ADHITYAsemesta

Moving

2010-02-06T16:59:00.001+07:00

welcome, this is adhityasemesta, my blog, which content is the previous content of adhituniverse.

I've decided to give adhituniverse a reboot, retouch, from scratch, therefore moving all previous posts to this address

over and out

Ferry Corsten - Twice In a Blue Moon

2009-11-20T23:19:00.000+07:00

Ferry Corsten.. how many of you know that name? dont bother answering, maybe you dont know this man by this name, but as a trance music fans you might know this man in his other aliases, Moon Man, Gouryella, System F etc. Yes, this man is System F, and in the last few weeks I've been listening to his album, Twice In a Blue Moon. here's the cover of the album:

and the track listing:

Ferry Corsten - Twice In a Blue Moon

1."Shelter Me"   5:59
2."Black Velvet (feat. Julia Messenger)"   5:45
3."We Belong (feat. Maria Nayler)"   5:45
4."Gabriella's Sky"   7:10
5."Made Of Love (feat. Betsie Larkin)"   6:41
6."Radio Crash"   6:37
7."Twice In A Blue Moon"   5:52
8."Feel You (feat. Betsie Larkin)"   5:24
9."Life (feat. Ben Cullum)"   6:15
10."Brain Box"   6:05
11."Shanti"   7:09
12."Visions Of Blue" 2:08

My favorites are, Black Velvet and Gabriella's Sky

Black Velvet is a trance vocal track, and the sound is one of the best I've ever heard, it has the element of surprise that will make you crave for more, and as for Gabriella's Sky, it reminds me of Andromeda by DJ Quicksilver, it has a soothing feel of a ambient trance, just love it!

Ferry released Brain Box as his first single, then Radio Crash few weeks before the album itself, after that Made of Love and We Belong were chosen as the following single. I wouldnt give more yadda yadda these singles though.

Overall, the album gives a strong impression of how trance was supposed to be, a hard hit to the now-more-mellow-trance-tracks, Ferry reminds me how trance is supposed to be.

This one's a gem, listen, and you'll know what I mean.

Kaleidoscope by Tiesto

2009-11-18T10:28:00.000+07:00

Today, we'll talk about Tiesto's Kaleidoscope, his newest album.

Before its release date, Tiesto unleashed one single, a collaboration with Sneaky Sound System, a song called I Will Be Here. From the sound of the single, it's kinda different from any previous Tiesto's sound, but hey the guy's just out from Black Hole and start his own label when he produced this, so new sounds is tolerable.

Then come October 6th 2009, a date that marked the day when Kaleidoscope is unleashed to this world. Take a listen at the songs, track number 1,2,3 up to the last, just like when i listened to the I Will Be Here song, it was official, Tiesto is experimenting in this album. He took a whole lot different level for this album, way so many "Tiesto featuring ", not that I don't like it, but judging from his previous sounds, you will not found Traffic like sounds, or if you compare this to the Parades of Athletes, this is the very opposite, full of vocals.

Here's the track list

1. Tiesto - Kaleidoscope (Feat. Jonsi) (7:35)
2. Tiesto - Escape Me (Feat. C.C. Sheffield) (4:17)
3. Tiesto - You Are My Diamond (Feat. Kianna) (4:09)
4. Tiesto - I Will Be Here (Feat. Sneaky Sound System) (3:25)
5. Tiesto - I Am Strong (Feat. Priscilla Ahn) (5:37)
6. Tiesto - Here On Earth (Feat. Cary Brothers) (4:55)
7. Tiesto - Always Near (1:33)
8. Tiesto - It's Not The Things You Say (Feat. Kele Okereke) (3:13)
9. Tiesto - Fresh Fruit (5:23)
10. Tiesto - Century (Feat. Calvin Harris) (4:41)
11. Tiesto - Feel It In My Bones (Feat. Tegan & Sara) (4:51)
12. Tiesto - Who Wants To Be Alone (Feat. Nelly Furtado) (4:35)
13. Tiesto - La Ride (4:13)
14. Tiesto - Bend It Like You Don't Care (3:21)
15. Tiesto - Knock You Out (Feat Emily Haines) (5:05)
16. Tiesto - Louder Than Boom (4:09)
17. Tiesto - Surrounded By Light (2:39)

