Too Geeky or not Too Geeky

WARNING: This post may contains segmented jokes, segmented stories, names of people you have never heard before. Anyone is welcomed to read but might not get the moral (if any) of what I'm trying to deliver

Greetings... this is a special edition dedicated to my good friend Gebeng. The 27th of this month will be a special day for him. After a VERY long and hard struggle, which I happen to witness from the beginning till today. The day has finally come to ask the bride-to-be's hand in marriage. Although to tell you the truth, I have had some doubts in the middle, but you have proven me wrong. As for the cheeky remarks... I guess love can prevail even in the most adverse circumstances such as this. So congratulation to the both of you. sorry I cannot make it to the wedding so think of this post as some kind of best-man speech on behalf of the group.

This post was inspired by Eky's invitation to a game of DOTA to celebrate the end of Gebeng's bachelorhood. I thought to myself... Wow... this is a new level of geekiness, an online bachelor party, playing DOTA. Then it occurred to me we were geeks even since 9th grade. From Warhammer-the tabletop game.... to Counter Strike.... to Warcraft III... and now to DOTA. I must say we are geeks. People can argue that everyone plays that. I beg to differ... Our social life is centered around these games. The 6 of us hanging out together just to play these games. Have we ever get to be as good as those people in competition? The answer is No. We were shit at these games and we are still shit now. I hope I'm speaking for everyone here :)

Btw I have to ask this... since out of the 6 of us, only 2 singles left. Tongga and I are the only one left who can claim the prize right? Not important...

I remember one of the many conversation we have about this day. Who would get married first out of the 6 of us. Well Agung passed away. but who would have thought that Aris was the first to decide to spend his life with someone. CMIIW He's waiting for Aris Jr as well right? The second one to go was Gebeng. I must say I'm very surprised by this. After the 27th theres only 1 'mere' left who's not married (not mentioning names but you guys know who I'm talking about)... and judging by his facebook status, he's very lonely. hehehehehe

Seriously now guys... What were you thinking? Playing Dota for bachelor party? You guys are such a geek. (this is coming from a person who played dota for graduation party) hehehehe. I remember the first day Gebeng are officially in relationship with the bride-to-be. I gave an idea to the group to have a bachelor party for you :) Details are omitted to protect the individuals implicated in the project. That is the kind of bachelor party you should have. Not Dota... tsk tsk tsk. I think you should watch beauty and the geek to learn more about life outside our geeky and peaceful life. You see, Gebeng need some experience, otherwise can you imagine whats going to happen in the first night? It will be hilarious if you ask me. As Aris put it "Harus diabadikan nich malam pertamanya Gebeng"

Theres an javanese poem about this the title is malam pertama "Malam Pertama kok malu-malu, Malam kedua matikan lampu, Malam ketiga nda boleh tau". But knowing Gebeng... I dont think on his first night he'll be shy. There are definitely some leather and whip involves on his first night. Am I right? In this sense he's not too Geeky... more of a mental than a geek. Then again... his choice and I hope the girl enjoys it.

To close this... I on behalf of THE group welcomes Ms. Yayah to the group So the G6 have now become a G7 (minus 1 plus 2). I hope she wont be so judgmental towards me. and Dont worry just because you have a wife doesnt mean that Aris, Eky and I will stop bullying you. The bullying will continue for a long time in the future. :)

The almighty Toilet Paper

Greetings and welcome once again to another post by me :) Before I start, I'd like to welcome 2 new bloggers. Nelly Govinda and her strayinthoughts and Frida Yasmin's wedding preparation. This post is inspired by Jason Teen's question on twitter (@jasonteen) regarding toilet paper. It got me thinking about what is the one true and correct way of putting toilet paper roll. I always thought that one way is correct and the other is wrong UNTIL ONE DAY. I found out that one of the toilets in my house uses the other way.

