red eyes writing experiment

My head is dizzy. I've eaten one too many sweets and now am experiencing some sugar rush. Combine that with lack of sleep and eagerness to write, only one word crosses my mind right now: interesting.

Interesting? Maybe not your choice of word. But I wanna wake up some hours from now reading what my brain told my fingers to type under this condition. I've read somewhere about an artist, or maybe there were more than one, who drew while under some drugs' effect. I've been wanting to conduct similar experience since, only without drugs.

...

......

This sentence is written three days (and three sleeps one nap) later than the last one. Actually that wasn't really the last one. I had to remove the part written after it. The now-alert me read it and decided it was too incoherent to put out on public. The topics changed every one or two sentences, from Google Image to pillow shams to meatballs to pinky fingers.

Interesting experiment, still. Maybe I'll do that again sometime in the future.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

the downside of marriage life -- part six

The husband and wife was visiting a local mall when the wife saw a chic bag. The wife asked the husband how much he thought the price of the bag was. "100K," the husband answered.

They had played this game countless times before. The wife would point at a particular item on display and had her husband told her how much he guessed its worth. She would buy the item only if the item turned out to be higher than her husband's guess.

Not that she needed her husband's permission to buy stuff. She just liked to buy things that looked more expensive than their actual price, thus the need for other people's estimation of the price.

However the longer men are into marriage, they tends to be less and less willing to let their partners spend money. So this particular husband learned to lower his guess. He did the trick well, to the point that his wife haven't bought anything in the last 50 guesses.

The wife could see behind his trick, but decided to play along, looking for the window of opportunity to open for her to jump and bust her husband. And opened was the window. 100K was a really small sum for a bag. She whipped out her purse and handed him the money. "You go to the shopkeeper right now and ask her to wrap the bag for me. Keep the change if it's lower than 100K. But if it's higher, you pay the rest."

...

The bag turned out to be five times of the husband's guess. It was 500K.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

to google translate

Google Translate now provides you with slower pronunciation of words. This helps a lot of people (well, at least it helped me) learning languages, for details can be observed better this way.

How to access it? Do the old pronunciation thing first, then hit the button once more to hear slower pronunciation.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

sexy housemaids!

There's a joke I read earlier today, about a lady who told her maid: "Nora, I saw a policeman in the park today kiss a baby. I hope you will remember my objection to such things."

Nora answered, "Sure, ma'am, no policeman would ever think of kissing your baby when I'm around."

>.<

So this joke reminds me of an Indonesian TV series from the 90's called Inem The Sexy Housemaid, or its original Indonesian title, Inem Pelayan Seksi.

The story revolved around Inem, a widow who worked as a maid at the house of a middle-aged couple. Once when Inem was going out, she met his boss' boss (at the office). This man was smitten by her beauty. And in a way that resembled Cinderella, Inem dropped a handkerchief which was later taken by this superboss.

Except that the handkerchief was not Inem's. It was his daughter's handkerchief that Inem took before she went to the city working (Inem's hometown is in another town), to remind her of her. And the handkerchief has Inem's daughter's name, Sarah, sewn on it.

Normally Inem's boss' boss thought that the handkerchief was Inem's. He thought that Inem's name was Sarah. Later after a series of events, superboss visit Inem's boss house and the two met. They got married and took Sarah to stay with them.

Now it's happy and all, if we're not being shown the superboss, after getting the handkerchief, numerously took it out and put it on his chest while saying "Sarah... Sarah..."

He did it while thinking that Inem's name was Sarah, and in the privacy of his own house, but still... I can't imagine the toungue slip that would ensue and the awkwardness that follow: "Sarah my dear, you were so sexy in that apparel last night..."

>.<

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

korean tv series

My friends told me they loved Korean TV series a lot. Their reason was, Korean TV series were more realistic than their mainland Chinese, HK, Taiwan and Japanese counterparts.

I must admit that I only have watched five-ish Korean TV series my whole life. Two of them were not very realistic in my opinion, but it was maybe due to the genre. The rest three were bold. They didn't sugarcoat things.

Miss Kim's A Million Dollar Quest, for example. While TV series from Taiwan are known to show pretty girls expressing mostly elegant, princessy behavior on screen (Romantic Princess etc), A Million Dollar Quest shows a relative of its main character doing minor exercise on screen while conversing with other people, which is not becoming a point at all. People she's conversing with didn't seem to pay attention to it, and very soon the scene was over.

