Old Photos of Belly Clan

Working on a magazine has its perks, like being invited to try food in many great restaurants. I have lots of old pictures from my visits to numerous exquisite restaurants in Indonesia. These ones are old pictures that I took at the Belly Clan restaurant in Sudirman. The owner has this unique idea of marrying western and eastern flavor as well as the cooking techniques from both sides of the world.

I'd like to post the pics here so I can delete them from my laptop to save space. Ehehehe. This proves that a blog can actually function as cloud storage.

Wednesday Diary Series

10 november - Malas-malasan seharian, but worth it karena akhirnya dapat pencerahan dari film Machine Gun Preacher. The film shows me how violence is needed to fight injustices. The toughest thing is not to lose our heart in doing it. The hero of the story is Sam Childers, former outlaw motorcycle club member (think of the bad ass characters in Son of Anarchy). After found God, he built a church for marginalised people in the society and went to Africa to save African kids from the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). I like his quote "I want to ask everyone - if ur child or your family member was abducted today, if a madman came in, a terrorist came in and abducted your family or child, and if I said to you, I can bring your child home, does it matter how I bring him home?"  This priest is a living vigilante and wonder if someone can make comics about him and the money can all go to his orphanage in africa. I, at least, wuld buy one.

11 november - Barusan ngecek lokasi toko-toko Marc Jacobs worldwide untuk keperluan artikel gw. Di benua amerika yg seluas itu ternyata cuma ada 12 lokasi dengan total 25 toko. Sementara di Asia Pacific ada banyak banget sampe balonnya numpuk-numpuk (gw ngeliat dari map di website marc jacobs, kayak di google map, lokasi ditunjukkan dengan balon). Di Tokyo aja sampe ada 26 toko!! Belom di China, Korea dan negara-negara Asia Tenggara. Di australia malah ga ada sama sekali. Ih gila banget!! Kata Dian, bos gw, itu karena, ngutip kalimat dia, "Asia is the new rich". Jadi orang-orang di Asia masih perlu ngerasa dilihat pake barang-barang branded. Dan gw langsung inget Jeko, my bf, yg ngejar-ngejar gw pake iPhone, katanya biar keliatan keren hahahhaha

12 november - Nyobain pijet satu jam di kenko cuma 60 ribu bareng Cit Cit, creative director di kantor gw. Di Kenko ini, yg mijitin kebanyakan cowo. Tapi sebelum elo mikir macem-macem, kita dipijit sambil tetep pake baju. Dan itupun badan kita masih diselimutin lagi. Jadi kita tiduran di kursi reflexology, kursi empuk yg bisa ditekuk mirip tempat tidur rumah sakit. Awalnya enak, kaki direndam di air hangat-hangat kuku, terus dipijet di dalam air. Setelah itu dipijet biasa pakai lotion. Tapi lama-lama sakit pas dipijit di jari kaki, yg katanya berarti penyakit gw banyak. Urutannya dipijet kaki, pijet tangan, punggung, leher, kepala. Ada orang-orang yang males banget kalau dipijat cowo, misalnya kayak Lala temen gw. Gw juga sih. Tapi di Kenko ini, yg penting adalah jangan mikir macem-macem. Kalo kita merem, lama-lama tangan masnya jadi berasa kayak tangan cewe. Lagian, mas-masnya ngga serem, ngga kayak cowo gw. Mereka berbadan kurus dan mukanya manis kayak perempuan. Lagian, ada cctv!! Jadi, buat 60 ribu, ini murah banget tapi efek setelah pijat enak banget.

