I'll Send You My Portfolio

Apple just announced their new series of Macbooks and Macbook Pros. I'm not too inclined to the MBP as I most likely will not use one for professional work... but damn, I want the new Macbook. The looks are a matter of taste, but the features are awesome... and I really want one.

So, anyone need any translation or design work? I'll definitely find the time to do it... on the weekends. I figure if I do simple design work every weekend for Rp 1 million per project, I'd have enough money to buy it in... hm, 4 months. 

So I'd have no life and no rest but have a brand new MacBook! So, interested in helping me with my quest? :D

Are You Annoyed By The Ambiquity Of 'Thing' In This Post? :D

So... the thing that has been taking up a lot of my spare time for the past month or so, is finally finished. Done. Over with. And I'm pretty sure it doesn't need revising.

This morning after SMSing the person I did the thing for... taking care of what she owes back to me because of this thing. A few minutes later, she called, saying she miscalculated in what she owes, and needs to get back to me.

Ah well. Worst case scenario, the thing done will not be returned with an equal favor. But not everything's about taking and giving equally, is it? I can't even be upset about it, because there's nothing I can do...

Krayola on Prambors!

I was in a long meeting just now, but Eriz kept calling, and I finally picked up the phone. She said "HEY LISTEN NOW TO PRAMBORS! THEY'RE PLAYING OUR SONG!!" (yes, she yelled a bit but she's always loud).

So I left the room for a bit, turned on the radio and managed to hear the final licks of Krayola's song titled 'Langkah'. 

I'm smiling and I don't care about work today... I'll care about it tomorrow, haha :D

The Older You Get...

Time is such a relative thing, as Einstein once postulated. To keep things short, he explained that time for a person standing still and time for a person on a moving object is different, relative to the speed the person moving is. The faster he is, the bigger the difference.

Somehow, the older we get, the less time we have. Not in the way if you are a certain age, then you only have a certain number of years left to live... but well..

Let's put it this way. On this day, 4 years ago, I had time to blog every day, perhaps because this blog was new (which I will discuss in another post). On this day, 10 years ago, I was still a clueless freshman convincing himself he can draw properly (and utterly failing), but still spending the entire day drawing, then fooling around afterwards with friends.

Fast forward to today. I have to plan my weekends in advance, the job takes more than 8 hours a day (not including travel time), and my spare time is divided between additional projects, family time, cleaning up the house and all its related chores, and so on. Some people say I'm very organized, but how wrong they are - my work schedules are always a mess, especially with the varying activities and meetings (and thus my dependency on a scheduling device like the Blackberry).

I'm not complaining, but somehow my time is being sucked up somewhere - I used to have all the time in the world...

It's Not That We're Not Grateful, But...

I happened to get some parcels from some clients, as is the tradition in Idul Fitri, which are usually filled with food, tableware or anything else under the sun presentable as a gift in line with the festivities.

One parcel was filled with food, and a good 45 minutes was spent with Pitty in taking it apart (as it was addressed to both of us) - all the food packages were either tied together with multiple layers of sticky tape, or with generous amounts of glue; the kind used with a glue gun and effectively becomes plastic when dry. Kind of OK.

I brought home the second parcel as it was tableware - and the geniuses that put together the parcel used a glue gun to stick the plates together. Yes. A glue gun. Saski spent a good hour taking apart the parcel last night and praised the intelligence of the parcel maker for using a glue gun for tableware, especially for a couple of plates we still can't seperate.

The other parcel I got was also afflicted the same way, so the CD that came with it still has the blobs of glue attached to it. Luckily the other objects were easier to seperate from the blobs of glue.

I am very grateful that some clients thought of me enough to send me parcels, wherever they got the parcels - but I am seriously questioning the parcel makers, are you thinking with your head? After the incidents some years ago with parcels containing expired food products, you'd think they'd pay a little more attention to the contents. I know what I'm bitching about is non-essential, but seriously, if people put more thought in what they do, the world would be a much, much better place, and I'd have less to bitch about.

Merdeka!

I see on TV that Pakistan only has 3 months' worth of money left.
The news of melamin showing up in Chinese milk products shows how desperate the companies are for better margins (and more money).
I read about middle-class Californians living in their cars in Santa Barbara, because they lost their homes.
America is digging its own hole with the $700 billion bank bailout.
Japan's government is a mess while their economy is also hurt by the goings-on in America - and they posted a rare trade deficit.
Russia is pissing off everybody, to no apparent reason.

For all its faults, Indonesia doesn't seem so bad anymore.

Habib Riziek, My New Hero

You may wonder "eh, am I reading the title right?"

Yes folks, in one weird way, Habib Riziek is my new hero. For a very specific reason.

I don't agree with him on generally everything else, but for this, cheers to you mate. Somebody finally put the questions circulating in blogs and gossip circles into mainstream media.