Stumble Upon Rainintha's Travel and Thoughts

Revolution of Digitalized World: Growing up Becoming the Generation of iWant

2011-03-09T02:24:00.000+08:00

1. The Atrocious Revolution over Overly Induced Minds

As I grow up, I have been introduced with the infamous line of “analogue person in a digitalized world’’, which essentially means that we will always be left behind the revolution and the advance of technology. It is as if close to impossible to always have yourself updated to the digital world. I also remember how I hate myself the most everytime I browse the Apple Virtual Store and realized that software updates is made every two weeks for every of your gadget, otherwise some of your gadget feature may not be used in optimum level, and I realize that living in Jakarta sometimes despised me of not having proper internet speed to cater my digital need. This is my story and the story that I have read over some articles, lead me to another impression that indeed: we could never ever chase and hop into the point where you can proudly say: I am the most updated yet digitalized person in the world, unless you are Steve Jobs,- but this is not necessarily true because then again Steve Jobs is nothing compare to the bigger magnitude of revolution of digital age (as I am borrowing the term of Mr.James Der Derian’s) and the growth of capitalist scape. To another nutshell, these articles have brilliantly put myself into an awe of technology, especially the internet.

But when I try to link it back to the daily encounters of life and college life, all the thigns I have mentioned is only the mind games as we have been spoon fed by the simulation of reality. In digitalized world, mind games is possible, and I just even realized that when you are on the brink of saying: “I need to buy an iPad,because I want to read iBook every time I travel and play games or even update myself on twitter at the same time I feel bored waiting on the cashier’s line!”, you’ve been there? I have been there. Done that. Well in fact, I am annoying myself and my Mother’s pocket over things that I don't really need, cause reading from paper sheet is rather glorious as I don't have to experience low battery. It is the sense of all the impact of the revolution that we are unconsciously charged of: mind games over publication of this revolution.

We are the IT generation, we have to follow the stream in order to survive. This is the impact that we are less conscious to contemplate. In Baurdillard’s system of thinking, this is the simulation of reality. Some people, lets call them the capitalists have turned the scene into reality: the scene of making people amused of arts in technology, therefore attract more buyer and thus create a definition of current lifestyle. It is the moment of perceive-ness, where what you think over certain products matters the most. So don't be discouraged of reading the whole marketing strategy of Apple Macintosh, who never done any market survey because they provide a platform for defining iWant generation. Steve Jobs, the mindmaster behind this logic admits that Macintosh truly never research on their market (but they take every complains and critics necessarily). What they do is to provide a necessary definition of high-end and cutting-edge technology which manifesting arts and aesthetic value inside a technological product. Later on my essay, we will be discussing deeply about dilemma of technology as a product.

Those are glimpses of impact portrayal over the revolution of digitalized world. We are becoming the generation of iWant: I want this and I want that. This is my simple utterance of paraphrasing James Der Derian’s utterance of how digital age came to enjoy a natural hegemony over other descriptors of modernity. Then, who is the subject of the revolution? Is it the technology as the product or is it our mind who have entangled with the construction of simulation of technology that amused us to date?

Later in my essay you will see how recent exposure of information and technology is the face of today digital world and is defined by personal want, therefore I call it a generation of iWant. Don't get me wrong because more than that, I am more than thankful for the existence of all provided means to make life easier because of the technology. The question is are we ready with this?. Manuel Castells has eloquently elaborated that the technology have shrank our construction of time and space (this is true, I watched the Academy Award two weeks ago and I have simulated myself of being there, while not physically being there but enough of sensation of imagining yourself being there) which defines our construction of reality. This requires a consciousness, or slap in the face to some extent, as we have made our mind travel to the symbol of correspondences between true event and mental map. For me, consciousness is derived from the necessity of integrating greater number of mental images from perception from memory.

The Power of Information: the Dark and Bright Side of iWant Generation

Can we apply iWant in information sharing? I strongly support the assertion as a self-evident consequences to the revolution of information technology. Well, people tend to believe what they want to believe, people only filter information in order to adapt it to their predisposed judgments, more reluctant to accept the facts that challenges their beliefs. Information per se does not alter attitudes, unless there is an extraordinary level of cognitive dissonance. This is because people select information based on their own cognitive frames. Examples: terror and selection of information. Because of the 3 revolution, people are now exposed to individual and personal linkage to the revolution. With the basic internet browser, electronic mail and social networking,the level of people contact with the media is slightly larger than ever. Unconsciously the media has accommodated the feeling of expressing ourselves to a bigger exposure

wilkommen,,zwei tausend und zwolf

2011-01-01T16:11:00.003+08:00

2010:

(+)

I travelled to the whole 5 continents within a year. Marvelous.

I had another dog, which I fond very much.

(-)

Still sleep for too much, and warying of less exercise

Less books are reaped.

2011:

I broke to Worlds Debating Championship EFL Semifinal (the semi is due tomorrow. so fingers are crossed)

I need to read more books.

I need to find fresh activities i.e jazz ballet and synchronized swimming

Land myself on an internship post.

First thing I did this morning : got up at 6.30 AM and watched How I met your mother

First song I heard this morning : El Pero Del Mar - Glory of Yourself.

On that case, I am in Africa right now!

Someone should be dancing "strawberry swing" with me on my birthday

2010-09-26T00:55:00.002+08:00

Part 1
Few of my recent favorite songs:
1. All the Young Dudes - Mott the Hoople
2. Easy Way Out - Josh Ottum
3. Telephone - Lady Gaga ft. Beyonce (I seriously cannot get this song outta my head)

Part 2
Hello. I was born under the name of Rainintha Siahaan on 26th of September 1989 in RS Kasih Ibu, Denpasar at 10 in the morning. My name was later changed into Carolina D.Rainintha Siahaan after the day of my christener which happened in the year of 1995, if Im not mistaken. Years after my umbilical cord was buried and underwent a Hindu ritual in front of my Sanur beach house. I am the eldest of my family and I have one little sister and two other puppies which i call my sons. I dont have specific talent but to procrastinate. But I am quite good in water sports, shopping and probably long distance running to some extent. I used to read indie band blogs and feed myself to urban website rss everyday until the day i found that even my Macbook, Binka cannot stand the day without being shut down. I love going to music shows, travelling to country side and biting my nails to bleed. If there is any talent that I wish to master, I'd choose ballet. I can't drive but I am good at cycling. Ok, this is a bit too informative Part 3 When I was 14, I am so infatuated to Prince William of Windsor. It was the day when I held onto a copy of Vanity Fair. There were some portraits of his once he turned 21. I got this impression of how a standard of a 21 should be like from pictures of the heir of British Empire. I also remember Marion, my best friend who said that in France, celebrating 21st birthday is a big deal.

Part 4

I am listening to Alex and Sam's By Your Side while writing this piece of post. Usually it has been a personal ritual for me to review my journey of life in some few minutes before my birthday is due. It is not because I appreciate the way of being reflective, but it is the way for me to just reminding myself of how did i break through today. I feel a bit miserable and annoyed at the minutes of getting a year older. I give up sets of expectation and rather aim for what I need to be happy in life. There must be a plenty of things that should be mention inside my grateful list for the greatest 20 years i have experienced on earth. Especially my twentieth year, which have been fabulous so far. One of the greatest lesson that I have learned in my twentieth year is that I am the leader of myself. And I sometimes am entangled in between a not so easy option which require me to make a decision. This year I have been experiencing some of the biggest decision on my life. The biggest challenge comes in decision of keeping up myself with consistency. Especially in carreer and love. One of the drawback that I have overseen throughout last year is my deficiency in terms of numbers of reading that I did not to mention that I hardly was a thoughtful person.

Part 5

My greatest passion in life is to earn a ph.d degree, own a charity association and someday work with national geographic. oohh i want to have a lot of puppies too!

My Wishlist

2010-09-21T01:41:00.002+08:00

Stuffs:

1. Original/even fake version of Paper Heart.
2. Black chunky heels
3. A new underwater camera
4. A fancy Mop
5. Lonely Planet: India
6. Jack Wolfskin's Jacket

Ability:
1. More productivity
2.Lose some weights
3. Jazz balet
4. Blog more frequently

Shift in Hapiness

2010-08-14T13:18:00.003+08:00

Mindjuggling :

So I came to a state of emotion where playlist and traveling could not motivate me anymore. Lately I have been demotivated, getting up and opening my eyes to the sense of insecurity. What is this?. I reckoned that the cup is not empty, but why is it being put away. I came to the point where not being busy is making me sick.

UH-HUHHH-HRRR

2010-08-12T00:05:00.001+08:00

so you think i am scared of her?

your statement of making me working by spelling out her name is not working.boo

The geek in me

2010-08-09T12:55:00.003+08:00

woohoo. thats me and my bloc position on the recent AMUNC 2010 trying to draft working papers regarding Preventive Diplomacy. We begin to enhance the role of non-state actors e.g think tank and civil societies to generate recommendation to be given to the high council of ASEAN Regional Forum.

I might be categorized as a newbie in Model United Nations. Model UN is one of my recently picked up new hobby. I began MUN in my sophomore year, quite later than average kids in US or India. MUN is a blend of my passion in public speaking, reading, writing and traveling. MUN is a simulation of real UN meeting with various smaller caucus played by students all over the world. Within the conference, participants are given topic or problem that needs to be addressed during the whole conference.

I might want to work for the UN, both as diplomat or serve in UN subsidiary body. This consideration based on my decision to refrain myself from working in one place only and prefer to travel for working, and visit people.

The UN itself in the real life, is arguably the only and largest organization that is able to embrace all countries around the world. It appears to promote peace and prevent subsequent World War to happen. Woodrow Wilson might never imagine how his raw idea regarding League of Nations have now transformed into a big organization. Yet some are questioning the effectivity of UN. I sometimes do. I wont fully claim that I adore United Nations. As a political tool, UN might be worthless. But as organization that delivers welfare and economical stability, UN protects well and in on its way to improve its services.

Post World War II, we began to see the broadening issue of social and economic to be talking inside the organization. Whereas during the Cold War, much of security issue dominated the assembly.

My involvement with MDGs Campaign in Germany. This happened to be the World Cafe Parade for international students festival that I attended.

With Mr Marty Natalegawa

2010-08-07T19:41:00.001+08:00

Attending the 43rd Anniversary of ASEAN. Met some important people. Met the minister. Too bad didn't get the chance to really talk with him.

Speak with Pictures

2010-08-07T19:38:00.002+08:00

I hope y'all find these pictures well. They dont represent my state of mind. Its just that I am happy of seeing a couple visiting a vinyl shop and hang out in the park

Conclusion: Zoey and Joe will make a good couple.

Essay : Am I a Leader

2010-07-31T17:01:00.001+08:00

This following essay is made as a prerequisite of my leadership training.

One day, I sat on a public toilet cubicle in Germany and have stumbled upon an anonymously made graffiti on the wall which says “ if you have a good idea, lead. If you heard a good idea, follow. If you don't have or hear a good idea, don't let yourself bother the others.” . Ever since my first sight on the sentences, the quotation keep bothering in my mind- in a good way. This is a faintest yet simplest idea to say that it doesn't take a pure genious to lead, but it takes endurance and creativity. Endurance and creativity are my area of exercise for being a good leader.

I have dedicated my life sufficiently to various organizations and been serving in different occasions and diverse positions. Throughout the experience, I have learned how it was to be a conceptor, to be a middle-man and to do the “dirty works”. Each occasion portray a joy on its own. This semester, I chair, at least three different divisions in three different students organizations and concepting one national pilot project for Civil Society Organizations (CSO) movement and its exhibitions around campus. Arguably, this labeled me as a leader because of my position but however this is too much of works for one self to carry on. But I found a terrific transformation within myself in the matter of conceptualizing a leader within me. I found myself inexplicably dazzled by the assignment of arranging an essay to finally conclude a statement of whether or not I am a leader. Yet, I dare myself to boldly claim that one attempt in analyzing oneself within the epilogue and emphasizing that this journey of finding a self is neither instant nor obviously shown. So I have to make my position clear and feed the readers with the statement that being a leader and determining position of a leader is rather a non stop exploration in a lifetime.

For this specific exploration, I ponder to a particular experience in life where I used to enjoy the role of being “behind-the-screen” typical of person. I like conceptualizing a program with less interest of really leading others. However, my following story had changed the way I perceive myself and rather has allowed myself to think outside the box that I used to be entrapped in: that it is important to let myself appreciate my inner ability to lead others and put all of my faith in there.

Last year, me and some friends who involve in the committee of freshmen orientation for international relations were speaking of creating an event to increase participants understanding to what international relations is really all about. I came up with the idea of creating TKHI 2009 Model of United Nations (TKHI MUN) : Overcoming Food Shortages, a conference that stimulates action and negotiation on behalf of a country

For the 20 years of my life, I sometimes ask to myself, what is a true definition of a leader?. I always wonder if I can have my own template of being a leader, without pasting someone’s path. I bet it would be wonderful to have a role model or mentor that we can always refer to. But that would be less challenging. The world is waiting for another template of leader, extraordinary and never been existed before. I am wandering for this model and hopefully my path of carreer would engender a new model of leader inside of me. For me, I am a leader with a personal touch and customized style. I learn from my predecessors but I want a full authority of what I am doing and not being compared to others.

From yonder,

Rainintha Siahaan

Hurro Mate, I am in Sydney

2010-07-11T07:52:00.002+08:00

Hello everyone, I have made my another journey down under to the country of Kangaroo to attend another MUN hopping around the world.

University of Sydney, the host of Asia Pacific Model UN 2010 en route to the Consulate General of Republic of Indonesia in Maroubra Rd, Sydney

more reports to come, especially the fun part.

Some of the Pics I have Made around Germany

2010-06-09T05:27:00.002+08:00

in the middle of the Marketplatz

in case you forget your toothpaste, there is an instant way for you to get your mouth fresh again: chew some pastes!
BBQ in the backyard

the flat that I stayed for 10 nights and I will always bother my roommate or the neighbor because I had problems with the key.

morning chat with a random chatroom whore.

2010-05-25T08:44:00.001+08:00

Civilians or Combatants? : Strengthening the Means of Justice in the Fight Against Terrorism

2010-05-23T00:46:00.000+08:00

The following essay will attempt to answer how the act of terrorism can be dealt without undermining the very foundations of democracy. Obama Administration softer stance on counterterrorism measure will cause the shift of recognition of terrorists in the process of civilian trial instead of unlawful combatant. This essay will highlight the case of Times Square Bombing Attempt. The FBI warned the terror suspect of explosion attempt in Times Square (01/05) area of New York City, USA of his rights to remain silent. With minimum consistent policy on terrorism detainees and owing to the notion that America advocates and promotes should they have a set aside the “legal niceties” over “public safety” ?

In the early May 2010, citizens of New York were appalled to the fact that an attempt of terrorist attack was about to burst in the neighborhood. The attack is well planned but not well executed. Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani American was then captured and being interrogated without being read a Miranda warning, whereas he is a naturalized US citizen. Had or had not the NYPD detectives informed the warning, Shahzad has nonetheless revealed his plot and of his recent trip to Peshawar-Pakistan, which is famous as a jumping off point for al Qaeda and Taliban. He told how during his 5 months of stay, he received a special training from Pakistani militants to conduct the attack. Prior to this incident, a Nigerian terrorist, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab whom during the Christmas afternoon of 2009, was also fail to resort his “underwear explosives” in a Delta airplane to Detroit. When the police found his whereabouts and proceed to interrogation, the police resort to the permit of responding towards immediate threat and undermine Miranda warning in the epilogue of the interrogation, but later utilized the warning in the subsequent 30 minutes.

In a greater sphere of value: How best Should U.S treat a terrorist detainee?. The U.S apparently has minimum consistent policy of whether to recognize a terrorist as civilian or combatant . The nature of the prescribed situation show that lately, terrorist are trying to probably shift its strategies where attacks are not done in a big concert of action, but individual and small scale and modest operation to create fear. This has prompted Obama’s administration to review the relevance of reading Miranda warning in the case of interrogating terrorists, contended that in the case of terrorism, Miranda rights is obsolete during capture and investigation for the purpose of intelligence and fact finding. Miranda warning is a rights which allow a captured criminals or suspects, about his rights to remain silent or else his statement will be used against him/her during trial. The warning’s genesis lies in the Fifth Amendment, which says that the government may not compel a person “in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.” The framers knew how easy it was to obtain a confession through torture or other forms of overt coercion, and how tempting it was for a government to use such tactics. To prohibit this kind of abuse, the founders said, in effect, that a person could not be forced to confess .
Public and elites are dissenting on the question of whether alleged terrorist should be read a Miranda warning or not. Senator McCain and his supporters resort to the Bill of Enemy Belligerent Interrogation, Detention,and Prosecution act of 2010, to deny Miranda warning for suspects . Proponents to this camp argue that under the interest of “public safety”, immediate threats must be responded with immediate action too. The key to fight this unanticipated threat of individual and small scale attack is to also curtail information so we can break the network down and try to trace the accomplishes . McCain:s proposal for the bill is a response toward American weaker measurement to fight terrorism, as alleged that Obama is considering to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Ali al-Marri, the 9/11 planner from Guantanamo to a civilian court in New York . So his political opponents is beginning to see the light of Obama’s leniency from American radical view upon terrorist attacks and its networking.

Analysis: Compatibility of action and values

In a democratic country like United States, the means to resort justice must also consistent to the guidance of principal of law and democracy per se. Indeed, democracies oftentimes face acute dilemmas when confronting acts of violence which fall under the rubric of terrorism. Overreaction can alienate the population and even damaging government legitimacy more than action of small terrorist groups. National counter-terrorism measures will typically fall into two distinct areas: the criminal justice model (in which terrorism is viewed as a crime, with responsibility for response falling within the bounds of the state’s criminal legal system); and the military model, which takes terrorism as an act of revolutionary warfare with the response to place terrorists as equal to combatant and therefore entailing the use of retaliatory strikes and troop deployment . The event of 9/11 signified a new level of prominence for global prevention of terrorism, it is a vital debate and open forum to promote consideration of both patterns of violence and the responses being played out. Under the Military Commissions Act of 2006, USA recognized terrorist organizations such as Taliban and al-Qaeda and upgraded its status as an unlawful enemy combatant. So under this act, USA will treat terrorists as combatants, unlawful one. This special act has undermined the rights of the suspects of attorney and definitely Miranda Warning, and will cause them a process of non-civilian trial.

Within these dichotomies, US is still between the two strains of treating terrorists as combatants or civilian. In the case of Times Square bombing, the perpetrators is a naturalized U.S citizen, but the fact that makes him identity affiliated to Al Qaeda would shift the method that is taken by the authority. This is apparent as Eric Holder himself named the charge against Shahzad as terrorism transcending borders instead of insurgency. As a matter of fact, reading of Miranda Rights is a custom that is even still practiced at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. This action is preserved in order to preserve the quality of evidence obtained .

