a fortunate incident.
I have been dying from a severe lack of inspiration this one year past. Or maybe it’s just because twitter is much easier to do than paragraphs of endless rambling in a WordPress page. Blimey, get a smartphone and a lavish 12-GB data plan and you’re bound to turn into an addict which world solely turns around your mobile. I think it is healthier spending time in front of a bigger screen, read everything from LGBT pride parades around the world to the beginning of Summer solstice in the northern hemisphere while listening to Dia Frampton covering Zac Brown Band on youtube. Healthier still, to shut down every electronics devices you own (except for the aircon perhaps) and just sit down, read a book which you have failed to finish since the day you bought it with so much pride (The Last Days of Old Beijing, Michael Meyer), sipping good tea in the afternoon. But heck, I have a life you know. On my mobile.
Okay, firstly I’d like to extend my late late congratulation to a bro halfway around the world who had just officially become a geek with an advanced degree in geekiness (by that, I mean Computer Engineering). He will will someday become a designer of something that will be the brain of whatever you are using to view this post. Yes, he will.
I’m proud of you. I want a Mac, by the way.
I am crazy about this band Belle & Sebastian. I know, for you who’ve been into indies it’ll be like, where have you been dude? But it’s like any great love affairs, what started as an unprecedented encounter has developed into a sweet surprise and gratitude. And it’s been turning my room into a cozy lounge every night.
Talking about unprecedented encounter that brings sweet surprise (or serendipitous-ness if you like): you know the feeling you get after accidentally watching Almost Famous? You got this hope that there’s probably more to life than what you know now. That maybe someday, I would get a piano lesson despite my terrible rhythmic sense and can still at least pull off an old Smokey Robinson. This is what a fortunate incident should have. It brings you hope, or false hope. Or the thought that your life could change.
Not so much different with the first time meeting a girl you know at an instant you would soon fancy. It’ll bring you nothing but trouble. But we all love trouble.
Color my life with the chaos of trouble.
Cause anything is better than posh isolation.
Cheers,
Jonx
at least it’s like this solely from my point of view.
It’s not that I’m not good enough for you. It’s probably just that I’m never good enough for myself.
excerpted from some raunchy B-class comedy.
een denkbeeldige rechte lijn.
Geometri euclidean mengatakan, garis lurus adalah pemersatu terdekat dua titik yang berjauhan.
Antara diri kita yang sekarang dan diri kita yang kita cita-citakan, impikan, dan perjuangkan ada satu garis lurus khayal yang seturut pandangan kita. Garis lurus itu mungkin sepanjang lintasan horison yang senantiasa membelah lautan dan angkasa. Tapi ia lurus. Dan apa yang di ujungnya selalu tergapai oleh cahaya yang menelusup retina kita. Berbeda dengan jejak kaki kita, yang berjalan melangkah melalui simpangan, lengkungan, turunan, dan bukit. Yang jika dilihat dari bawah seperti jalan berliku yang tiada habisnya. Atau jika dilihat dari atas seperti pusaran tiada ujung yang membentuk spiral tak bertepi. Mungkin jikalau pun kita punya seribu tahun lagi, tak akan pernah kita sampai di ujung khayal itu. Kita akan mati di tengah perjalanan, seperti berjuta insan sebelum kita. Dan garis lurus itu tetaplah garis khayal yang menghubungkan antara diri kita yang kita kenal dan diri kita yang asing namun seturut hasrat jiwa.
Tapi hidup itu ada prioritas. Yang paling penting bukanlah apa yang ada di ujung garis itu, tapi apa yang kita bawa bersama kita sepanjang jalan. Karena mereka punya jiwa. Dan bukan hanya seturut mata kita. Bukan hanya seturut hasrat kita. Yang terus kita bawa. Sampai mati. Sampai setelah mati.
Cheers,
Jonx
p.s. bukan mau gaya pake bahasa belanda, tapi frasa itu dilontarkan oleh Bung Karno ketika menjelaskan sesuatu yang sangat berbeda dengan yang tertulis di sini dan saya hanya tertegun oleh maknanya.
