Gerakan Bawah Tanah - Mr. GBT

It's hot ... Nowadays, Indonesians are angry at Malaysia. A few days ago, an Indonesia was beaten by Malaysian Policemen. The victim was in Malaysia on a Karate competition. He was a referee in the competition. He was accused as an illegal worker (eg. construction worker?). The beating was unbelievable that he was hospitalized. It's a miracle that he didn't die there. I recieved an email another story. Again, this was about Malaysian's Police brutality against Indonesians. (But, as a side note, somebody also told me that they did the same thing to Malaysians!) How could Malaysians do this to us, Indonesians? I just cannot imagine. I love Malaysia and Malaysians - I have many Malaysian friends - but this incident has created some doubts for me. Could somebody in Malaysia enlighten me? (and bring our trust and love back?) A more complete story is available here (but it's in Bahasa Indonesia): http://rfirmans.wordpress.com/2007/08/28/wasit-karate-internasional-asal-ind...

Yesterday, I watched a movie called "Singapore Dreaming." I didn't know what to expect since I know nothing of Singaporean movie landscape. One thing I had in mind when I decided to watch that movie is that I want to know how Singaporeans live. The movie is a about the lives of a Singaporean family. Granted this is just a movie, but I could see little things that are true to Singaporeans. Like a mother who scolded her son because he got 95 in his exam (while others got 100). Singaporean is like that, I think. Yes, living in Singapore is stressful. Then, on the radio there was a story about maid abuse. The family is an ordinary Singaporean old couple, living in public housing. They have a daughter and a son (who is coming from the States, he studied there) and their family. It was about hardship, about how to keep bread on the table, but also about wanting to be rich or better living. I want to tell more, but it'll just spoil the movie. You've got to see it yoursel...

Today, 17th August 2007, is Indonesia's Independence Day. We celebrate this with different things. In Jakarta, there is a formal ceremony. Here, around my place, the kids were celebrating with a parade. It was a simple parade, but they loved it. Kids wearing different costumes walking around the blocks. Other pictures are available in my other blog . Happy birthday Indonesia!

Yesterday I had to watch what I eat. My family and I went to Pascal Hypersquare food arena. I ordered "tempe mendoan," "baso tahu," and "martabak San Francisco." Sorry no screenshot. I forgot to take pictures. In the evening, I didn't feel that good. No, I was not sick, but just didn't feel alright. Maybe it was because I ate too much (with that kind of food). ha ha ha. So, there was no dinner for me. Just fruits. ... ouch! There's a saying that goes something like this; "When I was young, I could not afford to buy (fancy, expensive) food. Now I have the money to buy, but I am not allowed to eat that food (because of age / health)." What can you do?

Blog is like a Tamagotchi . It will die in despair if it is not visited, updated, dan commented by the owner and visitors.

Last week I talked to somebody and she was furious about one thing, that is being called "Indon". Apparently, she does not like to be called "Indon" by Malaysians. Ha? Yes, Indonesians are often called "Indon" in Malaysia and apparently that term is considered harsh to some Indonesians. (Appart from Indon another term that is commonly used there in Malaysia is "Bangla", for people from Bangladesh. I don't know how Bangladeshi feel about this.) To be frankly, I don't feel the insult of "Indon" (in Malaysia) or "Indo" (in Singapore). It's just a name. Maybe I am just too insensitive? I don't know. How about you (if you are an Indonesian)? To our friends in Malaysia, please don't call Indonesians "Indon", since some people are offended with that term. Peace ...

People are raving about biofuel. Experiments and even commercial implementations of biofuels are available now. Then, there's a problem. Somebody sent me an email. It says that CPO is used to make biofuel, but it is also an ingredient to make cooking oils. Now, people are more interested in exporting CPO to countries outside Indonesia. This creates a higher price of cooking oil. I don't know whether the above story is accurate, but definitely the price of cooking oil is skyrocketing in Indonesia. I guess, that above scenario is possible. If it is true, then biofuel is a recipie for (price) disaster in Indonesia. What do you think?

After seeing my (gig) pictures, Jay - a friend of mine, gave me a stage name: Funkmaster Webmaster . ha ha ha. It's actually a good name. Although, I am more into Rock! than Funk! Webmaster, that I am. I should (am going to?) use that name for my stage name ...

What does it mean (take?) to be an Indonesian? Do I have to speak in Bahasa Indonesia to be an Indonesian? Do I have to act like other Indonesians? Tell me. Please. (Is nationalism that important? I don't know.) A few years ago, when I was still living in Canada, I had a similar conversation with a friend of mine, but at that time we were discussing "being a Canadian." I think it was tougher because the similarities between Canadians and Americans. (I know that Canadians don't like being associated with Americans. Ha ha ha)

I was in a discussion with some friends and we ended up discussing languages, especially English. Now, the question is who "owns" the English language? (I cannot define what "own" means in this context.) The Englishmen? How about the Americans? In my experience, Indians (the Asians, not the Native Americans) usually are better in using English. They usually pick words that are not commonly used (daily by people on the street). It's interesting. I could not generalize this, but that's just my experience. Yours could be different. Okay, it's just a light discussion (that goes to nowhere). Forget about this ...

Why is there a wave of " oneliner applications "? What I mean by "oneliner applications" are applications that print one line of your message. Okay, they are not limitted by one line, but you know what I mean. You can use this application to set your status, show your emotion, show what you are doing, post a URL, and so on. Examples of these applications are: jaiku twitter status in your Yahoo Messanger (YM) shoutout in friendster ... is ... in facebook mood in moodmill and many more I've been using those applications (or feature in application) for quite a while and it is getting annoying since I have to enter text to those application individually. There should be one application that can control them all. I enter the text and it gets distributed to those oneliner applications. Hmm...

