Some of My Stupid Thoughts….

Chelsea kalah dari Liverpool…

Tesis belum beres…

Keuangan mulai krisis gara2 berbagai keperluan rumah yg mendesak…

OK, jika kondisi di atas belum cukup untuk bikin bete, maka berikutnya datang masalah yg paling bikin bete : rumah saya kebanjiran….

Coba lu bayangin… Pulang ke rumah malam2, cuaca dingin banget, otak udah hampir kram mikirin kerjaan, dan berharap bisa istirahat dengan nyaman.. Ternyata yang ditemui di rumah adalah seluruh lantai sudah tertutup lumpur… Jangkrik dah… Tentu saja ini adalah hal lumrah jika rumah lu ada di bantaran kali Ciliwung, tapi gimana jika rumah lu ada di bukit di Bandung dan pada elevasi yang paling tinggi di komplek? wtf?? That would be a f-ckin’ surprise..

Tapi itulah yg terjadi.. Konyolnya banjir bukan gara2 kawasannya yg kebanjiran (jika daerah Jatihandap kebanjiran maka seluruh Bandung kelelep), tp gara2 ada saluran yg tersumbat, dan my house is the only victim.

Jadilah istirahat nyaman saya malam itu ditunda gara2 musti beres2 dan ngepel dulu… Yah, ambil positifnya aja lah, untung furniture belum pada lengkap. Coba kalo udah lengkap, bisa2 kerja bakti semalaman beresin sofa  basah…

Yesterday,i went to Duta Suara music store at PVJ Bandung. My mission was clear : buy Motley Crue’s Saints of Los Angeles, Metallica’s Death Magnetic, Whitesnake’s Good to be Bad and Celine Dion’s Taking Chances..  Yes, u read it correctly pal : i bought Celine’s new CD, exclusive package including a DVD of her show. U can’t listen to rock/metal constantly 24 hours a day and 7 day a week. hehehe…

Celine Dion is my favorite diva for a long time, she is simply in different class with the newly born -trying to be sexy diva- Mariah carey. I like Mariah’s old record, like ‘Hero’, but her new songs just showing how pathetic she is.. :(  Another diva that is in the same class with Celine is Whitney Houston. But since Whitney has not recorded new material for long time, so let’s talk about Celine…

I managed to buy ‘Taking Chances’ and ‘Death Magnetic’, but to my surprise and disappointment, the store doesn’t have ‘Saints of Los Angeles’ and ‘Good to be Bad’ yet. They said that the stock never come nevertheless they had ordered it few months ago… What the Hell???

Ok, nevermind, at least I still can enjoy Celine and Metallica.. :)  and the next big target is AC/DC’s Black Ice..

Mission completed :

Still searching :

Still waiting :

Ansor (Angin Sorga) said that the legendary rock band Whitesnake will come to Jakarta and concert will be held on October 30th 2008 at Istora Senayan..

btw, the tickets are already available in Duta Suara Music Store in PVJ Bandung, and I’m sure they’re available elsewhere.. but the big question is, how come the tour schedule at official whitesnake website www.whitesnake.com doesn’t have Jakarta on the next-stop list? Whitesnake is scheduled in Nagoya-Japan on October 28th and Tel Aviv-Israel on   November 11st..

so????? Please somebody tell me the confirmation.. Cos, if Whitesnake really will perform live in Jakarta, it will be an old dream comes true for me.

Whitesnake’s album ‘Slip Of The Tongue’ (1989) is the main reason why I love rock/metal so much nowadays. I listened to it for the first time in 1992, when I was 12 years old and still a 6th grade SD student. It blowed my mind!

I still believe that the formation of 1989 (David Coverdale-vocal, Steve Vai-guitar, Adrian Vandenberg-guitar, Rudi Sarzo-bass, and Tommy Aldridge-drum) is the best Whitesnake of all time. (they always change formation in every album.. :(  ).

Whitesnake 1989 : Coverdale and Steve Vai?? They obviously made Axl and Slash duo looked like overdressed whimps!! 

So, lets make pray that it’s not just another hoax..

