watermelons

watermelons for sale at alfa, solo baru


look at the colors.. nature never fails to amaze me

wspa

The animals trapped, lost and abandoned in the wake of Hurricane Katrina need help. The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) is asking for donations to their Disaster Relief Fund to respond to what appears to be one of the largest animal rescue operations ever undertaken in the United States.

movie of the year

the title was so bizarre, I just had to post it =)

go green!

W again! 23-20 vs oakland =)

Captain Tsubasa

Captain Tsubasa versi Jepang


Captain Tsubasa versi Indonesia

hello

milo is always so insanely happy, he drives me crazy sometimes =)

Sea World II

there's this site, Kapal Selam Diving Club Bali, which has really beautiful pictures taken during underwater dives.

this is one of the pictures: a pair of harlequin shrimp! how cute is that? Ian, ntar kalau diving, foto-foto ya!

kiwi

kiwis are beautiful.. i love the contrast between green, black and white..

wise words from abe

When I do good, I feel good.
When I do bad, I feel bad.
And that is my religion.

– Abraham Lincoln

iklan rcti

eh.. btw.. jangan-jangan iklan RCTI yang ada orang-orang lagi pesta kebun itu lokasinya di gedung arsip nasional ya?

Gedung Arsip Nasional - Jakarta

more ground-breaking news & breath-taking pictures from our favorite reporter of all time, Ian!

----

sabtu tanggal 17 September kemaren,
aku diundang temen SMA yang nikah di Jakarta.
Tempatnya di Gedung Arsip Nasional, Jalan Gajah Mada, Jakarta Pusat.
Gedungnya bagus banget, kuno n artistik...

Aku udah feeling, si yuli tuh kan kuliah di arsitektur unpar,
trus anaknya kreatif banget, cita rasa seninya tinggi banget....
jadi aku dari rumah emang prepare kamera, karena pasti party-nya asyik,
ternyata bener....begitu masuk halaman aja, gedungnya indah banget,
aku baru tau kalo ada gedung yang namanya Gedung Arsip Nasional di Jakarta, hahaha...

Ciri khas gedung2 jaman dulu gitu sih...gaya arsitektur Belanda,
yang judulnya fasade itu, tampak depan bangunannya...
trus yang judulnya interior, tampak dalam bangunan...
jadi kalo diliat dari atas, bentuknya sih bujursangkar gitu, dan di tengahnya tuh taman...

pestanya di taman itu...siangnya sempat ujan deres, untung pas pesta ga ujan...
kalo ujan, bisa bubar deh tuh pesta, hehehehe...
karena di tamannya ditumbuhin rumput, dan siangnya sempat basah,
jadi sepatu dan celana ato rok panjang jadi kotor kena lumpur deh...
but that's fine...it was a great party indeed......

----> thanks Ian.. keren banget gedungnya & foto2nya =)

Katedral - Jakarta

more pics from Ian =)

----

ini foto2 katedral yang kujanjikan,
ga terlalu banyak cerita sih,
tepatnya, agak susah mau ambil gambar...

kalo dari dekat, ga bisa terambil gambar full,
tapi kalo jauh udh ketutupan pohon2,
jadi gambar2 ini gambar terbaik yang bisa di-shoot oleh fotografer amatiran sepertiku, hehehehe...

Oya, sedikit cerita lagi,
gereja katedral jakarta dibuat oleh arsitek Belanda,
waktu pembuatan tahun 1898-1901...

Pas tahun 2001 kemaren ada peringatan 100 tahun Katedral Jakarta,
ada lomba foto gitu, trus ada bukunya juga,
aku pengen beli sih..tapi belum tau harus beli di mana, hehehe....