Rain did that too in It's A Beautiful Life, when goofing around with his fellow construction workers. More exposure this time, because that's the point of the scene.

Now, in Chinese TV series, can you imagine the character that Angela Chang played doing a kind of chicken dance exercise while conversing with other characters and they brush it off with 'no big deal' attitude, or without the camera exploiting her act?


This is Angela Chang.

My friends told me Korean TV series were more realistic than their mainland Chinese, HK, Taiwan and Japanese counterparts, and I agree with them sans certain genres.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

wtf, brain?

There are two kinds of women: The fashionable ones and those who are comfortable.
— Tom P. Morgan —

I overheard one of my colleagues conversing with a man about the lack of signal of a mobile phone service provider they were using. This happens from time to time to all kind of mobile phone service providers where I live. Often the cause are some hardware fail on a BTS of theirs. Very third world-y, I know.

IDK what BTS stands for, manybe broadcaster something something. People who have no other BTSs within their phone's reach ends with zero signal.

Less than five minutes later I called my lover on his phone that happened to use said service provider. I had forgotten that the signal was zero in my (and his) area, and got upset when he didn't pick up the phone. In fact his voicemail was picking.

I spent another five minutes dialing like crazy and whole evening mad at myself after realizing I'm the one to blame.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

all urine contains lithium

... was the title of a poem I created back in 1999, when everybody talked about Lithium. Or that seemed to be the case, in my circle of friends.

'I see you have a new mobile phone over there, Nokia 3330?'

"Yes, and with Lithium battery it is!"

Yes, that particular circle of friends consisted of a bunch of kids turning teenagers.

"Why don't you reply my message, man?" The message was about how cool a particular member of the group band Backstreet Boys was.

'I had to turn off my 3310, the battery indicator showed only one bar left. Lithium, you know. Can't let 'em drain completely before charging.'

At that time our world revolved around Lithium, while at the same time also revolved around the McFlurry ice cream on McDonald's, the newest-cutest-must-buy shoes on Gosh store, the gorgeous boys at school, and Naoko Takeuchi's Sailormoon series. The word Lithium itself sounded crisp, new, hip and so 'in', we kept using it in every conversation without knowing much about it. XD

But today a friend gave some informations about Lithium batteries! I am not a stingy person, I will share with you.

Lithium oxide is used as an active material, and for the other electrode they use a lithium intercalation compound (don't ask me what it's supposed to mean, though). Its predecessor, alkaline batteries, used water as the electrolyte. Lithium can't do this, because a water based electrolyte could react with lithium compounds. An organic compound is used instead.

Lithium also operates around 3.3V. Compare that to alkaline's 1.5 V.

I believe there's more information, but aside from 'most alkaline batteries are primary (not rechargable, as opposed to secondary: rechargable)', I couldn't remember more. My mind wandered to that new fashion item, that trendy cake shop, and that hip shelf that will be a perfect addition to my study corner. I guess the teenager's still there after all.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

ear-piercing

Prettiness is essential in a girlfriend. Another basic requirement for a girlfriend is ability to groom oneself. Cooking skills in a girlfriend is also neat. But the most important thing is, those three girlfriends never meet each other.
-- a joke that circulates on the internet --

My ears were pierced when I was a baby. Now before you scream child abuse, piercing female babies' ears was (and still is) a widely accepted practice where I come from. Most go nicely, but mine were problematic later. It turned out the holes were too high. I couldn't wear certain types of earrings: french backs, lever backs, latch backs.


Pictured from left to right: french back, latch back, lever back.

That's why, at the age of 16-ish, my parents took me to be pierced twice more, both below original holes. These turned out not OK either. The angle of the hole punched on me was not acute enough, it looked bad when I wear stud earrings.

Now there's a war inside my head. One voice says I should go get my ears pricked one more time. The other urges me to wrap it up and call it a day?

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

adam lewis' blogger find & replace

Learning English as a second language is hard. Or rather, it isn't, but a lot of my compatriots feel that way. And at the same time, it's sold as a necessary effort. "You need to speak English to travel the world!" How dare be born [sic] in a country where English is the vernacular? It's unfair!
-- Riccardo Orsini's comment on Frederick Bartlett's answer to Why do a lot of English-speaking French and Italians want us, as tourists, to speak their language when we visit their countries? --

So I've been told several times by my Chinese friends that my usage of Chinese commas are wrong. I used '、' instead of '，' on my other blog.


Pictured left: wrong. Pictured right: riight.

