30 for $30 deal

They have a "Dine around Seattle" event again this whole month and instead of 25 restaurants and $25 for 3-course dinners, they added 5 more places and increased the price to $30. It's really a good deal to try new places that you won't really try on a normal day. Last time I tried Brasa in Belltown and Eva Restaurant in Green Lake. I also tried Nell's Restaurant (for Veronica's b'day) and they are pretty good.
This time around I was planning to try Barking Frog and Etta's. Barking Frog was canceled due to bad traffic today. The weather was horrible and accidents all over the highways so we had to make last minute decision on where to eat. So we called in Etta's to make a reservation and we got a place for 2. Lucky. The food was delicious. My tablemate started off with an ice-cold wedge of crisp iceberg lettuce generously dressed with a creamy, chive-spiked Rogue River blue cheese dressing. I enjoyed the steamed Penn cove mussels with chorizo, potatoes and sweet onion. I went for the Etta’s fabled Rub with Love Salmon and cornbread pudding while my tablemate went for perfectly grilled tuna, just rare at the center, which was served with mashed sweet potatoes and black lentils. Really good!! Come dessert, I had to have the classic coconut cream pie, a towering slice of over-the-top coconut goodness and he had a Washington Apple Sorbet Terrine. Yummmy...The service was reliable and efficient and our server was friendly without being intrusive. Overall, I think both of us were really satisfied with what we had.
So for next week, I'm already browsing the website to find the next restaurant and I think we are going to try Veil Restaurant. The menu looks good and the review also pretty helpful. We'll see how it goes next week.

high maintenance bitch?

couple days ago, i had my nails done after a long day at work. i think it's nice to pamper yourself once in a while. so this morning, one of my guy coworker came to me and asked if i had my nails done. i said yes and asked him why. he and his friend think that girls that have their nails done are high maintenance girls. apparently his ex girlfriend was like that.

so i'm curious right now. it's true that when I stepped inside the nail salon close to my apt, most of the women there were pretty much like trophy wives or from well-off family. you can tell from what they wear and how they carry themselves. but then again, queen anne is quite a ritzy area. i bet if the nail salon is located in aurora or poor neighborhood, it's going to be a different story.

i can't really say that having your nails done mean that you are a one high maintenance girl. for me, it's just a fun things to do to pamper and make myself prettier. i haven't even thought about the subject until my coworker said that to me.

introducing dian widjaja, graphic designer

I've always liked my sister's work of arts since i was a little girl. so when she decided to become a graphic designer, her decision seemto be a good decision. after all the hard work that she put during 4 years of college, i can say that i really like and enjoy her works.

Here's her website/portfolio : http://dianwidjaja.com/

beauty is nothing without brains

take a look at these 2 commercials. they are so funny!!

The first one is a QA with a contestant from South Carolina for Miss Teen USA 2007


The second one is a TV commercial for Mercedes-Benz


now i'm wondering where "dumb blonds" jokes are coming from... go figure! speaking of the first video, i can't even understand what she's trying to say. it's a really simple question but it took her all around the world to answer it and she still didn't get it right.

hmmpphh

found out today from ticketmaster that they are refunding my money for amy winehouse's tickets that i bought couple months ago. apparently she canceled her north american tours. sucks. i was crossing my fingers that she can make it for this september. i guess not. hopefully she will reschedule it again. sigh. maybe i should just go to bumbershoot instead. the shins, panic at the disco, gym class heroes are playing on sat, sept 1st. i'm not really into sean paul nor joss stone but curious about kings of leon and black rebel motorcycle. saturday with the shins and friends or sunday with those 2 rock bands? can't really decide right now. anyone else wanna go to bumbershoot?

busy weeks

it's been a long week. so glad that weekend is here. getting involved with setting up the new line was interesting, fun and stressful. stressful in a way that i still had to manage my own line while also deeply involved with the new line. there were times when i had to do time studies on the processes and instead of leaving me alone with the studies, everyone wanted a piece of me at the same time. i was so ready to pull my hair out and started thinking of kicking someone. but anyway now that the line is somewhat ready, it's not as bad as the first time. still bad, still stressful but somewhat more manageable just because i have someone helping me with the time studies, and someone else to slowly take my place in the old line. hopefully he can learn things pretty quick.

