Thursday, March 31, 2005

when it's there

I am sorry.. I am sorry.. I know I am a very bad boy, I'm a very very bad bad BAD boy..

But I seriously am curious what will happen here after this happened.

I am sorry, I really am sorry..

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

odd year curse

[This post can be seen as two parts, and the title goes more to the second part.]

Just vorgestern I finally watched Million Dollar Babe Baby on theatres. Abaton, Monday, no ermäßigung because it was holiday, so 15 €. [Sorry Jürg, next time it will be on me, I swear to God.] I got so excited seeing Warnes Bros. Pictures logo came out, followed by Lakeshore Entertainment, which I failed to recognize in the first two seconds. Sheiße!

When the first narration was out, some minutes after I whispered to Jürgen, "I almost don't get the English." Somehow, I managed to get familiar with Morgan Freeman's awesome narration.



I was getting more excited by learning how Hilary Swank's character was introduced in the movie. That lass had just enough expression, quiteness, lighting and angle to be introduced as Maggie Fitzgerald. So damn classy and classic. Furthermore, I was nothing but amazed how Ms. Swank performed in the movie.

But that's it.

Half way through the movie I said that couldn't it be more Hollywood than this? I was absolutely getting bored with the boxing scenes. Absolutely bored. Changed my positions couple of times. I thank God there are still great great scenes to replace the boxing ones.

[spoiler alert: you will find how the story unfolds here, if you'd rather be unspoiled, go along and read the next readable post. If you'd rather be spoiled, then highlight from the star]

*But after the accident that paralyzed Maggie, I said nothing but, now what? A tearjerker? Get me outta here, right now. It's because I never like tearjerkers. I mean I like watching movie and cry for it, but please not because of their sad, hopeless, unfortunate situation. This is the reason why I don't like Grave of the Fireflies, for example. It's just too tiring.

Come to think of it, right now I don't really understand what Danger was doing there. What was really the storyline of this movie, who made what did how to which. What can I expect furthermore? I mean, really.

And I know right there and then that the movie is good, but it will not be my favorite. Wait, what am I talking about. The movie is bad, but Hilary Swank is superb.

Ah well, I think that I just degraded myself to a level where a movie with such rave reviews drawn nothing out of me but boredom. Na ja..

-----

Now what's up with the curse? For almost 15 years I have been following the OSCAR - or the annual academy awards if you may say that. I quit it this year though. And during the 90s, I always dislike their choice in the odd year, with 1993 as exclusion. Here goes the breakdown.

1991 - I leaned towards Bugsy, and then JFK more than the best picture. Bugsy is just simply great, but the Silence of the Lambs? Eh?
1993 - Schindler's List. No argument here.
1995 - I love Sense and Sensibility so much, and still can't understand why Braveheart got it.
1997 - I don't need to explain why I disagree with this one, do I? Hehehe.. LA Confidential is there, and unfortunately, the bloated Titanic is absolutely there.
1999 - Works fine, because there was no Oscar in this year, believe it or not.

No Oscar in 1999, what am I talking about? What about American Beauty?

In 1999, the Academy tried to change how Oscar is being celebrated. In 2000 there is this euphoria, remember? Y2K is everywhere, new millenium, new century, the Y2K bugs, etc. etc. etc. Due to this euphoria, they also want to call the 72nd annual Oscar 2000. Need proof? Check its poster here. Read between the lines, and I quote,

.. the Oscar 2000 poster is printed..

It's easy to map 90s Oscar's Best Pictures in my head due to the odd years, that is why I noticed this change. Due to the change, the next Oscar (73rd) was called Oscar 2001. See again its poster. While in my personal database, i.e. in my head, they are supposed to be Oscar 2000.

I think the inconsistency caused troublesome in their database as well. I remember it one day when they remodeled their database, it was not accessible for quite some time, due to this inconsistency. Notice how they introduce the database: [Year] (xx-th annual). For example: 1995 (68th). And in the old database, American Beauty was really called the winner in the year 2000, which is consistently called the 72nd, so there is no 1999 best picture. Strange, but true. Making me confused, but that's how they did it.

