The Indonesian Complains

3:36

2008-09-07T03:41:00.001-06:00

State of the collection July 2008!

2008-07-18T21:08:00.001-06:00

Extremely quick and dirty shot. And by dirty I mean really dirty.

1. Citizen Military automatic PVD.

2. My first Swiss (the Swatch I had in school doesn't count as Swiss) and the latest pride and joy... The Fortis Flieger Automatic.

3. The troublesome one... Seiko 6138-3002 with all wrong hands.

4. First Seiko... SND 253. Lots of memories on this one.

5. Citizen Eco-drive GMT (can't remember model #). Fresh from servicing by Citizen Canada.

6. Citizen NY0054 Titanium diver.

7. The Poor Man's Marine Master. SKX171 base watch+SKX007 bezel+SBDA001 hands+Seiko president bracelet. Cost me shitload of money to build but it was worth it.

8. Super sweet Seiko 6138-8039. Cleanest dial I've ever seen on a vintage 6138.

9. The all-elusive SKX011K orange diver. Will be modded soon.

10. The always reliable Citizen Nighthawk on some German strap

11. The underutilized but still much loved Citizen Navihawk.

I really should stop buying these...

Citizen Military Automatic PVD

2008-07-07T00:50:00.001-06:00

Apologies for the hairless wristshot...

MST and GMT+7

2008-07-06T15:35:00.001-06:00

The Citizen GMT basking in the early evening sun.

There's more, but I'm just not in the Photoshop mode right now.

They come and go

2008-07-06T15:31:00.001-06:00

Got this 7T32 from a TZ'er, wore it twice, and sold it off.

Another one that just wouldn't bond...

This is only a test lah

2008-02-23T23:50:00.001-07:00

This is a test.

A Windows Live Writer test.

Since this is only a test, I really have nothing to say.

Instead I'm just going to post some images to find out how thing actually works.

Hmm let's see...

Holy smokes you can drag and drop!

Go go and install this thing when it's still free!

http://get.live.com/writer/overview

SOTC January 2008

2008-01-24T02:58:00.000-07:00

Allllright it's State of the Collection time! Let's start with the analogs!

Let's see what we have here...

1. Seiko 6138-3002 mechanical chronograph
My stars and moons and planets must've lined up perfectly when I purchased this one. A 34 year old watch in this kinda condition for that kinda price??? Yep I was super lucky. A massive watch, not the easiest to wear.

2. Citizen 8100 mechanical chronograph
Heavily polished when I got it and the chrono hands don't snap back to zero. Got burned on this one. Still a good looking chrono though, albeit small compared to its cousins.

3. Seiko SND253 quartz chronograph
The first one. The one that started it all. Got it on my birthday in 2004. And I actually paid retail for this baby! Never. Again.

4. Citizen Nighthawk Asian version (with that super awesome engraved caseback)
Got this one for a really really good price. The watch gods were with me that fine Saturday morning. First GMT and and the only Eco-drive watch. The case is huge but light. I took off the super solid bracelet for leather straps but might put the bracelet back again.

5. Seiko 8110 King Quartz
Rare rare rare. JDM watch purchased from a Japanese based seller. I think my bid got a bit too high but it seems like the value of the watch is actually much higher. Possibly a good investment. Will unload this one soon.

6. Seiko Sportsmatic
Crappy seller. Tried to rip me off with shipping charges. Crystal fell off after 5 minutes on the wrist. Got burned big time on this one.

7. Seiko SND101 quartz chronograph
A discontinued military chronograph that still looks good although a bit thin (hey after the 6138 everything is too thin). Might be unloaded soon.

8. Citizen NY0054 titanium diver
My first titanium watch. Miyota movement was amazingly accurate the first few weeks but right now loses about 15 seconds a day. Will be regulated once the caseback opener arrives. The craziest automatic jiggle I've ever experienced: "No I don't have Parkinson's, it's my watch shakin'."

9. Seiko SKX013 diver
First divers watch. The 7s26 movement does +20s a day. Not the most accurate. It feels a bit small now. Will be sold and replaced with the bigger brother the SKX007.

10. Citizen Navihawk
This thing has more computing power than my first PC. Seriously. Handles 30 time zones. Synchronized analog and digital display. Does DST changes. 2 alarms and a chronograph. The only thing it doesn't do is wash the dishes. I'll get a Citizen Attesa for that.

11. Seiko 6139-8029
My first mechanical chronograph. It has that satisfying pusher click and the snappy hand reset that is lacking in quartz watches. Got an awesome bargain on this one and watch certainly doesn't look its age (about 30 years old)

Moving on to the digitals...

L-R

1. Timex Ironman
30 dollar banger. Impressive value for money.

2. Casio G-Shock DW5600E
My first G-Shock, this model is the undisputable classic. It has a very simple module but it does the job very well.

3. Casio G-Shock G-8100
It doesn't look like a typical G. Design is rather futuristic. I guess it'll go well with work shirts (not sure when I'm gonna wear a work shirt though)

4. Casio G-Shock G-056
It's red and I got it for $12. Enough said.

I know there are some more still lying around. I just gotta find them first.

I actually write things? No kidding...

2007-12-18T03:50:00.000-07:00

When you stay up really late at night with nothing to do, you tend to think about things. As I am getting hungry at 4am, I start to imagine how awesome it'd be if I were in KL right now. I'd just walk out to the nearest mamak joint, ask for a mee goreng, and have a wonderful meal for next to nothing. Instead I'm stuck with a peanut butter sandwich and a glass of milk.

Freakin' awesome.

When life is so unbelievably hectic, there is barely any time to stop and THINK. Work demands your complete attention, leaving no space for important things like... social life? Kinda what it's been like for me for the past 3 months. Working 2 jobs @ 60 hours a week is hell.

OK maybe not that bad. Of course it sucked big time at first but once I got used to flow it wasn't that bad really. Of course there were times I wished I could just sleep in and not come to the office. But damn it, I signed that freaking contract and a dude's gotta do what a dude's gotta do.

Now that the period is over, it's time to recharge. But the funny thing is the recharge process took much less time than expected. After a week of doing almost nothing I'm becoming totally restless (which might explain why I'm still up typing random things at this hour). I suppose it's a normal thing for most people that when they stop working after a period of madness they get confused. What the hell am I gonna do now?

Hmmm... I do have that stack of DVDs I gotta watch. And there are those hundreds of RAW files I need to process. And of course I need to reply all those favs at dA.

But first I gotta finish the damn milk.

A couple of shots made using the poor man's light box

2007-11-12T16:50:00.000-07:00

Early Winter

2007-11-04T19:42:00.001-07:00

If you were expecting snow... sorry. There wasn't any till this morning.

The Indonesian Complains' Bad Ass Strawberry Banana Smoothie Recipe

2007-10-15T00:20:00.000-06:00

Whew that was a long title.

Anyway, after a few tries I finally got just the right balance of ingredients to fix an awesome smoothie. Here we go:

Stuff you need to have:

6 large strawberries (cut off the green part)
1 banana
250 ml milk
5 tbsp plain yogurt
3 tbsp sugar (more than that and it ain't healthy no more)
2 ice cubes
1 blender

How to make it:

Put all ingredients in a container. Leave in freezer for approx 15 mins to get everything nice and chilly.

Take container out of the freezer and put content to blender. Blend it nice and slow for about 25-30 seconds. Blend too long and the smoothie will become too soft and slushy and that's never cool. Blend right and you'll get an awesome AND healthy smoothie that for sure will impress that babe you finally managed to persuade to cozy up at your place. Or your mom. Whatever.

Enjoy.

Blue Angels

2007-10-08T00:38:00.000-06:00

A little bit of LightZone magic and this baby's ready to go. Still not that pleased with the reflection from the camera flash but until I get an external flash+diffuser or a light box it'll have to do.

Finally some decent shots (of some dirty watches)

2007-09-11T01:38:00.000-06:00

I gotta start writing things otherwise this will just be a photo album...

A very Q&D of what's been keeping me broke...

2007-09-05T23:18:00.001-06:00

Still waiting for the Nighthawk to show up.

Second Flickr test

2007-08-25T01:41:00.000-06:00

Much better.

Flickr Pano test

2007-08-25T01:39:00.001-06:00

OK that was way too wide. But what the hell...

I'd pay good money to see this ref in action

2007-07-11T13:21:00.001-06:00

Q&D shots of the new member of the family

2007-07-09T16:16:00.001-06:00

I just got the SKX013 last week. As usual the Seiko quality is there. The finish is good for its price range and the lume is incredible. Took off the very stiff rubber strap immediately and changed to the leathers from the SNK253 that's going nylon for now.

At 38mm in diameter, it's slightly too small than what I'd like. The good thing is that it's 13mm thick, thickest among all my watches. Nothing like having a solid piece of steel on the wrist...

When I said D I meant Dirty

Must... change... strap...

The obligatory hairless wristshot

Creepy looking U of A panda

Sweep hands are nice

Yeah and the pool only goes to 10 ft

Indian girls don't use their mouths and American girls use their mouths...

2007-07-09T13:32:00.000-06:00

This is just too damn hilarious

http://www.betterloverseminar.com/desi_wife_catches_husband.php

Lesson of the day: Start practicing your "mouth" skill. Or even better: Don't cheat on your wife!

Leftovers

2007-06-26T14:25:00.000-06:00

Little spectator

That perpetual smile...

Can't think of any

Odd day in Vancouver

Yep

Feisty

Ha keliatan

Gardener's handiwork

Dem sharp

All the tripod slugging paid off (kinda...)

Always reminds me of that scene from Airplane!

The famous hibiscus livery on the Queen of the Skies

Photographers' Dilemma

2007-06-25T10:22:00.000-06:00

A bit of Penang, Langkawi, KL and KUL-MES

2007-06-18T06:07:00.001-06:00

View from the not very top

Low tide which resulted in some pretty funky smells

Standard beach shot, minus the sun.

The 50mm is ridiculously sharp. Even the original hi-res image at 100% crop is as sharp as this one. Unfreakingbelievable.

Another example

One stunned dude

Messed up white balance with thousands of tiny crabs (I think they were crabs, cute little things)

Mom's shell

The SNX427 that has been passed over to dad

Bridge

Long exposure shot

Driving thru SMART while it was still free!

Interior of the A320. Gotta love the smell of a new aircraft.

LCCT

MASjoko is still inside the hangar

A bit more to the left...

And off we go!

The unmistakable sign of Indonesia: rusty zinc roofs

Before heading to CGK

Back in the real homeland!

YYC-YVR-HKG-KUL

2007-06-15T22:42:00.002-06:00

Too damn early

Chili's in airport? Yes sir!

