The Busy Bee

My co-worker is having her days off..... Hmmph, she left all her works to me, which keeps me busy these past days. I'm almost done with my (or should I say, hers?) works though, only 15% or 10% left. Before yesterday, I actually had 40% of my works left so you can say that I procrastinated almost the entire leftover tasks yesterday =p I was so tired I slept in the subway on my way back yesterday. Actually I didn't wanna go to train for wushu yesterday, but I promised the guys the day before (and it turned out one of them didn't show up =p). Went home when for the first time, I screwed up at home which really made the owners of the house mad at me =p FYI, I'm gonna confess, I'm really, really scared of insects (or bugs) that bite or sting! (I'm not afraid of cockroaches, spiders except venomous spiders such as Tarantula or Australian Black Widow of course, or worms though.) Cause to me, these are harmful animals that can fly everywhere and can land anywhere or on any part of your body and sneak inside your outfit and then bite you or sting you =p

I was enjoying my leisure moment, watching TV and munching on Ritz chips, when suddenly I realized there was a huge bee falling from the air vent! I started panicking (one more thing, I'm a person who can easily get panick and when I'm panicking, I don't think clearly =p It runs in my gene, my parents are like that =p) when I saw the bee (it was huge, black bee with a yellow spot on its back) crawling and flapping its wings between Sekar's old binder and 2 stacks of CDs/DVDs. Sekar who noticed my gesture (and who is even afraid of any kinds of insects =p) started panicking as well. I panickly grabbed a can of RAID, ant and roach killer, and started brutally spraying that bee. I know, I didn't think at all at that time although I did notice that it wasn't a spray of mist that came out of the can, it was more like a white, bubbly liquid. My thought at that time was I don't care what's gonna happen to the binder and the CDs/DVDs cause all I know is that I have to eliminate that creature first and then I'll start worrying the binder and the CDs/DVDs later =p Yes, I successfully ruined the binder, CDs, and DVDs =p (and of course, the bee itself, which Oom Marfi, Sekar's Dad, had to flush in the toilet.). The binder, and some of the CDs/DVDs stank and had some white spots or blotches on them. Don't get me wrong, I do love animals, but when I think they are harmful to me (and they can fly too), I'll kill them for my own safety for sure =p For the very first time, Sekar's parents yelled at me for ruining the binder, CDs, and DVDs =p (especially Sekar's Mom, Tante Tika, who was actually very tired after coming back from work. I terribly, sincerely apology Tante.) When I think of that, it kinda makes me sad but it tickles me as well (I laugh at it now =p), but well, I was an idiot and was acting childish though =p She was actually preparing dinner when she then had to clean up and wash the binder and some CDs or DVDs that got contaminated (some of those CDs and DVDs belong to someone else.). She was really upset that she refused my help.

But it wasn't for long though, a couple of minutes after that, we sat together watching a movie although they now teased me and made fun of me for being afraid of bee =p (they said that it wasn't actually a bee. It was some sort of a bug, I don't know what it was, but still it looked like a harmful bee to me =p) Now they know that I'm afraid of biting and stinging bugs and that I would become brutal when I'm panicking =p Think about it now, if only it was recorded on a video camcorder, it would look like some silly sitcom scene where I brutally spraid an insecticide and was mumbling unclearly (out of fear) and Sekar behind me was screaming =p But again, to me, this is some everyday scene that could happen to everyone who lives under the same roof. No matter how hard you try to become and to act innocent, you will have to screw up once or twice (but not too often as the others might become fed up and pissed off =p) in order to "introduce" the other side of yourself and in order to learn and understand each other. You'll understand that he or she is afraid of something or doesn't like to be treated in some sort of way, and vice versa. I didn't get this kind of experience when I lived in St. Louis cause my roommate, although nice and very helpful, was extraordinary individualistic (he almost never came out from his bedroom. He has 3 computers and 1 laptop, his own TV, his own TiVo machine, and his own microwave in his bedroom. He only came out to go outside, to use the bathroom, or to get some drinks or raw foods to be further "processed" in his microwave. Talking about quality time, we rarely chatted and never hung out together. The only thing we talked if it wasn't about electric, internet, and cable TV bills, it would be about classes and Professors at UM - St. Louis =p I had to run out of house and spent most of my weeks, sleeping over at others' places. That's how I became close to Wulan, Freddy, Edhy, and Budi =D). Once again, I'm sorry.

