Wake Up & Smell The Indomie

Having been treated in the hospital for 2 days, have left my fiancee extra cautious & worried. She's got reason to be that way. The pain incurred would leave me rolling on the floor, suffering the pain excruciating from inside. Before I forgot, it's my kidney stone that did it. This is the third kidney stone case in my life (I'm not even 26 yet!!)

Back to my fiancee, she's particularly concerned about my medicine schedule. She just couldn't stand watching me suffer, so she would stand by me & shoved the pills. I got a few medicine:

• One of them shall be taken, '4 times daily'.
• The other, 'once daily'.
• Another one, '30 drops, 3 times daily'.
• The last one, 'Shove it in my ass, when in pain'.

Besides all that, I still have to struggle with (AT LEAST):

• 4 cans of carbonated water
• 3 litres of water a day
• A few apples a day - this is good
• Traditional herbal tea, namely 'Cat Moustache'
• Very good chinese herb, 'Ling Shen Yao'
• 'I-don't-know-what herbal tea, which is claimed very effective against kidney stone

Tell you what, taking all those mentioned above is no small stuff. I have to run forth and back to the toilet, passing urine. In the evening alone, I walked about 6 times to the toilet. I begin to master "Walking In My Sleep" style!!

Enough with all the ranting & back to my medicine schedule. To ensure that I take my '4 times daily' medicine, my fiancee will wake me up every morning at 8AM, ask me to take the pills. Knowing that I can't take the pills on empty stomach, she brought a different kind of breakfast for me every morning. This morning, "Wake Up & Smell The Indomie!!" 

“Then We Have A Problem”

“Listen! In my apartment, only the living room has electricity. No other room has electricity. So I want to run a cable from the living room to my bedroom, thus I can plug my aircon, my light, and everything else. Do you got me?”, I said to the shop assistant.

10 minutes ago, before I yanked at that shop assistant, I entered Hardware Department Store “ BEST BUY” at a mall called “Robinson” in Manila. I strolled along with Chris, my friend who stays in Manila, we moved toward the electrical department. Looking for a roll of cable.

The reason I was in that department store was because of a typhoon. It was the worst typhoon that ever hit Manila sinced 1995. A lot of trees were down on the road, hitting people and vehicles. None of the billboard still has the advertisement picture on it. One of the billboard even collapsed into a highway, and get a bus trapped underneath. Along with all those catasthrophe, came the lost of electricity at our apartment.

Losing the electricity, the apartment had to run diesel powered, moving the elevator so that we won't have to climb all the way up the 8th floor using the staircase. Even though the diesel is up and running, it's simply not powerful enough to light the entire apartment. Only the elevator and the apartment's living room has electricity.

So there I was, buying a power cord, choosing one which is thick enough, hoping that it would be able to power the light, cell phone charger, and even the aircon in the bedroom. If the diesel can power up the elevator, surely it would not have any problem running just another aircon. Nice plan!

Choosing the power cord with the electrical outlet was not that simple, the one which has more electrical contact, usually comes with short but thick cable. The longer one, which is up to 6m long usually comes in thin power cable which wouldn't power an aircon. Knowing that none of them would solve the problem, we called up the shop assistant. Asked him to assemble one which is long, thick enough and has multiple outlet. What a genius, huh!

There we were, measuring 7 meters of thickest cable that they got (and the most expensive too!). Soon as we got the measurement, I told the shop assistant, “Let's get the electrical outlet first”. He replied, “Wait, I'll get a cutter, so that we can cut the cable”. Without waiting for me to reply back, he disappeared.

10 minutes later, he appeared with a cutter in hand. I approached him and said softly, “Hey why don't we check the outlet first”. Ignoring me, he kept on cutting. Unsure that he heard me, I repeated my sentence for the third time, “Shouldn't we find the electrical outlet first?”. He finished cutting the cord, and smiled at me. “Let's go!”

We strolled along the corridor, he confidently went to one of the rack, picked up an electrical outlet with a single electrical contact, and handed it to me with a grin, “Here, this is the one. It will hold the aircon”. Explaining the Voltage and Ampere that will hold up to 1.000 Watts. “Okay, that is very good, but I need one a multiple contact. Because I need to plug the light, the fan, the aircon, and everything else”, I explained back patientlt. “It won't do, sir. We only have this one. Those multiple outlet are not good for aircon”. He replied back to me.

“Then we have a problem. We have a big problem!”, I said.

“Listen! In my apartment, only the living room has electricity. None of the other room has electricity. So I want to run a cable from the living room to my bedroom, so that I can plug my aircon, my light, and everything else. Do you got me?”, I said to the shop assistant.