Isn't she pretty

Can't think of a stupid caption

Now where's that thing

Old school

Somewhere near downtown

Seabus

Seawalk (hmm I see a theme here...)

I have no idea what kinda flowers they are

Gotta love the name

Shame about the cloudy sky

I forgot her name (the whale that is)

All the way from OZ just to get wet

Trippy

Downtown

Vancouver skyline

P

North

All mine!

Nice looking church (or is it cathedral?)

Hmm

Noobs

Mmmm... donuts...

Where I spent many many hours

Counters

YVR is quite busy

Although the other terminal is rather quiet

Pls forgive the watch whoring. This was intended for a watch forum.

Makan joints

Although the damn net station swallowed my $2, definitely still one of my favorite airports.

Somewhere over nowhere

One of the four that got my ass safely to HK

Whee

How come HK is always so foggy

The Ah Beng plane and friends

2nd floor

Kurang banyak pilihan

Biggest Rolex ever!

One huge airport

Ahh!! I see KL Tower!

Finally, back in homeland

Kokoro no senshi

2007-04-10T23:32:00.000-06:00

Watching snow fall while listening to the beautiful ballads of Angela Aki = pure bliss.

Sometimes progheads need a break too.

Got it right... for now.

2007-03-22T00:31:00.001-06:00

Swoosh by ~coppersnare on deviant ART

Three Minutes To Midnight by ~coppersnare on deviant ART

Oh I See

2007-03-20T20:10:00.000-06:00

It really is sad when promises are not kept. In a way it gives you a whole different perspective on the individual. A perspective that you thought never existed.

Disappointment is the word.

Closing In

2007-03-19T18:59:00.000-06:00

OK so I finally got the el cheapo extension tubes from ebay. It was quite a suspense wait as the seller actually got kicked out from ebay a few days after I ordered them. In the end the seller honored the order and I received the tubes last week.

I've been playing with them for a while now and the conclusion is: macro photography is DAMN HARD! Coupled with the Canon EF 50mm lens, the tubes create an extremely shallow of depth of field that can be very hard to control. Just moving a few millimeter can and will ensure an out of focus frenzy. So in desperation I got hold of a Manfrotto tripod courtesy of the library and managed to get some half decent shots of the family.

Sundays are video days

2007-03-11T13:56:00.000-06:00

One of the most brilliant satires I've seen. Who would've thought you could make fun of both Apple and Dubya's gang at the same time?

It just makes you say wow

2007-03-10T23:29:00.000-07:00

175 horses + smooth highway + one brave soul

That guy very blur lah

2007-03-05T01:00:00.000-07:00

After owning the fantastic Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 mk II (try saying it real fast 3 times!) for about a week I finally got the chance to take it out. Prime lenses are legendary for their bokeh (background blur) and this little Canon is no exception. It's definitely the best $119.99 a Canon dSLR user can spend.

At f/1.8 the images come out rather soft, giving it a melancholic feeling. Oh man I can't believe I used the word melancholic.

Buttery bokeh.

At f/2.5 the sharpness is unreal.

Rrrroll up the rrrim!

His name is Pierce.

This is the kinda moment when I wish I had a 70-200mm f/2.8L instead of a prime.

Eh?

Listening to Steely Dan again after a while. Steve Gadd still rocks my socks.

Reading Week images pt. 1

2007-02-22T22:44:00.000-07:00

Long way down

Vertikal

Snakey

I really need that polarizing filter

It's the maple leaf

No bickering in Banff

Too far from a decent nasgorkam

Peak

Peak oso

Disco move gone wrong

That thing reminds me of an alien character in a movie

Again?

Snowflakes

Mmmhhmm

Framing

Appetizing

Not sure where we're headin'

Knee deep in s***

Bench

The sight that made me walk back... quickly

But not before taking some more pics

And more

Standard fare

Ice climbing anyone?

You gotta be kidding me Mike

2007-02-05T00:57:00.000-07:00

Sunday night and I'm working on the gayest assignment ever: Interpreting colors for my body, favorite scents, favorite fruits etc. What the hell?

The tricky part is definitely naming the colors. Didn't this dude realize colors for guys are black, blue, green, brown, etc? Chocolate coffee and caramel coffee cream aren't colors dammit!

Ah well. I'll just make things up.

We've been having real wintry conditions here so I haven't really felt like lugging the Rebel outside. Here's one interesting pic made possible by messing around with the lens.

SNX427's crystal reflecting the ceiling

The good stuff courtesy of C. B.

On a brighter note, I'll be heading to Banff and Calgary during reading week and hopefully by then the bad ass carbon fiber tripod will be in my possession. Lake Louise here I come!

How To Sing The Blues

2007-01-02T11:12:00.000-07:00

Another one of those gems found on the net. It's just too damn true.

1. Most Blues begin “woke up this morning.”

2. “I got a good woman” is a bad way to begin the Blues, unless you stick something nasty in right away:
I got a good woman—with the meanest face in town.

3. Blues are simple. After you have the first line right, repeat it. Then find something that rhymes. Sort of.
I got a good woman—with the meanest face in town.
I got a good woman—with the meanest face in town.
She got teeth like Margaret Thatcher and she weighs 500 pounds.

4. The Blues are not about limitless choice. You stuck in a ditch, you stuck in a ditch; ain't no way out.

5. Blues cars are Chevies, Cadillacs and broken-down trucks. Other acceptable Blues transportation modes include Greyhound buses and southbound trains. Walkin’ plays a major part in the Blues lifestyle. So does fixin’ to die. Blues don't travel in Volvos, BMWs, or SUVs. Jet aircraft and state-sponsored motor pools ain't even in the running.

6. Adults sing the Blues. Teenagers can’t sing the Blues. They ain't fixin' to die yet. In the Blues, "adulthood" means old enough to get the electric chair when you shoot that man in Memphis.

7. You can have the Blues in New York City, but not in Brooklyn or Queens. Hard times in Vermont, Tucson, or North Dakota are just depression. The best places to have the Blues are still Chicago, St. Louis, and Kansas City. You cannot have the blues in any place that don't get rain.

8. A man with male pattern baldness ain't the blues. A woman with male pattern baldness is. Breaking your leg while skiing is not the blues. Breaking your leg when your broken-down pickup truck rolled over on it is.

9. The following colors do not belong in the Blues: violet, beige, mauve (unless you’re truly desperate for a rhyme).

9. You can’t have the Blues in an office or a shopping mall. The lighting is just plain wrong. Go outside to the parking lot or sit by the dumpster.

10. Good places to have the Blues: the highway, a jailhouse, an empty bed, the bottom of a whiskey glass. Bad places to have the Blues: ashrams, gallery openings, weekends in the Hamptons, golf courses, Tiffany's, and Ivy League institutions.

11. No one will believe it’s the Blues if you wear a suit, unless you happen to be an old black man—and it’s an old black suit.

12. Do you have the right to sing the Blues?
Answer “Yes” if:
a. your first name is a southern state—like Georgia
b. you’re blind
c. you shot a man in Memphis.
d. you can’t be satisfied.
e. you're older than dirt
Answer “No” if:
a. you once were blind but now can see.
b. you’re deaf
c. the man in Memphis lived.
d. you have a trust fund or an IRA.
e. you have all your teeth
f. you were once blind but now can see

13. Blues is not about color, it's about bad luck. Tiger Woods cannot sing the blues; Gary Coleman could. Ugly old white people got a leg up on the blues. Julio Iglesias and Barbra Streisand will never sing the Blues.

14. If you ask for water and baby gives you gasoline, it’s the Blues. Other acceptable Blues beverages are: wine, whiskey, muddy water, beer, black coffee. Blues beverages are NOT: mixed drinks, kosher wine, sparkling water, Snapple, Starbucks Frappuccino, or Slim Fast. Although Rubber Biscuits and the Wish Sandwich are famous blues snacks, better stick to common blues grub like Greasy Bar-b-que, Fatback and beans, and Government cheeze. Blues food is never: Club sandwich, Sushi, or Crème brule.

15. If it occurs in a cheap motel or a shotgun shack, it’s a Blues death. Stabbed in the back by a jealous lover is a Blues death. So is substance abuse, the electric chair, or being denied treatment in an emergency room. It is not a Blues death to die during liposuction or from tennis elbow.

16. Excellent names for female Blues singers: Sadie, Big Momma, Bessie, or Fat River Dumpling. Excellent names for male Blues singers: Willie, Joe, Little Willie, Lightning, or Big Willie. Singers with names like Muffy, Sierra, Auburn, Alexis, Gwenyth, Sequoiz, Brittany or Rainbow are not permitted to sing the Blues, no matter how many men they shoot in Memphis.

17. The Build Your Own Blues Singer Name Starter Kit:
a. Name of physical infirmity (Blind, Cripple, Lame, Asthmatic)
b. First name (from above lists) or name of fruit (Lemon, Lime, Kiwi)
c. Last name of a U. S. president (Jefferson, Johnson, Fillmore, etc.)
Examples: Blind Lime Jefferson, Cripple Kiwi Fillmore, etc. (Okay, maybe not "Kiwi"…)

18. I don't care how tragic your life; if you own a computer, you cannot sing the Blues.
You'd best destroy it. Fire, a spilled bottle of Mad Dog, or shotgun.
Maybe your big *** woman just done sit on it. I don't care

19. Hey there, you can READ! This too be a big ol' problem. Most folks singin' the
Blues ain't never had much a chance for education. In the Blues… the three R's stand
for Railroads, Runnin' and Rehab.

20. It gots to be dark to sing the blues, preferably after midnight. Singin' da blues at noon is forbidden.

21. If none of the above works, try one last, pathetic stab at authenticity: name your guitar. Remember, Lucille is taken.

22. Epitaph on a blues musician's tombstone: "I didn't wake up this morning"

No Snow Angels... yet.

2006-12-29T00:06:00.000-07:00

Finally after one week of near hurricane winds, it's back to normal. Well if you consider 15 cm of snow normal.

Anyways, I'm enjoying the weather a lot. Unfortunately there is only one week to go before school starts again. Ah well...

Alberta driveway

Lone

Tracks

Autumn Leftover

Numb toes

Big Flake

Lone II

Windows XP Snowy Edition

Peek

Free publicity for TNF

Stripes

Um

Done to death, but still had to be done

Thorny

Frozen Rush Reference. Geddit? Geddit??

Butt cooler

Getting there...

Farewell

After an hour of shooting resulting in frozen fingers and toes, I realized I still have so much to learn about composition. And also that I would love to have the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II.

They were right, this is indeed a dangerous hobby for the pocket (or in my case, the Paypal account)

Note: All shot in RAW, converted to jpeg using Adobe Camera Raw 3.6 on Photoshop CS2. Some minor cropping, sharpening and resizing applied.

