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One thing I really wanted to get but didn’t manage to during my visit to Japan a year ago was Geta. Geta is a Japanese traditional wooden sandals that are usually worn to go with Kimonos or Yukata. View Wiki’s Geta here. Geta comes in many different styles and colours – beautiful.
There is an in-depth article about Geta I found in KIE Magazine July 2008 which I scanned many months ago. The article describes how a Geta is made and its different styles.
Download the full hi-res article Geta Article.
There is another great article about Geta from Kimono Box.
Though I’m well above 17 years old, I actually never participated in Indonesia’s presidential election; until few days ago, 8 July 2009. I am now home in Jakarta on a 2-week off from work and my life in Sydney to settle few matters. Below are some snapshots on the voting scene I went to just near my house. The weather was scorching hot.
The voting place near my house, in front of a national middle school. People sitting down are waiting for their names to be called to vote.
Had to show the summoning letter from the RT (Rukun Tetangga) or simply put in English; Neighborhood Community; with our listed names on it. If your name is not on the list, no need to worry; show them your ID Card, and you are now listed.
The small voting chambers to tick your favorite candidate. Note that the cat underneath the first chamber is not dead, it’s just sleeping ^^. There are lots of stray cats in Indonesia. Usually the ones wandering around residential areas are quite friendly.
The paper ballot with the candidates pictures on it to put a tick mark on, we call this practice nyontreng.
After voting, we dipped our pinkies to this purple ink, marking that we’ve used our votes.
Another stray cat…
I’ve got a friend who wants to study Korean, she was looking forward to buy a couple of proper Korean tutorial books so we dropped by the language book store just in front of my bus stop in QVB. They were pricey though, those language books! We thought it’d worth a shot to visit Kinokuniya too since it’s just a block away, even though we both knew Kinokuniya seldom has its sale on language books. But still we went.
And this is what we saw right in front of the main doors of Kinokuniya.
Stormtroopers! They were so cool, I even asked them to pose with me :p Sorry for the low quality, I didn’t come prepared, had to use my cameraphone instead. But it’s better than nothing. And we were presented with even more surprises inside the store. Kinokuniya was having its manga sale! How tempting is that? I ended up buying a set of GetBackers series, I’ve been wanting to read this since a long time ago, I only had a chance to watch the anime. Each tankoubon was on sale for A$4.95, not a bad price at all, compared to the normal price of A$20.95. That’s only 1/4 the original price. People were swarming around the manga section and there were even people cosplaying. Turns out that day was a free-comics-book day, each of Kinokuniya customer was entitled to a free (American) comics, though the comics I got was full of advertisements 
(I had Sonic the Hedgehog — brings back memories when I used to play it on SEGA).
My friend ended up getting 11 Samurai Depper Kyo tankoubons and forgetting the Korean part altogether. ^^; She actually wanted to buy some more, but guilt came over her, so we paid for the books and escaped from being ripped off even more. Only a week later (2 days ago) my friend told me that she regretted not getting some other manga when they were on sale, I told her that the sale has ended already, that day we were there was the last day! But still we went to Kinokuniya, and I was totally wrong:
They were still on sale!! 0.0 and with more other titles!
Some more…
And more.
I am not sure if it’s still on now, but that’s what I said to my friend and look how it turned up. It’s worth a try 
thankfully this time I managed to hold back from buying anything.
During my four-and-a-half year stay in Sydney since 2005, I spent the last four years staying in North Sydney in four different places (five, if you counted the first 2-week stay before I moved to a homestay in Cremorne, which is full of awful memories). Despite having friends who mainly reside in the City (Sydney CBD) area and being endlessly persuaded to move there, I somehow managed to stick around North Sydney. I know that NS is like a dead city at night — no foods, no supermarkets nearby (except ALDI, which by the way shuts down at 7 every night, unless you count Thursdays 9PM), no friends (I used to have a few, but they went back to Indo, the other one is on holiday for a month abroad), but I get the luxury of having hours of uninterrupted silence at night. No blaring sirens, no gibberish yellings from drunkards, other than occasional distant sounds of vehicles passing through the streets.
So, so far I have no regrets dwelling in North Sydney, especially when I get to see a view like this every day.
No regrets!
What in the world is poken? Trust me it definitely is NOT food! It’s a device to connect you and your friends through social networks (eg. Facebook, Twitter, Friendster, Digg, etc.). But it’s not another social network community, it will only act as a bridge between you and your friends, or say new friends that you want to keep in touch with. (if not, forget about ‘pokening’ them :p) If you and your new friend both have a poken, simply tap each other’s poken and both of your social networks profiles will be dumped into each poken, so when you connect your poken to your computer — tada! you’ve got your friend’s social networks details and can add them easily!
Well that’s as far as I know about these cute little devices called poken I do not have one yet, and I thought it’s gonna be sooooo handy!
That’s why I am entering this poken contest: http://blog.japansoc.org/2009/04/12/japansoc-poken-contest/ Maybe you should too — if you’re interested!
