Made in China

A Zen story:

Once there was a very brave general who loved his antique tea cup so much.
One day, he almost dropped it, and was terribly shocked because of it,

He said to himself:
"I have lead thousands of cavalries in war, and never once I scared.”

“Why do I sweat so much for this little cup?”
He then threw away the cup and let it broken into pieces.

Without realizing it, lately blogging consumed too much of me.
And I believe that’s not very right.
Maybe it’s time for me to stop blogging and move on with the so-called "real life."
Hahaha ... the term "real life" always sounds funny to me,
So, I am going to throw away this little cup,
but that does't mean it will necessarily broken,
who knows if this cup was made from plastic or steel.

Oh yeah, thanks for the visit.

Sedikit Dari Teman

So, several days ago one of my best friends called me, and we talked about several stuff. Among the things that we were talking about, there was a topic about “positive thinking.”

He told me that last time he read my blog about the snowball effect, then he said that he got an idea that could improve the positive thinking method, whenever that snowball is about to come.

Before that, here’s the example of snowball effect (taken from the book “Don’t sweat the small stuff”):
You might wake up in the middle of the night and remember a phone call that need to be made the following day. Then, rather than feeling relieved that you remembered such an important call, you start thinking about everything else you have to do tomorrow. You start rehearsing a probable conversation with your boss, getting yourself even more upset. Pretty soon you think to yourself, “I can’t believe how busy I am. I must make fifty phone calls a day. Whose life is this anyway?” and on and on it goes until you’re feeling sorry for yourself.

Now, not everybody have this kind of problem, but I certainly do, and as I began to recognize this problem (of course by reading the book), I was getting better and better at avoiding them. Now, his idea might help me even further.

Here’s his idea:

Since snowball effect is about several negative thoughts that come consequently, we need to stop it before it’s getting bigger and bigger.
My friend’s idea is to counter this snowball effect by having more and more positive thoughts about our selves whenever we start to feel sorry about ourselves.
Now, it’s not easy to suddenly remember good things about ourselves. So, my friend offered an idea: makes a positive card!

What is a positive card?

He said that it should be a card that has the size of a credit card such that we could put it in our wallet and thus, we could have it ready whenever we need it. This card will contain positive things about one self. Now the effect won’t be too great if we fill it our selves (but one can certainly do that). We can always ask our best friends or just friends to make one for us, and maybe why don’t we make them one too; just like what people usually do in friendster: exchanging testimonials. Only this one is handwritten and very accessible.

By remembering the things that we’re good at or our positive sides, we might avoid being sorry about ourselves, we might avoid the snowball effect. Thus, we reduce the chance of being depressed. Many unpleasant incidents were caused by depressing attitudes and depressing attitudes are very contagious (: being scolded usually makes you want to scold someone else). So, by avoiding being depressed, we indirectly make the world a little bit more peaceful – and thus, make this world a better place, Yahoo!

“What a great idea”, I told him, “can I post it on my blog?”
“Sure” he said. “As long as you don’t put my name on it”
So, instead, I put the picture of his laptop, hehe (above).

Me and My lucky green hat, on a sunny day.

Nb: Most of the time, despite its weird quality, my title got certain reason and not just randomly chosen. This time, I used the title “Sedikit Dari Teman” because this friend on the title is the same friend that I was talking about on my older post "Sedikit Untuk Teman."

Side Note:
Now, I just suddenly got an idea, why don’t I make those positive cards to all of my friends that I can identify their positive qualities, and then send it to them, plus the short explanation about the snowball effect, the positive card and positive thinking in general!
Oh man, maybe I really should do it, it would make everybody’s day better isn’t it??

ADDITION:
Fellow readers, help me improve the positive card!
Post your ideas!

:-) have a nice day people!

Si Buta Membawa Lentera

Ketika seorang buta pamit dari temannya, temannya memberinya lentera.

Si buta: Aku tak perlu lentera, terang dan gelap tidak ada bedanya bagiku.
Teman: Ya, aku tahu itu. Tapi bila kamu tidak membawanya, orang lain akan menabrakmu dalam gelap.
Si buta: Benar!

Di dalam hutan yang gelap …
Mendadak … bruak!
Si buta menabrak seseorang.

Si buta: Aiyah …
Orang lain: Aiyah …
Si buta: Tidakkah kamu melihat lenteranya?
Orang lain: Api dalam lenteramu sudah mati!