Just as I was about to go to work...

2006-12-15T12:58:00.000-07:00

Wind warning for:
Lethbridge-Taber-Milk River

STRONG WEST WINDS OVER SOUTHERN ALBERTA TODAY.

A LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM CURRENTLY NEAR DRUMHELLER IS EXPECTED TO TRACK EASTWARDS DURING THE DAY. SOUTH OF THIS LOW TRACK PORTIONS OF SOUTHERN ALBERTA HAVE BEEN REPORTING SEVERE WESTERLY WINDS. WINDS OF 70 GUSTING TO 120 KM/H ARE EXPECTED FOR THE WATERTON PINCHER CREEK AREAS TODAY WHILE OTHER LOCATIONS CAN EXPECT WINDS RANGING FROM 60 GUSTING TO 100 KM/H. THE WINDS WILL CONTINUE MOST THE DAY AND DIMINISH LATE THIS AFTERNOON OR EARLY THIS EVENING AS THE LOW MOVES INTO SASKATCHEWAN AND A COLD FRONT MOVES IN FROM THE NORTH.

PLEASE REFER TO THE LATEST PUBLIC FORECASTS FOR FURTHER DETAILS.

Man I should've gone to Melbourne.

Pics and smudges

2006-12-09T21:43:00.001-07:00

I finally got the camera last week after holding back from buying it for a month. In the end I decided just to get it before the Christmas shopping frenzy started and it'd take forever to ship the camera.

"The Box"
Random shot of the 17-85mm's box.

"Self Portrait?"
Applied Noise Ninja on Bibble Pro and that thing worked magic. Shame I didn't find it much earlier.

"Tres Dirty Amigos"
Laziness resulted in dusty smudged crystals. It somehow struck me that every time I was taking pics of my watches the lighting conditions were never close to ideal. I guess it's time to build that poor man's light box after all.

"What Hall Again?"
Sky's overblown, yes. I think I messed up the ISO on this one.

"Almost WTF"
I love the yellow. This one had the minimum amount of post processing on Photoshop.

"It's Not As Cold As It Looks"
Had to use some pp on Bibble Pro and Photoshop. I'm quite pleased with the end result.

"Icy Autumn"
I like the contrast between the white ice and yellow foliage. Alberta sky wasn't really friendly that day, so a good amount of pp was needed to crank up the blue. This was shot in raw so it was very forgiving in terms of adjustment.

Good weather forecast for next week, so more to come!

Ain't it the truth?

2006-10-04T02:03:00.000-06:00

Little Igor

2006-09-21T00:07:00.000-06:00

This kid's just too awesome.

The Indonesian Complains welcomes...

2006-09-19T19:09:00.000-06:00

two new members to the family: SND101 and SNX427.

SND101 is what Seiko fans call Poor Man's Flieger. It has a very legible dial with huge numbers making it easy to tell the time even after a short glance. Although a chronograph, the layout is tastefully done and it doesn't have the overly busy syndrome that many chronographs seem to have.

The case size is 35mm and 39mm including the crown. Diameter wise it's perfect for my wrist. If there's a downside that would be that at 9mm it's not thick enough. I like my watches to have a bit of heft, but this one certainly feels rather light.

It comes with a black Seiko nylon strap that is quite comfortable, but somehow the quality is not as good the SNX427's.

Overall this watch offers a lot of bang for the buck. For those starter WIS's (and pilot wannabes) who don't have enough funds for a Sinn 356 or Fortis Flieger yet, this is the perfect choice.

The SNX427 is my first official foray into mechanical watches. The unofficial one would be one embarassing Omega Speedmaster Petaling Street edition that has been thrown away for good a long time ago (Abang Hudd, you still have your Monza? Or was it a Monaco?)

Wearing an automatic watch sure feels different. Instead of a battery operated circuitry, you have an actual self winding complication that only requires you to move it to work. The joy of watching the sweeping second hand is also something else that you can only get from automatics.

At first I was a bit disappointed with the size: The case size is only 34mm. After wearing a G-Shock for a while, this thing feels so tiny. After it gets a familiar on the wrist it doesn't feel that small anymore though. Good thing that while the diameter is small, the watch is certainly thick enough. The use of the see-through caseback resulted in a beefy 13mm thickness. Being able to see the movement working is also an added entertainment value.

The matte (is it beadblasted?) case is gorgeous. The subdued appearance really enhances the military styling of the watch.

The nylon strap is very comfortable although I think the buckle is a bit big relative to the case size. I have a feeling this will be a very good looking dress watch if the nylons are replaced with a black or brown leather strap.

And now the obligatory lume shot...

The family...

Cartoonish

2006-08-12T00:36:00.000-06:00

Just what everyone needs to watch after a long day at work.

PBS

2006-07-26T11:57:00.000-06:00

Best PBS strip so far. Thanks Stephan!

Top Twenty Signs You've Been A Drummer for Too Long

2006-07-25T10:57:00.000-06:00

This was supposed to be a Top Ten list, but the ideas just kept on coming so I settled at twenty. There might be more in the future.

You can do a complete drum solo by clicking your teeth
You have enough broken sticks collection to heat up an average home in the winter
When someone mentions "160 bpm" a little metronome starts ticking inside your head... at 160 bpm
You know the exact chemical composition of the alloys used to make different types of cymbals
The words "The Black Page" bring a shiver to your body
Animal is your favorite Muppet
You buy a live CD just for the drum solo
You can recite all the components in Mike Portnoy's drumset by heart, the clamps and wingnuts included
You think paying $1500 for a Lars Ulrich bell brass snare is no big deal. "Hey who can be more metal than Lars?"
You know what Der Trommler and O Baterista mean
The owner of your local drum shop was able to send his kid to college thanks to your frequent contributions
You're getting tired explaining to people about the calluses on your hands
You don't find drummer jokes funny anymore
You have more drum jpegs than pr0n on your computer (whoa you must be really hardcore)
Airdrumming is your preferred method of warming up before going jogging
Your main reason to buy an MPV instead of a Mustang (despite how uncool the MPV looks) is that you can at least fit your entire drumset in the MPV
You've set up your drumset in the bathroom and used the toilet as the "throne"
You laugh hysterically when a newbie drummer say, "My new two ply bassdrum head is so durable, there's no way I could break that thing."
You have a Drummers Do It With Rhythm t shirt and proudly wear it everyday
You refer to your drumset as your "baby," "girlfriend," or worse, "soulmate."

Dubya The Gambler

2006-07-19T10:15:00.000-06:00

"He's kinda like a slot machine, 'cos everytime he opens his mouth he knows he's gambling just a little bit." LOL

The Joys of A Sunday

2006-07-16T15:42:00.000-06:00

- Watching an adorable little girl chase a butterfly

- Basking in the glorious sun under the blue Alberta sky

- Chomping on a huge slice of spicy chicken pizza :)

Taking the plunge

2006-07-11T00:01:00.000-06:00

My cousin is getting married!

Holy smokes, he's gonna be the first one in the extended family. I can already imagine the aunties (my dear mom included) getting all excited about this.

Well bro, I'm sorry I won't be able to attend the wedding. But all the best on your next phase in life. It'll be very tiring in the next few months, and it'll be even more tiring after the ceremony *wink wink*

Anyways, married or not, we are still gonna do the HRC+Stadium pilgrimage when I'm back in Jkt, k? Party on, brother!

Fruity

2006-07-09T21:58:00.000-06:00

I smell like watermelon when I jog.

The manufacturer of "Off!" mosquito repellent that I use somehow chose watermelon scent on their product. Which is fine really, if the target customers are below 9 years old. The label says the scent is Summer Splash. Summer splash = watermelon?

I have no gripes about the effectiveness however. That thing really does work. For the past 2 weeks we've been having a pretty serious mosquito problem around here. About two weeks ago a rainy weekend resulted in puddles of water which are the mosquitos favorite place to breed. The next few days were hell as the those damn mozzies matured up and started preying on innocent souls who happened to be outdoors. A friend of mine got attacked while playing basketball in a park and was covered in red marks all over his arms and legs. I almost endured the same fate when I went jogging without realizing the mosquito season was on. Those things were everywhere, man. I spent half the time slapping my legs and arms to kill em off. Good thing those North American mosquitos are pretty slow and easy to kill, not like the stealthy Indonesian ones that'll suck your blood and give you dengue even before you realize you've been bitten.

So I got myself a bottle of repellent. They had two types, the sport and the regular one. Apparently by labeling the item "sport" the manufacturer thought they could charge double the price of a regular one. I bought the regular and tried it on. Hey it did work! Those pests would just buzz around and leave. Best $5.99 investment for the summer.

I went for a run earlier today. This type of afternoon run (it was actually around 9 p.m., but since the sun sets at 10.30 I consider it afternoon anyway) always reminds me of the times back in Duri. My dad and I would join our brethrens for the Duri Hash House Harriers (best HHH around, take that Rumbai!) Monday run. I still remember running through oil fields a few years back when it was still allowed. Man, running alongside all those oil pumps and inhaling the smell of crude oil sure is pretty unique. After this whole shitty terrorist affair the powers that be decided we couldn't run in the oil fields anymore, so we moved to the kampungs. At first it was pretty ok. But after we had local kids calling "Helllooo mister!! How are you??" about a thousand times and expecting us to hello back it got tiring. Kampungs were also getting rather crowded as most of the time we ended up trespassing people's yards. Some people would build a house anywhere as long as the land is cheap.

What would a bunch of hashers do when faced with this dilemma? Improvise, of course. The most fun I had was when we broke into the golf course and tried to dodge golf balls while running. The expression of those golfers was just gold.

It's 10. Family Guy time.

GBJK

2006-07-04T13:16:00.000-06:00

Cracks me up every time.

Canada Day at Waterton

2006-07-02T17:44:00.000-06:00

I don't feel like writing much, so here we go...

Crystal clear and freezing

C? L?

The glorious food

The boy and his flag

My buddy's $200 Plymouth on the right. He sure got an awesome deal

Summer snow

The boy and his dog

She was very excited

k&-'nü

Pretty high up

Adorable cubs and their guardian

Cardston sunset

We hiked, we canoed, we ate... too much. Gotta love Canada Day celebrations.

Jump

2006-06-29T21:23:00.000-06:00

It's difficult to move out from your comfort zone. I've gotten so used to my current job it's hard to imagine doing anything else.

But I've made the switch. I'm now a full time employee (for the rest of the summer, that is) of a company that's infamous for being difficult to work at. This is a place where an employee gets cursed and yelled at for 8.5 hours a day. The turnover rate is so high they hire aggressively all the time.