To know more about poken: http://poken.jp/en/
Ok now I need to continue editing my friend’s farewell video. I’m so exhausted after assembling 22 Ikea furnitures, and it’s 3.03am now! But she’s leaving the day after tomorrow, so I have to get this video done asap!!
TTYL!
Dua seniman musik yang akhir2 ini gw semakin suka aja… Kalo si YUI sih, dikenalin ama temen baik gw, (identify yourself, pasti anda sooner/later baca postingan ini hehehe thanks udah dikenalin btw). Kalo DEPAPEPE sebenernya udah suka lumayan lama, tapi akhir2 ini semakin seneng aja. Lagunya bikin otak kalem… Kaya lagi summer season panas2 di Jepang gitu, tidur2an di beranda kayunya rumah2 Jepang (tau kan?) pake yukata sambil kipas2, lalu kadang2 lewat bunyi gemerincingnya lonceng2 kecil yang suka digantung di atap2nya rumah2 Asia. Aduh apa sih namanya… Yah itu lah, moga2 ngerti apa yang gw maksud.
YUI sendiri, lagunya mellow2 gitu, kadang2 ada yang cukup bikin badan pengen gerak, tapi intinya, nih anak satu berbakat sekali, masih umur 19 tahun lagi. (aduh jadi ingat diri sendiri, yang main musiknya saja cuma setengah2).
Omong2 tentang main musik… Sebenarnya gw suka main. Tapi nggak suka kalau dipaksa untuk main. Yang namanya suka itu ya suka, titik. Kalau main karena terpaksa, ya itu bukan suka. Ok, kalau banyak yang mikir ini cuma alasan, ya terserah, tapi memang itu kenyataannya. Gw main hanya kalau jari2 pengen main, hanya kalau memang ada rasa rindu datang, gw akan main. Gw hanya bisa konsentrasi main kalau lagi sendiri, kalau ada orang2 di sekitar, serasa ada mata2 memandang yang siap untuk dengan detil menghitung berapa kali tangan gw meleset mencet not. Hehehe, memang gw berlebihan ya deskripsinya? Gw tau memang gak begitu, tapi ya kan namanya juga perumpamaan, dan itu memang yang gw rasakan. Aduh emang gw orangnya suka nervous2 sendiri di depan umum, I get stage frights too often =_= Udah ah, pokoknya musik gw juga suka, hanya saja mungkin bukan untuk jadi my main job. =) But I will never give it up, having my fingers dancing on those white and black notes… Walaupun kadang2 dilalui dengan banyak susah payah menghitung nada2 yang berada di atas/bawah lima garis utama.
from a friend of mine. please help save the world.
==================================================
Hi everyone!
I would like to share with you some facts about global warming, in hopes to raise awareness for this crisis the Earth is facing at the moment. For someone who live in a developed country, awareness of global warming is everywhere! But when you look at the Earth, just how much of that land is a developed country? How much do they know or just how aware are they of the tragedies that global warming has caused.
I have such a deep concern for the lives of my loved one as well as my own. Also, for the lives of my future children and their grandchildren. Even worse, I will go through the worsening of global warming and I will see its effects in front of my eyes, taking the lives of the many we love. To say that it won’t happen anytime soon is wrong. Look around the Earth now! Hurricanes and Tsunamis hit top numbers during 2005 and are still on-going until this year, 2007.
Here are some facts about the truth behind global warming, and the things we can do to help Earth, and save ourselves.
Global Warming:
Raising temperatures on Earth caused by the emission of Greenhouse Gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and ozone) – these gasses are naturally produced on Earth, but there are many human activities that add to the levels of these gasses.
Greenhouse Effect:
In simple terms – Sun rays the Earth. The Earth absorbed 70% of it as radiation, which keeps the Earth warm. Greenhouse gasses increased in volume, affecting the athmosphere. So, as radiation is absorbed, they can’t be released back out from Earth. Just like a greenhouse!
- Although the Earth’s temperature has been rising over the years, it is now increasing even faster, and in 2005 – is the hottest year so far, and it’s just getting hotter!
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- With the melting of glaciers, cold fresh water are mixed with warm salt water in the ocean. So, what happens? The ocean’s temperature plays a great role in climate change – and that’s why hurricanes, floods and tsunamis are happening more often.
- Agriculture production will be affected greatly.
- The ozone layer is reduced (doh, don’t we all should know this by now?)
- Spread of disease like malaria and dengue fever.
- The world’s economy will affected too because there so many claims for damaged properties, people not buying homes in certain places because of the weather changes, business not doing well in many places because of the dangerous weather condition, etc.
There are even more facts which I’m not going to post here. If you have not watched the DVD “The Inconvenient Truth” with Al Gore as speaker, please do so right away. You will see in pictures and videos, just what we have done to ourselves! It’s sad to see this happening to our own home, our planet, our Earth. It’s more saddening for the fact that people are worrying more about the war, politics and the such when we are all living our lives towards hell.
No, people, this will not happen thousands of years from now, this is already happening and it’s just getting faster. Ever seen the movie, “The Day After Tommorrow”? Looks scary doesn’t it? It’s POSSIBLE! No, not a thousan years from now, but a lot sooner than that.
