Gerakan Bawah Tanah - Mr. GBT

I have just finished reading " iWoz ," a book about Steve Wozniak. Tell me, you know that name right? Okay, for those who don't, Steve Wozniak is the cofounder of Apple Computers with Steve Jobs. Woz is the actual guy who built the Apple computer. This is a book about an engineer and his dream. He did do something about his dream, though. He made it come true. There are many great "lessons" in the book. I really like his view on many things, such as (engineering) ethics. He is an engineer's engineer. Anyway, you have to read the book yourself. There are some things I don't like about the book, though. For example, there some things repeated many times in the book. It is not exactly repeated, but it was said before. Or, maybe because I did read many Apple books before so some of the facts are already known to me. (There are some things new to me, or to most readers.) Or it's because I am an engineer and he's an engineer. Having said that, I still ...

Last Friday afternoon was a great one for me. I finished marking all my student papers. I just have to signed the grade forms, which I did that afternoon. There was a lunch and informal meeting attended by many faculty lecturers. I didn't take notice of what being said. Hey, I was there just for the food and a little chat with some people. Three students were looking for me. Two of them wanted recommendation letters from me and another student (Architecture student!) wanted to discuss about tech bulidings. After that I decided to go to a music store. As I drove the car to the store, I noticed that I took the long way there. (It sounds like Supertramp's song, "take the long way home".) I chose longer streets but less traffic. I didn't mind. In fact, I kind of enjoyed the ride. I went to the music store, looked at some guitars, basses, amplifiers, mixers, and stuff. While I was looking at some guitars, a person came to me. He said, "You're Budi, right?...

It is getting more and more difficult for me to access this blog. I don't know why. I've tried to update this blog for the last three or four days, but could not even get the login prompt! If this is the case, then nobody will be able to access this blog. Even if they can access this blog, the content is already out of date. The thing is, this blog has been listed as 1 of 10 popular blogs in Indonesia last year by Tempo Magazine. Granted, at that time there were not that many blogs. Thus, this blog stood out. But these days there are better blogs (don't you think?). I even write more often in my Indonesian blog instead of this one. Is this a sign of fading out? I hope not, but if you find this blog is less updated you know the reasons. I still want to write in this blog though. I have to write this fast, worrying that I could not even publish this entry. (I should try one of those off-line blog editors. Suggestion?)

I was tired (from working with my computer, trying to mark students papers) and wanted to take a nap for a few minutes (but taking a book with me???). I put my iPod on and listened to a song. And then, bam, ... I just got the urge to write something down. Here's what happened in my head. You know, I want to play this song live in a performance. (I was listening to "She's so young" by The Pursuit of Happiness.) In fact, I should write a list of songs that I want to perform and just do it. It is possible now since I did two gigs last month and there are several venues waiting for me. If I write the list in a piece of paper, it might be gone. (Well, it happened several times. I lost my to-do list.) I should just write it in my blog. Perhaps even enlist people to get help in the performance (like getting a band). I had to get up and started to work on my computer again. Damn you blog!

I like to tell my students to save their money and go abroad, just for a short vacation. It's not that there is no place in Indonesia worth to go visiting, but there is a very good lesson abroad. For example, when I did my research for Bandung High Tech Valley, I went to Silicon Valley, Malaysia Super Corridor, India (but have not gone to Bangalore yet), and Singapore. I want to smell the coffee in these places. First of all, you can see how other people live. True you can learn this from reading books, blogs, or watching television, but being there is different. There are so many things that cannot be captured by all of these. For example, for political reasons or (media) company's policy the writers cannot write bad things about the object they're talking about. When you go to these places, you can see things for yourself. You can see how clean/dirty the place is, how un/friendly people are, how things work in these countries, and other things. Second, when you interact w...

Today (4th Jan 2007) is the first day for me to work after a long holiday trip with my family. I think this year will be a busy year for me. Of course, I hope it will be a good year for all of us. Let's start the things to do for today: 3 simultaneous meetings in 2 different cities (I can only pick one - the most important) 3 project reports to review (picked only one, the one with tomorrow as the deadline... ha ha ha) 3 article requests from magazines and newspapers (deadline to short, declined) 2 articles to read (related to the report tomorrow, ... ah no time to read! will ask for review) 2 student thesis to review (will do that tonight) (too many) student papers to mark (will do that this weekend) 1 music practice tonight (... hmm, tempting; but I guess I have to decline) ummm... what else? So, readers ... brace yourself. I am going to move full steam ahead ... Ready, Set, Go!