Moral of the story:
Mereka yang menggunakan kata-kata orang lain untuk mengajari orang terkadang bisa diumpamakan seperti orang buta. Cahaya lenteranya sudah lama mati, tapi ia sendiri tak menyadarinya.

I’m sorry Mr. Joshua Harris, for poorly introducing your book.
story is taken from "The book of Zen" by Tsai Chih Chung

Love Love Love

[This posting is kind of dubious, and maybe it's because I'm still not sure about my view myself. I mean Christianity is the based of the book but I actually don't believe in Christianity. I agree with some points in the book, but not the whole book, but I have in mind that True Christians must love this book. So, I hope there's something to be learnt from it, but I guarantee nothing]

Few days ago when I read scrwp’s blog about love .. or the so-called true love. I was tempted to ask my self, what about me, what about my view about love, do I believe in true love and such…

Well, I am so virgin that I have never kissed any girl up until now, but I have watched enough adult videos that I know exactly how they made baby, it’s not from the birds or giant peach.
Well, I’m just trying to say that I might never have any “serious relationship” with anybody yet, but I hope that doesn’t mean I know nothing about love, hehe.
Or do you think knowledge about love can be gained only by trial&error which means people who have been with more girlfriends or boyfriends are more expert on the topic?

Why do people never think that someone who slept with her ex and later on broke-up with her, will not repeat the same thing with his current girlfriend? Or wife?
Why people think someone could change without the necessary experience, without the necessary knowledge, without the necessary understanding?
So, do you think if someone want to get serious about love and relationship, should he/she learn it through experiences (which might involve kissing or maybe sleeping together)? Or through available information: books, friends, families, and seminar?

Well, I don’t have the correct answer, you decide.
Nevertheless, I still believe that there must be something about love that we could learn. As for me, besides learning from friends and experiences, there is one book about dating that I really like. I think it’s beautifully written, and there’s so much we can learn from it.

So, the book’s title is “I Kissed Dating Goodbye” (click here for more information). Well, it’s a Christian book actually, but trusts me even if you’re not Christian you might still like the book, because I do - although I don’t 100%ly agree with the book, but that is simply because I’m not a Christian. (Well, maybe I shouldn’t say that everybody will definitely love the book. For example I believe that Usher won’t) But, I think if you’re Christian this book will even make much more sense, and if you really care about being a good Christian, this book can really support you.

So, about love and the book, let’s talk more about it.
The book is divided into four parts:

1. I kissed dating goodbye: the author tells us why the old dating paradigm is wrong.
2. The heart of the matter: learning the truer meaning of love.
3. Building a new lifestyle: as the title suggest.
4. Now what?: the continuation of the third part.

To talk wholly about the book might take several pages, so I will just put some interesting part about the book randomly:

First, everybody must agree with the common belief that nobody’s perfect, well if someone is cute and kind, she/he might be not smart enough, if she/he’s smart, that person might not be cute or kind, well … you got the point.
Well, I believe that for most Christian, it is a must to marry another Christian. Just like Christians, each certain kind of people got their own “must” categories. Certain kind of woman adores the rich because her family raised her with the belief of money over everything else. Certain kind of man badly wants a motherly woman because his mother teaches him that that’s how a woman should be. Certain other kind of people demand character and attitude quality in their life partners. Now the last one must sounds good and wise; unfortunately even for that kind of people, to simply ignore beauty is not an easy thing to do. (Sometimes I said to myself, I know that it is very unfortunate for someone to be blind, but maybe one good thing about being blind is your eyes won’t deceive you).

Anyway, the author suggests that to overcome this problem, when every times you “are falling head over heals for someone simply because of her charm and beauty,” “try to imagine what this girl will look like when she is fifty years old.” It’s an easy thing to do if she’s with her mother, the author added, if she’s not just try to use your imagination.
The girl might be pretty now, but what happen if her beauty fades away?
Character and attitude offer different result. Unlike outward appearance, they don’t get worse as someone grows old. Not everybody got this quality, but when you try hard enough you can see that some people have them.

Well, that’s just one tiny part of the book.

-------------------------

Now, if you think you’ve learned enough about love from Hollywood, read these stories and think again (These two stories are taken from “I kissed dating goodbye”, page 55-58).