This time I'm reminded again of the immortal saying at my previous workplace: "Hey if you can survive this hell hole, you damn sure can survive everything else."

Let's hope the saying is right.

Finally it's all over

2006-06-19T21:53:00.000-06:00

So the 'Canes won the Cup, eh? Yawn.

Well at least those crazy Edmontonians won't start a riot up there.

Summer Blues

2006-06-16T15:07:00.000-06:00

It's almost halfway through summer break and I'm bored out of my wits. The option of taking classes during the summer unfortunately does not apply to me, as the ones available are either 1000 level subjects or catered for management students only. Ah, the dilemma of a new media major.

It doesn't help either that I only managed to get 20 hours of part time work per week. Absolutely inadequate to keep one occupied as I'm used with the same amount of hours even when the semester is in full swing.

Bumming around is only fun for a month max. After you finish all the missions in GTA: Vice City and complete all stages in Colin McRae Rally 2005, you are left with nothing else but to read nerds flaming each other at Slashdot and try to get amused.

Going back home was an option that I seriously considered. Sadly the high price of the flight ticket hindered me from purchasing one.

I am still waiting for my work permit to be approved. It seems like that would be my last resort in preventing total boredom in the next two months. The job that I plan to apply for once the permit is out is a challenging one. It involves soothing down angry Americans (from Chicago no less!) when at the same time trying to figure out what is wrong with their DSL connection over the phone. The fact that most of the users have IT knowledge of a hamster does not help either.

But anything is better than now. After experiencing a crazy 8 months period that saw me working almost every day with not much sleep, all this free time is getting on my nerves.

As I sit here on my 7th straight hour supervising the computer labs, I can only think of one thing: Dammit I wanna go back!

Mmmm.. Masterworks...

2006-06-12T11:08:00.000-06:00

Aahh.. a drummer's dream kit. The source of many fantasies and daydreams. A lot of drummers lust a kit that has everything INCLUDING the kitchen sink like this dude's.

Mine is a actually rather simple for a no-holds-barred-unlimited-budget kit. I am of the opinion that the drummer should learn to develop the groove with an average kind of kit. I mean, Ringo did some of the most famous beats using a snare, a bass drum, two toms, a few cymbals, and some flimsy looking stands. Yet he played FOR the song, which is a rarely found skill among today's hyper-technical, mechanized players. Of course, Mike Portnoy still has the right to lug his Albino Monster anywhere because he sure knows how to utilise that beast.

Starting from the 12x5 snare, it's there since I like to have an auxiliary snare standing by. It's good for that added pop sound when required and it comes handy when you main snare's head is blown halfway through the gig. Plus imagine the possibilities when you do rudiments on two snare on the same time! Funky overload. The aux should be made of maple and cranked real tight for that high pitched poppy sound.

The main snare is a 14x5 brass snare. To me brass represents the neutral kind of sound that works well with most application. It has good metallic qualities, warm but not as mellow as copper and not as sharp as steel. The depth is 5" as I think it has the crack and sensitivity of a shallower shell but still has enough volume.

The toms are what you would call fusion sizes. I've always been into smaller toms for that tight tone that works so well in most application. Low, sloppy sounds are difficult to control and you need to wear spandex and have a long blonde hair to play a kit with such a sound anyway. The two last toms are floors as I prefer the stability provided by the legs compared to the wobbly suspended toms. A lot of drum risers are already shaky anyway, why make it worse?

18x22 bass drum is just the right size. Some people say that 20" BD's have the best tone, but I suppose you'd want that louder sound of the 22" on an acoustic setting. 20 inchers look kinda puny anyway.

For the shell kit my preference leans towards a maple Pearl Masterworks with a natural or one of those burnt fade finish. The great thing about the Masterworks is that they are totally customizable. A customer can a order a preferred shell thickness, wood choice, hardware color, and finish. Pearl's reputation in making quality instruments and their excellent customer service seal the deal on the choice of shell kit.

Ah, that never ending dilemma of double bass vs double pedal. The old school metal drummers argue that double bass provides the best sounds, as it allows the drums to have enough time to vibrate before being struck by the beater again. However, most drummers like the affordability and convenience of a double pedal.

Double pedals eliminate the space problem by utilizing only one bass drum struck by two pedals linked together. In terms of feeling, it could never equal two pedals on two separate drums, but it certainly is the more convenient and cheaper method. Neil Peart used to swear by double bass drums but now he uses a double pedal on his monster red and gold DW kit.

My choice is the double pedal. The purists' argument does not work on my case because I'm not going to play 220 bpm Derek Roddy machine gun assault. In fact, the double pedal is only used to add accents during fills or to add extra juice during mad song endings (you know, the one with the arms flailing and the all cymbals treated as crash treatment).

I've been wanting to try the Tama Iron Cobras. They have a reputation for being super fluid and fast. Pearl Eliminators are also a worthy option as they provide endless customization i.e. you can change the cams, change the chain with a belt drive, they have footboards that can be moved forward or backward etc. DW pedals are used by many world class drummers, but a recent post at the Pearl Drummers Forum by a drumtech revealed that structurally they are not as strong as Tama or Pearl. This can be seen by the many cases of broken footboards that the poster had experienced personally. As a Yamaha double pedal user I have a partial preference towards the brand. However the performance of my pedals are not really what I expected to be, but I suppose it's because mine are of the lower series of the Yamaha fleet. Still, the Flying Dragons definitely deserve a mention. And one more thing, they are 100% made in Indonesia :)

Being a long time Zildjian (ab)user, I certainly vouch for the brand. My choice for the cymbals would be A Customs, brilliant finish. I'd prefer traditional finish if only Zildjian provided that because polishing cymbals is a totally boring job.

Two 18" crashes for those medium undertones, followed by a 16" on the left and a 17" on the right for extra colors on the palette. The ride is a 22" A Custom Ping ride. That extra ping would cut very well against the overzealous guitar player's Marshall stacks. The hats are 14" A Custom Mastersound hats. The Mastersounds have these grooves on the bottom cymbal to let air escape and prevent that "floaty" feel when you step on the hi hats aggresively.

On the picture there is supposed to be a pair of extra auxiliary hi hats, but Kitbuilder doesn't really allow that so I'll just explain it here. They are 12" Mastersounds on the right hand side just above the 12" floor. Extra hats are good for sound variety and are handy when you want to play double pedal with hats.

Ever since I watched Ian Paice live, I've developed a liking towards china cymbals. Paicey creatively used his china to replace the crash cymbal or hit the china together with a crash that resulted in an interesting sound. My preferred china is the 18" A Custom. I feel that a 20" would overpower the other cymbals, hence the smaller choice.

The last two are the splashes, a 6" and an 8" parked right above the 12" tom.

Initially I was thinking of a rack to hold all the components together. But after much ogling at people's kits on PDF, I've decided that I prefer using separate stands. Sure it has a bigger footprint, but it just looks more natural.

There we are, theindonesiancomplains' official dream kit. Now if only I could come up with $9865.35 to get it to reality...

Baton?

2006-05-08T02:48:00.000-06:00

Simon said anyone could do this meme. So here we go...

Take the book next to you, go to page 18 and quote line 4:
Stephane: Non, je vais au zoo avec Celine... It's a French for Beginners book that someone donated. Now if only I can get myself to actually use the book.

Reach out as far as you can with you’re right arm – what can you grab?
Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce. Don't ask.

What was the last TV-Show you watched?
American Dad. It's not that funny anymore.

With the exception of you’re computer, to what are you listening at the moment?
I believe it's Joe Satriani's Super Colossal on the discman. Yes it's a DISCMAN.

When did you last step outside? What were you doing?
Went to Safeway for groceries yesterday afternoon. Been at home ever since.

What did you do before answering this questionnaire?
Watching From Russia With Love. Boy that Daniela Bianchi is purdy!

What are you wearing at the moment?
Spring, TX Hooters shirt and some fleece pants. My dad gave me the shirt in '98. Funky guy.

Did you dream last night?
Nope.

When was the last time you had to laugh?
Earlier tonight while watching Family Guy. Stewie's hilarious.

What occupies the walls of the room, in which you are currently sitting?
A big poster of The Simpsons' characters, a calendar with pictures of the Canadian Rockies, and another big poster of a very idyllic beach somewhere in Maldives.

Did you see something strange lately?
I read some pretty strange stuff in Slashdot. Does that count?

What do you think about this questionnaire?
Not bad. It's my first time, so I guess it's pretty OK.

What was the last movie you watched?
Err.. From Russia With Love.

What would you buy if you’d be rolling in money?
The first thing would be a very nice dSLR with all the fancy accessories. And then I'll leave them in a corner cos I'm too busy rolling in money.

Tell something about yourself, which I don’t know yet.
I didn't know butter and margarine are different. Now I'm still not sure. I just buy whatever's cheaper.

If you could change one thing at our world, what would that be?
Those Americans to stop wasting the world's resources. The world doesn't revolve around America, pal.

Do you like dancing?
Depends on the music. But generally yeah.

George Bush
W or HW? W is not too bright. Not too sure about HW, but he was a successful oil tycoon before he became a president, so he must be pretty smart.

If you’re first child was a girl, how would you call it?
Uh... Megan?

And if it was a boy?
Not sure. I never really thought about these kinda things before.

Would you see it as a possibility for you to emigrate?
I guess.

What would you tell god reaching the heaven’s gate?
Hey did you know there's a Christoper Walken film called Heaven's Gate? Interesting huh?

Five people you want to answer this questionnaire:
Do people actually read this blog?

Anthems

2006-04-26T23:20:00.000-06:00

In the spirit of a previous post, I've decided to list a few songs that I consider my personal anthems. These might not be the most well known tunes from the particular artist, but they are songs that either introduced me to the bands or always remind me of a period in my life.

