Travel Journal: Makassar Trip (Part 1)

We arrived in Hasanuddin Airport, Makassar, very late at night, more like early in the morning, like 1 or something. After surviving our crazy taxi ride from the airport, through the calm Makassar city street, and dropped dead in our hotel room, I managed to actually wake up at 9.30 am Central Indonesia Time. 

We stayed in Mega Inn, a neat and reasonably priced hotel on Jl. Gunung Lompobattang. Here's a picture I took from their facebook page because silly me I didn't take any picture the whole two days we were there: 

copyright Mega Inn, Makassar. Picture is actually quite accurate (Oct 2013)

For around Rp. 250,000 we got ourselves a deluxe room with clean bathroom and working cable. We actually paid for a standard room (Rp. 200,000) and did stay in it for one night. But unfortunately because it's location by the stairs, we can hear every footstep that every guest in the room makes, and everything anyone in the kitchen was doing. We were also exposed to this bright light right outside our window which had only a thin white, hence useless, blind to block the glare. So we asked the hotel manager to move us to other room. (Although I later found out that the kitchen is not for cooking and they get their breakfast food from nearby stores, so I don't have any idea what all the noises were.)

We were then moved to a much bigger room in third floor, with no additional charge. So it was a really nice thing for them to do. Breakfast was a pack of Nasi Kuning (yellow rice) with its supporting lauk pauk delivered to our rooms. 

'Gravity' (2013)

Even if inside you feel you want to die, there's a bigger life impulse that keeps us alive. 

(Alfonso Cuaron)

OK. 

I might as well write it all down, while my nausea has not worn off. 

Well, actually it is not from the movie, yet some form of sudden mild vertigo came to me. 

YET, this dizziness (and any mention of any planet names) actually brings me back to that 120 minutes of pure elevated, out of this world ride that is Gravity. 

Hua Hin article, March Now! Jakarta 2013

I should say please grab a copy and see for yourself, but I think this would be enough (for my ego). teehehe..

An article I wrote for this month's Now! Jakarta. This features the more jet-setty attractions of Hua Hin, a coastal area about 200 km southwest of Bangkok, Thailand.

So.. I might later post pics of the trip and also maybe more of my more personal perspective of the region..  MIGHT.

(click here for the pdf version.)

Pastimes of the Digital Age

(Published in: Now! Jakarta January 2012)

It is impossible to deny the phenomenon of Finnish bird-throwing video game, Angry Birds. The game that was initially developed for Apple’s iPhone has now been downloaded over 350 million times through various platforms worldwide. There are thousands of other games developed for smart phones, but by far nothing has been able to compete with the popularity of Angry Birds. This touch screen-based game is now officially the most popular game in the world. Just look at all the plush toys and merchandises - even cupcakes and cookies - sold everywhere. Angry Birds even has its own Hollywood movie coming soon. The birds are, definitely, everywhere!

It is not an overstatement to say that Angry Birds or some other smart phone game might be one reason your child wants an iPad or other fancy gadget – or it could be the only reason. The game is addictive, even for adults. It is the perfect game to keep your thumbs and mind occupied while sitting in Jakarta traffic, the long queue for your movie ticket, or just basically anything that allows you an idle 2 to 5 minutes. The goal is to blast all the pigs on the map using the limited provided birds. The rewards are high scores and advancement to the next level. Every Angry Bird addict knows how it feels to see each level on the map marked with three yellow stars – it is the thrill of achievement.

Angry Birds Pizza!

When The World Was a Better Place Without Facebook

Don’t get me wrong, please don’t.
I—like most of your that might be reading, I’m sure—has been a hands-on actor on the development of today's fastest growing social network site that is Facebook.
We’ve seen it evolve before our eyes, under our very fingertips.
We resisted on it changes, but succumbed to its vital role—be it wanted or not— in our lives.
We make groups saying 'bring back the old Facebook' and join them to no avail.

The f*ck to no avail.
that's what make Zuckerberg, well, Zuckerberg. Not Abrams.
His team knows what they are doing and are not letting anyone, let alone some whiny user of his site (who pays nothing), stand between him and his idea of a social networking site.

To the various amount of groups wanting to “bring old Facebook back”, a grumpy friend of mine once said a while back (during the first Facebook major shake up) :
"Grow the fuck up. Shut it. I don’t like it either, because apparently we need time to adapt to change, but Facebook still is, such a task to make. Its scripts are beautifully and so effectively written."

Then I did shut up. Because I realized even if I were as bright as Zuckerberg, I wouldn’t have the persistence to actually keep it up. It dawned on me, IT was a big deal.
I could feel the amount of people surging in.


This website, I felt (well perhaps rather late, around 2007) was not going to be just a fad on which only geeks or late laggards were going to stay on. (in Indonesia, big thanks to the sudden mega-explosion of a certain uber hip smartphone)
It has evolved to all the right ways. There’s been nothing gone, or should I say, developed, to waste.
In his piece on Social Dynamics of Facebook, James Grimmelman (a NYLS Professor who publishes numerous comprehensive analysis of law and policy of privacy on social network sites) even go as far as stated that Facebook has the best expressed and executed privacy management tool in any social network.

Malam Tarawih tandem GP Monza

Begini ceritanya yang terjadi malam kemarin :

18.55 WIB (kurang Lebih)
Start GP Monza mulai, ketika saya berusaha mengatasi nurani yang terbelah, antara nonton balap dan solat Tarawih.
Lap Satu : Kimi gak mabok. berhasil jaga jarak dengan Sutil dan tempel Lewis.
lumayan.
dimana Fisichella? mana mana? oh, amat jauh di belakang grid saya sangka dia balapan di support race.
tapi dia nggak nabrak. hebat. dia gak skiddadle. boohaaa.
masuk lap dua : Kimi men—
"DEEEEEK, UDAH ADZAAAAAANNNN!!!"
aduuuh. cepet amatt?

Saya : " IYA BENTTTAAARRR AMPEK LAP INI ABISSSS..."
sampai mana tadi??
Ohiya, sepertinya ada yg tumbukan di turn 1, saya liat ada Heik—
"Deeeeek, jangan lupa sejadaaaaah!!"

Parc de Guelle

In barcelona, at the Parc de Guelle, played a Musician.
a Guitar player who plays the most unbelievably beautiful resonance by the help of this space under the 'looking area' at the top.
Where it had pillars and ceilings in abstract form which was in every essence distinctively Gaudí. As if he was hiding. (The guitar Player, not Gaudí. D'uh..)
I don't know who he is. But his music made people stop making sounds because it might interrupt this..sound they thought they just have in their head.
Except it's not only them. Everybody could listen to the this spanish guitar.
me being a tarde bitch, didn't even approach and try to ask "Que eres tu?"

it will be a while until i come to Parc de Guelle.
So anyone that gets the chance to see and listen to him play, please tell him how theres someone that misses his music.