Thursday, April 30, 2009

The Mark of Zorro: 11-4, 2nd Place in League

DSCF5320
Kelly, Craig, Jeremy, Tom, Rich, Allyson, Nyet, Miller, Beck
Paul, Genevieve, Jack, Salina
And, of course, Zorro
(Not pictured: Nat, Viral)

So I got bogged down in writing a couple of papers over the last couple of weeks and have been very neglectful of the Ballad. Sorry! Here's the quick version of what went down this weekend and tonight.

First game Saturday was against Premature Huckulation, featuring Damon / PMo / Dustin. Ridiculous winds howling all day, so it turned into a bit of a zonefest. Nothing very spectacular, we got ahead and leaned on them, and without Jason Trant, they were a vastly less impressive team than before. We won 13-6.

Second game Saturday was a laugher - we drew Tricky and Tyler Si Se Puede, and the answer is No, No You Can't. Tricky for whatever reason just decided to huck and huck and huck to covered people - we won 13-2, and it wasn't even that close. Boring game, really.

The big game of the day was again Stimulus Package, Big Nate / Ken Mayer / Sam Levenberg's team and the 1 seed from Monday night. Let me report without hesitation that they employed the stupidest, most anti-aesthetic Ultimate I've ever seen in VOTS. Sam effectively picked it up and hucked it to Big Nate, no matter where he was on the field and how covered he was, every time. Oh, wait, sometimes he threw it to Ken... who hucked it to Big Nate no matter where he was or whether he was covered. Just a dumb, obnoxious strategy, and infuriatingly effective. We turned it over on our goalline after the punts numerous times, and before we knew it, we were down 6-1.

It got as bad as 9-4 - and in a game to 13, I honestly felt that we were completely out of it. But we started chipping away - got a little smarter, D'ed up their stupid offense quite nicely (I went head to head with Big Nate and despite giving up 6 or 7 inches managed to get a bunch of Ds), connected on some big throws, and the next thing we knew, it was 9-9 and the soft cap was on. Game to 11, we ripped off another one and Miller ended the day with a layout D followed by a toe-in score. Miraculously, we had come back to win it 11-9, take pool play, and were headed to the semis! Huge comeback, and just a great way to end pool play.

Which was our first game tonight against Incredible Huck, home of Ben / the Connoles and Pat (fnuker from last league), but tragically captained by Joe. I will sum up his exploits just by labeling him a cheat, the type of guy who calls every breath of contact, especially after he has dropped a disc. Who throws a disc that slips out of his hand and catches it himself without calling a turn. So fine, whatever, I'm sure lots of people don't enjoy playing against me either, but I was amped to beat that team, especially since they had crushed us when we were missing Nat and Tom and me earlier in the season.

So we started off awfully, turfing throws on our own goal line and basically handing them a 2-0 lead. Tight game throughout; I beat a lot of people deep and connected on some deep throws, caught a hammer right over Ben and the like, and we fought out way back into it at 6-6 and took the last point to go up 7-6 at half. Ran it ahead 8-6, and then just leaned on them for the rest of the game until it got up to 11-9, when we let them sneak back in to make it 11-11. But then we went up 12-11, 12-12, 13-12, 13-13, 14-13... 15-13. These were some intense points and from around 10-8 on I really didn't feel comfortable subbing out, so I hogged some points but came through, too. Joe did not disappoint, but who cares; we beat them straight up. Big upset if you believe Nabity ratings and remember that we've been lacking both our top girl pick (Kelly) and our 2nd round guy pick (Nat) all day long.

Ugh. I'm exhausted and don't feel like writing this out to the full extent. We played okay this game, still featuring our offensive problems, and I did a lot of deep work to compensate for that. In the finals, our O problems caught up with us. We repeated our give them two early job, then played okay for a bit, but they poached well and took away our Genevieve advantage which just killed us. A lot of people had bad games, and we struggled with matchup isues all night. I think we were as close as 8-6 after half, but then they went on a big run (or more precisely, we threw it to their poachers over and over and over) and it was more or less over. 12-6, 13-6, 13-7, 13-8, 14-8, 15-8, and we lost in the finals.

They played very well, but we had our share of chances. We really just couldn't get past our haywire offense, and I really overplayed in the first game - played most every point, including the last ten in a row, and spent a lot of them sprinting deep. I played well considering, but I couldn't go, you know, crush superspeedy Rob or anything. Tom and Craig couldn't get their hucks off as easily. Bleh.

I personally almost caught a Calli (I was just a foot out of the endzone), hit a couple people deep, and held my own against the likes of Justin G. and Rob, so I felt okay about things. In one telling moment of the game, I tried to cut in three times while Paul had the disc but kept getting cut off. Paul heaved a crazy hammer at 9 (or so I thought - see below), I turned around and sprinted after it, made sure the girl from th eother team was not in my path and super crazy laid out and made a trailing edge grab. Siiiiick. Of course, my calves immediately cramped - I'm just out of shape, and sweat too much tonight, argh - so I took an injury. Little did I know that Paul had actually been stalled, so the whole thing was for naught. Drat.

So that's how it ends. Against the odds we made it to finals again, but came up well short. Ah, well. In my leagues in Phoenix so far it's been semis, champs, champs, out in pool play, out in pool play, champs, champs, finals. The two teams I captained with Genevieve - she is headed out of town, onto to awesomer things - combined for a championship and a finals appearance and a 25-5 record, 25-3 in the games I played. So all told I think we're doing just fine.

Miscellany: Allyson went up and D'ed Pat, only to have it float right back to him for a goal. Tom got a huge D on the goalline at 14-13; I broke Pat with a BH to Jack to seal that game. Jack got ridiculously rolled over by Byron on a stupid, dangerous late bid. Ugh. I caught a huck from Craig with Rob draped on me. My calves are still cramping, so sleep may be an issue tonight. Hit Genevieve multiple times for big BH scores. I am tired now and must stop this nonsense.

Long live The Mark of Zorro! Great season, guys!

Sunday, April 26, 2009

A rare triple

A Canton Michigan high schooler, Willa Chen, pulled off what is considered an extremely rare triple. She got a perfect score on the PSAT, the SAT, and the ACT. The ACT, a competitor and rival of the SAT, says no more than 1 in 14,000 test takers score perfect on its exam. Ms. Chen will be attending Princeton University in the Fall. Good stuff. Read more here.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Two planets



The LA Times has an interesting article about what scientists consider the two most earthlike planets of the 340 planets discovered outside of our solar system. Oddly enough, both orbit the same star, a dwarf 20 light-years from Earth called Gliese 581. The smaller of the two is one of the smallest planets yet discovered outside of our solar system, only twice the size of Earth. There is a possibility of water on the other based on its distance from its star. Read the whole article here.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Waiting for the next Star Wars movie



We finally found the insurance company where Darth Vader has been working while waiting for the new Star Wars movie to start production. Word is that Yoda only accepts closed door meetings to avoid the paparazzi.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

The Mark of Zorro: 7-3

Not a lot to say about this one. We entered the game tied at 6-3 for fourth with Joe Disc-Pack. Problem was, Who Hucks to the Huckers and The Incredible Huck, the two teams tied for second at 7-2, were playing one another, so one was more or less guaranteed to end up at 7-3. So if we won and Joe Disc Pack won, we would be in a three-way tie, and our point diff (thanks to those games with both Whhth and IH when Nat, Tom and I were out) would leave us in 5th. If we won (7-3) and Joe lost (6-4), we would be in fourth, and if we lost and Joe lost, we would be tied at 6-4, so we would be 4th (since we beat Joe). In other words, what we did was immaterial; our final seeding on the season was dependent on Joe's performance. Fortunately, they were playing Justin/E-bay's solid team Cowbell (whom we beat last week but is generally a good team), so our chance of finishing fourth looked good. But it had nothing to do with us.

Phew. Make enough sense? So the game was meaningless, but we were playing Vince's team aka Super Smash Bros. With nothing on the line other than going into the playoffs on a high note), it was hard to get morivated for this. We were also missing Jack, out at a meeting, and Nat, who we learned Tuesday is out for the season. Awesome. Throw on that Kelly is also out for the season and Genevieve was out of town, and there were just a lot of reasons to not care a whole lot. Throw on top of *that* the fact that Vince's team pretty much wanted to lose and come in 7th, the whole thing was set up for a dumb game.

And dumb it was. Ugly game, and I played not-so-great. Admittedly, a lot of this was because I was trying to do things like get it to Beck and Salina independent of circumstance and Smash Brother's dudes just kept poaching off and D'ing. So an inordinate number of turns from yours truly - I can think of five off the top of my head, all of them related to stupid efforts to jam into people with throws I would normally not have even thought about.

Whatever. We won, 14-13, so I suppose we played well enough. Pretty disappointing that we didn't play well, especially in the whole "organized offense" domain - we just couldn't run an endzone O to save our life, and people kept making bad decisions. Really low-level, tons-of-turns style game, and I was not into it at all.

Fun times: someone threw a huck to a woman that was guarded by Salina. I ran after it, but unable to get there in time, I just started yelling to Salina that the disc was UP UP UP and when Salina whiffed on it, I yelled "Dammit," Jack Bauer style, on reflex. The girl, natch, dropped it, and there was a lot of griping from the sideline about my having distracted her. Awesome. I didn't mean to, obviously, was just trying to communicate to my teammate and then got frustrated, but it's not like I was yelling Ooga booga in her ear as she tried to catch it. So a little good-spirited silliness ensued, but it was dropped...