Een denkbeeldige rechte lijn. An imaginary straight line.
Bulan sabit, Venus, dan jemuran orang.
Sudah lewat sebulan sejak pindah ke daerah Hougang nun jauh dari NTU sana. Belum ada satu pun update di halaman ini. Maklum, sekarang lagi ngga punya komputer. Ini saja sedang minjam dari flatmate. Tapi biar lagi pengangguran, kere, laptop-less, hape-less (ga punya HP juga T_T), setidaknya saya tidak homeless. Sore kemarin ini, bermodal kamera pinjaman dengan lensa kit seadanya saya turun ke bawah dan jepret sana sini buat ngasih liat lingkungan baru yang asri ini.
Ini nih, flat kita. Total kayanya ada 14 lantai, tapi karena masing2 unit terdiri dari 2 lantai jadi sebenarnya bole dianggap 7 lantai. Kita tinggal di corner unit di lantai 2, jadinya ga pernah deh pake lift gedung yang sebelah rusak sebelah lagi agak seram. Tapi kayanya uda selesai dibenerin deh.
itung berapa lantai
kalo mau ngirim kado kesini ya
Tadinya saya sebenarnya malas mau jalan-jalan sore apalagi motret-motret lingkungan kompleks. Tapi pas lagi di kamar nyobain kamera…
saya buka jendela kamar...
dan ngeliat ini.
Ngeliat sore yang cerah begini, perasaan jadi enak. Jadi deh saya jalan-jalan sore.
Jalan-jalan sore di sekitar kompleks ternyata asik juga. Sambil menghirup udara segar, meliat langit biru dan dedaunan hijau, diiringi suara senda gurau anak-anak kompleks. Gak banyak sebenarnya yang bisa dilihat dalam kompleks. Cuma ada gedung-gedung tetangga, taman sebelah rumah, lapangan bola sebelah taman, sampai tempat parkir. Tapi ke-homey-an suasananya itu loh. Tiap menarik napas rasanya beban hidup berkurang sedikit demi sedikit.
lingkungan asri dan banyak pohon
ada taman buat nongkrong
sebelahnya ada lapangan bola
Makin sore, cahaya matahari makin redup. Bulan sabit udah nongol aja awal-awal begini. Langit yang bersih membuat kita bisa ngeliat dengan jelas bulannya, meskipun kecil di langit sana.
sabit kecil di langit luas
Pas iseng-iseng nge-zoom lensanya, baru deh keliatan sabitnya lebih jelas. Ga taunya di sebelahnya ad bintang kecil nan terang. Si Bintang Kejora alias Planet Venus. Tapi kalau di poto yg ud dikecilin ini mungkin ga keliatan sih…
ada titik kecil di kanan sang sabit
Begitulah suansana satu sore di Hougang ave 7. Bulan sabit kecil di langit yang bersih ditemani bintang kejora yang nyaris tidak kelihatan. Tidak terlalu istimewa. Mau dipotret malah keliatan jemuran celana jeans orang lain di apartemen sebelah. hehehe… Tapi ya seperti itulah kehidupan di sini. Dilihat dari jauh kecil saja, tidak istimewa. Yang ada cuma peristiwa keseharian biasa seperti menjemur pakaian. Kalau emang anda seperti saya yang suka sok melodramatis, mungkin di sanalah letak keindahan dari kehidupan.
Dan begitulah waktu berlalu di lingkungan baru. Dari sore yang terang hingga petang yang menjelang.
Semoga lain kali bisa menangkap lebih banyak lagi gambar kehidupan dengan lebih ciamik.
Cheers,
Jonx
quotations.
Ernest Hemingway would get up in the morning and wrote about four to six hundred words and that would be it. And he would start drinking gin.