[Yaaayyy, my new laptop will arrive this Thursday, April 20 =)]

The 2006 Cherry-Blossom Festival Parade

You might be wondering, why I did not post any American Idol review this week. Simple, as I said earlier, I hate QUEEN, so I think there's no value for me to post any such review =p I'm just gonna focus on posting the thing that really kept me busy for these past three weekends, especially on Saturday as I gotta go straight to the Indonesian Embassy for rehearsal, right after wushu practice. Yes, I, along with several cousins of mine, participated in the 2006 Cherry-Blossom (Sakura flowers) Festival parade, or precisely the closing of this festival, which dated back on April 8, 2006. I think (this is just my opinion though, I've never confirmed this) this festival is the only one made in U.S. in order to celebrate the coming of spring.

Washington, D.C.; April 1 & 2, 2006; 1:30 PM: First of all, I have to say I hate my outfit! We had to pick our outfits a week before the parade. The system was who came earlier got to pick earlier. So those terrible outfits were the leftovers, at least that's what I thought. So there I was, late because of wushu practice, got to pick the leftovers. It was actually a traditional outfit of my Dad's cultural background (tribe), North Sumatera. There were two types of this outfit, the traditional Indonesian style, and the traditional Melayu (Deli) style. I like the first type better cause it's a black trouser with an ulos sheet. The other one, the Deli style, is a plain blue outfit with gold embroidery, which I hate so much. Nonetheless, my cousin, Daniel Tobing (he's a batak as well), who got to the Embassy earlier than me, got to pick the cool one =p I got to wear the "golden blue" outfit =p (blah) Anyway, the parade was, I think, divided into four groups. My group (and Daniel's of course), which was with the Permias (Indonesian Students Association) Washington, D.C., got to be on the first row (we were to do a fashion show with some traditional dance movements to make it look interesting), followed by the kids group (this was the group which my little cousins, Rasha, Rishah, and Sekar got to be assigned. This group had a similar task to mine except that they didn't do any dance.). The second row was used by a group of young and older females, which was performing some sort of Melayu dance. The third row was used for Reog (East Javanese traditional dance) performance (this is the coolest part), and the last row was for Pencak Silat (traditional Indonesian's martial art) performance. Pretty long group, ain't it? =p Anyway, we picked our outfits on Saturday, and we did the Dress/Technical Rehearsal (we say it Gladi Resik/Gladi Kotor in Bahasa Indonesia) on Sunday, April 2. The rehearsal took like, the whole day, at Wisma Indonesia (the official residence of the Indonesian Ambassador). It was pretty fun, rehearsing under the sun! =p (it reminds me of those flag ceremonials we had to go through every Monday morning during our K12 education =p) The kids were such a riot, especially when there were bees around =p

