Nostalgic and Melancholy.

Have you ever see a place, photograph, movie, song, book or other things which take you back to your old times? My life was hectic recently, every day I'm going to office at seven-something, and back at my rented room at seven-something. Everyday I'm wading through the never ending jobs. Then today, I decide to take a 10 minute break and open my long unused Facebook apps. There on the update stream, a friend just liked a photo which I was tagged. Feeling curious, I open the link and voila, a grainy photo from my last week before high school graduation came. Then the 10 minutes break stretches into 1 hour break. How naughty of me.

The photo was taken at 2005, I'm not remember what day or month it was, but from the uniform I'm sure it was either Monday or Tuesday. You see, we got 3 set of uniforms: White and Gray-blue (Monday - Tuesday), Yellow-cream and Chocolate-cream (Wednesday and Thursday) and the last one is Boy Scout one (Light chocolate and brown for Friday and Saturday). Back then, Saturday is school day, although the school finished 1 hour earlier. And I remember very well, the photo was taken at noon. Is till remember the heat of the day. It was a windy day too.

My class is pretty crazy one. I remember how everyone got along so well, some even date each other. I think there was 2 or 3 couple formed. Indonesian school is different to West school. I believe in the West, we can choose what we want to learn, although there were some courses which mandatory. So your class-mate is differs every course. Kind of how University and College run. Here in Indonesia, all course is mandatory. So, every day we met the same people, until we divided into two major: IPA (science-based courses), and IPS (social-based courses). Of course, there were some mandatory courses, but mainly the focus of the major courses is different. Thinking back, my second year is pretty crazy too. Pity we got split.

Some of my classmate are from my first and second grade class, which is about 50 - 60% of the class. The remaining are shuffled from other class. Although not from the same first and second class, but we still got along very well. We got into trouble together, we got praised together, we choose together, every day is really fun. Oh, how I miss those days. Where we start to think about future and the world, but still innocent enough to appreciate simple, mundane teenage things like crush, homework, mischief, quiz etc.

It was awesome.
It was glorious.


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Tributes to  my old high school class, Pajero. Really miss you guys!!!

Review: The Haunted Man. Me, not dead, yet.

Me, still alive and kicking, even after missing for like, forever. Okay, not forever, but still, the last blog post is on July, for heaven sake. I'm sorry for abandoning this blog for several month, you know, I got busy with my new job. And just can't muster enough mood and energy for writing.

Anyway, I'm back now, and I hope I can update this blog more regularly. Now, I want to inform you about this cool album by a singer named Bat for Lashes. What a strange name don't you think?! Her album is titled "The Haunted Man". You had to see the album cover: a naked girl (or woman?) shouldering a naked boy (or man?). Really a distinct cover.

The distinct cover.

The track list is below:

1. Lilies
2. All Your Gold
3. Horses of the Sun
4. Oh Yeah
5. Laura
6. Winter Fields
7. The Haunted Man
8. Marilyn
9. A Wall
10. Rest Your Head
11. Deep Sea Diver

The album has a distinct atmosphere. The musics is simple yet powerful, the simplicity of it creating dark, mysterious scenes. You could hear every nuance of Natasha Khan (the singer's real name) voice. Beautiful.

One way or another, this album reminds me to Fiona Apple's last album: both had this beautiful simplicity although I think Bat for Lashes sounded more pop than the more jazzy Fiona Apple. And "The Haunted Man" had a more majestic feeling than "The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than The Driver Of The Screw & Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do" (yes, that's Fiona Apple album's title, quite a mouthful yes?).

Overall, I really like Bat for Lashes's The Haunted Man. It carry distinct sound while keeping the music simple, yet not boring to listen to. For you who appreciate good music with good vocals, I recommend you to try this out.

Recommended.

Me, back at last!

Yohohohoho..... howdy?!?! It's me!!! I'm baaaaaaaakkkkk..... yeah!!!
How y'all going?! Still breathing? Missed me? Nope?! Doesn't matter, had *** (you listener to The Lonely Island song must know what those asterisk means :D :D).

