Keep on Dreaming

I’ve been working on multimedia for more than six years now. I love my job and still really passionate about it. Nevertheless for quite sometime now, I’ve been very thirsty of knowledge in promotions and advertising world, especially TV commercials. We are all influenced to some degree by advertisement and other forms of promotion. From the more conventional way of radio and television ad, to the more-shall we say-‘annoying’ type like telemarketer or even spamming, scamming, and fraud.

As the new millennium looms, we are experiencing perhaps the most vigorous and revolutionary changes of any era in the history of marketing, as well as advertising and promotion. These changes are being driven by advances in technology and developments that have led to the swift growth of communications through interactive media, particularly the internet.

It has been an integral part of our social and economic systems, a vital infrastructure for both consumer and producer/businesses/organizations. We surely remember during the election period, our elite politicians competing each other to gain as much as listener and audience, from corny banner, cheesy t-shirt, to a complex scheme of promotional tool like targeting internet community and full blown ‘road blocking’ spot in every TV channel. Subconsciously when we vote we are somehow affected by it, we probably remember how one goofy looking elderly woman said how much she adore SBY for his good looks in one particular ad.

Not everyone though is sold on the value of advertisement. Some might argue that most ads is more propaganda than information; it creates needs and faults we never really knew we had. Ads suggest that kids won’t succeed without a computer, that our body should be leaner, our faces younger, flak and pimple free. Some ads even more sultry and lewd to the point of rather offensive and made us blush. I don’t want to point any finger but you probably had one or two in your mind.

Ads on occasion can be tasteless, irritating, boring, obnoxious, and so on. Don’t you ever feel like you want to throw your book to the TV, when some noisy little kid with excessively fake happy face repeating her self three times about some sort of wafer thingies? Several studies show that more than two third respondents reported feeling offended by advertising at least sometimes.

Advertising also creates and encouraging commercialism, materialism, manipulating us to buy things we do not really want or need, encouraging the act of spending and together with the bombardment of mass media somehow responsible to a society more money oriented and corrupting our values in life, something amusingly put forward by Fight Club with its psychobabble about ‘the things we own end up owning us’.

What I’ve written above though making advertising more challenging in the future. How rewarding it would be if I can just for once involve in a project to create an ad that both ethical and effective, especially if it’s an award winning one. <kidding tag=”on”>Hopefully some CEO of a reputable agency read this and give me a call, he he...</kidding> Well, there’s no fault in keep on dreaming, right?

For a Good Cause Anyway

An SMS from my youngest cousin got me thinking real hard. She asked whether I can pay some of her college tuition, because her father and mother is now retired and it’s a pity if she would have to quit her school only for that. I understand what they've been through and if this had come a year earlier I would not have to think twice to help her.

For almost a year now I’ve been giving some amount of money to our office boy, (well probably office aid because he’s much older than me), Mr. Noor, to help him with the education of his two children. It’s not a burden really, I am truthfully and honestly glad that I could help him, and in the process he shows me his son and daughter’s grade and report books each month to actually follow their progress.

They’ve been pretty good at school with several eights and nines in Math and English. Besides, if you meet Pak Noor, he’s this very humble, nice, and religious man with plenty of hilarious ideas and always ready with a helpful hand. He’s just unlucky that he didn’t have the chance to enjoy decent education like others especially with his wife being sick from time to time. It is not an option to stop helping him now even though he said that he just had a rise this month.

With the oil and gas prices hiking up and without any significant pay rise from my office, I’ve been pretty lucky lately due to several side projects that pay handsomely. But most of them will have to go to the bank account to pay for our future house. And by purchasing a PDA a while a go (something I needed badly, it’s not an impulse buy or for showing off), the purse string is pretty tight right now. I have some other projects in the pipeline that will due to payment in near future but I cannot count my chicken from any eggs just yet. I’ve been too familiar with clients suddenly goes missing when it’s time to pay up.