Until a point later, when Craig threw me a terrible hammer that sailed out the back of our endzone. I made a toe down trailing-edge layout snag of the hammer, and I was roughly 90% sure my toe was inbounds as I had stopped at the edge of the endzone before bidding. But I didn't know for sure, so I looked around to get some confirmation. Their sideline gave me some crap along the "you don't know, you were too busy yelling at our girl, blah blah blah" type stuff that was some of the most inept heckling I've heard in some time. Someone yelled "How could you be in, you landed on your chest!" to which I replied "My foot was down!," apparently too exuberantly. They proceeded to give me more crap. Paul (teammate) and Tricky (impartial observer) both indicated that I was in, so I called myself in, to more comments. Great. As Miller noted afterwards, I was honestly trying to get an opinion on whether my to was in or not, but since they responded with stupidity, whatever, just call myself in.

It was a ridiculous catch, regardless. Huzzah. Self-five.

That was it for the drama on the evening, but it ruined an already idiotic game for me. Even Beck thought they were bing jerks about the whole thing, so for once I have some backup. Vince et al are almost always a sort of "goofy, fun team," but per usual they hide behind this to be clandestine jackasses to some extent. Whatever.

That was overly harsh; Vince, Obert, Jamie, Liesl and everybody were fine, it just an overly caustic vibe that I (and Beck) felt I was getting for no obvious reason. Other than, you know, that I'm the villain that is Nyet. Mwuhaha. But really, the game was fine, good times, but we really played down to their level, and it makes me worry about the weekend.

On the plus side, Allyson, Beck and Salina were our only women there, so our relative newbies got a lot of exposure and playing time. We got the disc to a lot of people on our team as a whole, which is nice. Still, it's odd - and perhaps due to our everchanging lineup - that in week 10, we can't even propoerly run an endzone.

So sort of a put me in a bad mood type game, and not my favorite way to end a season. My hamstrings bothered me all game - the worse part about my ankle is how out-of-sorts it's rendered all my other muscles - and between that and our wacky lack of flow, and Nat being done, etc., I just don't have 100% confidence in how thigns are gonna go this weekend. Not ideal.

Oh, yeah, this weekend - Joe Discpack did end up losing (so yeah, thanks for the 30 minute explanation Volo, but ultimately you didn't get it done, so, phhhhhbt?), so we ended up tied for third in the Wednesday league, taking the fourth seed b/c of point differential. So our pool for Saturday is:

Stimulus Package (Big Nate / Sammy's team)
Us
Si Se Puede (Tricky, Tyler)
Premature Huckulation (Damon, PMo, Dustin)

SO... tough pool? Don't know. I joke about playing "Shelbyville" every time out, but I think it applies here. We aren't gonna do crap if we don't get our act together, and who we play is immaterial to that. It's been a harshly up and down season due to personnel issues / injuries, but I really thought we hit a great stride last weel... only to see it fall apart this week. Ah, well. With genevieve and Jack back in action, it should be vastly different. Still, in the back of my mind, I'm dialing it down and just looking forward to having a good time playing three games. Doesn't feel very much like myself, but for sanity-preservation measures, this may be the way to go.

Ah, who am I kidding. I'll be sure to write up my pscyho, out of my head competitive behavior and stellar play after Saturday. The Zorro can pull this off. Wish us luck.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

New Label



It is never a good sign when a food product one consumes fairly regularly suddenly adds a new safety label. Cook thoroughly is an especially unappealing notice. It was just added to the outside of the Totino's Combination Frozen Pizza box. What happened? Somebody cook it less than thoroughly and croak? Keel over? Fall out?

Don't take our food that we wish not to think about in that manner and make it scary.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

First Love (never) die…

Entah dari mana ungkapan ini berasal tapi saya mendukungnya dengan sepenuh hati. Apakah memang konsep dari otak yang tidak bisa menghapus konsep cinta pertama itu? diantara sekian banyak badai hati yang terjadi setelah cinta pertama, setelah begitu banyak orang yang ditemui, banyak perasaan yang terjadi, tetap perasaan cinta untuk orang pertama itu begitu spesial. Begitu nyata.

Saya selalu menjabarkannya dalam konsep cinta platonik. apa itu? kenapa cinta harus di konsepkan? Saya sendiri mendapat pencerahan mengenai cinta ini dari Elektra, tokoh dalam Supernova edisi Petir milik Dewi Lestari. Cinta platonik merupakan deskripsi cinta yang tidak perlu dikatakan, tetapi kita hanya merasakan bahwa cinta itu ada. Dan yang paling menyakitkan adalah bahwa cinta jenis ini tidak perlu berbalas. Cukup menghormati bahwa perasaan itu memang ada.

Siapa dia? Teman dari jaman SMP. Dia yang pertama kali membuat jantungku berdetak cepat ketika upacara dimulai. Kelas kami bersebelahan, itu artinya barisan kami dilapangan pun bersebelahan. Rasanya saya sanggup upacara dari pagi sampai siang (buset berapa kali lagu indonesia raya mesti diulang kalo seharian begini upacaranya?) hanya untuk melihat senyumnya. Mendengar suaranya, dan yah standar lah jamannya anak SMP. Gombal-gombal sedikit.

Saya sempat kehilangan dia. Dia yang menyatakan akan pergi dari Makassar untuk kuliah di kota lain. Saya sempat menahannya dan mengatakan,

”Haruskah kamu pergi? Tidak bisakah kuliah di Makassar saja bersamaku?”

Ya, perkataan jenis itu. yang biasanya hanya ada di novel-novel yang selalu saya baca. Tapi itu juga pernah saya katakan kepadanya. Jawabannya tentu saja dia pergi. Mengejar mimpinya sendiri sampai ke kota pelajar. Selama setahun saya tidak mendengar kabarnya. Tidak tahu dan tidak mau tahu. Tapi apa mau dikata, rindu memang selalu menyeruak. Saya menghubungi sang kakak untuk meminta nomor telepon dia.

Sang kakak? Yup. Dia yang memuluskan perjalanan cintaku selama SMU. Karena ternyata kakaknya adalah kakak kelasku di STM dulu. Perjalanan cinta yang berjalan sepihak. Tapi saya belum bisa mendiskripsikan apakah memang itu cinta atau tidak. Saya menikmati setiap debaran ketika saya menelpon ke rumahnya. Menikmati setiap janjian ketemu di mall. Jaman ketika fasilitas telepon selular masih kurang, rasanya dengan ngantri dan berjibaku di wartel setiap malam minggu rela saya jalani. Hanya untuk mendengarkan suaranya.

When I dream about you...
Girl you never go away…
Just close my eyes before my dream
Cause I still loving you.

Inilah lagu Stevie B yang menemaniku menulis postingan ini. Haha! So mellow! Karena euforia cinta itu saya rasakan lagi. Setelah 6 tahun berlalu. Setelah sebagian kepingan hatiku dibawanya serta. Saya tahu dia sudah di Makassar sejak beberapa tahun belakangan. Lepas kuliahnya di Yogyakarta. Tapi saya belum berani berhadapan dengan dia. Belum berani untuk meminta kembali kepingan hatiku yang dia bawa pergi. Saya pengecut. Karena saya takut ketika bertemu lagi saya belum siap. Jadinya saya harus menunggu selama 2 tahun untuk bertemu.

Kemarin akhirnya saya bertemu dengan dia lagi. Setelah bingung apa yang akan dijadikan alasan untuk bertemu. Dia bukan sahabat saya yang bisa seenaknya ditelpon dan mengatakan bahwa saya ingin bertemu. Untungnya dia ingin pergi melihat tempat wawancaranya besok. Jadi saya menawarkan diri untuk mengantarnya pergi.

Entah perasaan apa yang menyergapku ketika berdiri di depan pintunya. Melihat senyum yang pernah selalu meneduhkanku. Mendengar bincang hangat dari seluruh anggota keluarganya menyapaku. Karena begitulah pernah posisi diriku. Akrab dengan seluruh kakak, sampai orang tuanya. Rasa familiar bahwa saya pernah bermimpi menjadi bagian dari keluarga ini. Tapi disinilah saya berdiri sekarang. Orang lain. Hehe.

Setelah pamitan sama ibu dan bapak (dari dulu saya tidak pernah memanggil orangtuanya dengan tante dan om, hehehe) kami pun melintasi Jalan Sungai Saddang menuju Ratulangi. Ada banyak percakapan yang terjadi selama kami berkendara. Percakapan dari hati menurut saya. Walaupun harus bersaing dengan deru kendaraan yang lain, saya tetap menyimak apa yang ditanyakannya. Menjawab dengan jelas apa yang terjadi denganku selama 6 tahun belakangan. Setelah melihat tempat tes wawancaranya, kami pun memutuskan masuk mall ratu indah. Tempat yang mempunyai sejuta kenangan bersamanya.

Raut wajah itu yang tidak pernah bisa saya tolak. Raut wajah yang selalu meneduhkan. Senyum yang selalu bisa membuatku menghela napas bahagia. Selama satu jam kami bertukar cerita. Merangkum apa yang terjadi selama kami tidak bertemu. Merangkum segala peristiwa yang terjadi, karena dia sendiri mengatakan,

”kamu berubah banyak, bal”

Saya hanya ingin menjawabnya,

”saya berubah seperti ini hanya untuk kamu. Bahwa saya bisa berjuang untuk mendapatkan kamu lagi. Saya bukan lelaki yang dulu begitu saja melepasmu pergi”

Tapi itu hanyalah perkataan di dalam kepala saya. Saya mengetahui dari akun di facebooknya bahwa dia sudah in a relationship. Dengan jelas saya bertanya siapa dia. Siapa yang telah menjadi tambatan hatinya. Dan saya hanya bisa mendengarkan. Sambil melihat gurat wajahnya yang begitu bahagia telah bertemu dengan pria yang tepat. Pria lain selain saya (lagi). Saya berbesar hati. Saya tahu cukup lama waktu yang kami lalui untuk memetakan perasaan itu. saya pun sudah menemukan kebaranian saya untuk mengatakan,

”saya pernah begitu mencintaimu. Saya pernah begitu mendambakanmu. Sebagian hati saya kau bawa pergi. Bisakah saya memintanya kembali? Karena saya tahu kamu tidak akan pernah menjadi milikku”

Lagi-lagi ini hanya ada dalam kepalaku. Karena begitulah konsep cintaku kepadanya. Dia tahu bahwa saya begitu mencintainya. Tapi dia tidak perlu menjawab apa-apa. Dia hanya perlu tahu bahwa saya akan selalu ada disini. Berdiri dan menunggunya...

