan control. I have a close look on temp, especially the graphic card one, and often manually adjust fan speed. Other previous documentations about Ubuntu on Mac mention temperature problem, but if I compare MacOSX and Maverick temperatures, they're more or less the same or even higher on MacOSX. Found a tweak here but still unsure whether I need it. Oh by the way, the sensor that reads 90 centigrade is faulty. I couldn't fix it but I'm pretty sure it's not really that high.

But actually the most noticeable drag from this configuration is that now I'm getting more and more impatient with my office PC. Not only it's Windows *chuckle*, but the machine is also getting old I guess. Aaarrghh... at least it's only for three months. Hopefully next year I will get a new PC :D

- picture of meerkat was ~~a courtesy of~~ stolen from Andri Prihutomo

598

2011-06-25T19:52:00.001+07:00

Saya kembali!

Heheh... bertemu orang-orang yang bicara dengan pohon, menonton perdebatan Fred Singer lawan Pavel Kabat, mengunyah State of Fear-nya Crichton, mual-mual menonton ulang An Inconvenient Truth, jatuh cinta sama Bjørn Lomborg... akhirnya saya kembali ke posisi awal. Halah, nanaonan atuh Neng?

Emma memperkenalkan saya pada Plows, Plagues and Petroleum: How Humans Took Control of Cimate. Saya bertemu Emma di sebuah kursus, di mana kami harus membuat elevator pitch tentang penelitian kami. Maksudnya, berusaha menarik perhatian seseorang (profesor, calon bos, calon pemberi dana) dalam waktu setara satu kali naik lift. Kalimat pembuka Emma kira-kira adalah "It's not greenhouse gas that causing global warming", bukan gas rumah kaca yang menyebabkan pemanasan global. Sebagai seorang skeptik (karena skeptis itu seksi, hehe... ngomong-ngomong skeptik belum ada lema-nya di KBBI. peragu?), tentu saja saya langsung menyambar ide itu. Etapipak... jangan pernah percaya sama kalimat pembuka karena tujuannya cuma untuk menarik perhatian semata sehingga kadang menyesatkan. Berdiskusi singkat (walaupun tidak di lift), Emma merekomendasikan buku tersebut di atas dan saya menemukannya di perpustakaan. Oh... untungnya Bapak Ruddiman sudah 68 taun, kalau tidak mungkin saya juga ingin menikahinya :D

Ruddiman mula-mula membahas "sejarah" iklim. Sejak kehadiran manusia purba hingga 8000 taun yang lalu, iklim bumi hanya dipengaruhi faktor-faktor ini: orbit bumi terhadap matahari, bintik matahari, dan insiden-insiden masif seperti meteor jatuh atau gunung meletus. Dua faktor pertama menghasilkan siklus iklim yang relatif teratur dan konsisten terhadap berbagai temuan seperti jejak fosil dan konsentrasi karbondioksida dan metana (keduanya adalah gas-gas rumah kaca). Jadi runtuhlah harapan saya bahwa Ruddiman akan menyangkal peran gas-gas rumah kaca terhadap iklim.

Yang buat saya menakjubkan adalah ketika Ruddiman membahas perkembangan "peradaban" manusia dari 4 juta taun yang lalu ke 8000 taun yang lalu hingga sekarang. Selama 4 juta taun sejak manusia purba mulai berdiri di atas dua kaki, perkembangan signifikan selanjutnya terjadi 1,5 juta taun kemudian ketika jaman batu dimulai dan 3 juta taun kemudian ketika api "ditemukan". Kebayang gak bahwa manusia baru menggunakan api selama 1 juta taun terakhir? 150.000 taun yang lalu, manusia modern (Homo sapiens) berevolusi, mulai mengenal peralatan logam dan sistem kemasyarakatan, tapi masih berburu dan meramu serta nomaden. Baru sekitar 8.000 taun yang lalu manusia mulai menetap dan bertani.

Saya yakin tak ada orang yang tidak menyadari betapa besar lompatan teknologi yang dibuat manusia seabad terakhir ini. Teknologi yang saya pakai untuk mengetik tulisan ini mungkin bahkan belum terbayangkan 50 taun yang lalu. Tapi kalau diliat dari perspektif lain, teknologi abad XX dan XXI ini tak lain adalah buah 'berdiri di bahu raksasa' alias dibangun dari jutaan keping informasi yang dikumpulkan umat manusia sejak... 8.000 taun yang lalu?

Bayangkan ketika manusia pertama kali menyadari bahwa ia bisa membudidayakan tanaman. Membuka sawah dan ladang. Mengembangbiakkan ayam dan sapi dan kerbau. Membangun rumah. Membuat saluran irigasi. Saya gak bisa mendeskripsikannya seindah Ruddiman, tapi ketika membacanya saya benar-benar takjub. ~~Super sekali~~

Baiklah. Hingga 8000 taun yang lalu iklim bumi berubah mengikuti siklus yang teratur. Begitu juga konsentrasi karbondioksida dan metana. Metana diproduksi oleh lahan basah seperti rawa-rawa. Sederhananya, ketika posisi bumi lebih dekat ke matahari, sirkulasi monsoon tropis yang memicu hujan menguat. Semakin banyak hujan, semakin luas lahan basah yang tergenang. Hal yang sama juga terjadi di daerah dekat kutub ketika sebagian es mencair. Dan karena metana adalah gas rumah kaca, maka terjadi umpan balik positif yang semakin meningkatkan suhu bumi. Tapi setelah beberapa lama posisi bumi menjauh dari matahari, suhu menurun, luasan lahan basah menyempit dan konsentrasi metana ikut berkurang. Demikian terjadi seterusnya.

Untuk karbondioksida, detailnya sedikit lebih rumit tapi ceritanya kurang lebih sama. Bumi mendekat ke matahari, suhu meningkat, karbondioksida meningkat, umpan balik positif. Bumi menjauh dari matahari, suhu menurun, karbondioksida menurun. Dan seterusnya.

(Haduh, kepencet 'publish post' padahal belum selesai ceritanya. Ntar dilanjut ya)

597

2011-06-23T03:32:00.002+07:00

Dari tulisannya Mas Paman yang selalu bernas itu, sepenggal paragraf membuat saya sedikit ngahuleng.

"Persoalan besar kita adalah pekerti. Anehnya ketika kita bicara tentang akhlak seolah topik hanya dibatasi pada urusan seks."

Iya sih, saya pernah membahas soal Bibi Sally (tidak ada hubungan keluarga dengan Neng Sali), tapi ternyata saya gagal melihat gambar yang lebih besar. Bahwa ini bukan semata tentang pemerintah yang beraliran pencitraan. Bahwa ternyata kita memang punya masalah.

Pekerti.

Dan bagaimana tidak, ketika kata 'hati nurani' tiba-tiba jadi kehilangan makna.

Ketika kasus ini mencuat, saya sempat berdiskusi dengan nyokap. Saya bilang waktu itu, "Kayaknya Ibu gak pernah bilang 'Rani gak boleh bohong, Rani gak boleh nyontek'. Tapi kayaknya yang kaya gitu mah semua orang harusnya tau ga usah dibilangin juga."

Asumsinya gitu. Makanya di sekolah diajarin gimana caranya solat dan mengaji, sampe dites segala. Karena seharusnya semua orang tau gimana caranya jujur, tapi tak semua orang tau gimana caranya solat.

Padahal mengajari solat dan mengaji jauh lebih mudah ketimbang mengajari jujur. Ternyata.

Mungkin karena jujur tidak ada di butir-butir Pancasila.

