Idiots.

Following the last post I made regarding Indonesia’s energy crisis, and the fact that I read in Kompas today that we’re going to have random power outages from July 11 to 25 (each power outages can last up to 8PM), I can only conclude that PLN, is a nut case and they really suck monkey balls. In this case, maybe they are gorilla balls instead. I simply cannot understand the logic that they cannot provide us the same amount of energy that we paid off the previous month. Unless there are resources corruption (which we all know that it is at least 90% real), there is just no way that this could happen.

To PLN’s management, take a look at this. That is an article about a Danish island, called Samsø that runs entirely, yes, ENTIRELY on renewable energy. So is it possible that in a macro scale, a country runs on renewable energy? Unless we don’t want to, yes, it’s absolutely possible, and the people living in Samsø actually REALLY CARE about their future. We just need no corruption and 100% responsibility and commitment. Is this something we can have? No. Why? Because we are simply to dumb to realize that ELECTRICITY CAN BE GENERATED WITH OTHER THAN FOSSIL FUEL and most of the ones involved in making decisions are busy making themselves rich.

Crazy? If you live in Europe, maybe. But if you live in Indonesia, it’s just something that happens daily.

If I have to vote, I would probably vote PLN for the crappiest company in Indonesia (along with Bakrie Telecom and Lippo following it). Why? Because nowadays we often get those blackouts without any prior announcement. The reason? Well, that’s easy, they simply don’t have enough power to light up Jakarta from 00.00 back to 00.00. As a good electric bill payer, I found this disgusting, and before anyone yells back at me on how I should be concerned with our country’s energy crisis, I have my own reasons to justify that.

First of all, in a small scale, I pay for the electricity that I use, and oh do believe that I use electricity with great concern. I turn off things that I don’t use, unplugged things that I don’t use for months, upgraded the office monitors to LCDs, and the list goes on. And when I do use a lot of power out of the meter, I am perfectly aware of the costs that I have to bear each month. So, in a sense, I do pay for what I use, so I could care less if PLN is unable to provide that to my house’s power grid.

Second, where the heck is the industry on building power plants? How come from the day I stepped on the elementary grade, the number of power plants available in Indonesia is nowhere near plenty. Answer? Let’s just say, we don’t have to ask where the money went to.

Third, if the government is really that concern about the energy crisis, they should take approximate steps to develop greener energy. Take wind power for example, we have plenty of wind down here. If the government put some effort to install residential-grade turbines on every few blocks or so in the city, I’m sure some of that power consumption need could be taken care of. But no, we’re not going there, are we?

Fourth, is of course back to the fuel drama. We have lots of alternative energy sources out there, and yet, some power plants still rely on oil to run. This is just plain stupid.

FIfth, the idea of building a nuclear power plant. Well this just sucks monkey balls. If our country can’t even take care of simple matters such as garbage or traffic, I don’t see why we SHOULD build a nuclear power plant. I can envision the comeback of Chernobyl, or the second coming of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Without the bombs, of course. We won’t need them as it would probably explode on its own. Even developed countries are now moving away from nuclear power plants.

So, until the government and every bit of Indonesians that have no conscious of what lies 30 years ahead can pull their minds together, I’m as sure as hell that the blackouts are going to be more often. I’m going to invest on a generator. Something that is perhaps more reliable than our trusty ol’ power company.

Due to an unfortunate event, I had to have my car’s bumper claimed and fixed. Right now, my car is bumperless. And no, I’m not switching to any crappy fiberglass custom bumpers. I am not a riceboy.

I got this over from UPH Alumni’s mailing list:

JAWABAN DARI PIHAK AXIS :

Buat teman2 yg mungkin dpt spamming SMS atau email soal AXIS adalah kartu
setan, ini jawaban saya :

Soal issue setan itu, sy udah baca teman, setiap hari ada beberapa email yg
masuk ke correspondence unit sy dan kita jawab dgn baik, kalau boleh saya
jawab secara personal dan sbg karyawan AXIS, ini pendapat pribadi saya sbb
ya :
* AXIS adalah brand PT NATRINDO Telepon Selular, nama AXIS adalah berasal
usul dari MAXIS (inget share holder asing kami yg pertama adalah MAXIS)
sebelum di beli oleh Saudi Telecom Company
* Offer 666 adalah utk kemudahan mengingat dan mohon di cek offer kami di
Bulan Feb 2007 dng brand NTS adalah Rp 1 / detik which is sama dgn Rp 60/
menit. Meeting ttg tariff ini adalah yg sangat menarik dan saya tahu banget
darimana angka 666 tsb berasal. Kalau kami mau semua 666, tentu tidak akan
membuat batas offer limit data 100 Mb tapi 666 Mb donk ? Selain tariff ini,
ada tariff lain yaitu Rp 1,200 utk SLJJ, khan tidak 666 tukh.
* Nomor awalan kami bukan 0866 tapi 0838 XXX XXXX - skali lagi di ulangi
0838 - pls check my number, kalau di spamming ada nomor telpon dengan awalan
08666 426454 coba saja di call dan cek ke Depkominfo - nomor awalan tsb
punya operator siapa ? Di sini GAMPANG skali mengecek bo’ongnya.
* Natrindo sendiri adalah persh netral - tidak berpihak kepada aliran/agama
apapun, tapi sy sendiri masuk dalam Persekutuan Doa Oikumene Natrindo - kami
berkumpul tiap Jumat beserta teman2 segedung Citra Graha, ke sini dech kalau
mau ikutan doa - daripada gossip mending doain saya.
* Kalau kita melihatnya sih ini lebih ke psy war dan in a way bagus buat
propaganda AXIS krn mereka yg ga tahu jadi tahu loch J

