randomscribbles

such a nice day! for the first time after 6 months, it's almost 80 degrees today in boston! yay! is summer really coming this time?

today, things are just going really perfect for me. a couple people in my dept had their bdays in april, so we went out for lunch to celebrate and then had cake afterwards... yummm... it's also the "free cone day" at ben & jerry, where you could go to any b&j store and get a free ice cream! i feel like i'm on vacation... warm weather, blue sky, sunshine, people eating in the park...

when i told my boss about my grad school plan, she was very very supportive and happily accepted my request for a reference letter. i also got a new exciting project, that would involve learning livestage pro... hmmm, anybody ever use this program? is it difficult? i never tried it before...

Posted by d at 04:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

learned a lot of things yesterday from this inter-religion dialogue titled: "the role of religions in maintaining peace in indonesia." wish it could be longer, though. for such a complex issue, i don't think 3.5 hours was enough; maybe next time it could be spread out in 2 days, with mini-breaks between the q&a sessions.

btw, just found tintin.com from sg's site...

another link i found: a site about pramoedya ananta toer.

a reader asked why he used tirto adisoerjo, a real person, as his main character in the buru quartet series, and not a fictitious one. well, here's why.

Posted by d at 11:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

yes!!! i finally found an old hooptie-goo haiku by bullseyeart...
hahahaha... he always cracks me up!

Posted by d at 02:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

hmmm... whatever happened to bullseyeart? when did it become "rawpower?" i miss hooptie-goo and his silly humming!!! miss muffy is still there, though... not sure if i like the new style... their stuff is becoming increasingly grosser recently :(

i bumped into this list of old marchFIRST links... heheheh... it sure brought back a lot of memories. and yes, sometimes i do miss those good old days. the motto, like everybody else's during that time, of course, was work hard and play hard. 'play' means beer 'n movie every friday starting at 4pm, arcade games and pool in the cafeteria, countless house parties and hi-tech happy hours, just to name a few... oh the glory of the dot-com era! :P

my favorite of the list is this print ad campaign that was released shortly after the merger of usweb/cks and whittman-hart on march 1, 2000, to become m1.

i remember part of this campaign i really liked was a tv commercial titled "miniskirt." it was hilarious. the message behind the whole campaign was m1 represented the "big" idea, a break-through invention, the true genius whom people might not always know how to react to because of its originality. the one who is always being first.

ah, how sad that it should end just like that...

:: new link for tonight: designboom

Posted by d at 01:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

you can see what the hustle and bustle was all about here...

as i said, the becak was the superstar of that day... just look at the pictures! ;p

on another note, i almost had a panic attack this morning. for some unknown reason, i set my alarm last night at 9:40 instead of 8:40 (!) which is really bad, because: 1) i was late yesterday as well (two days in a row!); 2) it's the first day my boss came back to work from her vacation; 3) i had a meeting at 10:30. i was scrambling to get ready like a madwoman. washed face, brushed teeth, changed into the first jeans + sweater i found in the closet. fifteen minutes later, i was running all 7 blocks to the train station. made it to the meeting all flustered and in desperate need of caffeine. couldn't make much contribution to the discussion as i was too busy trying to wake up.

didn't see my boss for the whole day, so i don't know what she's thinking about my lateness. i left a message on her voicemail explaining my situation when i was on my way to work. but she was nowhere to be seen at the office. maybe she's busy catching up with work. in any case, i will never attempt to change my alarm ever again.

Posted by d at 06:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

yeah, still no essay just yet... x(
at least i was productive! *defense mode on*

to compensate for the fact that we're skipping spring here in boston, and go right from winter to summer, i hereby dedicate this spring theme... yet another layout version since last night. but this one should be final. i hope it looks ok on a pc... everything always looks a bit darker and less saturated on a pc... umm, i also took out the search box, cuz it refused to work when i tried it... maybe i'll work on it later, like next week or something...

anyway, must go to the library tomorrow. had a haircut appointment after work today, and i thought it wouldn't be very comfortable doing my essay at the library with little hairs stuck on my clothes and neck... :P

Posted by d at 12:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

excuse my mess while i'm trying to fix this layout...

ohhh... why is it so hard??? *pulling out hair*
i hate css layers!!!

