Saturday, April 5, 2008

Phew! It’s been very a while. When was the last time I logged in here? I even forgot. Am I even still remembered by anyone I used to know here? Are you guys even still here? I’m really sorry for the very, very (& really, really) long absence, guys.

Anyway, what’s new, what’s new? Okay, so let me tell you guys what’s been happening to me for those long lost time I’ve been gone away.

I’ve finally finished my thesis. All I have to do now is waiting for my graduation ceremony in August. I still haven’t even gotten the date yet, though. So, one problem gone, another comes up: finding a job. And darn it’s not easy.

I also haven’t been drawing much either since the last time I was gone from TP. Actually, just some ugly scratches for no more than 10 pages. I did get some requests from some of you guys to draw some characters, but I unfortunately lost the requests when my computer system crashed since I pasted all the requests to a file & saved it in my computer. Again, I’m sorry, guys. I really can’t forgive myself for letting you guys down.

For all those times when I was focusing my full attention to my thesis, I’ve also been watching Discovery Travel & Living channel. There I watched Miami Ink show. For those who don’t know what that is, it’s a show about 5 guys who are tattoo artists. I was so mesmerized & tantalized by their art works that I actually even considered of trying to start learning how to do tattoos. I know that I’m very good on dealing with things that have something to do with my hands. Basically, I know that I’m good with my hands, on every thing, & I have full confidence about it. I started drawing on my friends’ arms with pens, & the results were pretty good. They were really satisfying, actually. But, since I have no people around me who has any connection with anything that’s got something to do with tattoos, every thing basically just becomes a dream. Given the chance, I definitely still won’t let the chance to learn how to tattoo to pass me by, though.

Then, when I was walking one day, I stopped by in front of a music store & saw some people playing guitars & drums. Suddenly, I got the funny idea again to learn to play some music instruments. Again, I know that I’m very good with my hands, so I have my full confidence on actually being able to master them. They’re expensive, though. Every thing here in Indonesia is expensive. Bah! You even have to pay for peeing. Maybe they’ll ask you money for breathing too one day here.

Then one day, I talked to a long lost friend on the phone. He’s a doctor, now. I was surprised. We talked a lot about his life now as a doctor. I asked him what he was thinking about his life, & the word ‘tired’ always came out. Then I thought to myself, could I ever be a doctor if I could start over? I doubted it. Then he said that I could probably be a good surgeon since I was very gifted with my hands. I said probably. Then when I thought about it again, I might become a good plastic surgeon since that would take full advantage on my talents in art, drawing, sculpting, & my hands. Maybe I should’ve taken that path.

After that, & up to this day, I’m very interested on people doing magic. Again, I got hooked on it. I started watching magic shows on TV, reading about magic on the magazines & the internet, & buying several books on magic tricks. My favorite magician is David Blaine since I really like his style of performance that doesn’t require many preparations since he’s doing it on the street for the public. I watch Criss Angel’s Mindfreak as well as some other magic shows. Again, I’m very confident on doing things that deal with my hands, & before I know it, in a very short time (several weeks after I first saw the magic show on TV) I’ve already been fooling the people around me with some street magic tricks. It was fun looking at their reactions. They’ve always been thinking that I’m just a Hendry who can draw things, & suddenly I came to them as a David Blaine wannabe, a street magician. You guys should’ve seen their faces when I suddenly levitated in front of them. Once I’m in this magic world, every time I saw a magic tricks shown on TV, I right away know what tricks that they use & how they did it. It’s like, I used to be bedazzled by magic tricks, & now that the door to the magic world is open, every thing is just revealed to me like water overflowing from a bucket. Amazing, I’m telling you. So I found a new hobby, again.

Last Monday, on March 31, we went to Sydney, Australia. It was a fun city. It would be great if I could live in there someday. It didn’t really feel like as if I was in a western country, though. It felt more like I was in Singapore, since I’ve been there a lot of time. Maybe that was because in Sydney there were a lot of Asians. I used to live in San Diego, California, & it was a whole different experience. So basically, it was easy for me to adapt to Sydney’s surrounding.

