my kind of girl?
Just last night, I was immersed in one of those enjoyable little talks with my sister, when suddenly she asked me, ‘are you seeing someone right now?’
‘Why?’ asked I.
‘Nothing.’ She said.
‘Will you set me up with one of your friends?’
‘Okay.’ She said, lightheartedly.
‘Wait a minute. Why suddenly do you want to set me up with one of your friends?’
‘Because you’re like a child. I want to see you as a grown man.’ she said.
‘I am a child only in front of you. Because in my eyes you are always a one year old sister.’
‘Still though. So, what kind of girl do you like?’
Well… what kind of girl do I like… I got that question quite some time. I fell for a girl once. She was a girl who, I thought, didn’t care too much about how she looked. She listened to punk music. She once didn’t take shower to school because she went to a Good Charlotte gig the night before. She was awesome. But when I was about to confront her about my feelings, she dated someone else. And when she broke up, she already generalised men and said she liked me, ‘that’s why we’re friends. If I don’t like you, we’re enemies.’ Then after years of thinking, yeah, maybe I just have to let it go.
So… about the girl… I won’t be specific about her looks, because I don’t have a face that puts me in the position to bargain. Hahaha. But I think my kind of girl… she must have a compatible taste of music. I don’t know, that’s the first thing that popped into my mind. Either she listen to Jazz, to Punk, Indie, Psychedelic… if she’s into Classical, that’d be perfect. If she plays Classical violin and/or piano, that’d be above perfect. If she’s into metal/screamy things, I hope she won’t have to ask me to catch up with her tempo. As long as the girl doesn’t listen to Dustbin Beemer and things that worsen the image of 2010’s music, she’s alright.
In my culture, it’s common for a man to find a girl that shares his faith. I too want a girl of my faith. So, my kind of girl will be an irreligious person, but she has to be spiritual. Or, she doesn’t have to be an atheist, but is open to religion and irreligion; she accepts my choice and I in turn accept hers. Because, let’s be realistic. No devout Muslim/Christian girl will want a man who won’t lead her to her God. And, political incorrectness is a major turn off. Really.
My kind of girl also knows her culture. Either she’s into Star Wars, or Hippie culture, or Avant-garde. Well, I guess I’m quite Sapiosexual. If I get lucky some time, it’d be really fulfilling to have a philosophical conversation as an after-play. She’ll have a sharp sense of humour and is cleverly sarcastic.
Well, I guess that kind of girl only exists in a perfect world. Is this world perfect? I’ll find out if that girl exists. But the most important thing is, she sees me the way it is, and loves me because of that. I think it’s still very long until I have to settle down. My life is still an adventure.
death of an idealistic young man.
Uhm, long time no write. So far I’ve been enjoying my life, or some enjoyable parts of it.
In some parts, I saw this *ridiculous* pictures in the world wide web, possibly made by some meat-eating snob, that his food, the cow, is pooping on vegetarians’ food, ‘the grass’. though I’m not a vegetarian myself (well I was, once, but not anymore) I found it intriguing. It tickles me to rant about it.
First of all, vegetarians don’t eat grass. They eat vegetables, fruits, grains, and herbs, and mushrooms, but not grass. So, that picture pretty much shows the ‘signature carnivorous ignorance’, like the hardcore vegs believe carnivores have. It feels like when you prefer eat animal flesh, a veg shows up and asks you, ‘why don’t you eat cockroaches or spiders? They’re animals too.’
Secondly, some meat-prefering people said that vegetarians are ‘synonyms of bad hunters’. But in my experience as a meat eating person, I never hunt my food myself. Well have you? I guess you just eat pieces of meat you bought from the butcher. You don’t hunt; you don’t even have to separate the head from the body of your ‘food’. So I think it’s really not your place to say that you’re a better hunter than the vegetarians. The only person who can actually say that may be my late grandpa, who hunted a Sumatran Tiger in his youth, and he and his children ate the poor tiger’s flesh. It was a true hunt, where you risk your life for food. But not that I encourage hunt of protected animals; I’m strongly against it.