Posted by d at 01:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

sometimes i'm amazed at the sheer varieties of excuses i could make up to procrastinate... like tonight, for example, i was supposed to start writing my application essay. but then, after dinner i came up with the idea that it would be fun and harmless to try redesigning my blog... something i never even had any hint of motivation to do since almost a year ago! i guess anything but writing the dreadful essay... so here's the new look. made of 150% guilt and denial... :P

needless to say, i still haven't done even one word of the essay... :(

i should probably force myself to go to the library tomorrow so i can at least start making the outlines.

there's this article i really like that explains about procrastinating habits...

Posted by d at 02:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

in a tribute to kartini's birthday today, the guys at the forum suggested that all the female designers created something... the original deadline was pretty tight, we only got about a couple days. here's what i ended up doing... i think i'm gonna do another one, since the deadline is moved to the end of april and i'm not completely satisfied with this one...

besides being kartini's bday, today is also the day when the yearly chaos and craziness of boston happens, also known as the boston marathon day.

i had to walk all the way to work in the morning because the station where i usually take the train was closed due to the marathon, which made me really cranky, cuz i just hate being forced to exercise when i'm only half awake. x(
at the office, of course, almost everybody was out, including all of my managers. by noon, the office was practically empty, as the rest of the others who showed in the morning decided that it's not worth it to stay inside on such a beautiful day.

i wasn't sure what i should do, so i just took the offer of some friends to take a long, 2-hour lunch at porter square. when i came back from lunch, i felt like it was saturday or something, cuz no one was there anymore. but since i didn't know if the other manager is coming back or not, i decided to be a good employee (ha ha) and waited until 5pm before taking off.

it was absolutely crazy outside. most of the streets around copley (including the street where my office is) were closed and a ridiculous number of people were walking around; drunk tourists, sweaty runners who just got to the finished line, families with children and babies, policemen on bikes and horses... i could barely walk in peace. ugh.

Posted by d at 07:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

i think the event was a success, the dance performances were really good, with the saman dance from aceh as a favorite. i can't imagine how many hours they must've spent practicing to get such an amazing coordination! i also love the dangdutan! everybody's such a natural! ha ha ha... they even had a real becak that was brought in to complete the atmosphere of a night market in jakarta. i have no idea where they got the becak from... but they borrowed most of the stuff from the indonesian consulates in d.c. and new york, so probably the becak came from there, too... the event closed with ethnic modern live music by the indo students from berklee, followed by the staple song "kebyar2". the band was SO awesome! one of the keyboard players was nial djuliarso, a pupil of bubi chen, a well-known indonesian jazz musician. the bass and saxophone players were not indonesians, but it was great that they're willing to participate. the two drummers were amazing, and my favorite was the flute, especially the part when he played a sundanese song... hmmm... made me homesick...

everytime i go to an indonesian night like this, i always came out feeling proud to be an indonesian, to be part of a country of such rich cultures. i believe i wasn't the only one — it was confirmed later by wendy, who basically voiced what i was feeling at the moment. ;)

bonus: kebyar2 lyrics below.

"Kebyar-kebyar"
oleh  Gombloh (alm)
 
Indonesia ...
merah darahku, putih tulangku
bersatu dalam semangatmu
 
Indonesia ...
debar jantungku, getar nadiku
berbaur dalam angan-anganmu
 
kebyar-kebyar, pelangi jingga
 
biarpun bumi bergoncang
kau tetap Indonesiaku
andaikan matahari terbit dari barat
kaupun tetap Indonesiaku
tak sebilah pedang yang tajam
dapat palingkan daku darimu
 
kusingsingkan lengan
rawe-rawe rantas
malang-malang tuntas
denganmu ...
 
Indonesia ...
merah darahku, putih tulangku
bersatu dalam semangatmu
 
Indonesia ...
debar jantungku, getar nadiku
berbaur dalam angan-anganmu
 
kebyar-kebyar, pelangi jingga
 
Indonesia ...
merah darahku, putih tulangku
bersatu dalam semangatmu
 
Indonesia ...
nada laguku, symphoni perteguh
selaras dengan symphonimu

Posted by d at 01:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

happy belated good friday and happy easter, everyone!!!

i found this site a few days ago containing a complete collection of enid blyton's books which immediately brought me back to my elementary school days. i used to really love reading enid's books, and i had most of them, too; lima sekawan, sapta siaga, pasukan mau tahu, mallory towers, st clare, si badung, seri petualangan, seri rahasia & noddy (of course, they were all in indonesian). i don't know what have become of all my books, though. :(

i tried finding enid's books on amazon, but even though amazon has a few famous five books and the adventure series, but most of what i found are the noddy series... i wonder why enid blyton is not very popular in the u.s?

it seems that european books are a little hard to find in general. i've tried several times to find some of my childhood favorites (tintin, asterix, lucky luke, tanguy & laverdure, astrid lindgren's books and agatha christie), but they're not usually available in bookstores. you'd have to order them from amazon, if amazon has them, that is.

