Jakarta Guide, Issue 8, Spring/Summer 2014. Published on Elite Traveler, the Private Jet Lifestyle Magazine, Asia Edition.

The following is my original copy from my article "Jakarta Guide" as published by Elite Traveler, the Private Jet Lifestyle Magazine, Asia Edition, Issue 8.

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From A To Z

From the same culinary geniuses behind the enduring success of Amuz, Jakarta’s legendary fine French dining helmed by local celebrity chef Gilles Marx, comes their newest creation, Auroz Gourmet Grill, already voted as one of top three must-try new restaurants in Jakarta by the city’s critics and luminaries. Auroz’s closest competitor at this time is the equally excellent and equally new E&O (Eastern & Oriental) restaurant headed by another culinary heavyweight, celebrated chef Will Meyrick of Sarong and Mama San fame in Bali. But where E&O is a victim of its own success, in which getting a table upon walk-in is these days proving impossible, Auroz still has that underground vibe where dining can still be enjoyed in a fairly relaxed, intimate setting.

And that’s really Auroz’s raison d'etre. Chef founder Gilles Marx explained, “We learned that many guests are too intimidated to eat at Amuz save for special occasions. So, we decided to create a new concept, one that is much less intimidating and casual and bistro-like without abandoning style. We deliberately chose an off-site location for Auroz in a new building, so that diners can hang all that pretentiousness at the door and just come here for the food.” The concept behind Auroz is that of a gourmet grill bistro that blends French bistro cooking with modern American steakhouse. Obviously, grill is its specialty and its premium quality steaks selections grilled to perfection are of the highest recommendation. Order anything from the USDA Prime Ribeye to the Australian Wagyu Tenderloin Grade 9+ and your trip to Auroz will have been wholly vindicated. A selection of very decent and truly quite excellent wines such as 2008 Amuse Bouche and Bordeaux Left Bank (notable: 1998 Chateau Leoville Las Cases Grands CrusClasses) and Bordeaux Right Bank will complete your evening.

Auroz Gourmet Grill, Menara Merdeka Ground Floor, Jl. Budi Kemuliaan 1 No.2, Jakarta 10110. +62 21 2957 3690 

PR & VIP Contact: Chef founder Gilles Marx, Mobile +62 815 1130 7110

gilles@amuzgourmet.com; www.aurozgourmet.com

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The Great Exodus

The latest mega-nightclub iteration to rock Jakarta comes from the same group which launched one of the most controversial, yet successfully epic nightclubs in the history of the city – The Stadium Jakarta. If you’ve been to this place, you know what I’m talking about. Their second concept is no less glitzy, boisterous and promises the same kind of star-studded hard partyings as its sister property, but with the respectability of a location in South Jakarta, where most of the socialites and celebrities reside. Hidden in a somewhat demure, also newly-opened shopping mall called Kuningan City on Casablanca Road, Exodus’s penchant for glam and the extravagant makes it easy to find: three floors of socializing space, spanning a restaurant, a lounge and a flagship club, each equipped with an array of the latest and greatest audio / video system.

The flagship club, Exodus 5 CLUB, features a swanky, 750-square meter space boasting classic Tiffany-era décor fused with stainless steel, mirrors and blue shades. Luxurious, oversized leather VIP sofas allow freedom of sight while ensuring privacy. The piece de resistance however is the HD LED screens that wrap around the entire span of the walls, streaming audio/visual mash-ups in high definition. The party atmosphere is further enhanced by Martin Pro Lighting, German Laser light show, 50,000+ audio watts by Funktion One, FFA and Logic Systems, and Exodus’s unique Liquid Oxygen (LOX) injection system blasting the dance floor in white clouds of pure oxygen. 

Gentlemen will appreciate rare and ultra-premium spirits such as Macallan 30 Years Old, The Glenlivet XXV Twenty 25 Year Old or Martell L'Or de Jean Martell, while the ladies will be pleased with the club’s selection of very decent premium well cocktails such as the Grape & Basil Martini (fresh grapefruit juice, Grey Goose Vodka, lime juice, simple syrup) and The Red (fresh strawberry juice, Belvedere Vodka, Light Rum, Grenadine and lime fruit).  

Exodus Jakarta, Kuningan City Mall floors 5, 6 and 7. Jl. Prof. Dr. Satrio Kav. 18, Jakarta 12940. +62 21 30056285 / 86 / 87

PR & VIP Contact: Addo Arsyad, Mobile +62 812 9163 8381, addo@exodus-jakarta.com (resigned, no longer in Exodus) 

www.exodusjakarta.com

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To read the final, edited and published article, please visit: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ytxbc9si7vojlcz/Jakarta%20Guide.pdf

Read more about Elite Traveler: http://www.elitetraveler.com/magazine-library/elite-traveler-asia-springsummer-2014

Stay tuned as I'll post more fun images from the photoshoot of each property tomorrow!  

Thanks for reading.

Transferring music to SD card on Galaxy Note (or Android)

So I just found out the exhaustive way how to transfer music to my Samsung Galaxy Note preparation for my long haul flight tomorrow to Paris. Turns out you can't simply plug in the USB from my phone to the laptop where the music is at, and drag and drop mp3 music files like I could in Blackberry system.

Turns out there's a buried menu at "Settings" called "USB Utilities" which you'd need to get to first before you can access your SD Card (and it also lets you access the system's internal memory).

So "Settings" (from home page) --> "Wireless and network" --> "USB utilities" --> connect the USB Cable (don't connect it before this) --> Then click "Connect Storage to PC".

Then a pop up window to "Open Folder" will appear or you can simply hit My Computer and see everything there. From there you can drop music files onto your SD card if you already bought one.

Once done, you'd need to un-mount (eject) the USB drive from your laptop by using the remove external hardware thingie and then just press the "Disconnect storage from PC". Then you disconnect the USB cable.

I thought this is noteworthy since I just spent the last hour scouring the web for various solutions - even one that suggests I should disable my SIM card password - and none worked. Till I found this solution after digging through my "phablet". Hope this doesn't happen to anyone else because this was frustrating.

Renungan Minggu Pagi: To Forgive....or To Forget?

Masuk ke bulan Desember, kita juga masuk ke bulan Natal. Bagi yang ngerayain Natal, ini (mestinya) bulan yang suci dan penuh rahmat, selain juga bulan spesial yang ngebawa nuansa Natal yang khas itu: Pohon natal dan lampu2 hiasan dimana2, mall2 pada sibuk dan penuh sama orang2 yg belanja kado, lagu Natal dimana2 dan kalo di Amerika, tempat saya “nyasar” 12 tahun sebelumnya, udaranya juga jadi dingin dan “crispy” yang bikin dusel2 sama si dia makin mantap. Pokoknya merry banget deh.

Tapi kali ini, bukannya “peace” dan “joy of holiday” yang saya temukan, malah nemuin hal yang ga enak. Saya baru sadar kalo mungkin saya punya musuh. Penemuan ini terjadi secara ga sengaja di Twitter waktu saya lagi baca2 timeline. Eh kok kayaknya ada satu tweet dari salah satu kontek saya yang ga bisa dibilang temen, tapi yang pasti saya berhubungan deket dengan dia karna masalah kerja, yang rada “nampol” hati nurani saya. Kenapa? Karena isi tweet dia itu menyinggung gaya hidup “seseorang”, yang kebetulan “seseorang” itu mirip banget karakternya sama gue!

Bukan, bukan saya ge-er. Kebetulan saya tau kontak saya ini emang hobi mencemooh manusia lain, dan sebelumnya saya banyak ngebaca twit dia yang isinya tiap hari – kalo boleh dibilang kasarnya – adalah mikirin kemana arah semut jalan. Pokoknya hidupnya remponnggg.....banget. Dulu juga beberapa kali saya sempet ngebaca twit dia yang isinya nyerempet2 karakter temen2 saya lainnya di lingkungan kerja itu, dan tentunya karakter saya juga. Dulu sih saya sebodo amat.

Tapi kali ini kok celaan dia sangat mengena di karakter saya ya? Right down to the details. Ini apa gue yang parno, atau emang dari dulu dia sebenarnya udah nyela gue, tapi guenya yang ga pernah sadar? Ngeliat sejarah dia nyela banyak orang, wajar dong saya jadi parno, apalagi karena emang kita berhubungan deket karena urusan kerja.

Sejujurnya selama ini hubungan saya dengan dia itu fine2 aja, atau mungkin lebih tepat dibilang kita “mind our own business.” Makanya saya jadi kepikiran sama tweet dia kali ini. Lah, emang gue salah apa sama loe?

