Archive for February 2010


Volcanoes

February 22nd, 2010 — 2:53pm

Hekla

Studying geology has brought me closer to the Earth, and simply turned me into an Earth fan. I prefer call myself a ‘fan’, rather than a ‘lover’. I’m not officially an environmentalist, and I don’t do Save-The-Environment campaign on the street, being naive and tell people not to cut the trees. Soon I’ll be paid for digging holes on it.

What I do, is admiring. How it works. How complex it is. How old, the same as  how young. How detail it is, that even a piece of rock can tell us about many things; about the journey he has wandered, about the river or about life. How patient, and how it keeps the secret underneath; the secret about its past, and its future.

I admire volcanoes too.

For its height. For it mystery.

“What a mount of heartache it is. A volcano resembles human life. In youth it gives reign to the passions, and burns with fire. It spurts out lava. But when it grows old, it assumes the burden of past evil deeds, and it turns as quiet as a grave.”

-from Volcano by Shusaku Endo

(The picture above is Hekla, a volcano in Iceland. It is not like the explosive volcanoes we know in Indonesia. It is calmer, but hotter. It is basaltic. It is taken from here.)

2 comments » | Deeper Thoughts

Self-Vindication

February 21st, 2010 — 3:12pm

After my self-introspection in the previous post, I wonder if you would wonder, whether I think about rich people too much.  Whether I complained too much about capitalism. Whether I criticize too much about consumerism. I wonder if you wonder.

Well, I think you do (wondering), and I think I do (paying too much attention to things that are none of my business).

Now I’m telling you.

Since I was a kid, I’ve always been thinking, that I’m the luckiest person in the world. I have great family, great grade, great amount of things I can laugh about, great words to say and write. My family is not a rich one, I would say, (it’s a bit hard to decide because we use money as variable, and money is something infinity, and infinity is just, abstract) we’re just in the middle. I went to school by public transportation. We have our own car, but we don’t have chauffeur.

We could afford another car, honestly. Maybe cash, maybe we could pay in installment. We just could, but my parents decided not to, and I’ve never been a spoiled type. I didn’t ask for a car (until recently), and I never suggest that we should have a chauffeur. Instead, I take the bus. I take the train. I take angkutan kota. I (seldom) take the taxi. Sometimes I’m tired of standing on the bus, of traffic jam, of the sun burning off everything but the dust.

But I live the life. I see the reality. How people struggle through the morning. How the fresh-graduates seek for jobs. How the vegetables are brought to the market. How uncountable plastic glass and bottle and wrapper becomes the rubbish at the end of the day. How the kids, with excitement, chase their dreams, and later they forget it, choosing cigarettes and whatever to be written on the walls. How zero option the city leaves for the pedicab drivers. How old and sad some people that I think they’d better be at home soon.

I see them, maybe just like you do.

So when I see the magazines, or enter the mall, just because I can afford them, or just because I have to do them, and have my own life, I just can’t leave the other part of my life. It haunts me, but unfortunately it is not thriller. It saddens me, but unfortunately it is not drama. It is irony. How some people pull the cart all day just for the price of a cup of tea. A cup of coffee. A gulp of wine. A bite of roast duck. How some people spend the same amount of some other people’s income of a whole month, just for a pair of original rubber shoes with alligator logo, and they complain about life. It is irony for me, for both are real, and both are my life.

I know life is unfair. There is yin, there is yang. There is day, there is night. I’m in the middle of them and I’m going nowhere. I can see both sides like they are transparent but actually separated. Then life leaves me here. Thinking. Be sad when it is sad. Complain when they ask for way too much more, and the other else only get less than none.

Complain when some people go busy busy busy wanting exact pieces of fashion items for the sake of the trends, while some others only have washed out clothes from flea market with the same amount of days in a week. And it’s not one sided judgment.

Oh, well.  I already told the conclusion on the previous post. This is only a late prologue of a self-introspection.

I only wonder of you really wonder.

It’s similar with one of my past post. Maybe I just like this kind of life stuff.

6 comments » | Deeper Thoughts

Self-Introspection

February 14th, 2010 — 12:28pm

I’ve lost much of my wisdom lately. Maybe I dislike too much.

me. cynical.

I’ve always been cynical and judgmental. Those who have read this journal long enough would know that I dislike people who try too hard to be popular. I dislike people who overrate fashion just because they think it’s cool. People who buy DSLR just because they think it’s cool when a photographer rotates the lens, adjusting the focus. People who tweet about lunch with sushi because sushi is so in vogue and they can afford it. People who buy iPhone just because it’s Apple and expensive. Girls those turn Blackberry users just because everyone does, and they want to update their status via UberTwitter. Kiddos who spend too much of their parents’ money, and keep complaining about how inconvenient this life is.

Sometimes I just dislike rich people just the way they are. People who seem to close their eyes about those helpless people on the street.

Yeah. I know. I’ve lost much of my wisdom and spilled much innuendos lately.
I’m sorry, guys. I will try to care the less, and love the more.

This is my self-introspection for today, and Happy Valentine for those who celebrate. (I don’t). Oh, also, Happy Chinese New Year for those who celebrate! (I don’t, but I really wish the tiger in me would wake up and roar! :D)

9 comments » | Deeper Thoughts

Board Games

February 7th, 2010 — 8:49am

halma

Sepertinya sudah lama sekali saya nggak main mainan semacam ini. Kangen rasanya. Maklum, saya bertumbuhkembang dengan mainan-mainan ini. Mainan yang rapuh oleh angin kencang, dan mengharuskan kita berinteraksi langsung dengan lawan, dimana lawan adalah anak tetangga. “Janittt, Janitttt….” begitu dulu saya selalu memanggil teman masa kecil favorit saya dari depan pagar (namanya Janitra). Saya bertumbuhkembang di kompleks BTN, dimana tetangga adalah keluarga, dan silaturahmi adalah pasti.

Anak-anak zaman sekarang sepertinya nggak mengalami masa menyenangkan itu ya? Sepertinya mereka lebih asyik dengan mainan seperti play station, atau bahkan sekarang nintendo wii. Memang canggih sih, tapi kok sepertinya sepi ya? Terlalu sepi ah untuk masa anak-anak. Hehehe. Eh, tapi kalau anak-anak gaul jaman sekarang masih main kartu atau uno sih. Mainnya di kafe tapi, dressed up dan pakai make-up, sambil ngerokok. Sangat nggak nostalgik ah :P

Kemarin saya dan Ais (Ais ini nama pacar saya, haha, ahey :>) mendadak mau main monopoli atau halma. Kita lalu putar-putar keluar masuk toko-toko mainan untuk mencari board games tersebut. Tapi ternyata sudah jarang yang jual. Akhirnya saya berhasil mendapat mereka di Pasar Simpang Dago, setelah mencari di beberapa toko.

Ibu Penjual: Iya, sok neng, mau cari apa?
Saya: Ada game kayak halma atau monopoli gitu bu?
Ibu Penjual: Wahh, kalau game mah nggak ada neng.. Adanya mainan.
Saya: Oh, iya. Mainan aja deh kalau gitu. *langsung berencana update blog pakai Bahasa Indonesia :P*

monopoli

Yeyy.. Akhirnya dapat.
Teman-teman, ayo kita main :)

6 comments » | Old Tales, Ordinary Life

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