“You did what?” I asked in disbelief.
Jeff Laughed loudly and accelerated the car as we went around a turn. My shock apparently energized him. “Gloria told her mom she was staying at her friend’s house, and we rented a room at hotel Friday night,” he said as if it were no big deal.
Though he hardly seemed old enough to be driving, my sixteen-year-old friend was acting as my chauffer during the summer weeks I spent at my grandmother’s home in Ohio. Our parents had known each other since the couples were newly-weds; we had pictures playing together as preschoolers.
Jeff and his girlfriend, Gloria, had been going out for a while. If you didn’t count the numerous times they had broken up then reconciled, they had dated for almost a year. Jeff had always remained vague about their level of physical involvement, but now they had obviously fully consummated their relationship.
“We got a room at the Holiday Inn in Dayton,” he explained as he put his hand out the window into the cool night air. Turning to me he grinned, winked mischievously, and said, “Man, oh man.”
“I can’t believe you,” I said, letting the tone of my voice convey my disapproval. “You mean you and Gloria had … you had … I mean you slept together?”
Jeff could tell I wasn’t pleased. He wanted me to be impressed, to slap him on the back like one of his football teammates in the locker room and praise him for his “exploit.” I wanted to slap him all right, but not on the back.
“Look, Josh,” he said defensively, “we’ve waited a long time for this. It was very special. Maybe it doesn’t meet your morals, but we felt that it was the right time to show our love.”
“My morals?” I said indignantly. “My morals? Since when were they mine?” How many times have we talked about this? With each other? At church? Jeff, you know that wasn’t right. You …”
“We love each other,” Jeff said, cutting me off in mid-sentence. “If you ever really fall in love, then you’ll understand.”
The conversation ended. For some reason the stoplight took forever to turn green. We sat silently as the turn signal clicked off and on. I looked out the window.
Four years later, Jeff was going to college in Michigan. “I’m engaged!” he told me over the phone. “Debbie is incredible. I’ve never been so in love.”
“That’s great,” I said. My congratulations sounded hollow. I couldn’t help it. I was thinking of Gloria. I hadn’t seen her for a long time. What was she now? Three of four girlfriends back? Love huh?

The First Kiss

“How does Chinese sound?” I asked as we pulled out of the driveway.
“Hey, that’s great,” Eric replied with his typical enthusiasm.
I’d only just met Eric and his wife, Leslie, but had already noted Eric’s exuberance and excitement about everything-even my restaurant suggestion.
“That’s alright with you honey?” he gently asked Leslie, who was sitting in the back seat.
“Sure,” she replied sweetly.
Eric and Leslie had stopped by to visit me during a drive through the Northwest. A friend in Colorado had told me about these newlyweds and the little book they had written. The book told the story of how they had met and grown to love each other without following the typical pattern of dating.
You’d be hard pressed to find two more romantic people. They adored each other, and it showed. Eric rarely took his eyes off Leslie. Sitting in the passenger seat on the way to the restaurant, he slipped his hand behind the seat, and Leslie reached forward and clasped it. Holding his hands when one person is sitting in the front seat and the other is in the back? I’d never seen that before.
After dinner, while we cracked upon our fortune cookies, I had a question. “You two can’t keep your hands off each other,” I began teasingly. Leslie blushed. “Was it difficult keeping the physical side of your relationship pure while you were engaged?”
Eric took Leslie’s hand and smiled at her before he answered. “Of course the desire for that was present- it always will be,” he said. “But no, it wasn’t a struggle. Leslie and I decided very early in our relationship that we were going to refrain from physical contact until we were married. Our first kiss was at the altar.”
My jaw dropped. “You didn’t kiss until you got married?”
“Nope,” Eric said, beaming. “The most we did was hold hands. And Josh, we know that kind of standard isn’t for every couple. We didn’t make that decision to be legalistic; it came from the heart. Everyone, even our parents, told us we should kiss. But we both decided it was what we wanted to do. It was a way to show our love, to protect each other before we were married.” And then, with a twinkle in his eye, he said, “Let me tell you, Josh, that first kiss was the most incredible, beautiful thing in the world. I can’t even begin to describe it.”