Posted by d at 03:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

ok, so i've decided that i'm just gonna apply first to the scholarship and the program. if i got accepted, then i'll try for at least one semester to do both work and study full-time. if it turned out that the workload's too much, i'll think about what my next step would be then. most probably i'd quit my job, but i guess we'll see what happens. it's still too early in the game to think about it yet.

but right now i'm at a point where i'm starting to really like my job, cuz now i work not only on adv projects but also on some of our educational multimedia products, which would be very closely related to what i'd be studying at grad school.

in any case, i'm just gonna take it one step at a time now... gotta finish my application and essays first, take the gre, and then wait for the decision...

anyway, here are a few links for today: "pencariantuhan," a neat artwork for your viewing pleasure, waterflow, a collection of beautiful writings in indonesian, and typedminds, harry's personal blog.

Posted by d at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

didn't really mean to be so gloomy there...

at any rate, the temperature has gone back into the 30s again, after a deceiving it-must-be-really-spring-now 70 degrees a couple days ago.

i found out yesterday that to qualify for the grad school scholarship i'm applying to, i'd have to enroll as a full-time student. hmmm... wonder if i'd be able to swing both full-time job and full-time studying...

Posted by d at 09:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

if i were allowed just one selfish moment....

i wanna run far away, leave to another world, transform into a new being who don't have to care about anything, to a place where people never expect anything from me. return to the child that i was, to the time when everybody was happy, and the world was at peace with itself. when people i love were living life with a happy heart and without burdens, back to the time when i was able to love others with all my heart, before i learned that not everyone is the same, and sometimes people are just too selfish to care... to that time not too long ago, the time before i learned to build a wall around me to keep those people away, only to find out that i've become one of them instead.

Posted by d at 08:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

they were featuring pictures from sxsw 2003 in austin at k10k. there was this picture of club de ville, used to be my favorite place to hangout and it was where i had my first sip of martini!!! they also had a bunch of pictures taken at house parties... ohhh the glory of austin house parties and their fabulous backyards! snifff... sniff... i miss austin!

Posted by d at 11:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

well, i've finally decided that i'm going to apply for the master of education program at BU instead of all my other fantasies of doing a degree in a design school, be it at RISD or Frank Mohr in the netherlands (if any of you read my prev entries, you'd know what i'm talking about).

i figured that you could always teach yourself how to be a better designer and keep up with new technologies if you're dilligent enough to do it. but to develop educational tools, i think you have no other choice than to study in school to get a solid foundation on educational concepts. it's not some trial-and-error thing you can just make up along the way... well, at least not for me.

so, i'm currently starting to work on my application and essays, and am going to start studying for GRE, too... *crossing fingers* i looked at some of the verbal questions yesterday, and they look pretty tricky & scary. you'd never seen some of the vocabs in your whole life! i don't understand why they even bother asking you things that have no practical values whatsoever... i think they just did it because they can. x(

Posted by d at 01:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

i actually wanted to write more, but as i'm quite brain dead by now, i can only manage to post these 3 links... maybe i'll comment on them tomorrow or something... enjoy!

say hi to wendy... hi wendy!
i'm trying to persuade the people at godote's forum to do a similar photo shoot project... i think it's such an awesome idea! i guess we'll see if there's anyone interested in doing that...

horrible, horrible stuff happening at yale... i'm still kinda shock that this is happenning at yale, of all places... where people are supposedly well-educated enough to know better... where do you draw the line for freedom of speech? does it protect hateful instigations as well? petrosian from tii sums it well, i think, by saying that "the keys are: freedom of expression and tolerance." without tolerance, freedom of expression cannot work.

a somewhat old article about indonesia at cnn.com to brush up your memory before the election...

