Today's dish

Reasons why Logan Huntzberger is the most perfect man I've ever known:

1. He is good looking, obviously.
2. He is smart, but contrary to the stereotype, he is well-attired.
3. He is a good writer.
4. He reads.
5. His family is loaded.
6. He is one snotty, coolier-than-thou guy.

Of course, he only exists on TV. Rory Gilmore is one lucky bitch.

Anyway, here's what I learned today: Due to global warming, our beloved city has now the possibility of sinking. We lay 50 cm below sea level, and the constant heavy rain and the increase of sea level can eventually vanish some areas including Jakarta. Congratulations to my great great grandchildren, then.

Another congratulations, however, is addressed to my best friend Runi, who finally got a job as a reporter in a women's tabloid. Niiiiiiice, Run!!

Been living so long with my pictures of you

I just got back from doing a piece of post-flood school activities. SMA 8 is one of those damaged schools, so we went to its temporary learning place, a Diklat building in Kuningan. I went into one of the classrooms with the cameraman, and while he was busy recording, I stood in the back of the class, observing.

The room was still full of students (well, it's SMA 8 after all--they solve math problems religiously), doing all kinds of stuff. It was during math, and the teacher was trying to explain something about deret geometri while some of the students played with their cell phones, talked quietly to each other, and threw banters at their friends frequently (as it is rare for them to find a TV crew in their class).

That situation reminds me of my high school days. The seats in SMA 8's classroom were divided into four-seats-a-row, and I saw most rows were occupied by girls. I started to imagine four different high school girls talking excitedly while taking notes during a lesson, and I was one of them. Then after class, we would sit together near the stairs where I interviewed a girl today, and we would gossip about anything.

After that, comes the high school graduation. Even though almost all the students are scattered all over the world to continue with their lives, we would still be in the same town, feeling lucky because we live just a few minutes away from each other. Regularly, we would go out to eat, watch a movie, sing our asses off in karaoke rooms, drink cups and cups of coffee, or even just to eat ice creams when the weather (or one of our heads) gets hot.

Over fried chickens, escargot, hot tea, cocktails and anything in between, we would talk for hours. We would ask, "Terus ada cerita apa niii..." as a cue for another person to start the next sentence with "masa ya katanya..." We would doodle in our book about our current states, our dreams from making the best parties to future business plan, our little matchmaking game, to our absurd drawings of this and that.

During all that, we would take pictures. We would use all our recording gadgets--digital cameras, cell phones, even a mini DV camera. I always thought, get as many pictures as we can, because that was the only way to memorize the days, years later. Those footages were even useful for my Multimedia class project.

These days, those pictures and movie clips are the only way I can see us together again.

Pure entertainment

I saw the new series Fashion House last night in Star World, and that's sinetron made by Americans, my friends. The plot is too much, contrary to the below zero acting skill (zero being the worst) and all the casts look a lot like each other.

On the other side, I think Heroes can be the new comer in my top TV show list.

Speaking of list, I wanna watch these movies:
1. D'Bijis - Gery Iskak as a transvestite.
2. Long Road To Heaven - I wanna see Nia Dinata's attempt to make a semi-documentary that I think got too much publicity.
3. The Holiday - Jack Black in a romantic comedy after Shallow Hal, and Jude, of course.
4. Blood Diamond - Interesting story.
5. Infamous - Recently I wanna know more about Truman Capote.

Anyway, concerts are happening in Jakarta for the next few weeks. There's Muse, and then Java Jazz Festival, and two Sondre Lerche gigs in Jakarta and Bandung. If I had the money, I would go see all of them. But it looks like I'm picking Java Jazz, because it's, well, more festive. You can get hundreds of performers in three days, really the tagline doesn't lie.

Ack, I write craps today.

Water works

Welcome aboard, flood.

Obviously, it's been a disaster for a lot of people for these last few days. But I see silver linings here, at least for me. First, some of the streets have been empty. Most people are reluctant to go out of their houses, so it's less crowded in some of the public places and areas. This morning, cars actually ran more than 20 km/h along Bintaro-Tanah Kusir. What a rare, rare sight. Even though I was stuck for more than half an hour getting from Ratu Plaza to Bunderan HI.

Enough Elshinta-reporter-mode from me. The other thing I like from all this flooding phenomenon is the weather. The cold, breezy wind that of course makes you wanna sleep (and pee) all day long. It's good for a change from the hellish sunshine recently.

Aside from those two, the flood sucks. And I wanna get on one of those rubber dinghys (dinghies...? What?) instead of getting stuck in the office all day.