Saturday, November 26, 2011

A Million Rupiahs Fish

For real. Earlier this week, I got a phone call from an old friend offering me a job. Being a helpless, dropped-out-once-again-from-college, and completely broke, the most undesirable bachelor as myself, how can I say no? So I packed my bags and went back to Jakarta, back to old habits. My first weekend gave me a big surprise when I (and my sister's family) realized that we just ate the most spectacular dish on our lunch. It was a fish, cooked half in sweet and sour sauce, and half steamed, quite delicious actually. But the unforgettable factor was the price. The fish was valued by its weight, I don't know the rate, but the total price is about one million rupiahs, yes you read it correctly. And now the meal sticks in my stomach like a stamp. Fishes never taste the same since.

Monday, November 21, 2011

My Brother's Engaged

After my older brother tied the knot, now my younger one got engaged. Last weekend, I have to go on a road trip from Semarang to Malang as "cargo" service carrying all the stuff for the occasion. Accompanied by two drivers, the trip takes about 10 hours with all the breaks, either deliberate (toilet, eat) or not (traffic jam). While the two drivers can take shift, I forced myself to stay awake during the whole trip. Wondering what my eyes look like now, inside I'm feeling like a zombie. Eventually, some eyes keep looking at me as some kind of pariah, single, broke, and jobless. A waste of society if you may say. Then, they start talking to my mother, brothers, and sister right behind my back (literally). They just can't stop it, don't they?. I don't have to be reminded about all the things they said, I've been there before, just all of my life actually.

Tuesday, November 01, 2011

That's It, Folks

I'm outta here. They finally expel me. After two years of torturing each other, they finally made up their mind about us. The reason is that our time is up... last year (apparently). The thing is, we never know for sure how much time we got. Hey, my brother finished his master degree longer than me, of course he paid the tuition himself. Well, no use to regret it now. I guess I have accomplished my goal when I saw my name near the top of that list three years ago. The rest of the dream has vanished when they announced that we would not getting that multiple autographs on the diploma. Funny how luck can change in the matter of months. I got my holiday abroad and now I wonder if I have to pay it back now. Time to flee...

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

The Comeback of My 5050

Of course I'm referring to my laptop, Acer Aspire 5050, which has accompanied me for the past four years. Last month, it died suddenly and wouldn't power up. After I checked it at the local repair store, it turned out to be a motherboard short-circuit. The repair went a little longer because of the computer expo that made the repair store closed for 5 days. Luckily, the laptop is now full operational, but one feature is gone: the touchpad. It seemed that the damage has forced a trade-off between the touchpad and the rest of the system. Well, that's not even a choice to make. I got myself busy installing new hard drive and configuring triple boot operating system and now the 5050 is back in business!

Friday, August 19, 2011

Living in a Hospital

That's where I was for the past three weeks. My mother got tumor and have to go under the knife. As the only "idle" and "available" child, I must step up to stay with her in the hospital. Just two years ago I lost my father, I just cannot afford to lose my mother this time. The visitors were flowing like water, feels like eid.All the way into the first week of Ramadan (fasting), and my defense went down. I got the flu. Well, at least the crisis has passed.

Thursday, July 07, 2011

Over My Shoulder (Looking Back)

Going to a reunion has never been a pleasure for me. I missed two past high school reunions on purpose. In this  age, with no job, no family, no...thing to be proud of, I find it hard to tell stories to my old friends. Luckily, I've known to be the silent one in school, if not the mute. So, against all expectation, I got to this reunion last week. Well, it turned out to be decent, not as disastrous as I imagine. Many times I just sat there, accompanied with my old friends, playing catch-up from the last time. And all I did was just listening to their chatter, and to tell them as little as I want, at least I've nothing to hide. It's good to hang out again with them, to remember the good old days (well, looking back now, the old days must be that good!). I just realized two things: my life may be not that miserable (comparing to them, but again, different standards apply) and how far I have walked away from that days when we were together. Twenty years, how can you imagine that?

Thursday, June 02, 2011

Stuck in a Moment (and You Can't Get Out of It)

Well, imagine you're in a bus on the way home, no air conditioning (economy class), fairly occupied (nearly full), still halfway in the afternoon, and got traffic jam? Yes, it happened when some road repair project doing their thing in this crowded Friday afternoon, on a two-way, up and down interstate road. It took a full hour to get out of the jam with so much sweat and swear words from the bus passengers. What a way to spend a birthday! The next trip home, we faced a simultaneous impact (we called it "karambol") between a container truck, two Avanzas, one Panther, and a public transport, and also two big mahoni trees. It just took a while to drag the damned truck out of the street.

Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Disjointed Programme?

Well, it's not the best kept secret anymore, apparently. Our compatriot from Bandung has been concerned about the inconsistency of their Jogjakarta counterpart, especially about the curriculum. And now, the question is: should the joint programme, currently in the fourth batch, be dismissed? After all, this program is already disjointed since the first batch, no continuation abroad, no synchronization between colleges, confusing curriculum, unbalanced theses, and finally undistinguished diploma from the comparable regular program. In short, the joint programme is disjointed and doomed from the beginning, when the entire first batch could not make it to Germany as students. And three batches later, nothing has changed, nor improved from the initial situations. Well, at least we could make it through, safe and sound (well, most of us did).

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Across the Bridge

Well, the London bridge is not falling down, Pabelan bridge is, at least half of it. For a while, the traffic from Jogjakarta to Magelang, especially for big vehicle, must take another route. In that time, as a bus commuter we must stop before the bridge, walk across the surviving half of the bridge, and take another bus on the other side, and vice versa. Merapi eruption is over, but the materials of sand and rocks are still up there, ready to go down in fashion, a cold lava flood. Yet we never know where else they would go, or what else is gonna be destroyed.

Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Right Before Your Eyes

Yesterday, as me and my brother drove in our car out of town, we saw a car suddenly made u-turn and crashed into a truck coming from the opposite direction. I'd never forget the sound, as we were stunned, speechless, and finally ran away from the scene. Well, my brother needed to make it to his office on time, and there's nothing we can do. The car was wrecked, and don't ask me about the driver, judging from the shape of the car's bonnet, God only knows. All along the way to our destination we can't stop talking about it. We sometimes saw accidents along the way, even got into one ourselves, but never witnessed it, on that close range. And yet, I still can't find a single news about it online, wonder if I should check the nearest news stand.

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

The Deadliest Deadline?

After 3 full months of waiting in vain, finally there's some update on our status. Confusingly, we were told to get a special letter called "The Accelerated Supervision" for our theses supervisors to remind that we have reached our deadline (officially dead? again?). It's kind of shocking but in this program, nothing can ever surprise us in any way anymore.So, I come to get the letter this morning. Along the way, I asked what exactly happened since the last deadline notice (last October). The answer is: we were set to bypass the whole theses procedure directly to the final theses examination, but the proposal was postponed in every meeting held since then, before finally rejected. And so, we were thrown back to our last situation, after throwing back 3 full months without consulting our supervisors, to follow the same procedures all over again. It's not surprising, yet still irritating and undeserving. Guess I'm still gonna hang on for a little while now.