You Poor Li'l Thing

Song: Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd, performed by Marty Casey

...how can I explain the essence of fasting in 2 seconds sentence?..

I was in the middle of a business meeting with this Australian guy, when he asked me this question,”Are you fasting?”

“Yes, I am,” me, beaming with happiness.

“Oh, you poor little thing.”

Why am I not surprise.

“No, I’m happy doing that. In fact, everytime the fasting month is over, I was kind of sad that it’s over," I responded with an understanding smile.

“Why? Why are you happy doing that? Is it because of the ‘religion’ thing?

”Well, yes. But for one thing, it makes me healthier.”

“How does it make you healthier?”

I was gonna say "how stupid are you?", but then I was fasting, so I chose not to say it. It's all about self-control, lesson number one, you jackass :)

“Because the stomach is like taking a break, the body is more relax because of that. It's like detoxification.”

How can I explain the essence of fasting in 2 seconds sentence?

“Well, that is true.”

"And medical research also reveals that fasting is good for your body.”

“You know, that is true. A couple of days ago, I was scheduled to undergo some medical check, and for that I was required to do fasting for 2 days.”

“And the test turned out good, didn’t it?”

“Yea! The test turned out good! But then I ate 2 pizzas and everything was ruined.”

We laughed.
Well, he answered his own question.

You poor li'l thing. You never know how fasting is such a bless.

..

RUU itu

Song: "The Reason" by Hoobastank, performed by Jordis Unga

Baca postingan mas Priyadi ini, saya jadi ingat satu peristiwa kecil. Suatu malam ketika saya sedang bekerja di komputer, seorang teman lama yang sekarang bermukim di Jerman, me-YM saya,

"Lagi ngapain, Ri?"
"Biasa, translating dokumen."
"Dokumen apa?"
"RUU."
"RUU apa?" Teman saya ini jurnalis majalah Gatra, jadi maklum deh kalo kritis banget (maksudnya mau bilang bawel, Jun :) )
"RUU Cyberlaw."
"Hah???? Emang belom jadi juga tuh UU?"
"Belom."

Setelah saya ingat-ingat, iya ya, saya sudah menerjemahkan RUU ini bolak-balik (tiap ada revisi, terjemahin lagi... teruuus gitu aja), sejak 2003. Itupun karena tahun itu saya baru jadi asisten konsultan BSA untuk Indonesia, yang sekarang jadi klien setia saya. Jadi paling tidak sudah 2 tahun RUU itu bolak-balik direvisi (belum termasuk periode sebelum saya ikut dalam 'lingkaran'), dan belum juga disahkan.

"Ya ampuuun....."
"Iya, gue udah bolak-balik nerjemahin dari tahun 2003!"

Seingat saya isinya tidak banyak berubah secara prinsip (cmiiw), lebih banyak perbaikan (atau per-rumit-an?) istilah dan kata-kata.

Karena saya sedang setengah jalan membaca Digital Fortress yang jelek itu (hate the story-telling, love the research, note that), saya jadi berpikir kalau RUU itu makin lama makin ketinggalan jaman dong, kalo gak segera dirilis.

Ah, tapi saya bukan pakar IT seperti Roy Suryo (hahahahahahahahahahahaha..!!!). Saya hanya pencinta teori konspirasi yang percaya bahwa enkripsi tidak menjamin email saya bebas dari intipan pihak lain.

Anyway, setiap kali saya menerima amplop coklat tebal berisi RUU Cyberlaw ini untuk (lagi-lagi) diterjemahkan, yang terbayang di benak saya adalah sekelompok wakil rakyat dari generasi di mana kalkulator adalah benda paling canggih setelah televisi hitam putih dan radio 2 band, tengah memperdebatkan hal-hal yang sesungguhnya tidak mereka mengerti, di tengah-tengah tampak Roy Suryo sedang bicara penuh pesona (he's having a the time of his life), dan klien saya duduk di sebuah sudut, tidak mengerti sama sekali apa yang mereka bicarakan (blio malas sekali belajar bahasa Indonesia), dengan PDA-nya asik menulis email untuk saya,

Riana, I'll be sending you the latest draft of Cyberlaw that needs to be translated immediately. As usual, please turn on the tracking-changes feature, so I can see the revisions againts the previous one...

..