Secondly, the failure to give a Miranda warning does not result in a case being dismissed. It only results in the inability of the police to ideally use a confession and its fruits in evidence. Indeed, the overwhelming majority of successful criminal prosecutions. Yet the action to outstrip Miranda warning had the precedence where in 1984 ,a police officer asked a suspect, at the time of his arrest and before reading him his rights, about where he had hidden a gun. The court deemed the defendant’s answer and the gun admissible as evidence against him . Had the police told about Miranda warning, the suspect would probably aware of the situation and his rights and do not want to cooperate with information sharing during interrogation. Public safety exception should be enlarged to allow law enforcement to interrogate without Mirandizing, until law enforcement is satisfied that vital intelligence related to other possible plots and threats to public safety has sufficiently acquired. So on the level of the urgency to curtail information, flexibility of Miranda warning might still apply.

Conclusion
To effectively undercut the basis of support for terrorist activity, any liberal democratic response must rest on one overriding principle: a commitment to uphold and maintain constitutional system of legal authority. In instances where the state fails to abide by this fundamental dictum, counter terrorist response run the very grave task of posing even more of danger to underling liberal and democratic norms and institutions extreme political violence

Natalie

2010-05-21T03:09:00.005+08:00

If you see the trend in my writings lately, you can see how much that short spans of 140 limit of characters have changed my life. It is true, the simplicity and ergonomics characters of that one status updating site have changed the way i transmit my thoughts to others. Suddenly I put the blame on my busy life as an excuse for not updating my blog.

I am awake in the middle of the night, looking at the video of Kim Campbell - former Canadian first woman prime minister, whom I met a month ago in a democratic assembly. I found her video in her personal blog (which she updates by her own - I can't understand how Mrs. Campbell) still manages to write for her blog. SO she said on the video, to tell about a woman that might have inspired you so far: to determine what do you want or where to go.

so i pick Natalie Portman, i always pick her

Let's endorse Natalie Portman, lets put a moment of applause for her

Monologue With God

2010-05-21T02:45:00.002+08:00

http://www.newsweek.com/id/238200

that your future is shaped by your college activism.

God gives me strength

2010-04-21T23:33:00.001+08:00

and i know I am sick, and I am searching for God to stand beside me.

Concentrate with my playlist

2010-04-09T06:23:00.001+08:00

I seriously need a hard time to get a focus on writing
Anyway, these are some tunes that I am listening to recently:
1. Girlfriend- Phoenix
2. This Guy is in Love With You - Herb Alpert and Tijuana Brass
3. Boat Behind - Kings of Convenience
4. Dance Around the Memory Tree - Oren Lavie

Dresses

2010-04-09T06:12:00.002+08:00

Some dresses that I have been craving are worn by some celebrities.

Both Rachel Bilson and Nicole Richie share the same average of body height and type like mine. So i often refer to their pick of outfits in case of knowing how to fit some dresses. Like they can somehow look cool with longdresses.

I (used to) have a life.

2010-04-09T05:15:00.006+08:00

I am in a middle of superfluous work. I was thinking of posting my daily schedule on blog, for fun's sake! but then again, I analyze who the hell is interested in my daily blog. I just finished another book design ( not really satisfy using Adobe in-Design text arrangement features, or am i just stupid).

Facts:
1. I hardly make up my bed, my desktop, my handbag and my bathroom.Not because i am unorganized or dislike the state of clean. I am so obsessed with clean and room interior and tidiness, but knowing that I only come to my room to either resume my works and sleeping, and I have no other person to assist me with house chores, yeah this is what it is.
2. I carry almost 7 kg of stuffs to school everyday, where i have to walk for almost 1 km (round trip) school and to my rented room. The aforementioned figures are comprised of leather handbag, one recycle shopping bag and my laptop bag. One day if you found out that I have stiff shoulders, height defection or osteophorosis, you know what are the causes.
3. I have to confess: I hardly check Stereogum, Nylon and any other urban needs that I used to cater myself with. Binka (my laptop) is now consuming the wrath of her owner (which is me), who loves procrastinating and wandering in front of her. Binka protests back by being rather..errr... inefficient, in terms of energy consumption. Yes i need a new battery.

So these pics below are rather a reminder and pleasure fulfillment to show that I (used t0) have a life.

Bridgette, Marion, Me , my sister and Alex . We had this shisha night and tour around Kuta district of Bali. They were all there for holiday and visiting me. The other three people are on their journey , travelling around the world. I am so happy of knowing that most travellers I know are inspiring me.

One of my bestfriend. On one of most random yet boring night in Kuta ever. We hit the beachside and took millions of pics before some of us got drunk (by mango juices) later at night

me and my coach and the debating team that I assisted to coach really enjoy karaoke-ing

I love shopping thrift and branded.alone.

Say hello to two of my beloved kids.

Speaking of Priority

2010-04-05T22:33:00.002+08:00

Thats my new hairdo. Hello people and avid readers, regardless of your small figures. I hate to tell you again of my lame excuses for creating temporary hiatus off this blog. I jsut realized that I have made several travels but hardly put them up into stories to the blog. For the millionth sake, I am busy with I don't know what. Someone just told me that even though I am busy and is doing ranges of works, but he hardly seemed knowing what my priority is. What I really like. Its because i found, I like many things.

take this slow

2010-03-22T21:13:00.001+08:00

im just tired . i hope someday you'll read this and knowing that we dont belong together.

Please understand

2010-03-18T22:16:00.001+08:00

please understand, i have mid term within 4 days. and i only have attended 3 lecturers the most for every courses i take this semester. i need to struggle for midterm first, then i'll be back for works. I still have college and another 3 semester before graduation.

Random post at 3 am.

2010-02-27T03:48:00.002+08:00

Hello, I really wish your support and prayer for me so I can stand the days. I am back to Jakarta and occupied by running errands, projects and hopes. There are loads of projects , and certainly this multilayered yet billions cells of brains needs to be spoonfeed by reading and writing and mainly concentration. I currently work on a specific project and proposal for Travel journalism, covering my sister's experience in free diving lesson and promoting the wonder of Bali's underwater, doing some research design that incorporates the establishment of either a pilot project for the first backpackers hostel or backpackers district in Bali. Eitherway, I also assume a new role of coordinating the research and science division on the student board and is helping proliferating MUN in my campus, and also trying to become an art director for a travelogue-cum-report book for my MUN team.

p.s i dont really like my current banner. excuse the bluff, will try to make the newer one, any sooner (if possible)
p.p.s you should never enter my room these days, hang out at my room these days, i cant even stand sleeping on the bed which surrounds by unpacked luggages.

conclusion: in a dire need of personal assistant.

i am in new york!

2010-02-22T00:11:00.001+08:00

hello, just want to give such quick updates: I am in New York right now for a week and will be posting you all my travel journal of US and A really soon.

Multitasking is Challenging

2010-02-06T02:33:00.004+08:00

When you consider a suicide, do it in an advantegous environment, healthy way and not necessarily involving inflicting pain and being dying. Try committing yourself in range of works that disregards no sleep , no entertainment and no understanding upon your limit. Try working and stimulate your brain to constantly think, not by substance, but instead by filling it in with list of sequences that you need to do by the end of the day. Multitasking is no way a new phenomena of one's life. It is defined by having multiples of works in the same time. My current level of multitasking has got me realized that being single is so apparently fit into my lifestyle, and vice-versa. Luckily, my multitasking level even though killing is better than some of friends that I know, but worse than most people that I know. I began to analyze why such phenomenon emerged : I really took the chance of everybody's trust to the point where i cannot refrain myself to turn down an offer. Even most of the jobs that I am holding responsibility of, are done in pro-bono and voluntarily. For me, having a TV moment , 5 hours sleep or even a moemnt where i can turn into my habits of checking and browsing net online would be a history.

Today is only two nights away to my departure off to United States of America. I will be there for competition. Amidst the hectic preparation, i am hustled by design and publication jobs, my friend's presidential campaign for the student board, my duta muda asean proposal and not too mention some of the school assignments that are due on the day that i will be in the U.S. My life is now getting easier, if I set a target for each day, cause otherwise, i will be finding myself sitting on the front of the laptop, wondering and sometimes daydreaming- enjoying having too much thought. So, apparently,what you guys been thinking about my ambition about having good grade at class is wrong, eh?. Cause i am still thinking: your efforts is to learn as much as can be. good grade is not more apparent than an incentive. recognition doesnt matter either.

Rain

Sneak Peak from my Vietnam Trip

2010-02-02T23:42:00.002+08:00

I went for short escapade in Vietnam, stretching across the north to south. Running in 9 days with all modes of transportation. More of this is soon on the web, after I get to know what am I supposed to write and after I collecting all the snaps of pictures I have in Vietnam. O am rolling in between multi-task of roles and assignments. School has started too, and it gets even crazier than ever. I

contending philosophies

2010-02-02T22:02:00.000+08:00

This would be a glimpse of words about my point of view: In my humble opinion, responsibilities are resulted from one exhausting contemplation and process. It should be earned and also come from within and may flourish in different phase for each person. Personally, I learned a lot about responsibilities, in quite later phase of my life. The turning point of my life happened when I assumed a role of living solo, taking any responsibilities and making decision that concerns about myself. I perfectly sure, whatever I am doing right now might be fruitful to myself in the future, not too mention to closest people that I have in me. I became more aware of the goals of life and being able to make a strategy to attain it. It might manifests in simple thing such as arranging my monthly expenses so it fits my monthly allowances, and sometimes paycheck from part time jobs. Responsibility told me how to reckon myself in different environment. Upon the process of learning to lead a responsibility, I found the beauty of assuming role as a daughter, full-time student and a part of my community. Responsibility is also one of the important elements that should be the guideline for us to interact with other human being.
I was raised in a simple family, where my parents repeatedly taught me that simplicity, empathy and honesty are the best policy to modify one behavior in upbringing with other environment. The world is a better place when we can be fair to others. I apparently have a longtime interest toward environmental management and rural area. I started with simple stuffs since I was a kid, by watching too much National Geographic and traveling magazine. These hobbies have made me seen that the world is just too beautiful to be missed. Stumbling upon the facts of devastating land, massive deforestation, pollution, world hunger and poor protection towards the poor really trigger my emotion. But I know, that currently my channel to accommodate my aspiration to even ease these tensions toward environment is limited as a cyber activist and taking part indecision making or debate to increase youth participation to develop environmentally-conscious behavior in our daily life. My background of growing in a developing country but been educated in a Western education system, has exposed me to an ideal life and ideal world. This might be utopia for the developing countries, but it really bothers me to know that our countries should strive so much combating corruption and awful legal enforcement, therefore it oftentimes disadvantages the poor.

GOALS!!

2010-01-05T17:47:00.002+08:00

my goals of life:
1. I want to be a good person. Devotee to my faith. I am a Catholic and rather conservative (personally). I want to be a good person that able to share to others. I want to empower people.
2. I want to travel the world. Have all country's stamps on my passport. I even want to visit Afghanistan, Somalia and Sahel. I have no fears, I want to see the world
3. I want to have a Golden Retriever. I want to have a big family with lots of pets.
4. I want to have a beach house with swimming pools. It has to be painted white with bougenville and hibiscus on the garden. It has to have IKEA as the furniture, and whatever job that I am going to take, I am earning my salary to make this house, in Laksmana or Werkudara Area, Bali.

Tired,

Rainintha

two-o-ten

2010-01-05T17:36:00.004+08:00

I just lost a folder entitled HNMUN 2010 on my laptop. I undeliberately had the file deleted off my laptop for good. It contains a lot of profound researches and important documents from my visa application.
I missed many opportunities, good ones. Only for the sole reason of missing the deadline
Up to this point, I am going nowhere.It is 2010, and I am telling myself that I am not going to set unrealistic promise. I got to keep it real.I am going to read every single email on my mailbox carefully, I will jot down all appointment details on my daily agenda, I will reply people facebook message, twitter message, and email soon as I get them. But on the same point, I learn the hard way of setting a priority. I used to decline many offerings of jobs or request, on the sole reason that I have to focus on something. But now I learn, that I can do much things at all once, but of course striving is not the easy way. Sometimes I whine, and I used to think that it is normal. But if I dream to be non-ordinary people, I must not take ordinary way.
In 2010, I want to get closer to my family, nuclear family. I want them to be the most important part of my life. Even though I reside far away from them, but I want to give them as much affection as I never did before.

I have to take a nap and set my HNMUN research timeline in a bit.meanwhile National Geo and Newsweek are calling to be reaped.

DIDN'T I SAY ON MY RESOLUTION THAT I WANT TO MEET THE COBRASNAKE???

2010-01-05T09:18:00.003+08:00

this is me, mark the cobrasnake and a friend of mine Uya

It started with twitter post by Mr.Aoki himself that was RT-ed by Mark then I know that these two guys who travelled around the world on the purpose of spinning the disk for entertainment and on the purpose of documenting all the fun of it, is coming to town!!. I have been a fan of Mark's photography of the Selby and the Cobrasnake for a year. And I was at Steve Aoki's gig I might have skipped the new year's eve festivity for a party but I was compensated by the madness of that night!. Well i never had a party for new year's eve except for sneaking in to some random party in Emerald Hills, Singapore last year. That day, Steve Aoki is going to perform. I was never a fan of a DJ, except for Steve Aoki and Mark Ronson. I hardly party or go to any club in Bali as well, except for gigs and random get together. I told my sister, to watch any movement coming from Mark. The man was standing nearby the bar, and I waved hello by saying "Hi Mark the Cobrasnake" to him. He was there, having his camera pointing at my direction and doing multiple shots of pic! Soon after, he handed out some Cobrasnake's Stickers for free and its only given for us! . I was thinking maybe only small number of people know who he is.

I cannot wait to get my pic on the website. I have written on this blog few months ago, that I will have my picture on the web, someday.

MY 20th Birthday : Dispatches of Two Decades of Earth Dwelling

2009-09-28T23:07:00.000+08:00

Hello Avid Readers and Blogrollers,

I am finally twenty! Last Saturday was my birthday and I was so happy of being able to happily celebrate it on my hometown with dearest family, pets, and friends! I was so lazy to update this blog concerning my daunting upsurge of school assignments and some uni stuffs. But hey, I could only be 20 once in a lifetime, and this post should play a role of reminiscing what I have done on that special day. Sorry if this was typical boring diary writing,nonetheless this is my personal day and I want someday you all know that THESE people have made me overwhelmingly happy during my birthday! lol.

So I was watching Dexter with my Mom on her bedroom, it was sometimes around 10pm. The dim of the lights, bit showery outside and breezy air conditions has sent me to bed hitherto (I found this new vocab from my Kashmiri readings) a sharing session with my Mom. I apparently had this over-worry of being a twenty years old girl- young adults. I myself dont regard myself as a mature, wise and responsible person and I was not ready to bear the upringing typical of HOW A 20 YO SUPPOSED TO BE LIKE. And I fell asleep somehow. Whereas I promised myself that I have to survive the night, and embrace my latest minutes of being a teenager with praying and doing a little self-reflection by talking to my Mom or simply watching TV. I opened myself to astonishment glaze over the clock which point to 1.13 AM. *DANG! .My Mom was entirely sleeping tight. And I rushed to my room, opened up the laptop and went online. I was stunned by dozens of text messages twitter post and facebook message (no e-mail, blame the short attention span' generation!!) of sweet messages saying happy birthday to me. Some people even buzzed me on MSN and called in to greet me merry birthday. OK I must say I thanked my intuition of getting up on time, where I had this faintest idea to deliberately check the cyber space, just to know that people still care for my birthday and they really do. ( Even so, I just found out that Mom told me that I was born on 10AM that day, so I was basically forgiven for not staying awake.)

:::::THESE ARE WHAT I DID ON MY BIRTHDAY ::::::

What a beautiful day,unlike any other birthdays of my life that is associated with rain or showers. It was bright sunny day. And my sister drove me up and down to Dreamland Beach. We have been trying to avoid the raid of DOMESTIC TOURISTS by getting away to an expensive restaurant/club named KLAPA. The pool is great but the foods aren't. I don't recommend you this place if you are hungry and broke, a portion of NASI GORENG can cost you 100K rupiah + tax. Suck-o

Trying to sip in some papaya juices and escaping the sunstroke under a shadowy trees. SEE the view behind. isn't it swell??? and then I had the CRAPPIEST FISH AND CHIPS of my life which cost me 25thousand RP. FUG.

Trying out my new D10 - Underwater camera, this happened to be a gift from my Mom. Kudos.
But I regret that the visibility of poolwater of Klapa, its blurry.

A birthday dinner celebration of me and Saknia at Ultimo. Yes we share the same birthdays. We have some of our bestfriends in the table and we are very sorry for some of you who failed to attend the dinner, no re-celebration is gonna be thrown at the very moment, but I can still feel the presence of your joy that sent.