"You two can't keep your hands off each other"

Eric and Leslie. Jeff and Gloria. Two couples that used the same word- love- to explain what motivated them to act in opposite ways. Were both couples talking about the same thing? For Jeff and Gloria, love justified a night in a hotel room enjoying each other’s bodies before marriage. For Eric and Leslie, love meant barely touching each other before they walked to the altar. For Jeff and Gloria, love was impatient and demanded compromise. For Eric and Leslie, love fueled integrity and gave them the patience needed to wait.
One word. Two definitions.

End-of-story

What a long one … I’m tired .. but it’s definitely worth it.
I would otherwise feel bad if I’m not sharing such beautiful and enlightening stories about love.

For the ending of this posting, I will quote a poem from the same book, the poem was called “A woman’s question” by Lena Lathrop.

A Woman’s Question

Do you know you have asked for the costliest thing
Ever made by the Hand above?
A woman’s heart, and a woman’s life-
And a woman’s wonderful love.

Do you know you have asked for this priceless thing
As a child might ask for a toy?
Demanding what others have died to win,
With the reckless dash of a boy.

You have written my lesson of duty out,
Manlike, you have questioned me.
Now stand at the bars of my woman’s soul
Until I shall question thee.

You require your mutton shall always be hot,
Your socks and your shirt be whole;
I require your heart be true as God’s stars
And as pure as His heaven your soul.

You require a cook for your mutton and beef,
I require a far greater thing;
A seamstress you’re wanting for socks and shirts-
I look for a man and a king.

A king for the beautiful realm called Home,
And a man that His Maker, God,
Shall look upon as He did on the first
And say: “It is very good.”

I am fair and young, but the rose may fade
From this soft young cheek one day;
Will you love me then ’mid the falling leaves,
As you did ’mong the blossoms of May?

Is your heart an ocean so strong and true,
I may launch my all on its tide?
A loving woman finds heaven or hell
On the day she is made a bride.

I require all things that are grand and true,
All things that a man should be;
If you give this all, I would stake my life
To be all you demand of me.

If you cannot be this, a laundress and cook
You can hire and little to pay;
But a woman’s heart and a woman’s life
Are not to be won that way.

…

Oh man, what a beautiful poem ….
Oh, how immature I am…..

Have-a-nice-day

Pretty true love story from Imelda's blog: click here

sn: I don't know where that picture was taken. It isn't mine.

Bigger Than My Body

Yesterday when I was out of town with my family, I had a little talk with my dad. I always admire my dad especially because of his willingness to change. I think of my dad as a very good father, but to my older siblings and my mom he wasn’t always like that, he wasn’t that nice before I was born they say. Let’s just say that my dad once was a very bad boy and one day (after he looked at my lucky baby face* hehe) he decided to change to be a better man, and he succeeded. My father always told me that what saved him at that time, what made him changed were knowledge and understandings where in the case of my father they came from Chinese sayings and books. Yeah, in other words, once books and sayings saved my dad, and indirectly they helped my father raised me as a child. Oh and what a beautiful thing that several years ago, books once saved my life too. Well, to be more exact it saved me from insanity and big depression. When I was on the top of depression where everything looked so dark, I accidentally came across to a book which guided me out of my depression gradually. Since that time, I knew exactly why my father loves to read.

After sharing some feelings, I think I am in the mood to share some more. Several days ago, I was a bit angry with my friend. Well, she commented on how I changed so much these days, well in a bad way not in a good way. She said that I am being hard to talk to, that I am so moody, that I am always thinking of weird stuff, that it is not fun to talk with me.

Right after I put down the phone. I was trying to analyze why I became so angry, why she said that, was it all true what she just said? Well, I appreciate her honesty, after all they say that praises comes from your enemy and critiques comes from your teacher, but still, it hurt me, after all, in these days, what I really need is encouragements and not critiques. I know several things that I really need to change, and I am trying; those words went straight to my heart, took away my newly built confidence.

Well, I was trying to conclude that she was just tired herself, maybe now that she is not as popular as she was, she just really needed to criticize someone so that she could feel better about herself, but that was not wise for me to think like that. So, I tried to come to a better conclusion, maybe it was the fact that I did not talk to her much whenever we went out together that made her feel that way about me. Maybe she just tried to help me. Maybe she is just not lucky enough to be so wise that all she says can make someone else be happy - after all she is just a woman and a woman is not an angel.
Or maybe, she was just being honest, and she was right about several things she said, and maybe she believed that I did not know that facts that she really had to tell me about that.

