Ali meninggal tadi malam................

Ali meninggal tadi malam, itulah berita yang kuterima dari Alang. Aaah, akhirnya ia pergi dari dunia ini dan tak lagi menggangguku. Entah mengapa, perlahan aku mulai terganggu dengan keberadaan Ali. Padahal, ia dulu adalah seorang teman terdekatku. Mungkin memang jahat, tapi keberadaan Ali ini sudah mulai terasa mengganggu semenjak aku dekat dengan Fe.

Fe, ah Fe. Kamu telah membunuh Ali secara perlahan. Tapi benarkah itu semua hanya karena Fe? Mit dan Rur juga berperan dalam pembunuhan ini.

Tapi Ali sudah menjadi bagian dari hidupku selama kurang lebih 4 tahun. Ia mengenalkanku pada Bob. Ia mendekatkanku dengan beberapa orang lain. Tapi kini ia pergi. Entah, apakah aku akan menjadi lebih baik tanpanya? Atau justru aku akan menjadi jauh lebih buruk? Ada Fe dan Alang yang tengah dekat denganku. Tapi benarkah Fe akan menemaniku seperti janjinya? Benarkah Alang akan membantuku melihat kembali ke masa-masa kelam yang telah terlewati?

Tidak bisa kupungkiri, Ali telah menemaniku. Ia membawaku melewati saat-saat bahagia, ia membawaku melewati saat-saat MENYEBALKAN!

Terlahir dengan nama Ali Hermansyah, ia adalah seorang lelaki yang gemar mempermainkan hati pasangannya. Bahkan kadang dapat dikatakan bahwa ia tidak memperhatikan perasaan orang yang dekat dengannya. Hidupnya hanya diabdikan bagi kesenangan-kesenangan ragawi, tanpa pernah mempedulikan siapa pun. Hingga Bob menangis ketika Ali menyakitinya......... Bob, yang pernah melewati dua perceraian.......

Ali meninggal! Dan mungkin aku akan mengenangnya kadang-kadang.... Bagaimana pun juga, ia adalah orang yang pernah mengisi hidupku ini.

Selamat jalan, Li. Selamat jalan, teman. Semoga dosa-dosamu diampuni-Nya.

The Dragon Legacy

After watching Beowulf, my old interest in mythology came back. Thus, it influenced me to revisit one of my old composition about this legendary creature of mythology. For your information, this writing was adapted from my previous composition for course task. But, I will make some adjustment here and there for your convenience.

Dragon is the most famous mythological creature throughout the world. Penetrated into various culture, there resulted in various versions and legend about it in every country - both developing and developed countries. All people, whether sceptic one or the old fashioned one - must have heard about this creature. In fact, it is doubted that there is a single living soul in the world who hasn’t heard about the almighty dragon. Many films, stories, and even games were dedicated to the dragon. Appearing in every fantasy and fairy tales, dragon has been identified with the heroic tale and bravery. But the basic question is, what actually is dragon? How can there be a different characteristic of it? Good or evil? Angel or Demon?

There are actually two major kinds of dragon. The first one is the west Dragon, or those appeared in the western fairytales and myths. And the second one is the east Dragon, or the Great Snake appeared in the eastern myth. All of them are called Dragon, but interestingly, they are quite different one another.


The western dragon, or dragon appeared in European folktales and myths usually symbolizes evil thing. They are cruel, man-eater, and the target to slay by the main hero. Such dragons are Fafnir, which was slain by Siegfried in Icelandic myth, and Hydra, slain by Heracles in Greek myths. Both dragons stated previously were the evil ones; the cause of people’s suffering. Because of that, it needs to be eliminated by the power of goodness, represented by the heroes.

Later, under the influence of the church, dragon even symbolized sin and paganism, which needed to be crushed under the feet of the saints or martyrs. Such example was revealed in the infamous legend of St. George, the protector of Great Britain. Dragon itself transformed into the insignia of evil, ignoring the legend of Wyvern or the flying dragon which often believed as the guardian or the good dragon.

On the physical appearance, western dragon resembles a lizard with bat wing on its back. Because of the resemblance, we can’t find the image of western dragon which crawled. They always have four legs. Western Dragon was also believed as having the ability to fly and breathe fire. These two abilities were often related with their power and heroes’ difficulty in defeating them. Such classical portrayal of Western Dragon appeared in the illustration of Tiamat and Bahamut, two of the most famous dragons in the western legend.

There are thousand reasons why the western dragons were illustrated and given form of reptile. One of it is the invention of dinosaur’s bone. This basic is quite logical since most of the dinosaurs had four legs or two big legs in the back and two small legs in the front (referring to Bahamut, which share almost similar body structure with Tyrannosaurus Rex). When people saw the bones, they started to imagine a gigantic creature, like dragon. And as there is no limit for imagination, they started to add more to the result of their imagination, such as fire breathing and flying ability.