Again, in no particular order:

Deep Purple - Highway Star. I still remember the first time I heard this song. A family friend borrowed our car and left a Deep Purple's Greatest Hits tape (yeah this was some time ago). When I heard Ritchie Blackmore guitar solo I was just completely floored. This led me to explore the rest of the album and discover Deep Purple. Oh and we never got to return the tape to the owner cos he went back to Houston after his contract's finished. I still have it, heheh.
Rush - Anthem. What an appropriate title. I first heard this amazingly powerful rock tune through Yngwie Malmsteen's version in the Inspirations album. At that time I've heard about Rush many times and how Neil Peart is a source of inspiration for 95% of great rock drummers, but I've never actually heard any of their songs. One time I found their Greatest Hits in a double-tape (again, long time ago) compilation. I guess I was very lucky cos these kind of things were almost impossible to find in Indonesia. The album conveniently covers their career throughout the 70's and 80's although the mix is pretty muddy.
Joe Satriani - Summer Song. I saw the yellowish low budget video of Summer Song in Channel V sometime in '98. That was the first time I saw an instrumental piece on a mainstream station and I was excited as hell. I actually recorded the video to a VHS tape so I could play it over and over. This was the beginning of my obession with Satch that I began collecting all his albums.
Bryan Adams - Summer of '69. I played this song about a gazillion times with my first half-decent band in high school(Kenia, Andra, Heru, Taufik, AA, where are you people now??). We used to perform the tune so often our friends asked if we actually knew how to play other songs.
Dream Theater - New Millennium. A band mate (for one gig) recommended me the band and told me "they play these crazy instrumental stuff for 15 minutes" and that got me kinda interested. I bought the Falling To Infinity album and my first impression was "what the hell is this?" Yeah I guess you don't get crazy over prog rock instantly. After repeated listening only then I realized what a bad ass band Dream Theater is.
Casiopea - Asayake. The immortal Japanese fusion tune.
Evanescence - Bring Me To Life. Okay so this song was played a million times in Hitz.fm, but this was the the song that brought the glory to Shirley's Temple in Glitz 2003. Ah the good old times.
Guns N Roses - Sweet Child O' Mine. This is more like everyone's anthem. I never get bored listening Axl singing about the blue eyed girl, and Slash's guitar tone is so freaking awesome.
Texas - Halo. I watched the video many many times in '97. The music and the Hong Kong themed video were so mesmerizing.
U2 - Where The Streets Have No Name. 80's U2 rock. 90's U2 suck.

Playboy Indonesia you say?

2006-04-26T22:26:00.000-06:00

>>This is a post that I wrote a few weeks back but never really had the time (willpower?) to finish it. The issue is a bit stale now, but what the hell...

I haven't posted a social commentary for a while, so since I have nothing to do for the next hour and a half, I thought I'd write about the issue that's been amusing me for a while now: Playboy Indonesia.

I think the whole hooha about the local version of Hef's mag is getting ridiculous. Wannabe moralists and politicians trying to get attention are scrambling to condemn a magazine based on its name. If only those sadcases would look around the corner of Jakarta's streets, actual hardcore porn (as opposed to Playboy's 15 articles and 3 pictures format) is so easy to access. Just sit down at some roadside warung and in 10 minutes some dude with a bag will approach you asking if you'd like to see his "barang". Say yes, and the entire Vivid collection will be showcased in front of you. At Rp 5000 each, it's incredibly cheap. Another good example is Glodok area in Jakarta. I was there last year and I tell you, the place is freaking surreal. I've never imagined a place where a whole pasar is full of people selling porn DVD's. It's just crazy. You walk around and these guys will entice, cajole, or even half-force you to buy their stuff. A bit scary if you're not stern enough (and not really fluent with the local slang).

So back to the hypocrites. Everyone knows that these FPI (Islamic Defender Front) are just a bunch of thugs using the name of the religion to extort money. Every Ramadan they would haunt bars threatening to burn the building to the ground if they don't shut down. But everyone knows if you pay them, they won't disturb you. Sounds pretty similar like the Mafia style protection racket eh?

So the latest news is that they've smashed some windows of the publisher's office building. According to one source, police were there but they didn't do anything. Another negative point for the cops there. How come it's so easy for them to beat the crap out of students protesting but not to arrest a bunch of troublemakers causing damages? What's with that? Are they afraid that FPI will retaliate? Please...

I found out that several enterpreneurial opportunists are trying to sell the first (and might be the only one ever) edition of Playboy Indonesia on eBay. I saw the first one and the bid was already around $90. Not bad at all. Now there's already a bunch of other people trying to sell their copy. I really gotta call up the friends/cousins/acquaintances (now that's difikult to speel) back home and see if they have a copy that can be peddled online. Selling something for $50 with a $5 initial capital already makes a 900% profit you know.

Native Awareness Week

2006-03-29T22:07:00.000-07:00

Times like these I wish I had a better camera with better lens. Capturing the fast movement of the dancers was a bit difficult at times, but I tried my best.

It's not too balanced, but the little girl's expression is just a classic

Big dude

The costumes cost at least C$ 3000 to make

Bands I Must See Live Before I Get Too Old And Can't Rock Anymore

2006-03-29T00:30:00.000-07:00

In no particular order:

Rush - Need I say more?
Deep Purple (again) - I saw their Singapore '04 gig. Another one won't hurt.
Red Hot Chili Peppers - THE band to see live. Watch Live at Slane DVD and you'll know why.
Casiopea - Sure I've seen Akira Jimbo live, but I want the whole band!
TOTO - Oh the groove...
Dream Theater - The ultimate modern prog-rockers, and Mike Portnoy still has the craziest kit around (except Terry Bozzio that is).
Joe Satriani/G3 - Preferably with John Petrucci cos Malmsteen bores the hell out of me.
U2 - I hate their 90's stuff. But I'll forever love Where The Streets Have No Name.
The Darkness - They sound wild on the albums. Imagine what they can do on stage.
Bryan Adams - Missed this one actually. Gotta wait for the legend to come back. Summer Of '69 is still one of my anthems.
Fall Out Boy - Yeah right. Blueh.

Thank you!

2006-03-19T20:25:00.000-07:00

Once in a while you get touched by kindness that shows that there is still hope for humanity. Thank you so much to the person who kindly passed my phone to the library helpdesk after I carelessly left it at one of the email stations. I owe you one, buddy!

It's the first day of spring tomorrow! Too bad we won't get any spring break, it's a non stop slogfest all the way to the end of the semester. Must...survive...for...one...more...month...

Listening to The Supremes. Variety is good.

Important Advice

2006-03-10T20:48:00.000-07:00

This post is inspired by Elaine's post, but this time it's gorier (or is it more gory?).

Be careful with knives, kids.

Short post

2006-02-22T00:33:00.000-07:00

Short post from Calgary: The 2.5 hr drive was no doubt the most boring I've ever experienced. 210 km of STRAIGHT ROADS on FLAT LANDS. It doesn't get any more depressing than that.

Dumped my CPU at the shop, the dude promised they'll replace any part that's damaged because of that damned power supply. He also said they'll cover the shipping cost in case it can't be ready by tomorrow. Major relief there.

Had dinner at Hooters with the guys. The *ahem* Philly cheese steak burger sure was fine. Later after that we went on a search for a decent bar and stumbled upon "Restaurant Indonesia." They better have nasi Padang, or else...

On a different note: Don't buy Chevy Cobalt. It is powerful (a 2.4l engine on a compact body can get you from A to B pretty fast), but it drinks gas like Virgil Donati destroys his Assaults. It's just not worth it.

OK I'm sleepy. Full day ahead. Goodnight.

Lesson of the day - 16 Feb 2006

2006-02-17T14:57:00.000-07:00

Never ever forget to bring the tuque. -30deg chill can cause intense pain on the ears.

Dead PSU Blues

2006-02-07T20:52:00.000-07:00

So my Black Machine's power supply conked out at the worst possible time: When I need to do tons of work using the PC. To make things worse, this temporary loss somehow caused some sort of mild depression on me. You see, my PC is pretty much the central of my after-school-and-work-hours (pretty sad, I know). It's where I surf the net, watch TV, listen to music, do work, and stuff. To fill the void, I've been reading some books, and I was surprised to found how much faster I can read with nothing else to do. In a few days I've finished Michael Crichton's The Terminal Man and The Andromeda Strain. I'm in the midst of Stephen King's Insomnia now, alongside some books on marketing I found on the library.

Back on the dead power supply issue, I sent that thing to Calgary for the free replacement, but it's still gonna take time. Realizing that most likely I'm gonna get some crappy generic PSU that won't last too long (a mistake on my part here, that dead PSU came with the PC case, which was a generic brand. Folks, if you're investing on a PC with high end specs, don't scrimp on the case/PSU!), I decided to go all the way and bought a pretty good 420w Enermax Noisetaker. I ordered it online just a few minutes ago and hopefully it will be here in a few days.

Hmmm... now I just gotta work a few more extra hours to cover that purchase. Sigh.

Another photo post

2006-01-27T10:28:00.000-07:00

University grounds, 27 January 2006, very early in the morning

Do you see what I see?

So it's Harper, eh?

2006-01-23T23:46:00.000-07:00

Stephen Harper's Conservatives won the election with a minority. He promised lower taxes (from 7% to 6% GST), lower crime rate, and better health care. We'll have to see about that, as I've pretty much lost confidence in politicians. Kinda hard to make them keep their words after they enjoy the throne. And he looks so young, quite a change from the grandfatherly Paul Martin.

Listening to Mr Big again after a long while. The intro of Green-tinted Sixties Mind always gives me the shivers. It's one of those songs that brings me back to the not so innocent days of high school: the so called teenage rebellion and puppy loves.

Damn I'm getting old.

10 Reasons to Date a Drummer

2006-01-16T16:00:00.000-07:00

Yeah this is just a copy and paste post. But it's just so true ;)

~10 Reasons to Date a Drummer~
1. Their coordination is incredible.
2. They can keep any tempo you want.
3. No matter what speed they go, they can make it good.
4. No matter how tired they are, they always finish the job.
5. They can follow the lead, or take it.
6. They love to bang.
7. No objections to performing in front of an audience.
8. They know how to handle their sticks.
9. They know the best spots to hit.
10. By the time they're done, you'll be cheering for more.

Sunday nights

2006-01-16T00:57:00.001-07:00

It's always difficult to sleep early on Sunday nights. Right now I'm trying hard to get sleepy by eating. A lot. Listening to sleepy jazz tunes as well. Unfortunately Nina Simone's July Tree isn't proving to be really helpful.

I wonder how much I've contributed to the coffers of Wonder Bread and Skippy.

The bird flu has claimed victim #13 in Indonesia. I really wonder when will the Indonesian government realize that the bird flu threat is all too real? So far their approach is more like "just keep it as low as possible and hopefully it'll disappear by itself." Fat chance, fellas. The longer you bureaucratic asses wait more victims will fall. Admit it, this is a serious national crisis. Do a nationwide campaign on how to deal with the outbreak. After all the government is usually enthusiastic when it comes to campaigning family values and other methods of wasting tax payers' money.

It's -4 outside. Not too cold considering it's now winter and it's supposed to be -30. It's been a freaky Canadian winter so far, not much snow and we even get the occasional warm days. I really pity those poor wet people in Vancouver though, it's been 23 straight days of rain over there. Must be pretty depressing.

This has been a pretty random post. I guess I'll head back to the kitchen and fix another one of my signature PB sandwich.