The crowds that rocked. Sarah, my diving pal, left earlier, but she was there too

One of many controversial gifts wrapped in for me and Saknia. Thank you ;)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS :

1. Wanna thanks these special people for being there in my life :

I know I might have forgotten God and Holy Mary for quite sometimes, and I hardly or less oftenly pray these days, but I am so grateful that I still have the heart to belief that goodwill and love that has surrounded me thus far, are originated from the Mighty. and I am so thankful for Thee, for the following people that I have. I am now educated and surrounded by people whose belief recline the existence of God, but that doesn't make them bad, but I just want people to know that these people wont be there for me without God's will.
My Mom - I want to thank her for giving me a life, this wont be a birthday of mine if it was not necessarily because of her who gave birth for me. she’s the one who makes me who I am today – bad or good. She calls me every morning to unlock this clogged spirit and keeps telling me that I am me no matter what, and I should never be an ambitious kind of person so I still have to keep my feet on the ground and remain humble to others, She texts me every afternoon just to remind me of the mealtime. She buys me black flats shoes, when she knows that these are my very favorite tyoe of shoes and she knows that mine are worn out already, and I didn’t tell her about this, but she bought them anyway and sent them before my door, in two pairs. She provides me wool blanket whenever I fall asleep on the tv room. She puts sandwiches or cookies to my school backpack, just in case I got bored with school cafeteria’s meals or starving at the classroom and was too lazy to go to the canteen.
My sister - Despite this conflict and peace kind of relationship with her, I know that she is my real best friend and I have to say thank you for many times that she drives me around (cause I cannot drive) just to get my ID card done, grocery shopping. I had no idea that this surprise party was pretty much her idea, not to mention most of the gifts that were thrown, the passport to diving all around the world (she makes sure that I have to log my divebook in for all these diving sites) and one lousy t-shirt with my awkward sleeping pose on it. I am so thankful that she introduces me to her bestfriends and I manage to hang out with her besties too.
My Dad - especially for noticing that i am in dire need of having a pair of Chuck Taylor, for those nice conversations we used to share during my way to school
Closest friends. I cant mention your name. but yeah I have to mention Ken Swari Maharani, my college friend, for multiples messages she sent to Rainn Wilson (incoincidence on name similarity and adolescence of a figure called Dwight Schrute of The Office) and the fact that Rain had sent me a birthday messages. Even some of my best friends are away from where I was during the celebration, but advances of technology has diminished the distant, and even though I am a thousand miles away from you all, I still feel the love and bonds ;)For those of you who stopped by my house during the birthday and dropped some gifts, for those of you who gave me T-shirt with NOORDIN M.TOP-Like picture printed on it, for those of you who reached out and called in and could not attend my birthday dinner, for my neighbors on the house who just threw me a surprise by maing a very sweet choco pudding with some M&M's and cheese spread on it, still thanks. For All :Thanks for all sweet messages, prayers and gifts. GOd Bless. It seems that I really cannot reply each of your messages but in the vacant meantime, I will do that and I am so thankful that lots of long lost friend did sent me messages, its just the chance for another ice breaking.
I wish that Wayanwati was home, and I regret the chance of not celebrating this special day without her presence

Cheers ;)

INTO THE WILD : COUNTING ON THE COBRASNAKE

2009-09-21T17:31:00.000+08:00

Back on the road = Renaissance = Enlightenment. My mind works better with the boost of dophamine, some fashion and travel magz, fancy but affordable accessories and clothes and a little rehab of TV Cable time. Yes, I have come back for Bali for renewing my ID card as I am turning 20 this weekend (RSVP urself to a dramatic dinner in either Queen Tandoor's Seminyak or Dahana Oberoi). In the meantime, i have seen insurgency from my upcoming deadline of article reviews and presentation. The hell with them, I am enjoying myself. I would say that I feel a little bit disadvantaged of going home when our domestic worker is not available, this has doubled my job even more. Yes, I got to do house chores too! To make it worse, our washing machine is not working really well. Chances are : I have to either send the used clothes to laundry or wash them manually.

The weather has been soooo UNFRIENDLY recently, because of thick clouds encounter humidity and storm most of the days. We barely see strong sunlight and blue sky. Raiding tourists from different areas and countries has driven my laziness to not visit some of my fave places, cause I know they'll be raiding such places.

So as usual, we have to go to some remote places , where less people is hanging round and maybe only some apes, monkeys and fisherman are dwelling upon there.

I like this one,mostly because of the thorny cactus. If only I stroke a better pose....

I was braless, if you know what I mean

My Wishlist

2009-09-20T20:50:00.000+08:00

At the very outset, let me apologize for my seldom posting or semi-hiatus from blogspot. I am currently been raiding by schoolworks and college stuffs, besides, Twitter and Tumblr has made me a very instant author by posting my instant thought in unelaborative way and to a certain extent has eroded my ability in describing and analyzing, which is bad. But, the hell ith that I dont think I have lots of avid readers except several people who are really paying attention for whatever I am saying, which is bad too.

Concerning my soon-to-be coming birthday, I want people to notice that I have these several wishlist of items for the short term, you dont ought to buy me any, you just simply ought to know

1. A pair of brown platform heels of ALDO
2. A Rug in IKEA called "Bellinge" (I have been emailing the customer service, my mom has made a visit to the respective store but they claimed there has been some issue on shipping the rug from India or Maldives to Singapore)
3. DVD of Breakfast Club or Garden State or Elephant Man
4. A Set of UNO Attack
5. Quality dinner at Queen's Tandoor ( My mom has apparently booked some chairs for my birthday night)
6. Nail polish remover
7. Pair of Swimming googles
8. Got a subscription waive at Last.fm

Apparently, I have never thrown any party in my life for my birthday cause and it seems that even so I am turning 20 really soon, no party is gonna be thrown, cause most of the hippest crowds in Bali are away for college or either is about to go back to college during my birthday. I can't either celebrate this with my college friends who are away in Jakarta. So sorry on this particular issue.

I want to be in any of Cobrasnake's entry. SOON!

2009-08-20T00:06:00.000+08:00

Above was a downloaded pic (I was pressing the magic keys of Command +Shift+4) of National Geographic' recent most comprehensive report of what after the climate change worldwide. Indonesia seems pretty secured from any threats, viewing from the pic. Or it just needs more bigger space so as to put a HUGE label on it? . Albeit so sad. Click on the "What You Can Do to Help" button. I dont know how,but something says I have to help easing burdens of climate change. HOW HOW HOW? Im using electricity though efficiently but sometimes way too excessive. I dont recycle too, but I prefer decent public transportation mode.

Today:

Irritating. Muti and I went swimming (not casual, but real lap-over sort of exercises). I dont know which evil that had forced us to swim and fry ourselves under the burning peak day of sunshine. We totally burned (its worse than tan). We did 20 laps by width and several exhausting laps for Free Style improvement. Totally worth spending of time and money :). We started by 12 noon and didnt realize that by time being, even my 30SPF sunscreen wont give enough help. It was nice afternoon, and as usual,our conversation lent the everyday theme of casual boyfriendless life of ours.lolAdina joined the company by late afternoon and treated us rounds of sushii at Asahi. Adina also pointed me a nice cab with a TV on it on my way back.
Ah, I made a visit to Ak sa Ra again. This time I checked Mike Snow's newest album and soe magazines and a book called"A La Twitter".I most likely have to cancel my hiking trip to Gunung Salak, im broke and my travel/training shoes are wearing out. Help!

OK Blame Aksara Book/CD shop for propelling such thoughts.

A Cure for Whining and Unmotivated Hearts

2009-08-19T00:09:00.000+08:00

Attempt #1 :

Check your pulse it's proof that you're not listening to
The call your life's been issuing you
The rhythm of a line of idle days
Scared of a world outside you should go explore
Pull all the shades and wander the great indoors
The great indoors

(John Mayer - Great Indoors)

Cold heart, unwillingness to explore the world, closed-minded of other's criticism are most likely contributing to your constant whining upbringing. Books, movies and songs are made cause the creators experience the real thing that would never be found in human's most comfort zone. I hate to say this, but this post are open for criticism, cause I am criticizing a person here. I must say this is my last resort of saying it out loud. I sound like Marshanda's recent videoblog , yes big chances are. But my opinion should be weighed as legit cause I believe that freedom of expression is guaranteed in my country to the point where i dont trespass other's freedom at the very first place.

Truly Yours,

A very sarcastic at heart kind of friend

Camping in Situgunung

2009-08-18T18:20:00.000+08:00

Last weekend, Maria,Erika and I accidentally bumped into our uni's Catholic group for a day retreat/adventure off to Situgunung,Sukabumi. The others might arguing that the reason why we came up with such faintest idea is to extend our social circles, take into account that our singleness might be caused by less knowledge of people and around. I bet that was true up to some bottom point. I cannot fully agree. lol.

We hitched on the Navy's truck,that is supposedly used for the arms on several occasions. It feels like hell during the peak of the day, especially when the truck got stuck on a filthy dusty roadside during traffic. I just hated that. I was thinking that the Navy's truck would get all the privilege of passing by smaller vehicles simply just by switch on the sirene. Maybe this one special truck was lame.

The air was mild and fresh once we got there. Hundred years of age of pines are all over us. I experienced sudden change of weather by a slight distant of places. I mean, Jakarta is only 3 hours away, but there in Situgunung the air was soo comfy after a long breathe. We should take a walk up for 20 mins to the lodging. Turns out, the very place is usualy used by campers or big company for outbond purposes and it was the independence day's weekend. It got pretty packed at afternoon and heavily noisy by karaoke tunes by night.

It feels like the old winter days during the night. Even my sweatshirt,thick socks and the roasted corn cannot cope my freezing. The committee organized a little treasure hunting across the jungle and the tip of the lake. They also put me in a group with people I barely know! but it was fun of knowing more people from my uni. We had fun making some clothes for traditional fashion show. I feel empowered after assigned of making two Dayak traditional vest from newspapers. and they all fit into bodies!. Ok back to the treasure hunt topic, There was no clue whatsoever to guide you through next post, they just put some torches to indicate the direction. We had to make a rest stop-cum-problem solving at each post. The hunting involves lots of leeches bites, rollover screams, stone hitting and astonishment over the lake view during the night (there was this glow coming from our lodge/campsite , and I assumed that it was the only place around which has electricity running around) After a while the commitee cancelled the bonfire, cause it showered a little. But a new buddy from School of Economics, offered us some photo sessions together with her SLR. (which I was waiting so badly, cuz i dont have any camera atm).

next day, Up! I had to wake up really early cause I had stomachache and the weather was just so cold. (Thank God I had sleeping bag and iPod and a SPACE for sleep, credit for Seniors of Communication Studies though). We rolled for 1,5 hour trekking accross woods of bamboo and rocky track. I had to impersonate an action of any travelling presenter just to make my friends out of boredom of climbing up the slippery track. Erika said that I got boost up by a dopping/drug that I took beforehand. trust me it was just an antidote for my stomach flu or my antacyd. That was pretty fun sunday morning. I laughed my self so hard cause I found it hard to get my self across a two logs width of traditional bridge. Friends said there was nothing to lose even if you happened to fall down. But I said to them "man, getting laughed by others suck. i'd better not fall down).

That was the waterfall, which was our destination after long awaited trekking. I even had to put this credit for my friend, Momo who took this pic. and I took it out of her facebook . Wew I have seen better waterfall before. But i got irritated because I didnt swim, the weather was so cold and I didnt have any spare clothes. All i got were just a sweatshirt and a cargo trousers. I didnt dip my feet to the water nor doing any further exploration down to the bank. I dont know why .But I saw some of the boys swimming and did a poor dives from the cliff. I didnt know how they survived the cold though.

It was a funny way to spend a weekend. I got spiritually healed a bit too. And most of all, I was exposed to much bigger social circles and networks.

I have to thank Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin's track of Yr Broom to accompany me during that cold cold night by the tip of the toilet nearby the lake where I helped some kids to grill the corns.

Igniting My International Relations Appetite

2009-08-14T01:51:00.000+08:00

My mom called in first thing in the morning, telling me how much she misses me and call me to come back as soon as I can or as job-less as I am. Subsequently, I dwell upon my sigh and went to the bathroom. Jesus , I found a gecko insight. I am screwed, so I was screaming on the phone too! pleading for the Densus 88 to rescue me out of this . Mom easily dropped her so-so solvency:" spray some insects repellent and there you go open up all the windows in the room." I just dont see it as a way out. Sorry.
So I happen to open,err,reopen and reinterpreting the latest message on My MUN mailing group. One of which happened to be neglected by me, is actually contained an important stuffs inside. I failed to attend the very first training last week due to the appointment with some sponsors, the coaches made me writing an essay about international politics and foreign policy. I told people so many times. I had been brain-dead ever since I got back from Singapore and subsequently resuming my adventures outdoor. I hardly read anything, not even bits of International politics, which I previously felt enthusiast upon.
I propel myself to stay tune to my pages (fyi, Mac's pages > Microsoft Words!) , to attempt paragraph making over some international politics terminology. Results are: I made myself opening and reaping up old lecture notes and K.J Holsti's textbook. They were still there, the very items that I really want to search and try to re-comprehend. I still remember the position of where i put highlights on or simpky strike a note in between words. Now i feel awkwardly motivated.But still feeling lucky to finish a 600 words of foreign policy 101 in two hours. (cause I was watching Michael Jackson's recorded live performance on tv)
In addition, I want people to know that I am tired of saying that I am not going to pick any of the concentration./major cluster next term. Simply because I wasnt allowed for I didnt take some of pre-requisite courses last sem. It got me thinking, that If only I didnt skip next semester for a scholarship in Singapore. If only I had the gut to wait for the upcoming terms for another open chance of scholarship/living abroad. There are too many if(s). And only the pragmatist had the gut to continue my what if(s) goes on. I want people to know that there are so many reasons why I am grateful for deciding what I did. I also have to convince myself that this writing is not a mode to boost a self-righteous out of me. In fact, I wont be who I am today without experiencing what I was back then. I just realized that I cannot have everything, I must lose sometimes. And i would be fully entertained If tomorrow, I happen to receive the fact that i can take max 24 AUS/Credits next sem. Most peers over-dilemma of picking their best interests has so far got me nerve-wrecking sensation too. What am I myself gonna pick next year? I love environment, and I know international cooperation bring more good in order to save wildlife animal and conserving marine life, Or I know lots of world conflicts and has been idolizing movies such as Tears of the Sun or Delta Force 1-5, simply to know, it takes coercive action and magnificent military maneuvers to achieve one country's best interests? Somehow I have been wondering myself negotiating trading in WTO or International trading boards, play with stockmarkets and just stay home watching tv and keep myself updated with the stockmarket newscasts. Thank you Lord, you know I am somehow confuse, still. Thanks for giving me another year to re-think. Whatever it is gonna be, I believe with the line: your major or concentration would not contribute much to your CV, its just gonna set a framework of thinking of yours. Thats epic. I love my major! ( I know I dont sound like a very charismatic-thinkful international relations/foreign policy analyst).

Roll over my newest most favorite tunes at the moment :

Davendra Barnhart - Lover
Fiona Apple - Why Try to Change Me Now
The Submarine - Xavia
Alicia Keys - Like You'll Never See Me Again

How do I kill my time?

2009-08-10T13:25:00.000+08:00

A friend keep bugging me with this question : HOW DO I KILL MY TIME (in jakarta)?

1. Maximizing my online life to the fullest! or simply mess up with my laptop

I put youtube to generalize my addiction over watching tv series online. Or generally refer to my online life. Lock me in a room with my mac and my usb modem, do not feed me, i'll say , i'll be staying alive in two weeks ahead. I twitter, facebook and youtube. (they are even a VERB now) Sometimes I send hello to friends from email and post message on travel forum too.

My laptop is my best friend, he/she (well i dont give name to my mac, unlike most of my friends who named their laptops) never complains after working overtime. I guess God gave me this laptop through the hands of my mother to substitute my boyfriend-less friend. Its better cause it never gets jealous or overruled or cheating on you!

the casts of Secret Life of American Teenager (word has it, that this show even topples Gossip Girls rating every weekend, its just that its not famous in Asia, or surprisingly none of the tv cable's station has a gut to host the show). I've been sleepless only for watching the series online!

My favorite clip. I got so mad and had my nails scratch to the skin of the head. cause a guy like Ben never exist in reality.But oh I did sent a message via twitter to Ken Baumann the lead actor. I like it that he has a blog and tumblr and a website that he manages himself.

2. Incarcerating myself in a bookshop/cd shop

I have a terrible habit of checking out books, imported cd all at once from the Aksara bookshop (cause trust me there aint better bookshop or library than it, in Jakarta) and then am overwhelmed and can’t get around to more than one of them without freaking out and using a whole pad of post-it notes to mark things that I-omg-need-to-make-a -list-of -songs-to-be-download

3. watching too many dvds, take a pause, toast the breads, sip some hot lemon tea, fall asleep and wake up with the dvd's still on ON position, and then lost a remote

4. Go to some free gigs, music gigs

5. Doing some laundries, eat snacks, dancing, singing, procrastinating, talk in msn

(the lesser the rank, the less important they truly are)

Jakarta's Saturday Out on a Shoe-String : A Guide

2009-08-09T00:21:00.000+08:00

Hello blogrollers, travelers, writers, soldiers, teachers, nurses, diplomats and terrorists!

Disclaimer : I just want to try writing with non-paragraphical style and I dont want to stay in my room for the rest of the days, I just want a small adventure, regardless its smoky sky , high humidity and unforgivable traffic and air pollution. I once said to my friends, Jakarta is enjoyable, if you have a driver and a car. I dont have a driver and a car here, cause I cant drive a car and my mom wont be just as mad as can be, if I demand a driver.Or else, My Dad will be using his classic argument of : "Whose daughter do you think you are?". Moreover, I live in Bali so practically I wont be having a car in Jakarta, unless that belongs to my cousins of my father side. Alright, Let me try my luck. Today and (most of the days on this week) I've visited some of the main spots of Jakarta, follow my route :

1. I took a fast train from my campus to Gondangdia St, aiming for the thrift market of Senen. It was so hot as hell. That time I was wishing that I could have a gut to wear a sleeveless and a shorts shorts. I mean, come on Jakarta it was probably 40c degree or upper, and i was there with loose t-shirt and a leotard.
2. I got two skinny blazers of grey and light blue, three pairs of levis denim shorts for $9 only. Really thrilling thrift market. and a $4 piece of Aigner handwatch.geez.
3. Went to a Japanese fast food for a short getaway (read : Air conditioned-room)
4. Glaze to Jakarta Convention Centre for Pameran Ekonomi Kreatif, powered by Indonesia's Trading Ministry. I went there solely for free gigs of Balawan and Batuan Ethnic's Fusion (Balinese pride of jazz/rock Guitar hero specializing in two hands tapping , fused with Balinese gamelan and contemporary beats of drums and artificial strings from keyboard) and SORE band (i dont really know how to describe their music genre, what I know they are really good and distinct)
5. While on the wait of two different gigs, we noticed that around was somehow a beautiful display of Indonesian creative industries. Stuffs like Batik,paintings, traditional foods, music even local software are being exhibited. I signed myself up to a local traditional theatre. I also got a chance of trying Klappertaart of North Celebes , and undeliberately suggested my friends to try Ayam Betutu Gilimanuk from Bali. (I cannot believe it, i miss home made food, including ayam betutu)

Disclaimer : I lost my digital camera =( . so sorry there are no pictures which are even posted. I got some pictures from my 1,3 megapixel cameraphone, which cant be transferred at the moment.

Here in Jakarta, adventure mostly contains endless night of movie marathon and gigs hunting, or even small shopping or simply drooling myself with internet addiction. I know its not healthy lifestyle. But I work out too, I swim and jog too.

Here in Jakarta, every weekdays I will be making a plan to execute an extraordinary weekend.

Have a nice weekend

p.s I ;ve never been so glad over an obituary. But Noordin M.Top, a terroristchief has been captured dead. Hallelujah

Rain

Place to go in London Town : Camden Markets

2009-08-04T18:34:00.000+08:00

London is surely included on my TOP 100 cities i have to visit before I die. Camden Market which located on the heart of London Town is paradise of vintage clothings and accessories. It must be like Cathucak Market of Bangkok and Bugis Village of Singapore, where you can bargain things off.

Both pictures are taken from an Indonesian flickr account who happens to reside in London. Frankly she opens this wayang (indonesian puppet) workshop inside Camden Market Area.