The first track, Kaleidoscope is by far a nice intro for the album, with a calm sound which will take u like a breeze then came the mild storm of trance music, in Escape Me (this is supposed to be the second single from the album) Tiesto goes energetic, reminds me of aikawa nanase's sound in the past, but that's another story, third! You Are My Diamond, this is Pop, yeah, it's a pop music sounds in a trance music album, but the tunes kinda catchy :) four, I Will Be Here, sounded like a progressive trance or pop punk on extacy, fifth, I Am Strong, the tunes kinda reminds me of the hit, In My Memory, but down 2 levels for the "oooh" feel, sixth, Here On Earth, featuring an indie rock artist from US, Cary Brothers, and felt like an indie rock with an electro sounds.

Seventh, Always Near, the first no vocal song in the album, i think here Tiesto tried to create his newsounds of trance, but I think it's not happening, not as a new found Tiesto sounds, eighth, It's Not The Things You Say, featuring one of my favorite band's lead Singer Kele Okereke of Bloc Party, but somehow in this song, Tiesto doesn't make an impression, it's just like any other Bloc Party's song, then came the Ninth, Fresh Fruit, another non vocal song in the album, it's the electro sounds that will remind you of this song, but it will not like when you hear Lethal Industry, Tenth, Century, this one's felt fast and that's it.

Eleventh, Feel It In My Bones Feat. Tegan & Sara, this is one of my favorite sounds in the album, it felt pop but it has the feel of progressive trance, twelfth, Who Wants To Be Alone, this one features Nelly Furtado, a quite familiar name in the music industry, like her previous Loose album when she collaborates with many musicians, this collaboration with Tiesto is a better version of it, number thirteen, La Ride, this will sound nice listened when you driving a car, moving in 100mph, fourteenth, Bend It Like You Don't Care, an electro sounded songs, definitely Tiesto.

Fifteenth, Knock You Out, the last vocal song in the album, a fast pop sound, then sixteenth, Louder Than Boom, sounds like traffic but it's not, although this one's one of the best sound in the album, and seventeenth, the last song, Surrounded By Light, a nice outro for the album, an ambient sounds that will take you to the outside.

An avid Tiesto fans would say, this is not Tiesto, but for me, also a fan, would say that this album just a new sounds of Tiesto way to cope with his own original sounds and in my own opinion, it is where trance music would go at this time, I mean, do listen to Armin Van Buuren, and Paul Van Dyk, also Ferry Corsten, amongst those four DJs, their sounds was quite similar (trance filled with vocals).

So people, enjoy Tiesto's Kaleidoscope, I know I do...

LOST

2009-11-17T19:29:00.000+07:00

nah, I'm not lost, just at a beach in Southern Mountain (Gunung Kidul) area, a nice place.. Wedi Ombo's the name, u should go there sometime... It's around one to two hours drive from Yogyakarta

and like other beaches in Southern Java Island, no swimming!

enough for this mini post :) it's nice to see y'all again

Dark Warriors

2009-06-18T09:38:00.000+07:00

a friend of mine, Odee asked me to join his "community", a browser based role playing game

Hello Y'all!

2009-01-11T08:05:00.000+07:00

Hellow earthlings,

It's 2009 now, soo many things had happened during the year of 2008, life, love, loss and of course happiness itself alongside every other emotions.

The year 2009 will be another stepping stone for me to reach happiness in life, now i live in Jakarta, city of opportunities they say, so lets give it a try.

Today's January 11th, yes it's late but i hope it's not too late, Happy New Year 2009, All the Best to come...

Selamat Lebaran!

2008-09-30T21:52:00.000+07:00

For all muslim in the world

I bid you all a happy Iedul Fitri 1429H

a victory over oneself is the greatest victory of all!

Start over

2008-08-03T08:48:00.000+07:00

Currently busy carrying out a new business, and this blog will become my channel in to getting in touch with the great wide world of Internet and... er.. the world itself :)

Adhituniverse will have more content, my insights on business, insights on technology, insights on marketing and everything from life to corporate bullsh*t that revolve around my universe.