Well maybe I just have to learn to live rather more cost effective. Perhaps I will have to skip every breakfast and in the meantime reducing my weight in the process. That would be great, isn’t it? I’ve been doing some sit ups lately and I can hardly see any difference on my belly. In fact this morning in front of the elevator I met Lily, my former classmate and she said something about how I look fatter than ever. In the immortal words of Chandler Bing, "Could I BE any fatter?" I guess that’s not very flattering, so a more drastic actions indeed required. And also especially with the flag price for Taxi in Jakarta is up 30% I will have to lessen the frequency of using taxi too, there’s plenty of motor taxi available near here though, and walking every now and then, will always be good for my cholesterol, he he … It’s for a good cause anyway.

Err ... don’t mind this. It’s only a random musing just to pour it out somewhere so that I can actually think clearly. Hopefully side projects will keep on coming my way and conceivably it’s not too late to hope for the oil and gas price return back the way they were right? Or is it?

Million Dollar Baby

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Drama

The question is, what’s to like about this movie? The answer is simple; a lot. It shows the story of an old and defeated fight trainer and a humble girl who thinks she can be a champion boxer. Narrated (much like in Shawshank Redemption) by my favorite actor Morgan Freeman, who plays an aging former boxer with one eye and a story to tell.

It is a simple story, directed with simplicity without much pretensions which is rare in movies. Clint Eastwood really conjured up a movie where we can sit very quiet and just drawn deeply into the lifes of three characters that we grown to care about.

I don’t know if she really deserve her second Oscar, but Hillary Swank is astounding as Maggie the boxer. You can literally observe the grown of confidence and muscularity increasing in time. Freeman also delivers just about enough as the witty observer, without overdoing anything. And Clint’s character move from reluctant trainer into attentive manager with ease. The chemistry between these three is very interesting, without turning up fake at all.

Mind you this is not a regular boxing movie though. Rather a movie about a boxer, and a woman at that. It is a quite dark movie overall: plenty of black shadows and grim colored tone, and characters who delve with the obscurity of their fate. The story continue to follow Maggie’s career, providing us some pretty brutal fights and shows how hard Maggie is trying to change her fate from a simple waitress in a local deli to be something more meaningful. A lot more to it than what I’ve been writing, it’s a wee bit hard to elaborate without giving away the ending.

Million Dollar Baby is simply a masterwork, worthy of an Oscar.

High School Nostalgia

A week ago, I was asked to refurbish my high school website and while searching for the resources I stumbled upon these old pictures. It brings back memories of 3 splendid years inside a semi military boarding school with crew cut and hundreds of the fellow from all the 27 provinces in Indonesia marching together in formation for every activities.

I was a member of only the second batch of the so called 'school of future nation leaders'. It's funny come to think of that heavy tag, and wonder if any of us would really achieve what the founding fathers of the school dreamt of.

It started as an idea from the late Gen. LB Moerdani (Minister of Defence at the moment), to establish a quality high school where diciplin, mental toughness, and love to the nations stemmed early while providing the best possible education and facility. Indonesian Military (ABRI) collaborated with Taman Siswa gave it a name; Taruna Nusantara High School. On 14 of July 1990, Gen. Try Sutrisno (Military Commander in Chief at that time) inaugurated 245 selected students from all over Indonesia.

ps: all photos courtesy of ikatan alumni sma taruna nusantara

Spaghetti di Mare

Description:
Davide Bellegotti taught me how to cook this delicious yet very quick and easy Italian pasta. I've served this to my wife and friends and they just love it. The term "Di Mare - of the Sea" was Davide's idea. He's a meticulous cook and has been dreaming for sometime now to open his all Italian Restaurant in Jakarta.

Ingredients:
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For the Shrimp
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1 ounce of small shrimp, peeled and de-veined
1 ounce of canned tomato paste (not tomato ketchup no :D)
1 small lemon, juice of
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/4 paprika dicey chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons of olive oil

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For the Spaghetti
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2 ounces spaghetti (I usually just grab a handful of it)
1/4 cup olive oil
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped
1 tablespoon of rough salt

Directions:

• Cook pasta in large pot of boiling, salted water until al dente (soft and tender when you try to bite it - just about 7-8 minutes). Depends on the number, I usually use number 5 which is rather big or number 11 for the smaller ones.


• While pasta cooks, toss shrimp with lemon juice, parsley, olive oil and a pinch of salt onto a small dish.


• Heat the olive oil on a large skillet over medium heat, first add the garlic and fry until it smells really good. Add shrimp and spices and cook about 2 minutes or until it is pink-ish and slightly firm.


