Berkunjung Kembali

Tak terasa sudah 13 tahun blog ini ditinggalkan. Ketika hari ini mengunjungi kembali dan membaca cerita-cerita lamanya, saya mulai merasa tidak mengenal penulis blog ini. Ingin rasanya berkenalan lagi dengan dirinya.

Photographer

A photographer should show pictures of his work, not pictures of himself.

The Crowd Behavior

No one denies that human being, personally, is a unique entity, unexpected, unpredictable, and sometimes irrational. And women are the most complicated part of this entity. :)

But once these entities group together in a mass, their behavior becomes readable, predictable, and can even be arranged. They move in a pattern that sometimes is repetitive, and they're highly sensitive to stimuli. It's very easy to manage and direct their inclinations to the direction we want.

That's at least what I've experienced in the years of my work. I studied the crowd. The crowd is very sensitive to promotion and marketing programs. This crowd tends to be noisy in the weekend. This crowd moves geographically with the same pattern every year. We can record how they spread when disaster struck. We can make them grow in one place, and die elsewhere.

In this case, sociology becomes easier and more enjoyable than the psychology. In a group or society, freedom and the uniqueness of each individual is reduced because of the interests of others around him. All have an interest, and all will be hit when trying to achieve. Humans tend to be wild when out of the group.

And the more pathetic, sometimes this group behavior is just like how low-level beings do. Leave a corner of the city uncontrolled, and a few weeks later it grew the fungi, mosses, insects, slums, street vendors, markets overflow. The longer this garbage is allowed, the harder to clean.

Beyond that, be careful with kids. They may be small, but very dangerous when in groups. :)

Pianist

If I become a pianist, then who will explore those darkest inter-galactic routes?

Too Much Time

Hah it's been a long long time. Even this is not the first time. And who may know that it will be repeated again and again..:)

So long delay, as if there were no progress in my life (hmm, it doesn't sound wrong actually).
I'm now in a big hurry. Something is never tired to chase me, and my neck is so stiff with unseen burden. Wow... seems so serious. But that's true, it's the fork in my street right now. Somebody lurks in the dark, watching my steps, and will give me some stabs when it's found that I have spare time long enough to write blog.

So sad and painful. But not that bad..:)

Ayat-Ayat Cinta (Verses of Love)

I think it has been already more than one month since the premiere of "Ayat-Ayat Cinta (Verses of Love)". But even until yesterday night, the mass enthusiasm only allowed us to get the first row --the most unwanted row on the theater--, unavoidably. Watching that two hours movie at such position could mean severe neck stiffness.

As I remember, the first Indonesian movie that was able to attract such great attention is "Ada Apa dengan Cinta (What's Up with Love)". This movie has become a milestone which opened a new potential genre in Indonesian movie, that is, romantic teen movie. It can be seen that a bunch of similar movies have been produced after that.

So, what kind of genre has the "Ayat-Ayat Cinta" offered? Religious-romantic movie? I'm not sure, but this kind of movie has very distinctive kind compared to another recent Indonesian movies (teen scary, teen romantic, or American Pie-like movies). I am personally appreciating the presence of "Ayat-Ayat Cinta" together with the messages it has brought.

Not to forget, converting a thick novel into a two hours movie still seems to be a hard homework for Indonesian movie writer and director. Even without reading the novel, I know that there were lot of leaps has occured on the movie.

Rasa Sayange

Whose song is "Rasa Sayange"? I don't think so that we have legal proof of ownership. Neither we nor Malaysian do. Since we were originated from the same cluster, same family language, that song may be found in each old literatures.

But I'm still not sure which part of Indonesian archipelago this song came from. If it was from western side, then it could be possible to be shared. But if it came from eastern side, then Malaysian cannot easily claim that since there was geographical distance.

Anyway, it is naive to recommend that such folksongs or any folk customs should be legally registered or patented. This is not a material stuff, and even more subtle than, let's say, contemporary song with obvious author.

The Earth's Biggest Secret is Now on Our Hand

I've never been a Harry Potter fanatic fan. Reading one of those 500 paged books hasn't been my wish so far. For me, it has been enough to just watch the movie if the reason is only to follow the story. My situation was not so tragic as the girl next to my wife while we were watching the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last week. She asked what Hogwarts is. Well, it has been already the fifth movie!

Finding that the curiosity seemed to be increased after watching that movie (especially for those millions people that had finished the sixth book), my wife was so sure that J.K. Rowling held the current world's biggest secret. At least for this century. And I couldn't find any reason to deny it.

Rowling's last Harry Potter book would be published at July 21th, 2007. I didn't know what time it would be in relation with the global world clock calculation, but I have already found the plot in Wikipedia. And when I told it to my wife, she was screaming and begging so much that I didn't say a word about the story. Actually, I haven't yet read anything except the first line of the summary.

So, here we are. Wanting to be one of the earlier people in the world that knowing more than others. We bought the book at its first published day here. I promised my wife that I will never read the Wikipedia's summary unless she has closed the last page of the book.

Again, reading that 500 paged book is never intended to do eagerly:)

Unnecessary Accident

Accidents, tragedies, badlucks, all of them were never wanted by anyone. Unfortunately, we can not always avoid or prepare some evasion. Some of them were meant to be a lesson, not only for the victims, but also for the people surrounding. Sometimes, it was so clear that some disasters had been so massive, unavoidable, and there is no other better reaction than accept it patiently.

This morning I was reading one of Medan local newspaper in my room. Two teenagers lost their hands and legs while they had been sleeping near the railway. The train had crushed them. At the night before the incident, they had been staying up and talking all night with their friends there. And somehow they got tired and eventually fell asleep on that railway.

I really pity them deeply. I am so sorry and give them my sympathy. But something has really made me down, dissapointed, angry. The cause of this accident is so.. ridiculous, unreasonable, and completely silly. Why can't they think for a few seconds, that the railway is obviously not a safe place to lay their bodies down? Why can't they? Oh God, I can't understand the way You adjust human thought algorithm.

Please protect us from being careless and negligent..

The Capture of Dujana

Despite the unproven status of Abu Dujana, it seemed that questions about his improper arrest are excessive. Some parties objected the way police did to avoid Dujana's escape, that is by shooting his thigh in close gap. There were also opinions that it could cause trauma to the kids that saw the event in surrounding area. One of Dujana's lawyers even argued that Densus 88 should be able to seize the suspect without violence, as they were well-trained elite team.

But this is a big catch, and any risks must be taken to make the mission accomplished. Yes, we will ignore a child's broken heart and a wife's protest to save other thousands children and wives outside. Yes, we will shoot that thigh to avoid many other thighs -and other body parts- explosions. We will kill one life to protect the remains.

People may forget that Azhari was still able to escape even he was in head to head chase with police. Police didn't underestimate Dujana, and that's how it should be.