happy new year, indonesia!

happy new year, indonesia!

let us kiss our loved ones or anybody next to us, and blow trumpets and immerse in jakarta's heavy rain. and eat the grilled chicken and sip the whatever cocktails that your sisters/brothers prepared.

and play cards or dance sing or just watch TV and see how other countries celebrate their new year (how come sydney has massive fireworks going on and we don't).

i hope we all had fun tonight.

and i hope this new year find us a better person than we are before.

five personal favorites of youtube videos 2007

i am now doing the listings as 2007 is about to end, henceforth, my personal favorites of youtube videos in 2007 are:

5 - dean winchester singing r.e.o speedwagon's can't fight this feeling
the title said everything. and he got a nice voice too.

4 - snowball the dancing cockatoo
i love cockatoos especially the sulphur crested ones - and snowball can follow the rhythm. amazing!

3 - pak attack in yo momma
this is actually not a youtube material, it's mtv's. i watched it couple of days ago and thought that pak attack is quite funny - he could pull off the jokes pretty well. "but tell me how your mom has more hair than me?" *flips shirt*

2 - full house clips (the tanner one, not the korean)
i grew up watching them and relates me and my sisters as the tanner sisters - heck we even dressed like them ie. matching socks and shirt, black tight shorts and black shoes. this one is a compilation of scenes from full house. dj tanner rules!

1 - anjelah johnson nail salon
anjelah johnson told us what it feels like to be in a nail salon in america. THE FUNNIEST!

on john krasinski, donald and sasi

one of the useful things about facebook is that people actually use it to interact without having to put too much effort. so instead of sending separate emails/text messages, you could make your life more simple by informing it through one of the many facebook applications.

like the notes.

benazir bhutto was killed during her campaign rally. what a shocker. my sister messaged me when i was in PIM2 with the girls.

btw AADC girls, our pictures with john krasinski (the GAP ad) are here - and lots more including with donald and heavy usage of keffiyeh.

donald and i sort of bumped into each other. he quit his job in poland and has been here since mid november. he will be here until mid-january 2008 - he was wondering if the GW kids could meet up before the 4th of jan - i was thinking of the 2nd of jan, just let me know fellow GWallers.

and to my ex-BERC colleagues: mbak sasi called earlier this night - she is currently hospitalised in RSPI because of dengue fever since monday. she has texted balkum and PDIR and PDIR said 'nah lho..', hehehe, just to let you know, if you wanna visit her i also want to come along.

and that's a wrap.

on secret santa and attika and vladimir putin

my sister attika-chan arrived yesterday from malang and she would spend the weekend here - she didn't change much after two months, slightly darker, same hairdo, chubbier, and sort of out of fashion. so we're gonna do girly stuff - shopping and sushi and an hour at bersih sehat.

the christmas party in meby's flat went out great - loads of (junk) foods am telling ya. too bad i had to leave early to pick up attika-chan. i got a mobile phone case from my secret santa. check out the pictures in my flickr like, soon.

and vladimir putin just got chosen as TIME's person of the year. check full story here.

a lovely week it has been.

for everything that is worth believing

i hope my friend will never lose hope

that shit does happen, and it is okay to sulk and wallow
for one or two days, a week, perhaps
but at some point you have to move onyou just gotta move on

that you think somebody is just the perfect person for you
but turned out no
and then you just don't want to believe

because that would ruin your dreams of getting married
in a small church in the middle of a prairie
your dreams of naming your children
your dreams of making your family happy

because your family has agreed to everything
and your friends think that you two make a perfect couple
what would i say to them - you say

there would be a time where you just want to sink deep and sort of feeling
unworthy of living

i hope you will be strong enough
to hit the bogeyman and face your fears with courage

i hope you will still have faith for everything that is worth believing

take a look at these cool stuff!

the sony cybershot DSC-W55 that i've been wanting since waayy back when.

the hippest thermos ever. got this for my 25th birthday this year.

a backpack that could carry everything.

a notepad with the 13th asean summit logo embossed to remind me of my roots. :p

am sure gonna take them all to NZ. thank you everybody.