The eastern dragon, on the other hand, generally symbolized power, wisdom, and royal family. They were not regarded as the manifestation of evil, and even considered as having God-like trait. People even built a special temple to honour the dragon, such as the one in China, the temple of Sea Dragon King. Instead of being crushed under the feet of the main heroes, eastern dragon acted as the advisor or giving patronage and guidance instead. As if it is not enough, their influence also comes to the royal family. Considered as having the god-like trait, power, and wisdom, only member of royal family were allowed to wear outfit with dragon pattern. Furthermore, Indian dragon was even illustrated having crown on its head.

In terms of physical appearance, eastern dragon shares the similarity with the snake. Their body is those of the great and huge snake, with large scale. Their head resemble camel’s, with the long moustache. Similar with western legend, it was said that the dragon provide invincibility to mankind. Specifically, the dragon’s moustache would grant power to its bearer according to eastern myth. It was also stated that the eastern dragon had the ability to breathe fire, like the western dragon did. Beside that, they also have the ability to control the weather and represented the fecundating principle in nature. Though physically the eastern dragon didn’t have wings, Chinese dragon was able to fly. But we have to put emphasis that not all eastern dragons were able to fly. Some even only crawled on earth or live deep in the sea. Take a look of the Naga Taksaka from Indonesia which was told to be living inside Mount Merapi and Leviathan, the legendary dragon that lives deep in the ocean.

Similar to western dragon, there are reasons and bases of forming the eastern dragon as the great snake. As we know, most Asian people are farmers, and rivers have played important role for centuries for them. These rivers are long and curved, similar with eastern dragon physiology. By regarding rivers as the giver of life and patron, people were creating dragon based on the image of the rivers. That was also the reason of forming dragon’s ability to control the weather simply because weather also played important role in farming.

So, there are actually concepts that underlie the conception of dragon throughout the world. Both western and eastern were trying to construct it to represent something huge and beyond their understanding, mainly the forces of nature (refer to dinosaur’s bone and weather changes). All dragons were powerful, though they were in the opposite sides, and were said to be very powerful, whether they are good or bad. And thus, because of their power, which is demanded by mankind, the legend of inheriting invincibility by bathing in dragon blood arose.

The remaining matter which is still in need of further elaboration is the existence of Dragoon or the Dragon Knight. I’ll look for further information regarding this matter. Or is there any of the reader who would like to help me?

Cellular Rate War

Hmmm, after several observation of the newest war in Indonesia (and yet fiercer than the last console war), The Cellular Rate War, I am tempted to write something about that.

Most Indonesian people know that in this recent days, the cellular providers were fighting one another in terms of cellular rate. They were competing in lowering the call rate. Wow, starting from 10/second, goes to 1/second, followed by the so-called zero rate (which turned out to be fraud!), and still went down to 0,5/second, 0,1/second, 0,01/second, and the latest, 600 for unlimited talk time.

However, most of the promotion ended up being another fraud. Say for example, the promotion of 1000/hour turned out to be hanged before we reach exactly an hour, meaning the cost will be higher than 1000. Or, the newest one, 600 for unlimited talk time turned out to be a bad quality call, like you;'re talking to a stuttering person.

Most ironically, I read a news in one of the national newspaper stating that in the case of emergency, a number from a certain cellular provider couldn't be used to call the ambulance. BAD NETWORK! So? Does this mean that the lower rate equal with lower service? Yet, many people had already blamed the provider for decreasing the service quality....... Profit oriented and thus neglecting the basic right of the customer.

Let's try seeing the problem from another angle. Let's see from the aim! Now, what is the aim of this program? Certainly to get many new costumer. And who are the customer? The newbie and YOUNGSTER!

Hey, what happened with the YOUNGSTER? Easy! According to marketing article, YOUNGSTER is a potential market field. Why? Because they are still unstable, easy to influence, and LOW LOYALTY! That's it! The teenagers will be easily migrating from one provider to the others. Really neglecting the previous one for the cheaper one. And the number of sold number will just be a number, for the teenagers will only buy, and most of the time will keep buying without maintaining!

So that is from the teenager case. Let's see from the upper class segment. Hey, do you think they prefer quantity over quality? WRONG! Quality and prestige is far more important for them. So? Well, they tend to look down at the 'cheap' provider, and most probably will keep maintaining their loyalty towards their previous 'card', even though it may be a bit more expensive. Can you imagine an executive prefer the cheap one with the bad receipt?

Then, what's the conclusion?

