Copet gak boleh masuk!

Pas liat plang ini di Mirota Batik Jogja, cuma kpikiran satu hal, kalo misalnya kamu seorang copet, apakah kamu akan balik kanan dan gak masuk ke toko?

Flasher

I’m a heavy user of Instant Messaging (IM), I went through the golden ages of mIRC, MSN Messenger and now I’m using Yahoo! Messenger on daily basis.

Status facility provided by Yahoo! Messenger if used wisely will provide information to your friends of the state you are on, whether you are busy, available for an idle chit chat, or just don’t wanna be disturbed by others, or even invisible to others. Sometimes I used it by writing something that is even not necessarily written there, such as, addus (bathing, Javanese lang.), doing nothing whatsoever etc.

And on this day I was surprised by one of my friend’s status. I thought it was just another webcam-based-status, but this one really tickles me, and makes me somewhat wanna throw up…

HIS status read like this:

nuff said...

Sapi Bali

Yeah! As I'm returning to the world of blogging, my reviews of cuisines that I have the opportunity to taste will return, as for this opportunity, I will be saying some things from Sapi Bali, a restaurant in Jogjakarta region.. Their specials are, Iga Bakar Sapi Bali (Grilled Rib), Ayam Betutu (Chicken), Cow satay, and Rib Soup.

Now for the review, Iga Bakar Sapi Bali is quite good in my opinion, it's grilled cow rib with Balinese Spices, and you will taste the spices is strong, but I guess that's how Balinese cuisines are made, as for the Ayam Betutu, I dont get the chance to taste it, but it looks good :), the satay is good, the cut is rather big and is served with peanut sauce as for the rib soup, I think it's quite good although I'll go for the grilled rib against this one..

U should try it though, it's quite an experience, the price is not that cheap but not that expensive also, the Iga Bakar cost u 25000 rupiah, but it's worth it.. Once again Try it!

You can reach this place from Jalan Kaliurang or Jalan Monjali, it's located near Jimbaran restaurant...

Kembali

Dah lama gak posting, emang baru dikit seh, tapi akan mulai nulis lagi setelah ini, smoga lancar yak!

Doakan aku yaa!!!

The Come Back

I'm Back..

My last posting was march 8 2007, it was right before my thesis exam, I am now graduated from mmugm, have done several things with my life and is starting to write again.. :)

I will talk about my journey post thesis in my upcoming writings, stay tune!

inVoid

Got nothing to write at the moment, I'm currently occupied with my thesis, got to finish it before March 17th, during this process I will be unavailable in the real world, but you can (almost) always find me in the virtual world...

Doakan aku ya!

A Small Reunion

[happy faces!]

Look at the above picture, that's me on the left, Bachtiar Rifa'i on center and Kris Hartanto aka Patrick on the right. Last night, when I'm in Salatiga, well when I post this posting, I'm still in Salatiga. We were a long-time-no-see friends, Bachtiar and Patrick are my high school friends, though I've known Bachtiar since Junior High.

So, the story's like this, Patrick's now livin' in USA, married, but for one or two reason, he had to return to Indonesia, for maybe a year or so, while for Bachtiar, he stays in Salatiga and working while doing his graduate degree on Law. That Sunday I went to Salatiga to pick up my Mom, the plan was Wednesday, but as I know that Patrick in Indonesia, Salatiga to be precise, I go there in Sunday in order to get the chance to meet the guys.

It was hilarious, imagine this, friends who haven't met for 10 years, yup 10 years, (FYI I left Salatiga in 1996), talk about how life has been treating us, back then and now, funny stories bout the past etc. We talked until it's midnight, and what a coincidence, Patrick' birthday is February 26th, the day I wrote this post, so we were the first to congratulate him, as for his wife in USA still in February 25th thanks to Time Differences...

I'm still in Salatiga for another 2 days, let's see who'll I meet here in the next 2 days, as for I intended to track down my old friends...