Washington, D.C.; April 8, 2006; 5:00 AM - 2:30 PM: Finally, the day had come. We were encouraged to come to the Embassy at 6:00 AM because the female performers had to put a lot of make-up and their outfits were very complicated to be put on by themselves. I had noticed a week before that there was gonna be raining and a thunderstorm on that day. So, I prepared some extra clothes for the after-show. Woke up at 5:00 AM and headed straight to Dunn-Loring Metro Station at 6:00 AM (I know, I bailed a little late, but I was not the one who needed the whole make-up stuff.). Right when I thought everything was under control when the gate at the station was closed *sigh* I just found out, after 10 months living in D.C. Metropolitan area, Metro subways operate at 7:00 AM on weekends =p I was just about to head to my Uncle's place when a cab with a bunch of Hispanics stopped by at the station, as then I hopped in to the cab and made my way to downtown D.C. (there goes $40 and my debit card/visa check card left inside the ATM machine. I forgot to pick up my visa check card cause I was in a hurry, and I just realized it at night when I wanted to pay for the Pizza Hut delivery service =p Well, I had my visa check card canceled and now I'm waiting for the new one to be issued.) A nice way to start my day. The next thing isn't that necessary to tell, just a usual chat and breakfast. We arrived at the National Mall (not those usual malls, it's the large green open space in downtown D.C., surrounded by the Capitol Hill, Abraham Lincoln's Memorial, and Smithsonian Museums. Remember the one on the movie Forrest Gump?) around 8:30 AM while our turn to parade was scheduled at 11:00 AM. Rain started to fall right when we stepped out of the bus (there were 4 buses, and these were school buses. The first time I ever rode in a yellow school bus =p). The girls were starting to complain, including my partner (see my picture on the right). They were worried of their make-ups, their health, their outfits, etc. I had to joke out of it to cheer her up and got myself humiliated when I just realized I was being taped by the Voice of America (VOA) (no thanks to the others who just giggled =p). And you know what? This is gonna be broadcasted at several TV stations in Indonesia (the likes of RCTI, Indosiar, MetroTV, oh boy, they're gonna see and hear me pointing at the sky, yelling in Betawi accent =p) Anyway, I think we had a blast, we had fun when we started at 11:00 AM =) Well, the Indonesian group was the most unorganized group, at least that's what I noticed when I watched it myself the next day at ABC 7 or News Channel 8 (these are local channels folks, and Rishah got to appear on TV twice.). I saw that in the kids group, one of the girls left her shoe (kinda like Cinderella), and hilariously a group of 5 kids ran back to get the shoe for her (including her of course). Cause it was so crowded, we couldn't hear the music, so we created a music ourselves, I even sang dangdut =p (Alam's "Mbah Dukun") Our turn to parade around 10 blocks was exactly 1 hour. We got back in to the bus, and everyone was so quiet, tired and soaking wet =D We had lunch (of course, those delicious Indonesian cuisine =D) and chatted a while after I decided to go back and took a long nap (3 hours and then a good night sleep for like, 11 hours!) Below are the pictures of my cute little cousins in the kids group =)

Intermezzo 9: What Does Your Birthday Mean?

Your Birthdate: November 27

You are a spiritual soul - a person who tries to find meaning in everything. You spend a good amount of time meditating, trying to figure out life. Helping others is also important to you. You enjoy social activities with that goal. You are very generous and giving. Yet you expect very little in return. Your strength: Getting along with anyone and everyone Your weakness: Needing a good amount of downtime to recharge Your power color: Cobalt blue Your power symbol: Dove Your power month: September

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

American Idol 5: Mandisa.....

Sorry it took me quite long to post my own review, cause I woke up late today and I had breakfast at McDonalds' and spent some time there =p Ah, song choice, song choice, it can boost your popularity but it can also be the start of your doom. The latter is the case if the genre of the song choice doesn't fit your vocal characteristic. When I found out last week, that this week American Idol's theme was gonna be "country music", I knew right away that this is gonna be a problem to Paris Bennet, Mandisa Hundley, and Elliott Yamin. These three are soul singers! But I never thought that it was gonna be a very serious problem to the three of them.....

I remember what Budi wrote the other day, when some of my friends were confused of my new obsession with American Idol. He wrote that, this is a competition show, you can compare this to sports events where fans will become overly obsessive with those shows that fans will finally develop a strong bond with their favorites, who are completely strangers to those fans. The same thing goes to American Idol, which is a show that also packs reality show in it. Let's face the fact, reality shows have boomed lately in this 21st century, everybody loves reality show. American Idol is a combination of talent show and reality show. And for someone who is an excessive music craze like me (I can't pass a single day without listening to my iPod and sing it out. Before I owned an iPod, I used to do this in front of my laptop, listening to my collection of 3000 mp3 files!), this soon becomes my favorite show, before that I used to like sitcoms. Besides that, I have never watched American Idol or any Idol (or top-rated talent show) show before, due to my evening classes back in St. Louis, Missouri. Watching American Idol has become one of my rituals after coming back from work and wushu practice.

