Where Life Begins and Dreams End

It is said that life began at forty, and that's what keeps me wondering. Is it because we simply old enough to enjoy life, or we just become too old to chase our dreams, surrender to accept reality, in other words, the end of idealism and the start of pragmatism? When we wake up every morning and see our family begin the day, all the routines. We talk to our spouse about the future, and finally realize that no matter how hard we tried, it will never be good enough. When our children show their energy and compassion to learn and chase their dreams, would it be the sign to make our sacrifice? Of course, it doesn't always begin at forty. Maybe, forty seconds from now, who knows?.

25 or 6 to 40

Along the way, I saw many faces come and go, sometimes it's for good. You'd always get used to it eventually. And now is the time for some countdown...(Europe song in the background). Coincidentally or not, I found some inspirations to start writing articles for my blogs this week. Some treat for my reader (not readers, I know) and my sanity. This blog is almost 13 years old, bad luck eh? I just need to look at my very first post in this blog to see how far I come in English skill writing, not much I'm afraid.

Another One Goes Up in the Air

Well, it happened again. I recently lost my cellphone again. I think it's the fifth or sixth times already. This time I lost two phone numbers since the cellphone can accept two SIM/RUIM cards. If the previous losses made me a bit panic, since it's the only cellphone I had, now I already have backups. The lost number can be retrieved easily, this time no charge billed. The other number that I usually used for data/internet connection is history, since I cannot afford to maintain multiple phone numbers now.Time to make count: in 12 years since I first use a cellphone, I already used 11 phones, six of them are lost, three of them got traded, and two are still in use. In simple statistics, I roughly change cellphone every year!

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.