12 november malam - Waktu di kenko, gw kan sempet ga tahan buat senyum-senyum pas dipijet di pantat dan pinggang, padahal seharusnya gw ga mikir macem-macem, jadi gw googling aja, apa banyak cewe yg udah pernah dipijet sama cowo. Ternyata gw stumbled ke blog yg namanya kisahmupeng.blogspot.com. Ada semacam sharing dari cewe yg ketagihan dipijit. Tapi yg aneh, kenapa di awal cerita dia ngomong-ngomong kayak "Saya bukan wanita yg buruk rupa, suami saya mengatakan saya sangat cantik. Walaupun sudah menikah dan berumur 29 tahun, tapi tubuh saya masih sama seperti belum menikah karena belum punya momongan. Saya sering mendapat undangan kencan dari kolega, atasan maupun rekanan perusahaan". Maksud gw, gila ini orang narsis abis. Pas gw share ini ke Jeko dia bilang "Ri, itu tipikal opening cerita bokep". Hah, tau dari mana? "Yah kan aku pernah temenin temen aku nyari cerita-cerita kayak gitu di internet". Dan bener juga sih, makin ceritanya berlanjut, cara penulisannya ngingetin gw ke gaya penulisan novel Harlequin yg agak cabul. Gw kepikiran jangan-jangan ini blog khusus yg isinya cerita-cerita bokep, dan ternyata bener. Semua postingan lain isinya cerita soal petualangan seks. Terus gw inget soal Fifty Shades of Grey, novel soal bdsm yg awalnya cuma fanfic tapi laku keras dan pembacanya cewe-cewe. Pikiran gw pun kembali melayang ke kisahmupeng, siapa yg baca postingan di blog ini? Pas gw tanya Jeko lagi, apa temen dia yang waktu itu ditemenin cari cerita bokep cewe atau cowo, dia bilang cewe. I don't know what to think of at that time, but I remember what Kyle, a writer that I knew, told Cit Cit, once, "Women are too sophisticated to watch porn, so they READ porn". It sounds true, tapi membaca isi cerita-cerita di kisahmupeng, kok gw ngga nganggep cerita kayak gini cocok buat sophisticated women ya?

HEARTBROKEN?

Sekarang di TV ada acara yang namanya Miss Advised. Basically ini acara reality soal tiga orang cewe yang pekerjaannya ngasih advise soal cinta, tapi mereka sendiri ngga kunjung menemukan cinta sejati. Sebetulnya menarik sih konsepnya. Sayangnya, mungkin karena diproduseri Ashley Tisdale, yang dalam pandangan gw kapasitas intelektualnya sangat diragukan, cerita soal tiga cewe ini betul-betul menyedihkan. Bukan menyedihkan kayak Carrie waktu berkali kali dikecewain Big di series Sex and the City, in which emang Big being a total asshole. Kalo Miss Advised menyedihkan karena kebodohan cewe cewe ini. Gw baru tau kalau di dunia ini ada cewe-cewe yang sebegitu tolol mau mempermalukan diri sendiri untuk kemudian dipermalukan cowo cowo yang mereka taksir, di TV, disiarin di seluruh dunia pula. Banyak cewe pernah, including me, ngalamin masa masa memalukan sama cowo cowo yang disuka, tapi at least ngga ada dokumentasinya, buat diketawain orang banyak.

Ada juga orang yang punya reaksi sama kayak gw, nih gw kasih link-nya:
http://stuartschneiderman.blogspot.com/2012/08/miss-advised-is-over-thank-god.html
Karena yang nulis lebih tua dari orang tua gw, menarik banget untuk baca tulisannya karena kita bisa memahami acara TV Miss Advised dari sudut pandang seseorang yang berasal dari era dimana cewe diharapkan untuk selalu poised and composed di hadapan cowo.

Kalo menurut gw sendiri, habis nonton acara itu, cuma satu aja sih komen gw, ini acara kayaknya scripted. Soalnya kok ada ya cewe-cewe yang naif banget kayak gini di umurnya yang udah senior? Entah mereka sampai mau bertingkah kayak gitu demi kepopuleran atau apa, tapi dilihat dari sudut pandang manapun this show is not doing any good for the three girls, baik dalam love life maupun karir. This show is suicide.

Kalau acara ini ternyata memang bener "reality", well, that sucks. Nih tiga cewe yang katanya expert soal love and sex perlu denger wejangan nyokab gw yang kata-katanya udah terbukti bener, "Jangan terlalu fall sama anak laki-laki, just give them 50% of your love. Biarin mereka yang kasih lebih dari 100% cinta mereka ke kamu. Atau kamu cuma bakal sakit hati akhirnya."

WOW!