Down to the River

2009-08-04T00:32:00.001+08:00

Hello people,

another adventure which happened a month ago. A friend of mine just came up with the soft copy which consist all of the photos. I went rafting in Ayung River - Campuhan-Ubud which covers vast area of 30km length of rowing, streams , logs and splashes. It was considered as medium level of rafting, but I guessed that was not enough. We got to find more challenging river with tiny waterfall.Next time perhaps. Nice company from my sister's friends (as always do) and nice racing with the Egyptian team. Did we look ridiculous with those helmets?

Life is easy as I only have schedule for meetings and upcoming MUN practice and research. Apart from that I am just slacking around : sharpening my color pencil collections, learning pilates(restoring body posture, flat abs and kickin ass thighs) creating wall & uni binder collages, redecorating my room, watching dvds, or streaming tv shows online. These are aimed for substituting my adventure-and-cableTV-less kind of life.

Oh and I dont know why lately I've been raiding lots of fashion blogs. Its just not recent me.

Cyberhugs,

Rain

Run Maya Bay Run!

2009-07-30T20:30:00.001+08:00

We will reunite again. same place. same time. 10 years later.

Daunted by My Hometown

2009-07-30T19:03:00.000+08:00

Beaches: Suluban and 66, Restaurants: Queen Tandoor’s , Warung Made, Lanai, Batu Jimbar, Warung Italia, Warung Ika at Poppies Lane,Local Specialties : Babi Guling (Suckling Pig) Bu Oka, Nasi Ayam (chicken rice) Kedewatan, Rujak Kuah Pindang Br.Gelogor- Denpasar. Drinks : almost all cocktails on Vi Ai Pi, Clothes : Flamingo, Jalan Laksmana, Topshop, Art Market, Bamboo Blonde, Eighteen People (well I dont shop for clothes in Bali that much frequently), CD-Shops : That DVD store in Centro, Coffee : Hard Rock’s Starbucks, Lumbung (Ubud), Dessert: Ruth’s Cake, Adventure : extreme cycling in Campuhan, Rafting in Ayung River, Free Diving in Suluban Beach, Snorkel/Diving in Menjangan Island, kayaking at Nusa Lembongan, Hang-out : Well I don’t hang out these days, but I like SoHo @ Oberoi, Ku De Ta beach, Books : Bali Deli’s Periplus and Kerta Secondhand Book Shop, Gigs : Saharadja every Wed Night at Obsession- Dhyana Pura and Tude and The Gank at Mezzanine - Sanur, I like Jazz night at Score - Sanur too!

Remaining biggest ambition of unexplored places in Bali are :

1. Take a ferry ride to Nusa Penida, stay overnight, dive and meet mola mola
2. Climb Mount Batur
3. Find Blue Lagoon.

Hot Plate and Yoghurt

2009-07-29T00:16:00.000+08:00

these are my current biggest diets : Picture above was taken during our last mass in Singapore at the City Link Mall's Food Court.It was a promotion of barbecued unagi and fried egg for $5 only.

Yoghurt. To be quite honest, I hate going to the malls. But i ve been raiding malls quite everyday since I got here for consuming this non-fat seduction .So far, I think Heavenly Blush has been the best weighing from its price, weights and amount of topping or spreads. They have bunches of nice staffs too. I have been to several outlets of yoghurts in Jakarta. It seems like yoghurt is the new coffee. and Sour Sally has replaced the famosity of Starbucks. They have come in variation of names ad style of serving. Some of them even dare to name their own outlet a yoghurt bar with a literal bar serving rounds of yoghurts.Guiltless!

Bad Things Happen on the Road too!

2009-07-25T13:19:00.001+08:00

All travelers must agree on one thing : that you sometimes find difficulties on the road cause traveling is not always fun. If you expect your travelling to be a sunny, cheap and easy that will be a myth. It sucks sometimes, especially when you are outside your country or even inside your country but have minimum apparel to equip your need, you feel you are alone and scammed. trust me, this is not a reason for you to quit and book a flight home. its just a reason to keep you think fast and solve the problem. its the greatest life lesson learned.for me. its even drive me out of curiosity to visit those places once again, in case i missed something during my first visit there. Ask Tony Wheeler, he had problems too.but he owns the biggest traveling company right now.

Disclaimer : all things described below are only minor obstacles meaning that the rest of the trip was very enjoyable except for description #2. that was nightmare, and it was personal to me.

When In Thailand.

This was my first backpack trip, very epic and brilliantly how I picked Thailand as the first ground to start everything. It happened by early 2009. I am still 19 and traveling with others who have not been backpacking before. I didnt care that a week before I came there was a riot between the opposing parties and one of them seized and close down the airport for some times. Whatever, I still decided to go and I however got a very good deal from Singapore to Bangkok. I got a local friend who stays in Bangkok. He drove us around sometimes and invited us for some Thai food lunches and dinner.

We travelled north to south in just a week and thats kinda stupid. We hurdled between times, rushed to another tuk tuk and any other transportation mean, so avoiding the crazy traffic jam. I spent only two night in Bangkok cause the following day we had to go to Phuket and Koh Phi Phi and other Kohs in Southern Thailand (Koh means Island in Thai). The Traffic jam kinda wasted our time. We missed so many highlights. I didnt see the Wat Arun from the other side of Chao Praya River, but instead i saw it from its bottom fence. It was late already so there were no boat around. As the matter of fact, The golden pagoda was better during the sunset and there was a memorial service for a dead monk, so the pagoda was closed. crap! my camera was running out of battery too. I wanted to cry. Seeing Wat Arun on the sunset has been my must-go-to place in Bangkok. and I failed.

When in Bintan.

I got too emotionally involved whenever I had to explain my trip to Bintan. It was bad and not worth it. So where are those places that my friends kept on saying are well to see? Unless you drive up north and stay on the luxurious resort, that is a different case. If you are student and travel on a shoestring, Bintan is hell. Especially the trikora area, I havent seen anyone feels happy there. It was jungle and beach. I was once caught in the rain there, very happy rain. I got all my body and clothes on really wet. I said to my friends that i felt as if i was on that Oliver’s Stone Platoon’s. It is so hard to find food and drinks. I literally wanted to drink the salty sea water. So, my Filipino friends inittiated to book a hotel in Trikora area. Its called Pondok Anna. It was an hour away from the main pier. I was so shocked of seeing the beach the first time. There is nothing to enjoy there, not even the sands or the sun. The beach is blocked by bricks by every edge of the place where we stay in. We are given a floating room by the beach. It looks like a woody shack. but my pinnoy friends said there look more like a refugee camp. And this stupid hotel owner offered us 300K rupiah for a room for one night. including breakfast. the breakfast was a cold fried rice. with nothing on it. just rice and its spices. so we have to creatively put chili sauce and black soya sauce.

I felt scammed and in pain of having businesses with the owner. They are actually navy and the resort is a diving camp. old diving camp. how the hell my Filipino friends knew about this place?. It was not worth it. the room was dirty so was the bathroom.The pillows are smelly so were the mosquito nets and the window locker seem just cannot work really well. More reasons to cry and quit, and hell I was with my friend Sinthya who seems to know how hotel operation really work and speak the language. I dont wanna bring my friends down and get the impression that Indonesians are all imposters.
There was no way I can negotiate nor complain about the hotel so I can bargain lower price. I had no leverage, I should have never approved our stay even just for a night.
It was long story but I just remembered we finally moved to another hotel and we even said to the hotel management that we quit staying on your hotel, cause we want better panorama of the beach. We then squeezed 14 people in three bedrooms of a resort without being known. and it was still pain in the ass of managing these. I felt so tired, I even fell asleep on the bathtub for half an hour and almost missed our barbecue night. But for this island,its obvious I would never come back to Bintan.

if you agree that this villa/floating rooms look similar to a refugee than a proper house to stay. click HERE

When in Pangandaran
A month ago, me and my sister had this craziest fantasy to visit Pangandaran (Southeast of West Java)for one mission : visiting the green water-er river which has crystal rocks and cave and hills and mostly everything. After four hours waiting by the bus terminal, starving and under the heat, we managed to find the only airconditioned bus to go to. The pain didnt stop there, we have to survive the additional 7 hours of sitting in the bus while listening those incompetentt buskers who forced you to pay for them not in coins but in notes instead. He argued that we rode on airconditioned-executive bus so he brilliantly being a smart ass and saying that we should not pay in coins. (I really want to throw a fist on his nose,really). I hardly catched a sleep, cause if its not music buskers, there must be beggars disguist in religious clerk raiding for mosque building donation and they started to blurbing in Arabic and asked me for money ( tell me your cause in Indonesian please , for God’s sake do you think the hell everyone in Indonesia understands Arabic?).

Arrived in Pangandaran by 8 at night. it was so quiet there,my guess said everybody went sleeping already. I signed up for a very lovely guesthouse, called Mini Tiga, owned by a French woman. It was recommended by Lonely Planet as well. We planned to go to Green Canyon the next day and already booked a tour with the local guy which propelled us to pay 150K per person. So we slept early, since there was nothing much to do beside reading a book and drinking rounds of coffees. We were expecting bright weather for the next day, because if it rains, the clearwater will turn into disastrous brown because of the mud.

And yes it rained heavily that night. I still remember because it was July 4th. We were all set by early morning and waiting for the pickup. THe guy actually picked us up with motorbike , we were kinda astonished and there was a “D’oh” expression on my sister’s face and I know what was it indicating. He supposed to pick up with a car based on what we paid, right? But the hell with that, we wanted to see Green Canyon. We dont care how can we see it. The thing that we must go and arrive there.Because It was raining quite heavy the water turned brown and there was a high tide and they closed down the pier. WHY OH WHY??? I felt like cursed. But I have to come back, maybe someday whenever I am ready to sit down in the bus for 7 hours listening to those buskers and beggars and hawkers. oohhh

this is how bad Green Canyon or Cijulang River after the rain

THAT was TOUGH
BUT I DIDNT QUIT
UP TO NOW

The Wild Won The Battles Over My Head

2009-07-25T11:00:00.000+08:00

Hello Bloggers and Readers,

I am so sorry for my hiatus over blogging for couple of weeks.(this is more of a sorry to myself than others though). Updates : I have arrived in Jakarta and is propelled to resume whatever works I have to finish. I wont say that life is boring up to this stage, cause I am still bouncing on the road like usual. But I have to say that summer holiday is approaching its dead-end ,yet I am not gonna say that its NOT gonna be an excuse for me to stop writing.

This summer is the most fabulous as it ever get. (Trust me, i keep on saying this expression after end of summer . voila, I always have wonderful summer). Well I had plans, some of them are never gonna happen (i think so, not in a near future) yet some of the unplanned activities turned out unpredictably great. And I still have plans too, which is more vivid than my plan after graduating ;p. But the greatest lesson learned over the past 3,5 months of not studying is that:

Life is a constant process of studying whatever activities you are in
Life is a constant travel and adventure and your neighborhood is most likely the least travel site you ever visited. and thats bad.
Knowing my limit : financial limitation and physical limitation. I was imagining myself to have at least one pair of Lanvin Flats Shoes or Luella Summer Dress, but I know that it is gonna cost me a fortune. So I shall stop dreaming but start working on channels of getting those branded stuffs I want. But lately I realized, life is too shallow if I only want those branded stuffs. So I want the world, moreover I want to see it. And it has been my concern over all my blog posts isn’t it? Second issue arises, physical limitation is to know my endurance and body condition. I have problem with my tonsil which caused a heavy equalizing during diving. But I love diving and I have to get rid of my tonsil problem. Or probably I have less exercise since I got in Indonesia, so I need to carefully maintain my stamina and avoid any minor sickness like flu. This seems controllable, but flu equals dying for me.

I love the wild and animals. This is cliche. Lots of people have been saying it. But I truly love it and I want to see the more of them. My summer has been very close to the wild and animals. I have an encounter with them from close proximity. I want to know if International Relations does any good to these two areas, if yes then I have to say I want to work for the wild and animal preservation weighing from International Relations point of view.

I think of Japan when I saw the color and the rice typicals. Yes Japanese Grass. This was taken a month ago in Citumang Area, West Java. When I had motorcycle tour with my sister.

I joined my sister’s beach hunter team. that day mission was to find more sea mollusks and star fishes(seaweeds are eww). We found 4 different types of starfishes. National Geographic referred us to lots of colorful starfishes so we could identify what are their names. When the tide was low, Sanur Beach is crowded by starfishes and that slimmy thorny creatures which Saknia called Lilia.

These pictures are taken while I was there watching these magnificent phenomenon. All of them might got you a conlusion that I love underwater life. This might be true to an extent. But I love animals on the forest, rice field and on my back and front yard too! All in all, I must had less chance to climb up to the mountain and take pictures of hills and mountain. But I would love to do this at anytime though. Maybe because I live in South Bali and that explains why the sea is more reachable than others.

Readers, I have concerns : my involvement with twitter updates has obvious drawbacks lately. I am not used to elaborate my thoughts into a coherent paragraph anymore, I need something to train me to blurb anything more than 140 words without being too wordy. I am on a lot of picture surfing too, so these eyes are accustomed into graphics and colors. I need analysis. I need to think. Four months of non-school days also contribute to my degrading ability of digesting words from anything I’ve read. It is as if I have to read everything on repeat or else, I wont catch what that reading is supposed to mean. FOCUS IS WHAT RAIN GOT TO HAVE. I occupied myself with books and internet articles so I could keep reading and my goal is not to read as much books, but instead to read book or paragraphs and grab the essence and in least period of time

I currently stay at my sister’s boarding house in West Jakarta and is filled with infamous task of tour-guiding my swiss and polish friends who came to visit Jakarta. PHOTOS UPLOADED SOON!

Battles of My Head.

2009-07-17T00:26:00.000+08:00

For the million times's sake, I have to categorize this post under "Random" tag, cause thats who I am. I just wanna say, I hate leaving the lifestyle of laid-back and traveling thoughts that I constantly have since the early 2009. I hate leaving all of my party dresses, bikinis,sleeveless shirt,shorts,accessories at my closet. Cause I know I wont be using them for at least few months ahead. But I have been doing sorts of noble things of my 3 weeks of stay in Bali recently and some of bad things either. Ranging from earning myself pennies from works that I did for two different places, being tourguide for my Swiss and Jakarta friends (even though I sucked on these) and Scuba-diving!.

Ta-Ta for now, Bali.

Officially PADI Open Water Diver :)

2009-07-11T22:23:00.000+08:00

I might not have a DRIVING license, but I got a DIVING license now. The course was held from Monday the 6th -8th of July at every afternoon. Now I realize that marine life is indeed another world of me that I find peaceful enough to hold my breathe. I might be exaggerating, but diving is an ART. Diving is actually an upright composition of science and environmental awareness. This is one of my way to appreciate what God has created down there, far away from human sight. Exploring the universe might be practically to expensive at my age.

During the course, I realized, that diving took parts of Physics, Biology and Chemistry skill on mastering it. Evertyhing that happens underwater must stay in exact calculation, slight mistakes might lead to fatal injuries even death. For Instance : Buoyancy concept of making yourself steadily float and not sinking is derived from the Archimedes Law of physics. This is important for diver to help themselves swimming upon the surface of the sand or seabed or coral so you dont get hurt or get other organisms hurt too. This is also useful body gesture to make sure that you are swmming steadily without wasting too much energy of having your hands accelerate the phase of your swimming. Physics also allow divemaster understand why some beginner divers like me has problem with controlling ears equalization underwater and had nose bleeding afterwards. It happens because drastical pressure emerge as I descend totally into the water. Pressure inside my ears are struggling with oxygent-less surrounding. Biology completely contributes towards what exist (stunning coral kingdom and heaven of colorful fishes) and why they exist down there. Whereas chemist help the account of some gases namely nitrogen and oxygen level in your body to finally these gases into account based on the bottom time (maximum time you use underwater for one dive) to commence to your second dive and making a safety stop afterwards. Trust me, computering your surface interval and safety stop, even though it is prepared on the diving plan (diver's cheat sheet) is pain in the ass.

So we passed the exam and named PADI Open Water Diver. Our Dive must not exceed 18m deep, even though my diving instructor dared to bring us to 21 m that day and he said it happened so, because my BCD couldnt easily deflate so I stay sinking on the ground. LOL. However, We need to take several trips and test to become the advanced one.

Above is one angle from the shipwreck. If I was diving alone there, I'd be freaking out.

We completed the open water examination in Tulamben (northeast coast of Bali). The beach has been famous of hosting underwater shipwreck. We saw Clownfish, Moorish Idol, Silverfish, Groopies (again, pardon my poor vocab on marine life terminology.)

My encounterance with groups of migrating Jackfish. Feel as if I was one of those diving girl in Dive Carribean. I can't hold my breath, literally, these are amazing moments.

Yes Diving is very safe even for U-20 girls like me. Me and my diving buddies are now arranging for some diving trip around Indonesia. but my biggest obsession has ever been : Great Blue Hole of Belize with almost 70m deep. Someday!

Life Goes On

2009-07-05T19:22:00.000+08:00

You are Rainintha Siahaan in the swing moody Sunday Night, if :

1. You have been planning to go out with somebody and thinking of it the whole day but ended up staying in anyway.
2. You suddenly remember that you will be having IELTS test in 6 days and suddenly decided to pick up an 11th grade biology lab report note to jot down whatever sources available on the net.But hey Facebook and Twitter distract you and you ended up neglecting that poor little note.
3. You are in BIG DENIAL that Roger Federer is about to win his 15th Grand Slams title and eclipsed the mighty Pete Sampras simply. Fast recovery of Rafael Nadal might seems to be mightiest antidote.
4. You are rallying a protest against whomever who has been guilty of placing stacks of first class travelling magazine over all your book shelves which totally ruin the aesthetic of title of books you have been reading for years and years. (OK since I have moved out of my room, my Mom start treating my room like another warehouse and My sister has been wearing my clothes and placing her clothes onto my closet ever since, and I dont know why My Dad put all his aquarium accesories and his TV Table in my room)
5. You are accused of neglecting a friend . You might not the most perfect person anyhow but you respect people who wants to resolve conflict face-to-face. but life must goes on. Kitty Walker of Brothers and Sisters confessed her mistake nationwide from the television broadcast and she said that claiming that you were wrong is to show others that you are strong. yes yes , I am strong but I am wrong.. from the the very first.
6. You should be doing a little graphic design for freshmen orientation name tag and of course writing for the church newsletter but then again facebook, twitter and Wimbledon final might distract you.

Wishlist :
1. Lonely Planet : Vietnam, Cambodia and Greater Mekong
2. DVD of And There Were None , High Fidelity
3. A Pair of Lanvin High Heel
4. "Bellinge" Rug of IKEA
5. Temporary work for any travel magazine.

