Ibro's Birthday Party

Indi took Noe to the front yard and taught Noe how to drive.

Mr. and Mrs. Vidi and their daughter Vla visited us.

Vidi is Indi’s friend since junior high. The two of them, plus the other friends, used to hang out in Bintaro house, where they all watched porn video (Betamax, at that time) for the first time.

In the mean time, local news on TV screened a story about a grandma died unknowingly in her house, and her starved dogs ate her, until she’s discovered about a week after her death. Her arms and legs were badly severed, left only bones, eaten by the hungry dogs. You can see the picture of the severed body in this TV show, on a bright daylight. I can’t believe how bad Indonesian television scene is.

Later that night, we went to PI for Pak Hindro birthday dinner at Sapo Oriental. While we’re on the way to the restaurant we saw this bunch of people:

As you can see, Jakartans are not at all poor, in fact, they’re very affluent. See, they all can afford high-end mobile phone with video cameras. But what exactly are they taping?

It’s our friend Tompi! Following the success of his debut album, he took part in a idul fitri concert in PI mall.

This is Tompi again, viewed from someone’s camera.

After the concert, we continued to the restaurant where our relatives had waited to break the fast. Our cousin took turn to carry Noe. This is Santi with Noe.

This is Dewi with Noe. The last time we were in Jakarta, we couldn’t meet Dewi. So, this is Dewi’s first time seeing Noe.

This is Arif with Noe.

The food was really great. The chili chicken was really delicious. However, Indi complained about how the food was served in one go, rather than one-by-one. I can’t blame the staff because of the breaking-fast rush, they can’t afford to serve food slowly.

Finally, the climax of the show arrived. Pak Hindro blew the candle of his 60th birthday.

Here is the birthday boy with the wife.

BTW, there is one guy smoked in the restaurant knowing that it’s a public place, and moreover, I was sitting very near to him with a baby! What an inconsiderate person!

Back home, Pak Hindro opened the gifts. He was elated when he received the gift from the Singapore Team: A new o2 mini. He immediately tried the phone.

Read the full article...

First Day in Jakarta

I was surprised to see someone who looked like Adi Wicaksono on TV in a cooking show called Magic Kitchen! Those hairy arms were on TV! I found that the show was really amusing and unique, however sometimes I couldn’t really catch what Adi talked about (perhaps it’s difficult to mike it in a real kitchen).

So I called Dyah to ask about it, and true, it was Adi Wicaksono. The show has been screened for several months, she said.

Later on I managed to talk to Adi as well. He said that the show is the most viewed cooking show at present, replacing Selera Nusantara – Rudi goes on hiatus. Congratulations Adi!

Ibu Wies couldn’t wait to see Noe and she decided to drive down to Bintaro to see Noe and give some Mango to Bintaro family. From there, we all decided to go to Carrefour because Ibu Tuti needed to get something from the shoe repair shop.

Even before we get off the car, we knew that it was going to be really really crowded. It took us about half an hour to get a parking. When we searched for parking, we saw that this balloon has a serious typo.

When we entered Carrefour, I saw so many people there that it was really difficult to walk around. I have never seen such a big crowd in one building before. Moreover, it rained, and it became difficult for people to exit the building. It was packed, but we managed to buy Kerak Telor.

Read the full article...

Off to Jakarta

We flew home, to Jakarta, on Singapore Airlines.

When we drove to Changi, the traffic along the ECP was unusually jammed (for Singapore standard). I suppose it was because everybody is rushing out of the country for the long week holiday (Deepavali and Hari Raya). And true enough, Changi Airport was more crowded than usual.

I guess it’s true that Singapore Airlines’ service on air is one of the best in the world. It began at the check in counter. As usual, we’re being fussy and we tried our best to nag the officer. First, we asked for clarification on why we needed to show our credit card to confirm our e-ticket purchase. Although the staff didn’t give a satisfactory answer, they are incredibly patient in answering our (or rather, Indi’s nagging) inquiries. Second, we asked for baby food at a last minute. The staff assured us that they would try to accommodate our needs. And, when we boarded the plane, the stewardess gave us the baby food as requested, although we’ve only requested it last minute.