Some of them, when I asked, told me the usage of '、' (or dùn hào, 顿号, as they called it) is creme de la creme, which is a way to preserve face. Either they don't know the answer or don't know how to explain it to me in English. Others laid it out in the open that they don't know. Only a few bothered to explain it to me, which I appreciated deeply.

'、' is not your usual comma. It is only used when you list some things, for example: His mother sent him fruits in boxes: oranges, peaches, grapes. This type of Chinese comma can be used between oranges and peaches, also between peaches and grapes.

'，' however, can be used for listing things and other things. So it is safer to use. Hearing that, I planned to correct my writings accordingly.

The problem is, I've been using the incorrect '、' for as many as 75 posts. One post can contain multiple incorrect Chinese comma, too!

That's where Adam Lewis come to the rescue!

By a simple click here and there, all my posts now contain the correct commas. Imagine the relief from having to replace them one by one! :D


But with a poor color choice for user interface.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

muscle pain

Your freedom to swing your fist ends where someone else's nose begins.
-- Franklin Veaux's answer to Are we truly free in the United States? --

I tried this exercise at the gym called hyperextension. At first, I was not aware of the name of the exercise.　Until Ravi Singh told me, that is. All I knew was people lean their bellies on waist-high surface and start doing sit-up-like movements.


Like this.

I thought it would train the muscles on my stomach and started doing it, two days in a row at the gym.

... I knew better today after waking up to the most awful pain my hamstrings ever experienced. =__=

(The hamstring is the muscle on the back of one's thigh)

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

putri kendedes

The owner of Putri Kendedes [sic] sure liked Soekarno a lot! He decorated the whole restaurant with Bung Karno's memorabilia.

Soekarno, the first president of Indonesia is known to had been married several times to pretty ladies. While Naoko Nemoto is no doubt the prettiest of them all, Fatmawati bore the most children. There was a picture of Fatmawati's children with their parents. Said picture lacked the youngest sibling, Guruh, because the relationship between Soekarno and Fatmawati went sour following his birth. To the extent that Fatmawati didn't even visit Soekarno on his deathbed. However when they were still all lovey-dovey, they were a cute couple.


This picture of Fatmawati rode behind Soekarno on a bike, for example.

Oh, about what this restaurant sells -- Indonesian food, something in between Sundanese and Javanese. I like its grilled gourami fish with vegetables and rice.

But you absolutely must taste its soursop juice. The sweetness, smoothness, tanginess and coldness are uncomparable! The best soiursop juice I've ever drank!

Location: Mojokerto, East Java, Indonesia.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

brain rendering is really something

Lately my brain incorporate more and more people into my dreams. Last night was the peak. A city square was utilized by a performing group of which members included two of my male friends. Like many others, I sat on the ground with a female friend of mine. The show itself was magnificent, with 19th century France-ish costumes, make up, stage properties, etc.

There were two big screens above the stage, it replayed bits of important scenes, similar to replays of goal scenes on a soccer match or a FIFA videogame, really.

My friend who was in charge of a particular scene lit his lighter. People playing as the crowd were supposed to follow the fire with their eyes and head movements. The lighter moves from the right side of the stage to the left side, where other performers stood in a wedding-esque pose, ready to enter the stage. The playback of this scene turned out amazing!

However, the most awesome part was when the crew managed to release hundreds/thousands of grasshoppers. The sky above us suddenly darkened as the grasshoppers fly in circles above our heads, and some of them get tangled in the girls' hair. I myself got one.


Kinda like this.

That being said, I didn't pay much attention to the show. Earlier that day (still in my dream) my mother said she's going on a date with my ex. She was ecstatic like a kid on a candy store.

Yes, pretty f*cked up, I know.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

on visiting indonesia: tips for foreigners

So a friend is visiting Indonesia in September. She asked me for travel tips.

Since she said my answer was 'really helpful' to her, I'd just copy-and-paste it here.

General travel tips:
1. Have your documents (passport, ID, etc) copied and ready.
2. Let a friend at your hometown check on you every once in a while.
3. Have cards with important words (airport, hotel, how much, doctor, etc): in your native language on one side, in your destination country's language on another side.

Indonesia only:
1. Avoid wearing short bottoms (skirts, shorts) at public places on your first visit. If you've visited that place before and people wear short bottoms there, then you are free to do it on next visit.
2. Our food can be too spicy and/or too unsanitary for foreigners from first-world countries. Prepare accordingly.
3. We call any Caucasian 'bule'. It's read boo-lay. Not derogatory, unless tied with swear words.
4. Sometimes we call you 'londo'. It's read lawn-though. Same as above.
5. We have mosquitos. A lot of them.
6. We have some men who don't want to shake hands with women for religious reasons. Not a lot of them, but you might encounter them as a group in social settings.
7. September used to be the time of climate changing, from dry season to rainy one. But thanks to global warming, I don't think you'll need any umbrellas in September.