Di rumus SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) hidup saya, celaan2 dan hina2an itu langsung saya masukin ke kategori SAMPAH HIDUP. Cara penanggulannya juga simple: cuekin aja. Ga usah dipikirin, jangan kata pake dibales segala. Buang waktu dan sama sekali ga ada manfaatnya. Tapi sayangnya, kali ini, saya jadi mayan kepikiran tentang tweet dia. Cukup kepikiran sampe bela2in nulis di blog ini. Mungkin juga karena selama ini saya ga pernah nganggep dia musuh. Saya yakin, kalo dia kebetulan baca ini, pasti dia udah guling2an di lantai. Seneng banget pastinya.

Tapi setelah saya pikir2 lagi, kalo emang bener dia nyela saya, sebenarnya dalam hal ini who is the real loser? Apakah diri saya, seperti yang digambarkan dalam twitnya, atau........sebenarnya dia?

Mau bagaimanapun juga, orang yang hobinya mencela orang lain itu pasti kedudukannya lebih rendah dari orang yang dicela itu. Kenapa? Karena dia sirik. Mungkin dia benci dengan suatu karakter dari orang itu. Mungkin dia iri hati oleh suatu kesuksesan orang itu. Apapun itu, kita tahu istilah “haters gonna hate” itu dibuat karena ada orang2 pembenci. Di dalam hidup kita pasti kita ada aja yang ngebenciin. Alasannya macem2, dari SARA sampe promosi kerja sampe pacar ganteng/cantik, dan orangnya pun bermacem2, dari orang ga dikenal di pinggir jalan sampe supir taksi sampe rekan kerja sendiri.

And you know what? It is okay to be hated by someone. We can’t please everyone. Tapi yang pasti, pembenci itu adalah pecundang sesungguhnya. Mereka ga akan pernah melampui orang yang dibencinya hanya dengan membenci.

Orang yang sukses itu pasti ga punya waktu untuk mikirin hidup orang lain, apalagi nyempetin nyela di twitter. Orang sukses ga sempet utk iri hati kepada orang lain, karna mereka udah sukses. Orang sukses akan lebih berminat kepada hidupnya sendiri, either untuk improve atau maintain kesuksesannya. Dan yang pasti, orang sukses itu ga punya waktu utk update celaan di Twitter tiap jam, seperti “musuh” saya ini yang saya tahu persis kebetulan bertingkah begitu.

Maka dari itu, hari ini saya mendapat pencerahan secara ga sengaja dari orang ini. Dia hampir aja berhasil menarik saya ke level serendah dia, dan ikut2an membenci dia. Untung saya buru2 sadar bahwa mau bagaimanapun dia mencela saya – mau ke seribu follower dia kek, mau ke temen2 mutual kita kek, mau ke bos dia kek – faktanya adalah dia ga akan pernah lebih unggul dari saya. Dia ga akan pernah bisa melampaui level saya. Pernah kebayang Bill Gates bisa sirik sama gue? Ga mungkin pernah, karena level Bill Gates jauhhh...berada di atas level saya. He has nothing to envy from me.

Sama halnya dengan musuh2 di hidup saya ini. Saya ga punya waktu buat mikirin apa yang mereka pikirin atau gosipin tentang saya, karena kedudukan mereka lebih rendah. Malah saya harus berterima kasih kepada mereka karena setiap saat saya lagi sedih, lagi butuh dukungan mental, saya tinggal nyari mereka di Twitter, Facebook dll dan ngeliatin mereka melakukan hal yang sama dari pertama kali saya kenal mereka: membenci dunia sekitar mereka. Dari situ, saya bisa ngerasa kasian sama kehidupan mereka yang amat sangat tidak berarti dan sebaliknya ngerasa terdongkrak dengan hidup saya sendiri.

Haters, thank you for being there. I forgive you, but I am also forgetting you.

Happy Holidays everyone! Live well.

HATI2 SECURE PARKING TIDAK JUJUR & KORUPSI

Hati2, parkiran korupsi & tdk jujur - selalu minta receipt parkir.

Saudara/i sekalian, saya mau sharing sekaligus kasi peringatan ga enak nih ttg pengalaman markir di Secure Parking di Cilandak Town Square (Citos).

Walaupun ane ngomongin parkiran motor, tapi prinsip ini berlaku untuk mobil juga. Ceritanya gini: Waktu ane mau bayar parkir, yang kasirnya itu (cowo) dengan belagunya (ga ada ramah tamahnya, kasar) tanpa ngomong sepatah kata pun (mestinya kan paling ga kasi tau jumlah yg mesti dibayar berapa) langsung ngambil duit ane yg kebetulan 50rb (abis ngambil ATM, ga punya pecahan lagi), lalu dengan kasar balikin duit kembalian.

Untung ane udah kebiasaan, markir dimanapun, selalu minta receipt bukti bayar parkir. Nah, dia kaget setengah mati pas denger permintaan gw, lalu dengan berat hati (tetep ga ngomong ba bi bu) pelan2 ngasi kertas receiptnya...... bersama dengan Rp. 1000!!!!

Berarti kalo ane ga minta tuh, dia akan dengan sukses ngantongin 1000 perak. Itu cuma dari ane seorang. Ga keitung dia kerja 8 jam itu uda ngantongin berapa ribu. Lumayan buat beli rokok bukan??? Di mesin printernya dia, kertas2 receipt beronggok2 karna pemotor sebelum ane pd ga minta bukti parkirnya.

Moral dari cerita ini: PARKIR DIMANAPUN, SELALU MINTA RECEIPTNYA DAN COCOKIN SAMA JUMLAH YG DIA SEBUT.

Ane ga masalah mesti bayar parkir. Tapi ane masalah dengan parkiran yg udah ga manusiawi (sempit, panas ngujubileh, desek2an, dan sama sekali ga menghargai pemotor), ditambah pula ga jujur!

Hidup di Jakarta itu uda susah.... markir di 711 aja beli rokok semenit uda mesti bayar parkir 2000rb. Masa mesti ditambah dengan "perusahaan parkir professional" pada korupsi pulak? Ditambah lagi, mereka berusaha ngambil keuntungan dari org2 "kecil" yang notabene dianggap rendah ini. Bener2 AIB. So bro sis... mulai sekarang, selalu minta tanda bukti parkiran. Jangan mau ditipu begitu aja sama Secure Parking yang tamak ini. Wass.

P.S. Ada yang tau ga kemana ane bisa ekspos kebusukan Secure Parking ini di ranah media nusantara? Secure Parking adalah perusahaan parkir "professional" yang berasal dari Australia. Kenapa dan bagaimana dia bisa jadi perusahaan parkir dominan di Jakarta itu gw bingung kenapa. Macam korupsi apa neh yang dia kongkalikong sama Pemda Jkt??

Lebih tepatnya, ane pengen tau, kenapa gw MESTI BAYAR PARKIR KE PERUSAHAAN ASING UTK PARKIR DI TANAH GW SENDIRI??? KALO BAYAR PARKIR DI PACIFIC PLACE MALL, GRAND INDO, PLAZA INDONESIA, OK LAH. TAPI BAYAR PARKIR UTK MASUK KE RUKO INDOMARET DI BELAKANG RUMAH GW???? DARI GW KECIL JG MARKIR DI RUKO INI UDA GRATIS. KENAPA TAU2 SKRG DIPAGERIN DAN DIATUR SAMA SECURE PARKING????

Getting married? AVOID THIS DECOR COMPANY FROM HELL: Mount Florist, Jl. Kelinci Raya No. 40, Pasar Baru. Name: Naomi Soeryadi, 0815-888-2364

I wanted to share this particularly rotten decor company if you live in Indonesia and are getting married. Here is their information:

Mount Florist

Jl. Kelinci Raya No. 40

Pasar Baru.

Name: Naomi Soeryadi, 0815-888-2364

mountflorist.com

Stay away from this unprofessional company as they requested full payment prior to rendering service and then cancelling at the last minute, saying that they have another client that day and chose them instead of us.

This is fine if they want to ensure that each client gets the best service, but the problem is they told us at the very last minute, precisely when we are driving down to a meeting place, to finalize our plan which we had talked about months before.

And they cancelled via Blackberry messenger, as we were en route to the meeting place, no sorry, no apology, nothing.

This is what they said roughly:

"Good afternoon, sorry, but I've just seen in my calendar that on 3o oct, the same date of your wedding, I have another decor. The place is far. So I've decided to cancel my contract with you. Sorry about that."