This is a public service announcement, prepare to see the all new adhituniverse.blogspot.com

Hooray!

2008-06-14T07:42:00.000+07:00

Hooray to Telkomsel Flash Unlimited!

I can now access blogger.com from this connection, expect to read lots from me in the near future...

Make Your Own Hybrid Car?

2008-06-09T20:40:00.000+07:00

Several days ago, I went to my friend’s, Rendra, he owns a car wash in near Jalan Wates, sometimes I wash my car there, there he told me that he now use something that makes fuel consumption drops to 70%.

Yup! 70%! He usually spent 150 thousand rupiah worth of gasoline (4500/L), and now he spent only 50 thousand rupiah. Hearing that I was very intersested, he said that it was very simple, everyone can make it.

It only need a bottle (plastic preferably) two stainless steel, some cords, a lamp, and relay. And here’s the scheme:

So, the concept is like this, the steel is put to the bottle from below by drilling hole, then connect one steel to lamp, and another to relay, and from relay, go to accumulator, and one cable to a negative source (eg. car starter).

To the bottle, fill it with water and some KOH. Now the bottle serves as an electrolizer which will create Hydrogen which will go to engine manifold as an additional power for the engine. Your car will like a hybrid car.

Today, I installed one on my car, a Honda Jazz 2006, I’ll keep y’all posted for its performance...

A Speaker...

2008-06-09T20:36:00.000+07:00

Needed a speaker system for my Valkyrie [my desktop :)] since I have moved from my previous room that I have inhabited for the last three years, by moving, I also moved my stereo set which I used as a speaker for Valkyrie.

I only few computer store in Jogjakarta, one of them is EL’s on C. Simanjuntak street, purchased something there before but they only have Simbadda brand speakers which is kinda let down :(.

But u know what? When I get there to buy switch for my home network, ta daaa… Just arrive that day, an Altec Lansing VS4121, a successor of the legendary ATP3, or so I thought was legendary :D.
At that very point, I said to the seller, “is that just arrive?”, “yes”, she said. “How much?” “it’s 63USD, or [using calculator]… 607 thousand rupiah”, “I’ll take one, and o yeah, want a switch too”, and the conversation went on…

So, on that very day, I brought home an Altec Lansing speaker system and damn proud of that purchase, since in my opinion I got a good bargain on it too, you people can see it on websites to compare it.

Now, for the performance, it’s great! Just like its predecessor, it has great power; the highs are crisp and the bass’ powerful enough to emulate a theatre in the room. Use it with movie, great, with rock music, great, trance [my favorite] GREAT! It’s only a 2.1 speaker but it’s enough for my current room.

Recommended for those who like good sounds, you won’t regret it, I don’t :D.

Back to The Virtual World

2008-06-09T13:09:00.000+07:00

After a long long while of connected to the Internet for only several minutes due to the absence of an unlimited connection, I have finally returned to the realm.

Thanks to Telkomsel whose Telkomsel Flash Unlimited Data plan had made me return safely without any worry of uncontrolled cost.

It only cost me 125k/mo for "unlimited" connection. Why the quote unquote? Since the bandwidth is limited to 256kbps roughly 30kBps, but it's okay compared to Centrin's unlimited but limited to 64kbps/10kBps AND there's another catch fot the Telkomsel Flash Unlimited, that is when my quota goes beyond 3GB, then the bandwidth goes down to 64kbps.

But roughly in a month, my traffic is way below that par, so no worries :)

The overall performance of this connection is quite good, though it's not that stable, not always on 30kBps speed, and at my home, i must search for HSDPA signal at the living room, and not available in my own room :(.

One more thing! Somehow, I cannot access blogspot using this connection, havent complained to Telkomsel yet (FYI i wrote this post using Indosat IM3 connection, which cost me Rp 100,-/minute)

See You on The Next Post...

Wireless Broadband

2008-05-31T03:42:00.000+07:00

Got myself this baby earlier this week from www.jakartanotebook.com, a PC Card that lets me go online on full throttle.