Atau ya emang segitu buruknya kondisi pendidikan kita. Orang tua tak lagi mengajarkan pekerti pada anak-anak. Mungkin karena mereka juga tidak mendapatkannya dari orang tua mereka. Atau terkorupsi kehidupan yang semakin tak adil. Atau bahkan terkorupsi di sekolah. Lalu anak-anak yang tidak diajari pekerti oleh orang tua itu kelak akan menjadi orang tua juga. Apa yang akan mereka ajarkan pada anak-anak mereka?

Ketika masalah akhlak ini lalu direduksi menjadi seks, justru semakin nyatalah gagalnya pendidikan. Ketika Ariel menjadi panutan, di mana peran orang tua dan guru? Menyita ponsel atau memasang Nawala hanya solusi plester pengobat gejala. Dalam banyak kasus, bahkan bukan solusi sama sekali.

Dan yang membuat saya sedih adalah, pada kasus ini, sesungguhnya 'contekan massal' itu hanya menjadi latar belakang. Musik pengiring. Dekor panggung. Karena ia telah menjadi begitu biasa. Dari tahun ke tahun kita mendengar, terhenyak sesaat lalu lupa. Hingga berulang tahun berikutnya.

Tahun ini sedikit berbeda karena ada ibu-ibu yang diteriaki warga kampung. Berapa lama kita akan terhenyak sesaat lalu lupa? Dan taun depan akan ada ibu-ibu di kampung lain yang diteriaki juga. Lalu kita akan terhenyak sesaat lalu lupa lagi.

Berapa lama?

Seorang TKI dihukum pancung di Arab Saudi.

Sesaat. Lalu lupa.

Catatan kaki:
Tulisan ini terkonsep di kepala saya hari Senin pagi. Kukulutus kecapean agak tak enak badan dan kurang tidur, lalu membaca berita-berita gak enak. Hanya, mungkin juga untungnya, saya ada kuliah pagi. Kalau tidak, mungkin tulisan ini jadinya marah-marah gak keruan.

596

2011-06-22T20:53:00.000+07:00

Just enabled add gadgets feature from GMail Lab and the first gadget I installed is this:

595

2011-06-18T21:43:00.000+07:00

I saw Duke Nukem Forever in FRS the other day. And why, being absolutely no fan of video game whatsoever (oh, well, except Monopoly, does that count?), should I care about its release, at all?

Because of this:

Important Note from Christopher Brookmyre:
The only genuinely impossible phenomenon depicted in this book (Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks-my addition) is a character being in possession of the PC game “Duke Nukem Forever”. Impossible because, despite being initially scheduled for release in 1997, ten years on there is still no danger of its DVD taxing anyone’s optical drives any time soon. (In fact, the technology that will finally be used to ship the game may not even be invented yet.)

Has anyone told Chris yet? :D

594

2011-06-16T23:37:00.000+07:00

+ Rani, kok keliatan beda ya sama waktu di Indonesia?
- Iya Bu, kan waktu itu lagi patah hati. #eeea

593

2011-06-14T04:18:00.002+07:00

Oh. My. God. A tree talker on camera. I'm so happy :D

BUT WHERE ARE THE BLUE PEOPLE???!!!

By the way, I'm currently reading Plows, Plagues and Petroleum. A good, fascinating read so far :)

592

2011-06-08T23:26:00.004+07:00

Having just read Ryan O'Connel's piece about what your favorite author says about you, and having formulated my thesis about there are two kinds of people (namely those who read Paulo Coelho and those who read John Steinbeck), I'm thinking that it might be fun to be a pretentious bitch and write something about it as well :D

Paulo Coelho
The people who read Coelho are those with glasses that half full. They probably read Eat Pray Love and The Secret and listen to Josh Groban. And watch Oprah. They most definitely post inspirational quotes on their Facebook and twitter. ~~If they are ITB graduates, they probably have followed SIAware training.~~

J.D. Salinger
The people who read J.D. Salinger think that they have existential crisis with philosophical potential that might give either enlightenment or falldown for the humanity.

John Grisham
The people who read John Grisham have this illusion that good guys always win. They probably have grandchildren. They most likely read Agatha Christie as well.

~~Harry Potter series~~ J.K. Rowling
The people who read Harry Potter in the early 2000s probably never read anything longer than celebrity exclusive interviews in their favorite magazines. The people who read Harry Potter now are either a) have a major crush on ~~Tom Felton~~ Emma Watson; b) just found the book under the bed, left by the previous room's occupant; or c) just turn 11 this year (and expecting his/her Hogwarts invitation letter will come by owl sometime soon).

Dan Brown
The people who read and like Dan Brown are generally not really into conspiracy theories. But if it's presented to them from the point of view of a leading Harvard symbologist and a bio-entanglement physicist, suddenly it becomes totally make sense.

Christopher Brookmyre
The people who read Christopher Brookmyre see themselves as geeks, have a good sense of humor and musical taste (e.g. nods whenever someone bashing Oasis), witty, skeptic but open-minded. Other people see them as pretentious douchebags who bitch about other people's favorite authors.

591

2011-06-04T23:51:00.121+07:00

I bought a book in Barcelona, Gaudí x Gaudí. It's about 'the thoughts and work of Gaudí through photography and his own words'. And those words are written in Spanish, English and German. Neat, eh? Except that I felt a little bit guilty. You see, Barcelona is the capital city of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia. Gaudí was a Catalan nationalist, and even once was arrested by the police for joining a demonstration against the banning of the Catalan language. Well, my guide in Barcelona told us that he was arrested because he refused to speak Spanish, which sounds more dramatic. But the point remains. I wish I bought a book in English and Catalan instead of Spanish.

Having dealt with the Spain thingy, and visited Barcelona at last, I finally watch Vicky Cristina Barcelona. I enjoyed revisiting the city through Woody's eyes. I sort of like the omniscient narrator, although it can be funnier. Maybe if Woody narrated himself... And Penelope Cruz was brilliant. However, I found one very annoying thing. Nobody speaks Catalan in the movie!

Yeah, of course I googled it and of course there are other people noticed it as well. IMDb calls it incorrectly regarded as goofs.

The people in this movie (including the leading man) speak Spanish instead of Catalan. In Barcelona both Spanish and Catalan are spoken. In Oviedo, only Spanish is spoken.

Alright. Juan Antonio is from Oviedo, Asturias, so he doesn't speak Catalan (although still regarded as Catalan artist). Maria Elena is probably not a Catalan either, so she also doesn't speak Catalan. But Vicky is taking Master degree in Catalan Identity, and speaks a little Spanish at the beginning of the movie (which is fine), but later taking Spanish class. I mean, why?

I'm not easily annoyed with little bloopers in movie. It is, after all, a movie. But if it's inherently inconsistent to the characters... I think of Garasi. The characters don't speak Sundanese or even Sundanese accent correctly, which is bad. But it wasn't done deliberately, they were just bad actors. And the fact that they take brown angkots everywhere and spend a hell lot of time in footbridges are bloopers that probably only Bandung people would notice (oh okay, the latter probably not only for Bandung people, anyway...) I found a comment about Woody's characters in NY can easily find parking spots. But come on, you wouldn't watch a movie of people spending 24 minutes finding a parking spot (except an episode of Seinfeld). It does a little harm to the characters. Yeah, probably not many people realize the Spanish vs Catalan thing. But I start to think that Woody in Europe becomes like Miles Film in Garasi and 3 Hari Untuk Selamanya. Ouch, did I just compare Woody Allen to Agung Sentausa?

I don't know. Is it just Woody being Woody? Cristina can't hold her camera steady enough and sounds like a bad rip-off of Annie Hall. I actually prefer Scarlett Johansson in Scoop, she was being really blonde there. The characters in this movie are so (American) stereotypical I started to think that probably he did it on purpose. Maybe that's the genius of it.