• I am hard to talk to … well oh yeah I have no idea why I adopted this undesirable trait but it’s kind of true that for someone I barely knew and especially women, I am not a good talker at all, but I think I listen better.
• I am so moody … well, it’s true at some points, and I’ve been thinking about this too. For now, my educated guess is that coffee and beers are the causes. I am working on it though.
• I am always thinking of weird stuff … well, it’s not exactly weird. Maybe I am not good at presenting what I know such that I make it seems weird. I am trying to think of something very clear and useful, I am just trying to make a difference, maybe the problem is I am not really good at it. In that case, I will try to be better especially at presenting them next time.
• It is not fun to talk with me … Ok, I am working on it …

Sometimes I wonder, what changed me so much in these years?
Several years ago, I still could feel in my blood the aggresive tempers that I got from my father, but lately, I turned into more and more introvert and quiet, oh man how I miss to be a bad boy. It isn’t that nice, because most of the time, I have to avoid confrontations, swallow my anger which indirectly damage my body. It was a good achievement at first, and I boosted my confidence, but after a while, I began to forgot how to be really angry, how to confront people. In result, nowadays, I frequently found my self speechless; I can’t protect even my own pride and it made me cry at times.

I’m not sure though that it was the only reason I changed so much these years. I’m pretty sure that my 5yrs journey in the states was responsible for this too. I find difficulty to determine the exact reason though.

Lun Yu - The Analects.
Chapter 1, paragraph 1, To Learn.

Confucius said, “Isn’t it a joy to acquire knowledge and be able to put it to use?”

And I really wish I could ask this question to the master, “Oh, master. I find a joy in learning and acquiring knowledge, but I am not sure if I am any good at using them, or maybe more like presenting them. What should I do? What should I do?”

Confucius said, “… Isn’t he a gentleman who bears no grudge against those who do not know his strength?”

I only wear a third class clothes, yet I want everybody to notice about it, what a shame ... I’m sorry.. I’m sorry for being so cocky … I should remind my self, I should remind my self, I should remind my self more.

O R E H

Man, I just don’t get it …
Why birds can fly, and men can’t?

If a man has the passion, and has the knowledge,
Why Heaven doesn’t give him mouth as well?
The best jewelries are deserved to be kept in the safest box,
But why does the master keep afraid to show them off?

…….
O R E H

A sincere dragon is imprisoned
in the shame mountain,
waiting for a hero, to save him-
Ooh ….. It can’t wait to save the world.
It can’t wait to save the world.

A sincere dragon is waiting
for a hero, to take it away
from the shame mountain,
from the cloud of fears,
to save the world, only to save the world,
not to gain fame ...
not to gain wealth …

If such sincerity is ignored by Heaven,
why would men should care?
why would angels should?
and the dragon cries …
alas, if heaven ignores it,
what could it do, what could it do?

Once Confucius said, “at fifty, I realized that Heaven had its own will. I blamed neither Heaven nor man.” Shouldn’t the dragon be ashamed that at the age of thousands years, it still doesn’t understand what Confucius gained at the age of fifty?

Let the Heaven sings .. let the Heaven sings ..
I will watch the beauty with eager eyes,
and a happy face.

Maaf

So sorry ..
kayanya tanpa sadar, terkadang gua menulis sesuatu yang terlalu "memaksakan" ... you know .. postingan-postingan gua ini kan seharusnya just about my opinion, my feelings, my views, or sesuatu yang related with one of my passions: perdamaian dunia! hehe. ....
Tapi perlu diakui terkadang, tanpa menyadari gua menulis, dan memilih kata-kata yang kurang tepat, sehingga seakan-akan gua itu berpendapat kalau yang gua tulis itu "pasti benernya," padahal itu kan cuman pendapat saya .. dan kemungkinannya salah dan tidak disetujui jauh lebih besar dari pada kemungkinan benernya ...

So ... maaf, kalau ada yang pernah tersinggung atau semacamnya.
maksud saya cuman satu: saya ingin dunia-lebih-damai saja ..
dan entah kenapa saya suka memikirkannya,
dan entah kenapa terakhir-terakhir banyak dari pemikiran itu yang terposting.
...................
Thanks for the suports, I hope I could be better next time ...
Selamat hari raya idul fitri bagi yang merayakan.



sn: credit of pictures goes to maljongkok.com

Good Music

My parents once told me that when I was just a baby, there was this one song that I loved so much that whenever I cried and they played this song, I would stop crying .. and whenever I could not sleep .. .. I would.