Ps : terima kasih telah membuatku menikmati suasana sore yang menyenangkan. Kamu berhak mendapatkan yang terbaik. Siapapun yang akan mendampingimu kelak.

Two stories

His grandfather says he is a wonderful boy. His fiance says he is a great guy. He wouldn't hurt a fly and that they are still planning to marry in August. He is a twenty-two year old Boston University medical student, although he has now been suspended from school pending the outcome of an investigation.

The Boston Police Department says he is a sociopath and killer, who has used the internet ad aggregator Craig's List to lure women to hotels. Allegedly he binds them and robs them. One of his capers went bad last week, and he stands accused of fatally shooting Julissa Brisman, 26, on April 14 in her room at the Boston Marriott Copley Place.

A man leading double lives? A case of mistaken identity? We will keep you posted.

The story continues.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Salah Jurus

Nope. Saya tidak sedang mengikuti kegiatan bela diri. Saya sudah tidak minat lagi. Saya juga tidak sedang menonton serial silat (walopun dulu sempat fanatik dengan misteri gunung merapi dan wiro sableng) tetapi hari sabtu kemarin saya mengalami salah jurus sampai 2 kali.

Pertama, saya sudah tahu bahwa Astamedia akan menjadi sponsor dalam Milad anak HMI di Unhas. Secara kak Asri anak HMI, jadi mreka bisa nembus kasih masuk proposalnya. Oke, berarti bentuk kerjasamanya adalah di kami diberi meja dan akan diberikan sesi advetorial di dalam materi untuk berbicara selama 15 menit.

Di hari sabtu akhirnya jadilah saya dan nanie pergi ke FK. Yak, masuk kampus lagi. Berasa lamaaa banget gak ngampus. Huhuhuhuhu, miss you fellas! Kali ini tujuan utamanya langsung ke FK. DeJa Vu! Saya ingat pernah berkeliaran di fakultas ini selama setahun. Keliling-keliling, kami akhirnya menemukan auditorium yang dimaksud. Hmm, ini rupanya gedung yang dibangun di belakang Jasbog dulu. Lumayan besar. Kapasitas 700 orang juga bisa masuk kayaknya. Setelah kenalan lagi sama panitia akhirnya kami duduk di meja yang dipersiapkan.

Satu persatu peserta datang. Eh, kok ada anak sekolah? Bergosip lagi dengan Nanie, eh, kok ada anak Akper? Bukannya ini acaranya untuk anak FK saja? Langsung konfirm dengan panitia dulu,

Saya : banyak yah jumlah pesertanya. Targetnya berapa orang?
Panitia : 300 orang kak.
Saya : mmm, berarti di dalam sudah berapa orang?
Panitia : baru sekitaran 150 orang lebih,
Saya : ini acaranya memang untuk umum yah?
Panitia : iya. Sekolah sekolah juga kami undang.

(sh*t!!!) kami salah perhitungan. Kenapa? Kami mengira milad ini hanya dihadiri oleh anak FK saja. Jadinya saya mempersiapkan bahan mengenai blog kesehatan dan kaitannya dengan kesehatan. Tapi kalau jadinya heterogen begini? Gimana caranya? Okay, stay cool. Lebih banyak orang, lebih baik. Bergosip lagi dengan Nanie, semakin banyak orang yang datang. Perhitungan kami, kalau target panitia terpenuhi 250 orang saja, dan kami melakukan edukasi di depan mreka, yah lumayanlah yang bisa diajak.

Hampir 2 jam, materi sudah berganti ke materi yang kedua. Halah, kok pesertanya pada bubar sedikit demi sedikit? Pihak panitia berusaha menahan mereka. Cuma ya karena dasarnya sudah bosan, mereka tetap aja ngeloyor pergi. Pas ada peserta yang saya tanya, jawaban mereka adalah materi kedua membosankan! Saya berusaha tersenyum saja dengan panitia yang seperti menghalau anak ayam yang lepas. Ditahan udah gak bisa.

Akhirnya materinya selesai juga! Cuma memang yang terjadi memang sesuai dengan ketakutan kami. Mereka langsung berhamburan. Saya mencoba untuk still confident, berbicara di depan orang yang seperti zombie. Saya tahu perasaan mereka. Sudah mau pulang tapi masih ditahan oleh orang yang segede-gede beruang.

Sedikit penjelasan saya berikan tapi teteup gak ngeh. Ekspresi mereka mirip perkataan salah satu iklan, Mati Gaya! Termasuk saya tentu saja. Ya sudahlah, saya tidak bisa menahan mereka lagi. Saya langsung mengingat kuliah Retorika dan Keprotokolan dulu. Audiens sudah tidak bisa dikontrol lagi. Apa yang bisa dilakukan adalah melepas mereka. Percuma saja buang-buang suara, kalau mereka memang sudah tidak fokus lagi.

Tapi kami tetap merasa beruntung hari ini. Ada beberapa osis sekolah yang kami dapatkan nomor handphonenya. Ada beberapa mahasiswa yang tertarik, dan ada beberapa yang mau ikut. Ah, rasanya perjalanan saya bersama tim marketing masih panjang. Bagaimana mengajak untuk ikut bersekolah blog, dan bagi saya? Menyiapkan jurus lengkap untuk menghadapi semua jenis keadaan. Selamat pagi!

Thursday, April 16, 2009

ditolak (lagi)

entah apa masalahnya blogvertise sama saya.
lagi lagi entry yang saya buat di reject.
padahal sudah dibuat dengan sepenuh hati, eh task nya malah expired.

memang karena kesibukan belakangan akhirnya gak konsen ngurusin task-task itu.
plus ilmunya masih kurang sebenarnya.

sudah menghubungi pihak blogvertise, cuma tasknya sudah full.
ya sud lah, saya akan terus berusaha! sampai bisa sesuai dengan syarat dari blogvertise...

The Mark of Zorro: 6-3

Yeah, the astute and the impatient blog-readers alike will note that I failed to update the status of my VOTS fall league frisbee team last week. And with good reason: my ankle was still large-end grapefruit-sized, so I took measures to prevent myself from playing (left cleats at home, etc.). And Tom missed, Nat missed, and Viral missed, and it was hellaciously windy... and we got crushed by Ben's team, the stupendously badly named The Incredible Huck. Ugh. They killed us, 15-7 or some such. Paul really stepped it up in this one, particularly in the second half, on both O and D. There was some issue with Jack getting really irked that we would crazily suggest that sometimes, particularly in huge upwind-downwind games, punting is a good idea... whatever. It was a terrible game, I was not emotionally invested at all because of my injury, and we played badly. Leave it at that. It dropped us to 5-3, and with two more tough games to play, we were staring down a potential losing streak ending in a .500 season.

Not so fast! We had Justin/E-Bay/Eric Iverson / Emily Haydon's team "More Cowbell" on the schedule tonight. They were undefeated (albeit by the skin of their teeth - a couple of one and two point wins here and there) and I had learned today that we would be without Nat, Jeremy, Virla and Kelly, so yikes. And Jack didn't show up either! EGADS. On the good side, my ankle really turned a corner on Sunday - returned to borderline human dimensions - and felt more or less okay walking around campus, so I procured a lace-up brace (thanks Beck!) and decided to give warming up a try before the game. Success! The swollen points pressing against the brace were a tad uncomfortable, but I could run in straight lines without pain. Tried a few cuts before the game, and good to go.

This spring has been from all accounts exceptionally windy, particularly on Wednesday nights, and this night was no exception - big gusts going one way down the field, though with the 8:00 game, things died down a tad for us. The name of the game would be zone tonight, and though we were missing the aforementioned people, we had Genevieve, Tom, Craig, and me available for handling duties, so that leaned things in our favor. We lost the flip, though, and they sent the intial pull down to us. Some crazy back and forth, good D on both sides, but some sloppy turns from our side and bad drops - I hit both Paul and Craig in the hands with hucks on this point - and they punched in the first one for a break. I felt okay, but got Justin sic'ed on me for several of the man points, and in case you don't remember from the fnuk posts, dude is SICK FAST and tough to cover and get away from. I really couldn't play great D on him, but I could keep him out of the endzone and at least make him throw the scores instead of breezing by me to catch them.

They tacked another on in a similarly sloppy point, and it was 2-0 bad guys. Uh-oh. And Craig fired a huck to me at the start of the next point - I was getting guarded by ? (blond guy who looks vaguely like John from St. George) whom I would normally sky easily, but with the tight brace and the soreness I just couldn't jump - I got a hand on it, but he ticked it away. Annoying. And a bad start. Luckily we got the disc back, Craig hucked it again and this time I skyed properly. Huzzah, no shutout. We finally got to pull, so we threw what would be the first of eighteen consecutive zone points here.

Ah, Cowbell's Achilles. Even with their toppish line - with EBay, Emily and Justin handling and Eric Iverson popping - they just don't have people to huck to or people that can pop throws over the top. SO our zone SERIOUSLY frustrated them - I think they really worked it up only three or four times, and only scored on one of those. There is little more to say, other than that Salina, Allyson, Genevieve, Craig and Tom - Craig in particular played almost all eighteen points in the cup - kicked serious ass in the cup, and Tom also nailed a ton of Ds, and EVERYONE - Rich, Paul, Miller, Beck - just shut their stuff down on the sidelines and in the middle of the field. Amazing. They had no answers!

(And let it be known - Beck got a HUGE D on a DUDE!!! YEAH!!! Go wife!)