You know, just like the Hollywood Ending finale :P

590

2011-06-02T20:20:00.003+07:00

How to use Firefox as a science tool? Well, you know the short and easy answer. Zotero. But Zotero alone is not enough, at least for me. And since I do this so many times in the past several months, I might as well write it down. So here's how to turn your Firefox into a powerful scientific tool in 8 steps.

Install Firefox. You know how to do it, right? ;)

Install Zotero. Just open the website and follow the instruction.

Install zotero word processor plugin. It's available for MS Word (Windows and Mac), OpenOffice, LibreOffice and NeoOffice.

If you are working on several machines, you need to use one data directory, otherwise you'll end up with different libraries in different machines. That's why I use flashdrive to store all zotero-related files. The data directory usually is a folder named zotero, and consists of several zotero.sqlite files. You can view and edit the data directory location in Action (the gear icon) > Preference > Advanced.

If you're a long time firefox user, you probably don't like the Firefox 4 look that sort of trying too hard to be like Chrome. I personally like Chrome simply because it's, well, simplicity. However, Firefox has functionalities that chrome lacks of, and actually very useful for our purpose. Dedoimedo shares some tips to pimp-up your Firefox.

Also, since Firefox 3.6 or something, they make the new tab opens at the next tab, which I hate. Here's how to modify if you prefer the new tab open at far right.

Manage your search engine. This is what I like about Firefox compared to Chrome. You can easily customize your search engines and access it with shortcut (in case you don't know, it's ctrl-K or cmd-K). Of course you don't need bing and Yahoo. I also got rid of e-bay, but kept amazon because you sometimes need book's bibliography as well. I kept Google and Wikipedia, and added Google Scholar (a super-brilliant add-on) and a dictionary (usually Merriam-Webster).

And if you're still not satisfied, manage your bookmarks. I set BBC News-Science and Environment as my homepage. Yeah, I know, a little bit pretentious. I removed Most Visited and Getting Started bookmarks, but kept Latest Headlines. Then I added Scopus and Web of Science. You have to be subscribed for these two sites, I'm afraid. I also added DOI homepage in bookmark.

And that's it. Your Firefox is ready. FYI, you probably need to restart Firefox several times along the way, at least for number 2-4, so plan your installation carefully.

589

2011-06-01T20:22:00.000+07:00

Kumbang-di-telinga gara-gara Aa Takeshi :P

588

2011-05-28T18:11:00.005+07:00

My nephew (that is, my cousin's son) has just graduated high school. He's accepted in UPI, but his family's not doing so well financially. He's applying for a full scholarship and probably get it, or not. Other option is getting a job (he also has a good chance at this), which is preferable from financial point of view. The thing is, he's accepted in PKN (Civics) major, and that's kind of limited (well actually I don't know. maybe I just hate this subject). If he doesn't get the scholarship, I was going to contribute in paying for him. But yeah, there's a bit of heebie-jeebies about this and there's too many things to consider which I'm lack of grasp of. It's just I still think that it's better for him to go to college, even with not-so-promising major. I despise that he may lose that opportunity, regardless how his family state is.

I cringe whenever someone post "inspirational" speech of Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. Sometimes with notes from the poster that 'you don't have to go to school to become a millionaire'. PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel even gives out scholarships for not going to college.

I myself think that college is not for everybody. It may sound arrogantly prickish considering I'm back in college now, but I do. There are several career paths, several life choices that need college education, and several that don't. For the latter, college is just a waste of resources. And looks like we in Indonesia are overwhelmed by college graduates.

Things are screwed in my head so I try to lay the facts here, hopefully to make some senses of them:

There are two paths of college education in Indonesia, academic and vocational (polytechnique), each with different purpose of life.

Academic graduates are often regarded higher than polytechnique graduates, which makes people pursue academic and also creates confusing program like Diploma IV.

Employer often mix up these two paths, ignoring their own need.

This degree fetishism also triggers the growth of mediocre and low quality colleges, which in itself a waste of resources.

Which in turn leads to a disparity between job market and job seekers.

Here in the Netherlands, students have to choose their educational (and further career) direction right after elementary school, based on their elementary teachers assessment and a test. Most of the time it goes very efficient (yeah, the Dutchs are big in efficiency). Of course there's always exceptions. I have a friend who graduated from HBO (polytechnic), continued to master and now a PhD student. My supervisor told me that based on her test, she was told that she shouldn't be a scientist. And now she's my supervisor.

The Dutch system is actually more or less what is applied in Indonesia... in theory.

Kids of my generation grew up want to be a doctor or an engineer. Because that was sort of what all there was to it. We need a system to indicate what someone's good at. And we also need a system to make someone knows what (s)he wants.

I met this American guy Mike, or Michael, or whatever his name was during my travel. He had a degree in computer or something, just quit his job because it just helped [insert a big company name here] gains more profit despite of made the world a better place. Maybe US education system also failed him. But when it fails in US, they still have social security and all that s**t. When it fails in Indonesia, it just fails. Not everyone's blessed with privilege. Not then, not now, and sadly not in the near future.

I still think that college is not for everybody. I want my nephew to go to college because he's smart and he thinks outside his small village. College is not only a place for study, but also a place to broaden one's vision and build network. The degree sometimes less matter than the experience. It would be good for him.

And I despise the system that makes everyone who is good for college could not go there.

(picture from google, ~~stolen~~ used without permission)

587

2011-05-27T19:18:00.002+07:00

Oh, dear, oh, dear...

ROTFL =))

586

2011-05-25T01:37:00.001+07:00

Pernah gak ngerasain naek ~~busway~~ transjakarta cepat dan nyaman?

Gue pernah, sekali. Taun 2004, beberapa hari setelah koridor I dibuka. Gak nyampe sebulan lah (dibukanya, maksudnya, bukan waktu perjalanannya). Dari Sudirman ke Blok M gak nyampe 20 menit. Bis kosong, ber-AC. Nikmat banget deh. Udah, abis itu gak pernah-pernah lagi. Maksudnya gak pernah naik transjakarta nyaman lagi. Kalo sepanjang Sudirman masih mendingan sih daripada terjebak di ruang pamer mobil terpanjang di dunia, tapi teteup...

Eh, agak lucu juga baca tulisan lama itu. Tulisan itu juga mengutip artikel dari sebuah majalah daring yang nampaknya sudah almarhum. Ini gue kutip lagi.

Sutiyoso might be criticized for allowing the bus way project to be undergone, but see in 3 years to come, that stupid red bus with a peanut logo on it might be our savior from the chaos happening on the streets.
Sutiyoso mungkin dikritik karena meloloskan proyek bus way, tapi lihatlah tiga tahun lagi, bis merah bego dengan logo kacang itu mungkin jadi penyelamat kita dari kekacauan di jalan.
(Indonesia Oh My Country, 2004)

Dan taun 2007 sudah lewat empat taun yang lalu.

Lucu karena, menurut gue, Sutiyoso cuma beruntung aja di Koridor I. Baiklah, mungkin agak cerdas karena jalur Kota-Blok M memang cukup masuk akal untuk dikasih bus way. Tapi mengelola lalu lintas Jakarta adalah proyek yang terlalu besar jika hanya mengandalkan keberuntungan dan sedikit kecerdasan. Mana yang ahli teh? Mana? Mana? #nyolot

Udah lama perasaan males banget naek transjakarta. Ngantrinya lama, jalannya jauh, apalagi kalo mesti pindah-pindah koridor. Ada beberapa keputusan bodoh gue yang berawal dari memilih transjakarta ketimbang metromini. Walopun ga berarti memilih metromini terus jadi cerdas sih. Euh... udah ga jadi orang Jakarta aja masi banyak ngeluh :P

Nulis ini sebenarnya karena dosa membaca tulisan ini sih. Intinya gue lumayan sepakat bahwa transjakarta itu proyek "sampah busuk buangan oportunis" (sevensillysins, 2011). Sekalian ingin membagi tautan yang sebenarnya gak nyambung-nyambung amat tapi maksa disambung-sambungin:
- OrangKetiga: Mengarungi tujuh koridor
- Freakonomics: Paradoks panjang jalan dan kemacetan
- Paman Tyo: Cara DKI menyehatkan pejalan kaki
- Sarapan treuk

585

2011-05-23T01:27:00.001+07:00

I spent a very unproductive Sunday just seeking approval that guys using internet explorer is a deal breaker :D

584

2011-05-22T02:21:00.000+07:00

Di mana kita sudah salah melangkah?