All this mess was organized well, though, because now, they decided to pull the year of the Oscar, and stick to the annual itself, in their publications. 74th annual Academy Awards. 75th annual Academy Awards. 76th annual Academy Awards. And so on. So far. However, the database of winners and publications must suffer now because American Beauty is now best picture in 1999.

For me, I am not diligent or brilliant enough to reorganize what I remember. I remember that in the 90s the odd years' best picture is not my pick, and American Beauty is the best picture in 2000. Following my own consistency, in this 6 years of 2000s, I dislike the academy's pick for 2001, and 2005.

Will the 90s come again to my backyard? I may not be curious enough to find out, anyway.

Thursday, March 24, 2005

how-to's hiatus (erm.. what does hiatus mean?)

Should I break the how-to's (#25) should I break it? I don't want to but I don't know what to do. Ah well, I will keep it to myself and only tell special ones, then.

By the way, the post is one of the winners of 2005 bloggies, you know..

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

the dom effect

Hihihi.. not a post about DOM, but about the oh-so-getting-to-my-excitement-trigger Hamburger Dom. Believe it or not, they change it!

First change, I will not know that Dom was there starting last Friday, March 18th, had Jürgen has not told me so, because there are no advertisements on the S- or U-Bahn's around Hamburg unlike the last time around. I still don't know whether they are still working with HVV as partner or not, but there are no advertisements. Period.

Second change, I knew that I read something about Hamburger Dom some time last week on the streets of Hamburg, but I was not 100% sure, because, they have different logo now. It is more like 70s-retro-MTV logo, not Hamburgish at all. And there's an image of heart representing love, which will be explained in about a minute.




Third change, they have a much much better web site. Eventhough it is still designed based on frames, but much better than the last one, which looks like jumped out of the early 90s.

Fourth change, they introduce the tagline: Das Herz von Hamburg (The Heart of Hamburg or the Heart from Hamburg?).

Fifth change, the big fireworks will be displayed not on every Friday. Gotcha! They displayed it on the 26th instead of the 25th due to the Karfreitag. Hehehee..

Sixth change, they attach a sie sucht ihn or er sucht sie feature inside the Dom. I wonder why there are no er sucht ihn or sie sucht sie darin. It's a part of big program called Love World. I think it will be only for this Frühlingsdom, but I can't be certain to that. There are even interesting event regarding this Love World event. Hmm..

What is not changed when I visited it last Saturday is the surroundings, the people, and the attractions. God, I love them so much. By the way, I was asked to join the camel race there, and guess what, I WON! Hahahaha.. As a reward, I got a box of Domino and a small turtle doll. Made me want to play and play again.

See you in St. Pauli!

Friday, March 18, 2005

bookishly hooked

By the time I had nightmare last night, I knew I could get in trouble. By the time I looked at my radio/alarm/clock this morning and it was blinking 9:03 and I have not even taken a shower yet, I knew the trouble can get worse. By the time I hesitated to walk briskly eventhough the wind was blowing and making 11 degrees felt like 5, I knew exactly that I am in trouble.

The trouble is getting hooked to Angels and Demons (A&D), a thriller by Dan Brown.

I was starting reading it yesterday morning, due to my inextricable boredom in 8-minute-bus-ride from home to work. 8 minutes and I got bored? There's something wrong with my system. At that time, Brown had only the chance to introduce me to three things: antimatter, ambigrams, and Illuminati. First two I have never heard before, but the last one is somewhat familiar.

Four and a half hours after that, I insisted to take a shorter-than-usual lunch break, and googled ambigrams in my work station. I even designed my not-to-be-proud-of first 180° rotational ambigram. Hopefully it will be able to be published here somehow someday. And of course, I paid Dan Brown and John Langdon [ambigrams artist for A&D] themselves a visit.