After meeting Askar, we decided to have a dinner inside the terminal. I chose to eat six-dollar Subway sandwich rather than eating a ten-dollar Singapore chicken rice (which you can easily find in hawker center for as low as 1.50).

On our way to the gate, we met many of our friends who happened to be in the same flight with us. Aki, Rama, Ranidia, Adjie, Cay, etc were on the same flight. Basically the flight was full of Indonesian yuppies who are working and living in Singapore, going home for lebaran, and managed to secure Singapore Airlines cheap fly-for-two tickets.

Singapore Airlines security check-up was pretty tight. My baby was scanned using metal detector, even though he may be too young to be a suicide bomber. And the boarding time was quite early, perhaps to ensure punctuality of the take-off time.

We’re impressed again, with SQ’s in flight service. A warm moist towel brought by lovely friendly stewardess greeted us when we arrived on our seat. And the inflight meal was really good for economy class (comparable to Emirates, I would say). We had lamb curry, which was really spicy and served warm on porcelain plate and metal cutlery (not plastic). And good quality wine was available anytime you want it (not a lousy tiny bottle of wine I tried on Northwest Airlines). And the coffee wasn’t bad at all. And the stewardess didn’t force us to finish our meal as soon as possible, like we experienced in other flights to Jakarta.

Noe was the star in the flight, many passenger wanted to play with him. He really loved playing on the airplane seats (he had his own seat).

I also saw how stewardesses were treated like they’re sluts by some passengers. There’s one guy sitting in front of Ranidia (he was quite friendly towards us and Noe). This guy quickly grabbed one Indonesian stewardess and whispered, asking her to go home with him (I happened to listen to the conversation). The stewardess, apparently pissed, politely declined, saying that she had someone picking her up at the airport. The guy tried harder, but luckily the stewardess managed to escape him. What a jerk!

I also saw that the bottles of unfinished good wine had to be thrown away before landing! They’re thrown away to the pantry sink! How sad!

We landed safely in Jakarta. In the immigration counter, I saw the sign “Welcome, our hero” which is addressed to Indonesian foreign domestic worker. What a hypocritical slogan, I thought, because 20 meters away from that sign, an officer would usher FDWs to a special airport terminal designated for them, so that the airport officers could bully the FDWs and get money from them. Practically, the FDW have to bribe each counter of airport officer in order to exit the airport! And it doesn’t finish there. If no family member picks the FDW from the airport, the FDW would need to take public transport, which she would get more harassment and be bullied. So much for praising our national hero, huh? What a corrupt country.

Indonesia is a very corrupt country, where corruption is immersed into every segment of society, from high school students, to high ranking official. Oddly enough, it is not reflected in the TV show. On Indonesian TV, all the good guys are good, and the bad guys are really bad. There’s no in between. In reality, everybody in Indonesia is involved in corruption one way or the other. Why is it not on TV? With the trend of reality show filling up Indonesian national TV, it’s timely enough to create a reality TV show about corruption, or further, white collar crimes (as suggested by Michael Moore)! It would be really exciting! Create a bogus proposal to be offered to Indonesian government and use hidden camera to record it! Act as a buyer of illegally cut timber from Kalimantan or act as a buyer of smuggled petrol to Singapore! Or simple, do an investigation on how high school students cheat their parents to get extra money. Or record how police officers receive bribes from traffic violators. This show would be an eye opening! I hope someone would be willing to take this idea into reality.

Pak Hindro picked us up at the Airport and Askar joined us in the car. We commented on numerous advertisement billboard along the highway.

When we arrived, Ibu Tuti has already prepared the bedroom with carpet for Noe to play on the ground. And for the first time she feed Noe with fresh banana. Noe was really excited arriving in a new place that he became insomniac.

Read the full article...

Noe Eats by Himself

Noe started to learn to self-feed.

Just one day after his seven month birthday, Noe started to grab the spoon from me and put it into his mouth. He seemed to really enjoy taking care lunch time by himself. It surely dragged the lunch time, but it's worth the learning process.

