My Online Photo Cache is now OPEN!

You are cordially, jovially, and convivially invited to view and comment my online photo cache. Kindly click on the link below:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/graphichelix/

For the folks who are still wondering and just can't let it go... one answer... Encarta Dictionary.

Bogel's Leaving

Allow me to introduce you to my old and best friend. This here is Bogel (bow-gal) the Suzuki Vitara. Named so becuse she has a rather large backside. (Bogel is Indonesian for huge behind). She was born back in 92, adopted by my family later that year, took my mom all over Jakarta for the first eight years. No problem whatsoever during those times (probably 'cos my mom never went far). She started taking me to campus since 2001 and we've been best friends ever since. She's almost 14 now, and she's still a beauty. Never complains much, too.

Specifications? She has terrible mileage and wobbly handling. Top speed is 130 km/hour downhill with the the wind on our back. Acceleration? What acceleration? But still, reliable all the way. All things considered, she may not be the best of cars, but she's a great friend.

Accompanied me through the toughest of times. Took me and my ex on countless dates. Dunno how many times I laughed, cried, or got angry on those rides with her. She taught me many things in life, love, and the appropriate cursing method to assholes on the street. (My middle finger got lots of practice)

Last month my dad bought me a new car. Well... not exactly new, it was my aunt's car. A 2002 Honda City Type Z with only 12.000 km on the odometer. I've been riding it for a couple of times and by and large, it's a nice car. Better than Bogel in many ways. But you can't compare her to Bogel. Me and Bogel, we have this chemistry that no one can take from us. An now, dad decided to let go of Bogel. T-T ...Can't believe she's leaving.

I've grown so much ever since I met her. As John Ondrasik puts it,

She's my time machine
She's my rolling memory
She's my family
And I love her so

She knows my secrets well
But her back seat won't ever tell
She's no Jezebel

My ‘92 Bogel rides along
Every mile's another song
And what I don't remember
She never forgets
That little girl ain't let me down yet
It all comes back to me
When I turn that horse's key
And she roars to me...I'm 23
Or bringing home my ... grocery?
(pardon the tackyness, can't find other words that rhymes)
Like mom did when the Vitara was three

Taken from 5 4 Fighting's "65 Mustang", with a couple of alteration

Here are some pictures of her from the not too distant past. She's quite the model, you know... .

This picture was taken two years ago at an exhaust shop. Notice how dirty her underbelly was (and still is, actually) and how clean that new exhaust was. Now, it's impossible to tell 'em apart.



This is one of her best angle. Taken in front of the Center for Japanese Studies building.



It ain't no bullshit when I said her top speed was 130... 132 km/hr to be exact... .



I Believe this was taken on the rooftop parking of Kelapa Gading Mall. Quite attractive. Gonna miss you, sis.

PS: I haven't told her about her leaving, so keep it hush-hush.

Good Luck!

How many of you have won a lottery or sweepstakes? (And I mean the cream of the crop, not the umbrellas or, for a lesser extent, the truly fabulous satisfaction guaranteed company logo sticker). Less than a percent, I'll bet. Well yesterday, a good friend won a TV from the faculty's annual lottery. It was the third biggest prize that afternoon. Not bad, considering the first prize was a fridge. I was there when the MC read his number, 0... 1... 1............. 6!!!! He leapt out of his chair waving his lotto ticket madly while the audience gave an envious applause. Me? No, I'm not envious, more like curious. Why the hell have I never won first prize in a lotto? Or first prize in any fluke concerned raffle for that matter... . Is there really a luck factor involved? Been thinking about it all morning. Then I became conscious of the fact that God blessed me with good parents, a fulfilling life, and great friends. What more can a man ask for? A good woman? (you got a point there, bub...). Well, tell me if you found a lottery where the first prize is my future wife. For the time being, the message for today is that there are so many blessings that you receive every day. Each of which are worth more than the grand prize from any lotto. (But still... if you find that future wife lottery, holler at me!)

HOAHM!!!

I got an asignment three days earlier. Creating a flash presentation (more like... extravagant visualization) for two new campus institutions. Received all the presentation needs on Saturday at 9 PM. Haven't had a good night sleep ever since. So last night I had the best sleep in days. Dozed of at 9.30, woke up at 8 sharp.

Fat Boy Slim

Aaaah... that's me... like... 15 kilos lighter. Thanks to the miracle of photography, I don't have to go on a diet for a couple months to achieve it.

Photographed using a Sony Ericsson W900i by a friend of mine, she must've used a high ISO profile considering the noise. Too bad it's a bit blurry. Well, whatever, this picture is going places!!!

Continuum - John Mayer or John Mayer Trio?