----> thank u again ian! fotonya bagus2, especially the silhouette of the cathedral, very cool =)


nambah foto gereja satu lagi.. tahun lalu pas ke weddingnya Tata, sebelum balik ke Indo sempet ikut misa Minggu di Cathderal Basilica of St Peter & St Paul di Philadelphia.. pas lagi mau komuni, ngambil foto ini.. =)

good day

1. the eagles rrrock! 42-3 SF !
2. it finally rained this afternoon!

hell hath no fury like a woman scorned

some awesome pictures from Dhian.. this is Katrina approaching New Orleans.. so beautiful but so scary at the same time..

breaking news from jakarta

beepity beep beep beepity beep.. Jakarta news flash from Dhian.. =)

"Kamis, 8 September 2005, sekitar jam 10 pagi, ada truk pengangkut cat berkaleng2 (kayaknya ukuran 5 liter-an deh) yang terguling di jalan tol depan kantorku (Jl. Gatot Subroto, Jakarta Selatan). Awalnya sih yg tumpah cuma dikit, trus banyak kaleng2 bergulingan, dan truk kecilnya masih dalam posisi tidur melintang nutupin arus lalu lintas. Mobil derek ga kuat narik, untungnya ada truk gedhe yg berada pas di belakang truk yang terbalik, akhirnya dibantuin deh berdiriin, tapi jadi miring...



As soon as truk itu bisa berdiri lagi dan dipinggirkan, wah...mobil2 yang macet nungguin langsung tancap gas (sebenernya ga tancap gas sih, mereka hrs jalan pelan2, karena pasti jalanan lengket kena cat :))...). Walhasil, tadi genangan cat yg tumpah serasa ketemu kuas deh, jalanan jadi rata ama warna putih, hehehehe...

Gimana ya cara ngilangin noda cat segitu gedhe? Perlu thinner seberapa ya?hihihii....."

another old picture..

lagi pengen nostalgia.. this is also old - obviously not as old as the previous picture... left to right: eliza from spain, gift from thailand, james from taiwan, me.. we all took several finance classes together..

eliza had just graduated & we were taking our last 'farewell pictures' before she went back to europe.. she moved to london with her husband.. i've lost contact with her.. eliza was so nice.. i wonder how she's doing now.. i've lost contact with james too.. hope they're both doing well..

it's a shame how some people disappear from your lives.. you don't want it to happen, but it just does..

fortunately though, some friends stick around for a long, long time.. =)

in memory of different times..

it doesn't feel like 4 years have already passed since 9/11.. but at the same time, our world has changed so much since then..
left to right : my sister, my grandpa, me, my dad

Moon III

this was taken yesterday (12 sep, 8:53 PM) using Av F 5.0.. zoom 11x.. almost the same results as Tv 1/125, but the moon always looks yellow when I use Av..


this was taken tonight at 7:07 PM.. Tv 1/125 again.. zoom 11x too, but I changed the picture size setting from S to L.. you can see 'the man on the moon'! =)

the orientation of the moon & the shadows really depend on what time you take the picture..

why? why not?

I was buying gas for my car today when the pump-attendant-guy (?, hehe) asked me - out of the blue - "Senyum terus kenapa toh?" (How come you're always smiling?)

His question took me by surprise, I really didn't know what to say, so I answered: "Abis gimana lagi?" (What else am I supposed to do?)

it's funny.. in a lot of cities.. people find it a little strange/unusual when you smile/look happy most of the time.. but they think it's normal if you don't smile/look serious most of the time..

shouldn't it be the other way around?

no one's life is perfect.. mine isn't.. and i don't smile all the time of course.. but when we wake up every morning, we each have a choice.. =)

Geek Talk

I found out that Tv 1/125 means shutter priority, with a shutter speed of 1/125 sec. Av F 5.0 means aperture priority, with a f-stop of 5.0.

Vincent Bockaert says :

In "Shutter Priority" mode, you can select the shutterspeed over the available range and have the camera calculate the best aperture to expose the image correctly. Shutter speed priority is often used to create special effects such as blurred water on a river/waterfall or to freeze action in action scenes as illustrated in the shutterspeed topic of this glossary.

In "Aperture Priority" mode, the camera allows you to select the aperture over the available range and have the camera calculate the best shutter speed to expose the image correctly. This is important if you want to control depth of field or for special effects. Note that because of their high focal length multiplier, a shallow depth of field is often very hard to achieve with digital compact cameras, even at the largest aperture.