Noe also plays with water during bath time more aggresively now. He would hit the water using his hands to create splashes. I tried to freeze the splashes in the air in the next photo.

And this is uncle Askar with Noe.

Read the full article...

Seven Month Old and Swimming

Noe is seven month old! Happy 7/12 birthday, Noe!

Oh and another good news, my brother Reza just had his fourth baby, a girl, in Rudolffinner Haus hospital, Vienna, Austria. Good job, brother! Both of you are surely fertile! So far, they haven't decided the name yet. We'll give you the update once we got it.

Having reached his seventh month, Noe hit another small milestones. Like, sucking his toe for comfort.

He LOOOOVEESS standing up. If there's nobody he can ask to lift him up, he would lift himself up by holding onto whatever he can hold onto. Look at his "gotcha" expression here!

Noe also passed a very important milestone towards manhood, that is to learn to flirt with Maysa, our neighbour's daughter. He did it from the windowsill.

Okay, next topic!

Remember, a few weeks ago we took Noe for a swimming lesson in Aquaducks at Suntec?

Well, we decided not to continue with Aquaducks and signed up for Marsden Swim School instead, for a number of reasons. First, Suntec pool is too far to our house compared to Marsden. Second, the price is better in Marsden. Moreover, for the better price, Marsden also limit each class to only six people, and with this, every student receives a fair and ample amount of teacher's attention. Compared to fifteen people in Aquaducks, it really felt too crowded (I also don't think this is healthy for the baby). In Marsden, there are a lot of tricks done with the parent and teacher together. Like this, Jesus Christ ... er... I mean Jason Marsden teaches the baby the basics of swimming towards the parent.

The class is taught using songs to emphasize the movements in the water.

As a preliminary step towards diving, Jason dunked Noe into the water. Now this photo really looks freaky, as if it is really dangerous. But Jason is really experienced! The whole dunking thing only last about two seconds or less, and Noe didn't drink any pool water at all. Noe didn't cry or scream at all!

This animation will try to show the dunking experience in detail.

Indi also practiced what's taught in the Water Babies book. This is to teach Noe to enjoy floating and relaxed on water.

As usual, Noe is still puzzled about all this swimming thing. He didn't seem to thoroughly enjoy it, but he also didn't cry or scream to get out of water. So, we take it as a good sign and we just need to swim more often, so that he would get use to the water. Of course, no more than 30 minutes for each swimming session.

Basically, Marsden and Aquaducks use the same methods: playing and singing and moving in the water. But with less student per class in Marsden, the teacher seems to interact with the class far better.

Note: To be simple, we call the class "swimming lesson", although the baby is not really learning proper strokes. The class is actually "water familiarization class", to get the baby used to water and evoke its instinct to swim naturally.

Read the full article...

Weird Food - Huitlacoche

To continue the previous posting on Weird Food, today I'd like to share our experience cooking and eating Huitlacoche, aka Corn Smut, aka Corn Fungal Infection. This is inspired by Steve, Don't Eat It! - Huitlacoche Edition. Its shape is like blobs of shit, really. The name Huitlacoche itself means "Raven's Shit" in Aztec language.

Ever since I read Steve's posting about Huitlacoche, I became curious and wanted to try it. So, when I went to Tierney's Gourmet in Serene Centre, I was surprised to see two canned huitlacoche. One is creamed huitlacoche, and the other one is huitlacoche in intact condition. I decided to buy the creamed one, because it's cheaper and also safer for a beginner like me. If I survive this one, I will buy the intact version.

This creamed huitlacoche, is already mixed with onion, salt, pepper, spices, and milk. It's basically creamed soup in a can, ready to eat. Just like campbell's. Let's open up the can and see how it looks like.

Apparently, having been stored on shop shelf for a period of time had caused the soup to separate. And the colour is very much unlike the photo on the can label. I only see a grey gooey stuff. Judging from its look, it really looks rotten. Luckily the smell tells me that it's still good. Let's throw this guy into the saucepan together with the onion and veggies.

It still looked like a weird gooey grey blob when I put it into the saucepan.

