Free Writing: Bebaskan Kebuntuan Otakmu!

Berawal dari blog Dailypost, malam ini saya secara tidak sengaja membaca artikel mengenai Free Writing, yaitu sebuah aktivitas menulis dalam periode tertentu yang dihitung (misalnya 5, 10, 15 menit) di mana penulis akan menulis secara terus-menerus tanpa henti tentang apa saja yang ada dalam pemikirannya dan mengabaikan kesalahan ejaan, tanda baca, dan ide yang tidak beraturan. Intinya: keluarkan saja terus apa yang ada di kepala Anda dan teruslah menulis sampai alarm berbunyi. Berani coba? Yuk!

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saya merasa terganggu dengan iklan yang tiba-iab munul di dashboard wordpress saya, sejauh ini saya mengira bahwa ordpress tidak pernah memasang ilan di websitenya. tapi memang mungkin aja ada peraturan itu sewaktu saya mendaftar layanan blog gratisan ini dulu. masalahya tampilan iklan itu cukup mengganggu; memakan hampir seluuruh sidebar kanan seingga menyulitkan saja yang ingin memerikas progres tulisan.

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Sekarang mari kita ulas sedikit!

Public Diplomacy 2.0: AS Memanfaatkan Blogger?!

Hari ini para netizens Indonesia menyoroti isu baru yang merebak melalui situs berita detik.com mengenai  kawat Kedubes AS di Jakarta yang dibocorkan di situs Wikileaks. Isi kawatnya: Amerika memanfaatkan para blogger Indonesia untuk kepentingan AS.

Sebelum saya berkomentar lebih lanjut, silahkan baca dulu beritanya di sini. Sedangkan kutipan kawat yang dibocorkan Wikileaks tersebut dipublikasikan oleh situs berita Guardian yang dapat Anda baca selengkapnya di sini.

Judul dan isi beritanya memang sangat menghebohkan. Bagaimana pandangan Anda?

Dream of Guyana: Tale of A Corrupt Tax Official

Guyana, an exotic tropical country in the South American continent, suddenly appeared on headlines in Indonesian media today. An allegedly corrupt tax official currently in trial, Gayus Tambunan, forged Guyanese passports together with his wife in a apparent move to flee the country to avoid being convicted.

He was earlier found to have possessed a forged Indonesian passport and used it to travel to Malaysia, Singapore, and Macau, all of which were conducted when he was thought to be in custody during the investigation of his graft case. As if the government was not embarrassed enough of the graft case which allegedly involved prominent companies and politicians in the country, the forgery case serves as hard evidence on how sneaky a tax official could possibly maneuver and arguably threw the entire law and order onto his feet.

Or perhaps he has always longed to live in Guyana, a country blessed with the breathtaking Kaieteur Falls (as seen on the picture, taken from boxturtlebulltin.com). It’s a land with 767,000 population and nobody may not ever recognize his face and ugly wig. 😀 And come to think of it, it may not be a bad choice for him to choose that holiday spot and perhaps let us move on. This case, as many other graft cases that have been unveiled, has been overwhelmingly exposed that it just makes us sick!

Here’s a recap from ‘The Jakarta Post’:

clipped from www.thejakartapost.com

Police found new fake passports bearing pics of Gayus, Milana

The information technology team with the National Police found in an email sent by American passport syndicate suspect John Jerome Greece, now at large, two passport pictures issued by the Republic of Guyana bearing photos of graft defendant Gayus H. Tambunan and his wife, Milana Anggraeni.

“In the email, we allege the use of foreign passports as we found pics of couples resembling Gayus and his wife. Those [passports] belong to Guyana,” National Police deputy spokesman Sr. Comr. Boy Rafli Amar said on Tuesday.

The “Gayus” passport has the name of Yosep Morris, born on May 9 1979, and is valid from July, 23, 2007 to July 12, 2012, while the “Milana” passport holds the name of Ann Morris, born on Feb. 6, 1979, valid from July 18, 2007 until July 18, 2012.

Rosas Pandan: A Chorale Celebration

I stumbled across a video this morning. Infinito Singers, a choir from Indonesia sang ‘Rosas Pandan’, a beautiful tune from The Philippines. This song is in Cebuano, one of the native languages of The Philippines and tells about a mountain maid who loves to dance the balitaw, a folkdance in the country.

Apart from the beautiful rendition and a twisting clap at the end, it is heartening to know that such a beautiful song with perfect diction (as some Filipinos commented on Youtube) is performed by an Indonesian choir. Kudos to Infinito Singers. And hope you readers are blessed with this masterpiece as well. 😀

Dokumenter: Mereka Yang Terabaikan

Minggu lalu saya menyaksikan sebuah video dokumenter dari Metro TV. Video ini mengisahkan kehidupan kaum eks-pengungsi Timor Timur di Nusa Tenggara Timur yang masih bertahan hidup dalam segala keterbatasan setelah 11 tahun berlindung dalam Negara Kesatuan Republik Indonesia.