Just bought John Mayer's new album, "Continuum". Hoped that it would offer a blast of songs that would, theoretically, challenge us emotionally. "Room for Squares" and "Heavier Things" forced the listeners to think hard about love and life. John's songs was a mix of bublegum pop melody with mature lyrics.

Back to continuum, first impression, too many John Mayer Trio and not enough John Mayer. It's a blues album fer cryin out loud! Where's the old bubblegum pop that I've come to love? You may say that my music preference is so dull. But am I so wrong to have hoped that John stays his course on Continuum? He unleashed his craving for blues on "Try!", the John Mayer Trio album (which, ironically, I find more entertaining than Continuum). I assumed that he would go back to his old genre on this album. I was dissapointed on that aspect.

But wait, this IS still a John Mayer album, right? What defines the old John Mayer other than the bublegum pop melody was the older than his body themes encaptured in the lyrics. At least his lyric writing skills are still intact, even better. He sums up an entire generation's conscience on "Waiting on the World to Change", just pay attention to "it's not that we don't care, we just no that the fight ain't fair". In "Belief" he sings "we're never gonna win the world, we're never gonna stop the war, we're never gonna beat this if belief is what we're fighting for" summing up the whole war in the name of religion. Well, at least he still manages to come up with deeper lyrics.

**Update**
After a year or so of listening back and forth to Continuum, I must confess that I was wrong as hell. This album has been on the top of my playlist. Sorry about that, John.

Nothing Is Forever?

Went joyriding with some friends today on my aunt's Ford Escape (poor mileage, not satisfied with the engine's performance, on-road handling needs lot's of improvements). Sudirman was our first stop. One of my friends applied for an ISP. Then we had our late lunch at the nearest Kentucky. All of us ordered "Attack Menus" (available only from 3 - 5 PM, half a buck for a piece of chicken wing, rice, and small pepsi - can't say it's satisfying but it's easy on the wallet, so I ain't complaining). Picked up a rather devastating info that may complicate our peergroup friendship from one of my friends. Can't give you guys any details cos he made me promise not to tell. (What a pity... otherwise this blog could be longer and more interesting). All I can say is that it's about two guys and one girl... you do the math.

So, the million dollar question for tonight is this. Does friendship last forever? Does love last forever, for that matter? As much as I want the friendship that I have with my peergroup right now to last through this... shall we say, rough times, I really don't think that the bond that binds us at the first place is strong enough. Friends will be divided and I will have the uncanny choice to make. It's never easy to choose between friends, but this is rediculously hard (and not fair, don't you think?).

As with love... I've allowed myself to fall in love once. At that time, it felt like it was for the first and last time. Apparently it wasn't. So till I find another woman to fall in love with for the last time (again), I'm sticking to that title, nothing is forever, including love.

Well... dunno what to do now... . Might as well sleep on it. Sleeping is the best detox method, I always say.

Eat Tokyo!

Way too much free time? You got that right.

Two Lights - Must Buy

I got Five For Fighting's new album "Two Lights" about a month ago. Been putting it at the top of my playlist on the pod. John Ondrasik's songwriting skill's top notch. He can write a song about, let's say... a cucumber, and still make our jaws drop. His first single, "The Riddle" is less catchier than "100 Years" or "Superman" but if you really listen to the lyrics, you'll see that it offers a deeper emotional tour. "Two Lights", the song that John also used as the title of the album, offers an even deeper meaning. John was inspired to write the song when he met a young soldier and his father. John saw two emotions in the father's eyes. Proud that his son is going to defend his country and at the same time sad of losing him for it... . "65 Mustang" is a playful song. It's not about life or love, it's about a car, so I guess it won't do well on the charts nowadays. But really, you have to listen to it a couple of times to fall in love with it.

Jimmy Corrigan - The Smartest Kid On Earth

I read John Mayer's blog like a month ago. He recommended a graphic novel (comic?) that his friend gave him. It's called Jimmy Corrigan - The Smartest Kid On Earth. Been looking for it all over Jakarta. The only place that had it, apparently, was Kinokuniya bookstore. But that was like a couple of months ago. Can anybody help me out here... .

Kampung Nelayan

Got a job from the office last week. Interview some fishermen at "kampung nelayan" (rough translation - the fishermen village) who are under the supervision and education of Ho an alumnus of the Faculty of Economics AND Faculty of Law, University of Indonesia. Ho's been training the fishermen there for almost two years so they can increase their living quality. They live day by day on the banks of a highly polluted river in houses built out of cardboard. They use the river's water to wash their dishes, laundry, even bathing. They're so poor to begin with that they can't buy their own boat. So they have to rent a boat from the local loan shark. In return, they have to sell all of their catch to the loan shark under the market price. On a good week, their income could reach 60.000 rupiahs. That gives them less than seven dollars a week to cover their daily needs (not to mention their family's needs) and also to buy gasoline for the boat. How do they do it? I have no idea.