That was quoted from David Letterman when he interviewed Lost’s Evangeline Lilly about her aptitude to write fiction. The point is that the process of writing is hard, and even the ones good at it often find it to be ‘the demon’. So that’s why it sometimes took me long to update this page.
Kate on Dave
Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.
I was thinking about this line while listening to Me and Bobby McGee the other day. Let me tell you why it is so true. I just finished last exam as an undergraduate student, finished the final project report and after I got out of final presentation room that day, I thought, ‘this is it’. Assuming nothing will go wrong in the next week, I am thus officially free. I won’t lose the joy and hardship of undergrad life anymore. I already lost it.
Graduation Class 2010 with President of ICN 2008
Life is waiting.
I had nothing to do at our new apartment in Hougang district that day so I watched The Terminal for like, the third time. Not that it’s very good but I felt good watching it. The story is about a man getting stuck in a New York airport with no country, no money, no nothing. He’s simply unacceptable. This surely reflects ans an allegory to our lives at one point or another. I’d say, for my peeps waiting for something to turn out in their lives as I am doing right now, may it be a job, exam results, graduate studies admission or whatever, be patient.
Tom Hanks in another version of "Cast Away"
For you, a thousand times over.
Right before I re-watched The Terminal, I watched Kite Runner (I so got nothing to do, huh?). That reminds me of the novel I finished reading 2 years ago. Since then, how many books have I read? Not much I guess. I got a pile of books bought and waiting to be read, but tonnes of excuses of time spending for other purposes. So as we should listen more than we speak, I think we should really read more than we write. So I would continue on finishing Obama’s Dreams from my Father and write some four to six hundred words again tomorrow. And that would be it.
Even kite doesn't wanna be alone
Cheers,
Jonx
7 Days in China: Day 2.
Previously in ’7 Days’… The first day was a great trip around Kunming: from the airport to the pigeon lake, from the tea center to the steamboat restaurant. This is the second day, finally. (I’ve been busy peeps, pardon me)
12 January 2010
07.00AM We have early breakfast at the hotel. A combination of american breakfast menu mixed with the local taste. There’s a group of basketball athletes, seemingly college students, whom are ridiculously tall. Imagine a team of Yao Mings. :-O
you see the tall kids queueing for buffet?
08.00AM Today we’re going to Yiliang region on a trip that takes roughly two hours. Along the way we see knolls with various trees scarcely grown. Fun trivia: the Yunnan province has red soil, hence the poor growing of vegetation.
On the highway, see the geography of Yunnan
The Underground Caverns.
10.00AM We arrive at Jiuxiang Karst Cave. For those who want to know, Karst is a topography characterized by subterranean limestone caverns. It is carved by groundwater and the key to its formation is dissolution of earth rocks which resulted in dolines or sinkholes. In english, we're going to see underground cave!!! woo hooo!!!
Before entering the gate we find a public toilet with a signboard written “FEE TOILET” (Toilet Berbayar?) It’s not expensive, apparently, only 1 CNY per person with a pack of free tissue. And more importantly it is cleaner than most other public toilets in this country.
Me and the Fee Toilet Signboard
Then we enter the Jiuxiang Karst Cave. We are brought to see a wonderful cavern of natural earth rocks of various sizes and shapes. The cave is showered with spotlights of many colors, giving it a nice feeling and texture to the rocks. I bet a night club themed underground cave would be a nice idea.
these are the sinkholes I’m talking about
layered underground rocks showered with spotlights
the stalactites and stalagmites of limestone
Crossing the cavern, we come to hundreds of staircase to climb up and down. Along the way is a scenery of waterfall and more rocks, layered rocks. We get to see the “Magic Field”, a huge pile of layered rocks forming a giant staircase like the one we called terasering back in Indonesia.
it does look so ancient, the cavern, the waterfall, the rocks
Spending almost an hour inside the cave, we get out and take the cable car to a restaurant where we’re gonna have lunch of special Yiliang Roasted Duck.
a view from the cable car, who’s afraid of height shall not try
The Peacock Garden.