And in some other parts of my life, I had to battle a swarm of cockroaches in my bathroom. It’s not entirely my fault for not loving cleaning up, it’s more of a technical mistake of the building. Tired, I talked to myself. “I thought you were into ‘animal right’ shit.” And my other self (as in previous multiply blogs, I have more than one self) said, “I kinda am; but I never really consider spiders and cockroaches animal. They’re more like some annoying assholes”.
That conversation reminded us about ourselves a few years ago, when ‘we’ were still in college. ‘We’ were a person with idealism. I was a person with idealism. I might have not contributed a lot in the effort to slow down global warming, but I don’t contribute to destruction of environment. I carpooled, preferred taking public transportations, and walked. I printed my documents on used papers. I didn’t eat meat because I believed ‘meat farms’ contributed a lot to greenhouse effect. I also was reluctant to eat deep-fried food because the palm oil used on cooking them were responsible for the loss of orangutans’ habitats. I didn’t use plastic bags… and a lot of things that made me look like a self-righteous, hippie alien.
And now, I’m no longer that kind of person. I printed my documents using a lot of new papers. I eat meat again. I eat deep-fried food again. I used plastic bags. I drive my own fuel-guzzling scooter. Is it a relapse? Probably. But I’d like to see it more like choosing to fight another day.
I once ate dodol, something like toffee, my friend brought from his hometown. It was packed in a similar manner to cigarettes. I remarked, ‘that’s an awfully unnecessary packaging’. My friend asked, ‘why is that?’ I said ‘it’s not paper efficient. We’re trying to reduce paper for environment’s sake.’ He then replied, ‘Well, creating these packaging involved quite a number of labour; so the number of unemployment decreased because of this ‘unnecessary packaging’.’
My country is a third world country, at least I’d like to think so. We boasted about having a vast biodiversity, but I see no, or very little, effort on protecting it. Rainforests vanished with an awful rate, and we are one of the biggest catchers of threatened shark species, all in the name of economy. Most of our people are below the poverty line and will do what they can to survive the day, including things that threaten the environment. We’re too poor to care about it.
I’m new to this altruism thing. If I want to be altruistic, it means I have to put aside my wishes and put the concerns of others first. I thought it means I have to put aside my idea of a preserved environment and put welfare of most people first. In Seruyan, Borneo, I found a place where I could only see palm oil plantation along the horizon. I was devastated because I never get to see the Bornean rainforest they always talked about in the tourism ads, but people there spoke so highly about the palm oil plantations and how they helped developing their economy. I just couldn’t speak to their faces about extinct forest trees or dead orangutans. Until we hear news about increase on GNP and/or per capita income, we’ll never stop ravaging our environment.
Okay, you probably would say ‘that’s no excuse, if you’re really committed to preserving the environment’. Yes, it maybe is. But who am I to force people to change their ignorant habits because I want more sharks and rainforest. I’m just a socially awkward newbie in my workplace. I’m letting the earth die a slow, painful death; I let it suffer. But I just can’t make everyone Buddhist and believe that suffering is caused by desire. I can’t expect people to have the same mindset as me. It’s human nature to be different one from another, and it’s also human nature to learn from the differences, instead of fighting about it.
So let’s put aside our differences; whether we are vegetarian or carnivore, hunters or thinkers, we aim for a better world.
I may not be a (self-)righteous person I used to be, I might have returned to lifestyle my past self would deem ignorant. That idealistic young guy has died. But I inherited his visions. And I’m sure I’ll fight for that. Be even stronger than he had ever been.
Peace and Love!
Giant Mirrors Will Illuminate Norwegian Town
World’s Stinkiest Fruit Is Fermented Into Wine
be like the salt ;)
Hey, if you’re interested to know, I no longer live in Jakarta now. I moved out to Palangkaraya for work. Place’s lovely. With a population less than a district in Jakarta, I told myself, great, I’d have less panic attack moments (I kinda diagnosed myself with agoraphobia, hahahaha). And first impression of the traffic was, ‘amazing!’ Why? Because in Jakarta rarely I see people travelling short distance with motorbikes and wear their goddamn helmet. Here, (almost) everyone wears helmet while travelling with motorbike, long or short distance. And they freaking stop before the line by the traffic line! Seeing things like this in Jakarta would be like seeing a unicorn. If Jakartans all comply to safety driving rules and cling to order, I’d never have an intention not to return. Albeit the expensive food, I think I like my new place… quite a lot.