Last nite results really make me ‘in the mood’ to talk about EPL.. Since the opening of 2008/2009 season, I rarely discussing EPL with my friends in the office, cos we never watch the live game on TV!!! Sh-t, life is so hard nowadays that even u have to spend extra cash to watch your favorite team at weekend…. :(  

Ok, let see the results :

Manchester city 1 vs Chelsea 3

Liverpool 2 vs Manchester united 1 ….

what does it mean?? It means chelsea on the top of the table with 5 points ahead of MU..  Liverpool is on the 2nd, and has the same point with Chelsea.. As a Chelsea fan, this situation is really interesting, and Chelsea can wider the gap with MU if we can kick the red devil’s ass next week at stamford bridge (if liverpool can do that, why can’t we??? hehehe..). How about threat from the reds? oh, don’t get me wrong, but in my opinion Liverpool may be good in knock out tournament but they never good enough to be a premier league champion.. hehe..

Arsenal? Last nite performance from adebayor won’t last long.. Arsenal need more of Patrick Viera or Dennis Bergkamp character to win EPL. This young guns squad maybe a real candidate for years to come, but not now..

I strongly believe that this year is Chelsea time!

Last year it started well, Chelsea won their early games, MU failed. But then this non technical situation brought bad times for Chelsea.. Mourinho left the club, and although we finished 2nd in the table and becoming runner up of Champions league, the overall performance were disappointing. (Look, even in bad times we are the runner up of EPL and CL!!!).

This year it looks far far more promising : the boss is Uncle Phil (the only manager in EPL who ever win the world cup title!), no more intrigue because the troublemaker (Shevchenko) had been out, more great player are coming (Deco and Bosingwa) and already ‘in-tune’with the others.

btw, how can I becoming a chelsea fan??

well, to be honest, I’m a football lover and never really a die hard fan of any specific club. I love the game, so my favorite team is a team which play the most attractive game.. My previous favorite team are AC Milan (Van Basten-Gullit-Rijkaard era), then Ajax (Louis van Gaal era), Juventus (Baggio-Vialli-Ravanelli), Arsenal (Dennis Bergkamp-Overmars era until Chelsea conquered England).

so, why Chelsea?? don’t they sometimes play boring 1-0 win games?

it all started in 2004/2005 season. I was still supporting Arsenal when suddenly the blues get my attention. Their solid play was hard as a rock, they didn’t rushly go forward to attack, but patiently keep the ball, and if the opponent started to get in to the trapped, they will punish them hardly.

The 2005/2006 was a real proof that Chelsea is more than just a good team, they tortured enyone who stand on their line. Liverpool lost 4-1 at anfield and 2-0 at stamford bridge, MU lost 3-0 at stamford bridge and Arsenal lost 2-0 at highbury and 1-0 at stamford bridge.. what more do you want?? Mourinho’s 4-3-3 were unstopable, 6 attacking players (Joe Cole, Robben, Duff, Gudjohnsen, Crespo, Drogba) provide the most deadly attacking formation, trio midfielder (Lampard, Makalele and Essien) was more than enough to shot down opponent’s midfield players, and at the back, everyone had recognize the solid defence from Terry, Carvalho, Gallas, Del Horno. This was the dream team!!

 The Dream Team, Chelsea 2005-2006

But sadly, then here came the troublemaker : Shevchenko. Chelsea didn’t need this guy, and when he came everything started to go unwell.. top of this bad times was when Mourinho left the club..

2006/2007 and 2007/2008 seasons just ‘not according to plans’..

But now, it’s time for the next good chapter for the Blues…

Amieen..

It’s common that everyone take a moment, and look back to his/her previous time to evaluate things. Most of people do it just before new years eve, some kind of ‘a year in review’ kinda things.

Now it’s July, so we’re in the half of 2008. In football game, it’s in half time. Coaches or players always evaluate their first period performances in half time, to fix the weakness, sharpen the attacks so they can kick their opponent’s ass in the second period and become the winner. so, it’s OK if i use this ‘half time’ to evaluate my life in 2008..

first, my professional life (hell, why I always think of my career at first?)..

This year is amazing, this is the first time that we (me and my buddies) get our ’self projects’. I don’t know the right word, but for us ’self project’ means project that we get not from our big boss, but from owr own network by our own lobbying or fighting in tender stage. (it’s like beside being an engineer I also becoming part of marketing team..) It’s not the money that matters only (of course ’side projects’ give us more income, u don’t need to ask that.. hehehe). But it’s the recognition from the people that is priceless. It means that the civil engineering (i’m a civil engineer, remember?) community has recognize your capacity and give trust. And in this engineering consulting business, TRUST is number one, brother.. This office may be not last long, and if other people has recognize and trust you personally, you will never in position ‘lack of projects’.. We have involved in several prospecting for ’self project’, some of them is still going on, and we fail in the other. Nevermind, failure is the path to success, and my ‘dare to fail’ habbit is very useful in the last few months. so keep up the good work!

second, my personal life..