He gulped. I continued talking with rage. “I have told you already before you cut the cord. Let's check the outlet first. But you kept on cutting the cable. You didn't even listen to me”. My friend was amazed and spoke in tagalog with the shop assistant.

A few minutes later, we walked out BEST BUY, carrying a plastic bag in hand.
“Okay, we can switch on the fan now. Good night!” 

How Technology Could Reveal The Face Of Your Nation

Sungguh kaget, sungguh terperangah, dan sungguh tak bisa berkata-kata. Itulah reaksi seorang yang sudah malang-melintang di dunia maya setelah kurang lebih 7 tahun, begitu mengetahui situs I X Pose. Dunia BBS, IRC, ICQ, Napster, Kazaa, Internet Explorer, BitTorrent, dll telah dilewatinya. Bukan seorang pemula, bukan orang yang baru tau tentang 3gp, MOV atau format lainnya.

I X Pose, salah satu blog site di internet yang diperkenalkan oleh seorang teman di suatu siang, yang menyediakan ratusan links ke movies maupun picture collection. Ada 1 similarity dari ratusan media tersebut, konten-konten tersebut kebanyakan berasal dari Indonesia dan sebagian dari Malaysia. Dia menawarkan beragam "kategori" konten, mulai dari yang masih SMU, yang berjilbab, yang sudah pengusaha stabil, yang baru "pertama kali", yang sembunyi-sembunyi di balik air terjun, yang SPG, yang pramugari, apa saja yang pernah dan tak pernah terbayangkan sebelumnya.

Bagaimana hal ini mungkin, berterima-kasih / mengutuklah pada George Smith & Willard Boyle, pencipta-pencipta CCD, yang menjadi jantung dari segala jenis kamera digital. Baik itu berupa Handphone, kamera pocket, webcam, scanner, dll. Mereka berdua yang telah mendapatkan begitu banyak AWARDS, telah mengizinkan mata anda untuk terbuka, untuk melihat bahwa wajah negara anda telah jauh lebih "bopeng" daripada yang anda bayangkan.

PS: Tidak akan ada link ke I X Pose di blog ini.

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Seeking The Truth

"Apakah itu benar-benar suatu hal yang buruk bila Yesus ternyata pernah menikah dan punya anak?", begitu kurang lebih pertanyaan Jacques Sauniere kepada Sophie Neveu di buku Da Vinci Code. Setelah beberapa menit berlalu, rasanya pertanyaan itu semakin jelas, bahwa Jacques bukan hanya bertanya kepada Sophie, tapi kepada kita semua umat Kristiani.

Lalu pertanyaan ini didukung fakta bahwa di salah satu injil murid Yesus, dikatakan bahwa Yesus pernah mencium bibir Maria Magdalena di depan murid-muridnya. Apakah benar Yesus pernah menikah? Apakah benar Yesus punya keturunan?

"Seeking The Truth", sebuah koleksi buku dan DVD yang dikeluarkan untuk menjawab pertanyaan, benarkah Maria Magdalena yang berada di sisi Yesus pada saat perjamuan terakhir? Ternyata bukan, menurut Prof. Giacobbo, pengarang buku "Il Segreto Di Leonardo", wanita itu adalah bunda Yesus sendiri, Bunda Maria. Dia membandingkan wajah Maria di "The Last Supper" dengan lukisan Da Vinci yang lain (tidak disebutkan judul lukisannya).

Gambarnya bisa dilihat di bawah ini.

Last question, terlepas dari manakah teori yang benar, jawablah pertanyaan ini, "Apakah itu benar-benar suatu hal yang buruk bila Yesus ternyata pernah menikah dan punya anak?". I will still believe in Him. That's my belief. What about you?

God as an omnipotent and benevolent deity

Waktu itu tengah malam, ketika sedang berkutat dengan "Angels & Demons" by Dan Brown, ada satu paragraf yang sangat menggelitik dan langsung lengket di benak. Lengket bagaikan permen karet yang susah banget lepasnya. Kira-kira begini percakapan yang terjadi antara seorang "Asisten Paus" dan  seorang "Swiss Guard":

"You are confused because the Bible described God as an omnipotent and
benevolent deity"

"Exactly"

"Omnipotent-  benevolent  simply  means  that  God is all-powerful and
well-meaning."

"I   understand  the  concept.  It's  just...  there  seems  to  be  a
contradiction."

"Yes. The contradiction is pain. Man's starvation, war, sickness"

"Exactly!  Terrible  things  happen in this world. Human tragedy seems
like  proof  that  God  could  not  possible  be both all-powerful and
well-meaning.  If  He  loves  us  and  has  the  power  to  change our
situation, He would prevent our pain, wouldn't He?"

"Would He?"