It's great! i use it with my Indosat IM3 and it runs on a 30kBps, i know it should been faster but it's fast enough for a prepaid subscription in my opinion, and while using telkomsel FLASH, it's way faster, you may reach 40-60kBps, but the connection's not quite stable, now im planning to get my hands on that TelkomselFlash with unlimited quota, they said that it will be launched on early June, just y'all wait, i'll be bcak in the realm in no time ;)

PS: this is the reason why i chose to buy this faster than thou speed machine

KEY FEATURES

Wireless upload speed up to 2 Mbps and download up to 7.2 Mbps
Durable, fixed antenna design with no moving parts
High-performance antenna that delivers improved speeds and extended coverage
Tri Band UMTS (850/1900/2100 MHz)
Quad Band GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)

More Social Networking? Anyone?

2008-01-23T05:31:00.000+07:00

Socializing is a wonderful thing, but the latest trend in the internet nowadays or what we always said to be social networking sites through the web 2.0 had made me kinda stressed.

Why u say?

Well there’s so many of them! And when I realized it, I’ve becoming members in almost every
social networking, first of all I have Friendster, then I started to upload photos in flickr, along came youtube, not to mention MySpace, tagged, fupei, twitter, facebook even blogger fer god sake! I have accounts in blogger, wordpress, multiply, but do I even use them? Well only for some few reasons, one of them is of course curiosity, and sometimes it’s all that! No more!

Yes it is true that it helps soo many of us in interacting with the internet, we could add our profile in the internet, to let people know our existence, to make people hear of what we say, and best of all to connect with other people that have the same interest. But when the value’s practically the same, it’s survival of the fittest, which will affect the sustainability of the web itself.

You may find my profile everywhere in the web, which is not that safe if u must know, by exposing yourself to the world, u also made yourself to be vulnerable to the attack of identity theft etc. but this is not why I wrote this post, I simply fed up with web 2.0 thingy. So what should I do now? One may say, just delete them! And others may say just let them be... Guess I have to do a bit of those, delete some and let some be in the web, coz I think I’ll need them someday, someday that is...

Feel free to answer my poll to the right; your participation will be appreciated

Focus!

2008-01-22T21:38:00.000+07:00

Turns out that maintaining more than one blog is not even come close to a piece of cake, by this i'm ~~deleting~~ closing my adhityasemesta.blogspot.com and focus this blog only, one blog is enough for me :)

and with this, this blog will not be an exclusive of using english language only, you'll be seeing post(s) in multiple language, the ones that i've written in my initial post

c ya in the next post

Copet gak boleh masuk!

2007-12-17T09:47:00.000+07:00

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

2007-11-23T12:51:00.000+07:00

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

2007-11-10T22:23:00.000+07:00

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

2007-11-10T22:15:00.000+07:00

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

Doakan aku yaa!!!

The Come Back

2007-11-10T21:44:00.000+07:00

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

2007-03-08T20:34:00.000+07:00

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

2007-02-26T08:13:00.000+07:00

[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

2007-02-18T10:20:00.000+07:00

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

2007-02-15T15:09:00.000+07:00

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

2007-02-15T13:29:00.000+07:00

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....
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

...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...

2007-02-15T12:25:00.000+07:00

Some from Borobudur..

KETEP!

2007-02-15T09:34:00.000+07:00

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

2007-02-09T20:02:00.000+07:00

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

2007-02-05T10:24:00.000+07:00

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

2007-01-29T08:52:00.000+07:00

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?

2007-01-27T18:51:00.000+07:00

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!

2007-01-27T16:45:00.000+07:00

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…

2007-01-27T16:01:00.000+07:00

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

2007-01-27T13:34:00.000+07:00

[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

2007-01-27T10:13:00.000+07:00

[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

2007-01-18T11:53:00.000+07:00

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

2007-01-16T12:33:00.000+07:00

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

2007-01-16T11:45:00.000+07:00

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

2007-01-16T10:44:00.000+07:00

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!