Emang bener, terlalu nunjukin afeksi ke cowo yang baru loe taksir tuh ngga baik. Guys would mistakenly take that as you are easy. That's the last thing a girl wants in life.

Gini aja sih mikirnya, cewe luluh sama cowo yang affectionate. Tapi cowo malah ilfil sama cewe yang affectionate. Why? Karena mereka dibesarkan untuk jadi tough, jadi mungkin mereka lebih appreciate cewe yang tough dibanding yang murah hati ngasih perhatian dan belaian. Right?

Or they just simply heartless. Who knows? Who care.

We are just flesh, blood and bone

A friend of mine showed me this picture yesterday and I instantly asked her to send it to me to be posted here.

Despite the misspelling of 'atheist', I really like the picture. Lately, people seem to get overly sensitive about human diversity which include:

• race
• nationality
• culture/ethnicity/subculture
• gender
• class (or wealth/poverty)
• age (especially extreme youth or age)
• (dis)ability
• sexual preference
• religion
• political party 

Although, in my opinion, we should look to other people for their:    

• personality
• preferences
• interests
• needs
• abilities, skills, capacities
• perspectives, ways of seeing the world, paradigms
• ideas
• feelings, emotions, mood
• opinions, positions
• attitudes
• beliefs
• assumptions about what's real
• ego involvements
• values - assumptions about what's good or important
• dreams, visions, desires, wishes
• connections
• resources
• habits
• lifestyles
• cognitive styles, ways of sensing and knowing the world
• communication styles
• stories, histories
• experience - capacities developed through life
• stages of development
• responses - how they respond to what's going on or what's being talked about
• tolerance levels
• roles - in society, in the group, in some narrative
• families - what was their family of origin like
• education - both formal and informal, past and ongoing
• information - info they have, and their relationship to information as such
• health
• and much, much more.

The picture represents my standpoint towards stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination.
If I hate people, it would be because of what they've done to me.

Traditional Loom

I went to Klaten district in Yogyakarta to see the implementation of clean batik production and found out that there are weavers there, who make lurik fabrics with traditional techniques, i.e. using traditional looms. I'd like to post the pictures here.

working while the children are watching

luric fabrics with their pretty colours

Candi Prambanan - The Prambanan Temple

Candi Prambanan is Indonesia's cultural heritage which amazes me most. Borobudur is of course majestic in size. But I hold Prambanan dear in my heart. This temple compound is distinctively pretty. Each temple was delicately created, as if it was specifically built for a woman (I have had this thought even before I heard the story of Lara Jonggrang, you see). Unlike Borobudur, the spiritual vibe here is also stronger. Many ghost stories revolve around Prambanan. In fact, a photographer who is a friend of mine, had his camera broken when he took a picture of Dewa Wisnu in one of the major temples in Prambanan. A local said that my friend was supposed to whisper the word "amit" --which means 'excuse me'-- first before he take pictures of the sculpture. That's how you give courtesy to the spirits there. Prambanan also keeps some tragic stories --the sort of story that I fancy.

The story which is believed by the locals live around Candi Prambanan is that the temple was once built for a very beautiful princess named Lara Jonggrang. We can find a sculpture of her inside the main temple in Prambanan, that is the Candi Siwa. If you are wondering about how pretty Lara Jonggrang was, that someone can build a huge temple compound to please her, the answer is in her name. Imagine Lara Jonggrang in her heyday as someone who has a rockin body as Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. This is because Lara Jonggrang means 'Slender Virgin' (I highly doubt Ms Whiteley is still a virgin though). Men seemed to be willing to go beyond the distance, no matter how far just to make the slender virgin smile at them.

Lara Jonggrang was once lived in Keraton Boko, a small kingdom within the authority area of a powerful kingdom named Kerajaan Pengging. The prosperous Pengging Kingdom ruled by a wise king named Prabu Damar Moyo who has a son named Bandung Bondowoso.

Lara's father, Prabu Boko, the ruler of Boko kingdom was the opposite of Prabu Damar Moyo in terms of character. He was a cruel king with physical appearance resembles a flesh-eating giant rather than a human. Funnily, his genes didn't passed on to his daughter. Lara Jonggrang grew up as a very beautiful lady which the locals refer to as 'an angel sent from heaven'.