So the rest of the game was a barrage of turns by them, lots of which occurred on short fields. They managed to punch in one or two off of transititons, but the rest of the game went 2-2, 2-3, 3-3, 3-4, 4-4, 5-4, 6-4, 7-4, 7-5, 8, 9,10,11,12,13,14-5, 14-6, 15-6. 15-6!!! We beat the Wednesday one-seed 15-6??!?!?! Nuts!!!

So what happened? Well, the obvious story of the game, and the one that should spread league-wide in no time, is that they absolutely did nothing against our zone. We just had a huge number of short fields to work with, and scored on one pass a ton of times. This had a bit of a cumulative mental effect, and somewhere around 11-5 the zone-ineptitude got into their heads in a big way.

And like I said, a number of folks just made gigantic plays. Allyson had a nasty goalline D AGAIN, Beck had her huge D, Paul intercepted one in the endzone, Tom smacked quite a few earthward - NASTY! Salina effectively D'ed Eric Iverson, for crap's sake. I get a little pumped just thinking about it - teehee! Beyond that, Tom and Craig came through with some big hucks. Lots of good possession play from Genevieve, Miller and Paul, and all of them got into the scoring mix big time - I especially enjoyed a hammer from Milelr to G for the score. Beck got in the mix on some yardage gaining throws. Rich played great. Man, what a nice, across-the-board team game.

Personally: After missing a laser from Tom early in the game, having Justin get one on me in the endzone (on a terrible hammer, ftr), I turned it up a bit despite the whole "playing on one leg" issue) and beat Justin a few times on deep throws, skyed Justin and EBay quite sickly on a huck (definitely YOINKed it from EBay), beat EBay on a streak up the sideline, etc., and threw some scores as well (one scoober to Beck got intercepted by Miller, but what you gonna do?) - that one to Miller, hammers to Genevieve and Allyson, huck to Paul, quick BH to Craig. I may be forgetting something, but that looks to me like a full two-thirds (5 throws, 5 goals) of our team's points. I had a good game. And yet I don't feel compelled to post to VOTS boards what a great player this makes me as SOME have done. Ugh.

Really, this was a teamwide effort capped by some great D and some, for the most part, efficient O. Pretty surprising - G and I fully thought that with Nat out (and especially after Jack no-showed) that we would be in trouble. But we pulled it out. This is the third undefeated team (fourth, if you count the opening game of the season) that we've introduced to the concept of losing, so if nothing else we've had a good season of spoiling.

(and again, personally, my ankle held up - we were really hurting for subs, so I ended up playing this entire game at deep-deep. Score. A few hours later and nothing is terribly swollen, so I'm hoping I can get some disc in this weekend and cap the season next week).

Speaking of - we're now in fourth place in the wednesday night league, tied with Joe Discpack at 6-3 but having beaten them in our regular season game. The tournament format has gotten rearranged, and it's really not worth going into, but if things hold up, we'll get to play the 8th seed from our league, and the 5th and 1st seeds from Monday. It's a good position to be in, and I'd like to stay there - we have Vince's team next week and Discpack has Cowbell, so on paper, we should have enough advantage to stay at least tied. I guess we'll see, especially since we may have just revealed how one would go about beating Cowbell. Hmmm... anyhoo, I really like the parity this season and the fact that every game has the potential to be tight. Really glad to see our team coming together at the end of the season. Hope our injured / no-shows can bring it out the next few times. Looking forward to the thrilling conclusion.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Balada tukang tambal ban

Entah apa masalah saya dengan tukang tambal ban. Entah apa pula yang terjadi dengan motor saya. 2 hari ini dia sangat rewel. Dalam artian ada saja atraksi yang harus saya lakukan untuk membuatnya nyaman. Kenapa saya bercerita seolah-olah dia hidup? Memang begitulah saya memperlakukannya. Namanya Andra. Dia yang telah menemaniku keliling Makassar selama satu tahun lebih. Menemani ke kota, ke pelosok, di subuh buta, sampai tengah malam. Dia yang tidak pernah mengeluh. Ketika dia rewel saya juga ikut disusahkan.

Sebenarnya masalah pertama sudah muncul ketika saya menyervisnya bulan 12 yang lalu.

Mbak-mbak dealer : Mas, motornya yang 5965 AZ yah?
Saya : iya, kenapa mbak?
Mbak-mbak dealer : itu rantai motornya sudah kalah. Sudah mau diganti.
Saya : hah? Kok bisa? Kan baru setahun. Emang sudah harus diganti yah?
Mbak-mbak dealer : sebenarnya tergantung pemakaian yang punya motor. Kalo motornya gak dipake kemana mana pasti awet. Mas emang pakenya kemana saja?
Saya : Cuma ke Tamalanrea tiap hari. Plus ke Maros dan sekitarnya
(ya oloo, tamalanrea itu bukan Cuma! Itu 20 kilo dari rumahmu!)


Wakakaka, berbekal wangsit yang diberikan sama mbak-mbak dealer saya pun mulai was-was dengan keadaan Andra. Buset, gimana kalo nanti kenapa-napa. Ini bukan rantai sepeda yang bisa dipasang kapan saja. Syukur kalo rantai bagian belakang belakang yang lepas, gimana kalo bagian depannya? Alamat atraksi sangat berlebihan. Apalagi kalo didepan pujaan hati. Bisa hancur harga diri saya!

Ya, maafkan saya Andra! Saya belum bisa membiayaimu! 3 bulan saya memakainya terus-menerus. Rantainya sudah sangat parah kedengaran. Seakan-akan bisa putus dan hancur berantakan di tengah jalan. Peristiwa pertama lepasnya rantai motor ketika saya ke kampus bersama Wuri dan yang kedua pas ngantar mace beli ikan di Lelong. Cukup sudah! Saya tidak mau dipermalukan lagi. Akhirnya setelah saya mendapat honor dari transkrip wawancara dari tanta Anna. Akhirnya! Saya mengganti rantai motor saya! Tetapi masalah saya rupanya tidak selesai sampai disitu.

Selesai satu masalah. Muncul masalah lain. Masih ingat dengan cerita saya di blog yang ini. Nah, masalahnya sama. Bocor! Minggu ini sudah 3 kali saya mengalami nasib yang serupa.

*kronologis peristiwa

Peristiwa I
Hari senin saya, Nanie, Anbhar kelar nganterin surat ke beberapa sekolah. Tujuan terakhir adalah rapat di kantor untuk membuat draft kegiatan. Fixed. Saya kemudian melaju dengan kecepatan diatas 60 kilo per jam. Diluar kebiasaan. Alasan lain? Kebelet pipis! Sampai di depan Carrefour tamalanrea, motor tiba-tiba oleng. Pas saya lihat, bocor! Karena kelamaan dipake kempes, pentil bannya kalah. Harus ganti ban baru.

Peristiwa II
Hari sabtu, kelar dari bengkel gantai rantai dengan semangat saya balap Andra kemana pun. Nyalip sana sini. Klakson sana sini. Cendrawasih – Tamalanrea ditempuh hanya dengan waktu stengah jam. Tidak biasa. Andra diparkir seharian. Malamnya mau pulang saya sudah sampai di Pettarani. Sadar dompet saya kelupaan di meja. Buset! Saya balap lagi ke kantor dengan kecepatan 60 kilo per jam. Sangat tidak biasa. Sampai di kantor, naik ambil dompet, pulang. Pas mau jalan, baru liat bannya bocor. Oke, tambal! Kali ini ban depan.

Peristiwa III
Malam yang sama. Durasi kurang dari satu jam saya tambal ban depan. Berbekal mau tidur plus martabak yang saya beli sewaktu mengalami peristiwa II, saya pulang. Masih balap-balap. Pikiran saya apa yang terjadi? Sudah kena dua-duanya. Cuma Andra kayaknya masih marah sama saya. Masuk jalan Andi Tonro motor oleng! Hmm. Apa yang terjadi? Yo olooo. Ban belakangnya! Saya mendorong kurang lebih satu kilo mencari tukang tambal ban. Dapatnya di Mappaodang.

Peristiwa IV
Terakhir pagi tadi saya berniat jalan ke pantai. Sama Wincut. Oke, saya pertama tidak mau naik motor. Cuma karena takut merepotkan jadilah kami naik motor juga. Saya parkir di rumah sakit Stella Maris untuk kemudian jalan kaki mengelilingi pantai dan sekitarnya. Tujuan kami berikutnya adalah Paotere. Kami bergegas mengambil motor, ternyata ban depannya bocor lagi! Buset! Belum 12 jam saya menambalnya!

Ada beberapa asumsi yang saya utarakan mengenai peristiwa bocornya ban Andra,
1. tragedi yang menimpa motor kakak saya sekarang pindah sama saya. Motor dia juga begitu. Bocor tiap hari, sampai akhirnya dia jual dan diganti motor baru. Masa saya juga harus sampai menjualnya? Mitos atau fakta?
2. overweight? Hmm, saya? Dalam keempat kasus tadi bisa terhitung hanya saya seorang yang mengendarainya. Wincut tidak termasuk hitungan. Seberapa sih bobotnya dia. Dan saya? Saya kan juga imut! Mitos atau fakta?
3. sering ngebut? Ini kayaknya faktor penentu. Kayaknya Andra marah karena sering dikebut. Balap sana sini. Klakson sana sini. Hehehe. Saya yang gila karena sering mendengar motor saya tiba-tiba marah? Mitos atau fakta?

Ada satu yang saya perhatikan diantara tukang tambal ban itu. masing-masing memiliki ciri khas dalam menambal ban. Tidak semuanya sama. Mau tahu?

Tukang tambal ban 1.
Dalam menjalankan operasinya dia tidak menggunakan kompor atau bahan pemanas yang lain. Dia hanya menggunakah alat tambal praktis yang sudah jadi. Tinggal ditambah lem dan ditekan sedikit sedikit sudah kelar. Praktis tapi tidak tahan lama. Lokasi : depan Carrefour tamalanrea.