And that was it. Attempts to reach this vendor has been unsuccessful. So now we are trying to figure out what is happening with our payment to this vendor.

Stay away from this troubled vendor.

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WASPADALAH! WASPADALAH!

Jika Anda akan menikah, hati-hati dengan vendor berikut ini:

Mount Florist

Jl. Kelinci Raya No. 40

Pasar Baru.

Name: Naomi Soeryadi, 0815-888-2364

mountflorist.com

Mereka ini servisnya busuk banget. Mereka baru aja cancel kontrak kita, lewat BBM, dan parahnya lagi, sewaktu kita lagi jalan mau meeting sama mereka di gedung pernikahan. Kita mau final meeting buat beresin semuanya, yang notabene uda dibahas berbulan2 sebelumnya. Eh tau2 dapet BBM isinya begini:

"Met siang, mohon maaf. Saya baru liat agenda pd tgl 30 Oct 2011 saya ada dekor, tempat berjauhan, takut mengecewakan. Jadi putuskan tdk jadi ambil dekor, kawatir tidak bisa tangani. Makasih."

Wah, seenak jidat banget nih vendor. Terus bulan2 berikutnya yg dia ceriwis banget maksa2 kita utk full payment itu duitnya gimana? Doain yah semoga bisa balik semua.

Pokoknya, kalau mau merit, ati2 aja sama vendor yang ini. Sekedar sharing, mudah2an ga ada yg kejeblok kayak kita. Peace.

Puma Commander II Perf for $10!

Okay so yesterday I went to Sports Station in Senayan City and scored myself a sweet little deal: a pair of Puma Commander for Rp. 100,000!! ($10). Awesome!! The actual price of the Commander was over Rp. 500,000 ($50) but Sports Station was having a sale up to 70% off. And without bargaining, this lonely little Commander was mine for a little over $10 after paying the taxes.

It's unreal how they managed to sell this for 10 bucks. How long had they held this? The inventory cost for this thing is prolly already $50 from the time it didn't sell till now.

I'm stoked, I had been looking for a good parkour shoes and this may prove to be just it... Until recently I've been training in my worn out Nike in which I slipped and fell a coupla times due to the worn soles...... then I was thinking of buying the Feiyou martial arts shoes but they cost like Rp. 125,000, and words from other traceurs is that it is harsh for beginners because the shoes provide very little padding. I can't imagine myself runing on those flat shoes.

The great thing about the Commander is that there's padding, but not that much. The sole is thin enough that it allows me to feel what I'm stepping on. And it's also flexible enough that I can balance myself on a rail, unlike my Reebok Zigtech which is basically a brick.

Nice sole: thin enough, but still provide padding for a beginner like me.

Durability of the shoes.... don't know yet, only time will tell although there does seem to be a lot of stitching going on here... but I dunno, they should be able to hold (hopefully) a year or so before they burst out from all that cat leaps and extreme braking. The fit & finish of the material looks very decent though.

Hmmm.... lots of stitches though.

The sole however is what totally sold me on it. It has all the requirement that I want from a parkour shoes: continuous, unbroken (except for the Puma segment) one-piece rubber, thin enough sole and.... just look at that beautiful herringbone pattern! When I tried it on at the store the rubber is just oh-so-grippy, and I know for a fact that when I'm out there doing cat leaps or scaling up walls (not yet, btw), the herringbone tread would have no problem sticking to coarse walls. In fact, I would not hesitate to canyoneer with this baby!

And would you look at that.... it even has a heel and toe gripper! It's almost like a climbing shoes! It reminds me of my Mad Rock.... which needs resoling btw.

Although honestly with the type of activities I'll be doing, I dont know how long it'll last before they get cleanly shaven.

Now as for the compound, I'm too lazy to read the description for material breakdown but it does seem like it's got a good mixture of soft and hard properties. The herringbone treads are very responsive to pressure but the overall sole holds up to pressure well. Again, only time will tell, but I sure hope they don't shave off clean within the next three months! These treads are seriously amazingly grippy and act like hundreds of counter-opposing gripping forces when you step down on them.

I think the padding on this shoes is just perfect. It's not too thick and not too thin so as to not provide any cushioning at all... I was led to believe that the Dunlop Volleys has about the same thickness but that they're just more flexible and just a tad less bit of padding.

But check this out, even Dunlop Volleys are selling on the internet for $50 bucks now..... whilst I got mine for $10. Another quick search for Puma Commander also reveals average "sale" price at $64.60. That's no freakin' sale! THIS, however, is a sale: $50 shoes discounted to 70% = $10. If they had 10 of those shoes at Sports Station, I'd buy them all.

Although to be a jerk and a nerd, I do have to say that I generally try NOT to support Puma or Adidas..... so far with little consistency on my part. I do still love both of these brands, and Adidas in particular is my favorite all-around uber cool brand. But Adidas and Puma are both German, and they both come from the same brothers, who split later on - but not before joining the Nazi party in WWII, a fact I'm positive the new leaderships at both Adidas and Puma are VERY keen to forget. But yep, they're both Nazi members once.

At least if I buy Dunlop Volleys, I'll be buying an Australian brand. Or Nike. Or best yet, New Balance. OMG I love New Balance. But there you go. A piece of nasty heritage which sometimes raises the question on my part, is it still worth to care about something like this? It was, after all, WWII, and Adidas and Puma today resembles nothing like Adidas and Puma under the leadership of the two original German brothers. But it still tickles the mind, particularly mine.

Blackberry OS 6 official release for Bold 9700 - my review

Okay okay okay so I've been really excited this past coupla days as I've just installed the official release of OS 6 for Bold 9700. The release was offered and made available automatically on the Blackberry Desktop Software (the OTA version, not the supplied CD version). And so it was two days ago when I nonchalantly hooked up my Onyx into my laptop when the message popped up along the line of "an update to your device software is available. Would you like to upgrade?" And then I read the version: Blackberry OS 6.0.0.461. HELL YEAH??!! I've been waiting for OS 6 upgrade for the Onyx for ages, since it first came out on the Torch!! Some impatient suckers even went as far as buying OS 6 THEME (theme, not actual software) for $6.99 from the App World. Some downloaded the hacked version of OS 6 from sites like Crackberry and found out that maybe it wasn't the smartest thing to do, as the hacked version crashed their phones. Duh. Onyx 1 only has 256 MB, while OS 6 is designed for a 512 MB memory.

As for me, a major reason I extremely look forward to getting my paws on OS 6 was for none other than its touted bump in the Blackberry website browser capabilities. I think everyone on the planet agrees that the BB browser is one of the most vile, retarded things anyone has ever invented in modern time. I always felt like an idiot whenever I was trying to open a website or something as simple as google.com and finding myself staring at an improperly rendered website. It's inhumane, and in 2011 no one deserves that.

OS 6 is supposed to fix that, in addition to boasting a couple of other eye candies. And so with glee, I downloaded the software, albeit with a few scares here and there due to the spotty internet connection here in this lovely city.

Now that I've spent a good, intense couple of days playing around with the system, here's my take of this newest Blackberry upgrade for Bold 9700:

1. Home screen "panned view panes" - Similar to "tabbed" browsing in modern web browser, this feature allows you to slide to 5 different panes which are "All", "Favorites", "Media", "Download" and "Frequent" in Home screen. "All" tab is basically the traditional Home screen where everything is grouped together, while "Favorites" is a new feature that allows you to mark any application, contact, website, or anything, as favorites and it will be promptly placed in this "tab", making this basically a shortcut for all your favorite application. "Media" groups all the media application, "Download" groups all the OTA downloads and "Frequent" groups your most frequently used applications.

