May the Fourth be With You, You, You, and You all *nunjuk foto bonus dari beli album Heavy Rotation*

Beberapa hari yang lalu, temen kantor saya nanya “Ru, nih lu pilih yang mana?,” sambil nyodorin kertas bertuliskan nama kota dan tanggal. Saya agak loading sambil mikir, “apa nih.” Dan ternyata itu adalah jadwal diadakannya sebuah acara kantor saya di beberapa kota di luar Jawa . Setelah ngeh, saya liat lagi tanggal diadakan acara tersebut, saya terkesiap (tsaaahhh), ternyata tanggalnya itu tanggal 4 & 5 Juli. Saya langsung deh gak mau, kenapa coba? Iya, tanggal 4 itu kan Hari Kemerdekaan United States of America, dan Hari Kemenangan Manusia Bumi Melawan Alien menurut film Independence Day, lagian itu juga ngepasin sama tanggal konser JKT48. Jadi, dear kantor, maapin saya yah udah membangkang (dikit) heheheh tapi saya udah ada janji sama dedek-dedek unyu di Tennis Indoor, gimana dong :D.

Jadi yah, tanggal 4 Juli akhirnya datang juga. Sore itu saya ngacir langsung dari kantor, tenggo (teng langsung go) nebeng si Sasha, anak Forkem, naik motor deh mengarungi macetnya Jakarta di rush hour (jam 5 vroooh, jarang-jarang saya pulang kantor tepat waktu LOL). Singkat cerita, dengan pantat yang pegel, saya nyampe juga di Tennis Indoor Senayan, dapet duduk di row belakang (kalah sama ABG yang udah ngantri masuk dari sore, bahkan dari mulai show 2 selesai). Oya saya sama Sasha nonton show ke 3, dan di konser ini semua dapet tempat duduk, bahkan yang di bagian festival. Jauh sebelum nonton, si Sasha selalu ngingetin saya, “Ru, gimana, lu udah siap mental belom?,” saya sih nyengir-nyengir aja sambil bilang “emangnya mau sunatan apa, butuh siap mental”  (iya iya, saya sunatnya pas udah gede karena kelamaan nyiapin mental *confession bear meme.jpg*).

Pukul 7 lebih, konser dimulai, oh iya sebelum konser dimulai, para penonton yang pada bosen iseng bikin wave sambil melambai-lambaikan lightstick warna-warni (kayaknya salah satu item wajib buat dateng di konser-konser). Konser pun dimulai dengan opening (menurut anak-anak di yang duduk belakang saya, ada istilahnya sendiri, saya lupa hehe) si Nabilah, dengan R cedalnya, mengucapkan selamat datang dan menjelaskan peraturan-peraturan konser. Terus abis itu Team J (kalo gak salah) muncul dengan lagu…aduh saya lupa (iya maaf saya fans nubi gan :peace), pokoknya seru deh. Mereka kadang tampil bareng-bareng (51 orang, gabungan gen 1 dan gen 2), kadang dibagi dalam tim (tim J, tim KIII), dan kadang cuma beberapa orang aja (yang menurut yang dibisikin oleh si Sasha ke saya, namanya unit song).  Saya sebagai nubi, menikmati konser dengan mengangguk-angguk ngikutin musiknya aja, sementara fans-fans lain pada teriak chant dalam bahasa Jepang sembari melambai-lambaikan lightstick sesuai dengan peraturan yang berlaku (halah…apa dah). Etapi bener lho, gerakannya melambaikan lightstick semua seragam, ada kaya koreonya gitu deh. Tapi dibanding fans K-pop yang nge-chants berbeda-beda tergantung lagu, chants para fans JKT48 ini kalo saya denger ya sama untuk beberapa lagu (bukan ngadu fans K-pop sama fans JKT48 lhoh ini, sumpah dah hehehe)

Walaupun fans nubi, gini-gini saya juga agak hapal dengan para anggota-anggota JKT48 lho *naikin kerah, muter jambul ala lupus*. Ada Beby yang dance-nya niat banget sampe kelihatan dia keringetnya paling banyak. Ada Ghaida yang tomboy abis, Kinal yang keren, Shanju yang kelihatan pro dengan berbagai macam ekspresinya, Cigul yang lucu dan minta dikarungin, Haruka si Jepang yang centil dan rame, Ve yang badai dan kharismatik, dan lain-lain lah, banyak. Karena mereka masih anak-anak remaja, dan mungkin juga karena lagu-lagu yang ceria, jadi suasana konsernya terkesan fun. Para anggota JKT48 juga kelihatan seneng, walaupun dalam dua hari ini mereka mengadakan 3 konser yang durasinya sekitar 2,5 jam per konser. Untuk selingan, dan mungkin ngasih waktu mereka istirahat, di sela-sela lagu, ada sesi ngobrol nya, dan games. Pokoknya seru deh itu konsernya, walaupun pas udah mau bubaran dan penonton pada teriak-teriak minta encore, penonton di belakang saya terlalu bersemangat teriak sampe muncrat ke saya -____-. Overall, the show was very fun, nggak nyesel deh nontonnya.