Luckily after cooking it for 15 minutes, the blob became a proper (black coloured) cream soup. Served with tortilla chips. This is Indi with his portion of the Crema.

It tasted quite good, with a mild - a bit tangy taste of smoky mushroom with aftertaste deep inside your throat. However, it wasn't as strong as I'd expected, perhaps because the cream soup diluted the thingy. I wanna taste its purer form. So I need to head back to Tierney's and buy another can.

PS. Indi is sometimes confused seeing my curiousity over exotic food, he really doesn't think it's a big thing and I shouldn't be running around town checking out supermarket shelves for something funny. However, he would eat whatever exotic food that I cook. Double Standard, ey?

Read the full article...

What weird food have you tried?

Each paragraph will tell you about one particular food item that is considered weird. It was ordered from the not-so-weird food to the most-weird. This post is inspired by Steve: Don't Eat It! Do you have any suggestion of other weird food that I should try, beside what I wrote here?

Avocado, is not really weird food. But the way Indonesians eat it, may be considered weird to western standard. Indonesians eat avocado with sugar or chocolate syrup, cold, as dessert. It tastes heavenly, especially if the chocolate syrup is a bit bitter. And I really like it mixed with coconut, red ruby, sea fruit (kolang kaling), jack fruit – all mixed up as es campur (mixed ice). When I told my French host family about this, he went like, “Ewwwwwww avocado with sugar… “. That was the first time I saw someone eating avocado with french salad dressing, I was like, “What the heck?”

Image courtesy of queenfisher

In 2001, I tried Vegemite, introduced by Jeremy Wagstaff. I liked it so much that I even nibbled it. Later, I tried the original: Marmite, and I liked it even more, both to be nibbled or on top of my toast. People around me hated Marmite. I don’t know why. But I think I’d rather eat Marmite than peanut butter.

When I went to Germany with my brother in 1995, we had a difficulty finding a ‘kosher/halal’ wurst to be taken as souvenir. Pak Minki, our host, took us to horsemeat butcher in Munich market, and it was our first time trying horsemeat. In 2004, when Indi and I returned to Munich, we went to the same place. Horsemeat really taste delicious, I think. It is not as fatty as beef.

One of my weird food habits from my childhood is to eat powdered substance without diluting it with water. For example, I love to eat milo powder or milk powder. I had baby food powder or soup powder directly from its package.

I also love to nibble seasoning such as chicken stock cube, terasi / blachan, soy sauce, etc. I know it’s bad for my health, but I’m a sodium addict.

One of my favorite food is cow tongue. For breakfast, I’d eat smoked cow tongue fried in Blueband Margarine, eaten with hot steamed rice. My cook, Bik Wat, often cook cow tongue as Semur (soy sauce soup). Tongue is a different from ordinary meat. It does not have a strong fiber structure; hence it is easy to chew, but it has a strong meaty beefy taste. It was excellent.

I also had a taste of Australian Bushmeat (crocodile, kangaroo) in the form of jerky. I can’t really tell the difference, because all jerky taste the same: salty.

My first experience eating raw fish was when I was still in elementary school in Bandung. One day, my dad took the whole family to a restaurant in Cihampelas called Eden Café. He ordered Sashimi, at that time it was Rp 15,000 to Rp 30,000 which was a lot of money at that time, equals to 10-20 US dollars. We fell in love with sashimi instantly, and I became a wasabi addict as well.

I tasted a good quality raw oyster in Seattle, 2002 for the first time. Indeed Seattle was one of the oyster capital of the world. It was really fresh and it doesn’t contain any unpleasant taste, unlike when I ate raw oyster in other part of the world.

Durian, is the fruit that is uniquely Asian. I think I have always liked durian ever since I am born. I can’t understand why people don’t like durian. Even my husband hated it, I don’t know why. Aside to fresh durian, I also have tasted durian crisps, durian ice cream, durian candy, and durian dodol a.k.a. lempok (traditional south Sumatran snack). Even fried durian seed I have also tried. The only thing that I have not tried, and really would like to try, is rotten durian sambal. It is basically a sambal made from ground chili cooked with rotten durian and other spices.

