some tidbits

Nokia will what?? Looks like N91 is a really cool thing to have, eh? Last quarter of 2005, hmm.. exactly at the end of my contract with O2. Hehehe..

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Okay.... breathe.... hold on to your armchair. Einatmen... ausatmen... einatmen.. I just found out that Bremerhaven doesn't have H&M branch. Einatmen... ausatmen... Weekend is not that far away... But it's just so §@&$$%§ §$"xx&/"!!!!!!!!!

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Last night's dream was PSM-ITB performing Les Miserables, and I was invited to be the organizer! I was the producer, and I think I became the most ruthless producer that they have ever had. In the dream, I only remember that Kiki was Fantine, and Marina is Mrs. Thenadier. And I got the goosebumps when "and the tigers come at night... with their voices soft as thunder..." was sung by Kiki. Good job, Ki!

The funniest of all is that in that dream, no Marius, no Javert, no Valjean. The reason: We don't have a qualified male solo performer, so they stayed on the choir". Huehahahahaeuaha..

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I haven't told you but I really love Bremerhavenn gym's sauna!! So my schedule every Thursday now is working 9 to 5 (as always), and then hit the gym for one and a half hours or so, then have the sauna as long as it takes. Yikes!

The best thing from the sauna is that they have this Ruheraum (quiet room) where on its balcony at 1830 hours, is the exact time when the sun shines on it, and the cool Nordsee breeze is on you, and time to put 8 hours of work behind you. And that mixture of temperature of your body from the sauna, of the burning sun, of the wind, the view of Fischereihafen in front of you.. Argh.. can't wait for tomorrow!!

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Last night's dream was not the only strange dreams that I had this past few days. But right at the time that I want to tell them all, they just vaporized. Sucks, doesn't it? Well, so let's just say that I dreamed a dream. Tee hee hee..

But to be honest, I rarely have a dreamless sleep nowadays. I don't know what causes that. Unsettled subconsciousness?

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By the way, want to test Yahoo! 360° in detail, but of course can't do it in the office. But on the first glimpse, more or less like current multiply [cant tell for sure because I'm not a multiplier] or Friendster. Love the integration with other Yahoo! service, but still lurv blogger more for blogging.

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This article about still good thangs about Mozilla Firefox open my eyes wider and wider with amazement. So seriously, I still can't think why people are still browsing with IE. Well, curious to see IE7 this summer though, but still, Firefox rox!!

And have you heard of its updates? Extensions? Themes? It's like going to IKEA and then try to choose and assemble the accessories by yourself to make the final product suit you best.

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Have a good day everyone!

weekend distraction

American Beauty x 4 families = Sex and the City + 10 years = Desperate Housewives.

This one series can crumble my reluctance of watching any American television series because of the described formula above.

I got acquainted with a guy. He has a television which he doesn't like to be attached to. But everytime I was in his place, he always turned it on because he likes to know about news, have his favorite German series, and uses this as an excuse: "You can improve your German by this." He's right on the last point.

But... [well, you know that there's a big but coming your way, don't you..] because of this, I have to sit through endless Werbungen of new series in the telly. To name a few: Lost - Montag 20:15, Sex and the City - Dienstag 20:15, and Desperate Housewives - Dienstag 21:15. These are only in Pro7. And I just can't resist it. Eventhough I was relieved that the series are all on workdays, so God saves me.

But... second big fat but coming your way.. you know what, they have bloody reruns on weekends! Lost is rerun every Friday night. And two weekends ago, I accidentally turned on the telly during late lunch time, and there they were. In front of me. Lynette, Bree, Susan, Gabrielle, Edie and the voice of Mary Alice. And eventhough they speak fluent German, I was hooked. Dang!

For me, Teri Hatcher is superb as Susan. Remember her as the luckiest girl on earth eventhough Kevin Smith thought that she wont be able to bear her crush's child named Lois Lane? Remember her as a sexy bond girl? All that images are wiped out in this series. Maybe it's because of the German, though. Hehehe..

And I just LOVE Gabrielle. The aerial shot showing her mowing the grass in her dress and high-heels was just hillariously terriffic. Eventhough I am still on the fence about her affair with umm.. what's his name? :D

Each of the housewives', desperate or not, deepest darkest secret are presented before us. Took place in an American suburbs and gave an intimate look to each housewives' family (should they be called homemakers, instead?), the series just reminded me of other dark comedy American suburbs life: American Beauty.

While the four friends, four different women, four different strong personalities, bring the memories of other four women of Sex and the City. Not the sex.

Anyway, the suspense in the series that makes me twinge and curious by the end of every episode, eventhough I cant understand 100% of Mary Alice's narration throughout the episode. It's an interesting series, but just dont ask me to sit through each episode of them, because I will only watch it if I dont have anything to do every Saturday, at 17:15. If I'm not mistaken.

birthdaysss

Lah.. banyak ya yang ultah hari bulan ini.. Selamat deh buat semuanya. (ketauan basa basinya. hihihih..)

Update: changing 'something', hehehehe..

lunch break post

Yes, I have my lunch at 13:30, and now it's still my one-hour lunch-break. So..