so, after thinking of not reading the last harry potter, i decided to change my mind and bought the last one (might as well). it's not a bad decision. the last one was so much better in storyline and action than the previous 2 books. i really enjoy the deathly hallows. there's an article about what happened next to harry and his friends after the final book in CNN.com. here's the article . i wish she put that information somewhere inside the book.

it's been a long day. going to brush my teeth and sleep.

random stuff

So, I have to admit that i really like to peek through my windows to see my neighbor's apartment. you see, when i moved to my apartment, whomever occupied that next building unit really did a good job in decorating his/her place. it has a wooden floor. for some reason the whole wooden floor thing kind of struck me as a romantic, warm, and inviting place to live. i just can't take my eyes of the apartment. then couple weeks ago, they moved out and i could see the inside (living room, bedroom, and kitchen) well enough through the blinds. at that time, i had couple instances where i was tempted to go to that apartment and pose as an interested future tenant just to see what it looks like from inside. too bad i didn't do it. i think in less than 2 weeks, one couple moved into that unit. well i'm not sure if it's a couple or not but whomever live there put red (red wine-ish) color drapes in the bedroom. interesting thing for a guy to put them in his room isn't it? so based on that, i'm thinking that there might be a girl living there also (i saw both of them drinking beer in their bedroom one day). anyway, i haven't peeked around as much as i used to. they probably think that i'm a stalker or peeping tom or something bad like that.

apart from that, i got a virus in my friendster! i saw my sister's profile and told her that someone hijacked her profile because her profile was really messed up (male, 31, single. from UK. also her hobbies, and all that things were erased and they put something in "about me" section). when i opened her profile, i guess that's when the virus or whatever copied itself to mine because couple minutes later when i checked mine, mine was also messed up. exactly the same as my sister (male 31 single, from uk and all that crap). i've changed it back and run antivirus, spyware, trojan remover from my computer twice. i'm still not sure how bad the effect can be. is it just some pranks? or someone maliciously put worms or virus in friendster. i don't know. have any of you friendster users had that before?

i'm such a procrastinator. i have this project from work that i'm doing it right now at home but so lazy to finish it. instead blogging seems to be appropriate at this moment. how bad i am.

concerts

My long awaited tickets have finally arrived yesterday. one for Michael Buble and the other one is for Amy Winehouse. I was browsing ticketmaster.com and found out that he is coming to Seattle (aug 28 and 29). at that time, i was interested to see his show but still thinking about it. by the time i made up my mind, both shows were sold out but i noticed that he added 1 extra day. so i made up my mind and bought the ticket. the 1st concert that I'm going to see it by myself. at the same time, when i was searching for MB, i found out that Amy Winehouse is going to give her first US tour and seattle is one of the cities. I like her voice and decided to just go for it. Can't wait for both of them.

the confectional

Confess your love for cheesecake. I have to say that I don't really like cheesecake that much. But today, when we were walking around pike place market, Sunny mentioned that there's one good cheesecake store around pike place. We found the place and they looked so good. Lots of selection of Cheesecake Truffles and Cheesecakes. After drooling at them, I decided to try one that caught my eyes: Raspberry White Chocolate Cheesecake. they had a small sign of "everyone's favorite" and it was fabulous! not a bad choice for first timer. Anissa got triple berry one and it was also a good one.
They even had cheesecake with cayenne pepper on it. I wonder what's the taste going to be. a spicy cheesecake.

The price is a bit too high for a small cake i think. I'm not sure how much 1 slice of cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory cost but i think it might be around the same price for a bigger slice than this one. As you can see from the price list, one cheesecake costs $3.50. But I have to confess that it's worth the price. I just found a dessert place close to my place and definitely going to try more of them.


funny quote from the owner:
"Forgive me chocolate for I have sinned. I have not yet had my daily confection."

paris, je t'aime

In Paris, Je T'aime, celebrated directors from all around the world (Coen brothers, Gus Van Sant, Wes Craven, Alexander Paynes and many others) have come together to portray Paris in a way never before imagined.

