Scale

Here's the scale used to weigh the delicious steamed peanuts at Zangrandi. Nyum. It was raining that night, so the road was wet, giving the yummy unexpected background. Processed with Wong Kar Wai's 2046 images in the mind. Gee wiz, I really need to post more often!

Through The Glass Darkly

Was on the way home from Zangrandi. If there's one thing that makes me appreciate living in Surabaya, it's the thought that I can always go to this well preserved place and have a slice taste of my childhood memory. Steamed Peanuts and Macedonia Ice Cream please! Hmmm, I might post some Zangrandi pictures later.

On Being Alone in the Ocean of Noise

So, I watched Ip Man yesterday, alone.

Based on last night's experience of feeling as if I was physically deformed and became the destination of secretive mocking looks - you know, the look that spells out as "Oh, look at this poor anti social unpopular dweeb" - I have managed to formulate reasons why it is not advisable to watch movie alone, ever, again in the vicinity of an area marked in the map as Indonesia:

1) It's just not the common thing here. As simple as that. People do things together, it's the community culture of Asia versus the individuality culture of the Western. Heck, I even spotted 2 teen chicks getting out of the same bathroom stall and from the way they behaved, they didn't feel as if it was weird or ... a bit gay-ish, maybe?

So, lesson to learn:
- Going to the movie alone, WEIRD. Going to the bathroom stall together, The dullest thing that no one in his right mind should even bother to notice.
- Going to the movie alone, PATHETIC. Two guys hugging each other while walking or one guy slapping the other guy's thigh, Why, what's wrong with that?

2) And even if you try to defy from this common culture, you'll still end up fearing that you meet someone you know and have them judge you as oh, I don't know, a poor anti social unpopular dweeb? Granted, I know deep down that I truly am a hermit geek, I still don't want people to remove any shed of their doubts and stamp yours truly with that honorable title.

So, unless you can move boldly to the ticket booth without fear of the staring looks of people you don't know, or God forbids, someone you know! Please, next time, beg your friends to go with you to watch the damn movie.

Although, being who I am, I don't think last night will be my last time watching the movie alone :P

Under All The Bright Lights

Was on the way to pick up food from Amen Restaurant. If there's one thing that makes me appreciate living in Surabaya, it's the food from Amen. Slurp :)

Rain of an Epic Proportion

A furious blast roared through the trees, making everything sing as it went. One blinding flash after another came, and peal on peal of deafening thunder. And now a drenching rain poured down and the rising hurricane drove it in sheets along the ground.

The Adventure of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain

Rain has been a very good student lately and boasted a perfect record of attendance in Surabaya.

Last Monday's rain was a particularly blasted one. The rain came storming into the city in all its majesty. The trees and billboard signs were like the chess pawns who were easily defeated by the rain. Not long after, the human invented electricity, the queen of our town, was humbled by the force of nature and shamefully retreated from the battleground. The citizens of Surabaya were left in deep abyss of desperation during the several hours it took for the queen to nurse her inflicted wounds. All I could think of during this trial time was whether my dearest ice cream can survive this horrid turmoil.

We were definitely unprepared for the blackout. Very much so that we sadly had to use a birthday candle for the emergency light. I couldn't believe that we have a birthday candle in the office, but not a regular candle. How old was the candle? It must have been very old, since I reckoned that the last time my younger sister celebrated her 8th birthday, it was about 12 years ago.


Maybe it's not very obvious from the picture, but the candle was supposed to have a shape of 8. Alas, it was obviously not meant for a long duration of use. Only a few minutes after it was lightened and Mr. Osake was in danger of being melted in the sea of hot paraffin. The 4 candle was thankfully holding strong and dutifully illuminated any area within the 15 cm distance from where it was planted.

Armed with my mother's compact camera, I went out with the intention to capture the moment of this great thunderstorm. Unfortunately, my mind easily wandered, and I took dozens of pictures of reflected leaves instead.

An odd thing happened when we were about to leave the office. My mom strangely volunteered to drive. I was dumbfounded by her generosity. To be honest, I was a bit worried that my mom couldn't handle the traffic as well as I could, considering that I'm a very good driver and have only a slight long list of traffic accidents. But, oh well, we're family. I decided that I should trust her just as much as she trust me.

I was actually relieved that I didn't have to drive. Traffic was moving as fast as a snail and I had all the time I needed and more to take pictures.

Don't you think that Miss Kimono looks cute in this picture? I may have to take more pictures of her.


The Siomay seller didn't look happy. Think happy thoughts Miss! At least the flood in Surabaya is laughably meager compared to the ones in Jakarta :)

An hour and few minutes later, we finally arrived home. I could happily report that my ice cream survived the blasted blackout, all thanks to my quick emergency aid of transporting the ice cream to a pool of ice cubes. Disaster averted, I was planning to spend the quiet time reading Lolita.


Unfortunately, my shifty mind couldn't help to see how beautiful the candle was and ended up taking pictures of the candle until the electricity returned from her hiding place. I looked how far I was with my reading and found out that I had successfully completed a paragraph from the book.