My family had a weird habit of eating raw shrimp crackers. There’s a story behind it. In the sixties, my mom and dad has no money to buy cooking oil to fry the crackers, therefore they eat raw shrimp crackers. This habit is passed on to their children. The reason I love raw shrimp cracker is that it is tastier and last longer in your mouth. It also expands in your stomach, so you would feel fuller compared to eating fried crackers. You can control how you’d like it to be diluted in your saliva. Watch out, too much of it can cause mouth ulcer, that can be treated promptly using Albothyl (ouch!). I don’t think this habit is good for your teeth too.

Growing up in Sundanese land, life is not complete without eating cow’s innards. Intestine, tripe, liver, lymph, you name it. None of the poor cow is wasted. It is cooked with spices, brown sugar, some tamarind, over small fire until the innards are well cured with marinade. Then, it is deep fried and served with fried shallot. Eat it with hot rice and sambal terasi. There is nothing disgusting about it, really.

My mom, a Minang, often bought cow’s brain curry from Padang restaurant. Yellow and immersed in coconut milk curry, this brain taste like heaven. You gotta try it. Other way to cook brain is to dip it into batter and deep fry it. The exterior would be crispy, while the brain inside it would melt in your mouth. In Singapore’s Chinatown, there are a stall that sells mutton brain in ginger soup. It taste really good too.

I had raw beef cuisine in 1999, in Arana Korean Restaurant, Newgate St, London. It was called Yukhoe, and was served with pear. The next year, I requested Adi Wicaksono (soon to be famous chef from Indonesia) to cook me Tartar Steak. The one he cooked contains loads of mustard, and I love it! In 2002, I went to a French restaurant in Georgetown, DC, with Lila, and ordered Tartar Steak. This one was not so spicy. For me, as a spicy food lover, it was not up to my taste.

Image courtesy of sfood

Yukhoe
Ingredients (for 1 serving): 300g of ground sirloin, 1 pear, 1
teaspoon of crushed garlic, 1 egg yolk, 2 teaspoons of soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of
sesame oil, 1 teaspoon of sugar, a dash of crushed pine nuts and black pepper.
1. In a bowl, place finely ground beef.
2. Add soy sauce, garlic, sugar,
sesame oil and pepper. Mix with the beef.
3. Slice the pear into long, thin
strands. Spread them around a plate.
4. On top of the pears, gently place
the seasoned meat in a ball shape.
5. Put an egg yolk on top. Sprinkle
crushed pine nuts on top and serve.

When I was little, I have this unhealthy hobby of eating marinated raw chicken when my cook made satay (Kids, don’t try this at home, you don’t know what bacteria you can get!). I was lucky to stay healthy now. Those chicken meats are marinated in sweet soy sauce, butter, and kefir lime. Somehow I just liked it. Now I don’t dare to eat it, at the risk of salmonella and bird flu.

The first time I saw rabbit satay was in Pasar Seni ITB in the 1980s. However, we didn’t have the time to try it. Later, in 1998, after film screening at SOS Kinderdorf Orphanage, me and my friends went to eat rabbit satay around Lembang. It was cooked just like traditional satay. It tasted just like chicken, only sweeter. I think we also ordered roast rabbit and my impression is that the meat really tasted good, although there are a lot of small bones in it.

An interesting east Javanese food is Rujak Cingur. It is basically a vegetable salad mixed with buffalo lips and eaten with shrimp paste sauce. The buffalo lips really add rubbery texture to the salad.

When I went to Japan in 2002, I wanted to try whale meat, just to see what’s so big about it. I went to Kujira-Ya in Shibuya, Tokyo. I think I ordered whale tempura (the cheapest menu, I was a poor student at that time). It tasted so… ordinary. It tasted like beef, the texture was like beef, red meat, with a bit of fishy taste to it. It was so unlike my favorite fish: tuna and salmon. I support to stop whaling because the whale meat was not extraordinary at all anyway. Why bother eating it in the first place?

