the proposal

tie the knot!

another step forward, yesterday.

rip: my flashdrive

my flashdrive has gone

me so sad. i have been with her for about 3 years. until i accidentally left her in a taxi. yes, it was foolish: i didn't notice the cab's id. friend, wherever you are now, me still love you. i'm sorry, i never mean to hurt you like that...

snobs for humanity

my concern has just been confirmed, based on a discussion with a journalist who just came back from aceh. the story goes like this. some pop icon celebrities rented a private airplane from jakarta to aceh. one member of the crowd was having a birthday. so yes, en route to the killing fields, in that plane in the sky, some people were having good time. singing and cheering happy birthday. then they arrived. took pictures here and there. in less than an hour, they were back in the airplane. some hours later, they were presenting their "first-hand" observation on tv, as if they had been struggling there for days helping people. clowns.

and they call that new paradigm!

so the newsletter says (translated freely):

choosing the deans: new paradigm -- it's selection, not election. selection is good. because it requires thorough assessment by a competent committee. Bla bla bla...

since when democracy means "selection" and not "election"? since these people think they are better assessors than you. you can't elect your dean (you can't cast your vote). They should select one for you.

well, i say crap.

money talks, bullshit walks

so that corruptor's son shot an innocent young man to death. everybody there saw it.
then you start to tremble:

oh god, what do we do, what do we do! this shooter is a vvip. he should never be wronged. this man is so darn rich he is outlaw. what do we do, what do we do! people, people! somebody please hide the gun! somebody please cover for him. what do we do, what do we do! for god's sakes get the damn press out of here! somebody please make up stories. write he was drunk. write he was high. write he didn't mean to shot. oh god, this man is a vvip. his father was a godfather. his brother is vvvvvvvip. oh god, what do we do, what do we do! somebody please stop the news. dear god, how can we change the case into an innocent shooting by a drunkard? oh god, this man is a noble. he's not to be downgraded like that. how about "guilty of driving without license"? what do we do, what do we do! oh, sh*t...

writing, i mean reading. no, both.

i was thinkin' about my discussion with ces-mad and hasif the other day. we were talking about writing. about how this country really lacks of good writers. hasif was telling us about how difficult it was once for him to manage a literary journal. the harderst part is always to find good writers. there are bunch of writers out there. but many of them are simply persons who write -- not "writer" in the sense of "author". this is not only the case in prose or literary critiques, but also in poetry. hasif mentioned to us his experience as an editor for poems in a leading newspaper's culture page. it was painstaking: the authors are just the same persons taking turns over and over again. no matter how hard you try to motivate your readers to start writing, you end up requesting the same authors to hand in their other pieces for the next issues. many times, hasif had to use his own pieces -- himself is a writer and a literary critic. he did received bundles of pieces requesting for publication. ninety percent are craps.

ces and i shared his concern. i think this problem is pervasive: not only in literary but in all media. i told them, even kompas and tempo, the two leading media are now in their lowest quality levels as far as editings are concerned. pick one. pick one news at random. read. you find a typo already? or grammatical errors? they even publish rubbish. on televisiontoo: everyday we consume junk news (many times, buying those pirated dvd's and enjoying them instead of watching the news on tv, will leave you more enriched). radios are the same.

but ces, hasif, and me agreed; this problem has it's twin sister. reading problem. i always believe, those who can write well cannot be the ones who seldom read. i remember one day when i was still in journalism mood, back in the college years. i was invited as a speaker to a session in a journalistic training in the department of letter. they asked me to give a talk on how to write well -- journalistic-wise. i had told them: you can't teach people how to write well (and i have no idea myself, how to write well). i asked them to slightly change the topic into "how to write effectively". they didn't want to change it ("the training kits has been distributed" -- ah well). so i told them: ok then, but no paper to be handed out. they insisted: i had to present a paper. so there i went. with a paper. there was only one word in the whole paper: R-E-A-D.

but i should admit. reading too much can be dangerous. (ces and hasif seconded me). the more you read the more confident you are about some issue you want to elaborate on. but, you'd better stop somewhere before you realize you know... nothing. now we can understand why some writers fade, just after they have been so good. (or, to make me feel better: there are persons who never even reach the "good-part-one" level and somehow want to think they have, and then think they are in the state of knowing-too-much-hence-know-nothing. we were afraid we are in this set). only very few writers can write well all the time. (well, maybe not. change "all" to "most of"). we were talking about mas goen. he's the first candidate we would list in that rarest-breed-of-writers-list. and hasif told us: even gm sometimes admits, writing is damn difficult.

and writing this is one way to learn, i guess?

arrgh.

the cute riot

fadhl-figo-pacchi

These are some of them I told you about elsewhere...

alterego strikes again

i admit it. i am always distracted by oh so many things. so there are times when i just hate what i am supposed to like: economics. no, i can't explain why. it's like married couple (or so they told me). you never like one another every second of time. distance is good sometimes. it gives you room to look at where you usually stand: and you might want to change a little.

now that explains why i have this blog -- in addition to this.

i'm not gonna describe what this blog will look like. it might even dissappear from the blogosphere the next time you click the footage in your web-history link. in case i don't like it that much.

enough today.

when i hate econ