Paris, Je T'aime is a collection of short love stories in Paris' neighborhoods (each director telling the stories of an unusual encounter in one of the city's neighborhoods). I watched this couple weeks ago in Uptown AMC cinema and I really enjoy watching it. It's a sweet movie worth to see.

*I miss Paris......

neurotic mom

Couple weeks ago i found a wound/scab around piggy's nose. i thought frappy must bit him so i didn't pay too much attention to it. until a week later when i found out that it's not getting any better and no hair around his right side nose. after searching the net for vets around my place, i found couple places but the problem is they only deal with cats and dogs. no exotic pets. damn. i still can't believe that guinea pig is an exotic animal. anyway, i called one place in greenlake area and they referred me to one vet in greenwood that deal with small animals. tried to call but it was weekend and i got their voice mail. from there, i found out about emerald city emergency animal hospital in wallingford. so i gave them a call and brought piggy in. the doctor didn't say much about what's wrong with him since she's not a specialist in exotic animals but she suspect of ringworm or mites infection. from that place, i got referred to this bird and exotic clinic in aurora. i called them up and set up appointment. what the 1st doctor suspected was true. piggy got ringworm. it's nothing major. just need to give him ointment around his infected nose. no big deal.

a week later, i noticed he wasn't feeling well. he sat inside his house and didn't eat that much and he started to lose weight. i separated him with frappy and put him in a box in my room so i can keep an eye on him. i took him last tuesday to the doctor again. in a week after i brought him to doctor, he lost around 10% of his body weight. not a good sign. the verdict wasn't good also. he got pneumonia. i was so afraid he won't make it to the doctor. so he's now under antibiotic and for 3 days, i had to make him soft food for him to eat. it wasn't fun. luckily he didn't have any energy left to fight me. so putting the syringe inside his mouth was not that bad. it was messy for the 1st time. but after a while i kind of getting the hang of it.

he's still under antibiotic but i stop giving him the soft food since he's starting to eat his pellets and hays and carrots more on his own. but i'm still paying really close attention to him and any tiny changes make me nervous. as long as he's eating a bit and drinking water, i'm happy. even the shape and size of his poops were really important. for these couple few days, i've been looking at them and making sure that he still poops every now and then. i think when i have kids on my own...i can say that i'll probably be one of those neurotic mother.

the series of unfortunate events

I think i can be a part of Lemony Snicket's book. Last Sunday it was raining pretty hard in the morning. As I was walking down the hill to go to church, my right leg apparently has a mind of her own. It slipped! Tried to catch my balance but to no avail. So i fell down. hard. I hit and scrapped my right kneecap. I thought for a moment it was going to be ok but as I looked down, blood was pouring out. Luckily i had a tissue paper with me that day. Tried to dry it out but it's just keep coming. In the end I had to go home. Can't really sit inside the church with bloody leg can you? Thank goodness it was memorial day weekend so I got monday off to relax my right leg. kneecap was swollen and painful but it's not as bad as Tuesday. getting in and out of car was a challenge but never knew that it was going to be that bad. walking was painful. sitting down was painful. even getting up from a chair was also painful. Couldn't really bend my knee. stairs was my enemy. by 9 am i was so thinking of going home and just resting my knee. i was limping and one of my coworker asked me what happened. So i told him and he offered me painkillers which I took instantly. I might have taken too much because by mid-day, I felt good. leg didn't bother me at all and i can walk like normal. Basically this week has been associated with pain. it's getting better now. can almost walk normally and not as swollen as before. but this is going to be another week before the bruise is completely gone and the wound is fully dry and turns into a big scab.

on another note...i just cut my finger today when I tried to trim some papers. later on i got another paper cut. What an accident prone I am.....one thing after another.