At the last Lebaran, I started to think : it’s time for me to own a house in Bandung.. I call ‘home’ as my parent’s house in Padang (which is very very super comfortable, and always be my home sweet home), but I can’t be like that all the time. I need my own ‘home sweet home’, no matter the size but I want to go ‘home’ after some crazy rush hours in the office. And thanks God, if everything go fine I’ll have my home sweet home this month. Some of my friends feel that it’s strange that a single (and no sign to get married in short time.. hehe) have a house. What’s wrong dude? I mean even this notorious American bad ass Motley Crue has a ballad song called ‘Home Sweet Home’! hehehe…

Another part of personal life is friendship.. Thanks to this internet (especially friendster), I can still keep in touch with my ol’ buddies, and we often make little reunion. My friends are people who responsible for making my personality as it is today (beside family of course..), and I always enjoy hang out with them.. and sometimes, some ’self projects’ come from this friendship.. hehehe..

Love? Shit, i hate when it comes to the fact that no significant progress has been made in this term… Ok, stop laughing pals.

third, my education life..

Oh my God, I almost forget that i’m still a graduate student… I have to finish my thesis or dropped out.. it’s the same old situation with my undergraduate time : excellent in study, but poor in thesis because of office work..

fourth, my business..

hmm, I’ll write about this later.. but I have decide to do my own network marketing business.. what a new life! I left my engineer ego and start to see the world in different point of view.. It’s great..

So? what’s the result of the evaluation? Overall, I have made a very good improvement in 2008.. and I can’t wait to scoring more goals in the second period so i can be the winner when the final whistle blown the 2009 new years eve.. Hell Yeah!! 

Dream Theater, no doubt, is one of the most amazing progresive rock band alive. Every individual in the band has a gifted musical talent, but as a band they are still solid. And their songs are -mostly- enjoyable (i mean, how many skillful musicians have songs that can only be enjoyed by themselves?)..

The Spirit Carries On is one of the most emotional song ever played with such a great lyrics…

So guys, no more description needed and enjoy the song…

Music by dream theater
Lyrics by john petrucci

Nicholas:

Where did we come from?
Why are we here?
Where do we go when we die?
What lies beyond
And what lay before?
Is anything certain in life?

If I die tomorrow
I’d be allright
Because I believe
That after we’re gone
The spirit carries on

Victoria:
"move on, be brave
Don’t weep at my grave
Because I am no longer here
But please never let
Your memory of me disappear"

Nicholas:
Safe in the light that surrounds me
Free of the fear and the pain
My questioning mind
Has helped me to find
The meaning in my life again
Victoria’s real
I finally feel
At peace with the girl in my dreams
And now that I’m here
It’s perfectly clear
I found out what all of this means

If I die tomorrow
I’d be allright
Because I believe
That after we’re gone
The spirit carries on

Ok, because this post is about Indonesian rock band, so I think it’s better to write in Bahasa Indonesia raya (nasionalis coy!!)…

Apakah kriteria suatu lagu -terutama- rock/metal yang bagus?? Jangan tanya jawabannya ke kritikus, komentator, pemerhati musik, dan yg aneh2 lainnya… Jika pas pertama denger bawaannya langsung headbanging plus menyetel volume sekenceng2nya (sampai dilempar sandal ama tetangga), so it rocks!!

dan Citra Natural dari Seringai adalah salah satunya!! (ehm, yang lain adalah Season In The Abyss dari Slayer, Girls Girls Girls dari Motley Crue, Makin’ a Mess dari Skid Row, Pain Killer dari Judas Priest, etc.)..

Gw udah lama denger tentang Seringai (bukan lagunya,cuman kabar aja..), kalo Seringai adalah one of the hottest rock band in Indonesia (katanya).. udah gitu pas liat fotonya, kok kayak pernah liat ya?? oh, ternyata ada alumni SR ITB toh? pantas aja, kampus ITB kan cuma segitu2 aja gedenya, mungkin pernah liat waktu masih kuliah dulu (berlagak kenal ama artis boleh dong.. hehehe)..

