Public Service Announcement

I am in the middle of the jungle in North Sumatera at the moment. Will go feed orangutans tomorrow. Laptop misplaced and no phone charger. Will report back latr.

Over and out.

on Korean Telly

I never watched Korean tv before but I did today. We were on the beach and there was nothing else to do at night but to lie in bed and play scrabble. So I watched a Korean film on Metro while Candi took her time for her turns. It was really depressing. The story was about a family who bought a dog, a Golden Retriever called Toram. The mother later had an accident and lost her sight and Toram was the guide dog.

She moved away from her family to Seoul where she was jerked around by the cruel metropolis and nobody was there to help her except for the dog. As it seemed, Seoul isn't the most friendly place for a blind girl and a dog. She needed the dog to go anywhere but Toram was less welcome in the big city. In one scene, she was on a subway station when an ignorant puke stepped on Toram’s leg and he bled. She was also thrown out of her room because the landlady was allergic to dogs. She finally couldn’t do it anymore and moved back to their hometown.

Being an Asian TV tragedy, of course, this wasn’t enough and her own son resented her for being blind and left her stranded in supermarkets. Nevertheless, the dog was there to comfort her every time.

Only of course, this was a show based on a true story, and real life is always crueller. They soon found out that the dog had cancer and Toram died in the final scene.

Seriously, if this is the southern – nicer - half of the peninsula, I don’t really want to know what’s going on in the northern side but surely they shouldn’t be allowed to make their own nuclear weapons.

on Football

I’ve not much to say right now except that I am now busy writing a story. I’m not sure what’s that about yet, but you will know if it will be a story.

Indonesia lost the game against Saudi Arabia. 2-1 at injury time. Candi wanted to go and see it, only I wasn’t too crazy about being stuck in a crowd of 80,000 manic Indonesian hooligans so we saw it on telly instead. It’s tragic really, Indonesia had never won anything before, until last Wednesday when we beat Bahrain. Suddenly, the city’s awash with optimism and we forgot all about missing boats and crashing planes and tumbling trucks. It’s kinda strange to see Indonesia believing in herself.

By now, you would’ve thought that we’re used to losing already.

In any event, I lost money on the game, which proved really, that I was slightly delusional.

On the other side of the world, David Beckham arrived in LA and that was apparently bigger than the Oscar. Indonesia is reportedly preparing the next red carpet event to host Paris. We'll show the Americans how to do things properly.

Hmm…

That could be it. I’ve little else to tell. We spent three days in Puncak during the week and it was kinda fun. Up in the mountain, doing very little but playing Uno and got smashed. Very chilled and relax with minimum fuss and everyone stayed in til very late.

Boy, I need to get back to work at some point this year, coz I begin to enjoy this whole not working thing too much.

PS: For you lot who were big fans of Ahmad Dhani, go check this out.

on Smells Like Teen Spirit

I'm not sure of the relevance of this news. I'm not even sure how i got around to it, but remember the baby from the Nirvana album cover?

Well, here he is.

post #783

on the Muffin

I been away for a while and Mowgli didn't seem to be feeling very well. He's always like that whenever i left for too long. We changed the diet and now he's back to his power diet (lots of lamb n biscuits!!). Maybe he'll put on weight again, but at least he's happy.

Here's a close up of the grumpy old man.

on Better Man

You're so polite indeed,
Well I got everything I need.
Oh make my days a breeze,
And take away my self destruction.
~Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Soul to Squeeze

I was reading Fever Dog’s. Something struck me. He said something about trying to be a better person and I wondered if I am a better person than I was before.
Of course, ‘better’ is a very relative term, it’s probably better if I limit the comparison to say, me, a year ago, and if I believed me to be a ‘better’ person now than I was a year ago.

It’s kinda scary to definitively state that I am not a better person than I was a year ago, right? What man sits and convinced himself that he is not a better man, given 365 days to improve?

So you see, since I would’ve been too proud to claim that I am a worse person, and too equally humble, to claim that I am better, this task isn’t as easy as it seemed in the beginning.
Not only that I would have to convince you guys that I am a better person, I have to convince myself, too.