Tukang tambal ban 2.
Pertama melihat saya, dia sudah lincah menyalakan kompornya. Kompornya pun model penjual martabak. Yang menggunakan minyak tanah dan menggunakan angin yang di mampatkan. Ban yang bocor dibersihkan, dilap, dilem dan ditunggu setengah kering. Diberi penambal ban, dan ditempel pake besi yang sudah dipanaskan. Trik terakhir membasahi bagian dalam ban luar saya dan memasukkan ban dalam. Entah untuk apa. Lokasi : depan harapan baru tamalanrea. Samping penjual martabak.

Tukang tambal ban 3.
Sandi operasinya sangat hebat. Menggunakan kompor hock. Jadi bisa dipastikan skala kepanasan itu besi yang dipake untuk press. Standar yang sama, bocornya dicari trus dibersihkan. Dilem, dibiarkan kering sedikit kemudian ditambal. Kalau yang lain menggunakan bahan tempel yang lumayan besar, ini kecil sekali. Hanya dua kali besarnya lubang yang bocor. Apa yang beda? Ternyata kali ini dia menggunakan koran sebagai pengalasnya. Jadi susunannya ban, koran, pengalas besi, besi yang sudah dipanaskan. Di press. Holla! Bannya sudah beres kembali. Lokasi : jalan mappaodang, didepan travel entah-apa-namanya.

Tukang tambal ban 4.
Skeptis melihat bapak ini. Tidak ada alat alat tambahan selain peralatan untuk membongkar ban. Persepsi saya pasti sama modus operandinya bapak tukang tambal ban 1. ternyata tidak! Dia ini yang paling memuaskan. Setelah memulai standar operasi tambal ban, yang mencengangkan adalah bagaimana dia membuat besi yang panas. Dia menggunakan spritus sodara! Haha! Saya juga kaget. Kok ada sebotol cairan warna ungu di dekatnya? Setelah bannya di press, dia menggunakan tungku khusus yang bisa bergerak. Dia menuang spritus tersebut ke sebuah wadah, kemudian disulut pake api. Menyala! Saya Cuma bisa bengong. Dia memasukkan kedalam alat pressnya sampai membuat panas. Plus bapak ini memberikan tips dan trik dalam menambal ban. Lokasi : jalan pojok rumah sakit Stella Maris.

Moral cerita :
1. periksa angin ban motor anda sebelum digunakan.
2. jangan ngebut dalam kota.
3. servis motor kalau ada uang. Kalau waktunya servis dan tidak ada uang, lakukan apa saja!
4. ayo, siapa yang mau dibonceng lagi? Kali ini aman!



nb : gambarnya diambil dari sini

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Too much Facebook leads to bad grades!?!

This just in from Captain Obvious at the Ohio State University; too much Facebook can lead to bad grades. No way.

A study of 219 users reported that OSU students who use Facebook spend less time studying and have lower grades than students who don't use the formerly hip social networking site. However, don't count on these folks self-diagnosing. The study noted that noted that 79% of Facebook users said that using the social networking site was not interfering with their studies.

However, the study found that found that Facebook users, who generally studied between one and five hours per week, had GPAs between 3.0 and 3.5, but nonusers, who studied 11 to 15 hours per week, had GPAs between 3.5 and 4.0. Admittedly, the study controls were weak and there certainly could be other causes for the lower grades not considered. But it probably comes as no surprise to the parents telling the kids to get off the darn computer, looks like heavy Facebook use is linked to lower grades.

Read more here in Computerworld.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Track Review : Jesse McCartney - Body Language

Artist : Jesse McCartney
Title : Body Language
Album : Departure - Recharged


Biasanya alasan yang dikeluarkan oleh seorang artis ketika merepackaged sebuah album adalah untuk menaikkan penjualannya. Kasus ini sudah banyak sekali terjadi. Apa yang terjadi dengan Album Departure milik Jesse McCartney? Banyak yang mengatakan albumnya tidak sebagus “Right Here You To Want Me” yang dirilis tahun 2006. salah satu alasannya adalah album ini terdengar monoton, kecuali track “Leavin” yang dirilis sebagai single perdana dari album Departure. Walaupun track “Bleeding Love” yang ditulisnya untuk Leona Lewis dirilis sebagai bonus track di beberapa negara, tetap tidak bisa mendongkrak penjualan album ini.

Kegiatan Jesse McCartney di tahun 2009 bisa dikatakan cukup sibuk. Wajahnya bisa dilihat melalui televisi dalam serial “Greek” yang diluncurkan oleh stasiun televisi ABC. Serial yang berkisah mengenai kehidupan mahasiswa di Amerika ini, Jesse berperan sebagai Andy. Dia bermain dengan actor Scott Michael Foster. Selain di serial “Greek”, Jesse juga ikut dalam pembuatan sebuah drama yang diproduksi oleh Warner Bros yang berjudul “Summerland”

Nah, apa yang ditawarkan dalam album Departure:Recharged ini? Ada 4 track tambahan Body Language (ditulis sendiri oleh Jesse McCartney), In My Veins (Jesse McCartney & The Movement), Oxygen (Eric Hudson for Just E. Production Group), Crash and Burn (Brian Kennedy for Team BK) termasuk track “How Do You Sleep” yang di remix oleh Sean Garret plus menampilkan pula sang pemenang Grammy Awards, Ludacrics. Track ini dikatakan bisa menjadi jaminan orang akan membeli (lagi) album ini, karena sentuhan yang baru dari Ludacrics. Jesse sendiri ketika ditanya mengenai kesan bekerja sama dengan Ludacrics, hanya bisa berkata,

“I've been a fan of Luda's throughout his career, and working with him was an amazing honor. He's innovative across the board and always brings the freshest lyrics to any track."

Album Departure:Recharged akan dirilis tanggal 7 april 2009 dan akan menampilkan track “Body Language” sebagai track andalan. Mendengarkan track ini seakan-akan mendengarkan episode lain dari track “Leavin”. Maksudnya, beat yang ditawarkan sama. Playful. Ini bisa menjadi resep andalan sebenarnya, karena membuat track-tracknya menjadi earfriendly. Walaupun kita akan kehilangan nuansa pop dari track “Best Day Of My Life” ataupun “Beautiful Soul”. Penempatan bahasa Prancis dan Bahasa Jepang dalam track ini seakan mempertegas bahwa terkadang “body language” bisa menjadi penanda lebih tegas daripada bahasa verbal. Dengan adanya “konichiwa” dan “Parlez vous francais?” membuat track ini menjadi lebih terdengar lucu. Hanya perlu mendengarkan satu kali sampai kata-kata “body language” terngiang-ngiang di kepala.

Jesse McCartney : Body Language
Ooo, that body's like music to my ear
Ooo, that body's like music to my ear
Ooo, that body's like music to my ear
'Cause what you want is right here

Oh she, oh she so international
The way, the way she get it on the floor
I'm tryin', I'm tryin' to holler at you
I want to get to know you better

Parlez vous francais?
Konichiwa
Come and move in my way
Hey, little chica from Guadeloupe
That thing you got behind you is amazing

Now, I don't speak Spanish, Japanese or French
But the way that body's talkin' definitely makes sense
It's her, her body, her body, her body language
It's her, her body, her body, her body language
The way she moves around
When she grinds to the beat
Breaking it down articulately
It's her, her body, her body, her body language
It's her, her body, her body, her body

That make me want to say hey...('ey!)
Hey...('ey!)
Hey...('ey!)
It's her, her body, her body, her body language
C'mon

Shorty, let me whisper in your ear
Tell you everything you wanna hear
You got my vote: Hottest Girl of the Year
Let's have a celebration, baby

Parlez vous francais?
Konichiwa
Come and move in my way
Hey, little chica from Guadeloupe
That thing you got behind you is amazing

Now, I don't speak Spanish, Japanese or French
But the way that body's talkin' definitely makes sense
It's her, her body, her body, her body language
It's her, her body, her body, her body language
The way she moves around
When she grinds to the beat
Breaking it down articulately
It's her, her body, her body, her body language
It's her, her body, her body, her body

That make me want to say hey...('ey!)
Hey...('ey!)
Hey...('ey!)
It's her, her body, her body, her body language
C'mon

I'm lifting up my voice to say
You're the hottest girl in the world today
The way you shake
You got me losing my mind
You're banging like a speakerbox
Turn around; the party stops
Universal lady, let me take you away

Now, I don't speak Spanish, Japanese or French
But the way that body's talkin' definitely makes sense now
It's her, her body, her body, her body language
It's her, her body, her body, her body language
It's the way she moves around
When she grinds to the beat
Breaking it down articulately
It's her, her body, her body, her body language
It's her, her body, her body, her body

You make me want to say hey...('ey!)
Hey...('ey!)
Hey...('ey!)
It's her, her body, body, body language
C'mon

Ooo, that body's like music to my ear
Ooo, that body's like music to my ear
Ooo, that body's like music to my ear
'Cause what you want is right here

Sekarang pertanyaannya, ditambahkan kombinasi Sean Garret plus Ludacrics mampukah membuat Departure:Recharged menjadi lebih baik di industri musik?

Thursday, April 9, 2009

ID Ringtone : Adhitia Sofyan, Jason Mraz, Keshia Cole, Rihanna, Rooney

ID Ringtone adalah feature yang saya luncurkan mengingat banyak sekali ringtone handphone yang telah saya buat. Walaupun pada akhirnya banyak yang tidak terpakai, silahkan download ringtone berikut. Adapun lagu-lagunya masih bersifat personal, tapi kalau anda ingin request akan diusahakan. Ini adalah materi promosi semata, tolong beli album original untuk mensupport para artis.

