Tuesday, February 26, 2008

ross the boss

a colleague of mine rossy was recently having her two articles published in a leading english newspaper in jakarta, the jakarta post. two in less than a month is obviously a good achievement.

after she made it, there is this snowball effect that will come to you once you started roll down from the uphill of your thinking and get those hidden thoughts put down into sentences and finally get printed. the chill is cooler than you think. and also the feedbacks.

yes, most are positive feedbacks. but not always. some critics will also want to say as much about the dark side of your moon.

this brings me to reflect back to a few lines from a movie ratatouille. the movie was a usual dose of good pixar fun. but one thing that was said in the movie, about the work of critics, really caught my attention. i went hunting on the net, and managed to find the proper quote:

"in many ways, the work of a critic is easy. we risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. we thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. but the bitter truth we critics must face is that, in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is more meaningful than our criticism designating it so."

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

mark this

"...there's so many different worlds,
so many different suns.
and we have just one world,
but we live in different ones..."

in favor of chinese flavor

on the day i was assigned at this desk to be in charge of the affairs with east asian nations, i had no idea how high the mountain i was to climb was, or how wide the landscape to be observed was. but then, from daily routines to occasional events, i learned the entire picture is wide enough to include a figure like myself. i gave all sorts of reasons to those kind of activities, and i feel neither guilty nor happy about it.

now while i continue to learn about the game as much as i learn about myself, i discover some interesting facts about chinese flavor. for instance, the most populous country in the world is also home for old, old cultures, with a tremendous sense of curiosity and established civilization. they have concepts for almost everything. they value face. and they symbolize complex things into daily matters, and turn daily matters into a complex of symbols.

those ideas try to invade my mind from day to day. leaving a small room to sneak into the thought of other things... luckily, our minds are made extremely hospitable to such investigation, and i feel small each time i realise this.

Monday, February 18, 2008

hometown of tammama

the mountain blue, the ocean, the sky, the coconut trees, the fried bananas and rice pourige. ah, the cool breeze that sneaks through the small holes on the wall...the yellow fish and other intricate animals you see there. i wish i could visit your island too, sister. this year when the tide is low and the wind is friendly. maybe we can sail to see the place called larantuka on the whale hunting season, wouldnt it be something memorable?