Remember a while ago I posted a kind of sexist thing that I found on the internet. So, gals, here's some counter for that. Hehehehe..

to do's vs to do's

Spring comes. Things to do from a german friend of mine may look like this [I essentially summarized them based on endless conversation about the changes between the season]

1. cleaning the balcony
2. buying or renovating balcony furniture
3. putting out gardening + barbecue tools
4. putting in winter tools
5. rearrange wardrobe
6. locate sunscreen
7. "six-packs" doesnt only mean favorite things to buy in stores, but also goal for certain muscle group to show-off in summer. so hit the gym!

Huahahahhahahahaa.. Meanwhile [urgh, really hate saying this word], my to-do's are:

1. Treat current lodging as permanent lodging, because still gonna be there for a while
2. That means: put effort in decorating, make it homy, and most important love it
3. That means: start a new list of to buy, to bring, to create, or to invent
4. That means: time to go to IKEA - question mark - wink - grin - shrug
5. Know the resources of room, and move ass to achieve those four above
6. Determine whether Bremerhaven room will be spring room or summer room. Not worth the effort to have both.
7. Oh, and work hard. - snicker

Not so springy, eh?

merged!

Just a quick post.. Read it this morning in Veerle's blog, that Adobe and Macromedia are merging.

one word: WAUUUUWWWWWW!!! [That's not even a worrrdddd!!! -Monica Geller] The event has taken the agility of my tongue.

Update: INTERVENTION!! To clarify things, they are not merging as I had stated before, Adobe is actually buying Macromedia, and the new company will be named Adobe Systems, Inc. Just read it this morning. But still, WAUUUUUUWWWW!!! 190405 - 1005

spotting río de la luna

What I got by spotting La Mala Educación:

1. Moon river that is not wider than a mile, but .. is followed by foreign words. Spanish that is.

2. Amazing performance(s) by Gael García Bernal. Simply put, either he's just so f@cking talented, or he owes his friend an endless amount of money to go into those acting classes. And he's a pretty hot Chuck (or Dick?) as well.

3. A suggested impression that the famous blurred oral sex scene was not done by Gael, but some stand-in. At least that's what I think. But, hey, movies are make-believes, aren't they?
4. "What?" or *GASP!* or "Hä?" or "Really?" due to the twist(s). I thought I had it all figured out. DAMN..
5. Endless amazing scenes and famous told-by-Almodovar story. To name a view: (a) watch the scene closely when young Ignacio sings Garden (is it? Because my subtitle was in German), and Almodovar put two extremely contrast faces of actors, that changed and unchanged during the song; (b) the Moon River scene; (c) the first take of scene 99 of La Visita that ends with crying Angel (ang-hel, not en-jel); (d) the introduction of Berenguer and Juan; and still more..

6. Confusion, some confusions, and maybe even some more.. Hehehe.. But it is always the "it" that I like about a movie. Its challenge.
7. Disturbance, uneaseness, and the feeling that you want to watch it again.
8. One simply great movie.

winter, spring, summer or fall..

Ok-kay.. It's 18° out there.. there is even a feast right beside, in front, across, around my office [picture will be out Monday], and by a peek from my refreshing window, they are all wearing summer outfits down there. By summer outfits I mean sunglasses, short daks, (sleveless) t-shirt. No no, no bikini yet.

And in about 10 minutes I'll take my train ride to Hamburg, look like a stupido who can't stand the heat, wearing light jacket and a jacket, just because my backpack is too small to have them packed in.

Anyway, will definitely enjoy the weekends with a lot of outdoorsy (I hope) activities to do. Wohoo.. But first things first!

blogplan... awesome!

Due to my: 1. stupidity, 2. haste, 3. broken German :(, I just found out TODAY what blogplan.de means, and what it does to blogs.

First lost in translation moment is that 'plan' as in blogplan, can be translated to the same word plan as in 'I don't have any plans yet'. However, if you read the word Stadtplan, that mostly doesn't mean city plan (Stadt = city), but city map. So plan also means map.

So, when I was first directed to hamburg.blogplan.de, I see this famous railroad map (Linienplan) from HVV, and I thought blogplan.de is about [get this proof of stupidity] the blog for plan for the development of HVV tracks (especially S- and U-Bahn's) in and around Hamburg. I was like, wow.. HVV or authorities in Hamburg is very technology and trend aware by posting a blog about this. Very unlikely.

However, now I realized that literally it means blog map. This literal translation proves to be the exact meaning of the site. I still have my smirk on my face right now as I typing this word when I finally realize that blogplan is a blog map! So the creator allows bloggers to list their blogs based on the S- and U-Bahn's (even RE's) stop around Hamburg. The idea was inspired by nyc bloggers.

I realized the true use of this idea is when I accessed the site this time, I wondered why they are still using the old Linienplan for the trains? FYI, HVV enlarged its service on December 12th, 2004 and that means that they have new Linienplan. And why there are no news on the rumor that I heard that they are going to build a new stop between Stephansplatz and Hallerstraße for U1?