Weapon of Choice

Above is my Weapon of Choice in taking pictures...
Body: Canon EOS 20D
Lens: Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 USM IS
Speedlite: Canon Speedlite 580 EX + Omni Bounce
Filter: Hoya UV HMC & Hoya CPL

additionals:
Velbon CX 640 Tripod
EW-73B Lens Hood for EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM
Canon Remote Switch RS-80N3
Lowepro Computrekker AW
Lowepro TLZ 2

The combination of the above in my opinion very suitable for my day-to-day photography, which are mostly outdoor, indoor and portrait.

I chose Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 USM IS because its light weight, and works perfectly with Canon 20D, the EF-S mount is specially made for Canon EOS 300D, EOS 350D, EOS 400D, EOS 10D, EOS 20D and EOS 30D which uses the APS-C sensor with a 1.6x crop factor compared to the 35mm film or Full Frame.

The USM (Ultra Sonic Motor) works flawlessly in auto focusing and of course the IS (Image Stabilizer) that is embedded in the lens added up the value since it will stabilize the picture for 3-stop (trust me, it really helps on low light condition, aside from the EOS 20D Body's ISO settings).

Just love its 17mm Wide Angle (27mm on 36mm film) and its semi-tele on 85mm (136mm on 35mm film). I also like to shoot some wide angle, macro photography and telephoto, but for a while, this combination is P.E.R.F.E.C.T.

Wish List:
This is the list that, well..I wanted to have, but don't have the opportunity to have it yet
Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM <--for Wide Angle
Canon EF-S 60 mm f/2.8 Macro Lens <--for Macro
Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.0 - F5.6 IS USM <--for Telephoto
Canon BG-E2 <--vertical grip, for additional battery also, would really help on a long period of photo-hunt

Of course all of us Canon users always wanted an L Lens, but for my taking pictures habit so far, I really wanted these...

So, what's your weapon of choice?

Intermezzo

Pandu aka Helix has done something that made me have an out of this world experience and went to Grand Canyon USA, these are the pictures...

Ketep Experience (original footage)

Grand Canyon Experience

Out of This World Experience

Contact Pandu if you're interested to go somewhere..virtually anywhere... Guaranteed!

BABEL

definition from Microsoft Encarta 2006:

BABEL: Tower of Babel (Hebrew Bābhel, from Assyro-Babylonian bāb-ili,”gate of God”), according to the Old Testament (see Genesis 11:1-9), tower erected on the plain of Shinar in Babylonia by descendants of Noah. The builders intended the tower to reach to heaven; their presumption, however, angered Yahweh, who interrupted construction by causing among them a previously unknown confusion of languages. He then scattered these people, speaking different languages, over the face of the earth.

The story possibly was inspired by the fall of the famous temple-tower of Etemenanki, later restored by King Nabopolassar and his son Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylonia. The Genesis account appears to play on the Babylonian word bāb-ili (“gate of God”) and on the Hebrew words Bābhel (“Babylon”) and bālāl (“to confuse”). The English words babel and babble are derived from the story....
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...but that was a whole lot different story from the movie that I've seen this Monday, starred by Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and a pack of other cast, this is a story of how things are related to each other, how one event may have effect on other event, I think that's the morale of the story, no matter what you do, it will have effect on others, nevertheless it's good or bad...

I was expecting to see a "heavy" movie, but I was surprised that it didn't deliver the tension that I was looking for... I can say that this was like Pulp Fiction, only on a serious matters, not comical... 4 stories in one movie, 2 in Morocco, 1 in Japan, 1 in Mexico and each one of them are interrelated...

(***1/2) 3.5 stars, good but not that good...

PS: can anyone explain why this movie was titled Babel?

Another Gallery featuring Me...

Some from Borobudur..

KETEP!

Last Tuesday, I took the liberty to go to Borobudur Temple in Magelang and followed by going to Ketep Pass, a place to see Mount Merapi, a cool place (literally! Colder than Jogja at least...) these are several pictures that I took during the Journey...

Merapi, FullBody \(^o^)/

The most Close-Up that I can get, need some telephoto lens... T.T

look mom! no hands! ;p

See Y'All on the next journey...