Anyway, now I'm back online, so expect some reviews soon. I got an ebook reader, four novels, and two albums to review. Ugh, I don't know if I post all of them, I'm pretty busy with my job.

Anyway, I'm just saying hello, and to say:

"Happy Ramadhan, hope our Fasting accepted by Allah and emerge from this trial as one of the winners"

Just wait for my reviews, ok? Because I got my paws on Tim Marquitz "At The Gates" at last....

Rant: Lack of Update

I apologize for lack of update for several weeks ago and, unfortunately, for several weeks to come. Last month I was sent by my workplace into one of it's branch of office on Kalimantan (or Borneo Island for some of you know it). And I got quite busy with my new workplace, with my new position, etc.

My last article (review of a locally branded headphone you could find it here) is several weeks old now, and I just can't find time (or mood) to write new articles. Las week my phones which also work as my modem, got lost while I'm on the road. So now I have no internet connections. This update is written on an internet cafe which pretty expensive and not very comfortable. Definitely not gonna improve my writting mood. Oh, and no more article about Nexian Cosmic Journey a.k.a. Gsmart G1315. Sorry.

I got several things to review: ebook reader and several novels. I got my hand on Indonesian version of Earthsea Trilogy, but I haven't got time to read them yet as right now I'm trying finishing rereading The Wheel of Time series (I'm at book eleven, The Knife of Dream). It's really a great series, and no matter how many times I reread it, it always gave me this chills and excitement. I wholeheartly recommend you to read it.

I enjoy my stay here at Balikpapan very much. Lot of people here comes from Java Island, so it felt like I'm at my birthplace. The food is alright, although everything tasted rather sweet, sweeter than I used to be, and quite bland, product of how expensive spice here, but nothing unmanagable. Actually, every things is more expensive here than Jakarta!

Balikpapan is really a clean city, I heard it's the second cleanest city after Singapore for Eastwest Asia. That's not a small feat, considering Balikpapan had several oil processing plants and some factories. Balikpapan also had clean and fresh air, and lot of hills (or what they call as "Gunung" or Mountain in English). Rather hot on the day, and some night also, but nothing like my birthplace at the middle of the dry season is.

So, that's all. I will try to give update as soon as possible. I hope I can obtain internet connection soon, or I will go MAD. I really can't live without internet, thingking about it made me shudder. Brrr... the horror...

Rant #3: Jaben Jakarta

Last Saturday I'm turned 25 years old, so I though I will go and treat myself a nice new full-sized headphone. Jaben got this birthday special offer, so I'm going to use that. Jaben Jakarta is located at Senayan Trade Center, very easy for me to reach just about 30 minutes by public bus (not counting traffic jam). I got to Jaben Jakarta store at 6.30 PM, give or take.

Jaben Jakarta store is rather small, but very cozy. They welcomed me warmly, and after I told them that I was looking for open full-sized headphone, they offer me to listen to some of their demo headphones. I tried an Alessandro MS1i. I rather excited because this is my first time listening to Alessandro, my one-time experience with Grado SR60i didn't impress me much, I found SR60i too bright for me. So gingerly, I put the MS1i, dial the volume pot on my FiiO E10 to zero, play a song and carefully set the volume up. Boy, how I supprised.

MS1i didn't sounded like what I remember SR60i back then. The treble is crystal clear, the vocal is forward and the bass is punchy. Both male and female vocals are so airy and so free that listening to my Audio-Technica SJ33 I felt boxed. Guitar sounded so crisp, and the vocal is forward, just how I liked it.
The sound-stage (or head-stage if you like) is way bigger than the SR60i on my memory. I don't know the pad they used, but it's different to the one SR60i has. Comfortable enough, the headphone just sit on my head. But I don't like how the pad touched my ears. It got rather itchy after several songs lol.

