The random and trivial titbits on Mr Fixmanius' desk.

Permaenan I-Ring PT Indosat

Sebetoelnja toe teknologi I-Ring soedah lama (pembatja moengkin bisa kasih taoe saja tepatnja). Bisa dibilang ketinggalan djaman kaloe kita baroe maoe pake sekarang. Nah, setaoe saja memang soedah banjak orang jang pake, tapi entah kenapa, saja tida tertarik. Sepertinja nada samboeng toet-toet klasik itoe masih lebih enak didenger boeat saja.


Saban hari ada seorang kawan jang menelpon.
"Halo."
"Halo, oi, loe kenapa?"
"Ha? Kenapa bagimane?"
"Toe loe poenja nada samboeng kok Kangen Band?"
"Hah! Serioes lah kow?"
"Ija! Ikke pikir loe soedah moelai soeka begitoean."
"Wadoeh, ogoet kagak pernah ganti-ganti kok."


Entahlah, apa Indosat sengadja agar orang-orang seperti saja terpaksa mengganti nada samboeng, ataoe memang nasib apes dapet I-Ring bampak matjem tadi. Bagaimana ini kaloe banjak jang nelpon, bisa abis saja kena maloe. Alamak..


-Fixy

NB: gelukkige verjaardag Mijnheer Arthur, jang lagi di Londo sana.
NB2: dank u Koh Tjamboek, saja terinspirasi :))

A promise, EURO, and another.

What promise? I've said to myself that I'm not gonna watch EURO!

So far, I haven't (fully) watched any. Well, don't blame me if I can't resist myself from peeping the channel just for 5.. 10.. err.. 15 minutes.

I've previously expressed my disappointment about England's failure. Consequently, I don't pick any team to side with. I never support any football team anyway, outside of England, Manchester United, and Indonesia. Though I think I'm quite impressed by the Neds, Portugal, and Spain as well. Thanks to Wesley Sneijder, David Villa, and Cristiano Ronaldo.

From the performances so far, I think the champion will likely be one out of the three teams as previously mentioned. And I'm glad Azurri botched their way of winning the cup. I never thought that bollock named Totti is that integral of a part for the Italians.

Real Madrid has declared their interest in Ronaldo. They think their Iberian arses can afford him. I hope the gaffer can restrain him from leaving. And manage to have an addition for the squad instead, like João Moutinho, Villa, or Sneijder.

-fixy

CAPTCHA! I am illiterate...

I posted it here. Be sure to check it out. :)

The Power of 'No'

   

Do you sometimes find it hard to say no? If no, then you are lucky.

Sometimes people ask me to do them a favour. And when that happens, most of the time I accept it willingly. Even though deep in my heart I do not really want to do it, I usually end up saying yes, "Umm, all right, I'll do it for you." And even though I manage to say no, which means I really don't want to do it, it requires much energy and vigour, making it an arduous effort to do such. Occasionally, I apologise for that no.

I do realise it's not good to be too nice. Some people may even exploit persons who suffer from that kind of mental illness. I have learned that I hurt feelings less by saying no. If I say yes out of obligation, I am unhappy and maybe don't do as good of a job, or even worse that when there is one little complaint, I may explode, "How dare you! You are so ungrateful. I didn't want to help you in the first place, now you complain about the job I did!"

Experience has taught me that a simple and honest 'I don't have time to do that right now' saves friendships better than doing things half-heartedly. The good book says "Give with a glad heart". To me that means don't give and be grumpy about it. If I can't give gladly, everyone is better off if I just say no.

As revolutionary as it may sound, we are allowed to disappoint others without having to justify ourselves: 'Right now, this is how I feel' or 'Right now, this is what I intend to do (or not do).'


And, all right, I'm still learning to do it..  

   

-Fixy7

Friendly Weather of Bandung

I don't seem to fully understand what actually happens here, but recently my thermometer has been showing the low numbers. Not that low, but numbers that usually appear in the morning now can be seen at midday. This might have been the impact of the wet weather, or in the larger scale the rainy moonsonal season.

Yes, the city has been experiencing some fine brief drizzle since the past few days, forecasters say it will continue for the next five days. I've been staying in Bandung for 3 years, but I don't remember the weather has ever been like that.

Not that I have a problem nor it has been hindering my routine activity, but it's just atypical. Please note that the word 'atypical' explains a lot. However, despite it's oddity, I always love this kind of weather! Will this last longer? I hope..


"Er is maar een stad
Die mijn stad kan zijn,
Zij groeit met de daad
En die daad is mijn"


Happy Valentine!

C Fixmanius

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Comment here.
 

The Kingdom of Daughters

 

The Kingdom of Daughters

Normally, in one day, I spend a third of my time in front of a computer. Half of if is spent surfing on the internet. Hence, how many hours do I squander for surfing everyday? No no, I'm not going to talk about that basic math question . Back to the original topic, at that specially allocated time, I usually browse about -well basically- everything.

Yesterday I was on one of my favourite websites, wikipedia, hopping from one article to another, from one topic to another completely unrelated topic. Once, I stopped at an article of polyandry. I was amazed with such unique cultures that exist in this sophisticatedly omnifarous world. I never knew and expected that human polyandry was (and is still) practised in some places, obviously in various degrees.