Posted by d at 01:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

being happy is such an impossible thing sometimes...

Posted by d at 01:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

apparently, the area where my office is located was a seedy neighborhood in the late 80s with strip bars and sketchy hangouts... you would never have thought that was the case, if you look at it now. there are fancy hotels and restaurants and avant-garde furniture stores. read more here...

interesting, huh? how one place can change so much in just a decade... the article says that much of this was thanks to the growth of restaurants around the area, that overtime attracted more and more people to go there, thus the area developed into a center of commerce and entertainment.

back then, they tried to name the area "park square," partly in an effort to improve its image. a re-branding almost. but no one ever calls it that way. it remains a nameless area until now.

Posted by d at 06:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...sucks!!!

it's so hard for me to drag myself out of bed this morning. i had to wake up an hour earlier than usual, and hadn't even got a chance to catch up on my sleep from the slumber party on saturday. i only had about 3 hours of sleep on saturday night cuz everbody (well, almost everybody) was up talking until 7 in the morning and had to wake up again around 10.

i'm falling asleep in my cube as of this minute...

fortunately, the first phase of my project is done, and i think i'll have at least a couple days to chill before it gets crazy again. hmmm... what to do... what to do... i just got myself a big cup of caramel macchiato from starbucks. that should keep me awake enough to perform basic functions for a few hours until it's time to go home. but in the meantime, what can i do to be not as bored? i've talked to my cousin on the phone for almost 45 minutes... i went outside to get lunch and coffee... now i'm back here and don't know what to do... wishing i could just go home and sleep without having to waste time here doing nothing.

......

4:12pm.

ok, this is bad... i just spent a fortune shopping online at the gramedia cyberstore for indonesian books. the ironic thing about it is that the books themselves are pretty inexpensive, but the shipping cost is downright outrageous!!!

well... it's not like i have any other option if i want to read indonesian books *excuses... excuses...*

anyway, i'm gonna blame it on my boredom... :P
still have about an hour to go before i can get off work. i tried looking for books at the public library's online catalog, but everything i looked at is either a non-circulating item, which means i can only read it at the library, or just plain non-existent. sniff...

......

4:52pm.

great.

it must be my bad karma for incessantly complaining about not having anything to do. now i just got one of those "asap" projects that is supposed to get done by tomorrow. and it's only half an hour away from freedom... now gone is any chances for me to go home at 5:30.

Posted by d at 01:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

wendy had an idea that we should do a blog project together... she was inspired by a quote i put in my previous entry about the insufficiency of language, and thought that it would be interesting to experiment with this. we're gonna create mock conversations between two or more characters from completely different backgrounds and cultures to see if they can really convey their thoughts and be perceived correctly by others. this should be a lot of fun! :)

anyway, last night i had a few drinks with my co-workers at davio's... it was jacqui's birthday, and i missed the bday lunch cuz i had to run some errands... so i made it up to her by buying her drinks after work.

it was a lot of fun! i found out that a lot of people at work are actually my neighbors! they all live only a few blocks away from me. another thing is that i never knew that it's such a nice place! i can't believe i've never been there before, and it's right downstairs on the first floor of my office building.

Posted by d at 03:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

i've finally decided to take the plunge and go public with this blog... heheheh... it's kinda accidental, anyway. this morning, as i was cleaning my old emails, i found a 6-month old email from ricebowl journals about my membership. i've forgotten that a long time ago i submitted a request to have my blog added there. so after a few hours of contemplation, i finally thought, oh, what the hell...

see, it was a dilemma for me before... and still kinda is, actually... i'm basically a pretty private person, and i only let some of my friends know about the existence of this blog, cuz i'm not really comfortable in sharing my thoughts with just anyone... and there's a possibility that i might not be able to be completely open with what i write here...

but then again, why start a blog if i don't want people to read it?

so... well... here it is...

Posted by d at 03:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

i finally got a 15" powerbook g4 from ebay. it came on tuesday evening, so i've been playing with it for almost 4 days now. i'm SO excited!!! it's such an awesome little machine!

i'm still trying to get used to OS X, though... it's definitely very different, and it can sometimes be frustrating just to navigate my way around the computer, cuz things are not where they're supposed to be anymore...

i'm also in desperate need of photoshop... sniff...sniff... why must it be so damn expensive?!

Posted by d at 02:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)