What's with these numbers? It's odd. Well, years ago it might be considered odd, but now ... it's so hot. As a side note, how come there's no minor revision ? I have not heard Web 2.1. Should I make Budi Rahardjo 3.1? (It reminds me of Windows 3.1. Ha ha ha.) Who (what) is going to claim 5.0?

As mentioned in my other blog entry (guess which one, ha ha ha), I spent the whole Sunday morning at home doing nothing. Well, that's true for the morning. In the afternoon I still slugging in my bed, but this time with two books (H. Gardner's "Five Minds for the Future" and Michael Heatley's "The illustrated history of the Electric Guitar") and a notebook (to watch a DVD movie and surf a little - like to JSOP's blog ). It has been a while since I have time like this. Usually, I always buzzing around doing many things. This time, I am enjoying every bit of it. It was a ranning little outside. The sound of water hitting puddles of water on the grass is so beautiful. It reminded me of a song, "rhythm of the rain" played instrumentally on a piano. Ah. What a beautiful world God has given us. I am going back to read those two books ...

I've been reading articles that basically say " Linux got it wrong and Mac OS got it right. " That's kind of obvious, isn't it? (I own an iBook and Linux on many computers.) Now, I am looking for articles that say " Linux got it right and Mac OS got it wrong. " Ha ha ha. As a start, can somebody point me to the statistics of the number of Linux vs Mac users? I would have thought that the number of Linux users exceeds the number of Mac users. (Meaning Linux got it right.) No? More specifically, I would love to hear what Linux has done right in terms of usability.

This is another story of my trip to Singapore . My family dan I decided to go to Singapore this weekend. We decided to take the route through Batam island. Our trip started from Bandung . We took GA-Citilink flight from Bandung to Batam. The flight was full with family and people on holiday. Some schools, private ones, in Indonesia have started the holiday. The flight was smooth. We arrived in Batam and took a taxi cab stright to Batam Center , where they have ferry or speed boot to Batam. The fare was Sing$ 14 returned (both ways). I think there’s a Sing$ 3 tax. We also had to pay “fiscal”. It’s some kind of tax for Indonesians leaving the country. The fiscal is Rp 500 thousands. If we leave Indonesia from other places, such as from Jakarta , the fiscal is Rp 1 million. It’s quite expensive, really. That’s the most expensive component in our trip. We arrived in Singapore at Harbour Front. The place was packed with people. Apparently, several speed boats arrived at the same ...

As I said earlier, I wanted to write more in this blog. Alas, there's a new distraction. I joined Asia Blogging Network . I started to blog there. They even gave my own space there ("Art & Tech"). It's going to be more difficult for me to write in this blog. Hmm ... I would write serious stuff there, but more personal stuff will be written here. That's the plan. Let's see if I can stick with the plan.

I was reading comics at phdcomics.com . Ha ha ha! The comics are so true and funny. They brought back memories of my grad school years. Ha ha ha. Well, you have to be there to understand the joke. Grad school years are so cruel. One thing I noticed in the comics is that the "actor" (the PhD student?) has a beard. You know, it occured to me that I had a beard when I was doing my PhD and so did my friends who were also doing PhDs. Wierd. Is this a commond thing? The comic is so acurate in that sense. You know, I've never met a person who had no problem doing his/her PhD. Hmm... It's something to think for those who want to enter grad school. Now, I am on the other side of the fence. Ha!

Gadzillion years ago I had a web site called "The Ultimate Indonesian Homepage." Okay, okay, I was exagerating. It was not gadzillion years, but it was a long time ago. It was in early world wide web year when even Mosaic was not born yet. The web site is aimed at people who are looking for information about Indonesia. At that time there were little information about Indonesia. I thought the web could help tourists or visitors to find information about Indonesia before they go there. It was a simple web site - heck, the biggest excitement was flashed text, ha ha ha - but it was a good one. It was even listed in some books. After I went back to Indonesia, I still managed that web site with different domain name. At the end, with the help of Chandra Liem, we settled with myindonesia.org. I was not too busy, so I had the time to update the web. Remember that there was no content management system at that time. So I had to code the web site in HTML directly. Hah. Now, time has ch...

I've been neglecting this blog. It's not intentional. It's just that I've been focusing my energy, time, and thought to my other blog (the one in wordpress ). There, I write dailly. Many times I write more than one blog entries in a day. The lack of update in this blog is just a casuality. Then... I notice is that I am losing my English vocabulary. Oh, man! I don't get to use my English as much I wanted to. I can use English in my daily activities but I consider this rude. Why should I talk to Indonesians in Indonesia in English? Wierd, isn't it? I should use Bahasa Indonesia. Not that it is not uncommon to mix-and-match languages. I've seen people use English and Bahasa Indonesia in a mix-match fashion. I don't like it. I don't know if they do it (mixing the languages) unintentionally or they just do it to show off. I said unintentionally because it is possible. I happened to do it many times in the past. English words, phrases, idioms and such jus...

(I was going to write this in my other blog - one that's focused on my music stuff - but it was very slow. In fact, it didn't come up. The problem is connection on my end. I decided to write it here. Sorry for the out of flow.) This morning I decided not to jog but sit down in front of computer instead. What a bum. I do have a reason (if you can call it a reason). I decided to play around with some music stuff. This and that, I ended up viewing Aerosmith DVD, "You Gotta Move". I've got this Aerosmith DVD for quite a while and didn't have a chance to view it. I was too busy doing many things. So, this morning I decided to view it. Damn! It is great! There are two things that make me excited with this DVD. First, the shows that were recorded were excellent. You can see the audience was excited and so am I! There are shows that just suck. You don't feel the energy. This one, you can feel the energy. It's like trying to explode. Man, I just want to have gi...