"Well...  if God loves us, and He can protect us, He would have to. It
seems  He  is  either  omnipotent  and  uncaring,  or  benevolent  and
powerless to help."

"Do you have children, Lieutenant?"

"No, signore."

"Imagine you had an eight-year-old son... would you love him?"

"Of course"

"Would you do everything in your power to prevent pain in his life?"

"Of course"

"Would you let him skateboard?"

"Yeah,  I  guess.  Sure I'd let him skateboard, but I'd tell him to be
careful."

"So as this child's father, you would give him some basic, good advice
and then let him go off and make his own mistakes?"

"I  wouldn't  run  behind  him  and mollycoddle him if that's what you
mean."

"But what if he fell and skinned his knee?"

"He would learn to be more careful."

"So  although you have the power to interfere and prevent your child's
pain,  you would choose to show your love by letting him learn his own
lessons?"

"Of course. Pain is part of growing up. It's how we learn."

"Exactly."

Flock!

Flock! Software yang mencoba menampilkan sebuah revolusi dalam dunia browser. Dibuat oleh tim Mozilla Firefox yang notabene menghasilkan "One Of The Best Browser On Earth". Browser ini punya kemampuan:

• Nge-Blog dengan gampang
• Berbagi bookmarks
• Drag & drop photo buat di-upload ke web
• Memulai search begitu huruf pertama diketikkan, bahkan tidak perlu tekan 'Go'

One heck of a browser!! In fact I'm using it now ^__^

Kodok Parno!!

 

Ga nyangka kalo di Jawa Timur ga kena imbas RUU Pornografi dan Pornoaksi, kodok-kodok masih aja santai bergendong-gendongan mesra.

Waktu itu lagi rajin-rajinnya manjat kebun teh. Makin tinggi makin asyik, makin jauh makin seru. Trus begitu udah sampai di seberang bukit, dengan noraknya teriak, "HOIII, KAMI DI SINI!!". Sibuk ngelambai-lambai ama mama yang ada di seberang bukit. "CEPETAN KE SINI, BAGUS EUY!!". Petani-petani yang lagi asyik dengan kerjaannya pada kaget semua, mungkin mereka pikir, "Ini orang kota ga kenal handphone kali yach!!".

Di perjalanan turun bukit, si mama sibuk lompat-lompat manggilin, "Cepat ke sini, lucu dech!". Langsung buru-buru lari, dengan kamera terayun kemana-mana. Langsung kaget begitu melihat ada kodok lagi gendong-gendongan. Diam pula, nunggu diphoto (mungkin begitulah maksud si kodok).

Usaha nungging ngekerin kodok berbuah hasil. Kodok tidak pipis (katanya kodok suka ngencingin orang), dan memberikan senyum manis. Now cheers!!!  

Whistle Down The Wind

 

Kemarin itu rencananya pengen bikin photo lapangan bola buat flyer "Nonton Bareng". Sesuatu yang hijau dan ditancepin tiang gawang. Mobil pun dijalankan ke stadion bola di Rumbai. Sampai di sana, kok rasanya ngebosenin amat yach motretin lapangan kosong. Coba-coba photo atlet tolak peluru, yang lagi latihan melempar pake ban bekas, tapi takut kesambet (sengaja disambet).

Udah selesai motret, benda yang di tengah selangkangan ini rasanya gelisah pengen keluar. Mobil pun diputer ke belakang stadion (don't tell anyone). Setelah puas memberikan irigasi pada rumput-rumput liar, mata terpaku pada sunset yang indah.

Langsung dech sprint ke mobil ngambil ke kamera, nendang kotak-kotak yang bikin rusak pemandangan, disikut ama ilalang, duduk di tanah penuh debu, keringat pun bercucuran, lalu lahirlah photo ini ke dunia ^__^ 

Bong-bong & Pu-ik

Buat yang bertanya-tanya, itu adalah nama ikan-ikan gua. Diambil dr nama temen gua dan pacarnya, Bom-bom dan Pu-pu. Gua pelihara 2 ekor ikan di kos. Diletakin di dalam aquarium bulat, yang membuat mereka nampak gendut banget karena efek kacanya.

Walaupun capek bersihin aquarium tiap minggu, ternyata pelihara ikan itu enak juga, ada bunyi "Blup blup bluppp" di dalam kamar, jadi rasanya ga sepi. Apalagi kalo ikan itu punya kebiasaan yang aneh. Bong-bong misalnya, dia punya kebiasaan berenang terbalik, bahkan tidur pun dalam posisi terbalik.

Suatu hari kawan gua, si Fithokz masuk ke kamar gua, dan melihat ke aquarium, lantas langsung teriak, "Aaahh Nald, ikan loe mati!!"

Hehehe, seneng juga ngeliat si Fithokz histeris ^___^