I am a geek geek girl in a geek geek world it's not a geek geek thing if you leave me.LOL

Into The Wild : Bali Barat National Park

2009-07-03T23:15:00.000+08:00

Into the wild, North Bali - This has been my dream destination for a quite sometimes. The plan was never been executed for the sole reason that our destination is either too far away from where we are residing at or because we are short on people who are willing to chip in for the not-so-cheap boat rent and snorkel fee in the national park. That day, really came true. My cousin who slept over our house joined the trip. We got up really early on 5 AM with all gears and food logistics just for supplying breakfast nutrient on the way to go. Aryadi, a friend of mine and Saknia came over to complete the team.

Pulau Menjangan, is a small island off the Labuhan Lalang bay in the northwest coast of Bali. This place has been claimed as a national park as well. We took the northeast track amongst the other two tracks to quickly get there. From my place in East Kuta , people must drive along up north to Denpasar- Kapal- Tabanan- Pupuan- Seririt -Pemuteran - Labuhan Lalang (approximately 3,5 hours) to get into the pier which will connect you to the island by boat. You might as well make a stop in Pemuteran Pier, which covers less distance than Labuhan Lalang but yet it will take you more costs to only cross the narrow strait. But in Labuhan Lalang IDR 330.000 is a package price for a boat exclude the IDR75.000 for a tourguide . The boat can fit 10 adults inside.

It only took us nearly 4o minutes to sail across the strait. On the way to go, you will be amused by the scenery which encounters the landscape of Green savanah and meadow of bushes on Bali side and volcanoes over West Java. They are all perfectly shown because the morning sun had just rising which helped us to get rid of some cloudy day and fog which mostly cover the whole area. Approaching the island, you could see that tourqouise (pardon my bad spelling over "oui" phonem) water and clear blue watery area.

not so gracefully in the morning faces of us

the pier of Labuhan Lalang in the company of seemed-to-be painted landscape encounterances of Taman Nasional Bali barat and Mt Abang in East Java

see that deep blue areas? thats where most of "entertainment" are located at: underwater caves, sea atol and long snort silvery skinned fishes

If you have no snorkelling apparel, you might have to rent snorkeling set for IDR 40,000 for unlimited time. I am not a licensed-diver yet and my experience with underwater life is minimum, but i could say what i truly witnessed over there is STUNNING. just in case, if you wonder, have you ever seen that RCTI (indonesian private tv channel) TV Ads that was shot underwater? That was what i saw, even twice better. Start dipping your head from the very shore (even though it was impossible for you to even swim cause its too shallow) but the corals are amazing. The first 8 meter distant is the clear water with only 0,5-1,5 M deep, but when you get into the more of it , when you see that deep blue ocean, thats where the real challenge comes! I was once too afraid of seeing whats lying there. Trust me, you'll be panicking of seeing this real underwater life for the first time ( what if i see jellyfish or shark or what if i step upon a hundred-years-old corral?) . Cause the rest of the ocean is the real ocean with 15-20 M deep . it was dark, but it is heaven for colorful creatures!!! .

I am so thriling of seeing starfishes, rainbow fishes hiding over the corral reefs. It got more exciting when the coral are just colorful. bliss (my sister's underwater camera leaked just on the way we are about to take pic of that white and black stripped triangle shaped type of fish,, yet that did not ruin the whole day though). I saw that long snort silvery skinned fish (doh, i have a poor vocab on marine biology!) swimming under the surface. It was so gracefully how the sunshine penetrates within through the seabed, (trust me im still snorkelling and im witnessing what divers are doing down under). I could not even believe that I was staying underwater with the snorkel and the leaking goggles for nearly two hours. Later I know the real challenge for snorkell-ers (if such terminology ever existed) is how do you stay calm over the hit of high current and how would you stay away from the temptation of not touching those "cute" fishes and avoiding land our feet upon the corral. More and more swimming to the rocky area, where the tide was high my guide, guided us through a green corral field which was the nest for Clown Fish (Nemo). I was really amused, cause if you are a diver, you should put Discovering Clown Fish with your own eyes in the wild along side with seeing sharks and dive along a shipwreck.

p.s This is important. there is no deli/coffee shop/groceries/convenient stores not even close a human population on the island. Just in case you're excruciatingly starving (just like we badly were), bring your own meals. or try to invest and make money out of the island. bring a jar of cold drinks. TADAH!

Next Phase - Drove away jungle area to get us into Menjangan Resort for the sake of seeing the view from the top of Bali Tower. Trust me this was a total bluff and I am a bad liar. I was undeliberately told a lie to the reception girl and introducing myself as a guest on the resort who wants to enjoy a pleasant tea time in the Bali Tower area. In truth, we were only there for taking pictures and then depart home again! LOL. Putu Suardita was a real nice honest man which i had to lie subsequently. He kindly offered me a deal for the next day's jungle trekking. In fact, he escorted I and my entourage ( just for kicks.) over the five stories Bali tower. (Encyclopedia : Balinese custom beliefs that any building should not be made above four stories or exceeding any of highest coconut tree height). The tower was built in 1995, with the foundation of four solid Borneo teak which account of 28 metres height.

If you are about to follow my itinerary, i strongly suggest you to stop by Menjangan Resort for drinks in the Bali tower or try to sleep over there. I didnt stay or enjoy any drinks there simply because we were running out of money after well, pulau menjangan.

Pulau Menjangan on the other side , isn't this pretty?

Why the name is Pulau Menjangan? Menjangan is a formal terminology of Rusa in bahasa or Deer in english. I hardly saw any Menjangan on the island though. My guide explained that during the dry season (May-Mid August) these populations of deers are residing on the other side of the island to get more access to clear water. My guess was the deers are might as well were too freightened of having a high exposure to human contact (tourists). you know animal and their territorial theory right ? ( If no, read Life of Pi or at least Google it.lol). There are some moments during the mating season or during the bad times when the deers got really bored out of the island, they will be swimming onto the Bali coast, my guide told me this.

4.30 PM - hurry! we might be late to come home. Saknia was about to have her SNMPTN the next day!
Below is the picture of Kawah Amerika (American Crater) which was called so for the reasoning that it looks like The Grand Canyon in Utah. Might be. This place still account the Taman National Bali Barat areas though. felt so Country of a sudden.We took bunches of pictures

Im trying not only visualizing a worthy story but also to present you amazing photography , under the courtesy of Samantha Siahaan and Aryadi Setiawan.

Do not be discouraged of getting a tanned skin after a day in the sun. Tanned is not the danger. Skin Cancer, it is.,if you careless about putting some sunscreen ON.

Stay true,

Rain

Kat/Norah is a Genious

2009-07-03T22:51:00.000+08:00

My sister suggested me this brilliant blog, written by Nick and Norah's (my favorite movie) Kat Dennings. Kat and I might share same thoughts of killing some boredom. Kat seems to have fun in her sanctuaries (might be home or her apartment) by enjoying Netflix-rented DVDs. Thats noble hing to for a Holywood celebrity(hear,hear, not so many times i have admiration over an-average-age-like-mine celebrity). I like the way she picked diction and words to describe things, she is just smart. She is about to publish a book.

kat dennings is a genious hit the url which may seems written as common url, but when it appears on screen, it s personal blog of hers.

Promoting Kebaya Abroad!

2009-06-30T22:32:00.000+08:00

above are bits of my non-professional modelling career for promoting Indonesian/ Malayu Peranakan Kebaya (traditional Clothes of long sleeve buttoned-shirt and flowery printed Batik of sarong) at Children Little Museum - Kampong Glam , Singapore.

I was dazzled and confused between the line somehow. Because my director (the uncle who owns the shop) told that this traditional clothes are originated from Malayu-Chinese heritage in Singapore. Are we all (afterall) coming from the same roots of origin? or? or??? be my guess to guest.

i live underwater

2009-06-24T23:05:00.000+08:00

me and my sister were mermaids. cause we found out that live underwater is more amusing than all.

think about this scene : people are carrying surfboard underwater with listening Little Joy's Next Time Around

Kota Jakarta - A Day After its 482nd Anniversary

2009-06-24T09:33:00.001+08:00

This was the only conserved area of Dutch colonial legacy that have ever been restored in the capital. Yesterday was the 482th anniversary of Jakarta. The old sea-port for trades and missionary is still commemorating its past by reminiscing the old days of augmented blend of Traditional Betawi, Chinese and Dutch culture.
I was inspired by Jason Mraz’s entry which was saying that this is a good day for reuniting with an old friend. Here is the quote : “Get clear or complete with someone today. Who or what have you been avoiding that has been costing you power? Call or visit with that person and let them know what’s on your mind simply as an act of love. See the real value in that person, even if that person’s only role has been to test your patience. Acknowledge that person for having done a great job. “.
Introducing Pratiwi Mayasari, my 10th grade chair-mate who reads Communication Studies at the same university with me. Moreoverm I haven’t seen this girl for half and a year and I was deciding to take her with my solitary trip cause I know she will be this perfect companion to hang out with. The trip was 40 minutes away from Stasiun UI Depok by express train to Stasiun Kota.(another historical legacy from the Dutch colonial). The train was somehow look like MRT , very much trustworthy during your bad day (read when you’re broke and cannot afford any cab). It costs us only IDR 9,000 for an air-conditioned trip. OK-LAh.
On the other side, I have been yearning for a visit to these historical sites (which is very sharply too touristy) for a long time. We made our first stop at the Museum Bank Mandiri, (merger of Exim Bank and some other banks which only Maya can manage to memorize!). Inside, was exhibition of cash register, teller and customers desk, calculators and save deposit from the 20th centuries. The management did a very good job of maintaining the architecture but at the same time are having effort of renewing all the paints and furnishing tiles of granites. (I kept on telling Maya how lovely the tiles are, and I think she was kind of annoyed by me).

pioneer of modern cash register and computer-based calculator.

Keyboard/organ shaped of cash register.Cool.

Maya was about to do the old school high five with the Deputy Head of Bank Mandiri.

If you are accounting major or used to take basic accounting in high school,you might have noticed what was written under. all words translated on the big ledger book has been automatically printed on the keyboard with old school spelling.

yes. can I help you. Teller behind the bar, reminding me of the confession room in the church.D'oh!

Lesson Learned : Museum is like a semi-open book. You will be needing a tourguide or least likely a brochure/flyer/information guide to tell what these are supposed to be and blah.. , trust me, without this museum is just a mere place of exhibitioning “stuffs” that looks unenthusiastic. Too bad that these two museums are under a heavy reconstruction since-only-God-knows, so the only officers available to help are the locker guy, receptionist and security guide. Nobody cares about writing historical info under the showcased objects. The only information contained is enough to explain what is the name of the object. Gah, visitors need more than : “This is a Chair”, “This is an 18th century kind of paint” (Hello, whos that guy with laced-collar on the paint? Is that Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles? How come did that guy get into this country. Stuffs like that. I know why most Indonesian doesn’t know the word : CURRATOR).

The Vignette appears really cool. This was hidden behind under construction staircase in Museum Bank Indonesia

The journey got even more classical exciting when we headed down to Kota Tua. Geez those guys with big lensed-camera are frightening us down. Oops. That locker guy on the Museum Bank Mandiri was truly nice so he gave me a rough guide to Kota Tua and explaining about the upcoming cool events. He also informed about this website , Jelajah Kota Tua, which basically invited people to explore and visit some of non-mainstream history legacy points in North Jakarta. That blog also works for the community of Sepeda Onthel. Maya and I was almost renting the Sepeda Onthel just for kicks, but then we found out that there weren’t much spaces for us to do hardcore cycling (just as much as I was expecting) cause the traffic is just too crazy to deal with.

hey its Cafe Batavia. I remember having fine dining with red wine here, yes Mom?

Museum Sejarah Nasional - Secret underground tunnel opens only every Monday

oohhh.... pink bicycle agaiiiinnn

Kota Tua Square - after last night party

Museum Keramik

Stasiun Kota (City Station)

I bet most of my blog readers have visited this site already earlier than me. That is really good. But when you're paying more awareness for instance: giving donation for the preservation means of the historical sites rather than come and sightseeing the sites for the sake of taking a good pictures and having a good background behind. That is even cooler.lol.

this really made my day, in a cheap way. im cheap lah.

Tune into : Bicycle - Shout Out Loud

Bintan Trip

2009-06-24T09:16:00.000+08:00

Some glimpses of my Bintan trip two months ago. 16 of us came in a wrong time, when the tide was low and it was raining like crazy. But this fcukin resort, saved our quality times

my Asian friends. I miss y'all

If you ever happened to visit Bintan, go to Dwikora Beach or to the resort area up north. Never came in backpack manner to Bintan, cause its not friendly for travelling under budget. When you're under budget you will be staying in a cheap homestay. FYI, no direct access to the beach when you are doing this method. p.s dont ever stay in Pondok Anna ( a disguised Indonesian Military Navy Diving Camp). The owner is a total imposter!.

Current Favorite Blog : Said The Gramophone

2009-06-22T10:32:00.000+08:00

The author deliberately made his/her identity secret to other. The blog is somewhat indie music freaks like me are looking for : heaven for unknown band all over the world. Said The Gramophone is standing among the crowd of mainstream indie music blog. I could overly say that this is the indiest blog of indie music that we could ever found. The blog was recognized as one over 100 best blog of 2008 by TIME Magazine. What makes it out of the ordinary is how lovley the author put a random short story before the music , so the music is the soundtrack of the story. brilliant!

Updates: Muti Dewitari is promoting my blog,give her credits for!

2009-06-20T21:40:00.000+08:00

Follow Muti on Twitter : mutii (hey buddy, I promote you back). This pic was taken without her courtesy, been considering that this is cute. I need cute pics for my blog. you know me.

Just recently, Muti Dewitari- a sassy college friend of mine , did a generous effort of promoting my blog from her facebook status. This tiny simple thing might generate big things in a future, like who knows. (you did a very brave step that me myself wont be brave enough to take). Its risky being a self publisher, and I am not one.

A while ago, Muti and I were trying to verdict what we are gonna be in 10 years from now. This looked like typical single girls conversation which involves dream wedding and single-ness remedies.LOL. We went for lunch in Super Sambal which is pretty cheap for a descent dishes for two starving girls like us. Then we headed to The Harvest - A Pattiserie and Chocolate House, newly launched, for desert. I ordered this special of the day Rainbow Cheese Cake, a combination of layers of strawberry yoghurt, marble cake, cheese cake and mango topping. It cost me IDR 17,000. While Muti picked Strawberry Ice Tea, which seems very delightful. It was a pleasant saturday afternoon, with a perfect company to fuzz around.

Until I went to a bookstore and find a Lonely Planet story book of Tony and Maureen Wheeler for IDR 69.000. You made my day. And I am currently reading it, while I was trying to compose some e-music from my Garage Band tutorial. blah...

Track : ISLES - FLEET FOXES

Megapolitan

2009-06-20T02:06:00.000+08:00

Jakarta hosts the fascinating growth of Indonesian growth and has been witnessing the seemingly political turmoil over the decades. People has been saying that my country is a developing country which stay beyond the proper standard of GNP per capita. But what i was witnessing from the 7th stories of east parkmall of Grand Indonesia is something between the lines of accusation. Located on the main protocol, these following skyscrappers are dominating by foreign companies. These megastructures were built under the administration of the late President Soeharto under his Development agenda. What was left behind this policy is its lackon projecting the long term analysis. Look what happens to jakarta after office hours? your cars are literraly stuck on the road. There are reasons to support my premise, but for sure, the road are just heavily filled with too many cars, because nearly every single people owns a car. Now i know, where this discussion is heading to (which is too annoying to be discussed.bleh!). Look what happens in Jakarta during the monsoon season? human trashes are completely packing into every single paths. Lets say Jakarta has this very bad system of drainage. A cab driver, who claims of reading Kompas everyday says, whoever rules Jakarta would not ever be able to produce a significant change, cause he says , it was wrongly projected from the very start.

Jakarta is not my hometown. and I know that I want to help building something more in Bali rather than Jakarta. cause Bali is my hometown. (weird logical reasoning.i know). But if any team comes up with more strategic development and urban plan, let me know. Let us build the better Indonesia by fixing up its capital too.

Megapolitan - always be a mixture of cutting edge megastructures and slums. now help me to calculate any green path left among the site.

the megapolitan at night. seems succeed to hide the slums under its nose.

The National Monument over my friend's dashboard.

Winter in Sydney.

2009-06-19T10:51:00.001+08:00

i feel blessed of having the chance to participate in World Youth Day - Sydney. When everything is taken care of. We could literally travel around the city and the suburbs for free! Now I regard Sydney as one place that I should come back to pay a visit on the near future.

Galakkan (caelah) Pariwisata Indonesia

2009-06-19T10:44:00.000+08:00

look what they wrote on Metro TV news.(click on the link for the whole story) think that this was a solid antidote to attract more visitors to come to our country? Do re-think, sir.

Padahal Indonesia mempunyai tempat tujuan wisata yang tidak kalah menarik jika dibandingkan Malaysia, Singapura, Vietnam, bahkan Thailand. Untuk mendukung strategi pencitraan pariwisata tersebut, pemerintah menambah anggaran Depbudpar Rp200 miliar pada 2010 untuk promosi pariwisata. Pada 2009, anggaran promosi pariwisata sebesar Rp260 miliar. "Jadi tahun depan total anggaran untuk promosi pariwisata Rp460 miliar," kata Wardiyatmo.

Namun menurut Direktur Fortune Indonesia, Indira Abidin, anggaran senilai Rp460 miliar tersebut sangatlah kecil untuk melakukan strategi pencitraan pariwisata tingkat dunia. "Buat pasang iklan di televisi internasional aja paling cuma berapa kali tayang," kata Indira.

Ia mengatakan peranan pemerintah ialah memfasilitasi dan menciptakan cetak biru pariwisata nasional. Di dalam cetak biru tersebut, terdapat pemetaan pada stakeholder mapping, tourism mapping, dan issue mapping. "Dari ketiga pemetaan tersebut barulah ditarik satu pesan yang benar-benar mewakili pariwisata Indonesia," kata Indira.

Ia menambahkan dengan dana yang terbatas namun cetak biru pariwisata nasional yang jelas, pemerintah seharusnya membuat 'digital public relation' atau melakukan promosi pariwisata lewat dunia maya. Menurut Indira, strategi pencitraan bukanlah mengenai biaya, namun bagaimana membuat strategi pencitraan pariwisata Indonesia yang terintegrasi dan pas dengan kebutuhan serta menjawab solusi dari permasalahan wisata di Indonesia. (Ant/OL-06)

iThink

Segmen konsumen turisme Indonesia diduduki oleh backpacker atau para pengelana dan turis under budget. Mereka adalah petualang-petualang berusia di bawah 30 tahun dan lebih suka bepergian ke daerah-daerah terpencil di Indonesia. Sebenarnya pendekatan pemerintah untuk melakukan promosi jor-joran di media internasional sudah benar langkahnya. Namun kalau kita terus berkilah “kekurangan budget”, dalih ini tidak akan pernah habis digunakan. Mari berkaca pada promosi pariwisata Thailand yang mengandalkan metode-metode down to earth seperti promosi melalui website dan blog bahkan mulut ke mulut! Indonesia juga bisa menerapkan ini dengan harga yang sangat murah dan lebih efektif. Uang yang ada lebih baik dialokasikan kepada perbaikan infrastruktur dan keamanan serta kenyamanan berwisata di Indonesia!