Gue sangat menikmati membaca tulisan Jeffrey Winters ini (versi detik). Baiklah, menikmati mungkin bukan kata yang tepat. Tapi Winters mungkin menjelaskan bahwa kita tidak salah melangkah, hanya saja jalannya memang sudah berlubang dan hancur. Bukan demokrasi yang menciptakan DPR tak bermutu dan pemerintahan yang tidak efektif. "...it is not the presence of democracy since 1998 that is the problem, but instead the absence of an impersonal system of constraints on oligarchs (the rule of law) that could tame them as Suharto’s personal system once did." Bukan kehadiran demokrasi sejak 1998 yang menjadi masalah, melainkan ketiadaan sistem (aturan hukum) pengekang elit penguasa, sebagaimana dulu dilakukan Suharto dengan sistem (preferensi) pribadinya.

Walopun ini mendukung tesis semua salah orba^TM gue, gue berusaha tidak menelan bulat-bulat kata-kata Winters. Lagi pula, mungkin sudah waktunya berhenti mencari siapa yang salah. Kecuali... jika bagian dari ~~kegagalan~~ masalah kita adalah ketidakmampuan medeteksi (sumber) masalah yang sesungguhnya?

Jadi mesti gimana dong? ~~Ganti ke khilafah?~~ Winters ga bilang apa-apa tu, sialan bener. Mengharapkan perubahan besar dan sistematis sepertinya sia-sia, apalagi yang sesungguhnya bertanggung jawab membentuk sistem ya calo-calo di Senayan itu. Alternatifnya ya, lupakan saja (masih bingung Pemilu mau golput atau ngga). Lebih baik mendukung, sukur-sukur berpartisipasi dalam inisiatif-inisiatif 'kecil' yang berdampak besar seperti Indonesia Mengajar. Dan merayakan plus mendoakan sedikit pemimpin yang amanah seperti Pak Jokowi.

Ada ide lain?

583

2011-05-21T02:57:00.008+07:00

I'm not a really organized person, and I tend to be nervous before traveling (I've come to accept that this is normal, though), so I'm really prone to forgetting stuffs. Not important stuffs like passport or ticket or hotel reservation. Also not Maliq or camera or reading materials, although I once did forget to bring a novel. It's more like 'small' stuffs (which are not always small) that you just realize you forget to bring when you need them. So I think I just make a list of them here.

Flip-flops. These are especially when I'm wearing shoes, but not really necessary when I'm wearing sandals which I like to do as much as the weather and, well, the occasion permit.

Shower cap. For... shower, of course. Not always necessary in Indonesia, though :D

Chargers. Cellphone, camera and Maliq's. I once forgot to bring the camera charger and the battery did run out :(

Compass. Well, I can always do the direction guessing by the sun position, but compass was invented for reasons. And while we're at it, it's useful to know the qibla direction and the local praying time before going and not afterward.

Sunglasses. Not too keen on these, but yeah, they're useful.

Pashmina. My multifunction gear, from windshield to emergency praying mat.

Padlock. And the combination key :P

Plastic bag(s). For just in case. I usually bring my multifunction shopping bag as well.

Post-It notes. Just love them. I write important (and unimportant) stuffs on them and if I happen to have a guide book with me, I can easily attach them to it.

Reading lamp. Awkay this is a new stuff. It's important if I stay in a hostel that doesn't give a personal bed lamp, and even more important if I end up in a lower bunk. I just bought mine on my last trip (and feeling so stupid because I couldn't remember any of my Spanish while the shopkeeper didn't speak English). It's a little bit expensive (or maybe just normal price) but sooo much better compared to the cheap boekenfestijn one.

(The list will grow, I guess)

582

2011-05-20T12:10:00.000+07:00

Is vintage the new black? (via @jokoanwar)

581

2011-05-19T12:58:00.006+07:00

An easily amazed geek's response:
Wow! GMail IS very intuitive. How can they guess to whom this email should be send too?

A paranoid conspirationist's response:
S**T! Google's been reading my message ~~and selling my identity to a marketing company in Asia~~!

Have a nice pre-weekend y'all! :D

580

2011-05-03T04:05:00.005+07:00

I stumbled upon Mark Shuttleworth's blog this morning (naturally), and wrote this on facebook:

And then, just out of curiosity (and geekiness), I searched for how many millions we were talking about. Mark Zuckerberg (US$6.9 billion) and Matt Mullenweg (US$40 million) are listed here. There's actually one Matt Mickiewicz on that list as well (no net worth but his companies worth +US$100 million). Mark Shuttleworth is 37 so he's not on the list, but according to wikipedia, he's worth US$225 million.

But this post is not really about all those, actually. When I googled 'how much mark shuttleworth worth', I found this article. But it's not about that either, instead I was intrigued by the link to this article on the side.

The Green List has unearthed 100 tycoons or wealthy families worth £200m or more who have made either serious investments in green technology and businesses or hefty financial commitments to environmental causes. In total, the Green 100 are worth nearly £267 billion.

This enormous sum demonstrates that many of the world’s richest tycoons and entrepreneurs have embraced environmentalism. Indeed, our list is dominated by America’s wealthiest financiers and entrepreneurs such as Warren Buffett (worth £27 billion) and Bill Gates (worth £26 billion).

I'm not criticizing or anything. I'm just wondering what constitutes 'green' business or 'green' investment. And the list seems to mix businesses with causes. Global warming certainly is not business, right? (Or... is it? ;)) Hmmm... I'm too sleepy right now to think straight, so maybe I'll update later to elaborate. Or maybe not. Maybe I'm just honoring Michael Crichton's legacy, i.e. being skeptical to anything labelled 'environmental'.

Being environmentally conscious is not buying more eco-labelled products, but buying less stuff.
(This is one of Tânia's propositions for her graduation into a ~~philosopher~~ doctor of philosophy. What constitutes less is arguable though, and interestingly she also wrote the following proposition: For environmental awareness, basic needs have to be guaranteed, since one can not punish a person for cutting down a tree to cook and warm himself.)

Sober update:
There is no sober update.

579

2011-05-01T19:20:00.072+07:00

Oooh... senangnya kembali pake ubuntu #pingin nyanyi

Pake MacOSX emang menyenangkan si, tapi ngulik ubuntu tak kalah menyenangkannya. Apalagi dengan kecepatan 45 mbps ;)) Setelah dua hari mengulik, kemajuan sejauh ini:

Suara udah keluar. Hahaha, curiganya pas pake Julia kemaren pun harusnya bisa keluar suaranya. Tapi untuk nubie seperti saya kayanya emang mesti yang standar dulu kali. Oh yeah ini akhirnya pake ubuntu 10.04 (lucid lynx). Ntar kalo udah jalan bener mungkin dinaikin ke maverick atau natty. Inih sekalian ditulis ulikannya biar ga lupa. Dapetnya dari sini:

0. Install driver? Ga tau ngaruh apa engga.
$ sudo apt-get install linux-alsa-driver-modules-$(uname -r)
1. Buka berkas alsa-base.conf
$ gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
2. Di akhir skrip, tambahin "options snd-hda-intel model=mbp55"
(tanpa tanda kutip).
Kayanya ini yg kemarin ga ketemu, soalnya kirain mesti
masukin model mb71 atau apalah.
3. Hapus map ~/.pulse. Lupa kemarin dihapusnya dari terminal
atau nautilus.
$ sudo rm ~/.pulse
4. Reboot
Kayanya habis reboot masi ada satu langkah lagi, tapi kemarin
langsung keluar suaranya, jadi yang terakhir ga kepake.