1.15PM The journey is continued to the Colorful Yunnan Complex to see the Peacock Garden. Another one and half hour on the road, getting on the highway now with stomach full.
Fun trivia: in China, cars drive on the right side of the road
02.30PM We arrive at the Peacock Garden. There, we can see… garden? And a few peacocks despite the name.
here’s the garden, can’t get my hand to some nice peacock photos though
We then continue to grab some merchandise from the Colorful Yunnan Complex. They have several separate buildings that sell food, jewelery, chinese medicine, tea, and so on.
paintings, anyone? originality guaranteed.
they have lots of dried food as snacks
The Jixinyuan.
To close the day, we’re going to Jixinyuan Restaurant for a dinner accompanied with traditional Yunnan dances.
05.30PM We arrive at the restaurat. The ballroom catches my attention instantly. It is beautifully decorated with classic ornaments.
the great ballroom and the royal-like dining table
The food provided is arranged very nicely, matching the great ambience and heighten my appetite. They serve in total 8 kinds of foods tonight, good enough for starving people after a day of journey.
happy faces, good food, great place
Finally, the dances are performed with the dancers in beautiful costumes and amazing choreography. Too bad we are sitting not exactly in the middle of the ballroom so it’s a bit difficult for me to get beautiful pictures. There are four sets of the dances. The record the acts and sell it in a DVD at 28 yuan a piece.
The four sets of dances!!!
and finally, the grandeur closing to the night!
and don’t forget to take pics with the pretty dancer
8.30PM So it’s the end of the day. I had great time, ate good food, saw great places, watched fascinating shows, and took some nice photos. Let’s see what we’re going to have tomorrow!
Cheers,
Elvinto
p.s. All photos in this post is the courtesy of Frederikus Elvinto Putra. Any act of copying without the party’s written or oral agreement is considered a copyright infringement.
Before dawn.
Okay peeps, I haven’t finished the second day journal yet. Partly studying, partly writing and partly hanging out with peeps. I thought I should utilize these last days as an undergrad as much as possible. But not to overkill it.
So there goes one saying, the night is darkest before dawn. Well, at 3 AM even the frogs don’t make a sound. TV usually have nothing but old movies playing with commercial break of the station promoting its own prime time shows. Even the drunkards must have fallen asleep. Only the night clubs are playing the loudest music to counter the silence. But they, as well, close around 4 and only on weekends. To make things creepier, there’s only scratching of head or pen on the paper from you guys, the stressed-out students trying in desperate attempt of last minute studying to save your exams as the result of your one semester of ignorance or laze.
Of course there’s a cliche philosophical meaning behind it. But the phrase just occurred to me suddenly and I don’t wanna over-think it. Especially when I need to wake up early in the morning and I have a list of things to do today from studying, writing, and preparing a nice CV.
Cheers,
Jonx
Oh no, I still have laundry to pick up… Or should I leave it till morning? It’s inside the dryer anyway, so it won’t stink. Ah, I should just get my ass up and get it over with. Geezzz…
Cheers again,
Jonx
Before dusk.
Been a long long time.
Just submitted a final draft of the final project yesterday. Just got a nice huge flat a few days ago. Two down, two more to go. A suitable job and the final presentation. Wish me luck.
I’ll return with a continuation of our previous travel journal. Soon. Maybe tonight.
Cheers,
Jonx
7 Days in China: Kunming Day 1.
This entry and the next few entries will be about a 7-Days tour to China, particularly Kunming- Dali – Lijiang. I post this as a favor to my friend, Frederikus Elvinto, who himself wrote the journal of the tour with his family and especially took the beautiful photographs you will see along the posts. As a note, I do the translation and editing of the journal (many changes, addition, and some subtraction :p). I hope you will enjoy these entries. 
