for those of you speaking Indonesian, this personal opinion may be worth reading.. enjoy..

when there is a group of people in a community (religious? political? religio-political?) with just enough mass and authority, there seems to be a tendency for certain values and perspectives to be pushed to the community. someone with a humanity background may explain this better than i do, but in my view, the reason for this phenomenon may be the group's effort to spread good will (which is fine), prooving their own believes to the community and to themselves (which is sad), or just because the community let them.

of course anyone with faith (to God, to money, to power) will strongly defend what they believe in. however, that almost-blind faith often makes them fail to see other believes in the community. believes that they shoauld respect instead of supress and dish, especially when Bhinneka Tunggal Ika is beared by their national symbol.

oh well... just a 2-cent...

the patriarchic world we currently live in has a long history of gender discrimination and supression. nevertheless, when an allegedly rape victim, 17 year-old girl, received capital punishment in Nigeria for having premarital sex, the picture of the Liberty statue representing equality and prosperity for all seems to linger much further than the dark ages when women had no right to vote.

what happened in Nigeria and Tangerang where the new local law against prostitution managed to hold captive and publicly trialed innocent women, presented the potential terror, if i may use such strong word, of the draft of bill regarding Anti Pornography (which is already governed by the current laws) and Porno-action (which is still not an existing word, by the way). with such biased, prejudiced base and much debated exceptional cases, the implementation of this so-called law, may be far worse than the rigid and manipulative traffic rules. when the government tries to control the morality of its nation, there's bound to be some scapegoats, who may or may not be guilty.

*this entry was started yesterday. this morning, one Kompas article (out of 3 of the same kind) uses the same word, terror. amazing how it often happens. all great minds think alike, i guess..*

the religious groups may not understand how come such a noble intention is not formalized yet. however, the NGOs defending women's rights strongly object to this draft for reasons which do not include spreading devil's intentions into the world. it's not only the intention that is in question (moral? political?) but also the way the law is to be implemented. take the following comparison for example:

Policeman: Sir, you crossed that line.
Accused driver: No, I certainly did NOT. Even if I did, that's because a bus was pushing me aside. It was an accident!
Policeman: Yes, Sir, you did. And I don't care if it was an accident. Now, either you pay me or I'm gonna write you a ticket.

"Moral police": Mam, your skirt just rode up 1 centimeter, making it 1 centimeter less than the allowed measurement.
Accused "porno-actor": No, it certainly did NOT. Even if it did, I was helping my son who fell of the chair. It was an accident!
"Moral police": Yes, Mam, it did. And I don't care if it was an accident, you broke the law. Now, either you give me a kiss on the cheek or I'm gonna arrest you.

aside for the controversial draft of bill...

it's easy not to do anything.

you probably say, "yeah, like.. D'OH!"
no, really. i'm talking about a situation when the motivation and driving force just suddenly decide to take a break for reasons such as mental blockage, unfavored conditions or it just comes to a point when it feels like enough already. oftentimes, this situation is accompanied by cronic bewilderment and undecisive thoughts haunting from every corner. OK, a bit dramatic here..

people would say, "be strong, move one! PERSEVERE...!! YOSSSHHH!!"
but the thing is, coming through such situation is not as straightforward and clear as Hulk smashing everything standing in his way. it takes a whole lot more than pure brute force and strong will.

direction.
is everything really worth it?
what the hell am i doing?
who the hell bought every single Conello Mint to Be at Alfamart in a single day?!?

~i don't think i'll be going anywhere for the time being, virtually and physically
~kinda sad

for those of you keeping score at home, just a reminder; Martin Scorcesse: zero, Three Six Mafia: one.
--Jon Stewart, host

I do my own stunts...
--Jennifer Garner after she tripped on her way to the podium

the myriad of problems in this country is often referred as a multidimensional crisis. from linear algebra we learn that the equations inside a multidimensional space are not easy to comprehend, let alone solve (ah, the trauma...). in data mining, processing multidimensional data (tuples with many attributes) require special approach in algorithm tuning and, of course, a hell of a CPU and memory resources to spare. officials with intellectual capacity of a snail do not help to accelerate the progress of just about everything.

i'm fed up...

as geeky and boring as i am lately, i bought an edition of Newsweek yesterday (I also bought a bundle of Batman comic book but that's not the point). the edition main article talks about how Bloggers started some kind of revolution in China. figured it would be a nice piece to add into my Mapres presentation. it's been a while since i read some heavy weight news magazine and i was struck by the fact that i couldn't understand dozens of words in one of the articles. man, i'm getting rusty here...

anyway, about the Final Assignment i'm working on... Einstein said that the intention and purpose on doing research will, according to some quantum theory, determine the result of the research. in that case, my research will be more objective than most of others since i'm currently at lost on what to do next and what will come out of it. the mystery of researching... fun... >.<