And that is it. I have nothing else interesting to report, so I guess this will be the right moment to end this photo log.

So, ... the end.




Note: All but the last 2 pictures were taken using the Pentax compact. Not too shabby methink.

Going Lomo

I'm thinking Holga for Christmas. It was actually Tokina 12-24mm to begin with, but with the Rupiah going downhill, the lens price has gone up by 20%. 5 million plus is not a cheap investment, especially for one with no profitable return.

Still, I need to do further research. Can I find a lab to process 120 film? How much is it going to cost? Should I just buy the developing kit, especially considering that I'm prone to shot BW.

Photography, never a cheap hobby.

At least it makes me happy :)

My excuse

Boy oh boy, poor blog, who have abandoned thee? Oh, right, yours truly.

Here is a picture of a little girl having her lunch on a couch located strategically on an empty parking spot. Groovy.

The blog will be heavy on pictures in the near future, that is until I found my writing muse again. Just like any other activities (read: exercise), once you stopped updating your blog, it will take a whole lot more energy to start updating it again.

I've been in a depressed mood this past few weeks and I didn't feel like writing. One, because it will not going to be a fun read. Two, because I don't think I want to put down any of this horrid feelings into words.

Well, men are only men. That's why they lie. They can't tell the truth, even to themselves.
Rashomon

Yes, I'm weak therefore I can't bear reading what is truly on my mind right now. To counter depression or to get my mind of depressing thoughts, I've been watching a whole lot of movies, at least once a day. So, I might do some movie reviews as well.

Not to worry, it's cyclical. Life has its ups and downs. It's in it's down period now, but it only means that I will have my up period in the future. Hooray!

Little House

The owner has lived here for more than 10 years. She allowed me to take some pictures and asked me to excuse her house for being so ugly. I said that it was a lovely house and she smiled :)

Attn: Jakarta People (Jakartans?)

Picture was taken at Grand Indonesia Mall, Jakarta.

I have a hard time taking pictures at Jakarta. Everywhere I go, the security or the employee always ended up telling me not to take any pictures at their properties. The problem is, they allowed people who take pictures using compact camera. What is this? A discrimination against SLR camera users?

For your information, not all SLR camera users are professional who get paid for taking pictures. Some of us are pathetic enough to consider taking pictures of mundane objects and strangers as our hobby. Not only that, we are willing to shelf out big bucks for the equipments. How sad are we?

So, Jakartans, next time you see us, instead of prohibiting us from taking pictures, you should have pity on us and give us full access to your property. Not only that, you should also offer to pose for us. With all the pain and the sacrifice that we endure, I think that's the least that you can do.

Got that? Good.

Daily Picture: Sweepers

I took the picture in some harbor in Tanjung Perak, Surabaya. They were so shy and blushed when I took the picture. I wondered inside how much they make and whether it's enough.

Daily Picture: A Farmer

He said that he's a farmer. Well, if he really is a farmer like what he said, than he's one bad ass farmer.

But, I would like to think that he's an undercover opium lord who was taking a vacation in Bali. One morning, the morning that I met him, he decided that he was in need of exercise and therefore decided to do some grass cutting in the field nearby his luxury getaway.

I think my version makes much more sense :)

Daily Picture: Iron Man

Daily Picture: Ade :)

Taken during the late Independence Day Celebration event of House of Love Foundation.

I just love the sister's expression.

Daily Picture: Batik Tulis (Hand-drawn Batik)

Above is the waxing process of Batik Tulis (hand-drawn Batik).

Batik Tulis making process is quite elaborate. It consists of a repeated process of waxing, dyeing, and drying. To give colors to the batik fabric, the batik artisans will need to dye them. Prior to dyeing the fabric with a specific color, they will have to cover the area/ pattern that shouldn't be dyed with the color by waxing them. They use canting needle to draw the wax lines/pattern. After the dyeing and drying process, they will wash the wax off and repeat the whole process again until all colors have been applied.

Needless to say, it takes time and heavy manual labor to create a piece of batik tulis.

Needless to say, I will never going to make one.

Daily Picture: Female Barong Dancer

Barong Dance, together with Kecak Dance, are the most popular Balinese dances. Most of the tourists who go to Bali will spend time to watch the two dances. Well not true, the local tourists might decide to forego watching the dances and opt to go straight to Ubud for a feast of Babi Guling Oka and Bebek Bengil. To each his own.

Daily Picture: Flowers

Alto is so going to love this picture :)

The monkey on your back is the latest trend

Since this is the first post by yours truly, I thought it will be appropriate to give you readers a glimpse of myself.



Shown above is pretty much how I look whenever I'm not sleeping. I yawn. You see, sleeping is what I do best. I've been practicing the trade for the majority of my life. Not only that, I also love it! Given the option of socializing or watching DVDs on my bed with my pajamas on (which obviously is a prereq for a good long sleep), you betcha I would choose the latter!

Now that you get to know me a bit, I'm sure you can't wait to see what I have to write next... After all, people can't wait to hear more from an antisocial geek. Yay!

The post title comes from this song:
Anyone Else But You - The Moldy Peaches