Munajat Cinta

What does Munajat Cinta mean??

CDs

I hate Cds.

They take up way too much space.

They're garish 80s throw backs.

Audiophiles hoard 'em. They say they love the artwork. Hello?!? The "artwork" is postcard sized. And most sane ppl only look at the artwork when u buy the thing anyways.

When you got a lot of CDs it's often quicker to download a particular song than searching through your CDs.

They're expensive!

A lot of albums got a lot of fillah, which puts you off listening to the whole album.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Dilligaf has a good summary of this weeks scams in Jakarta.

I never believe that u could be hypnotically pick pocketed BTW... Maybe craftily pickpocketed, but not hypnotised just like that out on the street.

Coldplay's New Album

I've just started listening to it. It's vv promising!

death and taxes

i just looked at this month's payslip today...

this month, income tax + social insurance = is about 30% of my wage...

so that means i get 70% of what my company pays me...

then pretty much everything i buy in ireland has 21% VAT on it...

that means at the end i have about 0.7*(1-0.21) = 55%

so 45% of my worktime is spent working to pay for lazy civil servants, and other assorted bumbs.

crumbs...

Nikon D700

It looks like Nikon's 5D is coming soon!

Gang Warfare at Citos

All of the above aside, one item which worried me was the fact that one of Jakarta’s busiest Malls was the site of a gangland turf war with members of “Basri” and a rival gang “Milton” hammering it out with each other in Cilandak Town Square, otherwise known a CITOS.

Samurai Swords, Cleavers and other assorted weaponry were used as what was termed a gathering at the Brew & Co Cafe to celebrate their peace agreement erupted into a scene from Apocalypse Now.

Hilarious!

Indonesian Zurich

The Big Durian is bottom of the league in terms of standard of living. No surprise there.

I wonder though which city in Indonesia has the best standard of living? I reckon Jakarta would be near bottom of the league in Indonesia too.

Indonesia

Probably cos I'm a clueless, well off Westerner, but one of the reasons I love Indonesia is that it makes me feel more alive.

There's more pain there, but also a lot of happiness. It seems that there's more life.

This post reminded me of that.

Clear Problems

A rather pessimistic but good general article on Indonesia's current affairs by Duncan Graham.

Genesis of Violence

This is /the/ most insightful article I've read about Indonesia in a long long time.

Firefox Download Day

Sign up here to be reminded when the latest Firefox 3 is ready for download!!

Come on Indonesia!! Malaysia is leading you 4300 to 3900 people in pledges to download!!

(Update: a great short video about Firefox 3!)

30% Wage Increase

Labour unions demand that Indonesian workers get a 30% wage increase.

Remember that labour unions generally only look after their own workers. Union workers work in well regulated industries, I suspect most Indonesians don't work in industries where minimum wages are enforced.

When the unions talk about workers they're talking about the lucky few that have relatively good jobs. Hiking minimum wages by 30% may help the lucky few who work in more formal sectors but will leave the rest out in the cold.

Wedding Pictures

Here are some pictures I took at a pal's wedding.

Nikon D400 FX

Nikon's answer to the 5D?

Now that'd be VERY interesting!!

The only thing is, how expensive will it be... It's gotta be more expensive than the D300 and less expensive than the D3. So somewhere between $2,000 and $5,000.

$3,500 maybe? That's a little over €2,000 or 30m Rp. A spicy meatball!