Udah bisa akses berkas di sebelah (Mac, maksudnya). Tutorial lengkapnya di sini. Intinya sih matiin jurnal. Agak serem juga si, tapi sepertinya orang-orang di lifehacker tau apa yang mereka bicarakan.

Sekaligus bisa menyelaraskan library-nya banshee sama itunes. Banshee juga mesti diulik dulu supaya bisa muter lagu. Sebelumnya udah install paket terbatas (restricted extras) dari medibuntu.

$ sudo apt-get build-dep banshee
$ sudo aptitude install gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3 gstreamer0.10-gnonlin gstreamer0.10-pitfdll gstreamer0.10-sdl gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse gstreamer0.10-schroedinger gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse totem-gstreamer

Selain banshee, program-program yang udah di-install: chrome (ini tadinya mo dijadiin satu tulisan sendiri, enam bulan di sini saya udah setidaknya delapan kali meng-install chrome di enam komputer yang berbeda), VLC, minbar, pidgin. Yang belum: kdenlive, PSPP(?), celtx, apa lagi ya?

Huruf dari sebelah dan log-nya pidgin dari mprit sudah berhasil disalin ke tempat yang selayaknya. Artinya curhat-curhat saya selama setaun pake pidgin sudah bisa diakses kembali. Halah.

Dan... banyak waktu yang dihabiskan untuk mendapatkan tampilan yang menyenangkan tapi tidak seperti Mac ;)) Hihi, dangkal emang. Gue seneng tampilannya Julia, tapi ya gitu rewel. Sejauh ini sih cukup memuaskan, kecuali beberapa ikon yang masih kurang sreg.

Hehe lumayanlah untuk membuat gue ~~merasa cerdas~~ sok sibuk akhir pekan ini. Pokoknya semua yang penting udah jalan, jadi udah bisa berfungsi di ubuntu dan aya piulikeun kalo lagi bosan :D

578

2011-04-30T20:15:00.001+07:00

Geeking :P

577

2011-04-27T17:19:00.000+07:00

Dear Christian,

¿Cómo está?

Sincerely, just found your name again.

576

2011-04-23T15:06:00.002+07:00

Talking to a psychiatrist/psychologist/shrink/what-nots at the age of 32 is funny.

I took Competence Assessment last month, a 'course' suggested for first year PhD students, which basically is a psychotest. Maybe it's worth noted that if you do things in the right order, you do your first year of PhD at the age of 24 :P

When I did the test (including a standard MBTI where I had to choose whether I enjoy listening to sexual jokes and the likes), I started questioning myself. Why the hell was I doing this? No, not the PhD (which I do, sometimes), but the test. I first took this kind of test some 15 years ago, and I don't remember how many I took since. Almost all of them were job placement thingies, so to be fair, I didn't get the results. But still...

And the suspicion was confirmed when I did the consultancy about the result. Yeah, I got one or two new 'insights', but none were entirely surprising. I will get the complete report later, so there's probably still surprise waiting, but I don't expect much.

The day before the consultancy, I read this article. I'm not totally ~~stressed out~~ agree, but it sparks some truth.

I’m not stressed out because I’m single. I’m stressed out by the idea that it’s becoming painfully obvious that by having a mostly-formed life, interests, opinions and requirements, that it’s quite possible I’ll never find someone who both fits in the space and wants to make an effort to stay in it. I’ve never been good at faith, but I have to believe that somewhere out there is someone for me. And until I find that someone, I just have to keep working towards making my life what I want without them. For as much as I’d like to share my life with someone, my lack of having them cannot be a driving force as long as there is still so much out there to do.

Cute, eh? :D

575

2011-04-18T23:34:00.002+07:00

Dear girls in the friend zone,

Is bro zone similar to friend zone?

Sincerely, can't stop reading.

574

2011-04-16T20:26:00.002+07:00

For the first time in years, I get hold of all my books, well, almost. Except for the educational Environmental Engineering and Dutch for Self-Study, the only book in my shelf that I haven't finished is Feynman's Six Easy Pieces (which is not easy, by the way). I think buying books online is brilliant. There's definitely less temptation to buy books that you-probably-would-read-just-in-case, just because they're there.

Wait. Got. Hadn't. Was. Past tense!

Because look what I've done today in the boekenmarkt.

There goes my six months of book-buying diet :(

573

2011-04-15T22:37:00.030+07:00

~~Moral lessons~~ Random thoughts of the day or what-would-I-tweet-today-had-I-had-an-account:

Lay's 'patatje joppie' is smaaklijk!

Tomorrow's boekenmarkt! Let's hunt for travelling books, shall we?

Lipton's russian earl grey's taste is not as exotic as oriental bazaar.

Alcohol is not haram. Alcoholic beverages are. Viz, AH organic crab soup is haram because it contains cognac. If it only contains alcohol, the alcohol will vaporise on heating #twistedmind

Does any business with lulu.com model exist in Indonesia?

During My Nervous Breakdown I Want to Have a Biographer Present is a cool title for a book. Too bad I don't like poetry :P

Does James Franco really have a thing for Kimiko?

I think I'm in love with Ryan O'Connel. But he's gay. Crap.

Focus! Time is flying!

572

2011-04-11T21:41:00.019+07:00

Oh God, Oh God!

I'm kind of addicted to Thought Catalogue lately (as probably shown on my sidebar). It's sort of 20 something demographic in a way, but also generation Y-ish so I still can relate. Oh, just read it.

Anyway, it's also very American. That is why when I found this on my facebook wall, I first thought it was one of my friend's posted a link from Jakarta Post or something.

I reserve my judgement. But, but, but... it's Chris Brookmyre again. What is it with Scottish late 90's/early 2000's and Indonesian contemporary politics?

571

2011-04-10T19:45:00.002+07:00

Looks like I'm gonna travel solo again next month #moodswing #travellingblues

570

2011-04-09T23:11:00.031+07:00

Sambil nungguin isya, main-main sebentar sama Julia. Masalahnya sama dari kemarin-kemarin, suara gak keluar. Tambahan kecerahan layarnya gak mau diatur. Satu lagi sih, mesti konfigurasi bantalan-sentuh tapi karena masih bisa pake tetikus jadi ga terlalu masalah.

Kemaren kemakan promosinya salah seorang fanboy Mac kalo linux bakal jalan dengan mulus di intel-mac. Hahaha... percaya aja. Julia asalnya dari Ubuntu Maverick. Masalahnya konfigurasi Macbook7.1-Maverick belum ada dokumentasinya. Bahkan Macbook7.1 aja belum ada. Dudududu... Mungkin... hmm... turun aja ke Lucid atau Isadora. Malah kebeneran LTS. Sayang, padahal sukaaa tampilannya Julia (hihi, dangkal). Atau tunggu sampe Macbook7.1 dianggap basbang dan layak dipasangi linux ;))

569

2011-04-07T02:13:00.001+07:00

A case of when bad scripts happen to good actors. Given its similarities to a bygone sitcom, one might call it Friends without benefits.
A review on Happythankyoumoreplease

Given that Happythankyoumoreplease is also remarkably similar to How I Met Your Mother (or at least Sam Wexler is just Ted Mosby in disguise), I prove my point that HIMYM is just ~~our generation~~ a 2005 onwards version of Friends. Let see.

