1000 Days

A thousand days have passed, God knows how many miles or lightyears away the distance goes. A thousand words have been said, thousands more left unsaid. There is not one word can express how much it hurts.  No matter how well you have prepared, the moment it happened always catch you by surprise. This year, mother's day gave me a whole new meaning. An old mother dies, a new mother is born, and life goes on. Thank you, mother for the life you gave to me, the one that will not fade away with time. You may be gone, but will never be forgotten, as generations succeded for centuries ahead. Happy Mother's Day, and Happy A Thousand's Day.

Tribute

Just the other day, when I was informed that my landlord, back in Bandung has passed away. I wonder, it's been 20 years since the first time I laid my first step there. Suddenly, it's all coming back to me, seven years that I have spent. I didn't get my degree, but I gain many things, friendship, kinship, and many more experiences, a journey to maturity. Twenty years ago, I was like a fish out of water, moving from a small pond right to the ocean. Thanks to him, my adaptation was smoother. In fact I cannot thank him and his family enough for all. May God bless him and the family left behind.

All I Need Is a Miracle, All You Need Is Ca$h

Sometimes we wonder why our country (or any country) has debt, tons of it. The arguments are: we have so many natural resources, we don't need any debt, we are so rich and debt is bad. These days I realize something, that debt is sometimes unavoidable. Imagine you spent all your savings, for the last 10 years or more, for big spendings, some emergency ones. And then something comes along, you need to repair something potentially dangerous, your house or your car needs some critical fixes, right now, and costly (I mean expensive!). What are you gonna do? Just let it roll, or get some cash quickly and massively (we talk about some millions you never had). You just can afford it, for the next decade, but you know it's neeeded. And so, that's where the debt comes in. You can assure your asset will last longer, but now you must pay your debt back, for the rest of your life.

Superman, or Just a Black Hole?

Would you rather do another colleague's job that's outside your competence or do your job in quick deadline? We know that everyone has their limitation, we're only human after all. Whether it's time, health, expertize, competency, or recognition (when everyone recognize you as a technician, no one would believe you as a consultant). A project sometimes can be very stressful in case of limited time, resources, financial, and lack of cooperation from client.When you become the only people available, every single job in the project will automatically yours, whether you like it or not, whether you're competent or not. If the job is done finally, you won't get any credits whatsoever, when it fails you'll be damned. You finish every task or just suck them in. You become superman or just a black hole.

A Life So Late

Have you ever wonder, in your age now how much have you accomplished? When you look back and contemplate, write down your milestones and compare. Even better, do a chart and form a two dimensional path of your life so far. Is it mostly ups or downs? Is it on the way up or down lately? And then look to the future, what goals you wish to achieve, compare to the time you have left. Is your life looks "normal" to you, or by the established standard of living? In the end, is it goes the way you want? Why do I even ask these questions?

Information Leaks!

Well, what would you do if you accidentally send confidential e-mail to everyone. Not as fatal as in the movie American Pie, where the the lead role send a link to his webcam, showing some embarrasing encounter. Maybe the document content is not that confidential, but still the mistake of sending an e-mail should be avoidable. And now you have to live with the embarrasment, the damage is done. No excuse, I'm not Assange nor Snowden, after all.

Going Home (?)

Exactly, there's no place like home. Every year, at least once a year we usually do the ritual of "going home", at eid day. Just now, my wife asked me a question, "Where is home?" Is it the one we go everyday after work, our parents' home, or the place where we were born? Because for me, they are all refer to different places. Now that both my parents have passed away, the ritual becomes more and more irrelevant. For two years in a row, my sister and her family skips the ritual altogether. My younger brother also, but that's because he's gone abroad. This year, when the extended holidays are shorter than ever, the eid rituals are gone before I realized. Of course, we know another saying: "Home is where the heart is". So, you can call any place your home, actually. Finally, for us geek, home can be found anywhere in the computer's keyboard, usally under number 7.

Come Undone

At least I have known that nothing lasts forever. What was said yesterday can be changed today, instantly, just as the night turns into day. I always wonder if things really can only get worse, but it does. Just when you think your life was gonna turn into something, they became undone, just in the blink of an eye. I hate to admit that my bad feeling is always right, or maybe just my sanity speaking. And I always stuck in a middle, because I am not by myself now, and must be responsible for someone else. How can I make such important decisions in my life and see the plans go wrong? But again, just my sanity speaking, in an insane world.

Love Me for No Reason

When The Osmonds (or the more familiar version from Boyzone) sings: "Love me for a reason, let the reason be love", didn't they simply mention to love someone (me) for no reason? The science of love has been so sophisticated, we can analyze anything about love. The chemistry, behaviour, rules, as far as finding the perfect mate. But, of course love has got nothing to do with marriage. Some of us get married because of convenience, rationally compared to the emotional side of love. And again, some says we must differentiate love from lust, or loving from being in love. Well, does everything have to be that complicated? So, today enjoy your love for anyone, love them for no reason, let the reason be love, after all.

One Day Service: Driver's License Renewal

Nothing new I guess. But this was my first ever driver's license renewal since I got one back in 1992. Back when my first driver license expired, I already move to another town and didn't care enough to transfer (mutation) the license, so I made a new one. When the second driver's license expired, I got carried away by the loss of my PC and didn't renew it for six years! So, five years ago I made a new driver's license (again), for the third time. This time, no reason for me not to renew it, as the procedure  is simpler and the service point is broader with the mobile unit. But the most important part is, the renewal service is open on Saturday! Not like the public service like citizen ID or passport which  is only available during workdays.
Last Saturday, I went to the theater...err the mobile unit for driver's license renewal. The service is open at 08.00 - 12.00. When I got there at 09.00, the queue is fairly long. First, we handed the current driver's license and showed our citizen ID and fill up the form, which takes about 5 minutes and  IDR 2,000 and deliver it to the officer in the car. After that, of course, we must wait in line. The queue number I got was 31. It took about an hour until my name was called, and the next process is pretty straightforward. We took a picture and in a snap, the new driver's license is ready, only take a minute and IDR 115,000. Pretty impressive, I must say, given the condition that your current driver's license is not expired yet and your citizen ID is match the region (you cannot renew your driver's license outside the region/nationally).