Gallery Showcase

Two souvenirs from Danyal's house at Salam Village Magelang...


Above is a picture of his living room's Lamp...
..and below is a picture of Sunset taken near his house, FYI this picture is taken from a speeding car...


See more of my so-called art work here

Kompo

Ini dia! Foto ini udah tak ambil lamaaaa sekali, dari meta datanya seh 23 Agustus 2004, 12:41:18 make Hapenya adekku jaman itu, Siemens SX1. Waktu itu ktemu ini di daerah Keraton, deket museum kereta kencana kalo gak salah.. Gak tau sekarang masih ada pa gak...

Kalo dari tulisannya mungkin bingung, pinjam kompo... kompo? bukannya kompo buat dengerin musik (compo.. halah!) mbayar Rp. 500,- tapi pompa sendiri HEH? kompo koq dipompa sendiri pula, trus kalo minta dipompain Rp. 1000,-

Jadi gini...secara ini diambil di Jogja, jadi ini make basa Jawa, maksudnya, orang sini nyebut Kompo secara fonetik ( o pertama agak u jadi seperti Kumpo) adalah untuk menyebut Pompa. Okeh.. truss? Yang lucu adalah, jadi tersirat kalo minjem pompa Rp. 500,- nah kalo nyuruh pompain Rp. 1000,- nahh, jadinya brapa? Rp.1500,- harus dibayar kalo minjem pompa trus minta tolong dipompain? Hmmmmm.....

Yang kayak gini nih banyak di sini, seperti misalnya dodol bensin, HEH? bensin dibikin dodol? emangnya bisa? koq malah nanyak bisa dibikin dodol bisa pa gak? maksudnya tuh dodol=jual jadi jual bensin, nanti kalo ketemu tak ambil gambarnya n tak posting disini sebagai postingan tersendiri tentunyaa...

Soto ESTO Salatiga

Monday morning January 29^th, I was in Salatiga, and when I’m in Salatiga I’ve always have Soto ESTO as my breakfast. It is located in front of ESTO bus garage in Salatiga.



Now, for the soto itself, it is a chicken soto, and it is served with “ kerupuk karak”, a rice based cracker. The taste is good, with a taste of coconut milk soup, it’s perfect for breakfast, especially when you eat it with some fried snacks, such as prawn-tofu, meat-tofu, tempe, egg-sate, clamshell-sate that is also served there, not to mention about “uritan”, a-soon-to-be-egg-that-is-still-inside-a-chicken that can be ordered there and served on another bowl, and of course a hot tea, yummy!

For those of you who would like a taste of this soto, you better be there around 6am to 9am since after that hour they’re usually out and have closed the place. Highly recommended…

As my brother said in his impersonation of Mr Bondan Winarno of Wisata Kuliner on TransTV..


" The taste was...mmhhhh Mak nyusssss..."

Dilarang Merokok? Kata Siapa?

Dilarang merokok? Katanya seh gitu, tapi kalo jalan jalan ke tempat yang menjunjung tinggi cita rasa, tanda seperti ini bisa ditemuin, bukannya dilarang merokok tapi malah silahkan merokok senikmat nikmatnya...

Tanda ini dipasang di sebuah warung soto yang sangat kondang di kota Jogjakarta, yaitu di Warung Soto Kadipiro jalan Wates. Sotonya sendiri dirasa cukup dahsyat, secara bapak ku dan temen temennya selalu kesana kalo udah sampe Jogja...

[hehehe, ini dia maksudku kalo beberapa posting cuma bisa disampaikan dengan bahasa Indonesia, Jawa dan sebagainya, secara nya itu lohh] :p

New Blog!

It turns out, that I cannot fulfill my promise at my initial post in this blog of using other than English language such as Javanese and Indonesian in this blog.

This is simply because I got too comfortable in using English language in this publication, however I still have several postings that I have to write in Indonesian or Javanese and because I'm not willing to post in Indonesian or Javanese in this publication sooo.. I made another blog, let's just say that this is another alter ego of this blog, only in Indonesian, some posts will be a copycat from this blog, only in Indonesian, while some will be exclusively written for the blog.

