New PC Yayness!

by Eko Prasetyo @ 8:00 PM After 4 years of being satisfied by using outdated laptop for my gaming and everyday need, I finally able to purchase a full blown medium performance gaming rig. With brainpower of Athlon II X2 245, bloodstream of AMD 785G with 128MB HD4200 integrated graphic , 4GB (!) of RAM, RADEON HD 5770 (!) and some 600 GB Harddisk with integrated sound card. Praise Allah for allowing me to purchase this rig. I finally able to play 3D RPG games with cool framerates again. My last 3D RPG games is Sword of The New World: Granado Espada (US Version). I remember two years ago that I have to grit my teeth everytime we went clan war and boss raid. I got expelled once from a clan because my laptop can not cope with the load during boss raid. Pity, pity me. I remember I was baffled because I can not even play Sim City: Society.  I know that my life on my Toshiba laptop will be limited to Colonization, and I can not even play Colonization right..not with its stuttering and slowpokeness. So yeah, I finally decided to bust my bank, liquidify my mutual fund, and contacted a forum recommended PC builder for a spec and quotation. I got the quotation, agreed on the spec, and transfer the fund away. I don't really care if they stole it and runaway. I was that desperate. And it seems my trust got paid off. I can now play Modern Warfare 2, Risen, Civ IV:Colonization right. Here's hoping that I can play CnC 3 and Last Remnant right too :) And yeah: Windows 7 rocks! | My Alter Ego | Blogroll Me! | 3 blogger comments | | |

So, What's Up?

by Eko Prasetyo @ 7:43 AM This is just some random posting, like so many random postings that I have made before. Nothing in particular is themed for this posting. Nothing at all. Probably a dash of Blackest Night? Shameless, shameless plug there, Zenstrive! | My Alter Ego | Blogroll Me! | 0 blogger comments | | |

Home Ownership Loan, Syariah Way

by Eko Prasetyo @ 10:19 AM My brain is a wonderful thing. Sometimes ideas just popped out like that after my nerves chew on ideas inputted by my sensory system. One of those ideas today is on how to do home ownership loan, syariah way. The idea is simple: In Islam, you must not put interests on loan. You can only demand a portion of the ownership of whatever activities that is funded by that loan. Now the trick is for banks not to call it a home ownership loan, but home ownership capital. That way, a bank can demand a portion of home ownership legalized in a form of certification of ownership. The bank can then sell this participation of ownership to investors, for a profit of course. That investors can then claim a portion of profits if the home owner decide to sell the house or rent it. The catch is the assumption that a price of a house will always increase or there will always be renters. That's a normal assumption, and an assumption that can be justified by the bank or investors: they will not agree to sell a house or rent it if the price is not right. See, how simple can it be? No interests, no bubbles, no worries. | My Alter Ego | Blogroll Me! | 0 blogger comments | | |

Forex and Stuffs

by Eko Prasetyo @ 3:49 PM t First Twitter, and then Facebook allow people to express their feelings in short notes. It makes people lazy. It makes me lazy. You see, there are times when I can write long and nonsense articles (just browse around this blog) if you like. Anyway, I have profited steadily from forex lately. What is forex, you ask? Formally it is an abbreviation of Foreign Currency Exchange, where you can get profit from changing exchange rates of different currencies, mainly US Dollars (USD), Poundsterling (GBP), Swiss Franc (CHF), and Euro (EUR). Forex market is the most liquid and biggest monetary market in the world. It's the biggest, and also the cruelest market you can ever be in. The profits could catapult you to the moon, or drown you to The Mariana Trench. Really, it's that liquid, that scary, and that addictive. Just take a look at me: three times burn out of capitals, but come back for more punishments. So far, I am doing okay for three weeks. Let's see if I can last a year. If I can, and I am on the profit rate that I am in now, well, bye bye 7-5 work. Bye-bye bosses. Welcome lazy life and all day playing. Hey, one can dream, right? So, if you want to get a taste of forex, register to Marketiva, the best poor man forex broker you can find. It's so poor man's friendly, it gives real US$ 5 dollar and virtual US$ 10000 for you to train with. Train yourself hard, understand the charts, the indicators, and how to put positions. This is my personal tips: learn MACD and the power of compoundings. So, what else? Oh yeah, I found myself becoming more and more militant on the case of Islam. Not as militant as some terorrists ("Islamic terrorists" are really CIA's work to slowdown the imminent return of Islam as dominant power in 21st century) but militant enough to challenge the minds of those "liberalisms and pluralism thingkers" (read mind terrorists). So hopefully I can help, albeit a little, on culling those vermins and keep Islam pure. Do you know that Liberalist Jews have been having homosexual rabbis for years? True. Anyway, have a good day :) | My Alter Ego | Blogroll Me! | 0 blogger comments | | |