My take: while the visual is nice and sleek, the very concept of this is cluttered, unnecessary and it is simply trying too hard to become something it's not.
SCORE: C

2. The "Quick Access Area", however, is an entirely different story. This is ingenious and brilliant. There are two "Quick Access Area": one is situated at the very topmost, where if you click it, it'll open several useful frequently-used settings, like connections, alarm and device options; and the second one is situated just below it, where if you click it, it'll open a drop-down menu listing the newest activities: emails, SMS, missed call, calendar or BBM. No longer do I have to open each item separately when I get out from a meeting and seeing multiple notifications.
SCORE: A

3. The best part of OS 6 is its "Universal Search" feature built right into the Home Screen. I can't love it enough. Love it, love it, love it. This feature basically lets you type in anything you want to search in your phone; contact, lost email, a keyword in an email, or even things you want to look up on the internet - right on the home screen as opposed to individually go into each application and conduct your search there. I am telling you - this thing is a dream. Not only will this search feature returns your query, like a contact business card, but it will also include EVERYTHING about the query - even including those on the internet. This is one of the finest examples of seamless device-software integration.
SCORE: A+

4. Visual: AWESOME. Sleek, fluid, elegant and butter-smooth, to me the new OS is a major eye candy upgrade from the previous 5.
SCORE: A

5. Speed: faster, but also noticing several lag that may just be anomalies. Thus far, I have not encountered any major problem like the phone freezing, but I've only been using it for a couple of days. We all know that in the case of a Blackberry, a battery pull a week keeps the doctor away.
SCORE: A (so far)

6. Memory: BOO. All those nice eye candies and universal search and fluid graphics need to come from somewhere, and in this case, it cannibalizes the memory. Consider this: My Bold 9700 has an internal memory of 256MB, of which 188 MB is generally available after subtracting it for the OS. After I installed OS 6, the remaining memory available went down to just 40 MB!!! Holy cow! Say goodbye to downloading more apps.
SCORE: C

7. Browser. Saving the best for last, I can now breathe a sigh of relief with this new, long overdue web browser and webkit engine. OS 6 browser opens pages a little faster, is nice to look at, has tabbed browsing capability, and, most importantly, renders web pages CORRECTLY. No longer do I have to stare at messed-up Google web screen. I now feel that I'm a part of the 2011 netizen community. I hope RIM keeps working to improve this web browsing engine in the coming years.
SCORE: B


8. Overall system. Much has improved to a very heart-warming level, but on the same token, there are definitely rooms for improvement. I like the fluid, tighter system; how it includes some new, surprising features like the ability to monitor your memory and CPU usage real-time, but on the other hand, some basic "illogicals" remain a thorn in the system, like how I can't add an additional phone number into my existing contact. When someone calls me, and I already have him/her in my phonebook, and he/she is calling me from a new number (like office), I can't simply choose "Add to contact". I will have to copy paste his contact and manually edit his business card. Things like these seem simply illogical for a device designed for business users.
SCORE: B

VERDICT: Download it now, especially it's official and FREE! Despite several weaknesses and old-time irritants, OS 6 is major upgrade and will breathe a new life into your aging Bold 9700.

What Thanksgiving really means... A letter from a true American and what it means to be truly grateful for being one

My sis wrote this email this morning....and it nearly brought tears to my eyes. I still have much to learn from my her. I love you sis.

I Valencia
to Trees Theresia ,Greg Vada Haradiran
date Thu, Nov 25, 2010 at 6:13 AM
subject Happy Thanksgiving
mailed-by gmail.com
signed-by gmail.com

hide details 6:13 AM (5 hours ago)

Hi Mom & Vada,

This Thanksgiving I'm very thankful for my life. I might not have money as much as I want, or you both here with me with Daddy by my side, enjoying the food and drinks like in the past, but I have many reasons to give thanks to God.

I'm thankful that:

- I have a very loving mother, brother, husband, two sons, father and mother in-laws, and extended families. Family IS my gold and family IS the reason why I can be who I am today.

- I have a healthy body and mind. Sounds cliche, but really it makes a difference that I don't have to go in and out doctors like some people I know.

- My families are healthy - that includes you Mom & Dado

- I have sources of income, not only from Meigi but occasional surveys, sweepstakes, checks for food from WIC, etc. However small, these are gifts from God and I sometimes wonder why I'm very lucky in life.

- Friends who care about me and my family; those who always check in with me and praying for our blessings

- I live where I am and I work where I am. Really I think God has arranged the best for me, Mel and our two kids. I'm always sad to read about those who live in unfortunate countries and/or in disaster areas

- I'm free to do what I want; as a woman I can flourish and get involved in the society and make contribution

- I have Barack Obama as the President of the country :) Not any moron

- I can enjoy the finer things in life, even for free, because of my fortunate luck winning sweepstakes, coupons, or deals no one knows about. At Sunday Bistro for example I can get 10% off every time because the owner likes me. Really, I have no idea how these things happen but they do and I feel God's gifts every time.

- I have a mother who prays for me all the time and always caring and loving

- I have a brother who always ready to lend a hand and very loving

- I have a son who is growing about 4 inches every year and very smart, and making me laugh no matter what he does or say

- I have a cute baby who is also growing and just this week started taking a few steps forward

- I have a husband who is really, really loving and caring, and never seem to get tired of taking care of me and the kids every day. He is the first one to wake up and the last one to go to sleep every day.

Even though you both are not eating turkey and pumpkin pie and be with me this Thanksgiving, but I want you to know that you are part of my prayers every day. Thank you for everything you do. Happy Thanksgiving!

Love,

Iliki

Girls are God's Most Complex Creation

As I lay quietly in semi nakedness and drunkenness, I can’t help but ponder the wonder of the Almighty Lord that is a woman.

Why are women so complex? In almost all of my encounters with them, I can’t help but be utterly perplexed by such complexities that they display. They, to me, are almost aliens. A completely different species that looks like human and speaks like human, but when it comes to their cerebral thoughts, I am at a complete loss. I can never comprehend the way they perceive the world or how their brains work.
But one thing remained true, and that is that I cannot live without them. And I adore them. No, maybe I idolize them. Lord Almighty, does your power not know any boundaries? How great is your glory that you can even conceive such a creature?
Forget about creating the women species. I won’t even mess with them when they’re already in their glorious, beautiful reincarnation. I tread them ever so carefully like a young, fragile handblown piece. But no matter how gentle I tread them, they still break.

Girls drive me nuts. They drive me absolutely nuts. They drive me insane. And insane, perhaps, both for their beauties and the way they look and precisely how they differ from me, and for the depth of complexities that they display. I can never, ever, understand them or the way they think.

And, sadly, looks like I am in love with one of them.

The Time That Will Not Turn Back

I hung out with my best buddy Joe yesterday since he was in Jakarta for a day before going back to Thailand on a short business trip. This should have been a simple hang out with a very good friend of mine whom I consider a true blood brother, and I thought I'd be very happy in seeing him after our last encounter back in September 09. Instead, today I feel a crushing sadness after we part ways, him to the airport and I to work. I'm not quite sure why I'm feeling this way. It was perhaps an after effect of joy from seeing him yesterday at Plaza Senayan and hanging out till late morning, and then inadvertently crashing at his hotel at 3AM, both being drunk. Come morning and we ate breakfast together at the hotel, before finally bidding good bye till our next encounter.

But it wasn't hangover that crushed me today. What made me sad is the realization of how much I enjoyed being with him, and I was reminded of the time when our group were still together back in college. We did everything together - we go to work together, we come home together, and we would drink and chat and bullshit all night before finally dozing off for an hour or so before it was time to go to school in the morning. There were me, Joe, Biju and Lee - and it seems like there were only us. Nobody else can understand us the way we understood each other. We were four friends from four different countries who somehow found solace in each other, and stuck with each other through thick and thin till the end. We stayed and comforted each other during times of pain, through chronic

laughed together, cried together, ate together, helped each other, comfort each other and supported each other through years after years of hardship. We were four foreigners who were trying to make it in a foreign country, and nobody else was there for us. We became a family.

Among them, I became especially attached to Joe, who is 5 years my senior. Although sometimes he could be annoying, he is an unwavering friend, intensely faithful and always ready to extend a helping hand to the last drop. Once, I got into trouble with the store we worked at and he got angry with the store, so much so that he even considered quitting the store in retaliation. Being with him is like being with a big brother who is always ready to catch your back. And that's the feeling I felt last night. We hung out and chatted over beers about the past, like we did countless nights when we were still in college. One great thing about Joe is that I can talk to him about almost anything. Countless times I had asked for his advice and he never strayed me wrong. Like I said, he could be annoying, but he always speaks the truth, no matter how ugly or harsh the truth may be. Among all of my friends, he was the only person whom I can relate to the most and confide, and really talk heart to heart and feel better about it.

And so in the morning, as I drove to work, I thought about my brief yet intimate encounter with Joe and how he remained my best friend after all these years - and I suddenly felt empty.

Empty because now I know I'm all alone again - I have many friends and families here now, but I only have one friend - if that makes sense. Maybe I feel sad because I was reminded of how sweet times were when the four of us were still together and how things seem to be so much simpler then. Now Joe and Biju is married and have kids and we can never go back to the way we were. And we all live in four different countries. How I wish we could all be in one city and continue our friendship. Maybe I was sad because deep inside, I have buried a guilt feeling that at one point I tried to get away from it all by running away to Arizona at the peak of our friendship. I was sick and tired of my life then - and thought that I deserve better. I guess I was a classic example of someone who didn't appreciate what I had until it was too late.