2007-01-10T23:28:00.000+07:00

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

2007-01-08T21:33:00.000+07:00

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

2007-01-08T19:08:00.000+07:00

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

2007-01-08T10:14:00.000+07:00

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

Pocong
Suster Ngesot
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

2007-01-08T09:09:00.000+07:00

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

2007-01-08T08:43:00.000+07:00

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

2007-01-07T09:59:00.000+07:00

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

2007-01-07T08:57:00.000+07:00

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…

Choco Melt, a must while you're in Jogja...

2006-12-14T20:32:00.000+07:00

CHOCO MELT @ Momento Cafe Jogjakarta
MAK NYUSSS! UENAKKKK! TUOPPPP!!! MMMMHHHH!

That was the reaction from nearly all of the people who has tasted Choco Melt, a menu that is served in Momento Cafe Jogjakarta, me, myself has the opportunity to taste it thanks to my friend Anda and Lingga.

The description was, this is a melted chocolate covered in a soft layer of shouffle-like cake, it is served with a scoop of vanilla ice and two slice of apple ( it is usually strawberry but when i try one, i get to taste the one with apple). The photo above shows when it was cut open and the melted chocolate inside it erupted.

This is how you eat this Choco Melt, cut it open, pick a piece of the chocolate, take a little of the ice cream, a piece of the apple (strawberry if you're lucky), then take it to your mouth, sip it, suck it a little then swallow it, the ultimate pleasure.. an MMMMHHHHHH will follow

Well to sum up, this is a must if you go to Jogjakarta, if you're in Jogjakarta, you should try at least once... Trust me! You won't regret it....

Virtual NES http://virtualnes.com/

2006-12-12T12:35:00.000+07:00

As mentioned in the title, this is a website that provides emulated NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) games for free and lets people to play it directly in the browser. It uses Java in order to play...

Come, play and relived the days when you play original Mario Brothers, Legend Of Kage, Contra etc.

It provides 380 English Language Games,100 Japanese Language Games, 10 Prototype Games, 25 Unlicensed Games and 15 Miscellaneous Games (at the time this post is written).

Control is easy, uses directional keys to move, B button is Z and A button is X, while Start is Enter and Select is Control (Ctrl).

Thanks to ma good ol friend Dewa of Isman Fairburn The Architect of Fate for linking me to this fun site.

Did You Know? The length of Jogjakarta Outer Ring Road?

2006-12-08T02:24:00.000+07:00

On the left is my trusty Blue Thunder, a 250cc 2005 edition of Suzuki Thunder, one day we took a ride across Jogjakarta, i went to Jogjakarta Outer ringroad, my intention is to warm up and charge the battery of this li'l fella, since it's not been used for 2 weeks or so...

I go on a constant speed of about 80-120 kmh, the track was Jogjakarta outer ringroad as a whole, I check my odometer when I start, it was 110, and once I finished the ride, it was 150, so the Jogjakarta outer ringroad is approximately 40 km in length my friends, from the south outer ringroad, west, north to east outer ringroad, back to square one.

I started my journey from Jalan Imogiri Timur, near my house to the west and ended there also from the east...

Here's a map of Jogjakarta, there you may see the track of my so called journey....

[map courtesy of www.mapsyogyakarta.com]

Hantu Jeruk Purut: Horror movie, or is it?

2006-12-08T01:20:00.000+07:00

This is my second movie review, it’s an Indonesian horror movie..

Indonesian movie, from the title u can see clearly that this is a horror movie, or so the producer and director tried to say to us movie goers. I actually don’t have any high hopes from this new movie, but when people don’t have high hopes gets even less than what they have hoped for? That’s too far, way too far, and this is what happened with this movie and I.

I go see this movie coz my friends had asked me to join them, well why not I said, it’s been so long since I saw Indonesian movie in cinema.

The story goes like this, [spoiler alert] ummm, wait, is there any story in this movie? This is my biggest complain to this movie, the story sucks! It only make an impression that this movie even had story, started with an old man try to light his cigarette and then the hantu jeruk purut asked him for a light, creepy eh? Then stop! Next the scene goes into a discotheque three kids who then got killed in the jeruk purut cemetery, then stop again!