New York City. Check.

A spacious and probably way too expensive apartment in New York City. Check.

People you wish you could hang out with. Check.

A cool hang out place. Check.

However, there are also a few differences, and good ones at that.

1. In HIMYM, everyone is Phoebe Buffay. Every character is a little bit over-the-top (except Barney who's waaay over the top), or shall I say comical, but we still can relate to them.

2. HIMYM is wildly nonlinear and I envy Carter Bays and Craig Thomas for being able to make sense of that.

3. HIMYM is less cliché. Of course, Ted became a professor (not unlike Ross Geller), but while Chandler Bing gave up a boring behind-the-desk job to work in advertising, Marshall gave up being an environmental lawyer to work at Goliath National Bank. And when it comes to Barney...

The thing is, I watched Friends with my friends and I loved it for that. I can't watch HIMYM with my friends, and it makes me miss them so much :(

So let's go to ~~the mall~~ virtual MacLaren's and hang out :D

568

2011-04-01T22:51:00.001+07:00

DONE!!! Yaaayyyy!!! Alright, admittedly not exactly every day and sadly not always funny (see 03 March), but at least I did it!

This goal is actually an extension of another goal. And the moral lesson is… it's much much harder than I thought. Granted, the only person that ever said that I'm funny is French. And I'm still not a lesbian. But, yeah, usually you have to respond to something. And if you like, really try, it somehow become not as easy as if you don't try, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, here's the 31 days updates. My comments in italic.

waking up my funny gene. get up! get up! it's 3 hours to the next day! #desperate
01 March at 20:12

Lame, yeah, I know. See, desperate.

"All the doors in this spaceship have a cheerful and sunny disposition. It is their pleasure to open for you, and their satisfaction to close again with the knowledge of a job well done." (Marvin in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)
The doors probably have the personality of a door(mat) ;))
02 March at 21:45

You're not a comedian, you're just trying so hard to be (Budi Warsito Zuckerberg, 2011)
03 March at 03:25

I left Arthur Dent at my bedside drawer at home. What is the probability of his hitchhiking a starship with the infinite improbability drive to make his way over here to Enschede?
04 March at 05:33

sarapan di hotel kok ga ada nasi goreng ya?
04 March at 06:58

Yeah, two half-almost-funny updates equal one almost-funny, right? :D

All Facebookers are equal but some Facebookers are more equal than others.
05 March at 14:57

Well, Orwell doesn't really apply on Facebook, or does it?

awkay, revised (revert back) to original version: All netizens are equal but some netizens are more equal than others.
05 March at 15:45

"What is it?!" shout Friendster furiously. "Am I not good enough for you? You don't love me anymore? Your friends don't like me? Oh my God, you're seeing someone else aren't you? Wait, you're seeing Facebook! I knew it! I knew you're seeing Facebook!"
06 March at 16:19

+ Why the Dutchs sell marijuana in coffeeshops?
- To get revenge on the Americans for not selling it in their drugstores.
#recycledjoke
07 March at 22:34

ternyata gue masi anak TL: clueless without metcalf & eddy. oh pak benny maafkan aku...
08 March at 19:23

mamayu teu sarua jeung hawek. pan?
09 March at 17:51

if b-t-w is pronounced longer than by the way, why use it in a face to face conversation?
10 March at 20:51

My status for 11 March was 'pray for Japan'. Obvious, right? The second reason I didn't try to be funny that day was I didn't feel well, sort of pre-spring cold. The third was I couldn't compete with Ibu Mari.

hari sepatu nasional? nyerah deh... gue ga bisa lebih lucu dari ini
Jumat sebagai Hari Sepatu Nasional
bisniskeuangan.kompas.com
Menteri Perdagangan Mari Elka Pangestu resmi mencanangkan hari Jumat sebagai Hari Sepatu Nasional pada hari ini.
10 March at 21:57

nasi sudah menjadi bubur ayam #peningkatansuhutubuh,degradasiorijinalitas
12 March at 19:56

watching LOST season 5 & 6 is not a guilty pleasure. just a guilt :P
13 March at 17:14

watching america's next top model while munching a big full fat milk chocolate bar, not to mention wearing a worn t-shirt and ugly pants. I wonder what tyra would say ;))
14 March at 20:42

My supervisor insisted on using 'Dr. Ir.' because she's 'proud to be an engineer'. If I write 'Ir. Widyarani', I will just look like from class of '85. cc:Ir. Frans Tumbuhan
15 March at 20:01

'Maybe if you weren’t so distracted by sick children in Africa, you could have put a little more thought into Windows Vista.' (Sheldon, to Bill Gates, according to Raj in The Big Bang Theory)
16 March at 22:10

ngantuk. belum solat. belum ngelucu :(
17 March at 22:08

Who said you can't pull this trick twice? ;) #cheat

turns out the funniest thing happened to me today until 20 minutes to midnight is still GIMP with dutch interface #insidejokewithgod
18 March at 23:42

Bom buku adalah "cara yg gak asik untuk bikin sebuah buku menjadi booming." (Budi Warsito, 2011) #udahbasbangblm?
19 March at 08:21

"Adriii... kalo kalah ga boleh nangis yaaa!" kata Rina Tiara Bahroen ke Adri.
Beberapa menit kemudian. "Riiiin... gue boleh nangis ngga?" gue setelah kalah telak 7-17 maen memory sama Adri.
20 March at 21:42

moral lesson, nee, epiphany of the day: don't work with empty stomach or you'll end up spilling coffee all over your table
21 March at 23:24

udah waktunya ngebuaya ya? asiiik... mari mengejar bebek
22 March at 19:07

Mengidamkan kulit putih,halus,kencang,tubuh langsing dgn biaya ekonomis? Temukan rahasianya di www. t**y c**e .com #smsnyasar #updatetakberbayar

ps: mama minta pulsa
23 March at 23:27

"Hard ware, this is like software but more difficult, yes?" -stumbled upon an ubuntu forum, sheldon's favorite linux-based operating system
24 March at 22:05

kalo ke centrum jam segini belum kopavond dong... #lospokus #menghiburdiri
25 March at 18:18

wokeeeh... udah pesen in view di amazon, tau2 DVD-nya ada di FRS. bageeuuss... #pundung
25 March at 20:16

Alrite, this one's more like inside joke with the universe. Just like this one.

Oh mai god roy suryo punya twitter??? saya merasa sangat tidak funkih
26 March at 09:17

rek api-api 25 ge angger we nga-vakum jeung ngepel sakoridor mah nyeri cangkeng :P #habisnontonolddogs
27 March at 23:19

lima taun jadi anak teknik cuma bawa2 map doang, akhirnya tadi bawa bazoka nyulik punya Dianika Lestari ;))
28 March at 22:14

only geeks would google 'geek joke' :P
29 March at 22:52

adooh... gara2 status-nya Rahayu Ferlina dan komennya Robert De Nura jadi kangen ayam goreng reformasi. see... kata siapa reformasi gagal total? ;))
30 March at 19:52

Is making fun of politicians politically incorrect?
31 March at 23:18

567

2011-03-29T20:20:00.000+07:00

After one and a half day conference (mainly) on biofuel, I think this picture is just appropriate :D

fakescience

566

2011-03-27T00:07:00.003+07:00

Akhirnyaaa nonton Stand van de Sterren jugaaa. Ributnya udah dari kapan ;))

Hmm... penutup trilogi yang keren euy. Ada yang gue ngerasa rada artifisial si, dan ada bagian yang kaya agak lepas. Tapi tetap juara. Nontonnya teteep... antara pingin ketawa sama miris. Satu kata buat Leonard: Juanc******k!!!!! Hahaha... Jadi keingetan waktu lagi ngerjain Extra Miles, terus nonton filmnya Leonard. Langsung pundung berhari-hari :P

log#9 2 years ago

Yesterday was… one of the best shot, content-wise, but definitely the worst shot, technically. In the morning I had a chat with +sali and we discuss about several thing and somehow I got “inspired” that it doesn’t need good techniques to make documentary. Content is more important. Of course, I was wrong.