It was long ago, and I guess my parents told me this story when I was in elementary school. I have no idea at all why did I love this music. Well, the tunes is pretty catchy, but why that particular song .. I have no idea …

During my elementary school, my older sisters listened to Bon Jovi, Jason Donovan, Bryan Adams, which more or less made me like them too. At the same time, my older brother listened to a more hardcore music like 2livecrew, Metallica and without doubt, after some repetitions of unconscious listening, I too liked his music.

When I was in Junior highschool, I started to listen to Housemusic (influenced from my brother) and Chinese music (influenced from my sister and parents), it spans from the older music like “long te juan ren” the hokkian “ai pia cia e ya” the music with so much “lai lai lai lai” in the lyrics --- to more modern songs by hk artist like andy lau, jacky cheung and beyond (which is my sister all time fave).

During the senior high school, my sister studied in Taiwan and collected almost every Beyond’s album, she liked their song so much, nevertheless, me too like Beyond so much. Back then, I listened to them a lot, really a lot. Before the Beyond era ended, my sister introduced me to something new that my friend would laugh at during that time: it’s Korean music .. music by artist like Clon and H.O.T.- boysband with amazing break-dance skill. And right at the end of hihgschool era, I started to listen to Japanese music (started with the ost of Great Teacher Onitzuka).

When I was in the states, the napster, kazza, and bittorrent technology have broadened my taste of music. I started to listen to more Koreans .. more Japanese … more Indonesians .. more Jazz .. more Raps .. more Rocks … more Classics ..

That in result, nowadays, I listen to so many kind of songs ..
from the vina panduwinata's "burung camar" ..
the chinese classic "long te juan ren",
the hokkian "ai pia cia e ya"
the tupac shakur's “changes” ..
the nirvana's "smells like teen spirit"
the mettalica’s “enter sandman”
the rage against the machine ..
the dave bruberk's "take five,
the Nat King Cole’s “deck the hall”
the Frank Sinatra’s “coffee songs”…
the H.O.T. "we are the future"
the vivaldi's "four seasons."
the mozart's "rondo ala turco"
the Beethoven’s “fur elise”
the radja's "tulus" ...
the Sheila on 7’s “kita”
the mocca’s albums ..
the strokes’ albums ..

Norah Jones .. Alicia Keys .. Coldplay .. Gorrilaz …basically I like almost all kind of music … almost all kind of genres .. but still my favorite is Japanese rock ... and pop.. coz the Japanese are superbly creative artists ..

The Noodles Live in Concert 2005:
there is someone you know in the crowd (not inthe picture),
guess who? :-)

Anyway, the fact that I listened to so many kind of music, and enjoyed them all, has once made me concluded that "every good music is good music."

It was 4 or maybe 5 years ago when I said that “semua lagu itu pada dasare enak … “ and my roommate challenged me with the question “so, do you like dangdut?”
After more considerations, I change my principle to “semua lagu yang enak itu enak.”
What does it mean?

Tentu saya bisa berkata kalau tidak semua lagu itu enak, dan kalian semua setuju.
Yah seperti halnya karya seni lain, pasti ada diantara lagu yang tidak dibuat dengan effort yang cukup atau oleh seseorang yang tidak cukup berbakat, yang mengakibatkan ada lagu yang bisa dinilai sebagai lagu yang tidak enak.

Kelihatannya sepele, masalahnya, terkadang seseorang mengkomentari suatu lagu sebagai tidak enak (instead of “saya tidak suka lagu itu” orang tersebut berkata “lagu itu tidak enak” atau mungkin dengan komentar tidak enak terselubung seperti “lagu itu childish” or “kampugan” or “aneh” … or “bikin kepala orang pusing” .. or something else ..”).

Namun apakah lagu yang dikomentarinya itu memang benar-benar tidak enak? dimana semua orang di dunia tidak ada yang menyukainya (kecuali pengarangnya dan penyanyinya), dimana lagu itu nadanya terlalu tidak harmonis, liriknya terlalu cliché dan penyanyinya super engga bias nyanyi .. dan si pemain musik semua super amatir .. dan dimana semua ahli musik beranggapan lagu itu terlalu dangkal dan sederhana, menurut saya kalau memang demikian barulah mungkin lagu itu pantas dibilang tidak enak dan saya rasa semua orang di dunia akan setuju akan penilaian “tidak enak” tersebut.
Dan bukankah seharusnya semua lagu yang tidak termasuk dalam definisi tidak enak diatas berarti adalah lagu enak?