Okay, back to the review, we all know that this week's theme is "country music". Personally, I have nothing against with country music, I treat all genre besides soul and smooth jazz the same. If I think it's a high quality music with intelligent lyrics, I will fall in love with that song. This goes to the likes of genre such as country music, hip-hop and rap, heavy metal, rocks, pop, alternative, underground, hard-core jazz, etc. Soul, funk, smooth jazz, groove, and R&B have their special places in my heart. Hey, why am I again babbling something out of AI's review? =p Anyway, I will concentrate my review on last night's bottom three performers and Katharine McPhee.

Back in Tuesday, April 4, I have to agree that some, if not most, of the contestants were kinda struggling with the songs they performed. Mandisa, I'm so sorry for her and I'm also sad of the fact that she won't be in the show anymore, was actually doing okay. She sang Shania Twain's "Any Man of Mine". I did feel a weird poppish kind of thing at the beginning of the song, but she did great in the middle of it and the refrain part of the song. Actually, Simon Cowell praised her by saying that her rendition was "fun" and "cutesy", but the song choice was horrible. Well, I did realize that she did not show the best of her that night, but she struggled in the middle of the song and she did okay! At least that's what I think. I know that choosing a genre apart from someone's style is stressing, but the logic behind this is that every singer should be able to sing any kind of song. I just never thought that America would be that harsh on her. AI judge Simon Cowell, "No matter how good the singer you are, you're always going to be tied to the song you sing. If I have to guess based on the song you sang, I think Elliott, you'll stay." *sigh*

Another extreme shock to me, Elliott Yamin joined the gang of the bottom three list! When AI host Ryan Seacrest divided the contestants into three groups, I thought the group that had Bucky Covington and Ace Young would be the bottom-three-performers one. Although I was a little bit sad that one of my favorites stood there again for the second time. I thought that the first group on the right, "Taylor Hicks, Chris Daughtry, and Kellie Pickler" was the group with the top three performers, the middle group, "Mandisa, Elliott Yamin, and Paris Bennet" was the second best group, and the last group, the one on the left, "Bucky Covington, Katharine McPhee, and Ace Young" would be those with the lowest votes. Don't get me wrong, I was dead wrong. I got chocked by popcorn chicken nugget when Ryan Seacrest announced that the middle group was the performers with the lowest votes! (I was having dinner when I watched AI's result show last night and literally got chocked out of shock. And I am not joking! Luckily I managed to swallow my food instead to spit it out. Imagine if that happened =p) The three best singers, the soul singers, were voted worst performers for the April4's show! About Elliott's performance, I kinda had a feeling that he might not shine as he did before cause it was a "country music" theme. When I found out that he was gonna perform "If Tomorrow Never Comes" a couple of minutes before the show started last Tuesday night, I was excited about this though the fact that I've never known that "If Tomorrow Never Comes" is actually a country song and was originally performed by Garth Brook. All a long, I always thought that "If Tomorrow Never Comes" was originally performed by Joose (click Joose to find out who they are and you'll see that their biggest hit was "If Tomorrow Never Comes"), a gospel soul group consists of Jay Farmer, Trell Lewis, Rocky McKaufman and Leonardo Pettis from Oklahoma City. The other version that I know was performed by none other than Ronan Keating of Irish boyband, Boyzone! I have both versions in my iPod and although Ronan Keating's version was the first one I heard, I hate his version and fell instantly in love with Joose's version later on. My thought on Ronan Keating's version is that, the song sounds weird and the melody in the refrain part is terribly flat. And since I'm a huge fan of soul music, I think that the melody in Joose's version is more harmonious and has more variation. They harmoniously reach a high tune during the refrain part, compared to the flat melody on Ronan Keating's version. Conclusion? Of course, I would expect Elliott to perform Joose's version, converting a country ballad into a soul ballad, his style like he did last week when he performed "I Don't Wanna Be". To my surprise, Elliott's rendition was more like Ronan Keating's version, which made me conclude that Ronan Keating's version was actually the one close to the original version. I wasn't that disappointed though as I think he still did a good job, but I realized from other AI reviews that he looked sorta nervous and looked like he was holding back something (and some people are getting tired of his vibrato, which I think it's what makes him unique compared to other contestants!). Some said it was because he was influenced by Kenny Roger's suggestion, not to show off the power of his voice to impress audience since the song is to make audience cry. Though I agree that that night wasn't his best performance and that he has to do better than that, but to be on the bottom three list at this moment? Not in a million years..... But look at the bright side, he'll come back next week.