nah, sekitar sebulan yl, waktu iseng ke Aquarius Dago, gw liat CD Seringai - Serigala Militia. Tanpa pikir panjang, langsung aja beli. Nyampe di rumah, langsung di denger sambil kerja di notebook (gini nih, kelakuan jaman sekarang. kalo waktu SMP atau SMU dulu dengerin CD baru itu adalah ritual khusus, dimana pikiran di-khusyuk-an buat dengerin lagunya. sekarang, sambil lalu wae, maklum sok sibuk. hehe). udah gitu, player nya di next kan terus, karena lg masih nyari lagu yg sound-nya pas di telinga.. Nah, entah kenapa dan gak sengaja, pas lagu Citra Natural, lagunya gw biarin beberapa saat… Whoa, nah ini dia coy… Mulailah volume dikencengin ampe pol dan headbanging sendirian kayak orang kesurupan Jin mabok (atau orang mabok kesurupan Jin?? whatever lah..).

Seringai really ROCKS, man!!! Citra Natural dan Psikedelia Diskodoom mungkin memang bukan tipikal lagu Indonesia untuk jadi musik latar acara Infotaintment, atau dibikinin sinetronnya kayak lagu2 lain yg jadi hits, atau tipikal lagu yang dibikin untuk dijadiin RBT di HP. Seringai adalah rusuh, orisinil, dan liriknya itu loh.. MUANTAP…

Pokoke, Seringai TOP deh (jarang2 gw muji band lokal kayak gini nih) hehehe…

gak percaya, nih Citra natural :

‘We are the world’ is a charity single (to raise funds to help famine relief effort in Ethiopia), released in 1985. It was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, and sung by various artists named USA for Africa. well, if u want the details just check wikipedia.. I’m not interested to explain the details here…

There are many various artists recordings, especially this -intended for charity and popularity at the same time- type. But this one is amazing. The song is great, even half of the song is repetitive chorus ‘we are the world, we are the children..’, but it far from boring. I mean, where else u can hear Bruce Springteen and Stevie Wonder singing the same chorus? or Ray Charles, Bob Dylan? Man, those are legends in music industry.. Even Rock N’ Roll freak like me love this song, especially the lyrics, that shares the spirit of love and giving to make a change..

So, enjoy the song, and let sing along..

and here’s the lyrics :

There comes a time
When we head a certain call
When the world must come together as one
There are people dying
And it’s time to lend a hand to life
The greatest gift of all

[Chorus]
We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let’s start giving
There’s a choice we’re making
We’re saving our own lives
It’s true we’ll make a better day
Just you and me

He was a cop, and good at his job. But he committed the ultimate sin, and testified against other cops gone bad. Cops that tried to kill him, but got the woman he loved instead. Framed for murder, now he prowls the badlands. An outlaw hunting outlaws, a bounty hunter, a Renegade.

Dude, the best part of Renegade is the … intro! Just watch it, u gotta agree with me :

Renegade is so 90’s. I mean, there are differences between 80’s typical action series (The A-Team, McGyver, Knight Rider, Street Hawk) and Renegade. In the 80’s, the stories are so simple (except for McGyver maybe..), designed for audiences of all ages, have humor element, and the main character is a good looking guy that all parents want to be their son-in-law. Like Richard Dean Anderson of McGyver, David Hasselhoff of Knight Rider, Face of The A-Team (the other member of A-Team especially BA was not included in this category.. ). Renegade is different, the stories -however- are still relatively simple -compared to today’s series like 24-, no humor, not suitable for all-ages audiences, and the main character is an American bad-ass..

Renegade has all element to rule the 90’s : story about bounty hunters, martial arts (Lorenzo Lamas has black belt degree in Tae Kwon Do and Karate), Harleys, hot girls, shotguns.  it was one of most viewed programs in 90’s, broadcasted in almost 100 countries and lost only to Baywatch to claimed the crown of Most Viewed TV Program (well, if Renegade has all element, Baywatch has only one element : hot girls, but Baywatch has tons of them.. hehehe..).

Trust me, I know what I’m doing…

Man, this maniac ruled in the 80’s.. Well, actually this series only last 2 seasons. Many say because it failed to compete with Miami Vice, and others say because this kind of slaptick and sarcastic jokes were not well accepted in the 80’s. Sledge Hammer (David Rasche) is a crazy cop who never yell ‘freeze’ before shooting, loves his Magnum Gun more than any women, maybe even his partner,Doreau (Anne Marie Martin), and a true troublemaker in the police’s office. His boss, Capt. Trunk (Harrison Page) always feel depressed because of Hammer’s attitude.

Here’s the intro :

and here’s why Hammer is my favorite cop :