And so, it is too late, and times have changed. Things could never return to the way they were, when we were younger, when we were carefree and when things were less complicated, and wishing alone cannot make it so. The only thing I can say right now, good friend, is that I enjoyed your company very much and I can't wait for our next encounter. Have a great flight, buddy.

Cogitation On The Busway 2/17/09

Wed 17. So I'm sitting on a busway heading straight to my house in Lebak Bulus. Today my bike is deposited at the garage (again) due to the setting being completely blown when I ran out of gas in the middle of Sudirman and I tooled around with the carburetor in an effort to restart it.

This is a new route and I'm happy. Previously I have had to get off the Blok M terminal and hop on one of the local buses going south, to the Lebak Bulus terminal. And the local buses are not pleasant. But this is exactly what I wanted to write today. You know, I've only realized that I've been wrong all this time. When I was in the US, perhaps a part of it being influenced by other Indonesians who have fled the country, and perhaps being myself so far and so long away from the country where I grew up in, I couldn't care less about what was happening here. In my mind, it was almost like, oh well. There's always something wrong with that country anyways. There was a big tsunami? Is my family okay? Yes! Ok. Then everything's cool. There was a big quake? My family? Ok? Ok.

After all, one of the biggest tragedies of Indonesia happened without my being there: the Asian Financial Crisis of 1998 and subsequently, the May 1998 riot in Indonesia. I was already in the US, and I remember at that time I was running around like a rat drowning on the sea. A part of it is because my dad had cut the supply of money for my study as the Rupiah slid from Rp. 2500 a dollar to close to Rp. 20.000 at the height of the crisis. But another part of it is because I wanted to take part in history. I mean, Suharto was about to step down. His 32-years rule was about to end. There were tanks on the street. Several demonstrating students were shot dead by the nation's special forces. Properties were being burned to the ground. Martial law was implemented throughout the nation. Chinese Indonesians were targeted. Indonesia was at the cusp of revolution. Where others flee the country, I had wanted to return to the hot zone, to be part of it. As a young fool, I felt the intense urge to join the movement. And be amongst the masses and friends. My parents tried desperately to keep me there, although they themselves didn't know how I would survive without money from home.

Fast forward nine years later, when I've graduated from college and was then working in corporate America. I had worked various odd jobs including being a liquor store clerk, gas station attendant, pizza delivery, busboy, waiter, and theater usher to help earn my degree. During those times, I went through a lot; things that were my problems; moments that were my moments; life that was my life. I have had guns pointed on my head, on two different occassions, during different store robberies. I've fallen in love there. I've made blood pledges toward three buddies for life that are from three different countries. I've even contemplated ending my life once. So naturally, after all those years, Indonesia seems so far away, and I stopped caring. I've disconnected myself from it.

Now I realize that I've been wrong all along. I was wrong when other Indonesians there bad-mouthed the country. "That country is going straight to hell." And I laughed. And when Americans asked me what was good about Indonesia, I just shrugged. "That country is going to hell," I imitated my disillusioned Indonesian comrades. I bad-mouthed my own country without knowing or seeing what I was saying. Forgive me. I am guilty for falling in to the trap of countless Indonesians who tend to bad mouth their own country without being really fair or honest to themselves. Even now, I don't have to go out from this city to find hundreds of people who will happily discredit Indonesia.

And that is very wrong, because now that I'm here, I can see that this is a different place than 12 years ago. 12 yrs ago, nothing really works. The government system was a joke, the police were landsharks, the people's assembly was a smoking room, and the law didn't work.

I'm not saying that now everything works or that Indonesia is now up to US caliber, but what I am seeing is that the country is changing, and for the better. As I observed during the xmas holidays, when traffic was less and I had more time to relax, I see that potholes were being fixed, road signs and sign posts are posted numerously in the city and are quite clear and accurate (I bet locals can't really appreciate this since they have the city memorized to a science; but I totally do. Ever try following the direction of the signposts to get to a locale in the city? It works.) and that the rules of roads are starting to change for the better (I said rules of the roads, not the streets themselves. Driving in Jkt remains one of the absolute worst experience.)

Thu 18.

Although the police force have not reinvented themselves to an ideal degree, in yet another degree I see that they've evolved into something better. I see that they help old ladies cross the street. I see that they regulate the traffic in a somewhat more serious tone and although corruption is still rampant, it is less so now compared to 12 yrs ago. I have met several policemen that won't even budge with bribes. They give you the ticket without a word and then left. And let's not forget that their SWAT team did catch Noordin M Top, the bastard terrorist who bombed Ritz Carlton and Marriott last year.

And in general, the city of Jakarta possesses a well developed (to a degree) infrastructures that makes life so much easier to adapt to after I came home. I can see the difference when I visit Bali. The roads are wide and expansive, and although they're still prone to flooding, but at least in the major arteries floods subside rapidly as drainages were built. I personally have not had the experience of going through severe flooding as I stick mostly to the city's major arteries.

Foreign investment and presence is more prevalent here than 12 yrs ago. A lot of people now make a conscious effort to bike to work. The government is actively involved in promoting green living. New improvements are made every day, such as the busway and new roads.

So I guess I should end this by saying that although lots of improvements are still needed in this country, but the most important thing is that it's trying to, and it is heading toward that. I think what we often forget is that it takes effort and courage and, above all, time, to achieve that. Instead of us being cynical and critical to the environment that we live in, we should hold our heads high and believe that we are in for better times. And instead of complaining, we should take a deep breath, hold hands together and work toward a greater goal. Indonesia is not perfect yet, but what is important is that we have hope.

Author's note: turns out that the new busway route still sucks. I spent close to 2.5 hrs on the road on congested roads and they still transfer me twice. Its not a one-time deal where I hopped on the bus and sit until I reach home. Looks like I'll be going on my old, albeit less comfortable, route.

Blackberry Onyx - still a dud

After an extensive experience with the Blackberry Onyx, I regret to report that a Blackberry, despite all of its bells and whistles and no matter how much makeover and "updates" RIM has placed into the device, the Onyx is still a pretty sad little device. And I'm saying this because I've had two particularly annoying problems with the new OS that Onyx comes equipped with. Three, if I count the hardware aspect of it which is the trackball.

I know diehard BB fans will have my head for writing this, and they have their rights, but I don't care. I'm as much a user and I am NOT satisfied with the way things are going with RIM. First principal problem I have with the new Onyx OS 5.0.0.296 is its totally fail threaded SMS system. Threaded SMS system means that it'll treat the SMS as if it were real-time chat, with every SMS you sent and receive from a person showing up as a "threaded," chat-like flow. Supposedly it'll make tracking your conversation with a particular person easier, but ironically, this stupid system sometimes messes up and won't let me scroll up to see the message. Like, it'll cut off some portion of the message and it won't allow me to scroll up to the beginning of the message. That's just one of them. The other is that sometimes (actually plenty times) it won't let me scroll up to see the rest of my conversation I'm having with that person. I mean, jeebus, come on!! What's a blackberry good for??? Its core strength is supposed to lie in its data capability. What the hell is going on here? This is beyond annoying to me as I'll have to request that person to resend his message again. Note that this happens only with the SMS.

The other super annoyance I have is that for some super annoyingly reason, when I accidentally hit the "delete" key whilst the "alt" key is depressed as I'm composing an SMS text, it'll wipe the ENTIRE text I have been laboriously typing. You can't possibly imagine how aggravating this crap really is. Get this: it will wipe clean your ENTIRE message when you so much as forgot to inactivate the alt key after you hit it to bring up the special symbol, changed your mind and decide to delete that symbol. BAM. Your entire message is gone and you have to start all the way from the beginning. Is this even real? How did RIM manage to mess up so badly?

Maybe you don't have that problem, but I do. I type messily and I type faster than my brain thinks. The blame is not on me, because this never happens with the old OS system, and this doesn't happen at other programs such as email or notepad. It only happens with SMS. RIM, if you're reading this, screw the hell out of you.

I miss the old system where the SMS shows up as individual window, and I can at least still search for it and find it. I miss the old OS where I can type as messily as I want to without the risk of losing everything that I've just typed for the past 3 mins. And most of all, I miss a newcomer to the industry which can combine both the superior webkit based capability of the iPhone with Blackberry's data strengths.