Jakarta, 10 January 2010
10.20 PM Jakarta time (+7 GMT) We were in the Soekarno-Hatta international airport, boarding for a flight to Changi Airport with ValuAir. We took a tour package from an agency in Singapore. I’ll tell you why. It is way cheaper than taking a package from some local tour agents in Jakarta. This is true especially for China tour, as it is more uncommon in Indonesia. For a family of three, you can save up to 50% of the total cost. Quite a deal right? For the flight to Singapore, with advance booking months before we could get return ticket at only USD 100 per person. Adding in the fact that we were not going during high season, the total saving could be up to SGD 2000 per person! (why did I sound like advertising this)
That night, we sat on the rear of the plane cause I forgot to do seat blocking while doing the online reservation. The weather was rough, with thunder and turbulence along the flight. A shaky ride to Singapore indeed.
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Singapore, 11 January 2010
01.00 AM Singapore Time (+8 GMT) Arrived in Changi Airport, Singapore. After passing immigration and taking our baggages we met my friend, Andrew. He was the one helping us with the tour booking via CTC travel. While it is cheaper to book a tour package in Singapore, they don’t normally accept online reservation unlike airlines. So you will need to have your friend do a booking for you directly. Afterwards, we checked in to China Eastern Airlines in Terminal 3 of the airport. We were greeted with a little bad news that our flight was delayed for one hour.
Getting hungry in Changi in the middle of the night, the perfect choice is the food court located at B2. Mini Steamboat rice was a stomach fulfilling menu. Mom ordered a set of kaya toast in the food court, which was disappointing in taste. Not long afterwards, we realized they did have Ya Kun Kaya Toast in the terminal.
Having filled our stomach, we hurried to departure gate A11. On the way dad bought a travel package perfume. Apparently the had not opened the gate yet. So while we were waiting, I took Mom & Dad romantic photos, a la pre-wedding (or should I call it “post-wedding”). Being in Changi in the middle of the night was actually not bad at all. It’s as if we were in our own airport. The quiet night in the airport made my photos look more interesting.
post-wedding: together thru the night @Changi
05.00AM Our plane left Singapore to China. Maybe it’s because cheap tickets from tour agent, we got seat on the rear again. I have expected it to be a long and painful flight. Four and a half hours of flight in such small aircraft (3 seats left, 3 seats right and an aisle, standard Boeing 737 plane you usually find in Indonesia domestic flights). But I was so tired I just fell sound asleep immediately. About one hour later a stewardess woke me up to offer me fried noodle or egg for breakfast. I chose egg, which was served with sausages, mushroom, broccoli, and croissant. I didn’t touch the yogurt dessert they serve ‘thanks to’ my digestion problem 
It’s not Pontianak- Jakarta flight via Lion Air but it’s also small
Kunming, 11 January 2010
07.30AM Kunming Time (+8 GMT) No we were not there yet. It was my stomach, demanding for proper restroom and a nice morning ‘exercise. I wanted to wait until we arrived at Kunming airport, but the steward said we would only arrive in an hour time. There’s no way I can hold it that long! So I made up my mind to take my first ‘exercise’ up in the air. Okay, I only think it’s worth mentioning because it’s a first time thingy XD
08.30AM now we really arrive at Kunming airport. Immigration was tight in Kunming, they even told Mom to take off her glasses to see her face more clearly. I went to the restroom then and was surprised by how dirty, smelly, and unattended it was! This is an international airport in the capital of a province. How bad could it be? How far worse are public restrooms in more remote places in this country. I could only imagine.
the international airport but don’t ask me for the restroom photos!
Kunming at the first sight.
The tour participants including us were gathered together by a local guide called Xiao Bai. We took a walk to the bus provided and I got my first sight of Kunming. The city is located on a highland at the altitude of 1800 m above sea level. It was a sunny day that day but the weather was cold and dry.
a crossroad in the city
We went to Danguan Park next. A beautiful park surrounding a lake (kinda like Chinese Garden in Singapore). The clear morning sky was reflected on the murky water of the lake. The surface glistened not so brightly covered partly with shadow of the water plant in the middle of the lake that still smelled like the dawn. Morning photos in Danguan Park can be eye-catching.
morning in Danguan
From the front gate to the dock beside the lake, it did feel lot like China (of course, d’oh!).
gate to the park, classic!
the dock beside the lake where I usually played my flute or practiced my kung fu 700 years ago.