Prabu Boko had long desired to revolt against the Pengging Kingdom and overthrow Prabu Damar Moyo from his throne. On a one fine day he ordered his warlord, Patih Gupolo (who  is said to also has an appearance resembles a giant) to gather forces. Patih Gupolo quickly trained young men to fight and forcefully confiscated any property he can get from the Boko kingdom's citizens to fund the war.

Once the preparation had completed, Prabu Boko led his troops marched to the Pengging Kingdom for war. The war cost many lives on both sides. When Prabu Damar Moyo found out that his people started to suffer from hunger and poverty because of the war, he sent his son, Bandung Bondowoso to fight Prabu Boko to end the battle.

The war between Bandung Bondowoso and Prabu Boko was fierce. Unfortunately for Prabu Boko that Bandung had a super power that he couldn't match. The king ended up killed by the Pengging prince.

Patih Gupolo ran away when he saw his king slayed. Bandung chased him to Keraton Boko, determined to eradicate all usurpers alive. At the Boko kingdom, Patih Gupolo went straight to see Lara Jonggrang and told her that her father died in battle, killed by a Pengging warrior named Bandung Bondowoso. The princess was devastated by her grief. 

Prince Bandung Bondowoso, who didn't expect to see such beauty possessed by Lara Jonggrang, was shaken upon arrival in Keraton Boko. It didn't take long for him to ask her to be his wife. Lara Jonggrang wasn't willing to accept his proposal of course, knowing the prince as the murderer of her father. But she couldn't say no as Bandung had conquered her kingdom. Lara Jonggrang tried to find tricks to escape the prince's marriage proposal. She came up with two challenges that the Prince should fulfilled. She will marry the prince if Bandung can build her 1,000 temples in one night. She also wanted the prince to make her a well.

Bandung accepted the challenge. He made the well first, which was named the 'Jala Tunda' well. He called the princess to look at the well when it finished. The princess came, unimpressed and asked the prince to go down the well (No local knows why the prince did what she asked. Did the princess say that it was so he can tell her about the depth of the well?). As Bandung reached the bottom of the well, Lara Jonggrang told Patih Gupolo to fill the well with stones. The prince was trapped inside. Lara Jonggrang and Patih Gupolo thought that they have successfully killed Bandung Bondowoso. What they didn't know was that Bandung was a special man with amazing super power. He was still alive and he meditated to get out from the well. He made it.

Bandung went to see Lara in huge rage. But Lara's beauty was so extraordinary that he couldn't help but to forgive her. Lara asked Bandung about the temples that he had promised her. And just like any man who is in love, Bandung did what his lady told to do. He started to work on the temples.

Bandung called a large number of supernatural creatures to help him build 1,000 temples in one night. This was worrying the princess. Afraid if Bandung Bondowoso could meet the challenge ontime, she ordered the girls around the Prambanan area to pound rice in mortars and burn the hay to create light –from the fire--, as if the morning has come. The roosters were also somehow started to crow.

Hearing the roosters crow, rice pounded and a bright light in the East, the supernatural creatures stop their work. They told Bandung Bondowoso that they couldn’t continue to work on the last temple as the morning has arrived. However, Bandung Bondowoso had the feeling that those were fake signs.  

He called the princess to come and count how many temples have been built. The total was 999. There was only one more temple left unfinished. Lara Jonggrang made this as an excuse to refuse his marriage proposal. Bandung Bondowoso felt cheated and tricked that he went mad and cursed Lara Jonggrang into a statue which he placed inside the last temple. As if that wasn’t enough, Bandung Bondowoso cursed the girls around the Prambanan area into spinsters, as they took part in the princess’ trick.

Today, the myth has grown into a belief that a young couple will have their relationship end sooner or later after they visit the Prambanan compound. 

Several months ago I visited Prambanan for my travel article. It was not long after the Merapi eruption. Prambanan was not affected much by the disaster though. But it has not fully recovered from the series of earthquakes happened years ago. Here are some photos which i took while i was there.