Updates : Surviving Awfully Boring Days in Depok with Less Exercise and More Eating Outs

2009-06-16T22:17:00.000+08:00

As I engender myself with travelling perspective, I reckon my 4 weeks of stay in Depok, even though this is my college area, is actually a place to travel. The main road of Margonda is indeed heaven for culinary traveling. I know some of the prominent culinary tv shows had featured the street night eating outs on the program. Most of them are affordable. Or I am least likely succeed of finding a very fancy restaurant down here. I told the girls who live in the same house with me to occupy ourself with early morning jogging and good food hunting in daily basis. Cause the only entertainment available (really worthy entertainment) is probably all of our laptops and tv. I must say spending all day on tv and internet is pathetic.

So I found this not-really-helpful-but-able-to-remind-us-that-there-are-still-some -cool-diner-round-the-city website called : Kuliner Depok and Margonda.com. There are these cool places that me and some friends have managed to visit :

Super Sambal
Location : Jalan Margonda
Description : Real deal for spicy food lovers! They have these 14 recipes of sambal (Indonesian/Malay chilli sauce) made mostly of chilly,onion, and preserved prawn. They come up with a very quirky titles on the menu. If you are a big fan of chilli sauce you should order Sambal Bawang Goreng. Me myself is not a big fan of Sambal, the spiciest I could ever gotten is Sambal tomat, which is very juicy collaboration of red chilli and tomato. Apart from that, they serve Sundanese dishes with typical menu of Fried Chicken, Fried Chicken Intestines and some other soups. The place is quite comfortable except the fact that there are lots of street musiciann bumping into you.(more about this street musician on another post).

kiss goodbye,

* cannot wait to come home

Track : Regina Spektor -Far

2009-06-14T16:17:00.001+08:00

my tumblr.

Day 3 : Pangandaran and Green Canyon

2009-06-14T16:09:00.000+08:00

sorry for the unecessary eye-blocking post photoshop retouch. This was taken about a week ago in a random rice field in Pangandaran-Cijulang highway route. See what I was wearing? incredibly sleeveless in a very conservative area. Just to make things easy, i went to Green Canyon which turned to be Brown Canyon. Bah I supposed to submit this story for Nat Geo Traveller, but I resigned cause i was unluckily trapped within the flooding river after an overnight raining cats and dogs.
but i think i will be able to help some nat geo guys to recommend you coolest homestay in the area, we stayed there for two nights for IDR 160.000 only. cool service, cool fellow travellers.

please tell national geographic traveller i am not gonna give up just because i am pausing my travelling for a month.

Follow Ben Sollee Action!!

2009-06-14T15:14:00.000+08:00

This info was just retrieved from Jason Mraz's very own blog. He was telling and publishing a troy about Ben Sollee , an American Cellist and Songwriter who did a great job on covering most of Fiona Apple's songs. Mr Sollee is going up northwest to Bonarroo Indie Music Fest 2009 for 300miles distant on bike!. This action is subjected for OxFam charity, the same organization that he and Mr Mraz are donating for. FIGHT FOR POVERTY

BOO!

2009-06-14T14:33:00.000+08:00

This is a very random thoughts coming from myself after 11 hours of sleeping, bad diet, less exercise and procrastinating on my laptop all day. So everything that you will find on the following wont be necessarily true,at all.
I have decided that this blog would not be a travel blog, as I have been planning for few months then,cause I realize I need to write all of my thoughts and feelings almost everyday.Yet, I dont travel nearly everyday.I also, at another extent, I refuse of writting my daily life encounterances here for several reasons: life is quite boring in Jakarta or I avoid of publishing how I live my life.
I just read an interview of Emma Watson with a magazine. She said this brillian thing : " I am just too afraid of getting people know where I am, what i think, and what am i doing". This is true, exposing your life to other is scary. Lately I never post status update on Facebook cause I am avoiding necesary long thread of somebody else's comments packed on my notification. Thats the reason why I tried Twitter out. I used to update what am I reading and doing via Twitter status, time goes by and more people are following me. I dont say that this is not great, it has been amazing but sometimes I know I dont want people to know what the hell am i into and post comment upon , neither I care about what other thinks too.

There is this question, keep on stucking inside my head and other 3 friends : why Jakarta is so boring?

up to the stage where im no longer posting stories about holiday and pictures, i am in terrible state of boredom.wish i could read a book right now, just for kicks. fyi, i still have a novel and e-books await to be read and some dvds to be watched. but why do i need those stuffs when i am daily connected to internet addiction?

Tune into : Oh - We Have Band

Day 2 : Glimpses of the Flower City

2009-06-11T17:42:00.001+08:00

In the company of my highschool classmate who apparently reads electrical engineering at STT Telkom Bandung. Shot at Jalan Asia Afrika to mark the birth of non-aligned movement 5 more decades ago. I didnt get the chance to get into the museum. Here museum is closed at 3PM. This was how bad travelling could ever become into. You need a competent local to explain you things. Across the street is the Hotel Savoy Homann, which hosted the Asia-Africa Pan continental delegates during the summit @ 1955.

This Eiffel Tower replica is located on the Braga City Walk, nearby our hotel. It was a French Bakery. Marion appeared with "Like" button on Facebook afterwards.

Intersection of Jalan Asia Africa to another path which leads to Braga City Walk. Trust me, Indonesia needs no zebra cross. cause no vehicles are gonna stop even though you are standing above the crosses.FCUK!

Bandung preserves the Dutch Colonies architecture legacy pretty well. The downtown looks somehow the same with European style arcade. Thats why they call the city Parijs Van Java. Above was the pic of the oldest Post Office . We were caught in the rain and heading to the post office for some shelter.Inside we found a museum. quite interesting because it is free. I dont think it was written in any common travelling guide though.

The Governor Office of West Java province a.k.a Gedung Sate. We took a culinary trip on the rear alley and found the famous Nasi Bakar

Me and my sister took some laps after breakfast.

What I like the most about Bandung are :
1. That Commuting is Very Accessible. Its even too accessible and cheap. Every main road is passed by public transportation (van-looked like with sideways seating arrangement= ANGKOT). You only have to pay IDR2.500 the most for the furthest distance you could go.
2. People are quite friendly and helpful. I didnt experience the cynical-suspiscious looks over two lost girls like us in the city. We also master the dialect quite well, so we could anticipate whenever rip-offs happen.

Track : I Should Have Known Better - She and Him

New Rented-Room

2009-06-11T17:33:00.001+08:00

This might be another 4X4 wide room with a small bathroom, but this will be my second home for the rest of 5 semesters at least. Yes, I just moved in into another new rented-room alongside 5 other girls from the same major with me. This was just to make things little bit easier at any semester, which makes me expecting a late-night gossip together, DVD marathon night as well as group study. I didn’t have the intention of redecorating this room yet, not until I got that IKea Bellinge Rug being shipped from Singapore. The most exciting about this room is that I have another new hot and cold water dispenser plus a TV table, and 24/7 internet connection ;).

I need to make a quick adaptation with this new environment. 6 months ago I had a roomie, whom I threw conversation into whenever I got really bored. I had wonderful neighbors who took a good care of me either. More importantly I have all these accessibilities of making contact with the world outside to kill boredom. I live on the first floor, my window is located right next to the landlord house. We got 2 housekeepers who help us with domestic households such as cleaning

But I know I need to stop comparing my now-and-then life. I mean currently life gets really slow and easy. I have two most genious inventions within my room : a tv and non-stop internet connection (plus a cellphone if that does count). On the other hand, I don’t have any tangible works on due except my ecolabelling project and my hnmun 2010 selection

p.s I know this posting should be more fun if only I have a picture updated. I think I left my USB Cable Card Reader at home.

Kiss goodbye

Two Weeks of Nomadism

2009-06-11T01:21:00.000+08:00

This is to briefly summarize my adventure over the past week, I bet my sister is writing the same story cause she was with me 24/7, but I am as sure as hell that we got extremely different point of views upon things. These following places (except Pangandaran) were sort of sites that we have visited sometimes ago. But that doesn’t mean that we got bored out of these places, there are some other things that we want to reiterate and explore deeper like the following, Here we go

Day 1 Arrival : Aston Braga Bandung

This was the first time I took a transit domestic flight ever. This was either the first time I flew from Denpasar to Bandung. My intention is to join my younger sister’s trip-cum-admission test in Bandung so as to travel a bit. The flight was boring 2hours typical. I had to make a quick stop in Surabaya, browsing through National Geographic Traveller. There was this little inset on the bottom of the page which informed readers to compose 300-words length of their recent travel experience. I was having this dirty thought of putting and imagining my Green Canyon Thing.
Husein Sastranegera Airport was such a joke. I was shocked of finding out that the baggage runway is located nearby the flight runway. The airport was so small, and from the outside it was nearly look as half-traditional market and half-bus terminal. I indeed made a quick google map session about the transportation in and out of the terminal, as well as the public transportation fare to the hotel which my sister was staying at. It was a hotelier compliment from my Mom’s old colleagues, who is now the General Manager of the Hotel. Aston Braga Bandung is the member of chained brand of Aston Management which owned by some American Company. The very hotel is located on the top of the not –so-famous Braga City Walk.
Ragil and Marisca were in town, down to some businesses. So I called them to come to the hotel and show us around the Bandung nightlife. My sister said I could not expect much of Braga’s nightlife according to my dictionary, but that area is considered red light enough. Bars, karaoke and hostess were provided. Ragil was the only guy among too-many-to-dress-up 3 young ladies, I was making fun of him of saying that he looked like a Pimp of the area that time.

The rest of the night was a half fun and a half insanely boring. It was fun cause I finally met some of my Singaporean besties, so we had this reminiscing the old days session. It was boring because the kind of nightlife that people were bragging about was only a dangdut live performance inside a wrecked nightclub with old hostess and mid-aged black leathered men. The streetlight didn’t really support the idea of a nightlife for a city walk either. Later my sister said that I really have to give the local specialties a try. I always love Sundanese Food, cause I used to be raised within these specific ethnics part of my family so I got acquaintanced to the dishes very well. We went to the famous Sundanese Mixed Rice of C’Mar, located in the street vendor with some platic chairs and table. I was uber-hungry after no meal since home, and I only accepted terrible baguette on the plane. So I decided to take less rice and two dishes which cost me 24,000IDR by the end. Crap, this is not street food then.

Track : Sea Tele Szav - Putumayo Gypsy Music

My "Mad Mike and Mark" Moment

2009-05-29T14:28:00.000+08:00

The journey was accidentally planned. I barely went out of my house since my sister left. This was so generous, my friend who knew about my dream beach house located on Goa Gong Hill in Jimbaran (Southern of Balim, heck i know you’re wondering why the heck would a beach house is located on a hill? im wondering either though) drove me to that place so I could snap some pics out of the house before I leave for Bandung and Jakarta for three weeks, so I could put the pictures on my iPod and being able to see my dream sanctuary whenever I feel like looking at it.

Meet one of my favorite TV Series “Mad Mike and Mark”. It is about the journey of animal reporting from the wild jungle of Africa. These two guys, originally from USA dared to live in a tent, spending a day in their off-road big car, and equipped by video camera and digital SLR Camera. They both spent their days, recording animal behaviors in the wild. There was this one episode that was showing Mark’s effort of recording gangs of lions behavior of hunting one moose in Africa (wait, I dont know if Africa has mooses. but Mark called them mooses).The differences were: I was trying to interact with Indian Cows instead of mooses, vultures, hyenas or lions. Mark and Mike were equipped by mini jeep but me and my friend were walking on foot on a small savannah. Mark and Mike were equipped by high-tech cameras and I was there with my Ray- Ban Wayfarer and stupid Olympus pocket camera. But i guessed this was a form of making it a habit of mine, warming up-kind of. It was the highest point to “Hidden Beach” of Banjar Kutuh. Seaweed farms, empty house wrecks, wide green fields are the only things to see.

You got to meet a good friend of mine, we have been knowing each other since high school but i didnt really hang out with him till maybe the last year of high school. We got even closer once we were too late of finding out each other’s interests. He is a freelance photographer , very idealist adventurer. He wants to set an adventure to the wild without being equipped with earth-ly necessities, say it: his bolt blackberry, his GPS-ed Nokia E71, money and his Yamaha Tiger Sport Bike. I learn a lot from him, and we hang out a lot right after my arrival from Singapore. He knows some of my NTU friends who visited Bali. He knows about my Vietnam and Cambodia dreams, as well as my intention of climbing up the Mount Batur before my new semester starts. If I will become the future Minister of Culture and Tourism, I will make him the Deputy or The Head of Balinese Tourism Board. Cause this guy knows every little bit of Bali, from the non-touristy point of view as well as the touristy ones. He is dreaming of cleaning up the Badung River so he could establish a river tour to defeat Vienna River Cruise and SIngapore River Hippo-cruise.haha. He told me that the sky is the witness of what is happening down here on earth, sky could tell everything. He admitted that current sky color is not as bright as the way it used to be. Pollution, airborne, acid rain (if that does exist in our island) bring effect to the grey-ish cloud. Oh one more thing, you must be enjoying the moment of him reading a newspaper cause he is gonna spell whatever he reads to me or whoever close, its as if you are listening to quality morning news with his smart additional opinion, hah

Myanmar and North Korea, Sigh

2009-05-27T23:40:00.000+08:00

I am majoring in international relations. Its such a shame for me of not being able to respond several retorics,kind-of :
1. why would United Nations never express strong stance towards the military junta in Myanmar?,
2. Why would we have almost 160 democratic nations, whereas having ourselves witnessing a person being incarcerated for nearly 20 years simply because she won an election? oh God.
3. And why would North Korea, one of the most devastated country on earth wont be able to give society a sufficient welfare but able to perform a nuclear and ballistic missile which power worths the same with Hiroshima and Nagasaki's nuclear bomb?
4. More importantly, why would I after typing these whole things on MS Word, experienced underlined paragraphed without intended of putting an underlined right below everything? FCUK
but still, two books on ADM library revealed that Pyongyang and Rangoon are worth to visit before you die ( but you need to be accompanied by government-authorized tourguide.boo!)

- I need to relax

Travelmate:Found!

2009-05-26T22:50:00.000+08:00

Angkor Wat, I'm coming

Dear Everyone,
It could not be more than a truth when someone has spoken to me that I wont be having as much motivation to travel round South East Asia when I was in Singapore cause it was assumed that when i came back home, SE Asia mainland will be further up, no travel mate will be easy to find, no easy schedule to plan on a trip. For the first three weeks, I got to admit this is necessarily true. Firstly, because I have been dying to find a cheap ticket out of Bali to any other places in Asia or Australia for my Christmas Break, but im losing my motivation already. First, cause my sister is about to enter a college with extremely distinct schedule to mine, whereas she might be my best travelling partner so far. Cause we've been google-ing and blogwalking some cool places with best deals together and we really love to go on backpacking style/mode only both of us. But she got the situation and the Sam guy from twoguysaroundtheworld said that under 25 might be the best time for you to travel. OK I might come to another branch of argument ( I hate this when its unstructured, but yeah let me finish this) : I dont think that it will be easy for me to earn much money to travelling, unless I sacrifice much of my studyhours for working. And yet I will be graduating in 2 years , and i know i will be gone to Europe after my graduation cause its been the plan since last year!.

So I accidentally bumped into my classmate's email on our mailing list concerning his schedule during summer break. He told on the email that he is looking (well, not technically looking for as in searching its rather in form of informing, perhaps) for a travel buddy for Indo China (Cambodia and Vietnam) next January. I sent him a reply in a sudden, cause i know he is busy with exam and papers and i dont wanna interrupt him from a phone calls or unecessary text message. He is interested with my reply and responded with his itinerary-attached. I saw it, and it was so cheap of him finding less than a million rupiah air ticket around 4 countries : Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Cambodia. The thing was he booked them few months ago. I stumbled upon Air Asia (Asia's prominent budget airline, alongside with JetStar and Tiger Airways) for couple of hours trying to find a cheap ticket. The best deal that i Got so far was even doubled his total.

I dont mind paying 1,5 million rupiahs for one of my dream trip.

and yes we're going on backpacking mode. and now im thinking of spending my 450SGD and 2000THB for that trip. awesome

Beach Hunter : Suluban Beach a.k.a Surfers Paradise

2009-05-23T00:04:00.000+08:00

Southern of Bali is indeed heaven of unseen, non-touristy and blue Clearwater-ed beaches. Last Wednesday we went on another beach hunting roadtrip downsouth. It is only 40 minutes away from home in non traffic hours. We have been looking for the location of this mysterious beach from the day we saw lots of hot boys riding on motorcycle with their surfboards on the sideway of the motorbike. We were anxious of knowing where the hell were these people heading to? . Until one day , We ( always refer to me and my sister and some of our friends if they happen to present) got in a conversation with Aryadi , my adventurer high school pal who told my sister to go to this one beach located after big cellular tower in Pecatu (South of Bali).

We nearly missed the turn after the tower. It took us few minutes offroad with my parent’s car to get into the place. We could notice the presence of blue ocean stretches down along. All the way was surrounded by savanna and forests area. But some of guesthouse are available and occupied by surfers. Until we got into one bridge, where if you look to your right you could see a big cave and bunches of surfers sitting down in the middle of the sea, waiting for the perfect wave. It was Padang-Padang Beach. We didn’t know why we did not make any stop by but to keep on driving up. I told my sister so we would not miss whatever ahead of us.

It turns out the next beach is even more amazing. Cause it took as a little adventure to get down there. Suluban Beach is what lying next ahead. It was a surfers paradise not…it was paradise for most everyone. We should climb down hundreds of unconventional quirky steep staircases( these staircases are with no handles by the way). The place is full of westerners, I guess we were the only bunch of non-westerner visitors that day. The rest are just the local (we are locals as well.apparently). Good to know, the westerners speak a broken Indonesian and try to greet us nearly everywhere by saying Apa Kabar? (How are you Doing) or even Saying Kamu Cantik (you’re so pretty) which made us fly for couple of seconds, cause type of boys that we saw were those typical that we oftentimes see on magazine.

Before we got into the shore, we were welcomed by mountains of rocks and caves and strong waves! Too bad I didn’t equipped myself with google, because it indeed a perfect place for exploring coral reefs. The adventure didn’t stop there, cause we found lagoon for our own, the one that we treated as if it was our bathtub. I did swimming to the middle of the sea before I got problem with the strong wave and my loose bikini. (I should never bought a pair of bikini with size 10 next time). So happy that not many hawkers were raiding or talking trash to us. The beach is just perfect.