After I realized everything, I was like, whoa, this thing is cool. And why don't I register on the roll? Eventhough my current status as Hamburger is only for the weekends. Hehehe.. So try to find me somewhere down there. So, thanks Nico, Thorsten, and Sven!

Also, Hamburger.. meldet euch sofort an!

imagecave is down

As of this time of the day, Imagecave, my image server is down.

Be careful in reading this blog for masked spoilers which is now unmasked due to that.

twitches of eastwick

So, today, I'm off for sitting in front of my computer for 8 hours or even more. I will just do some paperwork that I have been contemplating of doing, some work-related-or-not articles reading, and some Hausaufgabe writing as well. It's because...

I have twitches in my top-left eye! Huhhuhuhu.. It got worse if I look at the monitor. So now I'm having my monitor at a very low level of brightness and contrast. But still, twitches and twitches.

And no, I dont believe that twitches mean something. Not that kind of person. :)

BTW, I hope twitches means kedutan. :D

sip a coffee and laugh

Paige Fox is one of the smartest gal around. By smart, I mean manipulative, brotherly unsupportive, and may be the first gal to say, "Mooomm.. Peter or Jason broke your Ming Vase." I doubt that the Foxes has one, though. But in a sentence, Paige reminds me of my sister, while I am more Jason.

Yesterday's edition of FoxTrot proves it once again.

Notice how Bill Amend doesn't draw Peter or Jason around to remind me that Paige did it not in front of her brothers. Manipulative. Hmm.. makes me wonder, did my sister do that as well? Don't get me wrong, that is exactly how I felt about my sister, but things change, you know, and of course, she is not Paige-ish anymore, but I'm still Jasonish. Huahahahhaa..

dan brown 0, bie 2

[some of the post contains hidden characters in order not to spoil some endings of some book. If you couldn't care less, highlight from an asterisk * when you see one.]

Na ja.. After my admiration rambling about first impression of Angels & Demons (A&D) by Dan Brown, I haven't written how the story (mine, not Brown's) really ends.

So I met Robert Langdon. For me, Robert Langdon is another Indiana Jones. Another Jack Ryan. Not another ... [who's that guy? wait, I have to Google him for a sec] Alex Cross. Between these four fictional recurring character, I gravitate more to Alex Cross, eventhough I just forgot the name, LOL. Maybe it's somewhat personal because I like psychology to other subjects, though.

There are other recurring fictional characters of course, Hercule Poirot, for example. But unlike them, Poirot relies mostly on his intelligence only, without his physical abilities.

But anyway, it is easy to be addicted to his novels. So far, I'd only read two of them, though, and I finish each of them less than 12 hours. Very rarely happens to me.

In the late 80s, I started to read serious novels. By serious I mean, novels which are intended for adult readers. My first that kind of novel is [get this, it will be shocking] Bila Esok Tiba, a translated version of If Tomorrow Comes by Sidney Sheldon. I had to hide this novel in my elementary-school-pants pocket, because my friends said it was porn, and I don't wanna get caught, of course. :)

By junior high, early teenage years I read 2 more Sidney's epics. The Stars Shine Down, and The Naked Face. For the following years, I grasp more and more of his, and by the end of my fifth or so book, the twists in Sidney Sheldon's are not so twisted anymore. For me. Because most of the time I can guess the "missing part of the puzzle".

This happen as well to my second most read writer, Agatha Christie. Of course in the beginning, every book fooled me, steered me to the wrong direction, and I took the bait. The climax is of course the Murder of Roger Ackroyd where the murderer is *---the narrator of it---.

But this experience brought me to be really careful in reading such books. Keep on guard. Accepting all information memorize and analyse them. If possible, get a conclusion. If not, then play along. Weird, I know. Friends of mine keep telling me read them as you read them. Don't analyse, think and so on, but that's how I got my groove fun by reading book.

Now back to Dan Brown. Halfway through A&D I suspected someone to be the culprit. I just had a feeling on this character. I kept brushing it off and said, "Come on, this is not Agatha Christie, dude. Just read it and read it." But of course, you can not easily ignore years of customs eventhough it's a personal one. So I said, "Okay, this character will be my suspect."

And I was damn right. Eventhough some series of events near the end of the book made me question my suspicion, I still stand to my decision. And what can I say, when the true culprit of the story was unveiled. I can only shrug triumphantly. LOL. 1-0.

How about The Da Vinci Code? I read DVC solely due to the hype. Yes, I know I surrender easily to hypes. And I am really curious what makes this book so popular. To be honest, I like Angels & Demons more. Yes, I was captivated as well, but A&D is more.. unbelievable.. And halfway through the novel, again, I got this strange feeling that the culprit is *---Leigh Teabing---. So, 2-0.

Even so, I can not hide the fact that Dan Brown is simply a brilliant writer, hardworker researcher and smart businessman. I took this line from his description of Constantine the great in the Da Vinci Code. *He goes way beyond the limit by confronting powerful organizations and he compromises at the end. That is why I got 2 scores right now.

So I am eager, but not oh-so-obsessed-eager to read the not yet published sequel of Robert Langdon. Waiting it to be 2-1, or maybe 3-0. But for the mean time, you owe eye too. :)