One of the quite famous examples is the Mosuo tribe (摩梭). Mosuo people live in Yunnan and Sichuan Provinces in China, close to the border with Tibet. Most of them are found near Lugu Lake, high in the Tibetan Himalayas. It takes approximately 7 hours to reach the place with a jeep car from the nearest airport.

Unlike the majority of China's ethnic groups which follow a strong patrilineal tradition, the Mosuo emphasise matrilineal ties. In almost every way, this is a society where women rule the roost. They run the households, raise the children, control the money, and own the land and property, all to be inherited by sisters and daughters. Then, there's the called tisese or 'walking marriage', the men will walk to the house of their partner at night, but return to their own home in the morning. Mosuo women refer to their 'husbands' as friends.

There are a couple of interesting myths that arose concerning the small comunity, some are:

1. Mosuo Women are sexually promiscuous
It is true that Mosuo women are free to have different sexual partners, and frequently do not get married. And it is also true that having multiple lovers, or having children by different men, does not carry a negative stigma. But it's not like what you think, Mosuo women don't frequently change partners, a kind of 'sexual utopia' where they are waiting to seduce men. An image that's been portrayed by tourism operators who seek to attract more people to visit the place. (damn, hahaha)

2. The Mosuo language has no words for murder, rape, etc
Well, I've heard about some languages that don't have certain words in them. Even English, a friend of mine once challenged me by asking: what is the English for 'pergaulan,' I replied, 'That depends on the context.' In the Mosuo language, it is technically correct to say that it has no words for murder or rape. However, this information is frequently used in a misleading or inaccurate manner to falsely portray a culture in which murder and rape are non-existent. The Mosuo do have a word for 'kill,' which is used to describe all forms of killing, including murder. Mosuo also recognise the existence of rape, which will reward the man an execution.

3. Mosuo men don't work, and are there to fill the conjugal duties.
Hahaha, this is the funniest. Traditionally speaking, Mosuo women tend to take on most of the labour duties at home. Mosuo men were mostly traders, traveling long distances by caravan to trade with other groups. Since the men were frequently gone from home, the women were left to take care of the work. However, when the men were at home, they would also share in the duties there. But in modern times, the practice of having trading caravans has effectively ceased.

There is a story of a 13 year-old girl who ran away from her village because she wanted to do more than herd goats, her name is Yang Erche Namu (楊二車娜姆). But with a combination of luck and talents, she arrived at Yanyan and joined song-and-dance troupe there. Later, she won a scholarship to study music in Shanghai, became a well-known lounge singer. In 1997, 14 years after abandoning her village, Namu wrote a best-selling book, Leaving the Kingdom of Daughters.

Undoubtedly, the people of Mosuo truly put women at the highest place as they can. But as the rapid pace of modernisation continues, will they be able to retain their unique culture? And there are some questions that have crossed my mind before, is gender equality achieved at this kind of way of living? What do these feminists have in mind when they learnt about this?

"For the Mosuo of China, it's a woman's world.
There are so many skillful people, but none can compare with my mother.
There are so many knowledgeable people, but none can equal my mother.
There are so many people skilled at song and dance, but none can compete with my mother."

-a folk song that's usually sung by the people of Mosuo-


Fixmanius
(who only writes when he feels like writing)

 

What's destroying our England?

What's worse than failing to qualify for The EURO Cup for a big team like England?

This is a big mistake, a huge disappointment, and there must be someone to blame. If you say I'm looking for a scapegoat, indeed I a m!

Are we finished as a footballing nation? I've heard a lot about some people who used to talk about the greatness of the country's football. And if we are to speak radically, did England really deserve to qualify? Guus Hiddink said no.

Traditionally, when a team fails, the most likely man to be critisised is the manager, in this case it is Steve McClaren. I know it's not just up to him to take all the responsibility. As a team, we all must take the big thing together. I personally disliked Steve for dropping David from the squad.

Start from the people who run our beloved football, The FA. How could they blunder by appointing a tactically inept, mediocre, delusional, inexperienced, ineffectual (put your adjectives here) man like that Big Mac? And even tied him up with a contract worth 2.5 millions pounds. Surely that's why he didn't resign, or he wouldn't get that enormous sum of compensation. I think these fat cats of the association should learn picking the right people and having the fan's best interests at heart.

What about the players? Quoting of what Roy Keane said,"There are too many egos in there, too many big heads." International football is not that important anymore, club football has taken over.

The debate over these matters has been going on and on. People might have different a perspective of where the real problem actually lies on, but we have the same big interests, if we want to clear up the mess in our beloved footy's world, we must start from now, from the grassroots level to the very up above.

Let's just take up the moral of the story:
No hooligan stories next year, no endless dreary stories about football.


Come on England!

(ah.. I'm still unsure if I'm gonna watch EURO 2008.. useless)

The best local university in Indonesia?

This is a very nice joke about our local universities!

Some people have been arguing each other's opinion about which local university is best in the country.
Well, this nice joke will give you a clue and help you decide which one suits the predicate.

