The Rebirth of a Lonesome Amateur Writer

Howdy y'all =) It's been a long time since I got my hands on this blog, and when I open it, wow, so many complains from my dearest blogger buddies =) The reason I never updated this blog is that, I don't think there is something special I can share with, and besides that, I am suffering from what you can call "writers block" =p Those ideas and inspirations just don't come out of my mind lately. Maybe I'm too exhausted and my energy has been drained. During the weekend, all I wanna do is just to have a long, good sleep, although sometimes I am "forced" to attend dinner parties (and it always lasts until like, 1:00 AM or more. I usually get bored of being at someone else's place for more than 5 hours!)

Well, to some of you, it looks like I don't have a life lately =) But I am not complaining though, if you know me very well, I am actually a bit of a solitude person. I enjoy loneliness, a time or situation when my mind roams freely with music pampering my ears and my mind =) But that doesn't mean that I am an antisocial! I enjoy being around people I care, and sometimes, I enjoy being the center of attraction. But when I'm exhausted, all I want is to be alone (well, I guess everybody does).

Guess what, out of 8 schools I'm applying to, VCU has accepted me =) Yes, I got admitted to the doctoral program in Information Systems at VCU, with full tuition-fee waiver and graduate teaching assistantship. I earn a stipend of $9,000 for one academic year and I have to be a teaching assistant, working for 20 hours a week. So that leaves me 7 schools to go =) Hehe, I can imagine, in couple of years from now, strangers will have to address me as Doctor Nasution =p But this also means a tough, upcoming 5 years waiting for me to get through. I've been trying to get myself familiar with all of these Information Systems research methods, trying to read "Design Research in Information Systems" (for those of you who are interested, here is the link, http://www.isworld.org/Researchdesign/drisISworld.htm). Everything here is so abstract! It only mentions about theories that can be applied in designing research in I.S. What more is there, waiting for me? I guess I'm a bit anxious about my life as a Ph.D. student in the next couple of months.

About wushu? Uhmm, almost got to the intermediate level =) I'm trying to train myself to do that one-arm cartwheel (I twisted my left wrist the first time I tried this). I've been taking all the intermediate level training. It's very complicated and painful too, but I love it! I remember my wushu instructor, Stephon, said that wushu athletes are masochist. The more pain they get, the more they crave for it! =p I guess I'm starting to become a wushu freak too. I'm learning the praying mantis style in the traditional style class. It's really cool. I love every movement of it. Can't wait to learn the compulsory form of broadsword. I've been peeking this form back and forth and trying to imitate the movement (and then got my cheek poked by the sword. Oouch =p)

About work. It's been lazy weeks. The official fiscal year is about to end, projects are running slow, executive managers are going back and forth out of country for missions and leaving junior staffs (such as me) behind doing nothing. That's why I have the time to write something in this blog =p Actually I have to update the content and modify the look of the World Bank's e-Government website. But whenever I'm assigned to do something with a reasonable amount of deadline, I tend to finish assignments as quickly as I can, done before the deadline and left behind doing nothing afterwards. I hate having to do something near the deadline, cause it drains a lot of my energy (because of panic). So here I am, doing nothing =)

Finally, I got to change the song in this blog after several complains from my fellow bloggers =p This is a very sweet and romantic Indonesian song, by a 20-year old jazz singer. What I like the most about this song is the lyric. The lyric is actually a poem, which makes this song somewhat classy, unlike those cheesy, melancholic, romantic songs. The artist wrote this poem to her boyfriend. This song was actually a hit one year ago in Indonesia and I just got to know it 2 days ago, another terrible side effect of living faraway, outside Indonesia. I instantly fall in love with this song once I listened to it. I love its unique melody, the background guitar, and its poetic lyric. I got this song from a close friend of mine (ask me if you wanna know the link to her blog) when I helped her with some fancy HTML gimmick. She used this song on her blog until yesterday, so I can freely use this song on mine without being accused of being a copycat =p About the song, I never knew the word "gemintang" before. I just found out that it actually means a bright, twinkling star. This song is about a woman in love with a man and it's nicely expressed in this piece of melodious poem. As an end to today's story, I post the lyric and the translation below (this is not an official translation. I made it up myself and believe me, it's hard to do it, because it uses so many symbolic expressions. What can you expect, it's a poem! I have difficulty tring to translate the sentence "Laksana, nyata manis nuansa" and trying to figure out "Mengartikan kita". Only the artist who can translate it perfectly.)

Title: Gemintang

Artist: Andien

Lyric: Andien

Music: Tohpati

Released: June 2005

Verse 1:

Gemintang

Awali indahnya cerita

Melantunkan rasa

Nyanyikan

Denting nada dan senyuman

Menghadirkan cinta

Resahku menepi, indahku bersemi

Mengingat utuh bayangmu

Reff:

Hatiku, mengucap kata merindukanmu

Laksana, nyata manis nuansa

Dan jika, gemintang tiada lagi melagu

Kisahku, yang mencinta dirimu

Kan slalu abadi

Verse 2:
Rembulan

Temani indah malam ini

Menyatukan asa

Lukiskan

Dekap hangat yang kau beri

Mengartikan kita

Resahku menepi, indahku bersemi
Mengingat utuh bayangmu

Background:

Gemintang, nyanyikan

Rembulan, lukiskan

Back to Reff

Translation

Verse 1:

Twinkle stars

A beautiful story then unfold

Singing my passion

Serenade

A piece of melody and a smile

Our love is here to stay

Those anguish then harbored, my wonder starts to bloom

As I recall your glorious sight

Reff:

In my heart, I speak the words of how I long for you

As if like, a sweet, genuine nuance

In the end, when these twinkle stars never sing again

This tale of me, that's telling how I love you

Will last eternally

Verse 2:

Glowing moon

Filling the beauty of the night

Keeping our souls as one

Visualize

The warm embrace you present to me

Defining how we are

Those anguish then harbored, my wonder starts to bloom
As I recall your glorious sight

Background:

Twinkle stars, serenade

Glowing moon, visualize

Back to Reff