it was a great night

Thanks for coming to my place last night. It was really fun. I know my piggies will charm you all but didn't expect you guys to gush over "bad boy" frappy. hmmm maybe all of you kinda like the bad boy image in real life......or maybe it's just the "bad hair day" look that he has. Anyhow if you guys have time (vero and caroline) to upload all the pictures, share them with me :)

flickr account

Just created a flickr account for my pictures. Used to have snapfish to store pics but after a while you have to buy prints from them or they will close your account. So i'm starting new with flickr. I haven't had the chance to play around with it yet, but I just posted pictures from yesterday mariners vs yankees game. it's a boring game. yankees slaughtered mariners 7-2. mariners played really bad yesterday. as usual... that's nothing new (no wonder ichiro is going to leave seattle. he looked bored during the game) :p same thing with sonics and seahawks...they suck. anyway.. apart from the boring game, i walked around safeco field. pretty nice views up there.

So took couple pictures from the game yesterday and also took couple pictures with pigs as my models. the girls were just sitting quietly inside the bowl not like piggie. but overall i still like piggie....i think he can act in front of the camera :) i'll take frappy's next time.. he's such a pain to catch. here's the link to my flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/niff3r/

tagged!

I've been tagged by lola to write my 7 habits or facts. Basically the rules are:
• start with 7 random facts/habits about yourself
• people who are tagged have to write their 7 things on their blog
• then choose another 7 people to get tagged and list their names
• don't forget to leave them a comment to tell them they have been tagged and to read your blog

My 7 things:

- I must have my small black pouch filled with lip balm, lipsticks, lip gloss, and small mirror inside my bag all the time. I feel naked if i don't apply my lip balm and lipstick after I eat (ohh and checking my teeth with my small mirror after I eat. Don't want any unwanted veggies/meat stuck in between *grosss*).

- I check my email while brushing my teeth in the morning. While at work, I have 1 tab open for my yahoo email and second tab for news website (cnn.com, or msnbc.com or seattletimes.com). When I come home, I sit in front of my computer and browse for new anime torrents and check my yahoo mail again.

- I must have my cellphone with me all the time. It bugs me if I forget to bring mine. I'll keep thinking what happen if something bad happen and I can't contact anyone.

- I have to sleep with a blanket eventhough it's summer and hot outside. It's just not right without a blankie to cover me up.

- I hate parallel parking. even hate it more if there's a car behind me waiting to pass. I'll pass that parking spot to find other spot.

- I hate waiting for people who are late for their own appointment. If you make appointment at certain time, be sure to show up at that time or move it to later time if you can't make it. It annoys me most of the time.

- I'm shy. I'm usually very quiet around new people.

Well that's about it. I can't really think of anything else right now. If someone wants to play along, leave me a comment and i'll check your website/blog :) I have 3 people that I will tag: anissa, veronica, and citra. Feel free to play along guys... :-)

some thoughts

I'm a bit disappointed with the 2 hour special of grey's anatomy. For some reason, I found the whole story with addison's adventure in LA was.....boring! There's no depth and intrigue to her part. it's just plain and nothing special. well maybe I'm expecting more out of this 2 hour episodes. They are going to make a spin-off "private practice" for addison. Right now, after watching that, I don't think I'm going to follow the spin-off. not until they write a better script for the new series. prejudice. probably i'm one of those GA fans that can't accept the spin-off, thinking that GA will always be better. I can't wait for next thursday ep. going to be back with the main casts and story. can't believe that season 3 is almost over. 2 more episodes to go. curious to see how they will end this season.