Paris Bennet joined the group of the bottom three performers. Yes, all the three soul singers. Somehow it disturbs me that I come up to realize that country music is probably the polar opposite of soul music! America just doesn't seem to like hearing soul singers singing country songs! Anyway, Paris sang "How Do I Live", which was originally performed by either LeAnn Rimes or Trisha Yearwood (Trisha Yearwood's version was for the original soundtrack of the 1997 movie Con Air.). Yes, she did sound like she was struggling with the song, she really showed that country music is not her thing at all! The result, obviously AI judges Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson disliked her performance as Randy Jackson said it was a tough song for her, but surprisingly AI judge Simon Cowell praised her by saying excellent! But still, she had the third lowest vote last night.

Katharine McPhee, woohoo, she was hot that night! I've never heard "Bringing Out the Elvis" by Faith Hill before, but I fall in love with this song because of Katharine! =) I love it when she "screamed" the refrain part and the way she walked on the stage like a supermodel, it was HOT!!! =) Although she's not the best singer in this season's contest, she worked the stage as she owned it, I just love her unique voice and her body language on the stage =) The funny thing is that, although she earned praises from the judges, Simon said the song was peculiar =p I agree, but that's what makes it unique don't you think?

Anyway, a short review on the other stuffs, yes, country music is the safe element for both Bucky Covington and Kellie Pickler. That's why Bucky is not on the bottom three list last night. I think people are getting sick of Kellie Pickler's attitude, her naivety that earlier I found cute until AI host Ryan Seacrest asked her whether it was natural or it was just her "marketing strategy", and she answered it with a calamari story! It sorta turned me off actually, as to me she then looked like another dumb blonde, whether she was faking it or she was behaving naturally (which is sad if it were a natural behaviour cause that would mean she's really dumb! Even the calamari thingy just went too far if it were to be her "marketing strategy".). Chris Daughtry surprisingly sang differently last night, more like in a ballad mode after last week's harsh critic on his heavy-metal's style. Taylor Hicks sang John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Road" and it was a very lame performance. It seemed as if he lost the spirit to sing and was uninterested in performing at all! Ace Young once again showed off his selling point, his "signature" falsetto, which surely saved him from being voted off this week. But please America, why does it have to be Mandisa? Putting her on the bottom three list was already enough to make me chocked my dinner. And Kenny Roger's performance on last night's result show, uhmm, I'm never his fan actually and I think his biggest hit "Lady" is just a so-so song to me. And I think last night, he wasn't "the Gambler" America used to know when he sang his new single "I Can't Unlove You". Just my 2-cent, I think American Idol isn't just a reality-talent show anymore, but is a marketing tool, or a marketing medium, for famous artists or legendary artists to boost their newest hits and the selling of their newest albums. Well, forgive me if I just realized this since I've just watched this show this year now. I heard, and heard, that Prince who reportedly hates American Idol, might surprisingly appear as a guest star and coach the remaining contestants on the future episode. It was said that this is an attempt to boost the selling of his newest album 3121. And BTW, next week's theme is "the QUEEN's songs". Ouh, I hate QUEEN so much! Listening to their songs, especially "Bohemian Rhapsody", "We Will Rock You", and "We are the Champions", brings back those dreadful and horrible memories during my time in middle school, around 1991 - 1994 (I won't tell you what happened during these years, just not now =p). Not to mention that sissy, effeminate, lead singer Freddie Mercury! If I were one of this season's remaining contestants, I would be the first one (or probably the only one =p) to stand up and protest the theme! =p I would rather be forced to rap, to sing heavy-metal songs, or to sing dangdut songs (dangdut, pronounced dunk-doot, is the notorious Indonesian music genre that is, unfortunately, considered the most unclassy and hideous genre that ever exists by most Indonesians.) rather than to sing one of QUEEN's songs. Well, anyway, stay tune for more Idol on Fox. Thank you.