Oh yeah that hardware problem I mentioned earlier? How about the trackball? Besides being hard to operate when my finger's sweaty, I found that its also largely harder to control than the ball. But that's not as big of a deal compared to the flawed SMS problems RIM has dropped the ball on. Also, I hate the fact that the speaker is situated flat on the back, on the same flat line as the battery cover, so that when I place it on a table or flat surface, it'll get covered. Affects the sound quality? You bet. How hard would it to design the speaker on the raised side of the bezel? The Onyx ain't the perfect Blackberry - yet. And until then, I'll keep searching for the perfect system. My loyalty is not with you, RIM. I'm disappointed. It seems like there's always something wrong with every edition of so-called "new" blackberry. The Curve 8320 for a totally retarded sytem. The Bold with the battery and generally flawed system. The Gemini for its weird web viewing. And now with the Onyx, touted as the "perfect" Blackberry. Sorry, but it's not.

Personal Comparison Between Blackberry Bold and Bold 2 (Onyx) - Bold 1 is better?

Having had the opportunity to use both the Blackberry Bold and now Onyx, and of course that accursed Curve 8320 (sorry, but it lost all of my contacts. Three times. It's not even worth mentioning here), I'd like to share my personal comparison between the Bold and the brand spankin' new Onyx.

Screen resolution:

Everyone's been saying just how great Onyx screen is, and that it's the best screen to date, but to me, somehow the Bold seems better. Maybe due to the larger size? It is true that the Onyx has some amazingly crisp and laser-sharp display, but somehow... it doesn't wow me quite as much as when I turned on my Bold for the first time. And then of course I browsed through the pre-loaded pictures and out popped the BMW's Series 1 white Coupe and I remember I was like...whoa.... it literally looked like an actual miniature BMW is sitting inside the phone. The rest of the pictures on the Bold look great too. Just incredibly sharp and detailed and crystal clear. Whilst on the Onyx I had the impression that the pre-loaded pics are mediocre when displayed full screen. There aren't too many great pictures pre-loaded on the Onyx too, but maybe that's because there's an AT&T version and T-Mobile version. I haven't seen the TMob one, so I don't know what pictures are preloaded there. The Onyx's screen is great for reading texts as they really pop out to your eyes, but in the overall picture impressiveness department I still like the Bold better both in magnitude and clarity.

Keyboard:

I know a lot of people will disagree strongly with me on this one, but I found the Bold (and subsequently the Onyx) keyboard to be too soft for my taste. I guess I'm used to mashing on the keys on my Curve and I'm not a gentle type of guy - I type messily, and I like that emo typing where I forcefully jam on each button with all its click-clackity glory. With the Onyx, it's so soft that I almost feel bad jamming my fat thumbs on the keys. I just can't shake the feeling that I'm going to end up chipping one of the keys, although obviously that's not going to happen. While my old Curve is retarded, I have to praise its endurance for withstanding my daily abuse. The keys on the Onyx is also bunched up together, unlike the individual keys on the Curve or Javelin or Gemini so it's hard for me to accurately tell which keys is which, something that I've memorized to an exact science on my old Curve. I need grace to type smoothly on the Onyx, and grace is not something that I possess in abundance. One more thing: I discovered that if my nails are a bit long, my typing accuracy suffers further because my nails would slip on the fretted keys. Not that big of a deal, I think, after I get used to this about a week or so.

Trackpad vs. trackball:

Love it or hate it? Like I said, the Onyx is just so smooth overall that I almost feel bad swiping my greasy fingers across its high-gloss trackpad. The trackpad is super slick, super accurate and super sensitive. It's so sensitive in fact that I notice that depending on the light condition (dim vs. strong light), I can actually move the cursor just a tad bit simply by hovering my finger a couple of millimeters above the trackpad - without touching the pad. The only thing I miss from the trackpad is the actual tactile feel as I scroll around and feel it zip, zip, zip. And since it's integrated flat right into the surface panel, sometimes I touch the wrong panel and the cursor wouldn't move at all. That's opposed to the trackball where I always know exactly where it was since it juts out from the rest of the panel. But the trackpad IS a lot quicker and more responsive than the ball, and I think this is an awesome shift of gear from RIM. One drawback from this pad is that when my fingers are sweaty, movements can get a little draggish.

Size / Form:

For me, the choice is clear. Onyx ALL the way. Besides being totally hot in polished shiny black/chrome sexiness (you can't have too much black/chrome), what really wins my heart is its small footprint. I'm a guy, so I really appreciates a thin, sleek device that doesn't bulge up in or eat up one of my four pockets. The Bold is just way too big for me, especially once it's fitted with a condom silicone case. Bigger size means easier typing? Not for me. I did away typing absolutely just fine with the Onyx or Curve size keys. The Onyx could be a little lighter so it doesn't drag my pants down, but whatever....it just feels very sturdy overall.

OS:

The Onyx comes pre-loaded with OS 5.0.296 (there's a newer .371 version just leaked! try it if you dare then let me know what happens) which is just blazing fast - scary fast, in fact. That's augmented with Onyx's hyper CPU that's considerably faster than the Bold, so I'm truly satisfied. But there's something I totally hate about this OS version, and that is I have to be careful when when composing SMS text because if I make so much a mistake in pressing "alt" and then the "delete" key, it will delete my entire SMS text - right up to the beginning of the message. This is, to date, my biggest pet peeves with the Onyx (or the OS). Like I said, I'm a messy typer, but I type fast, and I make some mistakes. So I chaotically mash on the alt key and delete key, and if I so much as slip past the "L" key and hit delete while the alt is activated, my entire SMS text is gone. That makes me feel like chucking the shiny Onyx onto the wall, and that's not a good thing. I truly hope those morons at RIM amend this huge mistake on their next OS update.

But I can definitely say that the web browser is much improved although it remains, unequivocally, a BLACKBERRY BROWSER. It's not an iPhone. It still can't display some pages. It still won't play Flash. It's nowhere near as robust as I'd like it to be. It's still a Blackberry browser.

Camera:

3.2 MP and so far so good. Auto focus works great. Flash is....flash.

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Better keep up with this blog before getting it erased again!

Just tonight I'm having an irrepressible urge to write on my blog again. Just like that. I thought about this long lost blog as I sat through a very beautiful piano performance at Hotel Borobudur's event. Well, to be honest I don't know just exactly how beautiful it was, for I'm not a trained ear and I'm definitely not the type of guy you can talk to about classical music. I mean, I'm at my happiest when I'm sitting there listening to Rage Against The Machine and Matt Darey. But the guy who played it seems to make very few if not no mistakes on the keys. He was good. And that's what so awesome about music. You don't have to understand it to appreciate it. As I sat there listening to the beautiful, melodious tunes as the pianist comfortably alternated between furioso and cantabile, the music somehow touched the innermost part of my soul, and my mind wandered to places I haven't touched in a long time. One of them is my blog. I love getting a good mind blowjob. No wonder they recommend classical music to babies as they say it stimulates the mind.

But I suddenly thought about my blog. Whatever happened to that commitment I've made to myself, a commitment I renewed when my first, long lost blog was erased four years ago? My first blog was, thankfully, just mostly rants about how my life sucked as a student. And to be honest, since I've got nothing to hide anymore, it was a bit suicidal. But then again, what's a good emo rant without a little suicide notes injected here and there? I thought it was normal. But anyways, I'm glad it was erased one way or the other when Google migrated all the data in 2005.

When I came home, though, I made a commitment to re-start my blog as I wanted to document my life's progression and thoughts in very specific time points. And I think I've maintained that commitment fairly consistent for the first four months or so. At first it was instinctual....the words came very easily to me. But now that I work in media, I guess I've had my fill of "words" that I hungered for, and my blog started to lag.

But as I sat there listening to the pianist, I started to question myself...... why am I not writing on my blog anymore? Deadlines. Work. Yes, deadlines can be a daunting hindrance for anyone to write a carefully thought piece of mind, but that's no excuse for me to completely abandon my commitment to restart my blog. I must not. I cannot. I'm no writer, but as a journalist, or an observer of life, as I prefer to view myself, I need to keep this going. I need to maintain the courage to observe and speak my mind, despite work and deadlines, just like National Geographic journalists maintain their tenacity when they're documenting some rare wildlife. At least I owe it to myself that I don't let this one die again like last blog. Or leaving it as an empty shell.

And so. I close this ramble with a renewed commitment that I put in some time for this writing. That ought to be in my new year's resolution. That, and getting more sleep.