Catch up post + Canadian elections

2006-01-15T16:03:00.000-07:00

Hmmm.. it's been so long since I posted anything. The 2 week break that was supposed to be a productive session turned out to be a total slob fest. I finished the Desperate Housewives season one box set in 3 days, quite an accomplishment as I'm usually not really fond of TV serials. I wasn't expecting much, but it was surprisingly good. The plot is just awesome. If you've been doing scriptwriting or stuff like that you'll realize how difficult it is to come up with an interesting plot. And come to think there's a ton of characters with their own stories interweaving around each other makes it even more incredible. Hats off to Mark Cherry and the team.

This semester is gonna be crazy, I can feel it coming. My schedule is set and I'll be working 20 hours a week. Might not sound much, but since I'm having a five course load this sem it's actually a little bit crazy (at least that's what my friends have been telling me). A lot of people here take three or four course load and they still complain of the work (and they don't even work part time!). I don't know about them but I'm so not used with taking only three courses per sem. There'll be so much free time! It'll also take way too long to complete the degree, which is something I wanna do in the least amount of time. I'm amazed with people who enjoy studying so much that they take double degrees and stuff like that. I personally hate studying (the ones where you have to memorize stuff and all) which is why I'm doing what I'm doing now. You don't have to memorize much in Film Production. Just get familiar with the camera and go outside and shoot.

I've been following the news happening in Indonesia and Malaysia and there have been so many juicy things to blog about, but I've never really had the willpower to drag my ass and write about them. I really admire people who can write fresh stuff every day (not the inane stuff like what they had for breakfast, how smashed they got at the party last night and all that). Must work harder.

On a political note, Canada will be having the election on the 23rd of January. There have been some interesting incidents, like the nasty ads by the Liberals attacking Conservative Party's Stephen Harper. The ads were the ultimate example of character assasination and I found them to be in extremely bad taste (and I'm already used with nasty Indonesian politics, which is pretty much as dirty as it gets!). It'll be interesting to see the outcome of this election. For me (and for everybody else I guess) what really matters is that the new government will bring the friggin' tax down, although it seems really unlikely at this point. However I'm still grateful that Alberta tax is still among the lowest as there is only GST, not like some other provinces that have GST+Provincial Service Tax.

Time to do something else.

Bad bad day

2005-12-01T18:34:00.000-07:00

Sucky day. First it's -23 degrees outside. Then I forgot to include bibliography and the recital program on my music assignment which means I have to email the prof and beg him to allow me pass them tomorrow. Then my Discman remote got stuck on the door and snapped (effectively making it a cordless remote - another excuse to get the Creative Zen MicroPhoto actually, heh). Then the zipper on my winter jacket got stuck on the way back! Arghh..

And now I have to do a 4 page production critique for the drama class, due tomorrow. How sucky is that?

Oldman River

2005-10-30T17:05:00.000-07:00

Lethbridge Coulee - West Side, 29 October 2005

Aperture Drive Blues

2005-10-28T23:32:00.000-06:00

Aperture Drive Pond, 28 October 2005

Penny

2005-10-25T20:15:00.000-06:00

I was manning the lab just now and this mainland Chinese guy came in to do his online exam. I checked his login form and saw his name: Yao (Anfernee) Ming. Of course that's not his Chinese name, I just used it as an example. Kinda cute though. Penny Hardaway would be so proud.

I found out that I could borrow the school camera for a few days. Checked earlier and they have a Sony DSC-F707 which is kinda old but still much better than my vintage cam. I'm planning to get a hold of it during the weekend and use it to take pics at this new-found spot at the edge of the coulee. The view is just breathtaking. I just hope I won't be blown off by the wind.

Cheesy Post

2005-10-23T21:24:00.001-06:00

Thank you Soft Cheeks for the inspiration. Yes it's really good, and I'm bloated now.

100 All-TIME Novels

2005-10-21T12:15:00.000-06:00

I checked the TIME magazine's 100 "All-TIME" Novels and found out I've only read 1.5 of them. I sure have a lot of reading to do.

Whoops

2005-10-20T18:05:00.000-06:00

IT is not going to be happy...

Yellow Coulee

2005-10-06T22:51:00.000-06:00

Fall is here. The coulee is getting yellow. Gets colder every day and the evil wind is making it worse. Ah well, we haven't got to the the -30 part yet.

*Edited: I just realized there is a grey sock on the bottom of the picture. Stray socks are quite common around here. I guess when you take a one-month worth of laundry to the laundromat it is kinda difficult to keep everything in the basket.

Not Again

2005-10-06T08:18:00.000-06:00

It's funny that I always wanna do something less important i.e. blogging when I'm supposed to do something very important i.e. that ~~4 pages Story Treatment for Animation~~ 19 question Music assignment that's due in 13 hours' time.

Ah well. Consuming sambal asli ABC should keep me awake all night. Skype-ing with Soft Cheeks has the same effect as well.

Bali got bombed again. And now we have suicide bombers. I've been wondering, what were those lowlifes thinking when they were about to pull (or push) the trigger? Eternal pleasure in paradise just like what their holy imam said? Garbage. Islam strongly condemns suicide, even worse when you're taking innocent lives along. Getting your sorry ass penetrated in the deepest pit of hell is more like it.

I read the news about the bombing with the mixture of shock, anger, disgust, and pain. I don't know about you, but having these kinda evil acts perpetrated in a place you call home sure is sickening. Of all the bombing incidents that happened in Indonesia, the Marriott bombing was certainly the most personal for me. My oldest cousin works there. Thank God he was working night shift when it happened. He told me some of his colleagues were injured in the bombing. Had he decided to swap shifts with a friend, it could have been him.

The government is not doing enough. The police can do better. The intelligence.. well I don't even know what the intelligence is doing. The fact is, Muslim extremists are allowed to do whatever they want in Indonesia, and the government is afraid to do anything cos they fear the backlash from the Muslim community if JI get banned.

I think that's bullcrap. Moderate Muslims don't give a damn about Jemaah Islamiyah, Front Pembela Islam, Laskar Mujahidin (wannabes) and all those jokers. Everyone knows they can be the next unfortunate victim. And everyone also know, those people don't represent Islam at all. They're just misusing religion to achieve whatever their objective is.

So, Bapak SBY, kindly kick their asses and lock them up in Nusakambangan. The times when some wannabe Mujahid leader can scream in national TV that they're doing jihad are over. We've had enough of them.

OK enough with the ranting. I haven't blogged for a while. Been busy with studies and work. I *shall* be more regular when it comes to posting. Just need to force myself to start, that's all.

Listening to: Nothing. My housemate is freaking sensitive to noise. I suspect he can even hear my breathing. Scary.

Gathering

2005-09-16T23:02:00.000-06:00

Just got back from an international students gathering. Was kinda interesting, everyone was pretty excited to meet fellow internationals. It does get kinda boring meeting mat sallehs all the time and trying to adapt to their way of talking etc. It felt great to meet new people and found out that they're just as blur as you are. Anyhow, got a trip to Waterton tomorrow. Looking forward to that.

My PC is coming next week. Yay!

Listening to: Keyboards clicking. Too lazy to plug in the earphones. Gosh I can be real lazy sometimes.

R.I.P.

2005-09-05T08:23:00.000-06:00

When a tragedy strikes somewhere too close for comfort, it makes you think. It could've been you, it could've been your loved ones. This crash feels particularly eerie for me cos I know where it happened. I've driven passed the place many times before. Hell, some of my relatives live nearby. Good thing they're all alright.

My condolences to the victims and their families and friends. We've had too many tragedies already, let's pray and work to prevent any of those from happening again.

Grainy

2005-09-01T23:47:00.000-06:00

Henderson Park, September 1 2005
A few hours before Alberta's Centennial Celebration

Damn. I need a to upgrade my camera.

Arrival Info

2005-08-30T02:54:00.000-06:00

Just arrived in Lethbridge, Canada after a very very long journey involving many planes and airports. Gonna be here for quite some time. I shall write more regularly once I get my own PC.

Oh, happy merdeka to my Malaysian friends.

Merdeka

2005-08-16T12:07:00.000-06:00

It's 17th of August today, 60 years since we've declared ourselves a sovereign country called Republik Indonesia.

60 years we've been an independent country, free from the shackles of colonialism.

For 60 years we've proudly declared ourselves Bangsa Indonesia. The nation that strives forward to achieve our founding fathers' vision. But are we there yet?

We're still far from perfect, we have to admit that. There are so many things to create, to improve, and sometimes, to change.

It's time to ask ourselves, where are we going to bring this country?

Are we going to slack off and let it remain in its current stationary, or even backward, momentum?

Or are we going to strive hard to develop to an advanced nation and equal to our neighbors?

I believe we all want the best for our country. I know I do. It might seem like such an impossible task to get free from the rut that we've been in for so long, but I am sure we can do it.

From what I can see, things are improving. Corruption is slowly being weeded out and the corrupts being put to jail where they belong.

The peace agreement is finally signed. My sincerest hope is that both parties can honour their promises and end this tragic bloodbath. It's time for peace to reign in Aceh. May no more mothers shed tears for their lost sons and daughters in Tanah Rencong.

I have a faith in our leader. He is a good man, honourable and dedicated in doing his job. It's not easy to be in his position, more so being a leader of an extremely vast and heterogeneous country like ours. It takes time for improvement. What he needs is our support. Support not only in talking, but in action. Your smallest contribution will add up for the good of us all.

Merdeka!

(OK, it's time for the panjat pinang and lomba makan kerupuk to commence. Go warm up! While for us being away from home, it's makan time at the Kedutaan)

Jakarte

2005-07-08T01:13:00.000-06:00

I just got back from Jakarta. Went for more than a week without internet connection. Was depressing to say the least, but as always Jakarta has never failed to entertain me in many ways. Since I'm too lazy to write properly I'll just type out in point forms some of my thoughts about The Great City.

1. There are lots of people in Jakarta. Damn, the whole city's packed almost all the time. I read somewhere that Jakarta has 12 million inhabitants during the day and 8 million at night. 12 million is A LOT OF PEOPLE. If you think KL is packed, experience Jakarta.

2. The traffic is freaking scary. Straight out of the airport you get the infamous Jakarta jam. Lanes don't exist in Indonesia, more so in Jakarta. Millions of cars and motorcycles cram the never expanding road network. The new busway system (more on this later) didn't help much, even caused worse jams cos they occuppy a dedicated lane that's taking a portion of the already insufficient road. If you haven't been drinking Indonesian water for a minimum of 5 years, don't bother driving there. You won't be insane enough.

3. There's a lot of rich people in Jakarta. Anywhere you look you'll see the latest imported cars. I didn't see the exotics, but Toyota Alphards, Merc S-Classes, VW Touaregs and Range Rovers (even the new RR Sport! Argh) were suffocating the road. Reading the classifieds on the paper I saw ads selling second hand Hummers and even one dealer promoting the newly arrived Lamborghini Murcielago. On the classifieds, just like that.