Candi Apit

stairs...i love stairs

inside one of the temples...i can't remember which one

Candi Siwa, the biggest in the compound. Visitors weren't allowed to go inside. The temple was still under restoration.

at the bottom left: a top part of the temple which perhaps fell during one of the earthquakes

more ruins

Prambanan is situated in a very windy area. I don't know if it's an area with great thunder storms. But i can see lightning rods in some of the tallest temples.

a cable to connect the lightning rod to the ground

the name sign of each temple is put on the ground like this. there's no money to make more appropriate name signs? i don't know

this looks like a temporary stage meant for visitors who would want to take pictures of the whole Prambanan compound

the greatest thing of being a president (even the bad one as Soeharto), you would have your name engraved in lots of important places. My mom would die to see my name on one of Indonesia's cultural heritage sites!!

ruins

more ruins...restoring a Hindu temple is like solving a very difficult puzzle. It must be hard to find which stone is right to be put in which order.

I challenge every genius out there to come to Indonesia to solve this puzzle for good. And maybe I can entertain you afterwards with a fine story about what happen if someone can remove Bandung Bondowoso's curse on Lara Jonggrang, and she comes to life in the 21 century.

Out of Love

It's scary how people could go as far below morality and humanity, because of love.

A mother could put aside her dignity and accept money from any man who'd pay her service, just so she can feed her kids.

A desperate, unemployed man looking for money for his family would jump right away at the chance of making money, even if it means that he has to sell drugs to minors.
A religious fanatic man kill other people who mock his god.
A husband corrupts to pay for his pretty wife's expensive lifestyle.
A woman with children decides to stay with a man who occasionally beat her up everytime he is upset just because he provides money for the family.

A doctor helps his severely-ill patient to die, after the patient repeatedly said that he can't take the pain anymore.
A father beats a young boy to death after he harassed his daughter.

There's a lot more of such stories that can give you the chill down your back and that can make you think.

On some saturday evenings, when my fate treating me bad, as i have to go to the office to work instead stay at home watching tv and indulge myself in excessive eating, I curse at every sight of human being on the street. I hate them as they are so many! Imagine a Saturday evening when I have to be at work, but it doesn't feel that suck as at least after my work is finished, I don't get to be trapped in a traffic when I am tired and angry. It would be pleasant. Unfortunately, it never works like that. Everytime I go to work on Saturday, I can always expect a horrible journey back home, thanks to all people that fill the streets going somewhere just because it's a Saturday evening.

Looking at the buzzing, crazy vehicles, I would automatically think of ways to reduce the bugs in number. Maybe I should be a president, I'd think. And I will make a law in which every wrongdoings conducted by a citizen will receive a death penalty. Even if it's just a tiny case as pickpocketing. Or maybe I have to become a filthy rich business woman just so I can pay the government to conduct a massive killing to reduce the number of useless people on the planet.

I feel extraordinarily happy everytime I can think of something that might successfully be a solution to how to cut the number of people living in this world. Maybe I should work for George W. Bush.

But I changed my mind about doing a massive killing at that day when my taxi passed the WTC building at Sudirman. I saw a man in the middle of the street down on his knees and bent his body so his forehead on the ground -similar to how a Moslem pray in a prostrate position. There was a lot of blood on the street from his head. The man was dying. But everyone on the side of street were only looking at him, doing nothing. One cop was focusing on organising the traffic caused by that event. I was wondering what has the man done that he received such inhuman treatment. Why there was nobody that help him and take him go to hospital. The taxi driver answered to my question, "Perhaps the man was a pickpocket thief. He's lucky people don't burn him alive...", he said.

It struck me that cruel punishments have existed already within the society. I knew that people can go as far as beating a pickpocket thief to death. But how horrible it is to actually witness such event. I am not so sure anymore that I can be the person that promote death penalty for criminals. Instead, whatever that man has done, I think he deserves to be saved.

Yesterday, there was a pengamen when I took an angkot to Pasar Minggu. Very unlikely, his voice was one of a kind as well as his song. He reminded me of Iwan Fals with a collection of songs about humanity. His song tells about a prostitute. I remember a part of the lyrics and out of curiousity, I looked out for it in the internet and found out that it is a song of Iwan Fals'. The title is Doa Pengobral Dosa.

