I Am A Celebrity

by Eko Prasetyo @ 6:30 PM For this year alone, I have been in local newspapers (by local I mean provincial wide) THREE TIMES! The first two are related to photography, and the last one was related to the fact that I spoke in front of 200+ petroleum engineering students, giving them some education, freely. What have I done to deserve this spotlight? Surely something, right ;) ? Wohoo! I am celebrity! | My Alter Ego | Blogroll Me! | 0 blogger comments | | |

Forex Fellowship

by Eko Prasetyo @ 2:06 PM I don't know what to write, but I want to write something, so I write this post.  Let's see, what should I write.... What about my 77%+ loss on Forex last Friday? That is, boys and girls, the result of a forex trader being greedy gambler. When I was being a technical trader, I can change 1.1 to 6.6 in 2.5 months, but when I was a gambler, I changed 1006 to US$ 237 to in a blink of an eye. Ladies and Gentlemen, if you are forex traders, don't gamble. What's next?  What about Fellowship? This D&D styled fantasy game is the closest you can get on facebook to playing pen-and-paper styled RPG. It has unique playable races: Faun and Undead. Really, UNDEAD! As in people who has died and decided to be alive again. They are around, normally unliving among the people. One of them even decided to become pharmacists and can be found selling healing potions and magic scrolls. The others are standard Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs. The classes are thieves, mages, knights, warriors, clerics, and hunters. The quests are basic of one single type: monster killing. Looks boring, but strangely this type is addictive to me. I guess fighting and making strategies are two things that can be combined to please me. Try it. it's good.  Another game that is built upon Fellowship engine is Underworld. It feels the same, but using mafia-type characters and quests as its world. And oh yeah, I have updated comics on my little project. Tales of Vanima Forest, A Present:Tales of Valeshka, and White Dragon are updated. Thanks for your visit there. | My Alter Ego | Blogroll Me! | 1 blogger comments | | |

The Regression of Soesilo Bambang Yudhoyono

by Eko Prasetyo @ 5:53 PM Once an icon of Indonesia's renewal, Soesilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been slowly regressing into an icon of continuation of the old regime of Soeharto. He bowed down to the wishes of USA, he protected the donors of his party from the trial for corruptions, and he began to lay foundations for his dynasty to rule Indonesia by raising his son into prominence. His act of quickly kicked out of office two vice chairmen of the Corruption Eradication Comission, Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra, after they were forcefully captured by the police due to charges and quickly installing his own people to replace them showed that SBY wants to put this important Comission under his thrall to be molded as he pleases. His concerted effort together with Chief of Police and General Attorney quickly ignited a resistance force from 1.3 million of Indonesian facebook users. A man formed a group to support Bibit-Chandra and in two weeks, 1 million people joined the campaign, triggering a media circus of Chief of Police explaining his men acts with stupid logics and legal mumbo-jumbo. During this media circus, the General Attorney also acts like they are sure that Bibit-Chandra accepted a bribe because they have proofs: parking tickets and photos of the cars parked in the supposed place of bribe taking.  One public hearing of some recorded wiretap later, Chief of Police and General Attorney had their collective face smeared by Anggodo, little brother of Anggoro (the chinese taipan who bribed so many people he exiled himself to Singapore, the country that protects corruptors). Anggodo clearly, on some wiretap recordings, can be heard ordering police officers, notably Head of Police Criminal Investigation Bureau, the things he would like to have them write. Soon Anggodo got tangled into the media circus and turn it into a cesspool of lies, deceits, disgusting oaths, and bare stupidities. And what SBY did was washing his hands off the case and told an ad-hoc "verification comittee" to see to it and give recommendations and then left to enjoy sucking uncle sam's balls. Even after the comittee gave him some recommendations, SBY didn't do anything but gave speech that give absolutely no clear indications on what he wants to do. SBY, once again, washed his hands off. He need to stay away from his failing efforts to rule CEC and focusing on evading another potential bomb: The Century Bank Bailout. 6.7 billion rupiahs, roughly 600 million dollars, was poured into a cancerous bank who had shown no good intentions to be healthy and got robbed by its own owner. Said to be done to prevent "cascading failure of economic system", it was shown that the monetary authority had severed several of its own rules to help this stupid bank.  There are rumors that those 6.7 billion rupiahs were sapped through labyrinthine process by Democrat Party's treasurers to be used as their campaign money. If this process got proven, then SBY will fall along with the entire Democrat Party. SBY swore his innocence and has been dodging this accusations for weeks, without actually giving out proofs of his innocences. The former governor of Bank Indonesia, now Vice President, had said over and over again that during the turbulent world financial crisis (and surprisingly healthy Indonesia's condition), Century Bank's ailment need to be cured instantly. This didn't sit well with Financial Auditor Authority of Indonesia who found inconsistencies and omissions done by Bank Indonesia in regards of this sick but favored Bank. If SBY shows no clear acts for both Bibit-Chandra and Century Bank problems, his rule might be seen as tainted and Democrat Party could be well join the Pariah rank of PDIP and Golkar. That if SBY has not been doing black ops to ensure Democrat Party victory in 2014. | My Alter Ego | Blogroll Me! | 0 blogger comments | | |