The houses I saw on some areas were just amazing. My hotel was in Menteng area, a very upscale neighborhood. I was walking around and I could find those huge mansions that sadly looked empty. Some rich Jakartans built houses just for investment or weekend retreats apparently.

The highlight of the trip is when I was exiting Plaza Indonesia through the connecting Grand Hyatt. Lo and behold, a 2005 Rolls-Royce Phantom was parked prettily near the entrance. I could never figure out why anyone would even dare to drive a Rp 10 billion (est. price) car on such chaotic traffic. But well, this is Indonesia.

4. Everyone has drivers. Whether the car is a Jag or a Jazz, car owners have their chauffeurs. Go to the parking lot of any office building or shopping mall, you're bound to see drivers (or supir as they're called here) lazing away under the tree or sleeping inside the car. Some buildings even have special resting and waiting place for these guys. I guess it's not that expensive to employ a personal driver. Hell my auntie's family has three drivers.

5. The busway is not as bad as it was predicted to be. Jakarta's current version of mass rapid transit uses buses instead of trains. These buses occupy a dedicated lane which was taken from a portion of the existing road. Great news for the buses cos they have a virtually jam free road, but bad news for the motorists since what's left of the road is taken away.

I took the busway from the station in front of Sarinah, planning to go Mangga Dua. No problems even if you don't know the way. Everyone's helpful in pointing you out, though sometimes people might give you wrong direction. The very nicely dressed bus conductor told me to get down at Stasiun Kota and take a short cab ride to Mangga Dua. Excellent. And did I tell you the bus driver was wearing a suit and tie?

6. Cabs are reliable. A note to would be traveler to Jakarta: Only take BLUE BIRD TAXIS. They're the most reliable and the drivers are very professional. You don't get picky cabbies like in KL. Sit first then tell the driver where you wanna go. He will not complain if it's too near/too far/he doesn't know where it is/etc. He'll radio the headquarters for direction if he doesn't know.
When I took the cab from my hotel to the World Trade Center, the fare was Rp 9,000 and the cabbie didn't have a change for my Rp 50,000 note. He actually waited for another Blue Bird cab to show up so he can ask for change from the colleague. When finally there's one that was dropping a passenger, he asked for change. Unfortunately the colleague didn't have change either since it was quite early in the morning (apparently they don't bring much money, maybe for safety purposes). So while apologizing profusely he rummaged through all his pockets and fished out Rp 35,000. Well since there's nothing else we can do I just accepted it. I just considered it a tip since he was very polite. He was still apologizing when I was exiting the car.

6. DVD's are cheap. The pirated ones of course. Rp 5000 or RM2 each. However the selection that I saw in Mangga Dua was so-so only. Friends told me to check out the infamous Glodok area for DVDs. They said price can go as low as 3 for RM4. Will definitely check it out next time I'm in Jakarta (which is about two weeks time, heh)

7. There are more beautiful girls per square km in Jakarta than anywhere else. Starting from the moment you touch down, there's plenty of girls to ogle at in the airport. Nearing the city it's even better. They're just everywhere. I've seen serious stunners working as cashiers in Dunkin' Donuts (btw Jakarta has Dunkin' Donuts on every corner) or as SPG's in dept stores like SOGO. But the best place to check out chicks is the mall. There are many malls in Jakarta but you gotta check out Mal Taman Anggrek (one big-ass mall), Plaza Indonesia (where the Indonesian equivalent of Mak Datins hang out) and of course, Plaza Senayan. The place is packed with them.

One thing I don't really dig about Indonesian girls is that they wear a ridiculous amount of make up. Some of the babes might have this beautiful natural look, but a lot of them put on crazy amount of whatever-its-called they look like ghosts. I guess it has something to do with the stupid Indonesian belief that fair is beautiful. The shallow whitening ads on tv don't help either.

But worry not. You won't regret coming to Jakarta. Just don't bring your girfriend.

8. Nightlife in Jakarta is happening. I didn't get to sample much of the nightlife though, only went to the newly relocated Hard Rock Cafe and the crazy Stadium Club with cousins.

Hard Rock was just like.. Hard Rock. Nothing special, the same expensive food and drinks. The band was okay, but the crowd was lousy to the max. They were having a 40 and above night maybe.

Bored at HRC, my cousin recommended Stadium. Being a newbie to the Jakarta scene, I agreed. So went there after picking up another cousin who worked at JW Marriott.

What a place that was! After passing the entrance which was guarded by a bunch of guys who look like presidential bodyguards, we took a lift to the 4th floor. Holy cow, definitely the craziest joint I've been to. Once we stepped in, we were greeted by this bunch of girls wearing skimpy black dresses. Some mama-san came and offered "Cewek, mas?" After we (quickly) said no, we then proceed to the dance floor. It was so packed and dark and the aircon was struggling to supply breathable air. Ayy, there's one thing my cousins didn't tell me; it was an ecstasy joint. People were getting high everywhere. People passing out in the loo. Apparently it was very easy to get E there. Just hold up up your lighter. Some guy will come and give you a price. If you agree then give him the money and he'll pass you the pill. Make sure you get a bottle of water first. Swallow pill and have fun.

I didn't really enjoy the place because of several things:

1. The music was crap. It's designed to enhance the whole E experience, not for the actual trance aficionado,
2. The crowd was like 70% male, and from that number 50% was gay,
3. The fear that in the event of a fire, I have no idea how to escape. Somemore it's on the 4th floor,
4. The smoke was suffocating.

Around 4am I went down, lepaking near the entrance looking at some young punks still trying to get in but kena stopped by the guards. Later cousins came down and we went back, smelling like garbage dump.

My JW Marriott cousin commented that the place sucked cos too many gays groping around and drug dealers were everywhere. He said we should've gone to this more upscale joint called Retro. Ah well, there's always next time.

9. The cinema was loud. As it should be. I watched the premiere of War Of The Worlds with friends in Jakarta Theater. The seating is about the same as TGV or GSC although the comfort level is more like GSC. TGV seat sucks.

What stood out was the fact that the sound system was LOUD. It greatly enhanced the effects on the movie. I've always felt that the sound level in Malaysian cinemas is way too tame. It just didn't feel good watching the action scenes on Police Story 3 and at the same time being able to hear some dad behind scolding his small kid for running around (what the hell was the kid doing there anyway?). C'mon GSC, crank it up!!

10. The food was great! Had the famous Nasi Goreng Kambing (always forget the name of the area the stall was in) and tried out the steak at Abuba Kelapa Gading. Glorious food at low prices. Gotta love the place.

11. Tight security is everywhere. Better get used to it. Cars will have their boot opened when entering a mall or office or hotel. Sometimes the guards will ask to open the passenger door as well so don't be surprised when some guard pops in to check inside the car. They're very professional and polite though, so it shouldn't be a problem. With all the bombings that happened, it's always better to be alert.

So there it is. I must say I enjoyed my stay there, although I can safely say I don't think I can actually LIVE there. Go book that AirAsia flight and experience Jakarta!

Listening to: John Patitucci - Growing

Gladiator in Cuffs

2005-06-08T07:09:00.000-06:00

Russell Crowe could face jail up to four years for hurling a phone at a night porter in a posh New York hotel. Hey since Australia didn't give any money to US, maybe you should rot in jail?

You just lost my respect, Mr Crowe.

Listening to: Dream Theater - In The Name Of God

Things People Put on Car Classifieds

2005-06-02T15:52:00.000-06:00

I've been scanning the classifieds recently and I noticed some amusing things people put on their ads. These tiny bit of infos are supposedly to help convince the potential buyers that the car has been in good hands. But has it really?

1. Lady owner: The most common. It'd be difficult for me to consider buying a car previously owned by a lady. I don't wanna start the sexist arguments here, but in my seven years of driving (yeah I'm not that old) some of the most reckless drivers I've seen on the road are ladies. Changing lanes without signalling, driving 50 kmh on the right lane, lousy parking and taking two spaces as a result, smsing while driving, the list goes on.

With all those reckless stunts logically cars driven by (reckless) women would endure heavy abuse.

2. Doctor owner: So what? So if you're a doctor it's guaranteed that your car would be in "tip-top" condition? I thought doctors have to rush to the hospital when they get emergency calls? Rushed driving = bigger chance of getting an accident. Wonder whether DrLiew would put this if he's ever selling his Enzo.

3. Student owner: Now this is the joke. You expect us to believe that students drive nicely on the road? Get real.

4. Malay owner: Why must anyone put their race on a car classified? Is it implying that Malays are better drivers than other races so the car must be good condition?

5. Government owner: ...

6. Low mileage: All ads claim this. Guess most Malaysians put their cars on the garage and use them only on the weekends. Why don't car sellers put the actual mileage on the ad anyway?

One question on new cars: Why are cars in Malaysia so expensive? For comparison a Honda Jazz here is RM100k, in Indonesia it's only Rp145 mil (RM58k). A Nissan X-Trail is RM140k here, but less than RM100k in Indonesia. The only affordable ones here are Proton and Perodua. But with the sad build quality of Proton I'm glad Perodua is producing reliable cars at affordable price.

I just realised why Proton never exports their car to Indonesia. Maybe the management decided that Indonesian roads are too screwed up for their car, and rather than having fragile Proton cars breaking down in Indonesia, they should ship them to UK instead.

Listening to: Journey - Lights

Angry Australians

2005-05-27T08:16:00.000-06:00

Schapelle Corby has been found guilty of smuggling 4.1 kg of marijuana to Bali from Australia. She was sentenced to 20 years' jail by an Indonesian court today. Read here and here.

The case has garnered massive attention in Australia. Everyone has their own theory of whether Corby is guilty or not. According to a poll around 90% of Australians believed she's innocent. Some people even donated money for her defense.

I won't argue here whether she's truly guilty or innocent. It's been decided by the judges. What concerns me is the way some Australians are reacting over the case. Many claimed she's innocent because they (or a friend's friend's cousin's neighbor) knew her personally and didn't believe a beautician from Queensland would smuggle marijuana to a country with such strict anti-drugs law. Some argued that she's a victim of a smuggling syndicate that uses baggage handlers to put drugs on unsuspecting travelers' luggage.

The comments found on Australian news sites really baffled me. Some wanted to boycott Indonesian products and would not travel to Bali or Indonesia ever again to "punish" Indonesians. One said Indonesia is being ungrateful because Australia donated A$ 1 billion for tsunami aid and they imprisoned an Australian instead (where the hell is the relevance of that? So the next time an Aussie smuggles a ton of coke to Jakarta the Indonesians should just let him off cos hey, they gave us a billion bucks what?). Some even got really mad they turned to attacks against Indonesian people in general by saying we're "uncivilized" and calling us "monkeys". Wah, no need to get personal, mate.