Note : Alkitab punya 66 kitab dan Alqur’an punya 6666 ayat serta bagi
Chinese angka 6 adalah berarti maju.
Saya sendiri suka ketawa sakit perut kalo baca spam SMS atau spam email tsb
soal kartu setan ini, ternyata ada saja org termakan hal ini.
Ya, anggap saja kita celebrity dech jadi di gossipin terus.. JJJ

Grace HM
Customer Service
Mobile : +62 838 8000 618
grace.heny@axisworld.co.id

Some of the so-called “True Believer” Christians would obviously think, “Of course they said that, they’re Satan!”. I say, these Christians should suck their own balls. BIKIN MALU ORANG KRISTEN AJA.

I just got another one just minutes ago:

Telah keluar kartu GSM AXIS dari penayangan di Televisi dengan tarifnya 60/sms 60/menit 600/mms angka 666=setan axis kebalikannya SIXA=siksa sedangkan AXIS=Anti Kris. Jangan beli kartu tersebut karena itu dikeluarkan dari Anti Kris. Dengan membeli kartu tersebut berarti kita mendukung gerakan Anti Kris. Sebarkan berita ini ke teman2 anda. Jika anda melakukannya berarti anda menyelamatkan jiwa2. Thank’s vie: Saya pengguna kartu axis. tiap mlm jem 12 saya mendapat mc dr seseorg yg tdk dikenal, terdengar jeritan suara ce. begitu pula tmn2 saya yg pake kartu axis. sebelum terlambat, jgn pake axis.. Kesaksian nyata dari robi, pengguna axis 08666426454 fwd ke yg laen ya, jgn putus ditangan kamu!!

Oh people, come on… “SIXA=siksa” dan “AXIS=Anti Kris”? See my point with “ash” and “ass”? I can’t believe that they validate this as a LOGICAL explanation.

You know what? Let’s do this, I’m gonna buy one, and let’s see if anyone marks me as an Anti-Christ.

Krt AXIS ud kluar. Jgn beli/pake,tw kn tu krt p’dkg gereja setan = “SixA” Ciri: Cver putiH, grs ungu+orange. Postr byk angk60. Sbr k tmN2. 1sms slmtkn 1jwaGBU

Annoying? You bet. But that is an text message Yero forwarded to my cellphone earlier today. I’ve heard about this rumor a few days back and laughed at it, until I received the warning myself. I consider myself as a liberal, yet critical Christian. So my response to this potential chain letter is: BULLSHIT.

During the many years I served as a Christian in church, I’ve heard numerous gossips and rumors about Satanic things that lurked in our everyday life. From the reversed Michael Jackson tapes, Pokemon, Harry Potter, you name it.

I’m not here to argue on whether that AXIS, Michael Jackson, Pokemon, or Harry Potter are satanic or not. They could be, but they can also be not. I have to admit though, that usually, the culprit for such satanic-related chain letters or mails are literal Christians. I call them literal Christians because they often judge and interpret things (Bible, rules, prayers, you name it) exactly like what it is written (You can disagree with me here. Whatever, but I’m not changing my opinion). I’m not going to say which church usually makes biased accusations with no credible base at all (and I can bet, if you are thinking what I’m thinking, I think you know what church I meant), but let me give you an example.

I’ve read several years ago about a certain church-produced paper with Pokemon as its discussion. It’s pretty bold. It stated that Pokemon is satanic. Why? Because Pokemon stands for Pocket Monsters, and monsters are evil, thus satanic. And… (warning, idiotic research lies ahead) Pikachu’s handler is named Ash, which according to them, derived from the word “ass”, which means “butt”, which is not something we could say appropriately. I’m not kidding, I read this with high disbelief, and it makes me sick that a certain church ACTUALLY wrote about something as stupid as this is. And no, “ash” is not a derivative of the word “ass”.