"Di sudut dekat gerbong yang tak terpakai
Perempuan ber make-up tebal dengan rokok di tangan
Menunggu tamunya datang
Terpisah dari ramai
Berteman nyamuk nakal dan segumpal harapan
Kapankah datang tuan berkantong tebal

Habis berbatang-batang tuan belum datang
Dalam hati resah menjerit bimbang
Apakah esok hari anak-anakku dapat makan
Oh Tuhan beri setetes rezeki
Dalam hati yang bimbang berdoa
Beri terang jalan anak hamba
Kabulkanlah Tuhan..."

I took a good control of myself for not crying inside the angkot. It's a sad song, it is.
And the song took me back to that day when I passed the pickpocket thief in front of WTC.
Maybe it was a desperate man with hungry children at home.
Maybe he didn't know what else to do to make money to buy them food.
And I remember Al Pacino as Dr Jack Kevorkian in You Don't Know Jack...

People can go so far because of love

And how the right punishments should be created for people like that?

Imagine this scenario:

A wealthy man owns a huge company. He's a good man who's doing lots of charity work. He is a good provider for his family. He enjoys a very comfortable life. Then there's this man who has just lost his job. He lost his job many times. Fate is kinda cruel to him. He's a nice man with good work ethic. Too good that he let people mess with him at work. For him, office politic is not something he can deal with. At the end, his family falls apart due to financial difficulties. His wife threatens if he's not going to find a job soon, she will take away their children. Out of desperation, he apply for a job everywhere, including to the company owned by the wealthy man. He don't get the job. The wife left as promised and he's so upset that in rage he goes to the wealthy man's house. He doesn't understand why a company that big doesn't need a good employee like him. And he thinks with some money in his hand, he can have his family back. He needs money fast and he think by taking a little from the wealthy man won't hurt the man. What he doesn't know is that the wealthy man is at home when he comes to steal at the man's house. He gets panic when the wealthy man attacks him trying to get him down. He eventually kill the wealthy man.

What do you think as the right punishment for the man? Does the man deserve to be punished? He desperately needed a job, but the wealthy man's company said no. He only need a little money, but the wealthy man attack him. And what do you think of the wealthy man's death. Is it the right punishment for him as he doesn't realise that he has neglected other people in needs? Does the wealthy man, who has enjoyed a comfortable life since the day he was born, deserve to receive death as the punishment for being happy all his life while other people are suffering?

The court tries to bring justice by giving the man a life sentence. But is it a justice really? The wealthy man's family is in great grief after the lost. But after three years, they move on with life. His wife find a new wealthy husband and the family enjoy an even more comfortable life. On the other hand, the killer's wife lives a hard life as a waitress in a restaurant with a very small wage. People look at her as an unfortunate wife of a murderer. Her children are unhappy at school. Other children can't stop to mock them about their father. They feel embarrass about their father situation. They don't get dinner when their mother come home with small tips from the restaurant guests. The books they use to study are second hand items that their mother got from other parents. They wear old clothes and worn-out shoes. No one in the family is happy. The mother doesn't even know until how long the children can study at school as education fee is very expensive for her.

Where's the justice in this situation?

There's no justice in life, I tell you. What's there is a balance. If a human has a hypothalamus which controls the body to remain as it is and fights any changes inside the body (that's why fat people find it hard to go on diet), so is the world. The world has something which is more or less functions as human's hypothalamus. Things need to be in balance. So if the world has set that among 100 poor people there's only one wealthy man, somehow we have to believe that it's for a balance in life. Perhaps if all people rich, the world ends faster and that's not what the hypothalamus want, is it? So some people have to be sacrificed.

Now whenever I see too many people on the street, I take a deep breath and hope for many more natural disasters to happen as I believe that that's how the world 'detox' itself from the unhealthy human being. I'm imagining that human is more or less like white blood cell. Too few and too much is not good for the human body. This means, too few or too much people is not good for the future of the universe.

I won't dreaming of myself being a massive killer as Hitler or George W. Bush anymore as I am a human and I don't know exactly how to bring balance in life. How many people should i kill or should I let alive. Let the world decides.


I can only go this far for my love to the universe.