Without further ado, my new blog is Adhitya Semesta click on the link to go, or click the link on the recommended link part of this page...

Hahaaaaaa…

Hooo! Selamat Datang di Blog saya yang kedua di blogger ini, blog saya sebelumnya adhituniverse ternyata saya sudah terlalu nyaman menggunakan bahasa inggris, padahal ada beberapa hal yang ingin saya sampaikan dan hanya bisa disampaikan dalam bahasa Indonesia.

Memang sebelumnya saya menyatakan bahwa saya akan menggunakan beberapa bahasa di adhituniverse, seperti inggris, Indonesia, jawa, bahkan bahasa yang belum pernah didengar sebelumnya. Tetapi dalam perkembangannya penggunaan bahasa inggris di adhituniverse telah menjadi kebiasaan, jadiiii untuk memfasilitasi itu blog ini pun dibuat.

Pertanyaan berikutnya adalah..kenapa Adhitya Semesta? Hehe, yah karena blog yang lalu namanya adhituniverse maka dicari nama yang tidak terlalu jauh dengan nama itu, dan Adhitya Semesta pun terpilih dengan ngawurnya.. Hehehehe….

Tentang tagline "Gak Penting tu Penting Bro...", itu dikutip dari status di Y!M temen (Windiantoro, 2007) yang kalo dipikir pikir sangat pas dengan visi dan misi daripada blog ini... Bahwa hal hal yang gak penting tu penting... Sepp!!!

Hokeh, cukup sekian dulu ucapan selamat datang di pembukaan blog ini…

Blood Diamond

[quote] Col. Coetzee: "T-I-A: This Is Africa!"

Saw this movie in the cinema January 26th 2007, for those who are going to see this movie, you better equipped with a little knowledge on the conflicts in Sierra Leone which is the background for this movie. Click here for explanation of the conflict on Wikipedia.

This movie was directed and produced by Edward Zwick. It is starred by Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly and Djimon Hounsou.

For the plot I will take it from Wikipedia: [spoiler alert!]

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Set in the civil war of Sierra Leone, the film portrays a country torn apart by a struggle between sides equally vicious and heedless of the suffering of innocent noncombatants.

The film begins with the capturing of Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), a fisherman, by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). Separated from his family, Solomon is enslaved to work in the diamond fields under the command of Captain Poison (David Harewood). Diamonds mined by the prisoners are used by the RUF to buy arms and finance their efforts.

While working at the diamond fields, Solomon finds a large pink diamond. Moments before the government troops launch an attack, Captain Poison sees Solomon with the diamond. Solomon has just enough time to bury the stone, before being arrested along with Captain Poison and the other rebels.

In prison, Solomon meets Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio), an ex-SADF soldier who has been arrested for smuggling diamonds. He was smuggling for a South African mercenary named Colonel Coetzee. Archer is desperate for a way to repay Colonel Coetzee for the diamonds he lost when he was arrested.

When he overhears Captain Poison ranting to Solomon about the discovery of the pink diamond, Archer makes plans to hunt down the stone. He offers to help Solomon find his family in exchange for the diamond. Archer dies at the end of the film, giving the diamond to Solomon to sell in London.

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Okay, enough with the plot and story, now what I wanted to talk about is about how good is this movie? I would give this movie a 4 stars (****) rating, not a must see but a recommended.

Why? The movie is an action packed drama which was brought to us in a well tailored yet captivating plot, so that you will keep watching the movie in 149 minutes of its running time.

I don’t like how Edward Zwick bringing this movie a bit too dramatic in the end, when Archer refuses to go to the plane which will take Vandy and his son to freedom since he is slowing them down and giving them the large-pink diamond that makes him there in the first place. The situations is not enough in bringing a dramatic change of attitude in Archer, though I still like how Edward Zwick did not bring any kissing scene in the movie.