----> I kind of get it, but not really.. =)

Moon II

Solo, 8:55 PM

tried out all the settings on my camera till I got the best result - this was taken using the Tv setting (1/125) - not sure what that means yet, hehe - a little blurry, but you can actually see the surface of the moon =)

there's another picture I took using Av F 5.0.. it was ok too.. i'll post it soon.. =)

motorola vs sony

this picture was taken using a Motorola Black Razr V3 phone..


this picture was taken using a Sony Ericsson K700i..

better than kue soes merdeka ^_^

lagi seneng makan beard papa's cream puffs, yg rasa vanilla.. kalau ada yang datang ke solo dari jakarta, titip ya... =)

Rock Sugar

alfa solo baru: white rock sugar chunks look like chunks of snow/ice.. they look so quaint & old-fashioned.. next to brown palm sugar discs - which look like giant-size coco crunch cereal flakes =)

Amanjiwo

.. in Jakarta I told Jasmine about Amanjiwo.. it's a really cool boutique hotel located near Borobudur.. you can actually see Borobudur from the hotel..

I took this picture from my hotel room's garden terrace.. zoomed as close as i could to the temple..


the main pool.. you can see Borobudur in the background..


the plunge pool in my parent's room (room 30).. we stayed in two rooms.. my mom & dad in one room, risa & me in an adjacent room (room 29)..


the view from inside my room.. no pool..


view of the room from the terrace.. the whole room/villa is made out of stone..


me eating breakfast.. yummy!! nasi goreng.. banana & ricotta pancakes with honeycomb butter.. chicken porridge.. milk chocolate.. banana shake.. and free bottled water..


this is room 29 again.. you can see the open wooden door connecting room 29 with room 30 in the background.. almost all rooms have connecting doors like that.. this is where things get creepy... =)

***

i woke up early on Sunday.. risa was still asleep.. so i decided to go to the next room (30), to see if my parents were awake.. i went through the connecting door.. but all of the glass doors were closed & the curtains were drawn.. they were still asleep..

then i noticed that the connecting door from room 30 to room 31 was open.. it wasn't open the previous day/night.. there are two wooden planks that lock each connecting door, one on each side of the door.. so for the door between room 30 & 31 to be open, it meant that someone opened the wooden planks from both room 30 and 31..

i wanted to see what the terrace of room 31 looked like, hehe.. so i went to the door & peeked inside..

when i did, i was shocked.. it was like room 29, but it was a mess.. there were dead leaves all over the ground, it looked like it hadn't been swept or cleaned in a very long time.. all the chairs under the hut, instead of facing outwards, towards the scenery, they were all facing inwards, towards the room.. the 2 lounge/sunbathing chairs were also backwards & facing the room too..

all the glass doors were closed, but i could see there weren't any curtains.. i was thinking of going to see what the inside of the room looked like, but then i remembered that curiosity killed the cat, hehe..

so i freaked out, closed the connecting door, closed the plank, and ran to room 29, and waited for everyone to wake up.. i didn't tell anyone about what i saw till we left, didn't want to freak anyone else out, but i did ask the front desk, why the door to room 31 was open.. they came up with a lame excuse, 'maybe the cleaning service, when they were cleaning the rooms, they opened the door to get from one room to the next'.. bull.. room 31 hadn't been touched for a long time.. anyways..

**

one of my cousins stayed in Amanjiwo with his wife & kids after my stay.. i told him about what i saw.. his wife called a masseuse while they were there.. an old lady.. they told her my story & asked her what she thought..

she said that some strange things did happen there.. no one is ever allowed to use room 31, even if the hotel is fully booked.. there are 3 other rooms that aren't allowed to be used either..

she said that front desk sometimes gets calls from room 31.. always a woman's voice.. asking for coffee.. when that happens, they put a pot of coffee in front of the room.. when they take the pot later, it's empty..

she also said that some employees can 'see' strange 'people'.. in the lobby, there's supposed to be a large man.. there are rose petals that they put in a pond in the lobby every day.. they look pretty, but they aren't really there for the guests, they're offerings for the man..

she said that borobudur is an ancient place.. the location where Amanjiwo's built, used to be a sacred forest.. so that's why there are some unexplainable events.. nothing bad, just unexplainable..

----> true or false? i don't know.. no one else saw or felt anything.. and all i saw was a dirty room.. but the stories do make things more interesting, don't they? i still want to go to amanjiwo again though, it really is a beautiful place to visit..

Creative Writing from Indonesia

haha.. jadi inget email lain dari Dhian.. I just have to post this too..

(jauhi narkoba = stay away from drugs)

i love our government =)