Image courtesy of bento

When I was in Hawaii, Mitsuyo took me to Ono Hawaiian restaurant in Honolulu that serves traditional Hawaiian food. It was my first time trying a cup of aged poi. Poi is made from ground taro and is kept in room temperature for three days until is aged (a.k.a. rotten and sourish). My tongue hasn’t been used to its sharp, tangy taste yet. I swear, the next time I return to Hawaii, I would eat poi with laulau.

Image courtesy of theworldwidegourmet

I also have tried animal food. Let me emphasize here: I ONLY TRIED IT AND DID NOT MAKE IT INTO HABIT! I tried cat/dog biscuit and fish food pellets. Of course, prior eating it, I would look at the ingredients list. If the list looks sensible, I try the thing. And it didn’t taste so bad. Especially the fish food, it tasted like condensed nori, which I liked.

In Australia, 1993 I tried the tequila candy with worm in it. The candy tasted just like any other candy: Sweet. The worm, clearly tasted like peanut. It was crunchy and a bit salty.

Image courtesy of saucegirl

The first time I tried goat testicle was in Soany’s house, around 1999, when we celebrated Haj day. Soany’s cook served us with goat curry that included the innards. Then I saw this round thing, and I bite it. It has something that looked like glands. I was sure it was the testicle. The next Haj year, I specially ordered testicle to be taken from the slaughtered goats. My cook made it into satay and curry. It really tasted good. I don’t understand why people don’t like it.

In early 1996 my dad brought home a delicacy from east java, called Botok Tawon. It is made from beehive that contains the bee larvae in it, cooked in coconut milk and spices over small fire in banana leaf. Gosh it tasted really good! Those larvae, they looked like grubs or tiny caterpillar, and really tasted good, like peanut but not crunchy. Those larvae have a firm skin, but once you bite it, it will explode with warm tasty peanut-like liquid. It’s like Javanese caviar.

Image courtesy of roctronics

Weird Food that I Have Not Yet Tried… but I will if I have the chance - are Grubs and Insects. I would love to try any other kind of meat (except what’s written below).

Image courtesy of Time Magazine Online

Weird Food that I don’t think I’ll try are Dog, Cat, Rat, and Human meat.

Image courtesy of Bill Irwin

Read the full article...

13 October Tragedy

This morning was an awful day to begin a working day.

The clock showed 8pm, so I kissed my dear wife and baby goodbye. Wore my ugly socks and step outside the get my shoes.

Left shoe on. Snug fit. Perfect.
Not right shoe on... Snug fit? yes, but my toes are hitting something warm and soft.
I removed my right shoe and guess what was inside my shoe?

A handsome Prince charming (named Jiggy Froggy).

I freaked out! I threw the shoe against the wall and ran back inside the house to my wife and baby boy...

I have decided to throw away those good ol' shoes. God knows that Prince charming was probably peeing and pooping in there overnight (he does not wear a Dryper like Noe does).

PS: The entrance right at the top of staircase, about 19 risers from ground. How on earth did that Prince charming manage to jump 19 times (each jump is over ten times his height). I should have asked Rani to kiss that doggone Prince charming.

Read the full article...

Noe and Grandpa

This week, Noe had a lot of visitors. One of them is Grandpa Busra. This is Noe with Indi and Grandpa Busra

Filed in: family friendGrandpa? Yes indeed, Armand Busra is Rani's distant uncle, he is Rani's mom youngest cousin. The father of Rani's mom has 20 sibling, and Busra is the son of the youngest. It is complicated. But technically, a 33 year old Busra is Noe's grandfather. This is Noe with Rani and Grandpa Busra.

Furthermore, Rani actually had a distant granddaughter from her father's side. Dhinta, the daughter of Rani's distant niece Antari Smith-Foster. So, if we extend the relationship further, we can technically say that Busra is the great grandfather of Dhinta. Interestingly, Indi had actually met with Busra when Indi visited Bimo in New Orleans, way before Indi got to know Rani. Indi is actually related to Busra, because Busra's Dad is Bimo's Dad's Uncle.

The family tree is all jumbled up together.

David Johnson also visited us on his way back to US from Vietnam.

Read the full article...

Noe - A Good Postgrad Student

Noe in NUS again! This is Noe with Christian, Shivvonne, and Ryan.