There was this view point from the cliff, which only fit for two people maximum. This view point is made of thin wooden bed-like ,like a terrace for sleeping. I saw one lady doing topless sunbathing on that viewpoint. We were waiting for almost an hour for this lady to get off, but she was enjoying the moment for too much. Bake in the sun while starring into the Indian Ocean.

currently craving for my West Australia and (possible) Karimun Jawa Trip late 2009!

Beach Hunter : Geger Beach

2009-05-19T21:29:00.000+08:00

We have been living on the island for the rest of our lives. So we never pay particular attention for touristy beaches, except 66 beach. Cause it is the only perfect beach we used to visit a lot of times for hanging out with close friends. We were lucky this time because the shine stroke so strong unlike many other days previously. It was raining a bit quite.sometimes on Monday and Tuesday which made the mood of our photgrapher blew off because of the flatten sky.

The sky is perfect blue and tourquise gradient thus it was reflected vividly onto the water of the sea as well. This fact increased our indulgence over the sea. I got to admit that the shore was dirty with bulks of seaweed, but it made sense as the very place is actually a seaweed farm village. We spent the afternoon taking some shoots and reading some books or magazine, while Marion was obviously putting some tanning lotion onto her skin.

Yesterday was special for me, cause it was a perfect get-together of my high school friend, my sister and Marion- a French friend of mine. We drove down south app 30 mins away from my home to the unseen beach. We had to park the car on the cliff. From the top of the cliff you can basically stare into the very southern stretch of coast of the island. One temple is located on the top. This is Bali: swimming in the calm blue water under the temple!. So I profoundly told marion that only mostly locals and few tourist with a generous tourguide will be able to discover the existence of the beach.

We spent the afternoon taking some shoots and reading some books or magazine, while Marion was obviously putting some tanning lotion onto her skin.

p.s so sorry of not being very keen of blogging lately. I land on the job of being a tourguide for some of my friends from NTU.

Tune into : You'll Change - Machine Translator

my soundtrack of singapore

2009-05-07T00:24:00.000+08:00

Hey People, sorry for not really updating my blog for quite a while. I said goodbye too many people and been enjoying the scenery, landscape and food of Singapore for the very last minute. Here are some of the good songs which I keep on playing on my iPod during the last 4 months- most memorable ones. :

1. Tiger Mountain Peasant Song - FLEET FOXES
Whenever I hear about this song, it reminds me of a daily walking from my room to ADM library. I could play this song 3 times in a row. meaning that it took me 10 minutes walking to reach ADM. It is a very calm song, with only strings of guitar and melodious cannons of mini choir on it.

2. Gotta Have You - THE WEEPIES
A very romantic rhapsody from the weepies. i used to play onto this song whenever I stalk over somebody's room down there, which i found via trailing his white crocs. but later on I dedicated this song to another person who got really close to me.

Extreme Cycling @ Pulau Ubin

2009-04-30T01:10:00.000+08:00

Cycling was fun. the scenery and ambience looked almost the same with the set up of Bailey's Put Ur Records On - music video.

Big group of us were trying to find the secret path, a kind stranger told us about the place. downslope is so much fun but the steep hills were killing

me and novi messing around with the bikes around the mangrove area

me and my roommate

Cyndy, one of my bestie during the old days who is now reading multimedia design in one of top arts school in singapore told me not to Pulau Ubin. Smply because there are lots of sceneries and ambience that almost feel the same with what we are having back home, moreover there are lots of mosquitos around. the former turned out to be a quite fallacy cause Pulau Ubin is a fun place for cycling, hard-core ones ( refer to extreme, intense whatever in a excessive extent). while the latter is a truth cause we all got bitten by nauught mosquitos even if logiccally this was unacceptable because we are all moving in the fast motion and like how come mosquitos who flew in a slower speed than out gear bikes able penetrate through the skin?

I have always been a big fan of cycling even though there seems not much places in my hometown which is convenient for me to cycle around and get a feeling of perfect scenery like this. Moreover i was doing this activity with some of people that I am really close during my stay in Spore. My roommate was very organized and helpful by being a tourguide for us all. She is so into extreme cycling.

The island is 10mins away by ferry from changi village and it is very tourists friendly just like any places round Spore. You could find vending machine inthe middle of the jungle, all of the routes are made clear and perfectly organized so it is impossible for you to get lost. We also witnessed some of magnificent mangrove-coastal creatures such as the mini jelly fish, mud skipper and some stone crabs (see im getting better with my animal kingdom vocabularies?). The island also was occupied by lots of others plantations and land animals.

tune into : I want to ride my bicycle - Queen

never been good at saying goodbyes

2009-04-30T01:04:00.000+08:00

yeah i was on the bus ride back home and having this conversation with Jeff, we are both not really good at saying goodbyes to anyone we have met.
OK basically I have been going out every single days and lots of things have happened lately , i was also occupied with exam which i already finished em all yesterday so I have not really given any tangible updates. but anyway this was a fun and sad week.

Romantic Fantasy Worlds: Esplanade Concert Hall

2009-04-21T16:53:00.000+08:00

It would be one bored Saturday Night hadnt Nick buzzed me on chatroom and informed me the NUS Conservatory concert on Felix Mendelssohn and other composer whose name I forgot (blah). It was cheap for a formal concert though, 15 SGD for front row. It marked my very first coming to a classical concert. Way before that I had attended Misa Solemnis General Rehearsal at Sydney Opera House last winter for free. But you know Misa Solemnis,its a whole songs of the entire mass liturgy and its a bloody rehearsal so you will definitely find yourself sleepy and stuffy in the middle of the concert. But this concert was amazing.It took me a surprise how people cleverly managed to play softly but fast enough. The orchestra was led by a Chinese women, which I think possess quite entertaining gesture of motivationing the rest of the orchestra. Seated at the front row was amazing, for a first-timer like me. And I sat next to the cellos, my most favorite instrument. There are lots of manners and customs on the concert that I havent really comprehend. yeah.oh and they played the wedding march before the intermission. HAH

Last pic of Rafael, Nick and I before the photo session was sabotaged by one nice officer.

Front Row! Cello!

Acoustic interior of Esplanade Theatre

A Day in the Sun

2009-04-21T16:42:00.001+08:00

Summer is in the air! Singapore daily weather forecast reached the upper 30 degree celcius just recently. Its time for pool time and belly reduction for some girls. Its been good knowing some Canadians and Emilie from Sweden even for weeks, and they are going to go out of the countries. NTU pool is one of the most exiting part of the campus, especially during weekend. Almost all exchange students who are not off Singapore will probably pay a visit to the pool for a relaxing sunbathing. I feel so blessed cause no matter how long I fry my skin under the sun, I wont burn so bad, at least I will have the red face for couple of days and darken skin, but they will recover really soon. Oh I wish my campus has a pool which allow students to wear bikinis.

Marion showed us some of the lesson learned from her lifeguard class. She passed the exam two weeks ago and she is an official lifeguard. I am so proud of her. Emilie swims so fast, Rebecca hung out by the pool side, cramming for her test.

We look multinationals ! France - Canada- Sweden- Indonesia

My way back to the resident hall is more than appealing. I put Little Joy - Next time around on the tune, it was so fucking hot by it was fun day under the sunlight

Pancake for Us :)

2009-04-18T02:08:00.000+08:00

I know you're bored and stuffy, it's your fault for not trying to give me a call to brighten your day.
so I went to one of the most happening gathering of the night, while i am pretty sure the other are studying. Marion had prepared the pancake ingredient for almost 10 of us. I helped the prep. I am so sad that this might be our last meeting with the Canadians, cause they leave soon.

See my Thoughts on a Magazine

2009-04-16T00:52:00.000+08:00

Geez, I am not bragging or anything. but my senior, who is now editor on one domestic magazine, QB Headline, asked me to write upon my opinion upon any phenomena that I like. If you happen to be curious or something, click here!

Singapore Zoo : Day and Night

2009-04-15T23:46:00.000+08:00

It supposed to be the very first day of exam in NTU,and for unexpected reason I found myself scattered with papers in my most fave corner in ADM rugs, sitting there while watching some of enthusiastic (well almost all) students trying to either cram for the test, simply getting done with maths equations. And then apparently one of my friend asked me to come along with him and his friend to the Zoo.in the middle of the day. I didnt mind to go, since my exam will be starting next week, which is kinda weird. Cuz most of the students I know will probably have their exam started by yesterday and spread out througout the end of the month.

The zoo is located somewhere near Seletar Nature Reservoir, up north of Singapore. It was heavily touristy place by the architecture, just as the same as the Bali Safari and Marine Park. I usually avoid places with this typical. I got to say that the diversification of fauna is magnificent. Singapore zoo has (almost) complete exotic animals from all over the world. This brought me to a realization that I forgot so many species from my encyclopedia book, one of my fave book when I was 6 or 7. Each animal is adopted by big company. however, I couldnt even distinguish a mugger, gairhal,alligator and crocodile at the very start.These guys look almost the same from the surface, but if you look twice, you can tell the differences. Yes, they basically come from the same genus, with crocodillus taxonomy on the front of its scientific name.

It took me by surprise that this zoo is not merely providing a (probably) last sanctuary, entertainment, economic profit but also education in a tangible plausible manner. They always show the additional info of how many of these are still exist on earth, which related species have extincted. I had no idea that we used to have Balinese Panthers!. Information about poachers and illegal trade on elephant trunks, ivory, leather and scales should have brought more awareness for the visitors. That killing animals on subsitence-basis for the sake of profit should not be happening for more.

I forgot the name of this cute animal. Yeah it took me 4 shots until i could get him still on the pic.

March of the penguin- my very first acquiantance with penguins. they are kept in air conditioned den. But this one apparently imported from South Africa and named jackass penguin. Of the 1.5-million African Penguin population estimated in 1910, only some 10% remained at the end of the 20th century( thats what Wikipedia said)

The Dayak Tribal of Borneo dance - I can tell that these people speak Malay or Indonesian on some extent. They performed the fire dance and little war dance,along with techno -ethnic music.LOL

Biggest iguana in the neighborhood

Giant turtle is having his nap

This orangutan was such an exhibition-ist.(see the hyphen!).

Show me your face,dude!

Even though I have been to all eastern part of Australia, but I got to say I missed one of their specialties : Kangaroo and Koala.Lucky that I got the chance to see the real kangaroo in here. Kangaroo means ' I DONT KNOW ' in Aboriginese

Nick in the Ethiopian Honai

Had I paid more attention in my pre-historic subject, I would probably know what these tools are for

the orang utans from below. these guys have almost peed on visitors hahahha

Baboon's big meeting. see the ass-es

White Lion

The gharial is one of the second-longest of all living crocodilians.he most distinctive feature of the group is the very long, narrow snout, which is an adaptation to a diet of small fish. Although gharials have sacrificed the great mechanical strength of the robust skull and jaw that most crocodiles and alligators have, and in consequence cannot prey on large creature.poor you

Later at night I also got a chance to visit the Night Safari, but because alll of these trips are poorly planned so we didnt have our cameras fully charged. and we were not supposed to have a flash photography as it would disrupt the nocturnal creatures. The park is located 3 mins away from the day safari. We took different routes of tram which is heavily tourist but this is the only way of seeing the whole animal collection. The african elephant is the mightiest best so far. Subsequently we were transferred into a den which linked all the trails, jungle trail. We barely saw anything, so we used the light from our cellphones and starlights (was there any?)instead. This quite an opportunity as I never been to any forest in the dark before.And i promise myself: Borneo jungle trail should be one agenda to-go before I die.LOL

What I've Been Doing today

2009-04-15T16:46:00.001+08:00

I woke up at 9 AM and realized that this is my due date for design submission!
So I incacerated myself, locked in my room and doing these designs all day

I (should have) read : ALL HANDOUTS FOR HG221
i Listen to : Mum ( a random French techno due, recommended by Ragil)

Random thoughts on 3.07 AM

2009-04-13T03:07:00.000+08:00

you know what it's like when i get so random.

ok i want to be that person with high level cultural capital in Bourdieu's assertion. I want to have a strong opinions as well.

Giving Birth and General Election

2009-04-13T02:42:00.000+08:00

ask myself two of the scariest thing would ever happen to me : Giving birth and Cast my vote on the general election

I am naturally inclined to be a mother someday, but trust me I had been seeing lots of labor documentaries during my biological class and they all look very scary to me. I think I’d prefer have myself inducted by high amount of sleeping pills while im giving birth one day

ask myself why I didn’t vote for during the General Election round 1 for members of parliament :

1. There are 38 parties in the ballot card, and I have to choose one of them. Moreover, I am not really aware of any party except PDI-Perjuangan, Demokrat and Golkar. These three big parties are definitely dominating the election as the result retrieved by the quick count. And you know that I am not really into politically and philosophically mainstream ( as I apply non-mainstream on my daily life assortment), so I’d better go with the underdog parties. But then again, who are the underdogs ? what are their vision? Who are they representing for?. Up to this point I am off of being fair upon the dichotomy of mainstream/underdog.

2. So the election is a pointless celebration of democracy in our country especially Indonesia as the biggest democratic country in the world (in terms of population, you know), first you have to print bigger paper to fit 38 parties. More paper means more money to be spent, more trees are chopped off, more print ink are used. It is time for Indonesia to really install and establish electronic-based ballot card.

3. Lots of irregularities occurred during the election, see : http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20090411/tap-indonesia-vote-aeccaac.html

4. I currently don’t stay in Indonesia, so I have to travel to the Embassy in order to vote. Yet Indonesia is being famous of its long bureaucratic discrepancy history. So this one officer of the Embassy said that I am not eleigible to vote because I have no reference letter from my region to confirm that I am eligible because I am Indonesian, moreover I wasn’t even recognized as an Indonesian who lives in Singapore because my visa will be obsolete by early May 2009. Folks?

5. If they say that election is a celebration of democracy then it should be made as representative as can be. But most people I know they don’t vote and exercise their rights. Not because they are unaware but simply because they don’t know who to choose, too many to chose. 1 choice out of 38 options for determining the rest of the country in further 5 years. Its almost the same as picking a cool and nice boy to be your boyfriends and most likely to be dumped after the five years

Song of the day : Songbird -Katie Herzig

Updates: Holy Week Away from Home & Sinthya's 21

2009-04-13T01:49:00.001+08:00

Dislaimer : the pictures above has no direct relation to the title of the post. Its just there to show you glimpses of one of my friend's bday celebration, which basicaaly borrow a theme from the day. It was Good Friday going on to Vigil, so the idea of 'baptizing' her into the pond of ADM is made to reminiscing the old mystery that was happened 2000 years ago.

During the holy week, me and some friends went church-hoping for three parishes stretched along Singapore. This was my experience of celebrating the Holy Week away from home. Its kinda sad cause at the same time my grandparents and their cousins from Netherlands are coming to Bali just to celebrate Easter with my family (in case, my Dad is an exception cause he doesnt celebrate Easter even though he's a Protestant). One of my Grandma-in-Law , Oma Jannette also had this special weekend to confirm herself as a Catholic. She asked to be baptized before she heads off for Amsterdam next months.

Of all masses that I have attended the Easter Vigil in St Mary Church of Angels Bukit Batok was overall the best and the most entertaining. The mass started at 9PM but so as to anticipate the crowd of masses so we arrived way earlier, i bet its around 7pm, and we basically sat at the same seats for the consecutive 6 hours. Anyway, the church was renovated in 2006 (Kevin told me), and as you can see from the pic below that it has some kind of minimalist/japanese way of interior design. There is no wooden cross hangin up above the altar, instead they hang the replica of crucified Jesus in the middle of the altar. It was kinda scary when all lights are off, like when they did switch all the lights before the VIgil started just as usual tradition of Vigil. One thing worth note about this church: the baptism font, situated at the very middle of the church! It was amazing, that during the vigil we had round 74 elects baptized in the church. The Priest stands and dip himself onto the water while baptizing each person who are dipped into the water in three times. After they were confirmed by saying Amen, all audiences will busily clapped their hands. I think this church is really cool.

The same chronicle applies to Sinthya's surprise party ( well its not like a usual party, but they had beers, chips and cake, so we call it a party cause we cant afford of going to any club nearby just to celebrate a birthday). We first tight her hands , blindfolded her so as to make it the same with Jesus way to the Calvary. And we threw her into the water so she could renew her baptism!. NOT!

.

2009-04-09T11:03:00.000+08:00

I stayed awake till 5 AM doing designs and you still wont accept my work?

i should have resigned from the very beginning

Random Thoughts on 4.28 AM

2009-04-09T04:28:00.000+08:00

The sun is about to rise in few hours and I'm still sitting on my desk, doing piles of design, which basically incorporated by cropping and merging pictures. I wont survive without Fleet Foxes,The Go!Team and Yeasayer.

I think, I should have resigned from the design team.( this is ridiculous, you've been wanting this job for so long!)

This is quite irrelevant to the title, but a while ago me and my roommate made some crazy poses while we were busy streaming on to you-tube, instead of preparing for exam. Yeah, my roommate has done a new layout for our new room.The reason is solely because the temperature is getting hotter everyday, and we need another window for the air circulation, but then another dillemma emerged, most of the bugs are coming into our room during day and night!

BEFORE

AFTER

WHICH ONE WOULD YOU PREFER THE MOST?

if i stay any longer there, I would probably buy ourselves a beautiful rug from Ikea!

Tune into : Yeasayer : Tightroper

Paradox.

2009-04-09T02:31:00.001+08:00

Before I decided to go for NTU TF LeARN program to Singapore, me and my best friend signed up ourselves to CIOFF management, an Indonesian traditional dance club affiliated with France Embassy which based in Jakarta The club annually selects the best Indonesian students in academic and non academic field, to represent Indonesia as a traditional dance ambassador in a world cultural summit in France. It has been my dream to learn traditional dances from my country, apart from going to france-kind-of-motivation.. But I always be occupied with lots of school assignments and uncessary things within my early days. When I first arrived to NTU, I pledged myself to try out something new in the campus. Because in my home university I am a very typical go-to-campus-and go-home-afterwards kind of student, even though I do loads of organizational stuffs with peers, but I reckoned that all of my activities are the very same activities that I had been doing ever since I was in secondary school. This fact definitely drove me even more to try something new and challenging.
Almost few weeks back then, me and other Indonesian LEaRN-ers gathered ourselves in canteen 14 to discuss what to perform. There were 9 of us, whereas 1of us declined to join the performance on the religious basis, which I refuse to mention due to his/her own privacy. We were confused and stucked within 30 minutes on determining the kind of performance that we want to give. Fajar, another LEaRN-er from Indonesia suddenly came out with almost last minute idea, he gave me a contact number of his highschool mate who has known as a member of Indonesian unofficial student association here in NTU. But we were hesitate to make any contact, afraid that calculation on expenses of dress loan and practices fee will burden us even much.
But I insisted to try, I have a belief that as a fellow Indonesian, they will at least have a heart to help us out. I dialed the number and tried to reach him. I was aware that I am going to ask a favour, a BIG ones, from someone that I never even met, so I tried to keep my head low. but he answered my phone with a very polite and warm greeting so I felt accepted straightaway. I talked to Fahla the guy on the phone who is actually the manager slash coach of Saman United in NTU and expressed him about my requests on behalf of the rest Indonesian. Fahla understood our situation truly and he asked me my email as we established new way of corresponding. I even dared myself to ask about the fee and costume loan, he replied everything will be provided for free. What a kindness from a stranger that I haven’t even met!