Easy! The more the war goes, the deeper the wound of the provider themselves.

Me? I never change my number ever since I got that. Why? Why bother!

On Evan... (WTF, Doel!?!?!?!?)

It’s unusual for me to comment on celebrity’s news. But seemed that something happened inside my screwed up mind. And here it is, the case of Evan Sander’s photograph. (Cool, you stepped into that realm again!)
Hmm, let’s just ignore what the devil says, just let my hand danced on the keyboard. (Yet, you wrote unimportant thing!) Ah, shut up already!
Well, I accidentally ran into Evan Sander’s case several times yesterday. One thread in forum, one posting in my friend’s blog (with the picture! Finally get to see the controversial one!), and surprisingly in an infotainment – just when I wondered, where it was broadcasted on TV. (And for your information, I am not a faithful audience of infotainment. I just happened to see it while waiting for Suami-suami Takut Istri.... Ahahahahahaha, lots more reason to laugh on me...... ^_^’ )
Regarding the case, I got to agree that Evan is great in ‘answering’. What did he say? It was just a fun picture?? Ha-ha (read that with Nelson’s laughter). Very funny, Van. Fun picture with lots of chemistry?????? Yet, I love the way you say that those were fun pictures. Remember, eyes are the windows to the soul, and your eyes can’t lie. When you stated that, your eyes screamed out loud the opposite. (Gosh, surely this new habit of watching people sharpened my instinct – as well as my gaydar??? Aaargh!!!!) And the pictures were taken from Manjam??? Awww, that was so ....................... GAY!!!!!!!!!!!! Remember, Manjam is gay-version of the infamous Friendster...... (Wait, so the first person getting the pictures was also............ GAY!!!!!!!! WTF!!!)
Ummm, ignore that if you want. But what I want to say is not that. Hell, I didn’t make this blog only to comment on those case. Hell, that is way too shallow. It still depend on Evan himself whether to admit it or to negate it. That is his choice.
So, why bother putting these writing into your ‘Mockingbird Journal’? Hmm, Evan is only an introduction anyway. But these two nights, I happened to watch FTV about lesbian. Hey, two nights in a row! The first night was this Shareefa Danish with Julia Perez (and I fell for Shareefa... Reminded me of Naomi, anyway.... Duh!) and the next one was Ardina Rasti (and I swear, she looked so SWEET!!!!!!!!).
So what? There were two movies about lesbian aired in TV? Well, the point is that the ending were not satisfying. Why? Those were so heterosexist. They had to eliminate the butch, thus the femme ended up with man. Okay, I admit that I did want to see the female 2 female. But it’s not on the first list of my complaint.
Third factor? I put the blame on Neil Gaiman! Why? Well, these few days I tried to finish his Sandman. And what happened? There were so many drag queens, gays, and lesbian! So, it was like my recent days were filled with the idea (AND YOU NEVER GET TIRED OF THAT? SCREW YOU!)
And what does it proves? (IT?? Those are plural!!!). Okay, those movies along with Evan’s case........... It clearly portrays our society’s incapability of accepting such idea. Why don’t they just let it happened? Naturally? (Okay, this is not a good diction!) Err, naturally might not be an exact words. The ‘things’ might not be natural enough, BUT THE BOUND is natural enough.
I remembered Cing-cing’s words long ago, that Love is love, whatever form it takes! Hmmm, up to this point, where is this discussion headed?? Let’s just stopped talking bout this, kay?
Ahhh, in the end, Evan is way so GAY!!! (Bottom, anyone? ^_^’ )

Rasa Menjadi Guru

> Bagaimanakah rasanya menjadi seorang guru?

>> Seorang guru haruslah siap untuk dilupakan.......

 

> Dilupakan? Apa maksudnya?

>> Yah, kita harus siap untuk dilupakan oleh orang yang telah kita antar ke dalam

pintu sukses.

 

> Hah? Bukankah ketika seseorang menjadi sukses, berarti ia telah mengingat apa yang telah diberikan oleh sang guru?

>> Betul, mengingat apa yang telah diberikan. Tapi belum tentu ia akan mengingat sang guru.

 

> Lalu, apakah itu berarti bahwa sang guru tidak akan pernah dihargai oleh sang murid?

>> Hahahaha, apakah seorang guru yang baik itu gila hormat?

 

> Yah, tidak sih. Tapi apa maksudnya?

>> Guru hanyalah berperan sebagai seorang pengarah, orang yang bekerja di belakang layar. Katakanlah, ia adalah orang yang bekerja dalam diam. Bukankah dari dulu ia sudah disebut sebagai seorang pahlawan tanpa tanda jasa?