My First Experience Getting Hit By A Motorcycle - A Lesson Well Learned

I think I'm accumulating more and more immersive, in-depth experiences in this country faster than I thought. Over the past three months, I've been ticketed and lost my newly acquired driver's license, experienced epic (and I mean EPIC) traffic jams, re-learned driving in hellish traffic and getting honked by various types of cars and motorcycles more times than all of my 12 years of living in LOS ANGELES combined (LA drivers aren't exactly friendly, they ain't), learned how to jaywalk like a pro (frogger-style), became very adept at chasing city buses and jumping aboard at the last minute......... and today I proudly learned another essential skill mandatory for survival in Jakarta: Look both ways before you cross the street.

In the afternoon, as usual I had my coffee craving, so I went outside my office to the small "warung" (street food stall) across the street. Yes, in the US, I go to Starbucks to order my coffee, but in here, I can either send someone to fetch me the coffee or I can go myself, order it, then have it delivered to my office. Ahh....such is the life.

There was a medium-sized boxed truck parked right in front of the coffee warung. Although logically this would be a strange sight considering that the small alleyway street is only about 5 meters wide and two-way traffic normally passes by here, I've gotten used to such sights and thought of nothing further.

In a hindsight, I should've known that that was my blind spot coming out from the warung. After ordering the coffee and making small talks with the shopkeeper, I carelessly stepped out of the warung and, thinking nothing further, appeared from behind the boxed truck to cross the street back to my office.

It happened so fast. I only had a chance to swing my arm out when out of nowhere, a zooming motorcycle swiped my entire right arm at high speed. Shocked, I left my arm flailing in the air, my wrist bone throbbing from the impact, and then I turned my head around and saw everything in slow motion: The zooming motorcycle swerving and losing its balance, the driver obviously just as shocked from the thought of hitting someone full-on, and then - wobble, wobble, wobble, and - CRASH! The driver and its passenger crashed to the ground with a resounding thud, skidded a small distance, then hit an oncoming motorcycle from the opposite side, which also wobbled and fell.

I watched the entire chain reaction with my left arm still hanging in the air, mouth agape. I didn't know whether I should be mad or laughing. The entire scene would've been so comical if it weren't so f***d up. The sound of the crash was pretty horrifying, and very unfortunately for the dude riding on the back seat, he wore a short pants. I think he was fine, though, as I didn't notice any burn marks on the leg that he skidded over. He was nice enough to turn around very quickly and asked if I was okay. I didn't reply right away, still in shock, and he looked pretty concerned.

For a moment, all three of us just stared at each other, not knowing what to say. I was at fault for appearing suddenly from behind the truck. The driver of the "ojek" (ojek is motorcycle for hire, a common transportation form in Jakarta. You pay the driver to drive you somewhere and pay him an agreed-upon fare) was obviously at fault for driving up against the one-way street. And at high speed. The passenger was looking at both of us like, seriously, this is some f***d up s**t. I'm wearing a short, yo. Could've lost a leg there.

But after small mumbles and grumbles (none of us dared to point fingers because ALL of us were at fault one way or the other), everyone just went along their way. I returned safely to my office, and as I waited for my coffee to arrive, I sat very quietly and thought to myself, "I have an interesting life." I thank the Lord for His perpetual protection on my emptyheaded ass, and for this rich life that I have. Rich not in terms of financially, but rich in terms of the life experiences I've gathered over the years; the library of stories that I'll be able to tell my kids and grandkids and amuse them for hours on end. Life IS beautiful - if you only know how to look.

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JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton Are Back On Their Feet!

I went to JW Marriot and Ritz Carlton yesterday to spend a day (literally, a real full day) at the sites of recent Jakarta bombings on July 17.

The two luxury hotels are back on their feet and are fully operational during our site visit there. I reviewed Asia Restaurant at Ritz Carlton and Sailendra at Marriott. Security was tip top tight, of course, but not overly annoying. I could see that everyone is tense and the security at the gate was especially watchful. This time around I get the feeling they don't joke around and although I couldn't really tell if they were really doing their jobs, the security did a very thorough job checking our car and I could see the difference between security at "lesser" luxury establishments such as Pondok Indah Mall (that's right, I hope you read this because you still suck at security) or even Plaza Indonesia.

The gates leading to the lobby of the hotels were double barricaded, so there's absolutely no way that a car can ram through both gates. Kudos for the great security details at both hotels. Then we had to go through layers of added security like metal detectors and live personnel body search.

Once we were inside, I noticed black-clad security sentries watchfully following our every movements. When we were standing around to wait for the PR of the hotels to come out, they approached us to inquire who and why we were waiting.

Once we met up with the PRs, however, it was back to luxury hotel treatments. We were treated so very courteously, perhaps due to their trying to build their images back up. But the hotels were bustling with activities, obviously not as great as pre-bombing but to be honest they were really decent.

Asia Restaurant at Ritz Carlton was formerly Airlangga and they changed their name after the bombing. It was the actual ground zero of the bombing, so I was eating at a place where at one point in time all hell broke loose. But I felt no bad aura or any chill effect while at the site. Quite the contrary, the restaurant was fully rebuilt, beautifully decorated and was quite honestly airy and sunny. The restaurant was bright, lighted by the romantic afternoon sun shining through the tall-ceilinged glass windows. I asked the director of the restaurant if the name change is due to the fact that they're trying to put the past behind, and she said that partially it is that, but in so many ways the restaurant itself has changed. For example, they've upped their culinary offerings and added new menu items as well as revamped the decor, so it is in technical terms no longer the same restaurant. And in my opinion I think they did a decent business, considering they just newly re-launched the restaurant and when we ate there, there were about 10 tables occupied. That wasn't bad, considering it was late lunch hour and it was a workday.

I would rate the food as A-. The quality is good, but some things can be improved. For example, the sashimi bar had a salmon block that is imported from Norwegia, as well as raw oysters and mussels that are imported from New Zealand. But when I requested the sushi, the cuts were not quite as precise and were just too thin for the ratio of rice. The taste was acceptable, however, and decent enough. Service was impeccable at this place. The grill section is excellent, I ate a very good swordfish steak and seafood shish kebab.

When I went to the Marriot, however, I was just blown away by the quality of their food. Everything was A+ at this place. The Sailendra Restaurant isn't named Jakarta's best buffet for nothing. From the berry ice tea to the salmon gravlax to the Brie cheese to the sashimi to the rotisserie chicken, everything is of tip top premium quality. They even use Lindt chocolate for the chocolate fountain. And, best of all, I get to taste the best moon cake in town. The restaurant makes very high quality, snow skin moon cakes that tasted exactly like the description written on each cover. The best ones for my taste was the durian flavored, followed by strawberry and finally green tea. I don't dig the beans flavors, never are crazy for those. I seriously have never tasted moon cakes as good as the ones at Sailendra.

The restaurant was surprisingly very busy as well, with almost all of the tables taken. I was almost expecting to see a waiting line at the front. The PR manager told me that the hotel has been doing unexpectedly well, with ardent supports from domestic as well as international customers. During the grand re-opening of the restaurant, she said about 100 people came to celebrate and eat at the restaurant, and that type of level has remained more or less the same since then. I'm happy to hear that. They deserve this.

I think a lot of people sympathizes with what Indonesia has to go through, particularly with these two hotels, and I think people want to show their support. In fact, All American Rejects, the American (duh) rock band from Oklahoma, just stayed at the Ritz Carlton for their August 17th performance. When asked why they would stay there, they replied, "Because we're fearless. F*** terrorists!" That's the way everyone should treat terrorists. They're nothing more but fecal matters, and they need to be taught that people the world over simply have evolved: they're smarter, they don't give a s*** about extremism any longer, and they can't be fooled with simple propaganda. It's the year 2009, and the power of intelligent freedom is in the hands of the people, not in the few backward-thinking extremists.

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My First Moving Violation Ticket - And Not A Warm Feeling

I just got my first moving violation ticket in this country. You can imagine my rising panic when I saw the policeman calmly walked closer and closer to my car as I waited by the traffic light at Bundaran Hotel Indonesia. Yes, he calmly walked toward my car as I was sitting in traffic. All kinds of thoughts crossed my mind. Why is he walking toward me? Crap. What the hell did I do? Oh s***. What do I do?? WHAT DO I DO??? Am I going to jail or something?

Then he saluted me (yes, the police are very polite here) and motioned to lower my window. He said, "Sir, there's a no crossing lane at the turnabout. Would you please kindly pull over to the side over there?"