Well anyways, here are some of the pictures I took there:

That's Ho with the grey shirt. The three men on the back are fishermen.




The engine kept dying everytime the propeler hits some waste on the river's surface (mostly plastic bags).

A boat we met along the river banks. That guy in the white stripped shirt was begging to be photographed. Oh, and whaddaya know, even fishermen watch motoGP. That's Rossi's 46 Yamaha on the hull.

Another Rossi fan. This time with the appropriate racing colors.

Notice how crowded it is on the banks. Everytime they went out to sea, the traffic is relentless.

This boat has a picture of someone wearing a toga and holding a degree. Shows that even the poorest of communities has hopes and dreams of getting a decent education.

The houses on the riverbanks are made out of cardboards. Dunno what to do when it's raining... . Funny thing is, some of the houses have TVs.

No, I didn't photoshop the water. It IS black.

Some of the bigger boats we met. The bigger boats usually belongs to the relatively successful fishermen. If they can buy a big boat, their income increases exponentially. Within six months, they can buy a new boat, and so on. Most of the fishermen I met there dreams to have this kind of boat some time in the future. But as long as they're stuck with the local loan shark, those dream for a bigger boat are really just that, dreams.




We narrowly escape from crashing into this big ship. Luckily, the old man here literally pushes our boat out of the way.

The net they use to catch fish. It must be a hundred metres long. When they go out to sea, they drop the net a meter at a time until they form a huge line in the water. The fish will then get stuck on the net.




They use buoys like this to mark the net they've dropped. Home made. Stick a thin piece of branch or bamboo on a styrofoam. Tie it up to make it sturdier. Then tie an unused portion of your undergarment. And voila, a home made net buoy.




When the fish is caught on the net, the stronger ones tend to wiggle free until the net broke. Most of the morning till noon, these guys mend the broken parts of the net so they can use it the next day.




Ah, we're back to this man's parking spot.




We went back to shore by jumping from one boat to another. If you look closely, you'll spot a TV antenna at the top of the left house. :D

Starting it with an ending...

Sheesh, got up at 5 this morning. Took off at 6:15. Drove my dad to Bandung (a city south of Jakarta) for exactly one hour and 45 minutes (there are no speed limit in Indonesia, so 140 km/hr all the way). Arrived at my grandma's at 8. Dozing off to 11.

Got a call from my best friend. Her "Opung" (oh poong) - that's grandma for all you people out there - just passed out. An hour later, Opung's in a coma, heart beat still stable but no response at all from the eyes. They took her to the hospital, while my friend submitted to babysitting her nephews. At 3:30 I drove home. Got a call at the tool booth just outside Bandung. It's her again, this time more frantic than before. "Me and all of my family are going to spend the night at the hospital so I have to take all the "camping" needs there. The doctor said that opung's critical. Wait, there's a call from my dad. Talk to you la..."*click*.

Arrived at the front door of my house at 6. Took a shower and drove mom and dad to my aunt's house. Dropped 'em off like a couple of pony express packages at 7 and headed straight to my friend's house. Got a call 10 minutes later, Opung just passed away. Almost hit a motorcycle from that news.

It took an hour and a half to get to her house due to sunday night traffic. Got out of my car at 8:30, greeted by a smiling girl.

What? She's smiling? That ain't right... .

"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Reaaaalllyyy okaay?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Nuttin, so, how are you holdin up?"
"Dunno, haven't cried yet. They're taking her body home as we speak."

I know that she's the strongest woman I've ever known. But I didn't know that she was THIS strong. So I decided to help out her family arranging the chairs for the arriving mourners. Her mom also shows no sign of sadness. Like mother, like daughter, eh? Her dad? Well... I can see tear marks on his eyes, but not much. That's also relatively strong, considering that he just lost his mother... . When they took Opung home, that's when the crying started, especially from the extended family.

Opung was rested in the middle of the living room full of people. Some were crying, some were drown in deep thoughts, some were singing praises to God. Me? I'm just remembering the old times. My first impression of Opung was that she's a portrait of a true Batak woman. Never beats around the bushes, strong willed, signs of aging aplenty but still manage to visit her sons and daughters on a weekly basis. But the thing that sticks to me the most to this very day is that she always welcomes me with arms wide open. Every time I went to her house to pick up her granddaughter, (who at one time, was my steady girlfriend) I feel accepted as her own family, although we didn't share the same religion (in most Indonesian family -especially mine- this is a very sensitive matter).

We're gonna miss you Opung. I'm gonna miss you.

Hey ho! Let's go!

Hello people! This is my very first attempt at blogging. Just wanna know what all the fuss is about. It's supposed to be fun. Haven't got to the fun part yet huh... . Well, just wish me luck!!!