But I were going to tell you the story before I moved out of town. Of course, my parents were the cranky ones. I was very laid back about this moving out, but they are the ones who make sure I bring everything I need. So as I saw my coworkers arrive here, they brought less luggage and I was like carrying a whole wardrobe. And they even held some kind of a small traditional rite for me. It’s of Batak tradition, for I’m half Batak from my father. They invited my uncle and aunts, and they made a delicious dish served on a large, wicker container called tampah. And my uncles, aunts, and my mother, father, and sister kinda said something to me, it was about how I should be “when in Rome”. When in Rome, do as the Romans do, and but do some other shit that our people do, so you don’t lose your identity. It’s what they said.
The food also had symbolism. There were rice, eggs, chickens, prawns, and salt. They told me they should’ve included fish too, but they were out of it. Egg symbolized unanimity, because it is round, and a community who is unanimous in Indonesian language is called “bersuara bulat”, literally ‘having a round voice’. It means as a member of a family, I have to remember that even though I’m far away, I have to keep the family unanimous and united, and ‘having a round voice’. I forgot what chicken means, maybe it embodies diligence; for these fowls are the earliest to wake up. It’s my theory 😀 And prawns symbolize communication, because they have these antennae and the prawns communicate with nature, with their environment and with each other through them. It means I have to communicate, and keep in touch with them, and my nature, and my heritage.
And as for the salt, my uncle told be to be like the salt. Why? Salt, although the amount maybe insignificant in a dish compared to other ingredients, its existence is crucial and meaningful, and its absence is to be regretted. Maybe it means, that although I’m insignificant, ie not as rich, not as famous, I have to have a meaning in a community, like the salt give the food a taste. And thus my absence will make them feel something lost. And also, it means to behave correctly. To put too little salt in a dish, it becomes tasteless. To put too much salt in a dish, it will make people bite their tongue. It means I have to be just ‘correct’, not being to submissive, or not being to dominant. Because if you’re too submissive, you’re being stomped on and you’ll suffer. If you’re too dominant, nobody loves you.
I was very happy they held that rite. It showed me that being philosophical is not a trait I gained from liberal media, but it runs in the family. (You probably might wanna read another entry where my mom turned out to be very wise, in contrary to her goofy self) Or it even runs in the society I was raised in. Hahahaha. And when they asked me to say something after what they have said, I said I will try to keep in touch with them, and to my nature, and to my heritage, for it’s the most valuable thing they gave me, and I shall keep it no matter how far I go.
Bless bless, Multiply~
So, tonight, Multiply blog and social network features will perish in the air, leaving only memories. Pretty sad though. Lots of friendly people, sharing their sweet bits of life should relocate because their place will be overtaken by profit-seeking bunch. Well, as for me; I didn’t check my Multiply inbox a lot. But I met some of my friends there. We shared laughter, console each other, gave advice, talked fun nonsense, and probably spilled some dirty secrets we might won’t tell people we know in real life.
Okay it’s kinda crappy but I kinda grew up interacting with people I met there, for most of them are older than I am. I registered Multiply when I was 15(-ish). I was just a stinky teenager boy (and now a stinky man) who just found his new muse. In a social networking site called Friendster (hey, how’s that site going anyway now? :D) I joined a fan group of my new idol, Björk, and there people tell me that I can download her songs free (:P) in a site called Multiply. At first it was only song-leeching hours I spent there, but one time someone invited me to his network, and that’s how it started.