And I completely agree with this, the reason is very true! Huahaha...


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Postingan bertajuk "Mana Universitas Terbaik?" menjelaskan keunggulan-keunggulan universitas nasional terkemuka dikaitkan dengan kiprah lulusannya di pentas politik nasional. Memang tidak "serius", tapi tetap menarik disimak, minimal sebagai lelucon ringan di tengah panasnya situasi wakil rakyat kita.

Inilah kutipan "Mana Universitas Terbaik?" tersebut:


1. Yang paling produktif
Universitas Indonesia adalah universitas yang paling banyak memproduksi menteri. Dari zaman OrLa, OrBa, Orde Reformasi, sampai Kabinet Indonesia Bersatu-nya SBY sekarang ini, alumni UI secara rata-rata paling banyak mengisi kabinet. Tapi untuk untuk jadi presiden? Belum pernah. Calon saja belum ada kok. Sepertinya UI hanya spesialis produsen menteri saja.

2. Yang paling efektif
Ternyata ITB adalah perguruan tinggi yang paling tepat sasaran sampai saat ini. Buktinya mereka sudah mampu menelorkan dua ekor presiden Indonesia, yaitu Soekarno dan Habibie.

3. Yang paling sial
UGM memang juara dalam kategori yang paling sial. Salah satu alumninya (Amien Rais), bergelar S3, bahkan profesor, dan selama 5 tahun "magang" di MPR untuk mempersiapkan diri sebagai calon presiden, dan didukung organisasi alumni pula.. Ternyata gagal total menjadi presiden.

4. Jagonya strategi
IPB ternyata adalah yang paling jago dalam hal strategi. Mereka tahu persis kapan harus bertindak. Persis saat-saat 'injury time', yaitu pada hari H-2 pencoblosan, memberikan gelar doktor honoris causa (S3) untuk calonnya (SBY). Dan ternyata pilihan mereka terbukti sukses besar menjadi presiden.

5. Yang paling hebat
Tapi ITB dan IPB jangan sombong dulu, keduanya butuh gelar yang tinggi untuk mendidik alumninya (sampai S3 dan professor segala) agar bisa menjadi presiden. Terbukti yang paling hebat adalah UNPAD, karena cukup mahasiswa 'drop out' dari Fakultas Pertanian-nya saja untuk bisa menjadi presiden (Megawati).


Disadur dari www.detikhot.com
Oleh Nurul Hidayati

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Edited by Fixmanius 

The Important Things in Life

All right, I thought I could share you this good motivational short story.

If you feel like peaceful, and emotional, and seflless, and gentle, and loving, and tender, then you might find this wonderful.


Philosophy of Life

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.
So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up the remaining space. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous ‘yes’.

The professor then produced two cans of beer from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the space between the sand particles. The students laughed.

Now, said the professor, as the laughter subsided, “I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. ”

“The golf balls are the important things - your family, your children, your health, your friends, your favourite passions - things that if everything else were lost, and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, your car. The sand is everything else - the small stuff.

“If you put the sand into the jar first,” he continued, “there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take your partner out to dinner. Go out with friends. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the washing. Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.”


One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beer represented. The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of beers."


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2 breast implants...
$4,000
 
 Dodgers tickets...
$47
 
 A cold beer...
$6
 
 Drunkenly pouring the beer down your shirt...
priceless.
--------------------------------------


(fixy7)
   

American-Size Food? No kidding!

What did you have first in mind after reading the title, Mate?

Yesterday I went to Planet Hollywood Jakarta for iftar (I was already readied for the prices, which were indeed expensive!). After taking a good careful look at the menu, I decided to order a cheese burger and a salmon burger. I was thinking that by ordering those two dishes, I could exactly fill my empty stomach.

I've heard some people saying the portions of the food in that restaurant is what they called "American standard". But my hungry mind said, let's challenge it! What makes these Americans eat more than I do. If they can, so can I (I now realise this is stupid).

Anyway, later the waiter came with my burgers, and it could be clearly seen that the size of them was roughly, let's say, 2.5 times bigger than the original size of the ones in McDonald's (or should I say Indonesian McDonald's). While I was finishing my first burger (the salmon one), I told one of the waiters (might be the manager),"the size is (friggin) enormous!" "Well, that's American Standard," he replied. Oh, ok, it really is that simple. Even though I managed to finish that burger, I had to go home with an "overfilled" stomach. In fact, I got my 'second' burger taken home (for suhoor).

That experience has brought me to a conclusion that everything that's been "Americanised" would have its size mutated to large. I remember a story of a young Vietnamese American woman who was medium-sized by American Standards, but when she walked through the doors of her local Vietnamese store, she ballooned to an extra-large and started to feel less beautiful and less Asian.

Their food portions are just ridiculously large and could feed an African family for a month!

No offence to you Yanks, but now I fully understand how the stereotype that "American girls are fat" came up. From now on, I have a new synonym: overly done/excessive = Americanised. Ha-ha..

Oops, I think I'm gonna have myself "erased" from existence by The CIA tonight..

(fixy7)