2,5 jam terasa sebentar, dan saya harus pulang deh, balik ke kos dan membayar penalty kepada istri saya karena nonton konser ini: mijitin dia 5 jam huahahahaha *ketawa pedih*. Oh iya, di jalan pulang, si Sasha cerita bahwa salah satu anggota JKT48, Rena Nozawa, yang dipindah ke AKB48 di Jepang sana itu anak seorang wartawan, kontributor salah satu koran Jepang di Indonesia. Dan setelah saya inget-inget, saya sering berkirim email atau undangan acara kantor dengan wartawan asing di Indonesia, dan salah satunya ada yang bernama Koji Nozawa. Damn, coba saya tahu lebih cepat, sekarang si wartawan udah dipindah ke Jepang deh. Setelah pernah satu kosan dengan salah satu anggota Cherrybelle dan keluarganya, ternyata saya juga sering email-email-an dengan ayah dari salah satu anggota JKT48 (terus kenapa Ru?).

PS: Tapi walaupun terhibur sama dedek-dedek unyu itu, gak ada yang ngalahin saat pulang ke rumah dan bisa peluk istri dan calon dedek di perut dengan hangat. Terimakasih ya Yeobo, dedek, belajar yang pinter ya, besok gede biar bisa jadi idol grup *lhah.*

Apa Sih Mimpi Kamu?

What is your ambition?

What is your dream?

Pasti sering, atau paling nggak, pernah ditanya pertanyaan seperti ini kan? Entah saat di kelas, saat melamar pekerjaan, saat diwawancara, ataupun saat ketemu sama kakak kelas yang pengen ngajak kamu kamu jadi downline  MLM dia. Kemarin pas saya ikut diklat, pertanyaan itu muncul. Jawaban yang diutarakan teman-teman saya beragam namun anehnya terdapat pola yang agak bisa ditebak. Ibu-ibu mayoritas menjawab “menjadi ibu yang baik,” bapak-bapak jawabannya “jadi sukses dalam pekerjaan,” para cewek-cewek dan cowok-cowok yang belum menikah kebanyakan jawabannya “menjadi sukses.” Perlu diketahui, semua peserta diklat itu kolega di kantor saya, jadi semua sudah bekerja.

Buat saya, pertanyaan ini adalah salah satu pertanyaan yang sulit dijawab. Iya, “merencanakan” mungkin belum masuk ke dalam kamus istilah saya. Saya  selalu mengikuti arah, plin-plan, nggak suka berencana, go with the flow kata orang sih, (mungkin) karena takut “bertanggungjawab,” berkomitmen terhadap rencana yang sudah dibuat? Hhhmmmm mungkin.

NB: pengen tahu jawaban saya pas dikasih pertanyaan itu di diklat? Jawaban saya “pengen nonton Liverpool FC di Anfield Stadium” J

kerisik daun bambu

kerisik daun bambu
jentik air hujan
bikin ingat kamu
yang di seberang lautan

matahari kita sama
tapi di sini nggak ada
hujan......

di sana nggak hujan?
semoga tuhan kasih hujan
biar kamu kangen aku

tapi kerisik daun bambu
itu privilese ku
di sana tak ada bukan?

Jakarta, 23 Januari 2013, ba'da ashar

Write Something, Haru!

21/12/2012

Ay-up mate! How’s your dooms day? Hehehehe. It rained hard just now, with strong wind and loud thunders; pretty much a dooms-day-like weather isn’t it? :D. Anyway, it has been bazillion years since the last time I managed to type several words for this blog hehehehe. Been quite busy, you know, gaming, SNSD-ing, procrastinating, I just can’t keep up. Lately my mind got stuck (even now), cannot find anything to write, until my friend asked me when will I write again for my blog (she’s the only reader of my blog, I presume). And then, here I am, having force-close my game window because my team got lost (twice), I then force myself to write. To be frank, I have no clue of what to write.