Anyway, moved in to my new place today. i hate packing and unpacking. it feels like i don't have much stuff but for some reason the whole process (of packing and unpacking) feels like eternity. i'm tired and sleepy.... going to bed soon. getting those piggies inside was fun by the way. we had to cover them with stuff (bedsheet, furniture, etc). I think the whole process might be a bit traumatic for them. i found piggy turned into a fluffy fur ball...(that's what happen when he's afraid of something, like loud noise). very cute....i might just scare him once in a while hehehehehe....

moving in and out

It's moving time again. sorry niss for all this hassle. I feel kinda bad. i hate moving out and i know i'm not the only one. kind of getting used to it but still hate the whole processes. by the way niss, you should take a look at the newer house... from the sounds of it, the first one seems old and crappy...let me know how the second one goes...

this is totally irrelevant to my posting but i saw one of my girl piggies is kissing the other girl!!! oh god.. now i have 1 lesbian and 1 gay pigs. i've seen piggy making a mating sound to frappy and hardly to believe that sweet pea also making that noise today to moccha! my mistake for letting piggy running around and met those girls.

anyhow, i found an apartment in upper queen anne. it's an old building but the owner takes good care of it and still preserving the inside ornaments/woods really well. really nice 1 bedroom. smaller bedroom than my current one but the living area is pretty good in size. kitchen is small but cute in a way and the most important thing: bathroom is clean and in good condition. the apartmen itself is located in the main street (queen anne ave N). really close to stores, restaurants, bars and only 3 blocks away from kerry park. so in a nice sunny day, i could take a walk around the neighborhood. parking is going to be a challenge. but who knows it's not going to be that hard.

i still hate to pack up my stuff...i want a maid to help me . oh need to hide piggies when i move in.

winning a battle, losing the war

I thought finding an apartment would be a fun and easy but no. it's such a pain in the ass to find one around Auburn. Went to auburn yesterday to look for one and either they don't have a 1 bedroom or the neighborhood/management is bad. There's 1 apt that I almost signed the lease around green river community college. We went back again to drop the application but on our way to the manager, there's one lady who told us not to do it. Apparently her daughter is staying in one of the unit and she has so many problems and the management just doesn't seem to care. Ok... so we backed out of it. Decided to drive around more. Couple good places but they just don't have a 1 bed available at the moment. then we decided to try Kent. the first place looked ok. so we stopped and took a tour around the apt complex. overall the apt looks good so i signed the application and gave deposit. I was happy... but i was browsing the apartment ratings at night and found out more about that place. Crap....it turned out to be pretty bad. only 18% recommend that place... uhhh that's not a good sign, especially after i read all the reviews. Called my bank and put a stop to the check. I just have to call them in the morning and let them know that i'm not going to take that unit.

so now... back to square one again...don't feel like looking around that area anymore... might as well just stay around seattle.. at least I know the neighborhoods. The only thing that I can't stand is the commute. well let me rephrase that.. i don't mind the commute YET..the fact that I have to fill my gas tank every 4-5 days is starting to kill me. But i think i need to find place closer to my work soon before I-5 N is closed (2-3 lanes) around august for 3 weeks. just imagine the traffic back home...it's going to be a nightmare.

works and weekends

i passed 2 stinky and stressful weeks! from my old-5 minutes working and 15 min playing-days to a slave-in-training. my boss told me she has a laptop plus set up the email for me couple days ago but until this day, i haven't seen any of those stuff yet and everyone was like "oh let me send you email for the details...." and i can only say "sorry.. haven't gotten computer nor email yet"... and the other thing is i never sit down with my boss to talk about work expectation and what she wants me to do for the production floor. this whole 2 weeks, probably less than 15 minutes worth of talking. only on the first day she gave me a training list on what the whole goal/training to look like and basically introduced me to the supervisor for training. but...on the second day.. supervisor was sick for 2 days.. and my boss was just like "here you go... from this day on you'll be the next team leader"...