Refugee

My house was flooded yesterday. Yes, with water. The rain was so heavy, but it was the watershed (I don't know what the English word for 'tanggul') near my house that caused the damage. People said it's broken out, so the water flooded everywhere, even to the musholla which was located on much higher land than us.


So we (me, hubby, mother in law) spent the night on refugee, at the small hotel nearby (which by the way, had a very nice garden facing the terrace).

We were lucky. The water is not that high, and it was for short period of time. I imagined all people who suffered the tsunami and other flood disaster, that was way bigger than what I had. Mine was nothing compares to them. We were lucky we can afford to go some place nice, while they don't. I imagined their sadness, frustration, worst of all: depression. God, help them.

Anyway, after the rain gradually subsided and hubby was busy checking all the damages, I took this picture of brown leaves. They were right in front of my front door. I like the color and the highlights created by the water :)


Also took some pictures of that nice garden in front of our room terrace.


The most annoying thing is, I have deadlines to meet! And this flood seriously kills my mood!

Makin Aneh

Ngelanjutin cerita aneh yang dulu.

Update terakhir, sekarang ada 2 agen yang ngejualin rumah tersebut! Even weirder, agen barunya adalah agen yang dulu kita pake untuk ngejualin rumah itu!

hm..

Kalo perkara itu rumah banyak penunggunya sih, cerita lama. Setiap sudut ruang semesta ini juga dipenuhi oleh jin toh?. Tapi kalo mereka belom mau rumah itu ditempatin sama orang lain, itu rada ngeri :)

Mudah-mudahan, kalo memang jodoh, rumah itu akan balik lagi ke keluarga kami. Amiiin..

Update on this story

bits of life

  Song: Trouble :: Pink

• Numbers.. numbers... every night.. Gosh, this is even more tedious than i thought it would be. Now I'm trying to remember what made me accept this project in the first place..

• Still can't find time to play Myst IV and Myst V. I miss the realm so much! When this work is over, just see what I will do. It's gonna be all play-no work, to the extreme!

• GoogleGroups. Cool. If it's as reliable as the email (Gmail), it'll be awesome. Yahoogroups troubles all the time. I'm ready to migrate, really.
  
  
• What happened to Richard Grieco?
  Everytime I asked my husband such questions like,"Hey, you remember Sebastian Bach (Skid Row)? What happened to him?"
  He always said,"Selling cellphones, perhaps." Left me gigling :)
  
  Now, I remember Richard Grieco. Do you?

• Lilin Basi.
  Jadilah seperti lilin, rela berkorban demi terangnya dunia..
  Kenapa harus lilin? Kenapa gak tissue?
  Jadilah kayak tissue, rela ancur jadi bubur demek demi keringat orang lain..
  Atau sikat kamar mandi?
  Jadilah kayak sikat kamar mandi, rela nyusruk ke lobang WC demi nyamannya buang hajat pemilik WC..
  


• BiGnet, please come to my rescue!
  Kenapa dikau cuma menjangkau pinggiran kota? Diriku kan sangat membutuhkanmu! Damn Telkom monopoly!
  
  Gak mungkin aja gue langganan Speedy Telkom yang cuma 500 MB, secara donlod satu biji episode Will & Grace aja udah 200-an MB.
  
  Lanjutin pake MyNet? Nyekek leher dibandingin sama koneksinya yang ndut-ndutan, huekkk.....
  
  Tuluuuuung... tempelengin kepala orang-orang tolol yang dulu bersikeras gak mau invest infrastruktur IT di negara terbelakang ini!
  

How to Celebrate John Lennon's Birthday

.: Just Like Starting Over | John Lennon :.



"People talk as if it's the end of the world. It's only a rock group that's split up. It's nothing important. You have all their records when you want to remon this."

Yes i'm gonna celebrate!

Hanya Bahagia

Terimakasih Yang Maha Mengatur Hati, atas rasa bahagia yang tak ada penyebabnya ini. Sampai-sampai air mata menitik. Bahagia, tanpa alasan. Tanpa penjelasan. Hanya bahagia.

Terimakasih atas hadiah yang mahal ini, wahai Yang Maha Memberi Hadiah. Seolah semua indera terbuka lebar, semua titik bersinar terang. Alam semesta terang benderang!

Semua perkara terjelaskan dalam gambar besar, semua pemahaman jadi mudah.
Bahagia, tanpa alasan. Tanpa perlu penjelasan. Hanya bahagia.

(Mungkinkah karena Ramadhan menjelang?)