I then insisted to have an earlier Feierabend so that I could go to the gym and read the book [I don't normally read books in this gym because there are only two-minute-pauses and I'm not doing bicycle for cardio, I run instead. Nobody runs and read, oder?], and then go home and read the book, prepare dinner and read the book, have dinner and read the book, and finally, lay down and read the book. From those I learned more about CERN, X-33, Robert Langdon, Maximillian Kohle, and of course, Vittoria Vetra.

The acquaintance brought another foreseen trouble. Nightmares. I often got nightmare when I got hooked to novels. I dreamt about being caught in the middle of murder scene when I read Crooked House [Buku Catatan Josephine] by Agatha Christie. The scene I was in was unlike that, but it also involved a little girl, and a young assisstant.

I dreamt about having dangerous safari trip in Afrika when I read Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. And reading A&D, made me dream about having a fight with my Dad. The idea was funny, because the only dad-child relation in this book is Leonardo and Vittoria, is described far from possible to have a fight. But my fight resembles the fight between Vittoria and Kohle [Don't blame me for calling Vittoria not by Vetra, the author did that], the last scene that I read before sleeping, not resembles my relationship with my Dad. Funny where dreams may take you.

And this morning, I had a chance to virtually travel to Vatican City, meet Swiss Guard, picture the chamberlain, and get hooked more and more. But as soon as I finished climbing the stairs to the second floor, pulling out the heavy door [doors are damn heavy here in Germany], turning on my computer, I am back in Bremerhaven.

I will not write crafty words like other critics or reviews, since this is not a review, I am not a critic, nor good in making crafty words. Just five simple words. "Tell me more, Mr. Brown."

[the book is not even finished read, some of emotional or obsessed sounded situations and actions may change, lessen, or greatly increase by then]

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

blogs: here, there and everywhere

This morning, logging in to my Yahoo! Mail, witnessing this subject on my inbox "Friendster: New Blog Announcement from xxx". Change xxx with a Friendster profile.

It turns out that Friendster now implants blogs for their user. Na ja, everyone has the right to own a blog, doesn't everyone? Hehehe..

blog invitation on Friendster

But for sure, due to the this hype, that hype, these hypes, I don't think I will set another up there, just due to this reason. [read the comments please. Oops, but I think it's in Bahasa Indonesia.]

Just one remarks dafür. Powered by TypePad??!! O-M-G! I wish they had come earlier. Hehehe.. Oder söllte ich dort umziehen? Hehehehehh..

[edited almost the day after to add this entry]

OK, it's no secret then if the next days or weeks I will get e-mails from Friendster with the same subject, different xxx. Sigh..

Wednesday, March 09, 2005

Design is Kinky

So, since today I can not work, err, I am able not to work, err, how to say it in English?? (gue bisa gak ngerjain apa-apa)

Anyway, due to some circumstances, I am not doing any work today. Well, not not doing any, but doing only some minor work in my major work. In the midst of my check to the situation in bloggies, I dropped by to design is kinky, a forum of graphic designer based in Australia. Here's the snapshot

snapshot from design is kinky

Nothing really special, I think, but I noticed the banner of this website, have you any idea what it is? Hehehee..

I think for most people in the world, it resemblances to nothing [maybe people will think that it is some kind of inkblot]. But as soon as I recognized it, and realized that I miss it more or less. Ah, well..

[hint: it might have been treated with flip horizontally and adding some distortion filter(s)]

Peace is the word

Finally I got the chance to try taking part in this so-called inkblot test. Previously I call it abstract-painting-test. And seriously, in the past, everytime I saw people doing it in telly or movies I always think, "Wow, I will suck big time in these tests." I mean I will say none other than, "Monster." or "Aliens." or "Squashed bugs." But I was wrong, I actually see stuff in the inkblot. Curious how it works? Just take it yourself, then..