I really have to say something about Leonardo DiCaprio, his acting in this movie was beyond expectation, he also looks better than any of his movies before, more "mercenary" look, and i would say that he succeeded in bringing the South-African-English accent, no wonder he got nominated in the Academy Award for Best Actor. But let's not forget also Djimon Hounsou' acting, he's also good in this movie, I only recall him from Constantine movie with Keanu Reeve as Papa Midnite, he got nominated also in the Academy Award for Best Supporting Role. However, personally I will root for Djimon Hounsou only, I mean Leo's good in this movie but Djimon Hounsou had it better than him...

All in all, it’s a good movie, a bit heavy, but good, see it when you have the time…

300

[quote]
Spartan King Leonidas: "Spartans! Enjoy your breakfast, for tonight we dine in Hell!"

Quote above was said by King Leonidas when I saw the 300 movie trailer, it was played as advertisement before Blood Diamond movie was played (I'll write something about this movie later on).

When it splashes right in front of my eyes, my mind constantly said "When? When? When?", it will be coming to the cinemas near us by March 9th..

A little fact of this movie:

This movie based on the Graphic Novel by Frank Miller, author of Sin City which tell about the story of Spartan King Leonidas leading his army of 300 soldiers into battle against the invading Persian army in the Battle of Thermopylae and judging from the trailer, it was brought to us in the format of the graphic novel itself, so expect to see dramatic scenes...

According to Microsoft Encarta 2006, Battle of Thermopylae is battle fought between the Greeks and the Persians at Thermopylae, in northern Greece, in 480 bc. It was the first major battle fought during the invasion of Greece that the Persian king, Xerxes I, led between 480 and 479 bc. Although it ended in victory for the Persians, the battle is noted primarily for the bravery shown by the Greeks and, in particular, by the Spartans and their king, Leonidas I.

So see y'all at the cinema on March 9th!

see the trailer on Yahoo! Movies, for WMP, Quicktime and HD version
see the official website here
see the fansite here
quite packed goods there...

Constiti

Found this graffiti at the back of a truck when I was driving in Jogja, I was intrigued when I tried to read the word, what the hell does that mean? Constiti… Then I relate it with Javanese language, then I have the answer, or so I think…

Constiti in my understanding was pronounced konstiti, kon stiti, kon setiti, or in English.. told to be careful or simply..be careful… a word of wisdom…

Any other opinion?

Mie Ongklok Sate

As we were in Wonosobo, it was high noon, and we were craving for food, there a restaurant caught my eye, Mie Ongklok Sate, never heard of it before, so we thought we could pay them a visit. So, here’s the story…

Above is how Mie Ongklok Sate is served, two bowls, one is the mie (noodle) and the second is sate. The noodle is served in a thick soup, like mie rebus medan, the taste was, well, good, and the sate was fine. It’s quite something though, try to visit them when you’re in Wonosobo. It’s on the outer skirt of Wonosobo though, along the road to Banjarnegara.

That’s Denny in front of the restaurant…

Nostalgia

In Purwokerto, I met with my very old friend, Adi Nugroho, we met the last time was when we were at our first grade in SMUN 1 Salatiga back in 1996, that was like 11 years ago.

How we met was quite unique, I uses Yahoo!Go software in my cell phone, a Nokia 7610. In it there was Yahoo! Messenger, which enables me to chat with anyone in my list, or in short it lets me to stay online anywhere anytime. There I always put my status as where I am that moment.

When we’re in Purwokerto, Adi or Jedhek as I always called him before, saw my status as @Purwokerto, it turns out that he was in Purbalingga, half an hour motorbike ride to Purwokerto. Then we met at our hotel, and we stroll to Alun alun of Purwokerto. Later I found that he stays in Purbalingga as an Indonesian Air Force squad, ahhh, then we talked about the old days, when we were young, hahahhaha…

At the time also, I met Denny’s friend who stayed in Purwokerto as a lecturer, he was also an Informatics Engineering graduates from UKDW Jogja, Denny’s college.

Above is a picture of Me (center), Adi N aka Jedhek (left) and Prawito DiCaprio (self proclaimed surname) (right), Denny's not there, he's taking the picture...

