I had the chance to watch Merantau movie workshop. It was on short notice as I read the promotion one day before (and I thought it was some kinda secret exclusive movie premiere). It was basically just meet and greet, trailer and confidential promo viewing.

I got to see the director (Mr Evans), the producer (Ario Sagantoro), main actors – I saw Iko, Yayan(the actor not the character) and the legendary Christine Hakim (so funny my friend didnt notice Iko and Christine Hakim by her side). This show was hosted by a popular host (I dont remember his name since I dont watch television) and he did a good job. They started of by showing some demo of silek harimau (Iko) and , this was the best part, they brought a silat expert (Ade) and the movie choreographer (Edwel Datuk Rajo Gampo Alam)!! Mr Ade explained the current exposure of silat worldwide including the rise of Vietnam di dunia persilatan. Mr Edwel gave a lot of info about silek harimau, how they were exclusively taught (originally silek harimau was the weapon of the king’s special guards).

Next, meet and greet. Iko was too shy (I feel sorry for the fan girls). Yayan told about his inability to smile (and the host cleverly made joke about this when a girl was about to get a souvenir from him). Mr Evans told about his interest in silat and how he finally decided to make this movie with the producer and Christine Hakim (and she ranted about current movie trends in this country and our appreciation for our own culture for a long time, mostly I agree with). Funny thing when the host asked Mr Evans to do some silat.

Mr Evans told us that most actors has martial background (like Iko with silat betawi, or Laurent Buson with shaolin!!). Aside from initial performance by Iko, we also got to watch silek demonstration in pair, Yayan with Iko and Mr Edwel with Iko (funny act by Iko at the end of demonstration).

I give an early thanks to Mr Evans for showing much interest in our culture. Hopefully this will make our current generation do the same and look for an exotic material of our own rather than foreign-made one. Maybe I should pick my saluang up again.

Well, to complete the experience. I got a lot of movie souvenirs and a ticket-for-two Merantau premiere. Now I need to find a date…

EDIT : I forgot to mention that Edwel Datuk Rajo Gampo Alam was the choreographer on Sengsara Membawa Nikmat. He made Sandy Nayoan cry.

gNewSense 2.2 is now available.

And add these lines into your source list if you want to try IceCat.
deb http://gnuzilla.gnu.org/download/debian deltah-icecat universe main
deb-src http://gnuzilla.gnu.org/download/debian deltah-icecat universe main


I need a new hard drive…

I like digging through Slashdot’s comments. You can get a very good information and knowledge beyond the original article, or simply fall off your seat laughing so hard at witty one-liner. But sometimes you can get what is needed to reaffirm your faith. This comment was done by #777677. Big wall of text coming right up (you’ve been warned).

That’s not really paranoia. In fact marketers have a word for it; they call it “mindshare”. There are related concepts. For example, what is advertising other than the manipulation of behavior (convincing you to do something you may not have done had you not seen the ad) brought about by “planting a message in everyone’s head”? Advertisers will use humor, half-truths, small children, etc. to get you to associate laughter, an inaccurate but convenient worldview, or paternalistic/maternalistic feelings and instincts with their products. Absolutely nothing is sacred to them; nothing is so good or wholesome or precious or innocent or sacred that they won’t use it as a tool to create an emotional association that allows them to implant a suggestion. They don’t see you as a human being who is equal to them and worthy of respect. They can’t, because if they saw you that way, they would be disinclined to manipulate you. They see you as a dehumanized resource to be mined just like so much coal or metallic ore. This is a good fit with the nature of a corporation and the way it calls on human beings to become interchangable parts in its machinery. Beings who are individuals and worthy of love and respect are not interchangable parts in a faceless machine.

If a company sees an increase in sales immediately following an advertising campaign, something has happened other than customers proactively considering all available options and choosing the best solution for their needs based on objective criteria. If the customers were doing that, no advertisement of any kind would change their minds because the dialog of a TV commercial does not change their needs or the facts of their situation. That something that has happened is manipulation by suggestion.

What you call paranoia is the realization that anyone willing to treat people in such an alienated, dehumanized fashion does this because he fancies himself to be their master. As mindless, sheeplike, obsessed with conformity, and unfamiliar with critical thinking as most people have become (yes I do level this charge; do you doubt it?), such a person is unfortunately correct in many cases. I realize that our current economy depends on this system and that the people participating in it are mostly well-meaning and ignorant of the damage that it does because it is difficult to quantify. You can’t really assign a numer or an equation to it and our culture is terrible at handling anything for which this is the case because we celebrate cleverness but not wisdom.