 

> Sebentar, lalu kapankah seorang guru merasa dihargai?

>> Kami akan merasa dihargai ketika sang murid bisa sukses. Bahwa apa yang kami kerjakan selama ini tidaklah sia-sia. Bahwa walaupun kami dilupakan, tapi apa yang telah kami berikan selama ini telah berguna.

 

> Jadi, bisakah anda memberikan salah satu contoh kebahagiaan itu?

>> Ummm, saya pernah punya seorang murid yang bermasalah. Ia begitu bermasalah baik dalam pergaulan maupun dalam prestasi akademis. Sampai-sampai, ia terancam drop-out. Kebetulan, saya sudah mengenal dan mendampinginya semenjak kelas 1 SMA. Tidak putus-putusnya saya berusaha mendampinginya, menjadi teman yang dibutuhkannya, dan juga kalau ia sedang membutuhkan, saya akan menjadi kakak yang baik. Saya memberinya sebuah kepercayaan, hal yang tidak pernah diberikan oleh teman-temannya yang lain. Lalu, pada akhirnya dia berhasil lulus dari SMA dan mendapatkan beasiswa ke salah satu perguruan tinggi di Yogya. Ketika itulah saya merasa sangat bahagia, bahwa saya berhasil!

 

> Kembali ke masalah dilupakan, apakah ada pengalaman tentang ini?

>> Hmm, sebenarnya salah satunya baru saja saya alami kemarin. Waktu itu, saya bertemu dengan seorang teman lama yang telah menjadi salah satu duta wisata di kota ini. Kebetulan dia berasal dari kota lain. Sewaktu ia mengikuti pemilihan, ia berusaha mengontak saya dan belajar banyak mengenai bahasa jawa, mengenai geguritan, dan mengenai tembang. Memang pada akhirnya ia berhasil. Saya pun ikut senang waktu itu, walaupun tidak ada kata terima kasih yang terucap. Ketika kemarin kami bertemu, saya menghampirinya dan menyalaminya. Sayang sekali, ia tidak mengingat saya. Tapi, apalah artinya sebuah pengakuan, ketika sebuah rasa bahagia sudah memuncak di dalam dada?

 

> Oh, jadi begitu?

>> Ya, menjadi seorang guru berarti kita mengemban sebuah tugas yang cukup berat. Kadang memang tidak sepadan dengan upah ekonomis yang didapatkan. Tapi apakah artinya sekelumit harta apabila ada rasa bahagia yang terus menerus ada di dalam hati?

 

> Tapi kan sekarang komersialisasi pendidikan?

>> Aah, jangan melantur ke sana dulu, mas! Di sini kan kita membicarakan mengenai karakteristik seorang guru?

Final Fantasy X and His Dark Material

    These weeks, I got in touch with similar stories. Golden Compass (a.k.a. His Dark Material Trilogy) and Final Fantasy X. Wait, some of you might wonder, what is so similar in those two stories? Yet, the answer is the theme.

    We already know, that HDM Trilogy is famous because of the atheism idea. How Philip Pullman tried to explain us that the recent 'God' is basically an angel trying to act as God, a false God. And thus, in his way, he tried to even create a false netherworld, hindering the soul of the dead to merge with the very essence of nature. Yet, in the end, Lyra and Will managed to slay that greedy angel. Some God-slaying story, eh?

    Well, when playing the infamous Final Fantasy X, I also find the essence of God-slaying story. Some people might not notice this, but Yevon is the center of Spira, his teaching has become their guidance in living their lives, worshipped, and even everything revolves around the temple of Yevon for a thousand years. Therefore, this automatically places Yevon as some sort of 'God', with his teaching to forbid machina. But who is this Yevon guy? Story revealed him as the corrupted summoner 1000 years ago, who was obsessed to be some kind of ruler.

    Furthermore, the concept of Sin (who appeared every 10 years, and brings chaos to Spira until he was defeated by another Summoner) for me is similar to the concept of Jesus' passion. Why? Simple! Sin is portrayed as the devil for people's sin. It will linger in Spira as long as people haven't atoned for their Sin. Yet to defeat Sin, a summoner and the guardian have to undergo a pilgrimage (meaning, journeying through Spira and pray in every temple), which is often rough and might invite death. Isn't this in some extends similar to the Passion of Christ? Yet, in the end, to defeat Sin (a.k.a. the sin of the people), a summoner has to sacrifice himself. The crucifix, eh?

    Some God-slaying story, eh? However, the simple point that strikes me is that in both plots, most people are often trapped within the teaching and the ritual, which sometimes ridiculous, and forget the real essence of God. So, which do you prefer? God or dogmas??

    I just hope that this smal writing will be a stepping stone for a further discussion.