Comes Anna, a novel writer, who liked to write about this jeruk purut cemetery phenomenon which an urban legend says that if you circled the cemetery 7 times with a party of odd number, then you get to meet the headless priest, which the last three kids was killed. She started to write the story, do a little research on it, then a lot of happenings comes to her, to stop writing about the false story, ??? Now it’s a false story? Eventually she ended up dead, by the work of the ghost.

But just before she meets her demise, she made a final phone call, to a girl named Airin (played by Angie of Virgin Movie), a good fans of her writings to finished what she had started (my god, such message will haunt you for life!).
Airin then started to write what Anna had started, and you know what? All of these happenings come again, now to Airin and her friends, and also her deranged mother. Huuuuu, creepy, d’oh!

Strange things happened, and what makes me sick is that it all comes in a form of “it’s only a dream extravaganza”, not just once, way too many! Okay, back to the somewhat called story, a cheap love story also comes in hand, Airin had a friend Nadine (played by Sheila Marcia) and Valen (played by Samuel C Heckenbucker) who was dating, but actually this Valen guy had a big crush on Airin, and loves nothing of Nadine. After a series of bizarre happenings, Valen was hospitalized for electric shock. The three friends (add one character) go to hospital, when Nadine finds out about Airin and Valen’s relationship. In short, Valen died, Nadine died, Airin finished the story. He? How come? Well she finally decided to write a true version of the story, d’oh! Then no one would have to die if this is the decision…

Okay, enough said, overall I will give this a 1.5 star rating (*½) just for their effort, and a cast of fresh youngsters, especially Sheila Marcia, no more no less, well maybe a bit of Angie Virgin heheh.

People out there, don’t watch this movie if what you’re seeking is a movie, but if it’s just to quench your thirsts of curiosity, you maybe excused to see it. But you’ll have the same idea, this movie sucks! Big time!

Casino Royale, James Bond's 21st Movie

2006-12-07T23:47:00.000+07:00

As I’ve said before in the initial post, I will be writing also about movies, and the latest movie that I think needed to be reviewed is this new Bond movie, I actually go to the cinema twice to see this movie, never happened before in history, well without further ado, this is my review...

The name’s Bond, James Bond…
This sentence is usually said by Agent 007 in the first (or maybe early) scenes of the previous James Bond Movies, but in his new movie, he said it in the very last scene.

Why? I will say that coz this new bond movie was intently made as the first in the Bond series extravaganza, in fact Casino Royale was the first book written by Ian Fleming in the series.

Well I wouldn’t go as far as comparing the book with the movie, as I was only watched the movie and actually haven’t read any of Fleming’s work.

Part 1: pre launch
The first impression when I heard a new Bond movie is in production is “will it be good?” since Sony (well the studio) said that they will dispose off Pierce Brosnan, which some has said that he is the most appropriate Bond after the Sean Connery era.

Who will be the next Bond? It turns out to be Daniel Craig, the world was eager to find out who he is, and you know what? He’s got blond hair, no Bond before Craig has that characteristic before, and also about his look, he is said to be “less dandy” compared to his predecessors, but only when the movie launched then judgments can be made.

Part 2: post launch
I didn’t go directly to the cinema to see the new Bond in action; Casino Royale was launched in Indonesia at November 15th, Thursday if I may remember, I went to the cinema for Casino Royale at November 17th or is it 18th? Whatever, it’s not that material… the impression was, great!

I love the movie, the new Bond rocks! Despite his blond hair and the less dandy look, it all comes into places when Bond comes into action; the definition from critics for Casino Royale was James Bond meet Jason Bourne (of Bourne series), so expect for action, more than before, what? The last Bond by Brosnan was quite filled with action u said? Nope, not that cheap action, this is pure adrenaline rush action, highly recommended!

Part 3: The Story [spoiler alert]
To put it simple the storyline was this, an organization is acting as a bank to terrorist, as for this bank will guarantee that withdrawal of their money can be done in all location in the world. The sum of the money was 100 million dollars (if I’m not mistaken).

By Le Chiffre, the money was laundered by putting them in secondary market and the story goes, Bond stopped Le Chiffre’s act to manipulate stock market, and he lost the terrorist market.