And by the way, the Danguan Park is inhabited by a lot of pigeons. They are white pigeons migrated from Siberia on the far north. You can see a flock of pigeons hovering over the lake as you stroll on the bridge across it.
I call it, the Pigeon Lake
Here’s what it looks like in close up. I named her Siau Liong Lie after Yoko’s aunt (ga ada hubungan :p)
This uncle is practicing zen early morn with the birds
Meanwhile I’m practicing my photography
Getting healthy in Kunming: Lu Yu Tea Center.
10.30AM we continued our journey to Lu Yu Tea Center. They gave us a lecture on the benefits of consuming tea and how to differentiate expensive 9-years old tea to normal 1-year old tea (I wonder whether the tea becomes alcoholic cause I’ll be then interested – alright this one is added by Jonx). It might seem interesting in the beginning but of course at the end what hey really want is to sell their products. Seems like it’s already part of normal practice in tours around the world to bring their participants to their sponsoring companies. Dad offered to buy one packet for 400 CNY (almost IDR 600K) with buy one get one free option. But the best they could offer was only a bonus of one small packet of tea. As the result, none of 14 tour participants buy anything there. Never mind, we can also get healthy consuming Sari Wangi back in Indonesia (why did I sound like advertising again).
tea ladies preparing sample tea for us
if it’s Gong Li preparing tea, the camera focus shall not be the teapot!
Lunch, the inn, the dinner, and the end of the day.
12.00PM We had lunch at a place behind the Yunnan Grand Theater. Fourteen tour participants were divided into two big tables. After lunch we went back to the bus going for the inn to end today’s tour. One thing interesting when we were walking back to the bus: some people were selling souvenirs and there is a beggar missing one arm asking for money. But nobody gave him anything and he stood in front of our bus grumbling. It was then said that if somebody gave the beggar money, soon you’ll find another ten to twenty beggars come and ask for money too. It was a harsh reality in China whose people is almost four times as much as in Indonesia and in which the gap between rich and poor is sometimes bigger than in my country.
Some scenery near the theater
The place we’ll be spending the night in is called La Nice Inn (are u sure? why it sounds so French?). A beautiful small hotel. And yes, the name is La Nice, here’s some proof.
Mom prefers posing in front of the LN logo, instead of LV
Some time around 03.00PM After few hours of nap we decided to take a walk around and search for some bites. We saw a group of Korean teenagers in soccer uniform after pratice (don’t ask me how do I know they’re Koreans, I can tell Song Hye-gyo from Zhang Ziyi but of course for them it’s the language). We saw two huge buildings which appeared to be Sport Center (which I forgot to take the photos). Then we strolled to some kind of electronic center plaza. We found a store that sells cellphones but strangely they did not sell SIM card. Some stores that sell SIM card are quite far from the inn. So I have to stay not contactable for one more day.
Some time around… dinner time. We were looking for a nice steamboat dinner and we decided to have it in Shi Shang Yu Du Restaurant. We had steamboat of Chi fish (it looked like catfish but it’s not) with additional vegetables, mushrooms, and tofu. Good food 
The steamboat place Shi Shang Yu Du, when I eat I don’t take pics 
So after dinner, I just found out that any stores selling SIM card closed at 7 and only open at 9 the next day. But we have to depart early at 8 tomorrow morning for our next tour. So I decided not to get a SIM card first but go back to the inn, have a good rest and enjoy the holiday. And that’s the end of our first day!
Cheers,
Elvinto
p.s. wait for the next chapter with more interesting photos, which will be posted depending on Jonx’s mood and how busy he is. He is very busy right now. LOL :p