Lots of people seem like they want to believe that there are no downsides to our current way of life. I am merely saying that we hear about the benefits of this system all the time; what so few are willing to discuss are its costs. No one is fully informed without a solid understanding of both the benefits and the costs. You were right, in a way, that it was being taken “out on an emotional limb”, but that’s because the manipulation upon which much of the modern economy is based is primarily accomplished by emotional impact. Contrast that with persuasion, which is done dispassionately with facts and reasoning, and you can then discern the motivation with ease.

This entry is about the book, not the movie.

Well I finally had the chance to read one of the most popular books in twentieth century. This book is ranked number one by the British librarians on “Which book should every adult read before they die?”. This is my first attempt to review a book, so please be gentle on critics. And as usual, my reviews are always spoiler free.

Theme
It’s very clear that this book talks about racial injustice. However I feel some kind of reluctance to give that as an answer if I were ever asked about this book’s theme. It is injustice to describe the book in a couple words. And it won’t cover all of good things in this book. So I add “family”, “coming out of age” and even “children education” just to make it broader. You will never know, maybe there is still a person who uses grep to choose his books.

Plot
I think the first half of the book focused on developing the characters and their backgrounds. I took a long time reading this part. It contains a pretty good amount of Middle English words so paying Merriem-Webster a visit was a must (or not). Added to that a history lesson about America and some Christians stuff I didn’t get. As soon as the main conflict started, it’s a downhill run.

Characters
The character were well developed throughout the book. Seeing the character interactions really gave you a warm feeling. Seriously. I guess I have to put some characters explanation here. First, our racial hero, Atticus Finch. This single father is a self-claimed bad parent. So he decided to teach his children by example. I don’t think there is a father in the history of fiction that can beat him (please forgive my melodramatic mood). Second, Jean Louise Finch (or Scout). This is a bright kid. At first I am kinda confused why a girl smart enough to deduct his brother motive by his sentence can not understand a simple matter. If you look at the start of the book, it is clear that the main character narrates the story as a flashback. So in the book, you will see two kind of her sentences of thought. One as a child (innocent), and one as a grown woman (omniscient).

Why (not) read this?
First, this book has a lot of moral lessons on a lot of subjects. And they are all well put. You will not feel like being preached. I frequently found myself smiling when finding a good lesson in the book. Second, it really moves your heart. Well this one is amazing. It did not move my heart by a descriptive sad scene spanned for pages. It simply tells you a story.

Conclusion
I must watch the movie now, there is no other way. It is simply a book every adult should read before they die.

Wow just wow…

Not so long ago I talked about my instrument-less condition. And just today I received a very interesting offer.

A friend of mine, a fellow musician, wants to sold one of his axe. After taking a look at it, I felt the urge of consumerism. I, with that overflowing feeling, made the deal with him that I’m gonna buy it next month. For some time, I felt really excited. The instrument looks great and I think, of course this is just a subjective opinion, it would look great on me too. And the best part is I don’t have to deal or make transaction with some dealers.

In a few minutes, I finally regained my consciousness. I imagined if I buy an electric instrument like that, can I really take care of it? Looking at how miserable my previous guitars ended, it was not hard to answer that. This is a kind of thing that constantly require your love and care. This is not a toy for a carefree person. Added to that, it is an electric one. That means it requires extra works to set it up perfectly as you wish. And I never had previous experience with it. To make it worse, I don’t think I have much skill (I never did anyway) and passion to play it anymore.

The doubt had taken over. I apologized to him and canceled the deal. So now he can offer the gear to someone else while I am rethinking about this

Just when I thought world domination drew nigh, shit happened. The lifetime partner of the captain, (arguably) best support player, weirdest ward placer, non-glory-chaser melen decided to retire from professional gaming. Sad news, not just to our country.

Take a look at this testimonial, written out of sheer respect.

The sign of things to come begins 3 years ago when you added my msn (it would normally be the other way around) and started asking the contacts of all good teams from me. I did not know why I helped a total stranger from a foreign country then but I did because the fact that you reached me (3 years ago) to get these information shows how serious you take all this and really strives to be the best in what you do. You opened my eyes that the Dota playing field is global now and beating the world requires training partners around the world, not just your own LAN scene.