FUCK! that's what you call training program?? so basically i have to figure things by myself...nice.
well at least they haven't kicked me out yet so i guess i'm doing ok right now. 1st week was uncomfy as i was trying to get to know the people better and i have no idea what's the deal with that line... by the end of the 1st week i think i got it... i think...

on another matter... my family just got bigger. got 3 more members that are joining me and piggy. sweetpea, mocha, and frapp (short of frappuccino). 2 female and 2 male. the girls are quiet. but the guys.... are not. when i introduced him to sweetpea... that's a totally wrong move....he just wanted to totally take her right there at that time... such a horny piggy! even right now with a male pig, he still making that mating noise and sniffing frapp's butt! make me thinking that he's a gay piggy... but they were saying that's normal when you introduce new pig to current one. So we'll see in couple more days how they will behave towards each other.

ps. i wanted to get piggy a friend so we bought a female piggy because we thought piggy was female. apparently he's not a female :) that's why i have to separate piggy and sweetpea...and i don't want to return her. she's such a darling girl! so either switch sweetpea with a male piggy or just get another playmates for both of them, i chose the latter...that's how I got mocha and frapp to join our family. if i'm not lazy.. i'll take pics of them and post them here...

oh..weekends at last!!! thank goodness we don't have to work this saturday....

WEBoggle

Thanks for msnbc.com for getting me addicted to WEBoggle a neat online version of Boggle. I used to play this game for my english class during junior high but never knew that they have an online version for it. You may have to wait a few seconds for a new round to begin, but you are playing against other real people in real time, and can see how your score compares at the end of the round. just don't be stressed out comparing your low score with some of those incredibly high scores (kind of make me thinking that those guys don't have anything else to do besides playing Boggle). Well i guess if you practice enough, you're bound to improve.

shorthand press

"Say more with less" is the mantra of Seattle-based Shorthand Press. The cards are elegant, concise and simple. Inspired by a dictionary of shorthand (a system of substituting symbols for words, for those of you younger than 30). Symbols that stand for words such as "hubbub," "love" and "wonder" grace the postcards and greeting cards - as well as T-shirts, notebooks, and holiday cards, and soon, journals. You can buy or browse these lovely cards online at their website.

cute overload

couple more cute and cuddly pictures from mr piggie...i just want to poke his nose everytime i see him and oohhh those pink feet...never have enough of him. don't be fooled... he can run really fast (while making a squeeking noise at the same time) and twisting and jumping in the air at the same time :) really cute.

my starbucks shirt

Project Runway meets Starbucks. Mychael Knight, a finalist from Project Runway, designed the customized T-shirts. The T-shirts feature a Starbucks cup on which customers can "write" their order, like, a "Grande 2-shots Vanilla Lowfat Café Latte." A very limited number of shirts will be free of charge while quantities last. A Starbucks spokesman revealed that the total number of the t-shirts is about 10,000 and how many starbucks customers out there? Go figure. Well if you are interested but not lucky enough (psst I checked today around 8:30 am PST and the shirts alloted for the day were already sold out eventhough the website said that the shirts are available each day beginning at 10 am PST!!), you can go to mystarbuckstshirt.com
and play around with the website and create your own wallpapers or icons with your fave drinks.

oohhh i can't wait till thursday!!!

Ho humm....for this couple few days, i've been dying to find out more about grey's anatomy (especially meredith). i've browsed youtube, and my fave grey's fan site for any news ahead on the upcoming episode "some kind of miracle". Luckily, i stumbled upon one website (greysanatomynews.com) that somewhat help me figuring out what will happen next:

1. Meredith Grey’s fight for life will send the whole hospital into a frenzy
2. There will be two deaths: one will stick, one will not
3. Who will die: Meredith’s mom
4. Who will live: Meredith
5. Callie has a big secret
6. Denny will appear in more than one episode
7. Addison is going to have a steamy night, but it’s not with our choice of guys
8. McSteamy and Izzie. Yep, that’s right!
9. Someone will have a bun in the oven! Who?!

well i hope what they are saying about mer is true (hey the whole show is based on her :p if she's dead then what's the point anymore....). mcsteamy and izzy??? that's going to be interesting.. gosh.. he's such a playboy...

i guess alex and his jane doe will have a serious thing going on ("You already figured out that that was Elizabeth Reaser playing the pregnant woman with the crushed face that Alex saved. In the coming weeks and months (Reaser's on board for at least nine eps), Alex's attachment to her will intensify. And if you thought Reaser's character had it rough last week, just wait. Another tragedy is about to befall poor Jane Doe.").

callie has a secret... don't tell me she's pregnant!!! ahhhhh i can't wait till this upcoming thursday... i'm really really dying to know the conclusion of this 3 mini series....

bowling for soup vs fergie? bowling for soup of course!