This year end, like any other year, the office is busy. I have to keep up the pace. Everybody’s in a rush, busy, buried in pile of documents. Again, I have to keep up, matching their pace. But one that I cannot stand is that business brings out stress, stress leads to bad temper. I complained a lot in twitter, that I don’t like busy people. Busy people are sensitive, short tempered, and no fun. Quite a few times I had to feel a little offended. At some point, I committed to not speak any words to those offended me, but yeah blame me; I couldn’t resist other’s humble smile. At the non-busy time, when the pressure lowers, those busy people are slowly getting more and more stable, and what choice did I have when they become normal and wear again their smile? Keep the silence pledge? I don’t think so. Yeah that’s life (well, I force-closed this paragraph with a big thing, life. Guess I lost for words. hahahaha).

Big things happened in this last months of 2012. On September 22^nd, a huge concert was held in Jakarta, the SMTown concert. A concert featured several artists from SM Management, a renowned Korean artist management. My reason to attend this concert was obvious: seeing my favorite K-Pop idols personally. And I bet you know who they are, yes the famous Girls’ Generation, and F(x), two well known girlbands. The concert was awesome, the atmosphere was impressive. I hope I have more chances to attend such concert.

And the last October, the 29^th to be exact, I officially married the girl I dated for nearly 7 years. This was an unforgettable moment, the moment of truth, like a dream came true. Standing with your beloved ones, shaking the hands of those humbly and sincerely congratulated your big day; it was such an experience. An experience I treasured so much, but this is an experience I wish I would never have anymore.  One thing dude, when you got asked “when will you get married” often, just be cool, for eventually your time will come. It is never too late, nor too early; it comes just when it should come. Don’t get married because anyone tells you to, but because you want to J.

Dude, what did I smoke? How on earth I got to this point? Talking about marriage. Hehehehe. Guess I got to finish here ;). Oke then, have a great holiday folks! Don’t eat all your food, the apocalypse seems to be canceled hehehehe.

English: Fascinatingly Inconsistent

“There’s nothing constant in this world but inconsistency” – Jonathan Swift

Indeed, inconsistency is what makes up the world. We may find consistency in nearly all aspect of this life, even in language. We have learnt English since elementary school, some of us even earlier, but we learnt it for granted. Thus, we seldom realize that some consistencies occur in this language. Dr. Albrecht Classen, a linguist from The University of Arizona, points out several fun and entertaining inconsistencies in English that will put us in awe and make us shout “how can I missed that” or “seriously.”

In his “English Language: Crazy Inconsistencies,” Dr. Classen shows us that an English word may come with different meaning, such as the word “dessert” in this sentence:

The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert

There are two exactly identical words and one nearly identical word in the sentence; but those three words have totally different meaning. The first desert means to leave or to abandon while the second desert means the barren or desolate area especially the dry and often sandy ones. And the other dessert (with double s) means the dish served as the last course of a meal.

In the other examples, we are shown with some interesting facts that there is no egg in eggplant, neither pines nor apples in pineapples, English muffin is not originated from English, French fries in not French. Also, we will find paradoxes in the fact that quicksand is slow, a boxing ring is square, and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor a pig.

Do you ever have a nose that runs and feet that smell? Do you ever wonder if a vegetarian eats only vegetable then what does a humanitarian eat? How can a fat chance and a slim chance are the same? Why can a wise man and a wise guy be opposites? A wise man is a wise and trusted guide and advisor while a wise guy is an upstart who makes conceited, sardonic, insolent comments. Why is put pronounced as /pʊt/ while cut is pronounced as /kʌt/? Why does alarm go off when it rings?

Those are some of the million unique features of English. After all, language is the product of human’s intelligences, not a computer’s, thus inconsistencies may occur here and there. From here on, be aware of those unique features in every language you learn, and then you will find the fun in learning the language.

Compiled from various sources

Language after Twitter

Yes, this up-to-140-characters long microblogging site known as Twitter is gaining massive popularity these days, not only in United State of America, from which the founder of the site, Jack Dorsey, is originated, but also in the whole world that it ended the domination of Facebook in social media realm. Since the day it was created in March 2006, it has been rapidly developed as now there are over 500 million active users with more than 340 million tweets generated daily. The popularity of the site inevitably influences people’s social aspects. Language is among those that are not immune to the influence. In fact, many have said that language suffers most due to the limitation of 140 characters. Ralph Fiennes, a Hollywood actor said that modern language is being eroded, and he blamed “a world of truncated sentences, soundbites and Twitter.” The modern age people often find difficulties in the sentence with more than one clause and the words of more than two syllables. For example, the density of Shakespeare text can be a challenge in a way for the younger generation that perhaps the people of few generations ago did not have. Even the famous Linguist, Noam Chomsky also mentioned Twitter lingo* as “very shallow communication” and regarded it as superficial “it requires a very brief, concise form of thought and so on that tends toward superficiality and draws people away from real serious communication. It is not a medium of a serious interchange.”