Noe plays around with Christian inside CJ Koh Law Library

This is Noe with Shivvonne

This is Noe with Anbu

This is Noe with Arun

This is Noe with Shobha

Even at home, Noe would spend time to study.

Filed in: friend

Read the full article...

Hidup di Jkt dengan Rp. 100 ribu di kantong

Sebuah forum di website IndoCina.net berisi diskusi dengan judul:

Hanya Rp 100.000,- di kantong untuk hidup di JAKARTA

Hal ini amat menarik mengingat saya sendiri yakin saya tidak akan bisa melakukannya semudah yang saya bayangkan.

Mungkin ada bbrp yang berhasil, spt yang disyaratkan sbb:

misalkan kamu baru pindah ke JAKARTA ..
ceritanya adu nasib ...
kamu cuma ada ijazah lulusan kuliah S1 ...

cuma dengan uang Rp 100.000,- saja ...
tidak ada tabungan ...
tidak ada credit card ...
tidak ada kendaraan ...
tidak ada kenalan ...
tidak ada saudara ...
hanya 1 tas berisi 2 stel pakaian saja (tidak boleh dijual)

tentu saja lengkap dengan KTP dan identitas pengenal yang lain ...
tapi kamu harus hidup dan survive di JAKARTA .. setidaknya dalam waktu 1 bulan pertama kamu udah harus dapat tempat tinggal dan bisa makan ...

ok deh
silahkan berkreasi ..

Read the full article...

Punishment for Terrorists

Two bloggers present their point of view of the latest bombing.
7-8 argues that those terrorist come from the underprivileged part of the society. I would argue later that it is not that simple. Another blogger, Leonard argues that the most appropriate punishment for terrorist would be the severest punishment known to mankind - DEATH. But I would argue that no, death penalty wouldn't help. Allow me to present what might be the even more sadistic punishment for terrorists.

As we saw in previous terrorism cases, being highly educated and have easy access to the society does not guarantee people to stay away from terrorism. In the case of 9-11, the perpetrators are educated in engineering and IT in Western Countries. The fugitive for Indonesian bombings holds PhD degree from UK university, while his aidees are all highly educated in engineering. Being highly educated and living comfortably in democratic Western countries, what mould these people into terrorism? I can't answer it either, it puzzles me as well.

As for the punishment of the surviving terrorists:

The first step is to identify what are the ideological basis that compel the perpretators to conduct such act. Often, death is included as part of the ideology as path to glory and honour. Hence, it would not be effective to put death penalty to deter them from terrorism, because death is what they're looking for.

I suggest, after identifying the terrorists' ideological basis, the next step is to sentence the convicted terrorist by immersing them into the things and ideals contrary to their belief system.

For example, if the terrorists hate gay people, let them spend time with gay community and involved all the action. If the terrorists hate people from other religion, let the terorrist spend time living with those people, following their rituals. If the terrorists hate prostitute, send at least five STD infected prostitutes into his cell. If he hates george bush, let him live together with george bush. If they're vegetarian, give them meat everyday. Make them travel to the places that they think they hate. And make their family members become a part of what they hate, like sending the terrorist children to schools of different religions, and make sure those terrorist are alive to witness it. Let those terrorist travel (supervised, of course) to places that they have never visited.

I am sure that, when the terrorists are punished by living inside the community that they hate so much, they will feel worse than in hell. Imagine, everyday those terrorist are tortured by the thought of "I am sinning by living among these infidels!". How he would wish to rather die than having to be a part of community which he hate so much!

Moreover, let this be a commodity to the media too! Rather than spending the money for surveillance system to ensure those terrorist does not run away, let's make money from it! Let's make a reality TV show called "Terrorist Punishment", where the convicted terrorist is being followed by TV camera 24hr/7d/365 while he is serving is 'jail' term (living in the community which he hates so much).

Let the audience send SMS to the TV station saying what other treatments can be given to the terrorist. Do SMS voting to determine whether the terrorist's 'jail' term should be reduced or increased, or whether the terrorist has shown good behaviour during his 'jail' term.

but if all those fail, let him go through death sentence. But make sure the death is slow, painful, bloody, and is accompanied with video screening of the terrorist victims cry of death. don't let him die fast (in electric chair, hanging rope, shot, etc).