LOL. Much much better version than fergie's :D really funny. they are able to turn this song into alternative version :) enjoy

piggy piggy

We got a new roomie in the house :) a guinea pig named piggy. i tried to call him oreo at first but didn't work out. i tried to use couple different names like squeekie, buble, piggy. but in the end i still like piggy better. it fits him :p he eats a lot and almost non stop. probably that also because I pamper him with hays and other treats. yeah.. i'll definitely have to restrain myself from overfeeding him :p from time to time, you can catch him making weird noises... sometimes when you pet him, you can hear him purrng/chirping. other time he'll squeek around without any reason. he's really a cute guy with a big nose and three quarter black butt. almost look like a baby panda.

wishful thinking?

Well ok... it's not a surprise that jakarta got a "gift" again this year. floods. well you see, Jakarta is regularly struck with floods, though not on the scale as in recent days. Dozens of slum areas near rivers are washed out each year. so far only 9 people were killed and 200,000 people homeless and as far as i'm writing right now, it's still raining and showed no sign of abating.

"Incessant rain over Jakarta and hills to its south from Thursday triggered the city's worst floods in recent memory, highlighting the country's infrastructure problems as it tries to attract badly needed foreign investment."
~ well well well.. this isn't new. we all know that jakarta or even the whole country needs to be changed. i think government needs to start looking into this problem. we are regularly struck with floods but they don't give a damn about it. what's so hard about making rules/laws to start a good urban planning for the whole city? well they might say "ohh.. we need funds to do it" and they might get some funds from other countries or companies or whatever. but...with all those corrupted people handling the project, we will definitely see the money going into their own pockets instead to the right place. Sooooo... back to square one again.

"Authorities hand out (building permits) even though they clearly violate environmental impact studies," The Jakarta Post newspaper quoted him as saying. Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso, who was criticized when massive floods struck the city five years ago, blamed widespread deforestation in Puncak, saying it had destroyed water catchment areas."
~ corruption in playing. with the right amount of money and the right person to bribe, everything is easy in jakarta. if a company wants to build a new housing or apartment complex or any other business stuff, eventhough they know that they clearly violate rules/laws but with money everything is going to be as planned. Puncak isn't like it used to be. I used to love that area. It was a beautiful place. but people started to build houses, hotels, villas to attract city people and that destroyed everything.

well those government people for every problems that they have, they like to put the blame on someone or something instead of trying to find the root cause and solve it. i think they just like to talk without any action to prove it. I'm just tired with all those bullshit. well what do you think.... i think we should just nuke the whole country with missiles or even atomic bomb to clean the whole place and start new again. hmm maybe it's too flashy... how about genocide? just exterminate those stupid, corrupted people (government and civilians) and don't forget criminals. that sounds good to me. i guess i'm not 100% proud to be indonesian. (hmm weird sentences but it's 2 am in the morning. my brain can't digest stuff anymore so i guess that's an excuse :p). anyhow i'm off to bed.

got secret?

Got any secret that you want to share but too shy/embarrassed to say it? Try PostSecret.com. It started as a public art project for Frank Warren. He started his website of postcard-submitted, artistic, sometimes enigmatic personal admittances, after he went through a period of personal travails. The voices presented on PostSecret can be troubling, tender, hilarious or heartbreaking. Some of the art and graphics may have taken "less than 10 seconds," says Warren. "Others take hours of time and effort."

Warren finds that PostSecret affects different people in different ways. People who have had more fortunate lives may look at some of the submissions and "feel a sense of shock and sometimes repulsion," he says. "That's good -- it shows those folks there's another side [of things]." And for people who are coping with difficulty, he adds, "It allows a sense of solidarity. When I see humility, guilt ... I feel a connection. Maybe my own burdens are lighter."