By the way, here's my result for this test

..., your subconscious mind is driven most by Peace
You are driven by a higher purpose than most people. You have a deeply-rooted desire to facilitate peacefulness in the world. Whether through subtle interactions with love ones, or through getting involved in social causes, it is important to you to influence the world.

You are driven by a desire to encourage others to think about the positive side of things instead of focusing on the negative. The reason your unconscious is consumed by this might stem from an innate fear of war and turmoil. Thus, to avoid that uncomfortable place for you, your unconscious seeks out the peace in your environment.

Usually, the thing that underlies this unconscious drive is a deep respect for humankind. You care about the future of the world, even beyond your own involvement in it. As a result, your personal integrity acts as a surrogate for your deeper drive toward peace and guides you in daily life towards decisions that are respectful toward yourself and others.

Though your unconscious mind is driven most strongly by Peace, there is much more to who you are at your core.

and also from the e-mail

People who have unconscious minds driven by peace tend to be independent thinkers who often prefer to live by their own high personal standards and moral code.

Just one comment.. tsk tsk tsk.. Heheheee.. I mean how serious my subconscious is! Anyway, peace is what I am, then.

[quotations taken from tickle.com results]

Thursday, March 03, 2005

el sol

It's officially 1750 on my computer's clock. It's officially over-hours for me. [psst.. been checking blogs since 20 mins ago]. And it's officially not yet the time for the sun to set!!

I started my interns when the sun set at around 1600 hours, and quitely whispering: "Time to go home in some minutes." But now? Whoa... Still there, baby..

Good thing: I am still able to take pics outside after I got off from work
Bad thing: I don't think there are any bad things in there. Hehehe..

By the way, no snow showers today. So, anxiously waiting for the real temperature for tomorrow evening. If they turn to be true. Yawn!

Heading for the gym!

The err.. My Brain Test

..., you are Balanced-brained

That means you are able to draw on the strengths of both the right and left hemispheres of your brain, depending upon a given situation.

When you need to explain a complicated process to someone, or plan a detailed vacation, the left hemisphere of your brain, which is responsible for your ability to solve problems logically, might kick in. But if you were critiquing an art opening or coming up with an original way to file papers, the right side of your brain, which is responsible for noticing subtle details in things, might take over.

While many people have clearly dominant left- or right-brained tendencies, you are able to draw on skills from both hemispheres of your brain. This rare combination makes you a very creative and flexible thinker.

The down side to being balanced-brained is that you may sometimes feel paralyzed by indecision when the two hemispheres of your brain are competing to solve a problem in their own unique ways.

Now, the bold part, explains everything about why I often, and I quote, feel paralyzed.

[taken from result test in tickle.com]

Wednesday, March 02, 2005

Happy birthday

Happy 10th Birthday Yahoo!

Anyone got today-only-Baskin-Robbins' on them? I am thinking about it, but I don't think they have any branch in Bremerhaven. Whoops.

Anyway, this netrospective is super-cool, eventhough it was based on this web-caleidoscope-generator created some months ago.

But happy birthday, anyway. Here, here..

winter.com

[Thanks to PSM-ITB for allowing me borrow the pun]

Well, the real winter is finally here. It's three months late, I know. I believe I will spend the whole week going to work and home through the snow. This morning, I have to walk through a quite heavy snow showers. Ugh.

weather forecast Bremerhaven

This weekend, apart from the fact that I have to work on this seminar, I also want to have the ability to play with the snow in the park. It's not good, you know, when you're lingering all day at home just to find out the next day the headline of newspaper read like: Der fröhlichsten Winter Hamburgs. Gasp! And I was in all day. That's what happened last weekend. Hohohoho..

weather forecast Hamburg

But rather have that kind of snowy everything.. I miss 20 something degree as temperature of the atmosphere out there. Like in Jakarta. I guess you can't win 'em all, can you?

weather forecast Jakarta

[images taken from weather.yahoo.com on relevant cities]