1. Adhitia Sofyan – Adelaide Sky
Ini adalah soundtrack film kambing jantan milik Raditya Dika. I love this song! Suasana kota Adelaide tergambar jelas dengan suara Adhitia Sofyan. Walaupun lagu ini sempat leak duluan sebelum album soundtracknya dirilis, Raditya Dika Cuma bisa bilang, silahkan mendownload tapi tetap nonton filmnya yah! Wakaka.
Download Adhitia Sofyan - Adelaide Sky Ringtone

2. Jason Mraz – Make It Mine
Mraz is back! Setelah mengharubirukan dengan I’m Yours, ini adalah single kedua dari album We Sing…, apa yang membuat lagu ini menarik? Dengarkan saja lirik positif dan suara terompet yang menjadi musiknya. Dijamin membuat hari kamu menjadi lebih semangat.
Download Jason Mraz - Make It Mine Ringtone

3. Keshia Cole – Love
This is such a guilty pleasure sebenarnya. Bagaimana saya bisa begitu menghayati lagu dari Keshia Cole sewaktu dirilis tahun 2004 yang lalu. Sempat menjawarai chart beberapa radio di Makassar, ini adalah breakthrough single dari Keshia Cole. Sekarang namanya bisa di sejajarkan dengan Ciara, Kat Deluna, sebagai artis berbakat di masa depan.
Download Keshia Cole - Love Ringtone


4. Rihanna – Hate That I Love You
Hmm, ini lagu ada Ne Yo nya. Ini lagu sangat romantis. Ini lagu yang menjadi soundtrack ”comeback” saya di Sonata pada bulan Oktober 2007 kemarin. Walopun hanya bertahan selama 3 bulan lagi. Album ”Good Girl Gone Bad” menjadikan Rihanna the-next-outstanding-girl di dunia musik.
Download Rihanna - Hate That I Love You Ringtone


5. Rooney – When Your Heart Go Missing
Lagu ini tidak sengaja teringat kembali ketika saya menonton Gossip Girl. Rooney! Band yang beraliran alternatif dari Eropa. Single pertama mereka ”I’m Shakin” cukup menarik minat penikmat musik di Eropa dan ini diambil dari album mereka yang dirilis tahun 2007 yang lalu.
Download Rooney - When Did Your Heart Go Missing Ringtone

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Dahsyat yang semakin ‘dahsyat’

Apa yang menyebabkan Olga dapat Panasonic award?

Apa yang menyebabkan Luna Maya menjadi sosok yang berbeda dari image yang selama ini slalu jaim?

Apa yang menyebabkan industri musik indonesia bergairah lagi?

Apa yang menyebabkan radio yang memutarkan lagu indonesia menjadi semakin berjaya?

Jawabannnya hanya satu. Dahsyat! Ya, dari sekian banyak acara yang serupa dan sejenis, hanya Dahsyat yang mampu membawa pengaruh ke dalam acara televisi yang wajib ditonton pukul 10 pagi sampai pukul 12 siang. Belum termasuk jadwal weekend yang jam tayangnya juga bertambah. Di sekolah, di tempat les, di salon, di rumah, semuanya mempertontonkan keahlian Luna Maya, Raffi Ahmad, Olga Syahputra dalam memandu acara musik ini. Saya masih ingat dengan jelas beberapa tahun lalu ketika Luna Maya membawakan acara MTV AMPUH. Gosh! She’s like a zombie! Bicara datar, tidak ada artikulasi, pengucapan artis dan judul lagu yang salah, cuman mengandalkan wajah cantiknya doang. Tetapi sekarang bisa saya katakan dia sudah jauh berbeda. Suasana yang ditawarkan oleh ketiga orang gila ini mampu membawa suasana pagi yang berbeda pula. Ditemani dengan artis artis yang menyanyikan lagu mereka, acara ini menjadi sangat pas sebagai teman bekerja di kantor, menunggu daftar antrian di puskesmas, sampai teman beres-beres rumah.

Menilik perjalanan acara serupa di televisi Indonesia, RCTI memang piawai membuat satu konsep yang utuh. Artinya pertama kita tonton, selalu ada perbaikan dan variasi dalam acaranya. Sehingga penonton tidak akan bosan. Masih ingat DELTA? Deretan Lagu Terbaik? Tayang setiap sabtu pukul 09.30 sampai 10.30. saya masih ingat dengan jelas. Dengan suara talent yang membawakan pengantar ke setiap lagu (sekarang diadopsi oleh acara serupa di Trans TV) menjadikan Delta salah satu barometer musik Indonesia dan mancanegara. Ada pula VMI atau Video Musik Indonesia dengan Dian Nitami sebagai host. Perjalanan musik Indoensia bisa terkover dengan jelas lewat acara ini. Ada pula Zimfoni di SCTV yang mempopulerkan nama Dewi Rezer sebagai salah satu host acara musik terkenal.

Ada apa dengan MTV? Mengapa posisinya bisa bergeser? Inilah yang dinamakan industri. Siapa yang mampu menawarkan produk yang lebih bagus, dengan kualitas terjamin tentu saja akan lebih diminati. Saya pun bisa berkata, MTV Indonesia sudah mati. Walaupun VJ Hunt tetap mereka lakukan setiap tahun, ini akhirnya menjadi suatu pencarian sia-sia. Karena yang dibutuhkan adalah konsep yang jelas. Konsep yang utuh. Kemudian didukung oleh talent atau host yang bisa menjabarkan konsep tersebut secara benar. Sekarang? MTV Insomnia? Siapa yang mau nonton jam segitu? Kecuali mereka yang begadang tentu saja, tapi siapa yang mau memutarkan lagu dengan volume keras di jam 3 pagi? Mau ditimpuk sama tetangga? Ada MTV Ampuh. Ajang Musik Pribumi Sepuluh. Yang berubah menjadi Dua Puluh. Sehingga menjadi Empat Puluh. Berubah menjadi Stairways. Dengan konsep yang sama, artis plus chart, tapi kenapa mereka tidak bisa menyaingi Dahsyat?

Satu jawaban saya, ”sekarang bukan generasi MTV. Mereka adalah generasi Miss Hacker. Yang membutuhkan acara menghibur ketimbang gaya”

Sebenarnya kita patut menyebutkan INBOX sebagai pionir dalam ”memasyaratkan” tayang musik seperti ini. Tapi seorang penonton pun tidak bisa dibohongi. Inilah acara lipsync terbesar yang pernah ada. Ada acara yang jreng, jreng gak jelas dan hanya menampilkan penyanyi yang ”seolah-olah” bernyanyi. Hanya ada beberapa orang yang sukses memaksa pihak INBOX untuk tidak memaksa mereka lipsync. Slank, Samsons, Padi menjadi contohnya. Ini seakan akan menunjukkan indikator juga. Sebenarnya sampai mana skilll band baru sehingga mereka tidak pede menunjukkan suara asli mereka? Ataukah memang ini syarat yang harus dilakukan supaya bisa tampil di INBOX?
Okelah, rasanya sangat tidak fair ketika saya berbicara panjang lebar seperti ini. Dahsyat syutingnya di studio, sedangkan Inbox di outdoor. Dari faktor maintenance yang paling meribetkan saya kira. Harus membongkar set panggung dan set audio setiap hari pastinya akan membuat bujet produksi semakin membengkak. Kenapa tidak dibuat dalam studio saja? Maaf jangan tanya saya, bukan saya yang jadi produsernya!

Acara musik (indonesia) ini membawa dampak juga pada radio. Di Makassar bersyukurlah mereka yang lebih banyak memutarkan lagu Indonesia. Saya tahu beberapa teman akan tertawa pada saya. Saya yang pede mengatakan,

”maaf saya tidak mendengarkan lagu indonesia”

Sekarang depan, belakang, kanan, kiri digempur oleh band band dan lagu lagu yang seakan menikmati panen fenomena ini. Entah apa mereka bisa bertahan sampai membuat album kedua ataukah hanya menjadi one hit wonder semata. Saya dan teman-teman di http://creativedisc.com malah menjadi orang termaginalkan dengan tetap menikmati musik mancanegara sebagai kiblat kami (Welly, percayalah kami akan tetap setia!). Hahaha!

Pada akhirnya apa yang ditawarkan industri memang berulang kembali. Bukti budaya latah dalam media kita masih terus berjalan. Sukses yang didapatkan acara musik kemudian diikuti oleh stasiun televisi lain. Sekarang yang menjadi ”alat perang” adalah konsep yang ditawarkan, siapa yang paling bagus tentu itulah yang akan dipilih. Mari kita lihat sampai sejauh mana perjalanan Dahsyat yang semakin mendahsyat.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

The World is Treating Me Bad:

Update on the state of my zombie ankle:

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DSCF5292 DSCF5296

So as you can see, it's purpling out, so despite my sudden cravings for BRAINS!, things are moving right along (though looking doubtful for athletic activities this week). I've adopted a reasonable position on the couch and read twelve or so articles, so maybe this is a blessing of sorts. Work first! Right.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Place To Go : Warung Mas Gentho


Nama : Warung Mas Gentho
Alamat : Jl. Sunu, belokan fakultas teknik kampus Unhas Baraya,
Makassar
The a list : Capcay Goreng, Kwetiau Goreng


Saya mendapatkan tempat ini secara tidak sengaja. Sewaktu kuliah kami diberi titah oleh dosen Komunikasi Massa untuk mencari buku dan meresensi buku tersebut. Yang jadi masalah, buku itu hanya beberapa eksemplar di Makassar! Sudah beberapa toko buku yang saya kunjungi, dan yang jadi alasan tetap sama. Buku dan penerbitnya tidak terkenal. Saya curiga apakah dosen saya bekerja sama dengan penerbit tersebut untuk menaikkan oplah penjualannya?
*gosip lagi! Haha!

