September 20th, 2009 dinautami
I’ve been noticing the way my Indonesian friends send Eid greetings from time to time.
The oldest I can remember is by sending paper cards by post. I still remember the joy of card shopping - choosing the pretties pictures and picking the wisest words, usually during the last week of Ramadan. My father used to order a bunch of these cards, which looks more professional than cute or pretty, to be sent to his colleagues. “You get what you give. meaning, in returns, we also received cards from friends and family. I’d say this media in comparison to other media mentioned here is the more personal, less practical and less environmentally friendly.
Couple of years later came mobile phones with it’s fame replacing all those cards with text messages. Phone call is just for personal VIPs because having to call and say the same words over and over again to many random acquaintances is just too much to do. Not enough by simply saying “EID MUBARAK, people invent the art of Eid text messaging that to my knowledge can be categorized as wise words, poetic (pantun included), pictures made of characters, and jokes.
Confession: I’m a not so good Eid text messages artist and I used to exchange messages I received from one friend to sent it to another.
Imagine how much money those cellular providers made during those days!
The internet gives us more media alternatives to send Eid Greetings. E-cards is quite popular back then. It’s just like the paper cards, except that it’s electronic, and the picture can move, sometimes added by sound and some of them are free. Okay it’s nothing like the paper cards.
But, the most advanced technology in Eid Greetings is probably via Facebook. Here’s some of the things that you can do with it:
- Write the greeting on your status and sort of just wish all of your friends will see it and so the job is done.
- Send the greetings to friend’s personal walls, which takes more times.
- Upload pictures that act as Eid cards and tag friends whom you wish to send the greetings to.
- Write a note and tag friends to whom you’re writing to.
EID MUBARAK! May Allah accept (the good deeds) from you and from us.
Posted in events, technology | 2 Comments »
July 8th, 2009 dinautami
Boston, Summer 2009
My little angel embraces my soul
Whenever I ask her about love,
She always says it’s all around me
My little angel caresses my face
When the rays of morning sun comes
She lets me know that here and there,
I am in the embrace of the Almighty
The love of the Absolute Love
The light of the Absolute Light
Then I shouldn’t be in fear nor feeling lonely
My angel took my hands and leads me to fly
then I see:
all the ground that I walk on is my hometown
all the places where life brings me to settle in is my home
I was born as a wanderer,
then my happiness is hidden at the secrecy of the places that I would see
If it means that I have to travel the world for eternity
Then let it be… -AW
Four season. Summer to summer. I am halfway done.
I am still struggling but I am also enjoying. I miss all the things that I left but I also know I’m gonna miss all the things in here.
This period of my life that I thought would teach me to be smarter but, when I think of it, taught me more to be stronger.
For what it’s worth… I am thankful.
I can now call Boston home.
Posted in JouneyJournal | 13 Comments »
June 9th, 2009 dinautami
Many wonderful things happened this summer. One of them was that I finally met teh Mer aka lady day, whose blog I am very familiar with since I was in Indonesia, in Tempe, Arizona. We first met at a friend’s farewell party and then two days later we went to the Desert Botanical Garden, Papago Park and we had dinner together.
Kopdar? Well, you may say so.
I really admire her. One, for her intelligence for sure, second, for her achievement and third, for her talent - she’s also good at making sketches, singing, and playing musical instrument. Now, that I’ve known her in person, I can also say her personality - she is very nice, friendly, modest and so cool 
Isn’t it great to finally met someone you admire so much? When I met her for the first time however, strangely, I did not feel awkward at all. I feel like she’s been friend with me for so long. We have many things in common and ,turned out, she’s a good friend of a good friend of mine.
Teh Mer, before Obama’s Commencement Speech at ASU
Merlyna Lim is a scholar studying ICT (Information and Communication Studies), particularly on the political shaping of the Internet in non-Western contexts. She currently holds an Assistant Professor position with a joint appointment at the School of Justice and Social Inquiry and the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes at Arizona State University. She previously held a Networked Public Research Associate position at the Annenberg Center for Communication at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. She got her PhD, with distinction (cum laude), from University of Twente in Enschede, The Netherlands, with a dissertation entitled @rchipelago Online: The Internet and Political Activism in Indonesia.
She has been invited to give keynote speeches, public lectures, and various academic presentations in more than 50 occasions all over the world. Among the most recent ones was a keynote lecture at the Annual Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) in 2006 in Brisbane, Australia.
She is also an active blogger, with blogs in English, Indonesian, and Sundanese.
- Wikipedia on Merlyna Lim
Nice to meet you Teh. I wanna travel around the world for free by giving lecture too. Someday!
Posted in friends | 15 Comments »
June 6th, 2009 dinautami
I saw Dale Chihuly glass art for the very first time at an Exhibition in De Young Museum, San Francisco last year. It was also the first time I recognize his existence as an artist.
I ‘met him’ again this may when I went to the Desert Botanical Garden at Arizona. It was not an indoor exhibition, it was outdoor, mingle with the surrounding. All I can think about how painful it is to make them, how he has to be very careful or everything would just be shattered into pieces, and I admire those who do things I cannot do and good at it
I am neither an artist nor an art reviewer so I cannot give any meaningful explanation, detail description, and critique whatsoever. But, there are many essay that you can read about the work of Chihuly. I am merely a spectator and I like it How bout you?
updated!
Chihuly is a fulbrighter too from America. He had his study in Venice, where he started to developed the glass artwork. Awesome!
Posted in events, knowledge | 9 Comments »
June 2nd, 2009 dinautami
Rezy and Yunan was high school friends in SMU Taruna Nusantara. In 2001 they graduated from high school. Rezy, who won a physics Olympic medal, then go to MIT till today finishing his PhD while Yunan went to Electrical Engineering, UGM as my junior. After 8 years, these high school friends were finally met again! lovely moment
:: Happy 26th Birth Day to Yunan!!!
Updated!
We have a little birthday celebration last night
Posted in friends | 9 Comments »
