Thursday, May 29, 2008

Rising Price Of Life

There are a lot of arguments going on about the recently-raised price of gas.

One is, the global price of crude oil itself has risen, and as a processed-oil exporter (not importer), the price just went up for us as well. So if we want to remove a lot of pain from the country's budget, the subsidies for gas must be partly lifted. So now we feel the pain.

The other is, raising the price of gas is not the problem in itself, but it is the perceived psychological impact on everything else - rising prices of everything, the less-to-dos doing worse because of it, and so on. The working wisdom is that if gas prices go up, everything else goes up, in a time where everyone wants everything cheap or free. An article indicated that the price of gas in Indonesia went up 37 times in the past 42 years. Yeah well... a lot happens in 42 years... not to mention that gas prices at other countries go up or down regularly, like any other commodity.

I agree that raising gas prices is a drastic measure for a country like ours, but it does not mean that we have to go off and burn tyres and make a general mess of things. Civil disobedience can only get you so far, and crosses lines to anarchy very easily. Why do the thousands of people protesting do not offer an alternative solution? If asked this they expect that the government should be the smarter one to figure things out. Well, aren't they?

The new gas price hurts me and hurts us all but I do not find fault with it - the biggest mistake of the government is lack of foresight. Public transport is still a mess, there are no local developments whatsoever on alternative energy sources (despite all the noise about 'blue energy' in the press) and electric or hybrid cars - although very logical for Jakarta and other cities - aren't even sold anywhere. Well you do hear ads here and there yet people still love their gas-guzzling cars and motorcycles and wouldn't make a bold first step to an alternative.

We are all spoilt and corrupt, and it is time to change it; we can't expect the government to change things for us. Stop protesting and start changing.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

THIS IS SO COOL!!

Remember the decades-old dream of flying to school or work with your own personal jetpack?
Read the article here.... I don't even think I have to elaborate much on this!

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Getting Older, Growing Up

+: sorry, but after much discussion with my significant other, I can't take the decision you want me to
me: well, it's your decision, it's your life... just to state the fact, I think your significant other doesn't know what he's talking about
+: yes I argued all night but I promised to respect our joint decision
me: ok. I think you made the wrong decision but I will bless whatever you decide :) and I'll prove your significant other wrong!

Part of growing up is letting go, and letting your friends make their own decisions. We have to make sure they are informed decisions, but at the end of the day, it's their life. Anyway, I could be wrong about what I think, right? We may love our friends dearly, but we have to acknowledge that we are not responsible for them - they are.

So good luck... because you'll need it ;)

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Plis Deh Jakarta!

Wanna read anecdotes about Jakarta? Or maybe share your own, funny, cynical or even sarcastic story about everyday life in the Big City? Try visit www.plis-deh.com, I think the stories are as sarcastic as the times today.
It's actually an old blog but the writers decided to relaunch it under their own domain name.

Not to be confused with www.plisdeh.com... which is totally different. You can check it out if you like, he he...

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

I Miss The Old Days

I occasionally miss the old days - back then, everyone from the office (former and current) could still get together and do something after work: catch a movie, go out to dinner, go for some bowling or pool, and so on. Lunch was always a great break from work because we could releive a little bit of the stress from work. There was also a time where we'd go to the gym early in the morning and go to the office together.
Occasionally we would also get together on the weekend to do something also; and we'd still spend time talking to each other at the office, through SMS or phone, chat and so on.

And more importantly, we could leave work behind at the office and live a little.

Now, I go home late, get less excersize and and sleep all through the weekend.
Call me a cynic, but I really do miss the old days, sometimes.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Beware Of Blistering-Fast Internet Speeds!

Below is the Speedtest of my newly-acquired IM2 Prepaid package:



It's fast and comparable with its' postpaid counterpart. I am fulfilling my promise to promote the IM2 Prepaid pack to my friends at IM2, with a small note: If you're using the connection a lot, you'd be using up your initial allowance of bandwidth if you're not careful - it's that fast! I'd recommend staying away from video or image-heavy sites if you want to keep your internet spending from being fantastically expensive.

Sometimes Being Sick Is Necessary

Ever had one of those days when you're completely overwhelmed with your daily routines? When you are just yearning for a day off from work, whether or not there's permission?
In these days, where companies grudgingly give you a token's worth of leave allocation, instead of actually rewarding their employees, off days are a premium and can only be used for something really, really worthwhile. Same goes for salaries; there are many cases where the company finally coughs up a raise for a certain employee at the brink of said employee leaving to another company. Employees, in the corporate world, are costs rather than assets, and when a global company needs to maintain its stock price, one of the tried-and-true methods is 'streamlining' or cutting staff.
I can't say that this mindset is wrong as companies, being companies, need to think about their future livelihood, but it doesn't say much for average Joe whiling away in his cubicle trying to make his next target.

The workforce is much more competitive, as is business, in a day where economies are starting to collapse. If one of the largest banks in America can collapse, so can the average Joe with too much to do.

So here I am, at home, typing this blog post because I still can't sleep, trying to chase away a mild fever which has me feeling a bit weak today. Fortunately, the mind is also not strong enough to think about work, so I'm giving my head an unfortunate, but necessary rest, as tomorrow is another long day with many tasks ahead.

So hopefully I can say 'I'm glad to be sick today' and be karma-free from that statement!

Monday, May 5, 2008

Appraisal Time Sucks

Especially when you have nothing good to say. If your subordinate sucks at his/her job, what does that say about you?

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Speedtest: AXIS 3G

Just tested last night and this morning... If you're in the 3G coverage of AXIS, the new operator, these are the speeds you can expect to get for data connection:



I'd say it's not too bad... although I have read in the mailing lists that the connection tends to lag after connected; something wrong with the ISP gateway rather than our connection to the network. In my case, so far so good.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

When Things Get A Little Out Of Hand...

When things get a little out of hand, words are said that aren't proper, misunderstandings occur, and tempers fume. But as I have always said, it's better to say the things that hurt now rather than keep it all in, because it will all go out anyway in one big bang.

I'm sorry dear...