I am no scientist, so please go around the internet (with liable sites of course), encyclopedias, go through the National Geographic Channel and Discover Channel and find out more about global warming and what you can do to make it better!
Things you can change right now in your home!
- Inflate your tires (keep it adequately inflated)
- Use compact flourescent bulbs
- Change your air filter – for your car
- Fill the dishwasher! – no more one plate wash!
- Use recycled paper – they’re pretty too
- Start recycling! – it’s REALLY easy.
- Adjust your thermostat – 2 degrees lower during winter, 2 degrees higher during summer. basically, dont even use AC at all
- Check your water heater – no higher than 120 degrees!
- Change the AC filter – change those dirty ones, yes.
- Take shorter showers (yes ladies, no more 1-2 hours showers!)
- Install a low-flow shower head – basically less water.
- Buy products locally (I guess in Jakarta, local markets are easy to find right!)
- Buy energy certificates (wind certificates, green tags)
- Buy minimally packaged foods – reduce your garbage by 10%
- Buy a HYBRID CAR (my own dream car actually) – u could save up to $3,750 per year!
- Buy a fuel efficient car
- Carpool when you can (not every individual on Earth needs a car!)
- Reduce garbage
- Plant a tree – please please do!
- Insulate your water heater
- Replace old appliances
- Weatherize your home – caulk weather strips on your doors and windows
- Use a push mower – time to exercise!
- Unplug unused electronics (even when they’re turned off, they still use energy!)
- Put on a sweater
- Insulate your home
- Air dry your clothes
- Switch to tank-less water heater
- Switch to double-pane windows
- Buy ORGANIC food
- Bring cloth bags to market (no, it will no look silly, silly!)
*Taken from: Stop Global Warming Organization [ http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/sgw_actionitems.asp]
*Other Sources: “The Inconvenient Truth” DVD, Wikipedia.
Please guys… Let’s help ourselves, and our children. NO KIDDING!!!
Thaa!
Stumbled into him on the way home from church about 3 weeks ago.
It was a perfect scene, so I took a photo of him. Tee hee hee…
*might be good for an ad. material…maybe…*
Few interviews with Stefan Sagmeister, can be found on his website.
Chapter #1: Running a Design Studio
Q: Did your work experience at the Leo Burnett agency play a large role in your deciding that maintaining a small business was better than running an office of over 100 people?
A: Yes, that was the major reason: I saw at Burnett that I will not be able to actually design when my office is bigger, and I saw the advantages of a large office for the clients as tiny, while the disadvantages were huge.
Q: How do you know when to say no to a potential client?
A: When the product is bad. When I don’t like them. When they have rush jobs (clients who are bad at scheduling a job are often bad in other areas too).
Q: How do you convince your client to buy into your obsessions, and that your personal concerns are interesting to their audience? And why should an audience be interested in your obsessions?
A: Same. First select the right client.
Q: In another interview, you were asked how far you go to maintain your concepts, and you replied, “I scream, I yell and I beg.” It obviously works, but how do clients normally react at first?
A: Our “normal” client reaction is that they like it, we have not have an unsuccessful first presentation in some time. But we had some adverse reaction to what we showed in the past. I also did lose many fights. Also: Often I was wrong.
Q: Why did you feel you needed to take a sabbatical?
A: Outwardly our last year with clients had been the most successful to date, we had won the most awards in our brief company history and the then booming economy had filled our coffers. But actually I was bored. The work became repetitive.
At the same time I went to Cranbrook giving a workshop and actually got rather jealous of all the mature students there being able to spend their entire day just experimenting. Then Ed Fella came into the studio and showed me all the notebooks with his freewheeling typographic experiments. That did it. I settled on a date a year in advance and I called up all my clients.
Q: How much work volume do you have and do you see it growing?
A: We are full with work. I don’t want to grow the studio.
Q: Are the projects you’re currently working on similar to what you’d done before the sabbatical? Do you feel you want to continue to do CD packaging design?
A: We are shifting the focus. I still want to do some CD’s, but not as concentrated as before. I’d love for the studio to also focus on socially responsible projects.
Q: You often refer that one of the best decisions you had made, was keeping your firm small (i.e., normally you have two other employees besides yourself). This makes the selection of talented individuals very personal to you. What are your main selection points when hiring?
A: A. A sweet personality. Matthias and I are spending more time in here than me and my girlfriend do in a typical week, so the fact that we get along well is important.
B. Good work. Hopefully not the same kind of work as I did before (I know how to do that, I don’t need another version of me in the studio), but somebody who complements what I do (and loves to do the things that I don’t know how to do, like most of the computer work).
Q: Keeping the firm small has also allowed you to be very selective with the clients you work for — a luxury that other designers only fantasize about.
Do you attribute your successful designs to the great clients you have worked with?
A: Yes. It is not possible to do satisfying work for an indifferent client. We need the support and the willingness to collaborate on many levels. They have to want something good. In our case some did.