From then on, news started to spread about this new Xcn team that seems unbeatable from the contacts I gave out that fateful day to no surprise from me. To be able to command a team of players (arguably) better than yourself skillwise and inspire respect (sometimes fear) among the best of teams in memory (Ct-ROA , Kingsurf , Zenith , Flow) in and off the game is no easy feat. The SMM 2006 winning team leader WN-SK.M4gi once told me that each 5 in a team must have his own purpose and your purpose is undeniably crucial and perhaps more important than Yamateh in Kingsurf.

The team you form remains (at least for me) a model team for all teams. A team that can walk into any tournament and has a high chance of winning it no matter which teams are present. That aura of invincibility remains since our first meeting IRL at ACG 2007 is still felt at the SMM tourney where everyone ranks you all as favourites after Day 1 of the competition.
With that kind of aura, its amazing that there are basically no bad blood from the community in general to you guys, only massive amount of respect and a sense of sad inevitability of not being able to catch up with such a superior team in every way.

Perhaps the greatest compliment comes from your greatest rival, Kingsurf. Although you both never directly spoke, Papaxiong can almost be certain that both teams has started researching each other since their first meeting 2 years ago and knew each other so thorough to a level that no other team can claim. The euphora of beating each other could be equivalent of winning the whole tournament itself. I always think that the focus on your team in each tournament creates another hurdle for themselves in winning the tournament itself. News of your retirement is greeted with a simple “sigh” from him as if he lost a good friend in battle. I know he will miss the draft battles he waged with you since 2 years ago , would you?

Your retirement for Dota is definitely a huge loss to the Dota community , not only for Indonesia and Asia, the world as well. Though I would selfishly tried to stop you from doing it, but to do that is asking too much from a man who has given so much to the game we all loved. With your obvious talents, I am sure you will succeed anywhere in life.

Good luck in your future endeavors my friend, melen.

Yes good luck to you melen. Thanks for making our country known in professional gaming. I may sound to pessimistic here but this will probably be the last entry about the best Indonesian gaming team. I really doubt they can find his replacement (not so soon). Years of hard works and understanding….

Now its time to farm money, not farm creeps anymore

This is just too big.

Press release
Detailed background
The complaint

Now, now. You call copyright violation “piracy”. What should we call copyleft violation?

It’s been a very long time  since I broke my guitar. If I take my inactivity, it’s probably years since I played guitar passionately. After some vacuum, I decided, ‘Hey, maybe it’s time for me to pick another instrument’. But which instrument? I always have a thing for keyboard instruments. You don’t need a motor skill coordination on both hands when producing a note. But being a guitar player, I found the keyboard’s composition was so…”unfair” to accidentals. I like the way the tones spread over a fretboard better than over a keyboard. I thought I want something more traditional and more exotic to be my instrument of choice…

After asking around, I finally found one of my friends who was gonna go ‘mudik’. That was how I get the instrument. However, purchasing a non-modern instrument, in my opinion, requires the buyer to purchase it directly. You won’t find any clear how-tos on the internet, so you have to ask the vendor how to play it properly. Did my friend ask? Yes. Was he capable to show me? No. These are the instruments.

The small one is just a mere traditional version of a recorder. The big one (approx. 60 centimeters) is the one I wanted. All that left is just learning the instrument. However there are a lot of things that make the quest almost impossible.

1. The forgotten factor of a wind instrument. You need a motor skill coordination on several fingers when producing a note.
2. How to play. I don’t have any slightest idea to play (the big one). I feel like blowing a water pipe. You have to blow it in the right angel, that’s my friend’s wisdom. After mimicking some guys at youtube, I finally can make some almost decent sound coming out of it. It’s been over a month, and I can only made a quality sound once…by accident. The internet told me that you need at least a year just to learn how to blow it properly.
3. Continuous sound. This is the biggest obstacle. The instrument is meant to be played continuously and it comes without some airbag mechanism (like Scottish bagpipe). It would take a very long time just to gain a circular breathing ability.

Well I think it’s extremely hard to play it at a decent level, even when you do not count #3. So I have to resort to something else.