In contrary, some believe that Twitter is not ruining language but in fact it enriches it and makes it better. Aside of the abbreviations and the substituted words as well as the leetspeak*, Twitter also contributes new phrases or terms that are used both online and offline. These specific phrases allow people across the world to connect and interact in specific topics. As for scientist, those phrases enable them to easily gather information from Twitter just by search those phrases or words in it. Twitter is full of a variety of language that people may don’t understand, however the people from around the world can converse and interact using those specific Twitter terms or phrases that are widely known. In fact some Twitter words are also adopted in English dictionaries such as Oxford Learner Dictionary that lists the word “retweet” and “hashtag” as meaningful words.

For centuries, human’s culture is changing, evolving, and thus resulting in various social changes that affect our way of life and not to mention the language. The new communication era, not only via Twitter but also other means of communication such as short messages or telegraph, changes our communication attitude thus resulting in language shaping. Is it bad or good? You decide. After all a surviving language is an evolving language.

@haru_haruu

*lingo: the vocabulary of a particular field of interest (Merriam Websters Dictionary)

*leetspeak: a communication where a user replaces letters for numbers or other characters (www.computerhope.com)

Digital Life?

Firstly, sing me a happy birthday! I’m the birthday boy today J. Celebrating the first day I breathed the open air of the world. Thanks to facebook for making the remembering other’s birthday easier, and thanks for giving me the things everybody always have these days on their birthday, the birthday greetings….on the wall, or now they call it timeline. Thank you for all the timeline writers, I do appreciate your wishes and greetings!! You rock!!

So here it came, once the facebook did its job…the greetings flooded my days. People faraway, wrote on my timeline, people near me, congratulated me..shook my hand…with their loveliest smiles I saw today, some did both…congratulate me offline and online. Not saying it on facebook is not “afdol” they said, and I was like…uummmm it works the other way around for me. I know, it was meant to be a joke, but let’s see from the “nynyir” point of view :D ….I mean if you have done the greeting offline (directly by meeting in the real world) then why would you need to say it in the online world? The thing is, for me, the one does matter most is letting the person to whom you want to congratulate your feeling, not letting everyone on facebook knows that you have congratulated someone on his birthday. It’s not like I don’t like them post the greeting on my timeline, and it’s not that saying happy birthday twice, offline and online, is bad…but yeah…saying it is not “afdol” really surprised me…. One thing crossed my mind is, has the digital world become that important? Some said facebook brings the far ones closer, and the close ones farther, and yeah…sadly it is true. Frankly, I was there…I used to be at the time when I communicate with the person about 3 meters away from me using facebook J. If  that is bad enough, I tell you what’s worse….the public display of affection in the social media…like saying I love you, oh I need you, oh I want to be always be with you…and other creepy things on social media when they have more private means of communicating like messaging or telephone. I mean, yeah, once a while..it is okay…but repeating it every minute and every day is like shouting to everybody you are eating donuts while everybody has already known/seen you are eating… it is not necessary. Then maybe you will say “I write what I want to write, it is my space, my account” yes you are right…and in the other side “I respond to what I want to, to what I see, to what is responsible of making me feel certain 

feeling”…..indeed, it is called SOCIAL media for a reason. Social means you, like it or not, will have too deal with others, communicate with others, interact with other, thus what you do will, more or less, have effect to others.

The digital life really gets more and more “important”…..even sometimes the real life gets less important than that. How many times I see people say certain things in facebook or twitter at certain occasions like “happy mother’s day/father’s day” for example…when they know, neither the father nor mother has facebook/twitter account… ridiculous isn’t it? What do they want? Show the love to the father/mother, or show other that they love the father/mother? If they mean the former, why don’t they just tell them directly…posting something on facebook for someone that doesn’t have facebook account is just not making any sense. Once, I got a chain message that said “send it to 10 (or..umm I don’t really remember the amount), if you don’t then you don’t love your parents” ---- that was just outrageous…how can you measure the love to parents just by how much you care to send a silly message to certain number of people. Come on……it is okay to have a digital life…but live it responsibly, and remember….no digital friendship better than the real one.


PS: My birthday is yesterday, June 18....I wrote it yesterday, and posted it just now...so yeah, when you read the first paragraph, pretend you are on June 18 ya hehehe