Yang menjadi sorotan utama adalah putusnya anak-anak sekolah karena ketiadaan biaya dari orang tuanya.  Sehari-harinya mereka menggantungkan nasib dengan menjadi supir angkot atau berjualan.

Inilah satu lagi potret buram kaum yang termarjinalkan di tengah negara yang katanya membanggakan diri dengan pencapaian ekonomi signifikan sepanjang tahun 2010 lalu. Ironi yang luar biasa, bukan?! 😦

Saksikan videonya di sini: Mereka yang Terabaikan.

*Mengenang kembali Negeri Oebello, Kabupaten Kupang, NTT. God be with them!*

Safety Riding: Sederhana Namun Diabaikan

Beberapa waktu yang lalu saya membuat janji bertemu dengan seorang kawan, sebut saja Andre, yang baru pulang dari Amerika setelah menyelesaikan studinya. Sebenarnya tidak bisa juga disebut ‘baru pulang’ karena sudah lewat beberapa bulan setelah kepulangan itu sebelum kami berdua akhirnya bisa meluangkan waktu untuk reuni. Kami janjian bertemu di sebuah mal di Kelapa Gading untuk kemudian bersama-sama pergi ke sebuah konser musik. Setelah bertemu, ternyata ia tidak sendirian. Saya dikenalkan dengan seorang perempuan cantik, sebut saja Nita, yang ternyata juga baru pulang dari Amerika.

Setelah mengobrol sebentar kami pun berangkat. Kendaraan yang digunakan adalah mobil Nita yang sekaligus duduk di kemudi. Manajer pemasaran yang baru 3 minggu kembali ke Jakarta ini dengan lincah mengemudikan mobil barunya. Kebetulan jalanan sedang ramai lancar, namun karena kami takut terlambat ke konser, maka Nita pun zig-zag kanan-kiri dengan santainya melewati mobil-mobil lain. Ketika memasuki jalan tol pun demikian; kondisi jalan tol yang padat memang tidak memungkinkan Nita melaju dengan kecepatan 100 km/jam, namun zig-zag kanan-kiri tetap piawai dilakoni agar cepat sampai tujuan. “Gimana, gue nyetirnya udah kayak supir angkot Jakarta, kan?!” begitu ujarnya riang. Benar saja, kami tiba tepat waktu. Perjalanan ke tempat konser berlangsung aman dan normal. Ketika pulang, giliran Andre yang duduk di kemudi. Namun begitu mobil keluar dari lapangan parkir tempat konser, kami langsung merasakan sesuatu yang ganjil. Apakah itu?

Why On Earth Did I Blog?

Here goes another article about blogging that is beginning to look like junk over the internet. Let’s be honest: what do you think if you visit a blog for the first time and find out that it’s filled with lengthy and boring posts about blogging, blogging tips, blogging tricks, discussions about blogging, optimizing and monetizing your blogs?! OK, you’ve got the idea and are now probably ready to click the ‘close’ button on my blog. 😀

I’ve actually been fed up with writing on ‘blogging’ until I read an interesting question on dailypost: “Why did you start (blogging)?” I started sometime in 2005 and kept changing names and servers until I have this one, but I truthfully don’t know the answer to that. Writing on the internet was a cool idea at the time and I spent a great effort modifying the outlook of the blog but hardly wrote anything worth a Nobel Prize in Literature! *slap* 😀 My passion for writing grew slowly over the years to the point that I decided to blog more seriously and engaged myself in local blogger and social media communities in Indonesia. It took some years to finally be able to write specific genres and explore several approaches in expressing my thoughts. It’s a slow, but fruitful, learning experience.

Therefore rather than pondering worthlessly over the question, let’s take a look at what I have accomplished so far:

Post A Week 2011: The Latest Madness

Yes, I would call it the latest madness simply because there should be no hard rule when it comes to blogging. Blogging is a medium of writing where we share ideas in it happily and willingly. My blogging schedule is up to me and nobody should tell me when to write or to remind me if my commitment to blogging is due.

But then again, I do feel the ‘need’ to blog. For the past year, blogging has become somewhat a therapy for me during the ups and downs of my work. Blogging keeps me sane and makes my brain active. I read somewhere that writing is a way to reduce the risk of Alzheimer next to speaking and understanding a foreign language. So being a blogger and a multilingual speaker (Indonesian, English, and Japanese), I feel that I’m way ahead of some people. *slap* 😀

So when I came across a challenge to post a blog every day or every week for the entire 2011, I quickly decided to sign up to participate. Oh no, I have no intention to post a blog every single day because I still won’t allow hard rules from controlling my daily schedule. So I settled to the idea of Post A Week 2011; that’s more realistic as I can commit to the minimum easily and even post some more if time (and mood) permits. I would switch languages from time to time so spare me from your harsh comments if you began to see some junk you can’t understand 😀

So there you go: my first public resolution for 2011. I look forward to your support. If you’re interested to know more or even take part, I encourage you to visit dailypost.wordpress.com

Cheers 😀

indobrad / Jakarta, Indonesia