Next I asked for another open headphone to listen to and they gave me Goldring DR150. So, this is the headphone called poor-man's Sennheiser HD650, I thought. I put it on my head, put some song to play, and Holy Sh*t!!! I never knew Fatoumata Diawara's Kanou has those nice bass! And her vocals...so nice!!! Not as airy as MS1i, but with enough breath to it. Compared to MS1i, DR150 is less airy, but also less sibilant. DR150 bass also way bigger than MS1i bass. DR150 made MS1i sounded thin. Not that MS1i is bad, but generally I prefer darker sound-signature myself. I like my male vocals a touch of dark and heavy, and my female vocal to be as clean as possible. Looking from other side, MS1i vocals is sounded much more effortless, while DR150 is rather heavy.

It's a mantra to audiophile and music lovers crowd that before you buy an equipment, try as much as possible to listen other equipments, so I asked for another headphone. Jaben folk told me that the other headphone on my price range that they have are closed back, but I told them I don't mind, so they gave me Shure 440 to listen. OMG! Such high-class customer service!!! Really love Jaben....

How Shure 440 sounded? As a closed back, it doesn't has nice air or breath than Goldring and Alessandro has, but Shure has this nice clear vocal. Vocal is forwarder than MS1i (really, what pad they put on those MS1i?) and very, very clear. I can hear Adele breath when she sang Someone Like You, Live at The Royal Albert Hall. But the sound-stage isn't as nice as neither MS1i nor DR150. Both MS1i and DR150 got better layering, and better 3 dimensional space. The bass is rather weak, tad weaker than MS1i, but much clearer. I think that because of less mid-bass. And also very clean, making DR150 sounded like it had a veil on it.

So, after trading and comparing one to another, I put my choice on Goldring DR150. I want a headphone with good sound-stage and layering, and smoother sound, both are things that my Audio-Technica SJ33 lack. Not that my Audio-Technica bad, actually it's very good and very fun to listen to. I just want more refined sound, and more comfortable for home listening.

Because it's my birthday, Jaben give me some discount. Actually they as me to choose: price discount or gift (it's an Sony Jienna IEM and Jaben headphone stand), but I choose price discount. Why? because those money could go to Brainwavz HM5 when they came here fufufufufufu......

 For you who want to buy or try a nice set of headphone, go to Jaben. They are very friendly, and very warm, and they let you try almost all headphones and amplifiers that they had. They got some very nice offering (like birthday specials, bundle specials), even starting bundle special (they let you pay 60% first, then the 40% twice on two month schedule), and sometime a lucky draw (where they give out a headphone or IEM to a lucky guest).
They even offering me to try the Shure 1440, the newest Shure open headphone (which very expensive), and I had to swallow my saliva and politely reject the offer. After paying my headphone, I rather hurriedly haul my ass out before they offers me another scary headphone to try on. No, my wallet can't suffer those price.

All my rant above actually just an impression, because I only listen them for some time, and don't treat them as a review. I only write my review if I can get my paw on those headphone long enough, maybe several weeks. Right now I'm burning my new Goldring DR150, and I plan to write a review on them after they got enough time to settle to their sound. Thanks for reading this rant of me, lets meet again on the next post!

Rant #2

So, I'm still reading Indonesian version of Eye of The World (1st book from The Wheel of Time series). My progress isn't as fast as when I'm reading the English version. I find my mind rather difficult to adjusting to the way Indonesia language building scenes and atmospheres. And the translation too, rather hard to swallow. Some places name are translated into Indonesian, while some are not, thus creating strange feeling. And there are some translation which, I feel, rather odd and could be better. But then I'm a purist, so maybe for peoples who read this novel for the first time will find the translation good.
I haven't read all the book, so I can't give my review, but so far so good. Just need to open Indonesian dictionary, as lot of words used are seldom used on every-day life. I'm ashamed lol.