Some of the comments found on news.com.au:

From: Darren
Comment: Break off diplomatic relations. Send in the SAS to rescue Schapelle. Set up a Navy blockade. Teach these uncivilised people a lesson.

> Someone read too much Clancy apparently.

From: Tim
Comment: I need to find out a list of all Indonesian products available in Australia to boycott them all. Could someone publish one please?

> You can stop consuming Indomie. We don't mind.

From: scott
Comment: I'll boycott Indonesia forever. Can I have my Tsunami donation back now? I'll never help them again if they place innocent people behind bars. My friends know Schappelle and she may be a little stupid, but she knows nothing about the world of drugs really.

> So your donation was never based on humanitarian grounds after all?

From: ken
Comment: Can any body tell me why she deserves special treatment and why should she be given a free passage home as a prisoner exchange transfer? Because she says she is innocent? So what? The bali nine can say they are innocent as well. Are they going to get the same prisoner exchange system?? The Australian Government want to run its own country and let Indonesia run its own. If you do the crime be prepared to do the time.

> Finally someone with a clear head.

The weird thing is Indonesians themselves don't really care about the case. Guess they are more concerned about corruption cases on the KPU or the latest berita selebritis. Indonesians are just tired about all these drugs cases and the impact on Indonesian youth. With the high rate of drug abuse Indonesians would rather have smugglers and dealers sent to a firing squad anyway.

Listening to: Sonophonic - The Conjuration

Face printed in Quran

2005-05-25T00:04:00.000-06:00

A bupati (district chief) in West Java printed his picture inside the Qurans to be distributed to the rakyat in his district.. before he's up for re-election.

See http://www.pikiran-rakyat.com/cetak/2005/0505/06/0102.htm and http://www.google.com.my/search?q=foto+bupati&sourceid=mozilla
-search&start=0&start=0&amp;ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox
-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official

It's disgusting how low some people can go to remain in power.

Listening to: Rick Braun - Latinesque

Alamak

2005-05-21T10:49:00.000-06:00

Damn. MU lost on penalties. 5-4 for Arsenal.

Congrats to the Gunners fans out there.

Traffic in Indonesia and Malaysia

2005-05-21T08:31:00.000-06:00

If you can drive in Medan, you can drive anywhere. No shit.

Indonesian traffic is legendary for its perpetual chaos. Lanes don't exist (well they do, but nobody cares about them anyway), speed limits don't exist (my favorite part), and traffic lights are considered decorative lights.

Foreigners get slight heart attacks on their first time on an Indonesian road. I read somewhere that Juha Kankkunen, the four-time World Rally champion, was freaked out when he was driven around in Medan during one of the Asia Pacific Rally leg in the 90's (hey how come we never host any of those anymore?). A guy who drives 200km/h in the woods for a living was scared to be on the Medan main road, that's bad.

The roads in Indonesia are filled with not only cars and motorcycle, but also bicycles, becaks/trishaws (on cities where they aren't abolished and dumped to the sea yet), bajajs, kaki lima carts, people walking, people standing, people demonstrating (ah, we get a lot of that), and people begging.

It takes special skills to maneuver around so many obstacles. But if you think it's better to drive a small car in such a crowded place then you are very wrong. Size does matter in Indonesia. That's why Daihatsu Ceria (Indonesia's version of Kancil) sells poorly there. Little cars don't stand a chance against the off-road wannabe Land Cruisers and mad angkot drivers. That is why Toyota Kijang (or Unser, for the non-Autocar reading folks) is the best selling car of all time in Indonesia. It's medium sized, can accommodate eight people (two parents, three kids and three maids), and has gazillions of accessories available in the toko aksesori.

Once you've gotten used to the mad driving it'll be okay. You can then relax a bit and enjoy the organized chaos around you. Just don't get too relaxed like Indonesians who are often found driving while:

SMSing their friends
Playing with their Communicator/PDA/other high tech toys. Indonesians love their gadgets
Teaching their baby kid to drive

Motorcyclists in Indonesia think they're immortal. They consider wearing helmet as an annoying chore, plus it ruins the hairstyle. So they choose not to wear it. But how if there's a traffic cop doing his rounds, you ask? Well, Pak Polisi also doesn't wear helmet, so why bother.

They are also very good in squeezing whole familes on one small motorcycle. Although this can also be found in Malaysia, but the Indonesians have perfected the art. I've seen one family (mom, dad, and three kids) on one tiny kapchai enjoying an afternoon ride. Scary I tell you.

There are too many motorcycles in Indonesia. That makes motorcycles the no 1 obstacle when you're driving. They're simply everywhere. You have to be extra careful when driving cos these people will swerve in traffic like nobody's business. The very annoying part is that in the event of an accident, the motorcyclist is always right. Well who wouldn't symphatize with one family lying on the road with a wrecked bike and condemn the driver with his fancy car even though it was the bike that sped and hit the car. So too bad for drivers. Just watch out for those daredevils.

One more thing about motorcyclists, they seem to love teaching their 10 year old sons to ride. I've seen this one many many times. A very young boy learns to ride with his dad riding pillion. Dad looks smug, damn proud that his kid can finally ride on his own, ready to race with his little friends, ready to crash onto an incoming truck, ready to lie dead in a blood pool and become another statistic.

I've been driving in Malaysia for about 1.5 years now. As I have experienced the worst traffic, I gotta say that Malaysia feels like heaven. A lot of Malaysians complain about the jams, but its nothing compared to Jakarta. Once I travelled from Soekarno Hatta Airport in Cengkareng to Gambir Station in Central Jakarta to catch a train. The trip lasted for 2.5 hours and I almost missed my train. The 2.5 hours duration is considered pretty lucky as the driver knew all the jalan tikus passing wet markets and all. If we were to use the main road I would've had to take another train.

KL jam is mild. Sure the traffic is frustrating, but at least its moving. In an Indonesian jam you can be stationary for hours. I guess this is also the reason why so many Indonesians employ drivers, cos it's better to sleep in the car and let the driver worry about getting to the destination. I was a bit surprised when I came to Malaysia and I saw expensive German cars driven by their owners. In Indonesia even an Avanza owner has a personal driver, no kidding.

If there's one thing that irks me about driving in Malaysia is the drivers' attitude. They lack a lot of basic courtesy like giving signals when switching lanes or even driving in the proper lane according to their speed. Many times I had to brake suddenly cos some idiot decided to change to my lane without giving signal even though I was much faster and was about to pass him. And when I honked he even got the balls to stare at me. Asshole.

Enough ranting, FA Cup Final is on.

Listening to: Judas Priest - Fever

Indonesian roads suck

2005-05-19T02:04:00.000-06:00

The first serious topic: The state of roads in Indonesia.

Okay you can leave now. But seriously, if you've been to Indonesia, you'll realize how messed up the whole road network is (especially in islands other than Java, like in Sumatra where I'm from).

Recently I had the pleasure of taking a 12 hour bus drive from the town my parents live to Medan. Now don't imagine the road's gonna look like the 6 lane superhighways like you see in Malaysia. It's a 2 lane trunk road full of potholes and uneven road surfaces.

The bus left at 10 PM and supposed to arrive at 10 AM in Medan the following day. Imagine being in a bus (which was pretty okay actually) driven in such a shitty road for 12 hours. I couldn't barely sleep. 12 hours was a very long time to ponder on things.

How in the world can Indonesia be so backward after all these years? The government can't even provide proper roads for the citizen, even after almost 60 years of independence. Why can't we have highways like in Malaysia or Thailand? People always say that Indonesia is a rich country (they make patriotic songs about it that even primary school kids must sing every Monday morning), but whatever happened to those riches?

Gone to certain people's pockets, most likely. The level of corruption in Indonesia is just unbelievable. It's one the few places in the world where a government servant earning less than RM2000 (USD533) can own a big ass house with a BMW 5 series, the latest Toyota Land Cruiser, and assortment of other cars.

How the hell could they afford those? Well your guess is as good as mine.. Since otonomi daerah or decentralization was implemented, suddenly local kings show up everywhere. Provincial level authorities who used to have their budget taken care by Jakarta suddenly have this billions of rupiah to spend. But before spending the budget to develop their area they chose to fatten their own account.

What's interesting about these Indonesian so called raja daerahs is that they are not ashamed at all in flaunting their illegitimate wealth. Once I saw a really big house near my relative's house. When I asked about it my relative said that's the house of a certain Bupati (I don't know the equivalent in English, bupati is a leader of a kabupaten, the administrative government one step lower than a province). Since the gate was always open, you can easily see at least 10 cars inside a very big garage. The weird thing was that the house was not located in some upscale neighbourhood, instead it was in a middle-lower class area. Now who in the right mind would build a mansion when the next door neighboor in his tiny rumah petak (small rented house) is struggling just to pay his children's school fees? The whole thing totally sickened me.

Back to the road part, a lot of the funds allocated to build or maintain the roads are misused by the government officials and the contractor. For example, when there is a project to build asphalt road with the thickness of 20 cm (just an instance, cos I have no idea what the road thickness is), then the official and contractor can conspire to build the road with 10 cm thickness instead. The fund for the remaining 10 cm? Bagi bagi lah.. You keep 30 percent and I keep the rest.

After a short while the road gets damaged because of below par construction and also because of grossly overweight trucks using the road non stop (another possible blog topic, mmmm). When the budget for road repairs comes out then the whole evil cycle starts again.

At 7 o'clock in the morning I arrived in Medan, much faster than predicted, since apparently the bus driver was a graduate from a racing school. What a trip that was, but unfortunately I had to repeat it all over again, on the return trip...

Listening to: Racer X - Street Lethal

Internet radio is good for you

2005-05-19T02:01:00.000-06:00

Love this site. All the music you can listen!

The First One

2005-05-19T00:00:00.000-06:00

Here we are.. been thinking of starting a blog for quite some time, but never really gathered the willpower to actually do it. Finally able to get my lazy ass to write the first post and hopefully, as I've experienced before, write the later ones without having to drag myself.

I decided to title this blog The Indonesian Complains because:

1. I'm Indonesian
2. I complain, a lot

Well, maybe not really a lot, but enough to annoy some of my friends. This blog will be used for me to express my views on things that I find interesting about Indonesia and also Malaysia, where I've been residing for almost four years. It's also a tool for me to improve my writing. I feel weird that I find it very easy for me to express my opinion verbally, but not so easy when I have to write it down. So please forgive me if you find the future posts look a bit screwed up, I'm trying to improve here.

So much for the intro, now I have to think of a first post...