• Lower the heat to medium low, add the 1/4 cup of olive oil and put the tomato paste slowly to the skillet.


• Drain pasta and toss it in large bowl with garlic and olive oil mixture. If you don't like too much garlic just reduce the number of crushed cloves you add into in this step.


• Divide the spaghetti into 3 plates and sprinkle with fresh parsley, and top with the cooked shrimp.
  

Of Father and Son

I read somewhere that people generally are divided into two kinds, Bosses and Workers. This has nothing to do with Kiyosaki’s Cashflow Quadrant, where he states about the four kind of workers: Employees, Self-Employed workers, Business Owners, and Investors. The first statement I took (from a particularly forgettable book) just to make my next paragraphs rings true.

I had a sister who will most probably end up to be the first kind, but my father and I are definitely the latter one. As genuine workers, we have a huge trade off for our job and financial security by "losing" our chance to become rich quickly (Unless we win a lottery or something). Dad worked as an employee far in a Celebes remote area for Aneka Tambang, some kind of state owned company. I remember he wakes up every morning and work long hours each day, and always be a hard and dedicated worker without ever being rich.

“At least we make an honest living Heru”, that’s what my father used to say. Yeah, he is an honest and straight as an arrow person. I’m not really sure if I were to be on his position I wouldn’t take plenty advantages from the perk he had during the 30 long years of work in the company. I still remember like it was yesterday, my mom used to complain about how things are so expensive and we don’t have anything special in the house like our neighbors who had a nice sofa and kitchen set or their son playing with expensive gadgets.

Dad now is already retired and stay in Makassar, along with his gold wrist watch as a token of appreciation from his former company. Not content with nothing to do all day, he decided to open up a ‘not so convenient store’ in our home. Using my old room and opening up spaces here and there, the shop was ready to sell anything from shampoo sachets to gallons of mineral water. When I was back at home during the last holidays I watched in tears as my dad while sleepy, patiently dealing with a restless junior customer buying candies with a torn 100 rupiah note.

Watching the store and dealing with the many kind of customers is quite an art. You have to be all smiley and helpful and sometimes content with a few being slightly ignorant. Living in the big cities where ten thousands of rupiah is virtually next to nothing, I used to be a little careless with cash. Something I picked up during my picket time in the shop is that you really have to learn to appreciate money, because you have to work really hard earning every cents.

There’s a popular belief nowadays (with money being the new god) that employees and self employed workers are the worst position to be in. My father may never get rich working this way, but I’m sure that he is happy and proud of what he achieved in his life. How he managed to provide decent education for his son and daughters and still be there for us whenever we needed him. It was 1991 when my high school selection process began and he drove me with his motorcycle as far as 230 kilometers all by himself. I also recall the day he was so dissapointed when i decided to quit military academy to join my uni, yet he keep his loving support thru' the years.

Well, I don’t know about Rich Dad and Poor Dad, haven’t read it. But I love my Dad, rich or poor.

Macugnaga

It's a small resort town in Piedmont region Italy, situated at the foot of the immense and spectacular east hedge of Mount Rosa, the second highest peak in Europe, this resort offers a unique vacation combining sport and culture. Macugnaga is also a beautifully picturesque village with chalet style houses and villas, clustered around an eye-catching market square. The colours and the atmosphere of the people inhabiting the area is quite unique. Totally different than the ones in the neighboring areas, probably because they were the families of Germanic origin who migrated hundreds of years ago.

We drove there with the company car courtesy of Emil Rathod, our colleague from England. It took about two hours drive from San Donato through quite a breathtaking scenery of Maggiore Lake and several villages on the hillside along the way. We took a chairlift to the nearest peak and walked our way to one of the glacier tops. At one point we stopped to have lunch in one of the restaurant. Me and Ira had this very juicy and delicious roasted lamb with corn sauce. Emil had a large plate of local pork shanks and polenta. The weather was fine with occasional breezy chills and we just sat there enjoying our meals. It was wonderful.

Then, we continued our walk to the top amidst hundreds of other traveller. The path was quite tricky with lots of slippery slope down the line. But it was really worth it when we reached the apex, we were just quiet and awestrucked by the magnificent view surrounding us. It was just so beautiful and also at the same time very dramatic.