*hugs*

hady mirza is the asian idol (what?)

oh crap this is going to ruin my day. i guess the strategy to vote two countries sort of backfired, and yes i am putting my surreptitious cap.

in this asian idol we get to vote for two countries. like me for example, i voted for mike mohede of indonesia and abhijeet sawan of india - i wouldn't vote for jaclyn victor of malaysia or mau marcello of the philippines because the two girls are like mike's strongest contenders.

imagine if the majority of indonesians, malaysians and filipinos think the way i do - but this time they voted for hady mirza of singapore.

uh-huh. we didn't see it coming did we.

if you've seen their performances you'd understand what am talking about. mike-jaclyn-mau: they're on the top level, they're captivating and have voices that make you shivers. hady and phuong vy would come second: they're eye candy, still good voice but somewhat inconsistent, abhijeet is well, i don't know what to comment except that i listen only to whichever indian songs that abhishek bachchan pretendly sung.

congrats to hady mirza however, best of luck you lucky you.

woot woot zoukout 2007!

so me and la fleur and darling ucha went all the way to singapore to check out the ever-so-hyped zoukout, and it was worth checking. i think it was amazing.

lots to write on this but can't do it now. however do check out more pictures taken by ucha here!

do you hate indonesia and do you hate it out loud?

my friend nunki just forwarded this hate blog to us: http://ihateindon.blogspot.com. it is a libelous blog really, and so far got people's attention. if red and white flag makes you shivers and if you're true to your indonesia raya - brace yourself before reading the blog.

it amuses me how the blogger have the energy to hate that much - even if he/she doesn't hate indonesia (not indon you foul) that much and cosinders this as just one of those pranks, well this is one serious hate prank.

i don't have that much of hate towards almost anything. but there's always an energy for cursing.

whoever made it: up yours you f%&!@ of a !*^%&(~@!!

1938 citroën traction avant

today is le sunoto's birthday and we gave him a frame from royal selangor and a miniature of a 1938 citroën traction avant - which is by the by charles de gaulle's official voiture. you should've seen his face when he saw the car. i sort of wish he'd be jolly like that all year round.

and then there is the birthday card where everybody get to sign. and then there is the fruit cake which le sunoto referred to as 'the healthy cake'. we then sang him a happy birthday and took pictures together and ate our cakes.

i am going to miss this place very much. i feel so mushy. *_*~~

the winchester brothers kick ass

i don't have anything important to write except that:

1 - dad finally said yes after a week of acting amish so yes i could go and spend the next weekend at siloso beach;
2 - the days of nothing-to-do-ness continue as i savor the remaining 10 days of leave before 14 december;
3 - i have submitted the student visa application - takes around at least one week to process hopefully amen; and
4 - have i mentioned that dean winchester is hot? well he is and he and his brother sam rocks my night from monday to friday in trans7.

it takes three hours from tanjung priok to pondok indah

the impatient me couldn't stand the tanjung priok traffic with all those big trucks and dust when queuing for toll so i turned right and got myself lost in tanjung priok terminal - warakas - sunter - warakas - sunter - kemayoran - senen - cempaka putih - menteng - kuningan - wijaya - radio dalam - pondok indah. i was dropping my SSEAYP kids in tanjung priok harbor therefore.

*_*

but for the first time i get to see sunter and kemayoran and the small streets of warakas and the old yet charming tanjung priok terminal.

makes me love the more comfortable south jakarta streets even more.

was not overweight overnight

i admire people who are discipline enough to perform self-control. like, taking care of your food intakes and exercise regularly. or limiting your facebook access less than 15 minutes a day (i can't i have cougar o'connor to feed!). the things to do to meet your own deadlines and to achieve your own targets.

how do you do that? i have tried like a zillion times to be in control of the food i eat and i repeteadly failed. you name it, 'lack of motivation' or 'not discipline enough' or 'i just don't feel like it'. i could come up with a thousand excuses to justify my constant failures. i was not overweight overnight. i know that too well. i know what i should do, what i should eat, the names of nutritionists and doctors too too well.

and that's where it gets ironic - you know what you should do but you constantly fail in doing it and sometimes you just get exhausted, perhaps because you're afraid you might again fail.

the silly part is that, i know that i have to go through this, because the more we try to escape from reality the harder it will us. it is bound to hit us. you just got to be brave enough to face it and be done with it. and then you can move on.

reality hit me now.

them statues

i just don't get it why they put statues in the middle of kartika utama street - instead of common separator materials such as those plastic orange separators or black and white bricks.

a new statue is now being placed in front of inul daratista's house, adding to the series of statues: the roman soldier, the thinking man, and the man with holes allover his body. a signboard is also put under each of the statue stating: 'sumbangan dari bapak xxx' (trans.: donation from mr. xxx). we get it.

amusing neighborhood we live in.

om shanti om vs saawariya

choosing what to watch first between om shanti om or saawariya is like, the biggest dillema ever (am being superlative). BUT IT IS, for keen bollywood moviegoers as both movies are to be released at the same date (9 november), tomorrow.

talk about media hype, for example,the past few weeks mtvindia is all about shah rukh khan and the 70s and om shanti om. im in love with 'ajab si' even since september, but now it's just too much with all the 70s theme and shahrukh's six pack. eewwww.

saawariya however, seems very charming, and classy. see the video clips - all blue and subtle yet bright - i don't know how he does it but sanjay leela banshali picks excellent art director.