Anyway, I WAS inspired by Leonard. He can make the most amazing shots. I still can’t figure out how he could pull out the walking scenes. Wait. Why am I talking about Leonard? Because I just found the movies here!!!

I mean, he really knows the camera, it seems like he can shoot without seeing the LCD/viewfinder. Therefore he can keep eye contact and make the objects act natural. That’s what I tried and I missed, a lot.

Jul 14, 2008, 06:04PM PDT

Ngemeng-ngemeng... tadi nonton di CineMec cuma bertiga sama Shindi dan Affan. Harfiah cuma kita bertiga yang ada di ruangan bioskopnya hahaha :)) Serasa bioskop pribadi :D

565

2011-03-26T16:47:00.005+07:00

Aunt Sally
: an object of criticism or contention; especially : one that is set up to invite criticism or be easily refuted (Merriam-Webster)

After this and this, I'm probably at risk of being suspected as a pornography supporter (which I'm not, by the way). And Jack Parlabane is not exactly the man you look for to get ~~eye opening moment~~ epiphany, especially that early Brookmyres tend to be self-righteous. Anyway... I just copy-paste here:

But pornography, thought Nicole, hard-core pornography, well that was one threat that wasn't exaggerated.

"It's not exactly an aunt sally, though, is it?" she said.

Parlabane gave her the sort of grin that would scare psychiatrists.

"I understand your reservations, Nicole, but believe me, it's the biggest one there is. It's the queen of aunt sallies. It's a cheap politician's wet dream. Christ, these days, nobody in government wants to suggest or implement a policy that won't deliver a return before the next election - or even before the next opinion poll. But this? It's video nasties all over again. Not just something you can blame, but something you can ban. So that you can show the electorate that you're Getting Something Done. Thatcher's lot did it back in '83, to distract attention from the fact that crime was going through the roof and there was rioting on the streets. They brought in the Video Recordings Act, which blamed it all on a few cheesy B-movies and banned, among other things, hard porn.

"Then in '92, after the Jamie Bulger killing, you had another uproar. David Alton, for whom the irony of being nominally a 'Liberal' never quite chimed in, sniffing for votes by Getting Something Done, demanding that video censors be given powers that they... er, already had, since the Video Recording Act in 1984."

(Christopher Brookmyre, Country of the Blind)

Naw... if we look at it from Indonesian perspective...

It's kind of so obvious that I should've known it all along. It's just reading it in print make things clearer. On the other hand, I know it's not as simple as that. And needless to say that Indonesia is not UK :P

I guess my point is, beware of aunt sallies and illusion of Getting Something Done #notetoself

By the way, love the book as always. But discussing about possible culprits and having The Culprit on TV saying something lame and suddenly an epiphanic moment 'We find a motive', come on Chris, that is super-LAME even for the '90s ;))

564

2011-03-25T20:48:00.000+07:00

Jyahahah... setiap orang emang punya masa lalu. Tapi Ant and Dec? Sontoloyo sekali.

Ngomong-ngomong, ini di Praha kan? Karlův Most kok sepi gitu ya?

563

2011-03-22T22:54:00.000+07:00

Just update my 43things. No, not another stupid challenge. This one's very reasonable, I suppose.

perfecting the art of rice-cooker and microwave cooking
This goal has no definite, well, ‘goal’ nor time frame. The challenge is to use as many fresh ingredients and as little effort as possible. Success parameter is defined by my happy stomach :)

562

2011-03-21T22:21:00.005+07:00

This day, one year ago, I just got out of a terrible breakdown. It started five or six months earlier, when I fell from the top of the world. The biggest chunk was of course the Spain thing, but there were also a few other related and unrelated things. I was turning 31 and I had no idea where my life would go.

Then, a few days later I got an interview for a PhD position, and here I am now.

Of course it wasn't all sunshine and flower after that. I had a 12 hours crisis which I don't think I ever mentioned anywhere in this blog, but yeah, it was finally solved. And someone broke my heart, totally my own foolishness (and he seems totally clueless about that) but that didn't make it any easier to deal with. But I did.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, thank God. For not, never, giving up on me.

And thank you. Yes, you, and you, and you. For being there the whole time. And bearing with me when I was being rude and bitter and cynical. And for listening to my whines, reading my rants, opening your door, picking up my calls, answering my IMs.

PS: My apologies for 'disappearing' today It's just one of those days...

561

2011-03-17T14:44:00.002+07:00

Handsome and funny. Just what I want from men :P

560

2011-03-08T13:14:00.002+07:00

Told you that sex-tape is not that big a deal #stonedbyFPI

(from here)

559

2011-03-07T20:17:00.000+07:00

Here's a scene
You're in the back seat laying down (say, say, the light)
The windows wrap around
To the sound of the travel and the engine (say, say, the light)
All you hear is time stand still in travel
And feel such peace and absolute
The stillness still that doesn't end
But slowly drifts into sleep
The stars are the greatest thing you've ever seen
And they're there for you
For you alone you are the everything
(Stipe et al., 1988)

558

2011-03-06T13:29:00.001+07:00

Should listening to Paranoid Android while reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy give you a chill?

-the answer is NO, but still... ;))

557

2011-03-01T14:02:00.001+07:00

Happy March!

What's your funny status today?

556

2011-02-27T22:30:00.001+07:00

nosotros, los de entonces, ya no somos los mismos

:)

555

2011-02-27T20:30:00.002+07:00

- Find more at TVLoop

Other very obvious quiz says I'm Ted. Oh well...

554

2011-02-26T18:40:00.004+07:00

The key to enjoy a Chris Brookmyre's book is: don't sweat it for the first 2-3 chapters because a) You will get there eventually, and b) You just want to get back to the first page just as soon as you finish the last. At least I do.

Pandaemonium is a messy mixture of science fiction and teenage horror flick, with quantum physics, religious arguments and blood splatter all over the pages. I think it's a cross between A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil and Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks with Brookmyre's classic bloodbath (some people say it's a cross between A Tale... and Be My Enemy, which I haven't read). Anyway...

Love it. I mean, I read A Tale... for like 10 times. Adnan and Radar are Scotty and Marty (mix). Deb is Joanne. Dunnsy is Robbie. Caitlin is Helen. Well yeah not exactly. But I think it's one of Brookmyre's best trait, and why I love A Tale... so much. He can dig deep into these characters and voice them out loud. I envy the way he switches point of view completely. It's more mature than the way he made Jack Parlabane, Sarah Slaughter and Jenny Dalziel sound alike as I noted here. And the way he talks about parallel universe and the likes, with matter-of-factly religious (or rather nonreligious) implication, he sooo kicks Dan Brown arse! Oh... the pain in my stomach when I remember reading The Lost Symbol.

