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One Fine Day at Ciputra Water Park

October 23rd, 2005. Published under Daily Journal. 1 Comment.

Today I had an appointment with Jon and Yendy to go to Ciputra Water Park in Citraland, Surabaya. I went to Jon’s place around 8.30 AM and we went by Jon’s motor cycle to Mc. Donald’s in Mayjen Sungkono to meet Yendy. We’re pretty late. Yendy had been waiting for us more than an hour. Sorry bro :D. Since Yendy was hungry, we had some breakfast there. After filling our stomach and some chat about men’s stuffs and dreams, we went together to Citraland.

We arrived at Ciputra Water Park around 11 AM. It was much smaller than what I thought, but it’s quite nice. As the name implied, it was full of water. There were the large water roller coaster, a a giant water tank that would pour water when it was full of water, an artificial wave generator, a trampoline, and some children playgrounds.

Although it was Sunday, the park was uncrowded. I could only see a few visitors. We spent some times to walk around there. We planned to go swimming in the afternoon to avoid sunburn. But since the place wasn’t crowded, we got bored and decide to try the thrilling water roller coaster. To get on the coaster, we must climb up the stairs to the top of the tower. It was the most awful part. We also had to carry a small rubber boat. Each boat would carry precisely two passengers. A lifeguard stood by to help people get on the coaster. At first, I tried the coaster with Jon, and like I expected, Jon swore and cursed all the way down to the ground. Then I got on with Yendy. He screamed so loudly my ears could have been damaged. We got on the coaster a few times before we moved to other pool.

After noon, more and more people came by. After a few more rounds on the coaster, we went home at around 6PM, with sunburn and super tired body. Even too tired to write this blog.

Bye Surabaya

October 20th, 2005. Published under Daily Journal. 10 Comments.

Yes, it’s true. I will leave Surabaya by the end of this month. I’ll go to my hometown, Jember, and stay there for a few weeks. Then I’ll start my new job in Jakarta. Since I am still in Surabaya at this moment, I think this is a good time for me to write my experience briefly here.

What have I done in Surabaya?

I first came to stay in Surabaya in the year of 1998 when I entered the college in Universitas Surabaya. Many things have happened since then. I learned so much new things, made so much mistakes, made some new friends, met my first and second girlfriends, got my first professional job in PT Nagamas Gemilang Mandiri (the publisher of the Chinese Daily Newspaper: Naga Surya), got my first salary, got my first cellular phone, lost my grandpa and grandma, lost my first motorcycle, and many more things.

But to be honest, the most memorable moments are the past five months, since I met my first love. She is not my first girlfriend, but she is truly my first love. The one to whom I am willing to sacrifice myself. In the past five months I shed tears more than I did in my whole life. But the love and happiness she gave me was more than enough to make me survive. Also, she is the main reason why I want to leave Surabaya.

A tribute to my company and colleagues

Currently I work as a Web developer at Excellogix, a Web site publishing company. It is a small company based in Surabaya. We have two bosses here: Mr. Tan It Pin and Mrs. Vera Sumargo. While Mr. It Pin has great ambition and vision about this company, Mrs. Vera possesses excellent technical and interpersonal skill. Together they make a good team of leadership. I would like to say many thanks to them for giving me the opportunity to work here for the past two years. I really appreciate their advices in my professional and personal life.

I also have many great friends here. Let’s say Vebby Anastasia and Lusida Juwita who sit next to my desk. They like to bring and share food to the office. Lusida is also a great cook. Her chocolate pudding is very delicious. Vebby and Carla Bley Ardian are also good listeners. I know to whom should I go when I need to talk. Jonathan Himawan Wijaya is a crazy guy. He likes violence but deep inside, he has a good heart. He loves to help people sincerely. He helped me a lot during my journey to Jakarta.

There is also Bambang, a nice person and a hard worker. We often go outside having lunch together or watching movies. Yendy is a sweet guy. He always talks nice and sweet things. On the other hand, Lisa Gunawan likes to make fun of her self and people around her. The environment is always cheerful whenever she’s around. Yet on the other hand, Devy Liliana and Agung Wicaksono are the quietest persons here. They are both also the tallest boy and girl in this office. They are both skinny. Wow, they share so many common things.

We also have a couple of lovers here, Freddy Tjokro and Eva Natalia. There is also a couple of maniac like Anton and Mariza Saraswati who like to have seductive conversation. Then there is the caring Sinta, the material girl Herlina, the workaholic Stephanie, the anime lover Pratu, the weird game lover Alex, the calm Yustina, and the hardworker Yunus Tamin.

I’m glad I have the chance to know various kinds of person like you, guys. You are all great. This is not good bye. We live in the Information age, right? And we work in the Information Technology industry. So staying in touch is not a problem at all. We will meet again for sure. Good luck to all of you.

A Week with Me

December 6th, 2004. Published under Daily Journal, Games, Movies, Techie Stuffs. 2 Comments.