Problem
What is a toilet paper? Toilet paper has many functions. as can be seen in the photo, the uses ranges from picking nose, covering head from the harsh summer sun, covering sunglasses to provide an extra darkness, and also acting as a table cloth for the head, so that other things such as biscuit can be placed on the head. However the primary use of toilet paper is to clean up after doing that thing we all do in toilets (for the guys... not that!!! the other 2 things we do in toilet). This leads to the problem currently being investigated.

There are 2 ways of putting toilet paper in the holder. The first way is to have the leaf on the outside as shown by the picture below.The second one is to have the leaf in the inside as shown belowBoth picture is taken from my toilets.

Discussion
For one month I pondered and pondered. I look at how other people put their toilet paper rolls. It occurred to me that the way toilet paper is put highly reflects on the individual. I myself prefer the the leaf on the outside. I can just pull the leaf whenever I need it and the roll just roll itself. One day something happens... When you have air-con and cat in the house, be sure to note this. Since the leaf is further from the wall, the air-con makes the leaf move. Cats are naturally attracted to moving things, be they string, balls or even toes under a blanket. Now with this arrangement my cat have decided to play around with the toilet paper and created a mess. This wont happen had I put the leaf on the inside since there are less space for the leaf to move around. With limitation in the toilet paper problem, all those people who said "I can just roll it back when that happens." well guess what... I tried to do that and the result? Not as tidy as when the paper just got out of the factory.

Now, this does bother me, since there are no standard on putting toilet paper. I like standardized things. I believe that there should be a standard for everything, including how to put toilet paper rolls. So in my research I found the earliest sample of toilet paper. This is a sample of toilet paper ad from 1893. Its not the earliest, since the Chinese in 6th Century AD was the first one to use toilet paper. (according to wikipedia) However the modern shape only started in 1873. Look what I found. It seems the creator of toilet paper intended the leaf to be on the inside. and it has the explanation to why this is so. However I'm still not sure whether this is valid with the round toilet paper.

Conclusion
After a long and arduous research on how Toilet paper should be placed. I came to my own conclusion. The correct way depends on you... If you have a kid or cat, I think the leaf should be on the inside to discourage them from unrolling them. If you are a responsible adult then put the leaf on the outside. This will make it easier for you to just roll it and grab the leaf.

Appendix - Toilet paper sample and their location
Please post on flicker or picasa if you have other samples of toilet paper. I was actually waiting for one more picture but SOMEONE says that there are too many previews... so I decided to publish it now.

Hani Chahal's house, Interesting concept, I have never seen something like this before... it is a breakthrough in the toilet paper world. Well done Hani Chahal.







Evan Pratama's house, One empty and the other has something... What do people do in the toilet without toilet paper? Your guess is as good as mine...

Being Indonesian

“Why do you want to be an Indonesian? The Indonesians won’t treat you as one of them” said a friend I met in Singapore (I’m a bit reluctant to say the name due to all the dramas we had because of a photo) “It doesn’t matter whether they think I’m one of them or not, what matters is that I am an Indonesian, my ancestors help fought for the country’s independence and I intent to be remembered as an Indonesian than an Arab” I answered, sorry for getting a bit emotional when answering it as we drove past JL Rasuna Said in Jakarta.

Before leaving to Indonesia, Joko and I had similar conversation regarding our identities. I always consider myself an Indonesian so is Joko with different background. We devised a hypothetical scenario to test our identity.
Joko: “Ri, kalo Arab ama Indo perang loe ada dipihak mana?”
Ari : “Indo lah, lagipula loe ga specific arabnya mana, bangsa arab khan banyak negaranya”
Joko: “Yaaah tempat nenek moyang loe lah, Yaman gimana? Khan tampangnya mirip2 tuch, apa ga susah kalo loe ada difrontline harus membunuh atau dibunuh orang yang mirip ama elu”
Ari : “Ga lah, bukannya udah kewajiban gw untuk ngebela Negara? Mungkin malahan gw bisa jadi mata2 karena mukanya mirip bener ga?”
Joko: “Ntar kalo tentara Indonesia malah nganggap loe bukan bagian dari mereka gimana?”
Ari : “Ya itu sich urusan belakangan, apa yang ngebuat loe mikir kalo kita join pihak lawan kita bakalan diterima? Sekarang kalo loe taro diri loe di posisi yang sama dan loe balik ke Cina apakah mereka bakalan nerima elo? Terus kalo udah begitu apa loe mau pasif dan lari khan itu malah ga nyelesain masalah”
Joko: “Ngga sich, tapi susah yach jadi warga keturunan hehehehe”
Ari : “hehehehehehe”