I'll add more later if I find something new.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

project almanac

What would you do if you were a smart man surrounded by equally smart friends, but your father had been smarter than you -- as in he had built a time machine and you found it after his death?

Yep. My thought actually. Go back in time to buy lottery. At first it was fun: the lotto money was more than enough to help mother with her mortgage, hold a party, buy pretty clothes, etc. The time machine also enabled them to go to a music festival that they have missed, having the main singer dedicating a song for one of them, etc.

But soon things get ugly. Like the movie Butterfly Effects, small things led to disasters that took lives of many.

What about you? What would you do if you're in charge of a time machine?

For me, what I would do is going back in time and tell the teenage version of me to stop worrying over small stuff, that everything's gonna be alright.

But wait, I couldn't do that, because I would disappear if I did. This is an obstacle set by the movie Project Almanac, whoever doing time travel is not allowed to be seen by his/her younger self.


I guess I should be content by leaving her a mIRC chat instead.

By the way, throughout the movie there's not a single man uttering his desire to embark on a journey to the future. Maybe they're all sure the world would end in the near future. Or this time machine was only capable of moving backwards, the one with the ability to go to the future's being sold separately?


Just like Ken. Ken came in another box.

Also I haven't found the exact meaning of 'almanac'. I remember looking this word up the internet many years ago, only to end up on a Wikipedia page about Benjamin Franklin's almanac. Google wasn't so omnipotent back then.

Needless to say, I gave up.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

who knows?

... "I like onions on my hamburger"... that person gets you a burger and all it is, is an onion slapped between two hamburger buns... Yes, a woman may want a guy who treats her well. But that doesn't mean that every guy who treats her well will just automatically get a date.
-- Lauren Campbell's answer to Why do some women say they want a man who treats them right but then when someone who come around they deny them? --

During our group discussion on WhatsApp, a friend of me stated that she's afraid to open her morning paper for she didn't want to read either Dahlan or Ahok was being shot to death by a hitman.

This was about a year ago, when Dahlan Iskan was still working as a politician. Both were hated, openly and secretly, by their rivals, those that are regarded by many Indonesian commonners as corrupt politicians.

Later Dahlan chose another path outside of politics, and Ahok rose to power as Jakarta's incumbent governor.

So are they really 'clean' politicians? Dahlan was accused of corruption a few months ago, but media sided with him, like most of commonners do. Or should I say, most commonners do because media sided with him?

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

i challenge you

What is more unfortunate as a person with a name that is considered unique in your country, working in a group of massive companies of which computers are interconnected, than to have IFrameRefI virus spread from your computer?


Add to that naming your computer with XXX-PC, where XXX is your name.

What exactly does this virus called IFrameRefI do? It assumes the name of the source computer, dabs '.eml' on its end, then duplicates itself into different folders. On that computer and on every other computers that are within reach of the infected computer, a.k.a all commputers in the network. Suddenly all computer bearers in said group of companies know your name, and not in a good way.

Note: You can take it down with Windows Defender bootable. I will write about it later, when I'm not too busy digging a hole under my desk hiding myself hoping to just disappear.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

transportation fee markup, eh?

Note: this post by no means an attack to a particular group of people. What happened was the choice of an individual. It can be done by anyone regardless of gender, age, and occupations.

So a public transport car driver is given transportation fee by his passengers using ten thousand rupiah bills mid-journey. Seeing I was new to the area, he gave change money to everyone except me.


The ten thousand rupiah note.

I called this move 'transportation fee markup'.

But! Later a woman got into a car and after about five minutes asked the driver to stop the car with a stern face because the driver wouldn't comply.

"This <insert the name of a public installment here> is where I got off," she said, and upon hearing his answer, "I won't pay you! You stopped one-quarter kilometre further than my actual stop."

The public installment she mentioned was void of people. The installment where the driver eventually stopped was busier. It was known publicly that said public transport car drivers preferred to stop at busier places to attract more passengers.

She got down and really didn't pay him. The fee was more than the change money he didn't give to me. ;) Karma's a b*tch.

And yes, once I wrote something like this.

• 
• 
• 
• 
•