Faith and Sacrifice

by Eko Prasetyo @ 9:17 AM Happy Ied Al-Adha for muslim brothers and sisters all over the world. This is the day when we remember the faithful father who was willing to slit the throat of his beloved son. His faith so unwavering, his son's faith so soothing, and their willingness to follow Allah's Commands to the fault is inspiring. They questioned His Order minimally and did what they are told. For that unwavering faith, they are immortalized by the billions who follow their faiths. Ibrahim and Ismail are the greatest examples of faith so strong they are willing to kill themselves. But Allah was not willing for a father to kill a son, so he replaced Ismail with a strong, healthy, fat goat. Allah made them pioneer of the rites we Muslims are doing today: sacrifice lambs, goats, cows, camels, and other cattle but not for Allah but for our brothers and sisters who are not so lucky. Allah only want our pure intentions and not the meat and fur of the cattle. So follow Ibrahim and Ismail, make sacrifices with pure intentions to follow Allah only and you will be rewarded fully! | My Alter Ego | Blogroll Me! | 0 blogger comments | | |

Good Foods in Balikpapan

by Eko Prasetyo @ 10:51 AM Some of the good eating place in Balikpapan I found after one month living in Balikpapan: Rawon Empal (meat with black soup): At Balikpapan baru front commercial place, next to an electric shop. Rawon Empal from this place is soooo good it makes me always want to go there. They also sell Soto Ayam and Bakpau (meatbun). Ayam Goreng Presiden (President Fried Chicken): on Balikpapan Baru Fantasy Junction, try to locate this place. It is on the outer side of the Fantasy Junction near the road that lead to Sungai Ampal. The fried chicken in this place is so delicious it melts my mouth. Solaria on Hypermart Balikpapan: Rawon in this place is delicious. Try it if you go to Hypermart Balikpapan. Ayam Goreng Penyet: if you go from Sungai Ampal toward Index Furnishing direction, take a left turn and take the road toward Kimia Farma, but watch out for an eating place offering this ayam goreng penyet (squeezed fried chicken). Good taste, good price. Seqo Ayam Lawuh Lodo: If you go toward Sungai Ampal from Gunung Guntur or Karang Rejo, don't miss this place. Only open at night, placed right after the motorbike only fuelstation. The spiced fried chicken in this place is top notch! | My Alter Ego | Blogroll Me! | 0 blogger comments | | |

A Week of Masuk Angin and Et Cetera

by Eko Prasetyo @ 8:43 AM There are lotsa things happening for the last week. Many-many things. Let's see. From Monday to Wednesday I tried to replace my breakfast of Nasi Kuning (Yellow Rice) with four loaves of bread with jam and peanut butter. I can hold on for three days and but my body went haywire on the third night. At first I thought I was just tired. I reverted back to Nasi Kuning as breakfast but with no luck. For three days my head was pounding with headache. On Friday my back got hurt. This is the classic signs of "Masuk Angin (wind intrusion)". You won't find this in medical reference, this is one of those Only in Indonesia items :) The medical reference tells me about deposition of lactic acid on my body that is caused by cold draft of air conditioners or winds. Make sense. I drive motorbike each day to get me everywhere and causing me to be pounded by wind drafts on my chest. I have air conditioner on my house to cope with Balikpapan hot and humid climate. Plus, the rainy season seems to have come to Balikpapan.  So I decided to do what traditionally have been done by many people: back scratching. I applied warming balm on my temples, back of my neck, and my back and then scratch those places with a singaporean coin. Not much help there. When my cousin who accompanied me each night came home, I told him to scratch me because I have Masuk Angin. He then scrathed me. The results? I feel better and able to sleep deeper than previous three days. So deep, I awoke this morning at 7 a.m although I slept at 9 p.m last night. I slept for 10 hours. Probably because my body demands those lost sleep hours. Okay, enough about that. I lived in a row of newly or being built houses that are built close to each other. My neighboring house on my left has been undergoing expansion for more than week now. The pounding of hammers, the cutting of the woods, the grinding of the grindstones, the screamings of the working labors now accompany me each weekend. Not that I am that bothered with the sounds, I am simply worried that their works will collapse my walls because you can feel their pounding on my walls. Yeah, the house were built that close. This week also marked my first week returning to after office fun volley ball session after so many weeks absent. It was fun. We play simply for the laughs and to find some good sweat to let go that feel of cold and dryness we get after a day inside a cooled box that is our office. It has been a fun occassion for participants every thursday. Besides biking and walking, this is my only sport ;) Two guys come to my house yesterday's afternoon. They offered me curtain making to adore and protect my house. I agreed to their offers and but I told them that I can not pay them right away since I have budgeting allocations already for my wedding, my housing loan annuity, and day to day lives. They understand that and will be waiting for my call. Always good to have people with good skills come to offer their services directly at home. I have had a guy offered me to make a canopy on my carport but I refused cause I have no car, just a bike. I also had a guy offered me to make precipitation tank for my water supply but I refused cause the water supply is in adequate quality already. That's my update as Lord of A Small House :) | My Alter Ego | Blogroll Me! | 0 blogger comments | | |