The Journey

As I have said in my previous post, of Jobs and Journey, me and my team, consisting of me, Denny Widyan, Vivaldi Wattimena and Muhammad Yasir Zain. Considering the destinations we split it into three main routes, one is the south central java route, consisting of Magelang, Temanggung, Wonosobo, Banjarnegara, Purbalingga, Purwokerto, Cilacap, Kebumen and Purworejo.

Second is the central to west central java, Klaten, Boyolali, Salatiga, Ungaran, Semarang, Kendal, Pekalongan, Pemalang, Tegal, and Brebes while the third route, the east central java route, is the Surakarta, Sragen, Karanganyar, Sukoharjo, Wonogiri, Purwodadi Grobogan, Blora, Pati, Jepara, and Kudus route.

central java map courtesy of Microsoft Encarta 2006

On January 10th we started our journey on a two on two scheme, Me with Denny and Vivaldi with Yasir. My team goes to the south central java route, and Valdi’s team goes to the north-then-west route.

My route has great views, view of mountains, but since we have a tight schedule, only a few pictures are taken. We ride on a blazing speed on the road and at work, within a day, we finished 6 cities from Magelang, Temanggung, Wonosobo, Banjarnegara, Purbalingga, to Purwokerto.
We stayed on Hotel Wisata Niaga in Purwokerto for the night and start our journey again on the next morning to Cilacap, Kebumen and Purworejo. In short we’ve done our part in two days. There’s an interesting story here, I’ll write about it in another post.

scenic views from Wonosobo area

Vivaldi’s team made it to Semarang on the first day, 5 cities within a day, they stayed in Semarang and continued their journey the next day to Kendal, Pekalongan and Pemalang. It turns out that due to traffic and road condition, they have to stay in Tegal before the job there is done. The following day they finished their journey there and return to Jogjakarta.

Next! Due to some situations and conditions, we started our journey on Monday, January 15th. This time my team mate is Vivaldi, coz well in short Denny and Yasir can not join us. The third route was split into two routes, the south and north part, I was to go to the south part coz I have to be in Jogja by January 17th, Wednesday, since my parents were scheduled to return from their Hajj pilgrimage.

So back to the journey, we went to Solo (Surakarta) then Sragen, Karanganyar, Sukoharjo and then Wonogiri. We finished it by two o’clock in the afternoon; we started our journey from 7 am in the morning. So in short, we’ve gone through 5 cities in just 7 hours, including the work itself.

Now, 5 more cities to go, Purwodadi Grobogan, Blora, Pati, Jepara, and Kudus, this route will be taken care of by Vivaldi and Yasir starting from today, Tuesday, January 16th.
We will be hearing from them later.

Over and Out…

The Use of Animal Sound-like Horn is Prohibited!

Found this in Magelang, never seen this before in Jogja, what animal sound? So a car with the sound of a cow? or a motorbike with a sound of a horse? or maybe a bicycle with a sound of a duck? makes me want one, any information on getting one?

Parade of Athletes by DJ Tiesto

DJ Tiesto, #1 DJ in the world, is a fact and by listening this CD, then you believe it's true…

I’ve been a huge fan of him since I heard his single, Lethal Industry; he has put Trance to a new level. I own several of his CDs, In My Memory, Just Be, and now Parade of Athletes.

Tracks in Parades of Athletes was made by Tiesto when he was invited to perform as DJ on the parade of nations in the Athens Olympics, the first track, Heroes, was specially made by him after capturing the spirit of the athletes.

This CD is by far the best trance CD I’ve ever heard in years, he has done a very good job in this one, looking forward to his future CDs.

Five stars (*****) is not enough as an appreciation for this CD, but that is the best verdict that I can give…

Pancake of Peppermint Ice Cream Cafe Jogjakarta

Above, is a picture of one of the menu in Peppermint Ice Cream Café, I was there when me and my friends are waiting for Night at The Museum movie, it was near 11pm.

The name of the menu is, well, Pancake with Ice Cream, it catched my eye when I watch the menu, and when I order and tasted it, it was no regret.