You need to know that I understand nothing about the law here. I have no idea how to handle this. In the past, I have always been able to bribe (hey, that was just the way things are) and get away fairly quickly and hassle free. Now, though, I've heard that things have changed a lot and the anti-corruption law is so prevalent that they actually offer policemen Rp. 10 million to bait and trap bribers.

At the same time I don't want to say the wrong thing and make things worse, I also don't want to sound like a total foreigner and let him rape me even more. So I pulled over and he explained to me, so very politely (and that's the ironic part, because I still end up getting the ticket) that I needed to make a left after I got off Plaza Indonesia and not cross the oncoming traffic directly to the turnabout.

I decided not to challenge his knowledge about the post he works at every day. But just how the hell did he see my car cross that from that far away? He was at the other end of the huge turnabout. So he asked for my driver's license (thank God I already have one!) and my vehicle registration. Lucky I have both with me. And then, here's the funny part, he asked me very politely, "So, sir, I'm going to have to ticket you, okay? You're fine with that, right?" I tried to weasel my way out by saying, oh, come on now officer, let me go this once and I won't do it anymore, and tomorrow is Indonesia's Independence Day, come on, show some mercy, but he budged none.

Lucky for me I received a forwarded email this morning that basically tells everyone to ask for the "blue" ticket form instead of the "red." The email said that if you ask for the "blue" form, it's basically stating that you're guilty and you'll pay the fine. If you get the "red" form, which is the default ticket given by the police, you'll have to contest the conviction in court and the email further explained that besides the hassle of actually going to court, you'll be standing in line and be extorted more wild fees by the court officials. In short, it'll be a long process since you're contesting the ticket.

Red ticket means that you're pleading guilty and the email so says, the process goes like this: You transfer the fund (whatever the fine amount is) to the National bank via ATM, then you bring the slip to the police station center to reclaim your driver's license. Case closed. Oh yeah, they took away my driver's license until I can prove that I pay the fine amount. The biggest boon to this method is that the money will go straight to the country's cash registers and not to any corrupt officials. Also, be advised that the fine amount cannot exceed more than Rp. 50,000.

Since this is a forwarded email, and my general philosophy is to view every forwarded email with a grain of salt (you can never check the actual truth of forwarded email) , I shall see if this advise will actually work or not. So far it seems like it's playing out like the email said. In my panic that email was the only thing that popped into my mind, and I blurted out I want the blue ticket. At once I can see the cop's behavior changed toward me, it seemed like he took me in more carefully, maybe because he thought I knew the law. I really hope it will turn out to be exactly what the email described. We shall see.

The Blue form of moving violation ticket

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Riva Bistro & Bar French Cuisine

I got my third assignment today and went to the Park Lane Hotel in Kuningan area to interview Chef Gilles Marx, the exquisitely authentic French Executive Chef of Riva Bistro & Bar.

Riva Bistro specializes in superbly authentic French cuisine and is elegant yet modern with its open kitchen setting. Chef Gilles, as he prefers to be called, is also Riva's Food and Beverage Director and passionately engages himself in all things French, such as buying locally produced, daily delivered freshest herbs and vegetables and hosting monthly food & wine pairing introductory courses at the restaurant.

Check out some of his signature dishes:

THAT is the biggest pepper grinder I have ever seen in my life. The only time I see someone tipping something that tall was when I was drinking my half yard at the Yard House. I miss that place.

This is the signature appetizer salad, the seasonal Girolles Mushroom Salad. Girolles mushroom is a special type of mushroom grown in France, and it's in season now over there. The salad was light, springy and refreshing. I thought I tasted a bit of clam juice and tomato, while in fact the chef said the sauces contained walnut oil and a secret vinaigrette recipe.

This is my favorite: Goose liver with orange sauce. I'm sure the menu name is a lot more sophisticated than that, but I left my note at the office. Check out the upcoming edition of Maxx Media magazine for my complete coverage. Anyways, goose liver is basically pate, and on this dish, it's pan fried to a crisp perfection and drenched in, again, secret orange sauce recipe. The citrusy, acidic orange sauce really finely complements the fatty and creamy goose liver sensation as it cleanse your mouth for each bite. By the way, that big piece of orange up there can be eaten whole, like a pickled orange marmalade. Chef Gilles, characteristically a Frenchman, hand made and pickles those oranges himself, blanching the oranges for 2 days and keeping it in a chamber, where he replaces the seasoned water every 2 days or so. The entire process is, again, a secret :-)

This is Chef Gilles' proudest signature dish: the Bouillabaisse soup. As you can see from the picture, no expense was spared on quality ingredients. From the 12/15 shrimp centerpiece to the extremely well-seasoned red snapper to the green mussel to the fish stock and crab meat juice to the fresh, crisp vegetables, the entire soup was like an explosion of flavor each time I put a spoonful into my mouth.

Here's their signature dessert and special-of-the-month: Apricot....something. Pudding? Ice cream? I'll be honest, I don't care much about desserts, so I don't really remember much details about the ingredients on this one. It was very good of course, but like I said, if you want to get the complete scoop, be sure to check out my upcoming reviews on our next edition of Maxx Media.

Here's another dessert sampler for the ladies to drool over: There's the Praline at the topmost, then the Creme Brulee (so GOOD btw!!!!), then the Wilton? Wafton? Wilfton? Aggghhhh! Just check out my next edition of Maxx Media for September!! It was a dreamy cream-in-the-middle-of-crusty crisp layers. The bottommost is Peach Sherbet.

This is Park Lane Hotel's Junior Suite bedroom. With a camera phone, I can't really convey just how spacious this room really is. Curse my stupid broken camera!! I bought it right before I went back and now it's broken? How the hell am I supposed to claim the USA warranty?

View from the junior suite

This is their Premier Club Suite Lounge, a members-only room suites designed with upgraded priveleges and amenities for business travelers and upscale clientele. The Premier Club is located on the sixteenth and seventeenth floors, the hotel's tallest floors.

The view from the Premier Club Lounge. Check out the Saving Private Ryan-style memorial cemetery! These are fallen national heroes from the Dutch Colonial time.

Cute little chapel...... if not for the fact that it's for..... well, you know.

Park Lane Hotel Jakarta is a 5-star boutique hotel strategically located on Jakarta's Golden Triangle commercial district. The Park Lane Jakarta is the sister hotel of Park Lane Hong Kong.

Now, about this Maxx Media I kept on mentioning above. I just got a job as an Editor (yay!!!!!!) for Maxx Media, Asia's only premier magazine focusing on upscale hotels, restaurants and spas for discerning readers. Our goal is providing informative entertainment for busy executives and professionals wishing to unwind from their hectic schedule. I think that with my intense passion for traveling, food, adventure and photography, I can really bring value to the magazine's already-established brand and take it to a higher level - and achieve our mission to become Asia's only trusted authority on premium hotels, spas and restaurants!

My blog, of course, will not be an exact copy of the magazine. I will still cover underground, little known eating places as I discover them on a daily basis. I LOVE these localized places, and to me they will always represent a particular city's true soul.

Maxx Media is a monthly publication and is currently distributed free of charge. You can find it in the lobbies of premium hotels and establishments. We're working hard to launch an interactive website and once it's up and running, you can bet that it's going to be interactive, revolutionary, and loaded with goodies! Be sure to check back often as I will posting development updates of this exciting project.

Riva Bistro & Bar

The Park Lane Hotel Jakarta Lobby Level

Jalan Casablanca Kav. 18

Jakarta 12870, Indonesia

Phone : (62-21) 828 2000

Fax : (62-21) 828 2222

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Busway ride experience

It's 9:24 am and I'm way early on my first day of work. I'm now sitting in an unopened food court at Gajah Mada Plaza, with nothing to do. I had left the house at 8am for fear of traffic. They told me to show up at 11am. Jakarta traffic is famously horrendous in the morning, so I decided not to take any chances. I arrived at Blok M terminal, dropped off by my driver at 9am. From there, I took the busway to go to kota area (downtown area of Jakarta). The experience has been super positive, the bus was not at all crowded and it was cooly air conditioned. There was absolutely no traffic, since the bus travels on its own special lane. So I got here extremely early, and I'm happy. Although I got off one stop too early and had to walk about a quarter mile, but I'm happy that there is now a proper transport for the people of Jakarta. It remains to be seen if my positive experience will continue with the traffic going back home. The busway only costs Rp. 3000 (30 cents) and it runs all the way from the main terminal at Blok M all the way to the last stop, at Tanjung Priok (? Not sure if correct).