Revelation from Picasa

I bet you have seen someone’s obituary, somewhere, one way or another. Maybe reading in newspaper, getting from people’s chat, or seeing in pictures. How about watching your own obituary?

Trying to get a grip on new application, Picasa, on my old pc in office, I put screenslide completed with song. The picture I took were random pics from my personal document and the song was randomly chosen by the program. Then I tried it.
Then, boom! Coldplay’s “In My Place” was played, and pictures flipping, pictures from my personal document. It felt like … reading my own obituary. …

“I was lost, crossed line I shouldn’t cross… How long must you wait for him….” Norway, Athens, Malmoe, angels, sunlight, sketches, moonlight. All things I saw, mistakes I made, people I met, pictures taken, memories buried, … all jumping around in my head.

Is it what it feels when I die someday?

party... oh... party

Driving to work from home this morning, I heard flashnews regarding the report published by Transparency International Indonesia that is reported by Ramako FM. It is stated that… Nope, everybody know already that Indonesia sits at the top list of most corrupted country, so I will not mention that again.
It is stated that IN Indonesia, the most corrupted institution is Political Party (no specific names was given, so I take it that all parties are alike), followed by Parliament (house of representatives, which is a turf for party members), Police (as institution, I believe), Customs (old story, I heard this long before when I was in elementary school, even before I heard about Transparency International) and Tax agency.

Just a few weeks a go I went on a duty to “see” a visit by parliamentary members to one of our ports in Sumatera. They went there within meeting recess period which was taking place in fasting month, holy month for Moslems, Moslems are obliged to do good things and kept away from bad things. Back on the berth when some members were asking about port operation and some were busy taking picture (of themselves), one of them approached and asked,” Are you coming from main office?” and I said “Yes, sir,” He went on with ,”Did you have what your president director asked you to bring?” So I answered ,”Of course, I brought company profile, presentations and souvenirs, things that I handed to you already, guys.” Without losing his breath, he snapped ,”That’s not what I meant. Your boss said that he will give us SOMETHING”. Well, that fragment made me smile when I heard the flashnews.

fate of an ant

Driving to work from home this morning, I was a little bit annoyed by a presence of an ant on the windshield. I didn’t notice it at first. The ant just walked here and there right before my eyes, oblivious of my increasing annoyance.

To tell you the truth, I don’t know why it really bothered me a lot to have things (spiders, mosquito, ants, sometimes small gecko) going around here and there, up and down, INSIDE a car I am driving. I mean, it did not really “intend” to disturb me, e.g. trying to suck my blood or testing my sense of concentration. Still, their very existence makes my day.

Back to the ant, I saw it stopping just above my forehead on the windshield. It looked at me, maybe trying to say hello or even sticking its tongue out (if it has one). Before I regain my full attention to it, my right arm (which was holding a steering wheel) raise swiftly. The fingers snapped and the ant was history. Its “blood” splattered on the windshield, creating a tiny spot of whitish stain. I swear I saw shadowy figure flying off its remains, fading in the air. Goodbye ant.

How does it feel?

How does it feel when you immerse your head under water and hold your breath for minutes?
How about inhale the smoke out of your cigarette and keep it in your lungs?
Have you ever swallow a lump of bread without chewing?
Remember when you lose someone you care about and the person passed away, how do you feel?
How about trying to hold the tears from falling when you felt really distressed, how is it?

I felt all the answers, and that happened only by watching my friend’s documentary about his school in Malmoe.

Athens, 2002

Being a history enthusiast, I was so overwhelmed to find out that the university would arrange a fieldtrip to Athens that autumn.

Athens, what a place it would have been. A place where great people of the past lived, reveal their greatness in art, philosophy, politics, architecture, ideas, literature, and then died in glory.

Setting up my first foot on Greece soil, I can still feel my shuddering heart, up until now, 2 years from then. I can also recall the disappointment when my eyes set on those ugly urban buildings erected literally on historical ground. In fact in Piraeus there is an ancient port shed which is located under a modern building, seems that the modern builder did not notice about the shed until it was finished. Apart from that the city maintains its historical aroma.

Forget about the modern ugliness, let’s talk about ancient architectures in Athens. I must thank Carola and her husband, Senor Gerardo for they provided our itinerary for our days off in Athens. We managed to visit the magnificent Acropolis, ancient market place – the Agora, and being lucky to see guard shift change in front of parliament building. The Acropolis, what a transcendental experience it was. Being in an old place always brought me goose-bumped before getting high. No LSD is needed, just stood before those marble columns and ready for ecstatic moment of life. Too bad, time was so short, before long an old attendants got rid of us, saying that time is up, darkness would come.

In Piraeus I managed to make use of internet café, chatted a little with its beautiful lady attendant (started with asking her about some Greece songs that I heard on the way from airport to hotel), and tried to make friends with some locals. Granted, it was not that hard to start a conversation with fellow internet customer; again, a beautiful young lady. She told me about her job, her place (ehm.. ehm..) and her family history. The conversation became a bit sour when she found out that I am a Moslem, she did not like Turks (Turks = Moslems, so we knew). Two days of rendezvous at the internet parlour stopped rite there.

Athens, when will I see you again?