Awkay, the science vs religion thing. As far as I know, before Harun Yahya there's no contradiction between science and religion in Islam. This is different from the church history (Catholic in particular), which I think explain why both parties seem so stubborn. I cannot follow because it's not my corner to defend. I don't agree with Brookmyre, but I enjoy this book as much as I hate The Lost Symbol which unashamedly agnostic or even theistic. You can't put Pascal's Wager in a better context, and that atheists in the foxhole argument is (almost) spot on. This book also avoid the mistake in Unsinkable Rubber Ducks that lumps together theism and religion with paranormal craps. The fact that I believe in God and afterlife doesn't mean that I believe in fortune teller and ouija board (should be quite the contrary, in fact). I sort of believe in ESP, but not as a spiritual thingy, but as an evolution trace. So it's actually a little bit scientific. Isn't evolution real? :D

The teenagers-went-loose-hollywood-style part is a little bit over the top and the gay bit is seriously uncalled for. But seven books so far and still satisfied. Six more to go.

553

2011-02-25T20:40:00.003+07:00

~~Suddenly overwhelmed with atheism. I have done my homework. Can we go our separate way now?~~

552

2011-02-22T14:19:00.006+07:00

Q:
Yes, God set in motion this astronomically complex process but knew all along, despite the infinitely branching possibilities created by an incalculable multiplicity of random factors, that the end product would be mankind: begging the question, if that was always the plan, why did he take the long way around instead of creating mankind right off the bat?
-Caitlin in Pandaemonium, an enjoyable read so far by the way, unlike this one

A:
Because He* could. And it was more fun that way :D
-/me

*Yes, He. ~~Read your Holy Book~~. But it doesn't really that matter, does it? :D

551

2011-02-19T21:07:00.003+07:00

Jumat sore. Minggu yang berat, sepertinya kerjaan lab gak selesai-selesai. Jam setengah enam sore itu saya sudah menyerah, bersiap-siap mematikan komputer dan ingin segera cabut ke Heerenstraat untuk menonton Natalie Portman. Tiba-tiba Ischa, yang semingguan itu juga menua di lab, berseru pada saya dan Aliaksei kalau Hosni Mubarak akhirnya mengundurkan diri. Saya urung mematikan komputer, kembali membuka peramban dan mencari berita terbaru. Wakil Presiden Omar Sulaeiman mengumumkan pengunduran diri presiden yang sudah berkuasa selama 30 tahun itu.

Bagaimana mungkin saya tidak merasa deja vu?

Kemiripan antara kejadian hari itu dan Indonesia Mei 1998 tentu saja langsung disambar banyak pengamat dan media. Analisis berhamburan dan saya terpekur sendiri.

Udah tiga belas taun ya?

(Foto karya Jonathan McIntosh, diambil dari sini)

Gambar di atas, entah kenapa, membuat saya sedih. Harapan besar itu.

Beberapa waktu yang lalu, saya ikut pengajian dengan pembicara seorang muslim Belanda yang menikah dengan orang Indonesia. Beliau membahas tentang perkembangan pandangan masyarakat Belanda terhadap Islam. Agak lupa-lupa dikit, tapi kalo dibikin nuktah-nuktahnya kira-kira seperti ini:

Para imigran dari Maroko dan Turki, sebagian, mulai menjadi masalah ketika menuntut perlakuan istimewa dari pemerintah. Sebagian tidak bekerja dan hidup dari jaminan sosial. Sebagian terlibat kriminalitas.

Masalah ini menjadi api dalam sekam karena warga Belanda selalu menganggap diri mereka toleran, dan ragu-ragu menindaklanjuti masalah (yang benar-benar masalah) karena khawatir akan cap rasis dan diskriminatif.

Pembunuhan Theo van Gogh di taun 2004 akhirnya menjadi pengobar api. Dan salah satu penumpang gelapnya adalah Geert Wilders.

Partai Kebebasan (PVV) pimpinan Wilders hanya mendapat 5,9% suara (9 kursi parlemen) di taun 2006. Wilders merilis film Fitna yang menyebabkan dia diadili dengan tuduhan diskriminasi dan menyulut kebencian. Selain merasa toleran, masyarakat Belanda juga sangat menghargai kebebasan berpendapat (sekonyol apapun pendapat itu). Suara PVV di taun 2010 melonjak menjadi 15,5% (24 kursi parlemen).

Selama beberapa taun, suasana Belanda menjadi sangat gak nyaman untuk masyarakat muslim. (catatan: saya gak terlalu ngerasa karena Wageningen, selain sangat internasional, juga sangat kiri) Dampak pengaruh sayap kanan, antara lain, mulai terasa dengan peraturan imigrasi yang semakin ketat.

Dan entah kenapa, menurut Pak Pembicara seperti tiba-tiba saja sejak beberapa bulan yang lalu, suasana berubah. Ketegangan mencair, dan ketidaknyamanan dan ketidakramahan memudar. Saya berspekulasi bahwa masyarakat Belanda kebanyakan kembali pada rasionalitas mereka (bahwa masalah dengan sebagian imigran itu gak ada hubungannya dengan agama), dan mereka kemarin cuma khilaf saja memilih PVV. Selain tentu saja kuasa Allah membolak-balikkan hati.

Yang saya garis bawahi dari ucapan Pak Pembicara adalah, beliau sempat berpikir untuk meninggalkan Belanda ketika suasana sedang genting-gentingnya. Yang dipikirkannya adalah keselamatan keluarganya, juga karirnya waktu itu sebagai pegawai negeri yang terhambat. Cuma itu. Beliau gak memikirkan tentang kejayaan Islam atau visi-visi besar lainnya. Menurut beliau, Islam baik-baik saja. Yang beliau pedulikan saat itu, hingga saat ini, cuma kelangsungan hidup keluarganya. Dan saya amini itu.

Karena saya juga, saat ini, cuma memikirkan diri saya sendiri.

Ini ngelanturnya kejauhan ya, tapi gini. Saya juga yakin Islam baik-baik saja, tapi keyakinan saya untuk Indonesia tambah lama tambah terkikis.

Saya adalah orang yang pernah yakin dengan sepenuh hati bahwa semua kekacauan saat ini adalah salah orde baru^™, atau minimal lebih baik dari jaman orde baru. Tapi hari-hari ini, rasanya semakin sulit untuk optimis. Yang seharusnya tidak jadi masalah dipermasalahkan. Masalah-masalah besar diabaikan. Krisis kepemimpinan. Penumpang gelap tak usah dibahas lagi.

Padahal saya adalah minoritas rakyat Indonesia yang secara sosial masuk kelas menengah, berpenghasilan cukupan, dan menganut agama mayoritas. Padahal saya juga sudah gak percaya dengan visi-visi besar #panggilbungwildy. Saya cuma mikirin diri saya sendiri. Saya cuma pingin tidak usah menjawab pertanyaan "Apa pendapatmu tentang jihad?" dan sejenisnya. Saya cuma pingin, ketika balik kerja di Indonesia nanti, saya gak usah korupsi.

...

550

2011-02-16T13:48:00.004+07:00

Duh, ga tahan pingin ngomentarin pendukung Abu Bakar Ba'asyir yang mendaftar 6 dosa pemerintah. Satu ini aja.

3. Pemerintahan SBY telah memicu konflik yang memicu SARA. Peristiwa Ciketing, Cikeusik, dan Temanggung merupakan bentuk perlindungan pemerintahan yang terlalu berlebihan mlindungi monirortas. (salin-tempel)

Huh, SITU GAK PERNAH NGERASAIN JADI MINORITAS SIHHHHH!!!

Baiklah. Harusnya kita tidak terjebak dengan mayoritas-minoritas. Idealnya negara (pemerintah) bisa mengakomodir (memediasi) kepentingan semua pihak. Tapi seandainya gak bisa, paling enggak, tugas negara adalah melindungi minoritas. Kalo gak bisa, buat apa ada negara (pemerintah)?

-iya, iya, mesti nulis yang bener. kapan ya?

549

2011-02-11T23:22:00.001+07:00

ang, i miss you too. but that doesn't change or even mean anything, does it? ;)