I guess all above will be more hurtful for the terrorists, yet those experience may change them into a better person.

Filed in: religion news

Read the full article...

Firefox

I've used Firefox for half year and I am still astonished on how customizable and expandable it is, yet it stays simple. When I started using firefox, I am amazed at how lightweight, speedy, and secure. I put yahoo and google toolbar to streamline my browsing experience, and adding wikipedia, ebay, and amazon search engine at the search box.

Then I signed up for Flickr Service. I found out that my Flickr experience can be further enhanced by installing Greasemonkey Script. Greasemonkey also integrates Flickr with Blogger, Geoblogger, Google Earth, Technorati, and del.icio.us.

Then I found out about Sage, a lightweight RSS reader that integrate itself with Firefox. Usually I use Newsgator, a free web-based RSS reader, but I find that the interface is quirky and slow, because I need todepend on internet connection just to access Newsgator. With Sage, reading RSS has become a breeze.

Long Live Open Source!

Filed in: internet

Read the full article...

The Goalkeeper

Imagine yourself a goalkeeper in a soccer team. One of the best in the world. You are paid a huge sum of money to make sure that the opponents do not score by kicking the ball in between your posts where you stand. To add to the drama, the club owner and the specatotors have long expected you to do your job, or else... you get fired immediately. Your failure in 2002 has put you under league's highest scrutiny. Now it is the year 2005.

In a final match, the opponent kicked the ball in between the goal posts and into the net behind you. Some spectators cheered some did not. Your manager shook his head and turned angry at you.

As the goalkeeper, can you explain what happened?

I can.

Here are my explanations:

Based on my assumptions, there are two possibilities:

1. You were not guarding the posts as a goal keeper. You were not there.
2. You let the opponent's ball go through you, between the posts and into the net.

If you are honest, your selection should only be limited one of the two above.

PS: Remember what happened in Bali in Oct 2002? Now it is Oct 2005. Evidently, the Goalkeeper needs to choose between the two possible answers. If he/she cannot answer honestly, his head had better be chopped off.

Filed in: news

Read the full article...

A Serious Toilet Seminar

There are trivial things in everyday life that we often overlook its importance. One of those things is toilet. Toilet is so trivial, that when someone try to delve seriously into discussing about it, most people can't help but stunned, amazed, and laughed. Hence, when someone does a seminar on "Toilet and Humanity", I find it ... well.. a bit unusual if not bizzare. My attention was caught immediately when I received an invitation to that seminar this morning (click on the photo for a more readable screen capture)

Thanks to the invitation email, now I know that toilet organizations do exist in the world, such as World Toilet Organization (a.k.a. the WTO even with link to the UN website at its front page and a blue toilet seat as its logo), World Toilet College (a.k.a. the WTC), and even the Toilet Development Bank (is it somehow related to Asian Development Bank or African Development Bank???) - click on the photo for a more readable screen capture.

This guy - the founder of the WTO - has the passion, aspiration, and determination in trying to provide better toilet condition in the world AND to destigmatize the word "toilet". I would have to agree with him in one thing, that toilet issue is indeed a serious one.

But ... I really don't think he should use the term "toilet". I suppose the term like "human waste management" or "human sanitation" or perhaps even "defecation" would sound more serious and more scientific rather than "toilet". Please.

Really. You can't blame if people laugh at it or think that it is not a serious effort. Just check out Kenny Sia's interpretation of the WTO news (funny but otherwise politically incorrect - just because he's malaysian). I suppose the marketing guys from WTO would have a really tough homework. It wouldn't be easy to change the existing connotation of the term "toilet" from general public into something of a more acceptable meaning.

Filed in: funny

Read the full article...

Kakek Nenek Luki Venny

When Kakek and Nenek was in Singapore, we took them to Arab Street to our favorite restaurant, Al Majlis.

We also met with Venny, Luki, and their family at Mt. Elizabeth Hospital.

Filed in: event family

Read the full article...