Then I met Aini, Ahyar, and Aulia, some of my oldest friends in Multiply. I wrote lots of, lots of bulls**t on my Multiply page but these friends didn’t say anything crappy about it, so yeah I like them. 😀 Maybe they understood how it was to be a stinky teenager. My network then expanded. I met Muse, Dani, Ancha, and lots of other fun people. So I decided to put an end to all of the teenage nonsense, deleted my old multiply account, created a new one and gave it a personality. I kinda became “a young college guy who’s interested in culture, philosophy, languages, and linguistics, and weird music”, which I am. Yep, that’s pretty much self-proclamation. 😀 I’ve met Aini, Aulia, Muse, Dani, and Ancha in real life. They should be strangers, but as we met, it felt like we have known each other so well before. I think I got to know them faster even then my classmates or coworkers, people whom I have to spend my weekdays with.
So now Multiply will be gone… Bless bless! It was Icelandic for goodbye. But I hope I can keep in touch with everyone I know in there. 🙂 It’s like we’re upset because our hangout park will be replaced some bleak and dour shopping mall, but yeah, I hope it’s all for the greater good, and we can hang out in some other park, like here in WordPress!
Multiply move-in: linguistic jokes
note: i still want to share the laugh with you guys, but i decided not to translate it into my native indonesian language, because of this most important point:
SENSE OF HUMOUR DOES NOT TRANSLATE.
so, a [moderate] understanding of english is necessary to comprehend this entry (and to laugh, too).
———————————————
to make a long story short
A missionary goes to Africa to visit a community, a very old, primitive tribal community. He gives a long sermon. For half an hour he tells a long anecdote, and then the interpreter stands up. He speaks only four words and everyone laughs uproariously. The missionary is puzzled. How is it possible that a story half an hour long can be translated in four words. What kind of amazing language is this? Puzzled, he says to the interpreter, “You have done a miracle. You have spoken only four words. I don’t know what you said, but how can you translate my story, which was so long, into only four words?”
The interpreter says, “Story too long, so I say, ‘He says joke — laugh!’ ”
***
The importance of pronunciation
On a visit to the United States, Charles de Gaulle was honoured at a banquet in the White House. Seated beside his wife was an official who spoke no French, but who tried to engage her in conversation by asking
“Madame de Gaulle, what do you think the most important thing in life is?”
“A penis”, she replied.
Overhearing, her husband said gently “I believe, my dear, that in English it is pronounced ‘appiness.”
***
A gentleman wanders around the campus of a college looking for the library. He approaches a student and asked, “Excuse me young man. Would you be good enough and tell me where the library is at?”
The student, in a very arrogant and belittling tone, replied, “I sorry, sir, but at this school, we are taught never to end a sentence with a preposition!”
The gentleman smiled, and in a very apologetic tone replied, “I beg your pardon. Please allow me to rephrase my question. Would you be good enough to tell me where the library is at, asshole?”
***
Help!
Two translators on a ship are talking.
“Can you swim?” asks one.
“No” says the other, “but I can shout for help in nine languages.”
***
A linguistics professor was lecturing his class the other day. “In English,” he said, “a double negative forms a positive. However, in some languages, such as Russian, a double negative remains a negative. But there isn’t a single language, not one, in which a double positive can express a negative.”
A voice from the back of the room retorted, “Yeah, right.”
***
Hieroglyphics
There were a group of archeologists who dug up a line of hieroglyphics that were, from left to right: a dog, a donkey, a shovel, a fish, and a Star of David. After years of study they came up with an explanation. They believed that this was a very wise group of people. First, they knew man had to have company, hence the dog. Next, they knew that they needed animals to help with work, so the donkey. The shovel was there because of their advanced knowledge of tools. Next, they knew that they had to eat, and that fish were the best source of food. Finally, they were a religious group and knew man had to have religion.
After the explanation, a man jumped up and said, “You fools, Hebrew is read from right to left! It says ‘Holy mackerel, dig the ass on that bitch!’
***
The village blacksmith finally found an apprentice willing to work hard for long hours. The blacksmith immediately began his instructions to the lad, “When I take the shoe out of the fire, I’ll lay it on the anvil; and when I nod my head, you hit it with this hammer.”
The apprentice did just as he told. Now he’s the village blacksmith.
***
How many linguists does it take to change a light bulb?
One, but he must consult the Oxford English Dictionary.
You can’t burn glass.