Scaffoldings in My Garden

by Eko Prasetyo @ 4:49 AM I live in a row of homes that are attached to one another. We share walls. About two months ago, the next door's home began an expansion project. It expand the house on the backside and upside. Soon, my lawn got messy from their cements, sacks, cigarette boxes, and debris. One day the foreman came and I asked them, rather furiously, to order his men to clean up my lawn. One month ago, when I came home, I found that the labors from the next door's home expansion project had erected scaffoldings on my lawn, since they need to do something to the heightened wall of that house. The problem is, nobody told me about this and I got furious and asked the labor who ordered them to erected the scaffoldings. They told me that their foreman ordered them to do it. I asked them why didn't the foreman ask me first. They said because no one was at my home. Then I asked them again would it be polite to erect something on someone's lawn without the owner's permission. They said no. I said pull down the scaffoldings and they did it. I said clean up my lawn from your cements and they did it. Two weeks ago a new foreman asked me whether they can re-erect the scaffoldings or not and I said no. Not without compensations. Yesterday the foreman and another guy give me a letter saying that they will clean up any mess caused by the erection of the scaffoldings. I said letter or no letter, scaffoldings or no scaffoldings, IT IS THEIR OBLIGATION TO CLEAN UP ANY MESS caused by their project. There is no mention of compensations of using my lawn on that letter, so I gave them the letter back. The lady who sold me my house then called me and asked me what's the problem, and I asked her back: would you let someone put a scaffolding on your lawn, without your permissions, and without you being compensated for it? She said no, and I said that's the problem. I also said that my water tandon has not been fixed, my walls has not been repainted, and my garden lamp has not been installed, not to mention the cover for the drain hole on my bathroom has not been installed yet. And yesterday my ground floor's ceiling was leaking. So there. The problem have not been resolved yet. What do you think? Would you be furious if someone erect a scaffolding on your lawn without you being told and compensated for? | My Alter Ego | Blogroll Me! | 1 blogger comments | | |

Pickpocket on The Door

by Eko Prasetyo @ 5:28 PM Jakarta is truly a beast that feeds on the greed of the rich and desperation of the poor. It inhales their hopes and kindness and exhales a mood of gloom. I have known Jakarta since 1990, almost 20 years ago, and Jakarta back then is the same as Jakarta now: unruly, choking, and exudes excessiveness while proud of being vainglorious.  It's been a while since I am in touch with the low way of lives of Jakarta, live of Metromini, smokers at every corners, and of flooded street and criminals on every spot. These are my two horrendous experiences when doing so. One: I almost got rob by the "Door Stoppers". These pickpockets and robbers in neat costumes of shirts and long pants and good shoes do their operations using the fact that a metromini (that orange bus that you see everywhere in Jakarta) has two narrow doors that people can use to get out. Two of these Door Stoppers will block each door when someone has signaled that he wants to go down. They will block this (or these) passenger(s) with every reasons possible. Their friends will then pickpockets or open the zippers of their bags while the passengers panic. You need to bulldoze your way out of the bus if this kind of things happen to me. I did it as soon as a man blocked my door and repeatedly telling the driver to keep on going while I want to go out of the bus. I then knock the bus roof hard and bulldoze my way out through the man. I found my bag's zippers half open. Thanks God nothing was stolen. Two: I hate smokers, and I hate smokers who SEE that there is a no smoking sign around and STILL SMOKE ANYWAY! God, the IQ of those stupid smokers. You can find it everywhere in Jakarta, even in AIRPORT, and even after the good officers herd them to the smoking areas. I hate smokers, they are the cause that the earth is heating up! I still hate Jakarta | My Alter Ego | Blogroll Me! | 1 blogger comments | | |

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 | | |