makes you want to dance with ranbir kapoor in the middle of the rain. hmmmmmm.

may i feel said he

e.e. cummings is a genius.
--------------------------

may i feel said he
(i'll squeal said she
just once said he)
it's fun said she

(may i touch said he
how much said she
a lot said he)
why not said she

(let's go said he
not too far said she
what's too far said he
where you are said she)

may i stay said he
(which way said she
like this said he
if you kiss said she

may i move said he
is it love said she)
if you're willing said he
(but you're killing said she

but it's life said he
but your wife said she
now said he)
ow said she

(tiptop said he
don't stop said she
oh no said he)
go slow said she

(come? said he
ummm said she)
you're divine! said he
(you are Mine said she)

the traffic in jakarta is stooopidly insane

somebody with a motorcycle just shouted repeteadly announcing something that i could only catch 'warga pondok indah..', but the voice sounded fierce. it's 11pm now and i bet it has something to do with the construction of the new busway lanes on the main road of pondok indah - which means that all the 25-30 year old palm trees that stretch for around 5km (or more, somebody do the math here) must be cut down. some of the residents do protest but it seems that the pemda jakarta (that is, jakarta local govt) care none.

but then you go, so what do you expect, build new lanes in tanah kusir? or jalan fatmawati? de facto, pondok indah is less trafficky compared to the other two streets. but do you really think that building new busway lanes in pondok indah would solve the problem?

na-ah.

mi amiga really wants to go

one of the hardest things that you do in friendship is when you had to tell your friend stuff that he/she doesn't like - but you said it anyway because you think you're correct - and you know that your friend knows that you're correct yet truth can sometimes be sucky. hence.

so we are leaving without mi amiga. she really wants to go.

writing in spite

i am writing in spite.

am taking two days off - today and tomorrow - as i have 17 days of leave before mid december (and mid december is supposed to be the start of my so-called sabbatical). today went unmeaningfully as i spent most of the time watching mtvindia (ranbir kapoor is h-o-t) so tomorrow i have listed very important and urgent things to do:
1. finish the translation
2. clean-up handover notes
3. buy new birdcage for nduty
4. do 45 minutes jogging in the morning
5. wake up at 6 and do 45 min jogging

oh dean and sam is on already. be right back.

the accounts you have

being trivial on friday, here it goes:

i have four (4) email accounts: one in yahoo, 2 in gmail and 1 office email account.

i have two (2) microblog accounts: in kronologger and jaiku, i wanna be in twitter but they don't receive text from my provider. boohooo.

i have just only 1 active blog: here in blogger. i used to maintain a blog @ friendster, but then i figure it's more practical here, alas this account.

am also a member of friendster and multiply. but only active in friendster.

and also flickr. but i haven't got the time to update it.

come to think of it, i don't think am capable of updating them all. gotta cut some do you not think.

cranky no sleep

i have this bad feeling that this am gonna be cranky all this week. not that bad actually, as i tend to become more aggressive and hardworking when cranky.

by the by, that's one ugly title i put.

it started off from staying the whole sunday night cross-checking database of projects under whathaveyous - i finished off at 3AM and woke up at 4.30AM. then it was a busy day today, all the meeting next week and the documents we have to finish off. looks like there are a lot of things i have in my tray, and i couldn't really nail them because i am occupied of nailing other people's things not that i want to but then this sort of 'being responsible' feeling just creeps into me and i couldn't help it because you sort of think that things will go cuckoo if you're not doing anything about it hah talking about wanting to save things - ghhaaahhhh thinking about it makes me feel crankier.

i think it's because of the lack of sleep and the overplaying of janis joplin and the fact that my hairdo is now a mess.

oh no, since when hairdo is in the picture. i need my eight-hour sleep.

i am back and i am not happy

holaaaaaaa.......

am back. i gained my original weight back when i first started in december 2006 - slightly 2 or 3 kilos higher, due to the massive amount of food intakes and a very sendentary lifestyle.

feeling guilty, you bet. hate myself, not quite.

so yesterday in the attempt to work on my passion to have a healthy lifestyle - passion needs to be worked out!- i bought 2 weight watchers magazines and a harvard business review book on managing your time. the magazines were intended to stimulate my interest in healthy lifestyle, while the HBR book - i feel that im somewhat pretty much laid back, i tend to blame that i don't have enough time.

oh another reason, i just got back from ha noi last friday - i love that place, but i felt intimidated in that place- or rather, i felt intimidated by the way hanoians -correct?- looked at me. you don't really get a big-sized person in hanoi. so everywhere i go, they were like staring and giggling and violently laughing. i tried to keep cool and you know, being all 'you can't put me down' look, but still, i feel like gulliver.

and i am not happy.