The project started with 3,000 self-addressed postcards Warren handed out to strangers, asking them to mail back a secret, anonymously. He received about 100 and thought he was done. But "the idea spread in a viral way," he says, and with postcards continuing to trickle in, he started posting several every Sunday on the Web site.PostSecret has now received more than 100,000 cards, up to 200 a day, which have toured the country in exhibitions and appeared in two other books: "PostSecret" and "My Secret."

(taken from cnn.com. To read the whole article, you can visit here)

my six weird facts

I was reading lola's blog and found out about her 6 weird facts about herself. it's kinda funny that we share something in common: don't like dolls and clowns (i think i watched too many scary movies involving dolls and clowns -> chucky is one of the example) and like to check out other people's bedrooms (i like to see how people arrange their own bedroom) :) But well.. those 2 aren't going to be in my weird facts....

1. i like to see bloody and gory scenes (most involve human bodies).
2. i have a fantasy of touching/squeezing real and alive human brain and heart (wish i could see a real human brain and it's still attached to the skull of course. not the one that's already being preserved).
3. i love spoilers: movies and books
4. i like to read magazines, newspapers from the last page and work my way to the front page. this also happens for novels. i will read till the middle part and then jump to the last chapter to see the ending and continue reading again if the ending is good.
5. i love to sleep in total darkness. will definitely try to block lights from outside window + door, and electronic stuff inside my room.
6. i like to check other girls out ~ especially their butts and other assets.

hmmm i bet i still have other weird facts somewhere... but for now this will do :) anyway, have a great weekend.

in case of emergency

I was browsing abc.com and they had the preview for the newly comedy tv series "in case of emergency". after watching the clip, i downloaded the first episode and watched it last night. I have to say I like this new show. it's really funny and they have couple good actors in it. david arquette is in the show and also kelly hu! surprise to find her in tv shows (remember X2 and scorpion king?). well the other person that i didn't expect was greg germann. he used to play in ally mcbeal as richard fish, the weird bos. This is the synopsis taken from the website:
"Jason (David Arquette), Harry (Jonathan Silverman), Sherman (Greg Germann) and Kelly (Kelly Hu) are old friends from high school who find themselves at that stage where they realize that their lives didn't turn out exactly the way they'd planned. Unhappily divorced greeting card writer Harry goes for a relaxing "massage" only to discover his scantily clad "therapist" is Kelly, their high school valedictorian, who's had her own fall from grace. Diet Guru Sherman returns home to discover his wife has left him and taken everything he owns; devastated by the loss, he hijacks a bakery truck and binges on all its contents. Faced with imprisonment for his role in a corporate scandal, financial whiz Jason botches his suicide attempt only to shoot himself in the foot -- literally. Over the course of one crazy evening, a series of calamities reunites this hapless brood at Los Angeles Westside Hospital, where they all find themselves under the care of a reluctant Dr. Joanna (Lori Loughlin). This band of misfits must now start their lives over with the new realization that they've only got each other, In Case of Emergency."
if you haven't seen it, you should try to watch it. I'm curious to see the next episodes and how well the stories will develop.

new year or just another day?

For some reason I dont feel this new year as really a NEW year....seems like another day. come and go without any meaning. lots of people make new year resolutions such as exercise more or have a healthy lifestyle. but for this year i dont really have any resolutions to make.. well i kinda decided to be more positive towards my life. start to stop worrying about small stuff. what's the point of worrying about your life 5 years from now and forget that you have today to worry about. sometimes i tend to do that. thinking way ahead of me and start worrying what if x happens or y happens and doubts slowly creeping their way into my head.
Live each day as if it were your last day on earth. I read that quote just a little while ago. I've spent, seemingly every day of my life living for tomorrow. Planning for the future. Part of the future that I planned for long ago is now here and it's nothing like what I've planned. I was too worried about tomorrow that sometimes i missed the fun that life can bring. What if there's no tomorrow? we aren't guaranteed a tomorrow, not ever. tomorrow may never come, and then i will have wasted my today.
well anyway...i'm just hoping that everything will turn out to be okay for this year.