However for some reason, when my Singaporean-born friend declared that she is an Arab just for the record, for some reason I don’t really feel the same sadness as I do when an Indonesian-born person say that they are Arabs not Indos. I just get a bit emotional when someone else dictates who I am, once again I am sorry. I guess it’s the same for every race in Indonesia. I say these people are all backward, clinging to the past. Retaining your old tradition and heritage is all good but starting to bring them out into real life by abandoning what you are for something in the past, that’s another matter.

Just a point to ponder for warga keturunan in Indonesia, Don’t live in the past – exist in the present and embrace the future, keep your traditions and norms alive but blend in don’t keep exclusive groups, you will be surprised with the amount of similarities we have to each other. And for the so-called pribumi – stop using that term to differentiate yourself. Anyone who calls Indonesia their home is an Indonesian regardless of race or skin colour. Have we all forgotten the beauty of Bhineka Tunggal Ika?

1 Month without a mobile phone

It all started 2 months ago. I read an article on The Age Melbourne Magazine about a guy who survives a week without a single penny. So there my journey begins, trying to find some social experiment to try. So I followed that guy, trying to spend $0 for a week, but failed miserably. So after a month of finding something to try, on the eve of 10th of August 2007, right after Mika warned me not to go to the loft, I lost my phone.

I treat this misfortune as an opportunity to do my social experiment – 1 month without a mobile phone. Now the hardest thing is that this incident took place right before kafe art. This compounds my problem, due to the necessity nature of a cell phone in event planning. First week without a phone, combined with kafe art makes my life an absolute hell. Luckily I’ve backed up most of my contacts online (Thank you google) so I was still able to make contact to a lot of people.

Now, the second week is OK, nothing is going on. I’m starting to get used to not having a mobile phone. After all, I did go through an era where not everyone have mobile phone and still managed to survive. In this second week I learn to communicate via email and responding them as soon as I read them. There were time where there is multiple email messages, but once again thanks to google, it organizes them into conversation that is so simple to read. The third week… I’m 100% used to it. I realized that a mobile phone is not a necessity; it’s just another luxury item. One of my workmate got his first mobile phone 2 months ago after 27 years without one. So it’s not really a necessity. The world around us makes us think it’s a necessity, but it’s nothing more than an overrated luxury.

Fourth week, the final week, another observation is that people can’t take other people’s word. People always try to call to confirm appointment, and if they can’t contact you, they leave you. I must say my only bad experience was with watching Ratatouile, I promised that I’d come and watch movie, but I was running late due to serving nature’s call, but I did my best and came 5 minute late, but I was ditched. I remember back in SMP, we would wait for the other party to show up before watching a movie because we have confidence in the other party’s word. Has the world now become such dependent on mobile phone, that even if the other party already said that they are coming, the words have no values unless they can contact you?

Now my analysis for the matter is that we don’t really need a mobile phone if only we can trust someone’s words. When you said you’ll be there, please be there. Don’t change plans in the last minute if the reason for changing it is not satisfactory. I realized that it is hard for some of you to contact me and I do apologize, but it’s all for the sake of experiment. I also apologize for coming in late when I already promise to be there on time. Just to inform you I now have a mobile phone and keeping the same number.