"Saman" the most popular dance in Aceh and the dance that has become well-known abroad with the name "Thousand hands". It has its origin from the Alas ethnic group and is normally performed to celebrate the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad. and other important occasions. Eight to twenty male performers kneel in a row on the floor and make different kinds of torso movements accompanied by songs, clapping hands, slapping chests, slapping hands on the floor, etc. The songs are praises to Allah or prayers. The dance starts with slow movements and increases its tempo gradually to great speed and finally come to a sudden stop. There are many different regional versions of "Saman"
Meuseukat"Meusekat" is almost the same as "Saman". The only difference is that "Meusekat" is performed by women and originates in west and south Aceh. (Sources: Aceh.net)

To Kill a Boredom

2009-04-09T01:39:00.000+08:00

It's 1.39 in the morning. I messed up with piles of designs to do. Today I learnt that :

1. Marion said that he's really hot - quite a shocking fact, after a long time i've been thinking that he's quite a geek.

2. I could never focus on one thing, I always have a tendency to do things simultaneously. Like studying one chapter, while wandering into another chapter, get lost on sentences and paragraphs and fell asleep. Doing works on photoshop, while having my MSN and Facebook windows left active, so rather I'd rather be on a cyber conversation with them. This is so ineffective.

3. Howcast.com is coolest web of the week.

Library(es) in NTU

2009-04-07T14:49:00.001+08:00

Disclaimer : This article is written in Bahasa Indonesia, my mother tongue and subjected under the property of International Relations Department Lab of Universitas Indonesia for the purposes of describing one of exciting places for geek like me during my stay in NTU.

Perpustakaan adalah salah satu tempat yang menjadi prioritas utama untuk dikunjungi ketika saya pertama kali tiba di Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapura. Terdapat 6 perpustakaan di NTU: Lee Wee Nam Library ( perpustakaan pusat), Business Library, Humanities and Social Sciences Library, Asian Communication Resource Centre, Arts, Design and Media Library , dan Chinese Heritage Centre .. Klasifikasi perpustakaan di NTU bisa dikategorikan dalam segmentasi buku-buku yang tersedia, sama seperti di UI, masing-masing fakultas memiliki perpustakaannya tersendiri. Waktu beroperasi perpustakaan dimulai dari jam 08.30 pagi hingga jam 09.00 malam. Hanya Arts, Design and Media library yang buka hingga jam 10 malam. Ketika berbicara perpustakaan di satu fakultas NTU, maka kita harus membayangkan perpustakaan yang benar- benar besar dalam artian, Perpustakaan bisnis,misalnya memiliki tiga lantai, dimana dua lantai merupakan gabungan antara lab komputer dan koleksi buku dan jurnal-jurnal sedangkan satu lantai diperuntukkan bagi mesin fotokopi dan mesin pencetak (printer) , scanner dan koleksi video dan ruang multimedia sebagai fasilitas belajr mengajar. Lee Wee Nam Library merupakan perpustakaan pusat yang terdiri dari 5 lantai. Lee Wee Nam Library merupakan tempat yang nyaman untuk mennghabiskan waktu belajar, karena perpustakaan ini buka hingga jam 12 malam di hari-hari menjelang ujian. Sistem belajar di NTU yang sudah mulai merambah sistem e-learning (dimana tatap mata dosen-mahasiswa secara langsung di kelas sudah mulai dikurangi. Dosen hanya tinggal merekam kuliah mereka melalui video dan bisa langsung di-upload di dalam portal belajar NTU, edventure), menjadikan perpustakaan pusat ini memiliki banyak komputer. Sekitar 300 komputer terhampar di perpustakaan Lee Wee Nam. Kebanyakan koleksi yang disimpan di sana adalah buku-buku, dokumen dan jurnal ilmu eksak. Oleh sebab itu, hanya mahasiswa teknik (engineering) , matematika dan fisika yang lebih sering mengunjungi perpustakaan ini.

Saya sangat terkesan dengan sistem self-service yang diterapkan oleh semua perputakaan NTU. Kita tidak butuh mengantri lama-lama di depan meja librarian untuk meminjam buku. Cukup pergi ke sebuah mesin pemindai (scanner machine) bernama Self-service kiosk. Hadapkan buku yang hendak dipinjam ke mesin dan laser sensor itu dan gesekkan kartu matrikulasi (semacam KTM), maka mesin itulah yang akan memproses peminjaman buku dan mengkonfirmasi jadwal pengembalian buku. Birokrasi mudah, satu kartu bisa digunakan untuk mengakses/meminjam buku ke perpustakaan mana saja. Tidak seperti di UI, dimana kita harus memiliki kartu berwarna oranye untuk meminjam buku antar fakultas. Ini semua karena semua koleksi buku dan jurnal ilmiah sudah teregistrasi secara online di seluruh perpustakaan. Kita tidak perlu pergi ke meja sirkulasi pula untuk mengembalikan buku. Di setiap sudut NTU, terdapa boks berwarna perak yang merupakan Drop Box, tinggal masukkan buku-buku pinjaman ke dalam kotak tersebut saja. 0Kenyataan ini memudahkan proses peminjaman bagi mahasiswa, selain itu proses ini cepat dan nyaman. Mahasiswa NTU sangat suka ‘nongkrong’ di perpustakaan, tentunya untuk belajar. Karena perpustakaan sangat dibuat nyaman bagi para penggunanya. Mahasiswa diizinkan membawa minuman dan makanan kecil ke dalam perpustakaan, ini dikarenakan banyak mahasiswa bisa menghabiskan waktu berjam-jam di perpustakaan. Entah untuk belajar atau menikmati tidur siang! Satu hal yang membuat saya takjub adalah, bila anda ingin pergi ke kamar kecil dan meninggalkan semua barang berharga (e.g., laptop, handphone,mp3 player/iPod) , dijamin ketika anda kembali ke tempat duduk anda, barang-barang anda masih berada di tempat semula tanpa berpindah tempat atau posisi!. Semula saya masih merasa paranoid, ketika hendak pergi mencari makanan saya membawa semua barang berharga saya, tapi lama kelamaan saya merasa ini hal yang merepotkan. Saya sekarang sudah mulai berani meninggalkan semua barang apapun itu yang berada dengan saya di atas meja, apabila saya hendak pergi meninggalkan meja untuk kamar kecil, mengangkat panggilan telepon ataupun pergi mencari makanan kecil. NTU memiliki exposure dan langganan yang luar biasa kepada media-media dan jurnal ilmiah internasional untuk berbagai macam bidang studi. Portal belajar NTU memiliki akses langsung ke edisi penuh majalah-majalan popular seperti The Economist, The Financial Times dan Forbes. Banyak jurnal-jurnal ilmiah tersedia secara online maupun dalam bentuk buku. Karena saya awam terhadap jurnal-jurnal dan karena kebanyakan dari jurnal yang tersedia adalah jurna ilmu eksak popular, jadi saya hanya mengenal beberapa jurnal dan review yang popular juga seperti Harvard Bussiness Review, The Journal of International Arbitration. HSS Library (Humanities and Social Sciences) adalah surga bagi buku-buku bertemakan politik dan hubungan internasional, meskipun NTU tidak memiliki jurusan yang berkonsentrasi pada dua ilmu tersebut.

Banyak dari jurnal dan buku-buku yang tersedia merupakan bahan-bahan pembanding yang sesungguhnya sempurna untuk beberapa makalah saya di semester lalu. Arts Design dan Media Library merupakan salah satu perpustakaan favorit saya, karena letaknya sangat deat dengan tempat tinggal saya dan merupakan perpustakaan yang unik yang pernah saya kunjungi selama ini. Perpustakaan ini menyimpan koleksi buku-buku seni baik digital arts maupun fine arts dan koleksi video yang mengagumkan. Gedung perpustakaan berwarna hitam, hingga lantainya pun berkarpet hitam, semua rak bukupun berwarna hitam. Perpustakaan ini ebi irip toko buku ak sa ra atau kafe ketimbang perpustakaan seperti sebagai mana mestinya. Karen begitu banyak lukisan hasil karya mahasiswa dipamerkan di setiap sudut dan bukan hanya itu, ADM library juga merupakan galeri pameran bagi produk desain Sebuah tempat yang menakjubkan untuk menghabiskan waktu dan mengerjakan tugas.

btw Ras, beberapa foto nyusul yaaahhhh!!!

hope you like this

Kindness of Strangers

2009-04-07T01:52:00.000+08:00

KINDNESS OF STRANGERS Before I head for Thailand for recess week, I was reading on Kindness of Strangers- a Lonely Planet anthology of traveling journals done by some celebrities or public figures who randomly went abroad on traveling through the most exotic yet unseen plaes in the world. The purpose of following writing is to provide you a simple evidence that good people still exist surrounds this pessimistic society. Back to my story, I dared myself to travel along with two friends which I barely knew from LEaRN program for 1,5 months. They are May from Brunei and Sinthya from Indonesia- even though we’re both Indonesians, but we come from different universities and places, and Win from Thailand also came with us during the traveling and stuffs That was my first arrival in Thailand. I arrived in Suvarnabhumi Airport-Bangkok around 8 in the morning. We came up with the backpacker-style of tourist so we prefer to stay in a hostel instead of even a budget hotel. I was ready with everything including the map of Bangkok, all hostel booking sheets and of course tricks to avoid the cheating taxi driver and stuffs. We were supposed to go to Charoen Krung Road, It is a long road though. It stretches along the same line of Chao Phraya River.

I told the taxi driver to drop us off anywhere close to Charoen Krung Rd. During the trip, I kept on looking on the map to make sure that this driver didn’t rip us off and took longer route than what we have to take. Once we saw the traffic sign of Charoen Krung, we demanded the driver to stop the vehicle. We stopped at somewhere around Chareon Krung Rd but we haven’t got any idea where exactly on earth our hostel is located at. Bangkok is such a crowded place with buildings and traffic and everything are mostly written in Thai characters. But yeah this is Bangkok and I don’t want to spend my time hanging around like such a lost tourists. Ever since Bangkok is a heaven of shrines, I could notice temple much easily by its tall pagoda tower. So we stopped by to nearest temple which later we figured out the name of the respective temple is Yannawa. It was like a squared-complex of temples with a main boat-shaped temple in the centre. We took several pictures there until we even forgot the main purposes of searching and bumping into our hostel first. Sinthya took initiative to ask for the exact address of our hostel to the security guard but she doesn’t speak English so she transferred us to several people who gathered in the front of the shrines but they also don’t speak English so well. By that time I understood that I need to at least comprehend some basic Thai apart from Sawasdee ( thai for greeting each other) and Kapun Ka( Thai for expressing thank you) to make me more understandable. Apparently there was a woman who speaks broken English but she managed to understand our request. She paid a glance towards my hostel booking sheet and referred to her husband to ask for more details, cause she argued that her husband knows Bangkok roads better than her, very typical. The address that I got was 1266/1 Charoen Krun Rd.But her husband also doesn’t speak English and he didn’t recognize the address because he said there was no such address in Charoen Krung. Her husband helped us to seek for more information, he even called the information centre for couples err plenty of times to help us gain the right address.

On the first attempt he said that the contact number that was given by me wasn’t the correct number. So he kept on dialing the information centre number and eventually got the correct ones while we were worrying at the same time. Because I got the hostel name via third party site for hostel booking, and I have made my deposit payment. Meanwhile the wife offered us a seat inside the shrine whish was pretty relieving because outside was so hot, it was like 40 celcius or upper. I was going to decline the offer, because I was afraid that coming into the shrine might cause certain offenses towards the praying pilgrims. Basically I was afraid of making such offensive behaviors at any new places that I have been. But the woman offering was genuine I even felt most welcomed over there. She provided us seats and drinks. They got air conditioner inside – not too bad. We were almost dehydrated outside with pollution and sun strokes. Yet the husband was on the phone,still. I felt so bad upon myself that time. The wife started the usual conversation like our identities, why did we come to Bangkok and stuffs and we asked about her info in almost the same manner. She explained to us what was happening inside the shrine, because it wasn’t look like any typical Buddhist shrine that I have ever gotten into. They were all relics of The Buddha, which manifested in the shapes of stones and precious jewelries made of gold. So people came down there for special requests which I didn’t ask for the detail. She got two kids –toddlers of boy and girl and they are all very cute. While at the same time I still tried to pay my attention to her busy husband who was trying to help us. He tried to find somebody and others to help us. After 20 minutes or so, the husband managed to get us a MAP, which he drew by himself. This map illustrated the path-direction for us to get to our hostel. It is supposed to be 36 Charoen Krung Rd. It is actually 500 metres away from the Yannawa Shrine based on his explanations which of course has to be done in a body language and sometimes non verbal communication. We were all so happy until I didn’t even know how to thank them at all. But of course we managed to express our thank you in a Thai manner and language so it would be more down to earth and understandable for them. We walked off the Yannawa Shrine complex and head for some direction across the BTS Skytain Rail as been showed by the map. I enjoyed the long walking with my 4kilograms weight of backpack and my other traveling partners didn’t complain much either. Yannawa ones was the 53 Charoen Krung Rd, so there must be another 17 blocks for us to walk to. But we didn’t complain that much cause we were enjoying the authentic Sunday morning activities for Bangkok natives which was so much fun. We even forgot that we haven’t eaten anything since last night! But there were loads of yummy street foods around and we were not hesitant to buy something for sure. We walked through block by block and the 36th block seems still far away.

Suddenly there was a car horn behind us, we didn’t notice that muct until there was a sound of a familiar voice calling by. It was the family that we met at the Yannawa Shrines and they offered us a ride right to our very hostel. At first, we didn’t want to go with the car because we thought that the hostel is just few meters away but it turned out otherwise! The hostel was still kind of far. Inside the car, everything felt so like home. I could see the baby stuffs hanging round everywhere, the pacifiers, the dolls and everything. The woman told us about their plan to go to Singapore for vacation next July but I was so sad because I wont be in Singapore anymore round July so I couldn’t meet them up for more. The aforementioned elaboration is enough to give me a good first impression about Bangkok natives. Language doesn’t matter, sincerity matters the most that was the biggest lesson learned that I have got during the recess week. I might didn’t plausibly study in a tangible manner such as reading and reaping a book and staying late in front of my laptop to browse for online journals, but I have learned one life skill. The story of this little family is just a glimpse of many collections of kindness of strangers that happened to me during the trip. Win, my fellow LEaRN from Thailandshowed us a lot of sincerity in terms of catering and taking much cre upon us from the scale of showing us cool places to have good Thai Food, help us to bargain for cheap souvenir, drive us here and there, and translate everything for us. This manner wasn’t only exhibited for me, May and Shintya only who apparently traveled along with Win for the round trip, but there are more of exchange students coming down to Thailand for the recess trip. I considered win as a stranger too, but the ones that I could make friend so easily. Not to mention, I would like to thank all strangers that I met in Thailand during my trip when we were lost, when sort of proper communication isn’t necessary. These series of kindness has helped me the needs to be more optimistic and embody the sense of trust for me to others. I was so much pessimistic of strangers before but not too intense. This really have a profoun effect on me- I can still recapture the exact emotions I had felt then. Nobody is kind all the time, but in the illimitable order of all thing, in my view, every little bit helps. The book that I have mentioned before has a very great conclusion of saying that the most striking manifestation of kindness is certainly the kindness of strangers. We generally expect our friends and relatives to be ind, just as we are not in the least surprised when our sworn enemies are beastly.

To Some of Artsy Places in Singapore!

2009-04-06T22:36:00.000+08:00

I supposed to go to the waterpark with my tutorial group that day, but because of the bad sign on the weather and they hesitated to go thus I went with my plan B to make a wonderful trip into some hidden artsy places in Singapore. I bumped into Ke-Li's original plan to pay a visit to MAAD design exhibition at RED DOT DESIGN MUSEUM in Tj Pagar. Along came Thomas, Ragil, John, Novia to join me on the trip. The event was made for free entrance. They got exhibition, mostly the avant-garde ones. I think lots of arts students gathered there to paint portrait of people on the spots. Nina and Mathieu volunteered to be the models. They did the portrait instantly, like a polaroid. I said this because they did it so quick.

later on almost sunset, Ke-Li took us into an intimacy scenery of coffee shop named Casual Poet, in the attic of one random restaurant at Chinatown. When we climbed onto the stairs and had no idea what is this place supposed to be, John clinged into the handle and said that Ke-Li might wanted to sell our organs!. this was definitely turned into a bluff!

Porn movies R-21 available on Eu Tong Sen Plaza. They're all in Chinese so I dont exactly get what it supposed to be. But the pictures have already told everything and the rest. My roomie who lives by the neighborhood will give this oldest cinema in Singapore a try once she reaches 21 of age.

one of my favorite paints in the museum. i couldnt take the rest favorites-simply because i dont like having the senses of anyone watching at me while i am taking a picture of a paint. Its as if I intitiated a violation of somebody's intellectual rights

this was how we spent the Saturday afternoon and evening.

Singapore City Lights

2009-04-06T22:29:00.001+08:00

Singapore is a great place at night!

It has been amazing weekend even though I stayed in Singapore, and most of my friends got out of the country for the sake of watching Formula 1 race in Sepang, Malaysia.

In the company of Mathieu, Novia and Nina - our way back to the campus. Mathieu ditched this semester in order to travel the world. He's been travelling since 4 months ago to the most exotic places e.g, Galapagos Island, Ecuador,Uruguay, Chile and New Zealand and is resuming his travelling to Southeast Asia. ' Travelling changed me a lot, I saw the real people' - he said

I need photoshop to do some retouches, simply because my pocket camera wont cooperate with me.

Stole the citylight from one window at New Asia Bar -70th floor of Swissotel Singapore

better now

2009-04-05T21:18:00.000+08:00

this would be my own version of twitter though :

Think i am better now, told me so many things till I hardly remember them. But thank God, I finally invent my initiative to be more assertive for my feelings, at least for pleasing my own self.

I am in the middle of tutorial reading. Everything was fun, at last. doing tutorial reading is fun as well.

Current reading : 1) Global Civil Society and Spaces of Resistance by Ray Kiely,

2) Malinche by Laura Esquivel