After hearing Stephen Sondheim’s contrapuntal compositions (these are awesome), I thought ‘Hey, maybe I can try to sing it’. You know, I feel closer with the notes produced with my own voice than any other instruments. I am not a natural singer. I have to put a lot of my concentration just to reach a correct pitch and maintain it (if it’s a long note). So no matter how bad my voice is, I feel a great sense of achievement producing some tones. I feel kinda tired if I try to sing an entire song properly and with decent pronounciation. So for the time being, until I buy another instrument,I am gonna just use my voice to indulge my musical needs. I will sing any genre. Don’t worry I’ll keep it as private as possible so you won’t be disturbed.

Well before telling you the story, I’m gonna give you some background information. I usually actively followed the International (north american and european) competitive dota scene. When Asian teams started to show their fangs (hmm internet connection and FLOOD were problems), for some reasons, I stopped following the news. This was the time when XcN, Indonesian dota team, gained a lot of reputation since the start of their arch-rivalry with Malaysian Kingsurf (the epic game when they beat Ks in a very heroic, funny, entertaining series of games).

One year (more or less) has passed. This friend of mine told me that some foreign (Sweden) pro-gaming team (fnatic) has acquired XcN as their dota team (around August this year)! WOW! Good fucking game. They already showed great performances even when theyre not fully professional. With this, they dont have to worry about anything else aside from their game. Too bad, stamx, one of their original members left the team. Oh yeah, “PinkPriestess” Rinoa was appointed as their manager. With this pro shit, they will never have any problem with US Embassy EVER AGAIN.

Their profile. Neo, stamx replacement, is already replaced by Koala.
Recruitment news on local site. Plus their boss and manager’s comment in Bahasa Indonesia.

Just when I heard this great news, this new fnatic dota team was already in the MGC 2008 tournament. They lost their first match, so they had to fight in lower bracket. So to cut the story short, THEY WON!

Photos and replay pack from MGC 2008 (youll have to register. Replay pack also available on sgamer.com)

This is their third LAN tourneys. They won all of them.
Go fnatic! You have our flag in front of your names!!

“yamateh, gg back u” –xcn.ritter

this on imdb (LOL the board is so funny. mostly they talk by quoting the lyrics. the boards CONTAINS SPOILER!)

Okay this movie turned out to be a lot better than I expected.  It consists a lot of my favorite stuff. Crime, good music and dark comedy to name a few. So lets try to break it down.

Not usual musical

Be warned. Most musicals tend to stop the plot for the singing part(and dancing Bollywood style).  This movie is like opera or broadway musical, injecting the songs cleanly through the dialog. Characters start to sing suddenly but it timed perfectly with subtle background music.

Directing

Well I dont know much of directing. I can only say I love the camera works. It makes a simple scene looks beautiful. Tim decided to make this a lot more realistic so some people said it has less comedy than its original version.

Casts

Just great. Oh before I forget, today is one of the actor’s birthday! The actors are the reason why I wanted to watch this movie. Depp, Rickman, Bonham-Carter, Spall ( three of them also play  Harry Potter characters. What will happen if Thompson or Staunton got the part and played as Ms Lovett. Both are good actress, but I prefer Thompson), Borat, a kid with a good voice, old woman, and a young couple. Theres nothing much to say about most of them (known actors). They show their usual quality. I read on IMDB that Borat(yeah Im lazy to write his full name) sang an entire score on audition, and hired his barber as his coach. Bonham-Carter also took an extensive vocal lessons. If I have to choose my favorite character, It will be Ms Lovett by Bonham-Carter (the corpse-on-the-chest reaction was soo funny). All characters can sing pretty well (IMO).

Music and Lyric

Ah the one that made this ride excellent. So many great lyrics. Either it’s funny as hell, so witty , or both! Maybe theres alot more comedy on the lyrics that I dont get. I should watch this again. The movie used the original Sondheim music. Some songs didnt make it to the movie. Some got cut down. Now I am looking for these songs on the internet…they are must have. Memorable funny songs are The worst pies in London (syncophated singing while baking), miracle elixir(good voice by the kid), and meat-discussion song(the funniest and wittiest of all).

Plot

The plot is very simple but the conflicts were good. And since the lyrics was part of dialog, you dont have to wait for the song to finish to continue the plot since it never stops. I like the ending. I dont like put to much detail. It will ruin your experience.

Conclusion

If you like, or try to like opera/broadway this can be a good watch. Good music and good actors. I cant wait to watch Borat playing as Freddy Mercury.