Namun, kenyataannya sering seseorang beranggapan bahwa suatu lagu itu tidak enak, padahal ada ratusan ribu orang di dunia yang menyukai lagu itu, ada puluhan ahli musik yang pasti bersedia memberikan komentar tertulis bahwa lagu itu lagu yang enak.

Contohnya: mungkin terkadang hanya karena seseorang tidak suka genre tertentu dia sembarang mengkeletuk kalau lagu jazz tertentu itu boring … kalau lagu oldies tertentu itu kampungan .. kalau lagu rock tertentu itu brutal …. Kalau lagu boysband tertentu itu childish, kalau lagu rap tertentu itu anarchist .. kalau trance tertentu itu hanya untuk drug-addicts dan sebagianya ..

Mozart - The genius composer.

Example from my life: terkadang gua juga suka dengerin lagu oldies Chinese yang dinyanyiin orang-orang di pesta pernikahan, satu atau dua teman pasti pernah berkomentar kalau lagu itu kampungan or something.

Padahal, kalau kita mau benar benar tulus mendengarkan melodinya, lagu tersebut jelas jelas mempunyai melodi yang indah sekali … dan kenapa sesuatu yang indah sekali bisa dibilang kampungan? Apakah dunia sudah sebingung itu? Atau saya yang kebingungan sendiri?

Same thing with lagu rap .. biarpun terkadang liriknya agak ngaco, namun tidak semua lagu rap demikian .. for example lagu tupac shakur yang berjudul “changes” dia menganjurkan kepada pendengarnya (orang item) kalau they need to change … mereka engga bisa terus-terusan bertingkah laku yang ga bener … they need to change ..now, kita bisa engga suka lagu rap .. and that’s not a problem … tapi kita tidak seharusnya berkomentar jelek tentang lagu rap tanpa dasar yang jelas …..

Same thing with boysband, kalau loe suka lagu-lagunya boysband dan enjoy it, kenapa mesti malu dibilang “childish” .. true to your self ..it’s alrite to listen to boysband or even dangdut … music is a form of art, enjoy the kind of art you like!

Nah, then ketika my roommate asked me the question “do you like dangdut?” gua tahu kalau jawabannya adalah “tidak, gua tidak suka dangdut” Namun gua tidak berkata kalau lagu dangdut itu tidak enak (dan gua yakin kalau banyak lagu dangdut yang enak).. hanya saja karena lingkungan .. tepatnya prejudice yang diterapkan di lingkunganku sejak aku kecil-lah yang membuatku tidak dapat menikmati musik dangdut. Mungkin kalau aku dilahirkan di keluarga seorang pembantu atau supir di desa-desa, sangat mungkin sekali aku bakalan menyukai lagu dangdut.
Sebenarnya gua pernah ingin mencoba mencari lagu dangdut yang terkenal, dan mencoba menikmatinya … namun ternyata prejudice bawaan itu terlalu kuat sehingga aku belum bisa menikmati lagu dangdut.

Pada dasarnya menurut saya kalau ada suatu lagu yang disukai oleh banyak orang (mungkin dari kelompok tertentu), maka lagu itu berarti enak. Kalau seseorang menganggap lagu tersebut tidak enak, berarti dia mengartikan dua hal:

1. kelompok orang yang menganggap lagu itu enak berselera rendah
2. definisi lagu enaknya itu selfish: (hanya yang enak menurut dialah yang dia anggap enak, penilaian enak yang orang lain berikan adalah salah)

Kita sangat boleh berkomentar “saya tidak suka lagu tertentu” tapi untuk berkata “lagu itu sangat kampungan” bukankah itu menyakiti perasaan orang lain? Bukankah itu secara sedikit menjauhi misi perdamaian dunia?

Hargailah selera musik orang lain …
Hargailah selera orang lain ..
Hargailah orang lain ..
Hargailah …
Dan kita menciptakan dunia yang sedikit lebih damai :-)

Somewhere Out There

Earlier today, I went to eat bubur with a friend. We talked about a lot of things, when suddenly he brought up an interesting topic … well, it’s about the dunia-kerja where as many said to me before “shows the true characteristic of someone.” Yeah, they say people will show their real colors whenever money is involved in the matter.