Try it, as for you wouldn’t regret it, as I was before…
A word of advice, maybe you should order the Pancake with two scoops of Ice Cream, when I tried it, I ordered with one scoop of ice cream only…

FYI:
There are two Peppermint Ice Cream Café, one next to Studio 21 Cineplex at Ambarrukmo Plaza Jogjakarta and second is at Baciro Area in Jogjakarta.

The Most Frightening Ghost

This is the list, the most frightening ghost, a list of three:

1. Pocong
2. Suster Ngesot
   
3. Kuntilanak (Suzanna version.)

Me and my friend Dewa agree that this three is the most frightening (movie and urban legend based) ghost there is...

Jobs n Journey

In December, a friend of mine, Vivaldi Alvarez Wattimena, offered me a job, a job of doing training to PT Pos Indonesia employee regarding Western Union services in PT Pos Indonesia. In short we were trained by Western Union trainer on a training on trainer scheme. We were to train in 34 cities within Jogjakarta and Central Java, and it’s no joke that it will make my weigh lower due to the length of the journeys.
This is the list of the cities that me and my team will visit:

SEMARANG
UNGGARAN
SALATIGA
PEKALONGAN
KENDAL
TEGAL
BREBES
PEMALANG
PURWOKERTO
CILACAP
PURBALINGGA
BANJARNEGARA
PURWOREJO
KEBUMEN
MAGELANG
TEMANGGUNG
WONOSOBO
SOLO
SRAGEN
BOYOLALI
KLATEN
SUKOHARJO
WONOGIRI
KARANGANYAR
PURWODADIGROBOGAN
BLORA
PATI
KUDUS
JEPARA
YOGYAKARTA
WATESYOGYA
BANTUL
WONOSARIYOGYA

Expect to see post of stories within my journey across Jogjakarta and Central Java under the WU Project and Journey labels…

Pocong 2

Needless to say…
As I have said before in my post (The Return), during the time span of write less era (what the?) there are sooo many movies that I watched, some are great, some are good, while some are well just a movie…

Why?
The latest movie that I watched was, Pocong 2! Yup Pocong 2, you read it right, another Indonesian Movie, yet a horror movie, again…
First of all I will say that the decision to finally watch this movie has come a long long way, thanks to the effort of several friends who forced their way to take me to see this movie, I finally watch this movie, I don’t want to see this movie simply because of my disappointment from the last Indonesian horror movie (Hantu Jeruk Purut), you can see it in my previous post.
Second, me and my friend Dewa, have a list of the most frightening ghost, and Pocong is still at the top of our list, so I expect for something frightening, as for if it’s not it will ruin my perception of frightening ghost, especially Pocong as the top list.




Pocong 2
Now for the movie itself, I was quite surprised that the movie succeeded to surprise me, it lived up the expectation (well actually I don’t have any expectation at all, hehhe).

First come first, the story, this movie’s story was way better than Hantu Jeruk Purut, this movie actually had a story. In the beginning, audiences will be shown an act of killing between two persons, and then go to Maya (Revalina S Temat), an assistant lecturer who lives with her sister Andin (Risty Tagor) since their parents died (no further explanation on this). Maya was searching for new place to live in, while searching for it with her soon to be married fiancé, Adam (Ringgo Agus Rahman), she found an apartment that is so cheap on the rent so that they couldn’t resist to not see it. They get to see the apartment, agree on terms and then rent it. Frightening scenes started to appear at this moment as Adam uses the toilet, on his right side there was a Pocong looking at him without him seeing it (quite surprising).