Dear Laptop....

To my dear laptop...

You've been a great company for these (almost) past 3 years...

I remember the first day you arrived at my apartment, August 2003...

You sang me my favorite mp3s...

You showed me my favorite clips...

You entertained me whenever I was bored...

You helped me get those As or A-s...

You were the reason I got 2 B-s (PC games =p)...

You helped me communicate with my loved ones...

Now you're just a piece of crap...

No power, broken motherboard, frozen and locked hard drive...

I apologize my love, but I gotta replace you for the sake of my sanity...

[my laptop is officialy broken now.....=( It started two weeks ago when all of the sudden, my laptop continued to shut down by itself. The battery was running critically low, no electric to power this gadget. I thought the problem was the AC adapter, like a loose chord or something. I patiently held and shook the chord everytime I turned my laptop on (at first, it only took like 10 seconds to shake the chord and get the power to the laptop. After a couple of days, it took me 5 minutes to shake the chord and reshake the chord every 10 minutes and so on.). One day, last Friday, I thought that it would be better to buy a new AC adapter (I was running out of patience to shake the chord for 5 minutes every 15 minutes or so.). There went my $78 for a piece of new 70 Watt, Targus AC Adapter. The damn thing kept on loosing power even with the new AC adapter. Called the Dell Service Support (my laptop is Dell Inspiron, but I forgot the exact series. Guess I never paid that particular attention to my dear laptop, didn't I? =p), and the diagnosis was to replace the laptop's motherboard which could cost me somewhere around $500! *sigh*

The day after that, Saturday, I needed to entertain myself after a long day of wushu practice and the Indonesian fashion-show cherry-blossom festival rehearsal. Got home at 5:00 PM with an empty stomach, then grabbed myself some McDonalds' and turned my laptop on. This thing now showed blue screen everytime I turned it on, even when I tried to switch it to Window's Safe Mode. Got some emergency here, I rushed to Fairfax's Microcenter, a digital and computer shop like CompUSA but much cheaper, with my laptop in the bag around 6:00 PM. Paid $85 for diagnostic fee *double sigh*, and waited for like 2 hours! The technician (oddly enough, looks like the blonde version of Maroon5's Adam Levine?!?) finally gave up and I got 80% refund (somewhere around $60 to $70 refund) and was suggested to buy a new laptop. The motherboard is broken and the hard drive is locked up, even scan disk can't seem to work. Luckily I bought a Seagate 120 GB External Hard Drive and moved all my important data (except my MBA courses data. St. Louis' peeps, to whoever has my MBA courses CD, can you please send to my current home address a copy of the CD containing my MBA courses data? Thanks, I really appreciate it.), mp3 files, and clips to that external hard drive, one year ago. A pretty good investment don't you think? But still, I have to prepare myself to spend somewhere between $700 and $1,500 *triple sigh*]

Parody version of Engelbert Humperdinck's "There Goes My Everything"

There goes my reason for living,

There goes the one of my dreams,

There goes my only possession,

There goes my sweet laptop.