Now, going back to that chain letter Yero forwarded to me, yes, I called it a chain letter, because it looks like one, it has no factual base, I personally think that it is too literally comprehended and the argued reason on why we shouldn’t use it is too vague. In fact, the way I see it, it could be created by four possible kinds of people:

1. Literal Christians who thought that everything that has too many “6″s are satanic. (What if I coincidentally have a landline number of 021-7366666? Would I be satanic as well? In fact I have two 6s on my home phone number, would that make me 33% less satanic? Also, wouldn’t that make every single telephone with keypads 33% more satanic since they have at least one “6″ on the keypad? Give me a break.)
2. Supporters of certain telcos that doesn’t want people to actually switch providers, especially with the running tariff competition as we speak, Rp. 1/sec, Rp. 0.001/sec, Rp. 0.0000000000000000001/sec. Meh.
3. Dumb people.
4. Pranksters.

Again, these companies and people could be or could be not satanic. If they are actually satanic, I think it is up to us as faithful Christians to determine the issue by ourselves, instead of blatantly creating stupid chain letters or emails. This is stupid, and I am ashamed of having you calling yourselves Christians. God did not create us to think as idiots with narrow minds.

Oh, one more thing. When you create things like this as text messages, the LEAST you can do is to write them PROPERLY and not like retards with no thumbs on their hands. WRITE IT WITH NORMAL LANGUAGE!

Back in the days, where I started this design business, I was not a design student and compared to now, my designs were way suck. I was doing freelance web-design jobs during my days in senior high. During that time, I was a Windows user, until I was enlightened, bought the iMac and never look back to my dreadful past.

The photo above was my first real upgrade, from a Pentium 120MHz PC, to a Pentium III 600MHz PC which I call “Synchro”, and at that time, it was running on Windows 2000. As far as I remember, it had a 256MB RAM, a RIVA TNT2 video card, the “popular” Tornado speakers, and an AOpen AX63Pro motherboard. I think the hard drive was either 10GB or 20GB. It even still have its own external Zip Drive (Note that I still have that drive in my possession, selling it would be pointless as probably no sane person would buy it). As far as I remember, this was one of the early days when cable internet was not as common as it is now, and when LinkNet did not suck. But that is the same website that they have ages ago, until they are now merged with First Media. So in a sense, yes, they do suck.

Here’s another photo of the full rig:

Idiots in parking lots could come in many sizes and shapes. Some examples include those who parked their cars ON the line, or OVER the line, or just a little to near to my car. But the real shitheads are those who parked parallel behind your car, with their handbrakes on. Well, guess what? Today, that’s exactly what I found. These motherfuckers are ignorant assholes, and they think that their cars are tiny and movable by hand. Do they ever thought how much trouble we have to go through just to move their handbraked-parallel-parked cars? I don’t think so.

Today’s asshole was an old beater Mazda Vantrend (Yes, I’m being a snob here, but the fact is, the car IS rusty and untreated), and it was parked behind mine. Handbraked. This car is owned either by one of UPH’s lecturers or staffs, too bad I didn’t manage to take a picture of it. Supposedly if the owner IS a staff or a lecturer, then he/she is an utterly dumb idiot. And not only that, since I started to teach there, it’s common that I found assholes like this in the staff’s parking lot. So now what? They can teach but can’t even park their fucking cars right?

Just as I expected, the Indonesian Website Blocking Drama didn’t turn out pretty damn smooth after all. Instead of curing a problem that a single movie caused, the mechanism cascades into series of problems. This is what happens when people conduct their decisions with instinct rather than with logic.

Just days after the actual ultimatum, people has already begun protesting, making online petitions, create negative comments, and actually losing their business. Did anyone in the government ever thought of giving them compensation? I doubt it. And if they do, let’s say that there are 1.000 people losing their business over the internet in a month, with a 2 million income per head just from that business. That means the loss of roughly, 2 billion Rupiahs a month. In this country, 2 million Rupiahs can be a significant income addition for most homes. It does help the welfare. So, instead of squishing poverty and increasing welfare, we passively donated to the otherwise. I may not depend on Multiply for my primary income, but some people, if not many, really do. It’s a shame that our government put their rage (or someone else’s rage in this matter) above the needs of its people. And this is only the effect from Multiply, but what about all those RapidShare premium accounts? Who will refund them? The government? Yeah, sure. The electric company doesn’t even have a payback program to the people, why would they concern about some people’s RapidShare accounts?

And there we are, ten steps backward in the IT industry. It is probably safe for me to say that all the years that we spent to build the international trust towards our country, is potentially ruined. All that just because we neglected to understand and wrongfully decide what to do.

Avianto, a friend of mine, has a very-well-put post up on his blog, and in short, I couldn’t agree more with him. Regardless of what the movie is all about, to me, blocking YouTube and the rest of the list is probably the most childish act I’ve ever seen in this reformation era. Besides, just like porn, the thing that’s been in hot debate for decades, perhaps, blocking access to a certain thing does not mean that people would stop looking for other ways to get it.