***
Two highway workers were busy working at a construction site when a big car
with diplomatic license plates pulled up.
“Parlez-vous français?” the driver asks them. The two
workers just stared.
“Sprechen Sie Deutsch?” The two continued to stare at him.
“Fala português?” Neither worker said anything.
“Parlate Italiano?” Still no response.
Finally, the man drives off in disgust.
One worker turned to the other and said, “Gee, maybe we should learn a
foreign language…”
“What for? That guy knew four of them and what good did it do him?”
***
taken from here and here, (you can see more of them there if you care).
peace! 
Multiply move-in: mimpi teraneh gw sampe saat ini..
yah daripada ga ada apdet gw mau curhat sajalah, boleh ya~ soal mimpi gw tadi pagi. aneh banget pokoknya.. mencoba mengartikan tapi buku togelnya lagi dipinjem orang 😀 mungkin karena di tweet gw gw menyatakan diri sebagai ‘husband material’ (hahaha :D) gw dikasi mimpi kayak ginian..
ini agak fusion antara ‘the mummy returns’, ‘the uncanny x-men’, dan ‘raising hope’. =_=;
dan cerita dibawah ini dilebaykan dari apa yg gw lihat di alam bawah sadar, demi kepentingan dramatisasi. nyahahaha 😀
***
jadi abis saur tadi pagi gw tidur, dan siang-siang gw kebangun gara-gara ada ada yang ngetok pintu rumah gw keras-keras. gw buru-buru datengin pintu. ga taunya ada seorang cewek yang menggendong bayi cowok dan buru2 menyodorkan bayi itu ke gw.
pas gw tanya, katanya si cewe itu telah mengandung anak gw dan bayi itulah anak gw-nya. glek. terus pas dia gw ajak masuk, dia nolak, katanya harus buru-buru pergi. dia mau gw ngerawat anak itu, karena dia sebenernya titisan firaun nefertari dan dunia dia terlalu berbahaya buat si bebi. dan reaksi gw: ??? akhirnya setelah disemprot orangtua gw karena mengabaikan safe sex 😀 mereka akhirnya setuju anak itu tinggal di rumah. mereka ngasih nama anak itu ‘raphael’.
anak itu ganteng, iya lah, siapa dulu baba’nya 😀 tapi anak itu punya keistimewaan. dia adalah seorang shapeshifter alias bisa berubah-ubah wujud. ini bagian mimpi yang rada creepy. waktu gw mandiin, dia berubah jadi salamander, dan pas gw tinggal tidur, tuh anak berubah jadi boneka.. tapi pas gw gendong, dia berubah jadi bebi manusia lagi.. dan gw menyaksikan proses metamorfosisnya yang creepy jadi bentuknya yg macem-macem.
i kinda loved the kid, walaupun gw ga bener-bener ngeh itu anak gw beneran. sampe-sampe gw hectic gara-gara ngerawat dia, tapi karena bentuknya bulet dan squishy dan suaranya lucu, jadinya gw iya-iya aja (awwww >o<) akhirnya gw putuskan utk bener-bener ngakuin kalo anak itu emang anak gw, dan mau ngubah namanya dari raphael jd axel. (btw axel ini nama yg gw kasih setiap personifikasi gw dan si ‘dia’ di the sims punya anak laki-laki. hahahaha *mulai menyedihkannya* …dan gw memang pengen ngasih anak laki gw axel suatu hari nanti.. *ngarep* hahahaha)
dan gw tanya ke orangtua gw. “boleh ga nih si raphael gw ganti namanya, jadi ‘axel’.”
mereka bilang “jelek amat namanye. tapi ye terserah, kan dia anak elu.”
“yeah.. it’s my son anyway..” gw bilang, sambil tidur di sebelah ‘buntelan lucu’ itu..
dan tau-tau gw kebangun dan gw lagi tidur2an di sebelah bantal gw yg beriler, dan berkata ‘ya ampun, udah jam 10 pagi..’ 😀
***
yah namanya juga bunga-bunga tidur. kalo emang ada artinya, well i wish it was a good omen. pesan moral, jangan tidur abis saur. 😀
fjalar writes... 