+alveta rorio+

the Face of the Town

ndin — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 19:31:14 +0200

it's a queer world out there...

last weekend me and my.. fiance, went to the 1000 Photographs exhibition at Museum Bank Mandiri. The place is a huge, very old bank building at the end of Busway line (1st corridor). Anyway, the building is kinda cool, the garden pretty, and the exhibition is fantastic, mesmerizing, etc, etc.. provided you could stand the non-AC environment.

the day's highlight was, however, not located at the building, but about a kilo south and 4 busway stations back. since the museum has a pathetic parking space, we parked at the Gajah Mada Plaza and took the glorious Transjakarta there. at the pedestrian crossing bridge, we walked pass a lady beggar, sitting there wearing the weary face, dirty old daster and had "have not bathed in 5 years" written all over her, just like any other beggars, right?

oh, no.. not this fella here.. because she's different. she's the first of her kind that caught my eye. she's smoking.

the first thing that crossed my mind was, "Lady, you seriously hope that people will sympathize and give you money for you to smoke away?"

about two hours and 1000 photographs later and she's still chain smoking her life and sanity away, all i could think of was, "LADY, YOU SERIOUSLY HOPE THAT PEOPLE WILL SYMPATHIZE AND GIVE YOU MONEY FOR YOU TO SMOKE AWAY?!?"

as i passed by, i noticed the cigarette left overs scattered around her. a few had barely been sucked up to half of it. so, which one do you mostly agree with:

A. She was so desperate she tried to kill herself, either by a cronic lung cancer or just plainly choking to death on the combination of cigarettes and the town's air pollution (preferably the second one, it's quicker)
B. She was just like any other today's people who just do not care if they are hypocritic and wearing the title proudly wherever, whenever
C. People are so generous nowadays that they give money to any kind of beggar, even the chain-smoking one
D. TIJ

Diamond, Mortgage and Guest List

ndin — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 02:44:14 +0200

btw, i'm engaged.
still got about a year to continuously cutting down the ever growing guest list (first drafting, mom's only: it got to 400!) and saving up HUGE percentage of my minimum wage to get a decent house while figuring out how to keep the shopping and dining department running as usual ^__^

oh, if you have a nice Kebaya design, pls send me the picture ;)

No no no no...

ndin — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 01:35:24 +0200

For God's sake, don't hijack a Ferrari if you don't know how to drive!
-- Gabrielle Solis after Zack stole a kiss from her

Want Want Want

ndin — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 19:37:53 +0200

the symbolic picture of this year's last post would be me, sitting behind a large desk, gripping a phone against my left ear, my sleeves rolled up, hair messed up, shouting with every intention to burst my lungs out:
   SHOW. ME. THE. MONNNEEEEEYYYY!!!!!

for those of you not familiar with the iconic Mcguire scene... please... join the pop culture immediately.

anyway busway, what's with such materialistic nature of theme, you ask?
well, in the light of having my first real job with an awesome Batman Visa followed (how cool is that? my first very own credit card!) and the sudden increase of the responsibility for self sustainability, as visionery as i am (blah!), it would be outrageous not to think how to manage the very basic thing that would determine how i am going to spend the rest of my life.
thus the very headache of fitting monthly standard expenses (food, transport, phone bill), monthly entertainment and shopping surge (do NOT tell me this is a secondary need), savings for yearly holiday (paragliding, Bunaken, new year in Bali and Eurotrip being the top of the list), savings for Hajj, Kurban, a car and an apartment, savings/investment for pension... did i miss anything? ..all within the range of my minimun wage (by Fasilkom UI's standard, of course). thank God, medical insurance is given by my beloved office...

all the choices i made, either under full control of my sanity or under influence of raging spending hormones, would also somehow contribute to my shift in priority and life long plan that is already taking place when i decided to take my current job.

but tonight, it's time to celebrate. 'coz i believe no amount of disasters should hinder the hope to live and cherish another year coming by.

    HAPPY HOPEFUL NEW YEAR !!!
    Let us see the days ahead as bliss, hope and another time given to condemn those who cut down trees and hence caused floods in the next few months. Amin.

PS - to fellow 9rs: me, Sylvia and Askar are having dinner @ Senayan City this coming Tuesday. Join us if you're around :)

T__T

ndin — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 04:32:38 +0200

baca Tempo edisi Hari Ibu, bukan perempuan biasa... pengen nangis bangga sama ibu2 yang jadi pilot, pendaki gunung, polisi, peacemaker, kuli pelabuhan..