Incompetencies and Snobs

by Eko Prasetyo @ 5:47 AM I work for a multinational company that is proud of their excellencies in work ethics and punctualities; a bastion of qualities, if you will. I have been working for this particular companies for a year and four months after having my tenure for other company of the same field but lesser remunerations (and qualities).   This week, from wednesday to thursday, I attented training on MERAK PEEP, a software that help petroleum engineers and business planners to asses the value of a project. It was a good training, both refreshing and eye opening. There are more to this software beyond what I have been doing with it. It's a good training all and all, although the room where the training was done could benefit more from less air conditioning. Felt like I was in the mountain but without the fresh air. The weather was not altogether sunny. Gloom with heavy rain poured several times during days and nights. Not that I have trouble with the weather. Transports are available on call if I want to go somewhere in the complex where the training was held. They are usually reliable. But there is no such things as 100% reliable. The last day in the compound, where I was supposed to be picked up at 6.30 a.m, turned out to be a day where incompetencies accumulated. The story goes like the following: My friend and me have a flight at 9.10 a.m. We need to be at the airport at 8.10 at least to have proper check-in. This being Indonesia and all, you can not at 100% sure that the schedule would go as planned. Sometimes they are late, but surprise surprise, sometimes they are much earlier. So we Indonesian need to go to airport TWO HOURS earlier than flight schedule just to be sure. So yeah, we wanted to be picked up at 6.30 a.m jut to make sure. So then it was 6.45 a.m. Several pick up cars went by and none of them were scheduled to pick us up. We were curious, so we call the transport dispatcher. He said the car is rolling. 7 a.m. No cars were coming. My friend go furious and called the dispatcher again and this time they said that the car has just been rolled out. Stupid, my friend said, we clearly ordered 6.30! 7.15. No cars were coming. We got furious. My friend called the dispatcher and unload his anger to him. The dispatcher apologized and said the car was in another location, picking up some guys who are still eating. At this point our anger welled up.  7.30 the car came, bring with him two other passangers. Young, inexperienced, but looked like spoilt brait and downright snobbish. So we got in the car, and the driver gave no apologizes whatsoever. I kept my silence, but my friend blew up in anger and got furious with the driver. The driver pointed at his early passangers. Then my friend got furious with the early passangers who looked like a bunch of new recruits with no field experiences and ego as inflated as the wall street before the toxic credits meltdown. My friend lashed out time and time again during the drive from the compound to the airport. He blamed the other passangers for not attentive to the times and for making us suffer because we were forced to skip breakfast and wait for an hour while they enjoy their morning with breakfast. He then looked at the supposed scheduling of the driver and pointed out that the other two passengers supposed to be picked up at 6.30 too but they showed their incompetencies, non-punctualities, irresponsibilites and their insensitivities by ordering breakfast at 6.30 and kept us waiting while they eat.  Finally, after my friend lashed out for half an hour or so, one of the young ones, the snobbiest looking of them, explained that they ordered the car to be arrive at 7 a.m.  So my friend then lashed out at the driver and said why didn't he picked us up first if their schedule was 7 a.m? The driver said it was the dispatcher who told us to pick them first. Then he grunted and got furious with the dispatcher. At this point, we are not sure whose to blame. The fact is that we were discarded, misinformed, and kept hungry due to the non-punctuality of the transportation.  It was ten minutes after checked in that we are told to board the plane. What if the driver picked us up 50 minutes past 7?We would be discarded even more! And to our surprise, the snobs were nowhere to be found, so we assumed they are flying with company plane that the passengers supposed to be get picked up by BUS AND NOT BY CAR!  The incompetencies baffled me. It was good that the driver and those two snobs utter their apologizes, otherwise we would curse them forever. | My Alter Ego | Blogroll Me! | 0 blogger comments | | |