I really dislike the paper they used here. Not only it's brown-greyish in color, but also very thin, I literally could see the letters printed on the backside. But seeing the size of the novels, I could somewhat understand it, they must be trying to reduce the cost by using cheaper paper. For comparison, Indonesian version of Harry Potter novels has thicker papers. And the models for the cover.... dear God, I don't think they can find models more different to book descriptions than the models used here. Indonesian version of Earthsea Trilogy has much, much cooler covers...

With the reading pace I'm now, I don't think I can finish the book by the end of the month. I got some assignment from my boss, and by the end of march I got reassigned to our branch of office on Balikpapan, Kalimantan (or Borneo Island, like most European and American knows it). There I got positioned either as Project Engineer or as Business Process and Development officer. Personally, Project Engineer is more inline with my education, but I'm open to challenge :).

Oh, almost forgot, today is my Birthday!!! Yay!!! Happy Birthday to me!!! Happy 25 years old!!! For my self buy present, I planned to go to Jaben Indonesia (branch Jakarta). I want to buy an open, full-sized headphone for home listening. Something which has different sound-signature to my Audio-Technica SJ33 would be the best. Actually I'm waiting for Brainwavz HM5 to come to a local store, but I don't think I'm gonna waiting anymore, it's too long! Maybe it could be my 2nd purchase?!? lol

For you reader of this boring blog of mine, don't worry, I still have about 2 reviews on my pocket, so you don't have to wait me finish reading Eye of The World. Have a nice day!

Rant

Ugh, sorry for making you read this. I just can't make myself to write anything right now. So I'll just rant what I got on my mind.

I got several books to review, several more to read, several to finish (uh, A Game of Throne is just too heavy on politic that it pissing me off). And I just got better after several nasty and sudden attack of fever. I mean, I was sleeping peacefully when I suddenly woke up shivering, I was so cold inside, while outside I was burning. Seriously, my whole body just locked up in this nasty shivering, I can't even get up to switch the light on. Thanks God its better after several hours of sleeping with blanket. The fever went down, but going up again the next day so I skipped work. Ugh, and I got some kind of training scheduled the next day.

The week been hectic, with my fever, two days training, then, I got sick AGAIN. This time I got influenza. So last Friday I skipped work again. Feels better after drinking some drugs. So here I now, not in the mood for writing, reading, even listening to music (which I LOVE, life without music is not life. Yes, I'm music addict).

Got some movies from a friend, just finished Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part I. If what I do count as watching as I repeatedly press fast-forward button. I mean, that movie is just..... horrible, as in why-they-even-think-to-made-it? and what-the-hell-the-director-do? (or maybe more correctly put as, who-the-hell-the-director-is?) and is-that-suppossed-to-be-acting? and I-just-want-to-burn-it kind of horrible.

Okay, some scenes is nice, like the wedding (although it wasn't like the novel description. Or what my mind conjure from the novel description, anyway), and when Bella open her red newborn vampire eyes. Now, that's what you call dramatic. But the others? Hell, thanks God I didn't watch the previous movies. Why, because it was such a MESS (okay, the baby is cute). Nothing like the novel said. And yes, I'm purist (as in, novel-to-movie-purist and music-purist).
I think Harry Potter movies was bad (the first is ok, second u-hum, third is ok, fourth meh, fifth bleargh, sixth what-the-hell-is-it, seventh is....dull (part 1) and disappointing (part 2)), but Twilight movies give me new standard for BAD.
It's not films based on Twilight novels, but films loosely inspired by Twilight novels.

My body is tired, my eyes is heavy, but my mind is running 200km/h on the wrong line (t.A.T.u anyone?). Tomorrow is another working day, and I think I successfully annoy you enough by now, so I'll just shut up. Thanks for reading this rant. Bye!!!

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ps: I got two review waiting on my mind: a cheap-but-good earphone, and a debut novel by an American soldier. Yupe, an American soldier write novel. Fantasy novel. Can you imagine that? Army - fantasy novel?!? Okay, I'll shut up for now.