Story moves on, as they move to the apartment, Andin started to see things that are should not be, such as well, Pocong in several places and time, this had made her depression. Maya, as a good sister then searching for help, to her lecturer, and then to a paranormal, at this paranormal, Maya’s “inner eye” was opened, to make her see the other realm, her vision was quite surprising, since by this strange happenings started to occur. Back to the story, Maya later found out in the internet etc that Pocong always appear/seen before some major incidents such as Bintaro Train Disaster, May Riot in Jakarta etc. so that Pocong was like a way to tell her that something more sinister lurks within the shadows.
After discussion with her lecturer, she started to find some fact about what’s making her sister’s depression, starting from her school, it turns out that four years before, there were a major accident to a girl who goes to school there, the girl and her family was dead of fire. Maya then finds out that there’s one survivor, the girl’s brother who cared so much to his little sister. Maya also finds out that the apartment’s supervisor, Pak Sugeng had a major resemblance with Pak Slamet, head of the family which house was burnt, well as a Javanese, I know that the word Sugeng and Slamet had the same meaning. Another fact is that the house was burnt at three pm, and every three pm the electricity in the apartment were always dead.

Maya then run home and couldn’t find her sister in their apartment, she then got lost in the apartment, as she went downstairs and upstairs, she keeps finding herself in the same floor, 8th floor, when she desperately stops her effort, the scenes were suddenly black! And then she found herself in an empty place, later she found a human skeleton, a wallet, then the horror begins, a struggle then happens, as the good then outcome the evil, Andin then discovered, but then they figure out that there were no apartment of whatsoever actually is in that area, it’s all the sinister doing that making them see the apartment. All in all it’s a happy ending.

So What?
There are some scenes that I recall was like the scene from The Eye, an Asian Horror Movie, well after Maya’s inner eye was opened she can see things that are well, horror. This was like a disappointment to me, since I expected something original but there are some scenes that is, well, not original.
Another thing is the concept of the sinister vengeance was like the concept of The Ring and Ju On (or The Grudge, it’s quite the same) where as they already dead but the spirit lives on and take vengeance to people.

Verdict
I’d give this movie a 4 stars (****), since it succeeded to surprise me, kudos to Rudy Sujarwo for making a good Indonesian movie as he always does.

Intermezzo
When me and my friends watched this movie, Revalina S Temat and Agus Ringgo is going to see the movie also, sadly enough, they were going to see the 7 pm schedule while me and my friends were to see the 5 pm movie. But I get the chance to take picture with one of the Pocong that lurks within the cinema…



Not an accomplishment, but it's well taken picture, I bet you don't have this kinda picture... :p

New Year Resolution

New Year, New Goals, I see a year as a chapter of life, and a chapter always have a story, and a story always come from small things, one of them is hope which is followed by achievement that came from hope, so without further a do these are my new year 2007 resolution:

Finished my thesis
Graduate
Return to Jakarta
Get a Job
Get Rich
Married (?)

I think that’s all…

The Return

It has been so long since I write something in this blog, not that there’s nothing that can be written, there are soooo many things that can be written here. According to my log the last time I wrote a post was December 22nd 2006, while today is January 7th 2007.

Well, to sum up, or to say to pack things up from where I left off, I would like to say Happy Mother’s Day (in Indonesia it was December 22nd), then Merry Christmas (December 25th), Happy Eid Al Adha (December 31st) and then of course a very Happy New Year 2007! Heheh, 4 global events crossed between the last post to this post.

Maybe you all wonder, why don’t I take a little time, write and post something in this blog in that time span, in my defense, there are several reasons, first, I don’t have the chance to even take a little time to write (of course there’s a little time for everything, but I take writing as something serious, so I can’t just jump and write like that), second the virtual blackout that occurred after Taiwan earthquake, internet connection is practically “dead”, I can only browse into local sites, and I did that in order to get the information of what’s causing this virtual blackout, not even to log into blogger and post something. At the time, I can not even log into google, yahoo, or any international sites, my emails were piled for up to several hundreds emails coz I cant access it, through web or through POP, even Yahoo Messenger is out.

During the write-less time span, there are also several events that are worthy to be mentioned, several happenings in the Hajj pilgrimage (my parents are on their Hajj pilgrimage, so I try to stay current with the latest news from there), several movies that I watched, so many of them, too many maybe, some will be mentioned later in my later post, and of course the execution of Saddam Hussein on December 30th, not that I wanted to go political, vocal or anything, but I have some things that I wanted to say about this event.

I think this is enough for my come back, expect to see several posts in few days…