Anyway, we went to the Opera House, Wildlife, Aquarium, Chinatown, & Coogee beach by bus. We decided to go by bus since it was cheaper & we wanted to actually experience the lifestyle of the people there. It was a nice experience. The trip to Coogee beach was hell, though. My mother-in-law was angry because we brought her to the beach in hot, mid-day. She said, “what kind of people go to the beach in a hot, mid daylight??!! You’re all either not normal or insane!!” She meant us, of course. She yapped the whole time spent on the beach, & we ended up only spending 30 minutes there. I only spent 10 minutes there actually since I felt that I had to take the responsibility to go find the nearest bus stop from the beach for my mother-in-law who seemed like she didn’t want to walk far anymore. And why the hell did I have to take the responsibility to do that? I mean, after all, it was my sister-in-law’s idea to go to the beach, but since my wife & I were the one who were chosen & responsible to lead the way to every destination (again, why us??!!) that they’d chosen to go to, we both then got blamed for basically every thing. To my mother-in-law, it was entirely our (my wife & I) fault to give her the burdens for having to experience the heat of the beach & the long walk to the beach. So, when I was talking to 2 old ladies (they were both older than my mother-in-law, but yet still energetic enough to enjoy the life on the beach) in one of the bus stops around the beach asking about the locations of the nearest bus stop from the beach, my wife suddenly sent me an SMS telling me that her mom already walked away ranting to go back to the motel all by herself saying that she wasn’t interested to join idiots like us to walk on the beach under the sun in mid-daylight. I was like, “what the *beep*, she doesn’t even know how to get back & which bus to take!” So, again the panic was with me & my wife. I found her in the middle of the road back to the beach, & I stayed with her to the bus stop while waiting for my wife & her sister to come. She yapped all the way back to the motel saying stuff like we weren’t using our brains at all to think & plan our moves. We stayed in the Carrington Motel on York Street, by the way. Anyway, she got all of us in a bad mood, really. So, what kinds of people go sunbathing on the beach in the middle of the day, really? I actually thought, uh, every one sane enough NOT to go sunbathing at night or on winter? So, who’s normal & not normal here again?

It wasn’t hot either actually. It was 21 degree Celsius, & it was quite windy.

After we dropped her, we right away went out again. My wife & her sister went shopping, & I just went to Kinokuniya bookstore. I love books, by the way. I’m the kind of person who always learns every thing all by my self since I was a kid, so I find that books (& the internet, now) are very helpful sources to learn. I also bought the Spiderwick’s Field Guide since I was really fascinated by the movie & the mythical creatures found there. Ever since I was young, I’d always dreamed of going to a fantastical world like that & just lived in there. Given the chance, I wouldn’t even mind going there now right in this second, actually. Don’t you guys want to go there too? Leaving all the stressful things behind & starting over a new life. It’s a dream I’ve always had since I was a really young boy. It was like when Shia LeBouf’s character asked Megan Fox’s character in front of the robot car in the Transformer movie, “If one day you could tell your children & grandchildren about this whole adventure you were experiencing, would you regret it then if you didn’t take it & go into that door now?” Or something like that. She took the chance & went inside the car door of the Transformer robot. I would too.

Anyway, I stayed in Kinokuniya for all the time waiting for the both of them to get back from shopping. Women are really crazy when it comes to shopping. They shopped from the afternoon to late in the evening. Their stamina was amazing, really. Yet, they get tired easily when doing chores. Funny, isn’t it?

I missed living in a discipline country. Every thing just felt so nice & comfortable. I felt like my life was at ease, & my stress just went off. It was easy to go anywhere, & every where was safer than here in Jakarta. I could just stay in one of the café drinking coffee watching people walking by. It was fun. There were a lot of adult stores too that kept on making my mouth gaped open in awe!! It was fascinating! There wasn’t anything like that here in Jakarta! A wonderful city Sydney is!!! The trip was tiring, though. We got back on April 4. Stress came back again.

The mangaka team that I was in before was called PHJ. Here in TP, they called themselves PHJers or SOF. There was a comic project. We were doing a comic that consisted of 5 different stories. I did chapter 2. When I was done with the chapter, the team got passive. There was no more meeting. I thought the team was dead, but I did know that the leader, Shireishou, was still focusing on it, probably alone. There was no more news about it, though. Suddenly, on April 2, 2008, the comic, Last Decision (scroll down to reply #305), was published by one of the largest books publishers here in Jakarta. Shireishou didn’t even let any of us who had participated in the comic know about it. At least, I didn’t know about it. I knew about it from another person who was in the team just like me. It’s really upsetting. At first, I didn’t really care about the work & the money portion, but now I feel that I should. I feel that I should get my own part. None of us get any credit for the comic besides Shireishou. Every one around me told me that I should get my money for it. I don’t really care about the money. She can just give it to a foundation like Salvation Army, or to a beggar, but I want the proof. Either she gives me a written proof, or she gives away the money in front of me. I just don’t want ‘my money’ to be taken by her. Anything is good enough as long as my money doesn’t go to her. Really, I’m upset. I emailed her, & she didn’t reply me at all. The comic got published, & none of us who had participated in knew anything about it, or get credit for it. Okay sure she was the ones who did the most work doing the finishing touch & meeting the publishing people, but if that was the case, I still think that every one who have participated it should get a little credit for the comic, at least the money portion for the work. I’m pretty sure none of us would mind being thought as an outsource service for the comic. So, what do you guys think I should do? It’s not the money, really. If she was sincere, I wouldn’t even have the problem to just let her take the money. It’s the fact that she isn’t respecting our effort that is pissing me off. So, should I just let it go or prosecute it?

Anyway, that’s it for now. I’m thinking on starting to do my blogs now. If I could, I’ll do it every day if you guys are interested to hear the stories that are happening around me. Of course, only if there was some interesting stuff going on around me. Now, it’s you guys’ turns to tell me some stories.