He told me that one of his friends with initial W, -who already started a pretty good business and got many connections across the country- told him that “in the business world, you will find a lot of deceiving characters. Your friend that you thought you always knew might not really be the same person at all when it’s about making money, when it’s about gaining more profit. You can’t blindly trust even your old buddies.”

What upset me the most was when my friend told me that one of our friends was exactly like the kind of friend that W mentioned: the kind of friend who cheated for money (let’s called him Nyesal to avoid excessive usage of the word “friend”). My friend enthusiastically shared the story that some months ago he worked together with Nyesal for a project that’s related to both graphic-design and programming. My friend worked for the programming part where Nyesal’s more like the group project and worked more on the street (buying stuff, paying some bills). Since my friend thought that Nyesal was an old friend of his (and mine L ), he trusted him completely (or blindly?) about the payment for several deals and bills. The thing is, later on my friend caught Nyesal lied about some of the bills. Nyesal purposely lied to my friend because of some millions Rupiahs. I still can’t believe it, we were buddies, and we hang out together a lot back then in High School. It really broke my friend’s heart - it broke my heart too.
I have no idea that the evil of greed could be that strong – do we have to become greedy to be rich – do we have to cheat our friend to be financially successful?

Upon answering the question: do we have to be rich? Many must say “no,” but in the reality can we not see that people do not really like the idea of being moderate.

Morrie once asked “what’s wrong with being number two?” and I got a Goosebumps. I guess such (supposedly) simple question could be very strong because this current world forces us to have the belief that “number one is the best,” that “richest is the best,” that “the richer the better” that the idea of being number two is weird.

Unluckily when everybody believes that we can’t be number two, that we can’t be moderate, that “the richer the better” they might also unconsciously accept the consequences of this kind of philosophy.

At first, when they can’t find a way to be rich – they will think harder!
And when they still can’t find it – they will think even harder!
But if after such effort they still can’t find a way – they will cheat, steal, do anything!

If that’s not the philosophy of the many, why there are so many con men, so many crimes, so many corruptions … so many crimes …

We were forced to be rich,
and thus the lucky ones find the easiest way,
the smart ones find the moderate way,
the diligent ones find the hardest way,
and the unlucky ones take over other people’s way.

The magic of love is somewhere out there, yet we ignore it and choose the way of the money to rule the kingdom of human beings.

And I sing …

Where do I go to find love?
I asked the crowd, but they were too busy ignoring love.
Where do I go to find love?
I asked the priest, but he was too busy praying love and preaching love.
Where do I go to find love?
I asked the teachers, but he was too busy teaching love and studying love.
Where do I go to find love?
I asked the artist, but he was too busy painting love, singing love.
Where do I go to find love?
I asked the lovers, but they were too busy making love with their lovers.

If I go to the highest mountain, will I find love there?
If I go to the deepest sea, will I find love there?

Once an angel told me–
That love can change the world.
That love is the secret of life.
That love is the answer of life.
That love is heaven.

But love, where can I find you?
Where can I find you?
Where can I find you love?

--- have a nice day!

Telkomnet!

Setelah menyadari kalau tarif telkomnet adalah 15,000 perjamnya (paling tidak itu kata teman saya), saya baru menyadari kalau dengan jam online rata-rata seperti sekarang (2-3 jam sehari), berarti saya mesti mengantisipasi bill telepon sebanyak 15,000 * 2 or 3 * 30 = 600,000 - 900,000 rupiah, atau 60-90 dollar. Dimana bill internet ketika di US aja cuman 20$, dan dengan kecepatan sekitar 40 kali lipat kecepatan telkomnet.

Dengan konsiderasi ini, maka saya memutuskan untuk sementara akan mengurangi jam online menjadi 2-3 jam per 3 hari (means: less update too) --- mungkin sampai pada bulan depan (atau dua bulan lagi), dimana gua berencana berlangganan cable internet (Indosat) dengan tarif 500,000 rupiah perbulan, yang biarpun tidak terlalu murah, tapi paling tidak bisa dipakai sepuasnya dan kecepatannya juga not too bad (aproximately 30k/s atau 6-7 kali telkomnet).

okdah, thanks for visiting (and probably leaving marks :p)
Whoever you are - wherever you are - have a nice day!