In order to gain 100 million dollars back into his pocket and eventually saves his neck, Le Chiffre join a gambling arena in the Casino Royale in Montenegro, which plays for 10 million each player and 5 million for buy in, with the maximum player of 10 persons, if, if that is, Le Chiffre won it all, he will gain 150 million dollars and will settle his problem with his client.

Bond, as the best card player in MI6, it is his job to stop Le Chiffre’s act by defeating him. In short, he won, and claimed 150 million from the game in Casino Royale. End? No…Next it was Vesper Lynd (2nd Bond Girl in Casino Royale), she was the accountant who is taking care of Bond’s money in the game (10 million is a lot!), Bond is in love with this girl, and is giving nothing but all for her, she was captured and taken hostage by Le Chiffre’s organization and the organization then managed to capture Bond as well, by using Lynd as bait.

When Lynd and Bond got free from captivity, the couple went on vacation, even makes Bond to think about leaving MI6. Venice was the next place this story taken, in Venice, when Lynd go and left Bond alone in Hotel Room, Bond got called in from M, whether the winning money will go to the Treasury Secretary account, Bond was stunned as he knows that Lynd is lying to him about it (the money was recently transferred to some account that Lynd knows, that turn out to be not the Treasury Secretary account).

Another action scene was taken, which resulted in Lynd’s death. This ended Bond’s love story in Casino Royale, but while the trace gone cold for the case, it turns out that Lynd has managed to send message to Bond about the organization that threatened to kill her boyfriend if she doesn’t gave them the money Bond has won in Casino Royale. As I mentioned earlier in this post, Bond managed to trace the big boss and say, “The name’s Bond, James Bond…”

Part 4: Interesting facts
Shaken not stirred: this is the first time Bond “invented” the famous shaken not stirred martini, as might as well the irony part when Bond doesn’t give a damn about how he wanted his martini is done

Aston Martin: the car that is used by Bond, Aston Martin DBS, was not a mass production car, but after this movie, Aston Martin is considering to put it in a mass production.

Q and Moneypenny: no Q and Moneypenny in this movie, as for these characters are quite a signature characters in the series.

Sony: All of the gadgets that is used by Bond and every character involved in Casino Royale is using Sony, from Sony Ericsson M600, Sony Ericsson K800i cell phones , Sony DSC-T10 to Sony VAIO notebooks.

Part 5: Judgment
This is by far the most fun Bond movie I’ve ever seen in years, the story, Daniel Craig, the director was a perfect match for a come back in a long awaited series which will have a huge comparison to their predecessors.

I give this movie a rating of five stars (*****), a perfect rate, for those who haven’t seen this movie then you must see it, if you’re not a Bond fans then this is a good start to become one.

[pictures and datas are taken from many sources]

Back to the Keyboard...

2006-12-05T06:16:00.000+07:00

This is my several attempt to publish a blog, though it's just in friendster and in Yahoo 360, and guess what? i have never put anything in it, simply nothing but this kinda speech of welcome to my blog etc.
I have never take this matter seriously, but i think it's time to take this thing seriously, as for this will make me back to the keyboard again and keep me aware of things that are around me...

The very reason why i wanted to make this blog in blogger.com is simply because, by comparing several blog hosting service, this one really look cool, where does it look cool u said? even that i can not answer, something about this is cool...
And another reason is that, i just found the most appropriate url for my blog, i wanted adhitya.blogspot.com but it was taken (of course! having such common name is sometimes a torture), then i tried this name, adhituniverse.blogspot.com and it's available, then voila, i come in to blogger.com and claim that url.

adhituniverse.blogspot.com will consist of many things, daily life that is interesting to be posted, idle chit chat between friends and i, new things that interests me, my thesis (maybe), newly stumbled website(s), movie review(s), music review(s), game review(s), anything!
This Blog will be brought to you in several languages, English, Indonesian, Javanese and even languages that you have never heard of before (just wait for that!).

In this initial post, i use english intentionally in order to capture a wider market in the blog walker community (is there any? this kinda community? well maybe just people).
I hope this idle chit chat is enough for my initial post...

feel free to post comments...