Nah, setelah lelah berkeliling Makassar mencari toko buku, lapar otomatis menjadi masalah kami. Dimana mau cari makanan enak, murah, sesuai dengan kantong mahasiswa (yang kadang lebih banyak kurangnya daripada lebihnya!). untung saat itu kami bersama Bunda. Dia menguasai jadag jalan Sunu dan sekitarnya. Dia menyarankan kami makan di Warung Mas Gentho yang ada di jalan Sunu.

Pertama masuk, rasa skeptis mulai muncul. Emang ni warung enak yah? Secara dari tampak luar agak mencurigakan gitu. Tapi ya sudahlah, emang dasarnya lapar main pesan aja dulu. Enak gak enak itu urusan belakangan. Yang lain pesan bakso, nasi goreng, dan mie goreng. Saya sendiri cenderung mau mencoba capcay goreng (waktu itu masih dalam rangka diet, jadi perbanyak makan sayuran ajah :P). Berhubung pesanan saya yang paling ribet, saya yang terakhir dilayani. Bakso datang, nasi goreng datang, mie gorengnya teman saya juga datang. Saya?

”woi mas, pesanan saya besok yah baru selesainya?”


*peringatan pertama, kelaparan bisa menimbulkan hal-hal yang tidak diinginkan

Hmm, perjuangan saya tidak sia-sia! Capcay goreng yang lezat siap disantap. Cek kondisi, sayurannya ada wortel, kembang kol, sawi putih, plus bakso, ayam dan hati ayam (untung tidak pake kentang seperti di Capcay kampus!). wah, ternyata porsinya banyak! Buset, ni warung apa tidak rugi gitu yah? Ada bakso, ayam, jeroannya, dan semuanya itu hanya seharga 7000 rupiah? Makan capcay di kampus aja, capcaynya Cuma pake telur sama remah-remah ayam krispy.
Rasanya pun bisa diandalkan. Satu intinya, porsinya bikin kenyang!

Sehabis makan, saya nanya teman yang lain, bagaimana rasanya? Mereka bilang enak. Hmm, jadi ini salah satu tempat yang mesti di garis bawahi. Kalau mau makan enak, banyak, plus harganya murah.

Minggu lalu, saya datang lagi ke jalan sunu. Tujuannya? Cek persuratan dari kantor di SMA 17. Cuma kali ini timnya berbeda, saya tidak bersama teman-teman kampus lagi. Tapi teman-teman di Astamedia. Ada Nanie, Anbhar, Mus. Tadinya kita berdebat mau makan dimana, cuman karena saya yang bayar, akhirnya mereka ngalah, ikut sama saya. Hehehe.


Posisi? Masih lah di warungnya Mas Gentho. Secara jalan sunu bukan daerah jajahan, bukan daerah lintasan kalau mau bepergian, makanya kalau ke sini diusahakan makannya di Mas Gentho aja. Kali ini saya pesan Kwetiau goreng. Nanie dan Anbhar pesan mie goreng, Mus makan Nasi goreng. Kalau kedua menu itu, saya sudah pernah merasakan dimana tempat yang paling enak (untuk resepnya tunggu info selanjutnya yah!), saya memutuskan makan Kwetiau saja. Lagi-lagi pesanan saya yang paling ribet, paling terakhir di urusi. Haha! Tidak sia-sia lagi penantian saya. Rasanya sesuai dengan yang saya bayangkan! Rasa kenyal kwetiau bergabung dengan tumisan bumbu yang meresap di sayurannya, plus bakso, ayam, dan jeroan yang tiada tandingannya. Oke mantap! Porsinya pun tidak berubah, teteup banyak!

Saya bertanya dengan Anbhar (yang sebelumnya sudah mengamankan lontong beberapa biji untuk dimakan), ”kok lontongnya tidak dimakan?”

Anbhar Cuma bilang, ”banyak sekali porsinya. Ini lagi sudah kekenyangan.” wakaka.

Harga yang ditawarkan di warung ini pun tidak jauh berbeda dari kedatangan saya tiga tahun lalu. Harga makanannya hanya naik 1000 sampai 2000 rupiah. Padahal kalau mau dibilang, porsi yang diberikan, bisa sebanyak rumah makan yang mempunyai harga sampai 20 ribu rupiah. Apa alasannya? Mungkin prinsip ”biar untung sedikit yang penting laku” menjadi modal utama Mas Gentho nya. Karena, coba datang jam makan siang, dijamin kita tidak akan kedapatan tempat. Warungnya pun sangat sederhana, tetapi apa yang ditawarkan sangatlah enak! Jadi kalau memang sedang melintas di jalan sunu, atau lagi ada kegiatan di mesjid al markaz, ato lagi cuci motor di sunu, coba deh. Warung Mas Gentho!

Nb : kalau pesan makanan disini, jangan minum minuman kemasan, coba aja pesan es teh manis sama penjualnya. Itu yang menjadi teman dan membuatnya lebih oke mantap!

No names


Duke Cheerleader, Holly Kokinda

The Clarion Content sees photos of cheerleaders all over the internet. Cheerleaders, in general, feel like something of an antiquated pre-feminism institution. The defenders of cheerleading will say it is a sport and that the cheerleaders are athletes, too. If one has ever seen a cheerleading competition, that is quite evident, they are athletes.

This has left us at the Clarion Content wondering. Is it the misogyny of sports, the schools, the news outlets or American society in general that accounts for this difference: NCAA athletes of all stripes are typically identified by name when photographed by media outlets. Cheerleaders almost never are identified individually in photos. Just another pretty face? Pretty objectifying from our vantage point!

Michelle Obama touched the Queen

On no she didn't!?! Actually yes, yes she did. Queen Elizabeth put her arm around First Lady Michelle Obama's back on Wednesday, during the reception that Buckingham Palace threw for leaders attending the G-20 summit in England. Ms. Obama responded to the gesture in kind. The initial reaction of the English tabloids, "Oh the horrors!" Even the more staid, nominally mainstream, Times of London said, "Protocol is abandoned as Michelle Obama cozies up to [the] queen."



However, polls indicate that most Americans found nothing wrong with gesture. Surely, the graceful Queen in no way objected. According to the Atlanta Constitution Journal, a Buckingham Palace spokesman said, "It was a mutual and spontaneous display of affection." He added that he couldn’t remember the last time the queen had so publicly departed from the royals’ no-touching protocol. In typical Obama style what was normally an insuperable barrier was transcended with grace and ease.

Read more here.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Not Just a Tufts-Alum Summer League Ultimate Team

Pardon whatever revulsion you have at feet (and in particular my gnarly, cleat-crushed toenails), but here is the state of the Nyet-peds:

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DSCF5290 DSCF5291

All for the glory of the Zorro. Sheesh, I'm an idiot. Also, having to walk all over campus - to the library, Psych building, parking lot, etc., probably a total of three miles plus on the day - did not exactly help matters. Here's to resting, icing, compressing and elevating (and reading and writing and, evidently, blogging). Go Owls!

(Don't know how long this is going to sideline me - certainly no reindeer games this weekend. Ah, well).

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

The Mark of Zorro: 5-2

YEAH! Even though I am sitting here at 11:30 after our 6 o'clock game with my grapefruit sized ankle propped up on top of the couch, I am still pretty excited about tonight's game. We faced the Audacity of Ho - my favorite team name in the league, btw - an undefeated team from the Monday league. Pretty solid bunch, with Clint, Lexi, Annie, Alexxx, Alex, and a surly little guy named Hilton (who is quite a good player). They only had three women show up and refused to play 4-3 understandably, so we were faced with the usual challenge of getting our womenfolk playing time... AND we were missing Viral and Nat, plus Rich was hurt with a sore back, so we were a tad shorthanded on the guys side with 7.5 men for the 5 guys' spots. Looked to be an exciting game.

And exciting it was - somebody convinced me to play Z on the first point - WHA? - and Audacity proceeded to dink dink dink it back and forth for what felt like 50 throws. (It was very windy initially, but that unexpectedly and thankfully ended in a hurry - made for a much nicer game than last week). They finally broke the cup, got another pass off, only to have one of their newbies try to cross the field with it - and I intercepted it. That may have done them in right there, as that sort of point is enough to make an experienced player slam their fist through their skull. We worked it down and punched the disc in, good guys up 1-0.

And the hits kept coming - we dropped the Z after that display and went with a straight up attack. Hilton tried to hit Alex, I D'ed it, dink dink, Craig sends it deep, and I grab it over Alex for the score. Rinse repeat - Hilton throws it deep again, I D it, work it to Craig, throws it deep, Alex misreads it, and I catch it over him again for the score. Before we knew it, it's 3-0. Crazy. We get another up-winder on a big huck to Miller, and it's 4-0! What's going on?

Enter the drama. On a couple of those first points, little things here and there accumulated. Clint made a bad OB call on me, and I disagreed with him - Tricky backed me up and said I was in, even after I had offered to send the disc back as a sort of in/contest mimicry. A guy decided to guard me by shoving a forearm in my chest to which I stupidly responded by pushing his arms off and having him call foul and making a scene. On several occasions, early in the game and beyond, I marked my man tightly - but off the requisite disc diameter of 10.75 inches - and my guardee decided to call disc space. On these occasions, he put the disc at his chest - mind you, you can't even do this if the person's chest is within 10.75 inches - and shoves off a good foot while calling disc space, pushing me off the mark. So I call foul, because pushing your mark, with the disc or no, is a foul, particularly if they are a foot plus 10.75 inches off you and not actually within a disc space. Gripety gripety - turns out our undefeated foes were in no mood for a tight game, mark-or-otherwise.