Sunday, Nov 28: Timeline and Cold Mountain

Some days before, Carla lent me two VCDs, Timeline and Cold Mountain. When I played the movie, I quickly found out why she had it. Because Paul Walker was one of the actor. She has been a loyal fan of him lately. Timeline was a sci-fi movie about some archaeologists who travelled back to the past to find their leader. The setting was when English invaded Franch. Nothing special though, the story is easily followed and so predictable.

While Timeline is an under average movie, Cold Mountain is really a good movie featuring some decent actors and actresses: Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renee Zelweger, and Natalie Portman. Ada Monroe (Nicole Kidman) and her father, a priest, came to a remote place called Cold Mountain. There she met Inman (Jude Law) and felt in love at the first sight. Soon, there was a civil war in America. Inman and the other young men were sent to battle. Having spent quite some times in the battlefield, Inman couldn’t resist his feeling anymore and decided to go home to meet Ada. Unfortunately, every man running away from the battlefield was considered a traitor and must be killed at sight. Hence, the journey was not a walk in the park.

Cold Mountain packs many romantic scenes, especially between Ada and Inman. A must see for every fan of love stories. Renee played so well as the servant of Ada that she got the recent Academy Award as the best supporting actress.

Monday, Nov 29: Milla Jovovich Gets an Upgrade

Around 5 PM, Jon suddenly asked me to go watch the movie with him. Resident Evil 2: Apocalypse. At last, I’d asked him several times before but he always replied that he didn’t have enough money. Luckily, we arrived at Galaxy Mall just before the movie began. I got two tickets for us at a very strategic position at the top row.

The movie started slowly but things changed when Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory) got in a really cool action. It got even better when Alice (Milla Jovovich) finally kicked in and killed some zombies and creatures. Gosh, Alice was much better there than the previous movie. The story told that Alice and her friend had been injected with the T-Virus that mutated them and gave them a magnificent power. While Alice still got her consciousness, her friend didn’t and turned into a dreadful monster, Nemesis. IMO, this is the best action movie since Van Helsing. Don’t miss it.

Tuesday, Nov 30: The War of Emperium

Warning: If you ain’t familiar with Ragnarok Online, skip this.

Every Tuesday, the War of Emperium took place. I decided to leave my guild temporarily and join a stronger guild this time. I made a good choice since my new guild and I could take a castle, Valkrie 3. After hunting in the guild dungeon for a while, my new guild master asked me to stay in the guild longer. It was a good offer actually, but I had promised that I would only leave my old guild temporarily and would come back later, so I refused the offer.

Wednesday - Thursday, Dec 1 - 2: Boring

Nothing really happened in this periode. Boring as usual.

Friday, Dec 3: Is StarOne Good?

These days, I really couldn’t leave without the Internet. I read news, contact others, work, study, and play on the Net. Therefore, I need my own connection to the Net. Dial Up connection is evil. It is slow and hella expensive. Can you imagine? Almost 10,000 rupiahs per hour for a connection at 56 kbps maximum . Cable Internet is also ridiculous. The cable provider need me to register with the cable television first before getting the Internet connection. What the heck will I need the cable television for since I hardly have time to watch the television. DSL, the rising star in the Internet connection, is so damn expensive. 300,000 and 1.5 million rupiahs per month for 500 MB and unlimited bandwith respectively. Not mentioning that most, if not all, Indonesian Internet Service Provider suck.

Recently, in an online gaming forum, some people suggested frequent Internet users to use StarOne. StarOne is actually a CDMA operator. It offers an unlimited internet connection for only ~300,000 rupiahs per month. It’s cheap. Unfortunately some of the users complained about its unreliability. Gosh….

Saturday, Dec 4: Social Day

Around 10 AM in the morning, some colleagues and I visited Sinta. There were Anton, Bambang, Lisa Gunawan, Jon, Yustina, and Yunus. She just had a baby. A boy. She was so protective that she asked us to wash our hands and feet before we saw her baby. Soon, Shirley Wibisono and Yendy joined.

After spending some times there, we tried to find some food while Yunus went home. I suggested Vivi’s place which was nearby. They seemed satisfied with the food and I was satisfied because I could see her after quite some times. She was pretty as usual. Lucky me, she was making some cookies and she let me have some.

After eating, Jon decided to go home while the rest of us wanted to visit Stephanie at Adi Jasa. Her grannie recently passed away. Since she would be there at around 3 PM and at the moment it was 1 PM, Shirley asked us to visit her home and wait there. While others were playing PS2, I fixed Shirley’s computer. She said it couldn’t connect to the Internet. Finally I could fix the computer and asked Shirley to fight me in Tekken 4. I lost the first fight but won the rest two fights.

Around 2.30 PM, we headed for Adi Jasa. After waiting for the church service for about half an hour, we finally met Stephanie. Honestly, she doesn’t look so sad. She maybe not so closed to her grannie. We went home at about 4 or 5 PM. Well, enough for today, I went straight home after taking Lisa to her house. See ya!