And boy, am I a stubborn fucker.

Maybe it would’ve been easier to work out a comparative table.

I had a job last year. I am most definitively unemployed at the moment (I quit my job last month, if you missed it).
Not that it bothers me that much, my employees are not worthy of much compliments anyway. I’ve a big thing about working with people I can trust and these people aren’t exactly the kind of people that you would want to trust. They kinda screwed me too (fuck ‘em). Not that I am in any worse position financially either, they didn’t pay that much and they cheated, so I guess it’s better for the world that I am actually unemployed.

I am not too sure about how to define a better person.
How, exactly, do you know that you are a better person than you were? One way to find out is probably to stay up in middle of the night with a laptop and having the Pearl Jam over for an extended visit. You would convince the company that a little vodka wouldn’t hurt and Absolut does good with its new Absolut 100.
Even better, have Robert Smith to come along, too.

I thought about quitting smoking. During the tiny bit we spent trekking ganja patches in North Vietnam, I realised I was out of breath much too quick. Maybe I should quit smoking. Would that qualify me a better man?

I’ve a job offer, one with a fancy title and even fancier salary. Swanky job in the business district with a proper assistant, doing things that I would probably love to do. I might just take the job, I don’t think it will take that much. The pressure will be high in the beginning but I know I’m not one to crack under pressure. Nothing that I can’t handle.

The question is, would that make me a better person?

I’m not sure making more money would qualify me as a better person.

So it’s back to Pearl Jam.

This is harder than I thought.

Judging from a faulty – and an admittedly biased memory – the world was certainly a better place a year ago. Peace in the Middle East was a probable thing a year ago.
There were fewer things to be concerned about, that I’m sure of.
There were girls and consequences, of course, but it’s not like things have changed much these days.
Girls are always trouble, one way or the other, so except if I were to turn celibate, the world in general, would not suddenly shift into a better place just because I’ve a girlfriend.

I’m quite certain that Pearl Jam had an entirely different agenda.

I’ve this thing about writing a novel. Just a story really. A fiction. It will have many stories that I am completely uncertain about. Things I wouldn’t have a clue about. Things I am curious too know. It is highly improbable that I will ever find out about these things, which makes for an excellent reason to write about them.
It’s one of the benefit of writing fiction: you can make up stories and characters. To see what it could possibly like to be something that you never were (and never will). Who knows, you might even know where the story ends.

Doo doo doo doo dingle zing a dong bone,
ba-di ba-da ba-zumba crunga cong gone bad,
like an apple gift but i went out and never said my pleasures
I'm much better but I won't regret it never...

on Michael Moore

I am stunned and duly impressed by the might of Michael Moore's publicity machine. I posted a one liner (about him allegedly going to Iran) last night. I clicked the publish button sometime before midnight Jakarta time. And guess what, within less than 12 hours, his people have come and visited and provided me with the more accurate information. He says Michael Moore is most definitively not going to Iran. Apparently, the story was a smear campaign purported by the director's enemies. Cruel, cruel people. Sicko people.

He also demanded that i print a retraction, which i am doing at the very moment. In fact, it's coming out fresh from the printer just now.

on Bon Jovi

a musical observation. Bon Jovi, remember him?

They used to be kinda cool. You know, long hair, leather, cowboy boots etc. That's before they turned into a boy band. I was sitting in the pub the other day, for an hour long, they played the best compilation of Bon Jovi, where he basically recycled his old songs into mellower, slower, crappier and basically gay version of everything.

Scares me now.

Also, Die Hard and Harry Potter is out this week, find me in Blitz. They're doing a movie of Paris Hilton with Lindsay Lohan playing her (Lindsay crashed her SL65 on crack last week). iPhone was launched stateside (read this Dvorak column, 'Hitler got less coverage when he invaded Poland'). Nutcakes tried to bomb London and Glasgow. Michael Moore is going to Iran.

and last, i've discovered the relationship between knitting and sex drive: none.