So there's a little bit of tension when Hilton buts up a crappy, floaty huck to Alex - are you sensing a pattern here? - and I leap to D it. Boingo! Another one, a serious get position and sky him D. We turn it, they try the same damn thing, only this time, it's a better throw. Alex and I are both running for it, I feel like I got inside position, he says I was behind him, whatever - the real factor is that he ran into me and stepped on my ankle (hence the grapefruitness) while jumping. I never had a chance to make a bid because he clobbered me, basically, so I called foul. He went APESHIT to the point where it was obvious that talk of perspectives and my swollen ankle and all these things was not going to get it done. Just kept yelling about "incidental contact." So I just held my ground with contest - my inability to jump and swollen ankle did not make me feel this was particularly incidental - and he sent it back. Craig backs up that I got clobbered on this play. I feel bad about this not at all, more just frustrated with what is sure to be the remainder of the game in pain and tonight being sleepless. Anyhoo, they turn it, we work it down, and Jack gets a throw to Salina for the score. 5-0.

And then things came back down to earth a little. Hilton made some nice throws to folks other than Alex cutting deep. We traded points for a bit: 5-1, 6-1, 6-2, 7-2, 7-3, 8-3, half. All of this is highlighted by some argument-inducing foul calls, yay. Positive picture - we were doing a tremendously better job of getting our women involved: Beck got the disc multiple times, as disc Allyson, Kelly, Salina, Genevieve - all of them got it a bunch AND did a great job with throws, not turning it over very much to speak of at all. YEAH!!! I got a little huck happy at points, missing on a shot to Allyson and putting up a huck to Genevieve that she... er... misread. Oh, well, would've been a big fat upwinder, but no biggie. :)

So the second half starts, and it's more of the same - a tightly contested, somewhat whiney game from their end with a lot of good play from ours. Jack, Tom, Craig, Paul, Jeremy, Rich, Miller (!) on the guys side, and all of the women as mentioned, just had great games. We received going upwind to start the second half (Might I add here that we won the flip and took the wind, and they elected to receive? WHAT? Okay, thanks, we will take both decisions off the flips, gracias). Things proceeded to get a little less flowy - they threw Z a few times and a poachy nonsense thing that it took us a few points to figure out. So 8-4, 9-4, 9-5, 9-6, 9-7 (!!!) and things were looking hairy. At some point in here, Hilton ran into Jack intentionally on a deep throw, a pretty questionable move that i wouldn't necessarily condone or condemn, just something that certainly does not reek of friendly Ultimate. Jack got mad, I got mad for Jack, I tried to politely tell Hilton to watch it with the intentional body blocking, he starts yelling about WHATEVER, and uh oh, time for the hatestick, bury the hatestick, take out the hatestick TIME. Woah-oh, shocks my game... They only up the animosity with some more goofy mark calls, and a tantrum from Hilton when Jack calls him on a travel for the first time in a game where he likely traveled thirty times.

Turned it on, on and all the way up - we dissected the poachy D eventually and I scored on a crossfield flick from Tom to stop the bleeding. 10-7. They scored downwind, we did, blah, blah, this was a whole lot of teamwide play capped by endzone catches by me between hobbles (and one particularly nice huck from Jack to Chris). It ended up 10-8, 11-8, 11-9 when the cap went on. They pulled to us going downwind, and I scorched someone deep to make it 12-9, game point. They work it, Lexi takes off deep - something, when she wasn't busy snarking on the field and poaching off her woman and then yelling at us for not throwing to her when a man poached ON to her woman, she tried several times all game and failed at repeatedly - and I trekked deep to stop her. I'm limping around the field pretty badly at this point and had been all game. A pick gets called, someone points out that I've poached, so when the disc gets tapped back in I have to race across the field to cover my guy.

Hilton - he who mouthed off at me for asking him to watch it on the running into Jack play - comes across the middle. Throw goes up, and I LAY THE BLEEP OUT on him, go around him Matrix style for the D. My legs hurt and actually started cramping a bit, but I stayed in there. We've got the disc within 25 of their endzone. Craig notes later that this is the type of play on which Hilton would have called a foul normally, but seeing as it was super clean as can be, there's no dirty trick he can pull. Bladow. Craig picks up, pops it to Paul, he flips back to Craig - meanwhile, I cut for the right side of the endzone, and as Craig gets it back I shoot for the front left corner. They're running that tooljob poach defense, so I've really got two guys covering me in the endzone - I beat the first guy, but the second is waiting for me on the left side of the field. Craig puts it up anyways - it's a shoulder level hard backhand, and it's headed right for my defender as we both run for the front corner. He's clearly between me and the disc.

So I just LAY THE BLEEP OUT on him, Matrix-YOINK style, and grab the winning goal. He, I don't know, steps on me on the ground in front of him and falls on top of me, smashing my face with his butt according to Obert, but this is all well after the fact and I certainly got to the spot first if he fell on top of me. Bladow II, and bladow of the WOWSERS best-personal-layout-grabs-EVER variety.

Anyways, just a fun, bookends, double happiness SICK sequence - and I even managed to celebrate with a fling the disc celebratorily in the air, not at someone, spike. Some sour faces in the postgame handshake, and I'll fully admit that I caused at least part of it by not being in a mood to put up with the mark nonsense, but it was pretty tit for tat all game and I don't really see that any side has reason to complain - just a hotly contested game that got rambunctious, and the team that was oh so used to winning every game did not get their way. So it goes, and ftr, I am not going to, per G's advice, spend any time feeling bad about any of this.

Sorry this post was so me-centric, but I had a good game, and that end-sequence is a pretty rare entry in the personal double-happiness-on-game-point pantheon for me. I have all the usual mixed emotions about getting so amped for the game and riling people up, but I do think a large part amounted to getting in their heads with a hard mark, for which I will not apologize. I didn't emphasize it enough here, but our team played great, and we got big contributions from everybody. PLUS we pulled this off sans Nat & Viral, so yeah US!

Beck chatted with Genevieve's mom, who is just an incredibly neat/nice/interesting/feisty lasy, after the game for a bit. I sat around lamenting the pillar of swell that is creeping up my fibula and wondering how the next week or so is going to go. Audacity gave us a nice, pregame-typed cheer, so that was fun. Caught a little of Justin's game - we face his More Cowbell team in a couple of weeks, OOH - and came home to a sadly post-Houseguestapalooza abode. Fun times on the Ultimate field, a great effort - I RE-EMPHASIZE that blog appearances to the contrary, I am not the only person on this team, and we played a teamwide much better game than in the recent past. Very proud of the Zorro and our "upset" - a nice game, even if it's costing me a few hours of sleep.

Chihuly

You may have seen these already via the flickr set, but below you'll find some highlight shots of the Chihuly glass sculpture exhibit at the Phoenix Desert Botanical Gardens. We went Sunday evening (after hiking the Superstitions in the morning, to be posted later) and joined THRONGS of camera wielding crazies. Bullet-list of observations:
  • Very interesting how glass sculptures can make people blatantly ignore fields and fields of gorgeous wildflowers. Man One, Nature Nil.
  • Good lord, the camera equipment. I easily saw a million dollars worth - the number of high end SLRs, fancy lenses, etc. was unbelievable
  • And as a consequence, tons and tons of people doing the exact same thing - oohing, stopping, and taking pictures. Just like me! Love that de-individuating feeling. Add in that there was an overwhelming majority of pot-bellied midwesterners, and it's almost like we were in and part of
  • TOURISTLAND! And let me tell you, do throngs of tourists ever have the most exciting art commentaries. I'll gladly listen to the iPMM talk about Chihuly all day long, but if I could go, say, another three years without hearing "Incredible! The glass! How do they DO THAT? The use of color!!! AMAZING!," etc., I'd be a happy dude.
  • This falls under rule 2314-A, DON'T TALK ABOUT ART AT HIGH VOLUME IN FRONT OF THE ART, YOU WILL UNAVOIDABLY SOUND DUMB.
  • Again, allow me to clearly differentiate this from the likes of Beck and iPMM, who quietly make insightful comments intended only for their target audience and not the masses at large. Not to mention they know what they are talking about and don't make vague assertions along the lines of "Look at that colorful glass thing - it is so colorful, and so made of glass, incredible!"
  • This probably all makes me sound elitist and obnoxious, but really, the angle here is don't make a public nuisance of yourself in inappropriate contexts. Falls under the umbrella of "don't answer your cellphone during a movie" type mandates.
  • Samesaid tourists also managed the quote of the day - on a crowded bridge, where people were bumping into one another and people in wheelchairs were trying to squeeze by, one exclaimed, "I can't believe there are so many mobilely-challenged people around here!" Sacre inconvenience! You stay classy, Ohio State Sweater-wearer.
Alright, that's probably enough griping. It was a lovely exhibit, probably better experienced during a private tour or something. ALl said, still snapped some nice shots - here are the highlights:

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Houseguestapalooza Phase II, III, IV

Another outline of Houseguestapalooza events, more for my organizational benefit than your informatic one.

Saturday - Cubs game, draft/pizza, giuseppe's
sunday - hr derby, brunch, oldtown scottsdale (frisbee), softball
monday - arcosanti, pizza from cibo
tuesday - luxe, heard museum, grilled fish / steak
wednesday - SMoCA, house of tricks, aaron, pizza, frisbee
thurs - phx art museum, SMoCA, Los Olivos
Fri - hung out, dinner here, poker
Sat / Sun - Grand Canyon
(Tournament, Chuy's)(House clean, Sonic, softball)
Monday - Tucson / Frisbee
Tuesday - hangin' / grill
Wednesday - museuming (Scottsdale), grill (kabobs)
Thurs - hangin, pasta
Friday - hangin', ASU (Margie), Michelina's w/ Dan & Christina
Saturday - IKEA, Tempe Arts Festival (Frisbee Practice/Reading), red devil pizza
Sunday - hiked superstitions, hung out, chihuly, p.f. chang's
Monday - Mesa (Margie), Grilled Chicken Dinner w/ Margie's Dope Beets / Cactus
Tuesday - nate worked all day, Caesar Chavez day so no Phx library, hangin' / spark & wrig shave, nursery, frame shop (GPGDS), Giuseppe's for dinner, sitting at kitchen table recounting week's events.
Wed - Off to Santa Fe

Our Kitchen is a Highway Roadside

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