Guitar Heroes

My kids bought "Guitar Heroes" games for their Playstation 2. It's a game about following guitar (rhythm, lick, beat) by pressing the proper buttons. The songs they have to follow are (classic) rock songs, such as "Smoke On The Water" (Deep Purple), "More Than a Feeling" (Boston), and many more.

After playing the games they asked me if I can teach them to play guitar. Hah! Finally. I taught them a few basic fingering and (three finger) picking (ala classical guitar players). It was hard. (What can you expect in one lesson?) Now, they appreciate their dad. Hah! I showed them "smoke on the water" and they were impressed.

Last week, they bought the sequel - "Guitar Heroes 2". It has more great songs, such as "Carry On Wayward" (Kansas), "YYZ" (Rush), "Surender" (Cheap Trick), and a lot more. Woohoo... More great songs to teach them.

To bad, we are going on a vacation today (planning to travel to Malaysia and Singapore). We could not bring guitars... Lesson(s) must wait.

Everybody wants a piece of me

Yes, it's that time of the year(?) again. Everybody wants a piece of me, again. I mean it in a good sense. Here's the deal.

Many people phoned me, sent me SMS, email, etc. They wanted (and still want) me to give a seminar, presentation, answer interview, write an article, or whatever. It seems that these people have deadlines to meet. I guess it's the end of the year again, where people must submit their progress report. Some of them even have (leftover) budget to spend. Or, to be exact they have to spend the budget but don't know what to do. The easiest thing is to do a seminar. :D

Anyway, I am busy myself with documents to write (review, read). For the last few days (about one month, to be exact), I haven't had a chance to read newspaper! They just come and move from my to read stack to papers to throw.

I still write blogs though. The thing is, I make it a habbit to write everyday!

So, people, if you ask me to do something and I decline, you know the reason. I am just so bogged down and could not help you. Please understand...

On becoming a celebrity

This month I appeared in a couple (I think more than that) magazines. The funny thing is that I didn't know about it. For example, I was waiting for a train in Jakarta's train station and my eyes captured a glance of a magazine. In the cover there was my name. What they hey? So I bought the magazine. Oh, it was an interview I did a month ago.

Then yesterday, a group of undergrad students smiled at me and showed me their thumbs (good thing it was their thumbs, ha ha ha). I asked them what made them excited. They told me about interview in another magazine, with a picture of me holding a guitar and an Apple iBook. (Look at the picture below.) Oh, that was another interview I did last month with Oskar Syahbana.



A few days ago I did presentation for a telecommunication operator. Next week I am going to do another one. Lots of people to please. ha ha ha. Phew ... becoming a celebrity is not easy. People talk to you and you don't know them. You're in a disadvantage position. But, that's life.

Not finishing reading books

For the last few months I have not been able to finish reading a book. This makes me feel guilty. But, what can I do?

I think I am in this position because:

• I've got too many things to read, not just books;
• (newer) books keep coming;
• the book cannot keep my interest to keep on reading until the end (does that mean newer books are not that good compared to old ones? I don't think so);
• I've got (new) things to learn quickly, which means I don't have the time to read details in the book;

I used to enjoy reading books cover to cover. I even finished reading a book in one day (during weekend). Some of the books made me forgot what I was supposed to do (my job). Ha ha ha. They captured my full intentions. Ah ... those moments.

Can anybody suggest a good book to recapture that moment?