Saturday, January 31, 2004

A Note on My New Dress

As you can see on the bottom-left side, I have attached three logos. They are "Hackers' Emblem", "BlueRibbon Campaign for Free Online Speech" and "AnyBrowser Campaign for Web Accessibility". It didn't happen as coincidence, though, for I have become "a secret admirer" of Eric Steven Raymond, whose link to his website has been in existence since the first time I created this blog.

hacker emblem Join the Blue Ribbon Online Free Speech Campaign

Having the their emblem somewhere on my blog doesn't mean I become hacker myself; instead, I pay respect to hackers culture and value their goals as well as their way of living. Supporting "free online speech" campaign is also one of hackers mission because hackers really love freedom. And since I share their perspective, I deliberately put their campaign logo, along with my new dress: brigther color and omission of shoutbox, while in the other hand, still maintain commenting system to receive feedback from the visitors.

The other complience I want to conform with is to make this blog viewable with any browser. Why? Because I want anyone to browse my blog and find something useful, no matter what browser they use. From text-based browser such as Lynx to the cutting edge graphical-based web browser armed with bleeding-edge plugin technology like Netscape or InternetExplorer.

Wednesday, January 28, 2004

Here I am standing on my own again--II

here I am standing on my own again

on the edge of loneliness
letting the wind of time blows through me
standing still, bare footed
trying to take off the jewellery of individualism

letting the rain fades the fake smile of hapiness
on my face

reaching out my hands try to seize
every drop of love
and absorb through my skin

hoping to be someone new
without any idea of loneliness

O Sep

Copyright ©2003 O Sep

Monday, January 26, 2004

Scatterbrains at Works

"We're all one thing, Liutenant. That's why I've come to realize. Like cells in our body. Except we can't see the body. The way fish can't see the ocean. And so we envy each other. Hurt each other. hate each other. How silly is that? A heart cell hating a lung cell."
-- Cassie from THE THREE--

That's the ending screen of "Adaptation", a movie based on Susan Orlean's "The Orchid Thief", directed by Spike Jonze. It's mainly about a man writing a film about a book about a woman writing her in-depth observation of man who happened to be a flower-obsessed Floridian named John Laroche.

Being obsessed about flowers is not the peculiar thing of John Laroche. He once found himself couldn't live without fish, then got bored to death because of it, then loved turtles and then hated them, finally did the same to (rare) orchids. Untill he got arrested. For what? Shooting Donald Kaufman and stealing orchid from state-owned land.

Susan Orlean, a talented journalist, was eager to know what it's like being overwhelmed by her own obsession about something she love for no particular reason: to love things just because she want to. Thereby she spent almost 2 years shadowing Laroche wherever he went to, even though she had to give up living as city dwellers for a while and struggle in subtropical swamp somewhere in the Florida State Preserve Area. And finally make all her experience into a book.

"The Orchid Thief" so inspiring, Charlie Kaufman had a strong feeling that making film about "flowers" would be simply astounding. He got frustrated finding his script nowhere near completion for his agent persistently called him up, asking for a good news. Writing such a story was surprisingly out of his reach, despite his inspiring ideas given to his twin brother, Donald, who was about to complete the story of his own (The Three). However, Charlie's ego was urging. As his brother suggested, he tried to hear the story from the first mouth. Interviewing Susan, only to find that she (seemed) to have something she didn't (want to) tell him about. Desperately.

BANG! BANG!! Too much curiousity will kill you. Laroche shot Donald. Donald died with a gunshot bullet in his chest. Laroche point the shotgun to Charlie. Annoyed by the noisy gunfire, a starving alligator caught Laroche from behind and you know the rest of the story...

[RIP] Donald Rests In Peace, Laroche Rests In Pieces. [/RIP] That's why people should watch their back, anywhere including in the swamp.

Did you get the picture? It's all about Scatterbrains at works. And as a scatterbrain myself, I wrote this one exactly the same way as they did, from one paragraph to another. Jumping back and forth. Starting from conclusion (since you know it before you write), making a snapshot on abstract, explaining the abstract in the body, and making necessary introduction in the beginning.

Confusing? Na-ah. It's a fun, indeed. For scatterbrains only.

Monday, January 19, 2004

How Do We Create and Manage The Conflict of The Story?

Building and managing the conflict among the characters that we created is the most challenging yet interesting part. Josip Novakovich in his book "Writing Fiction: Step By Step" (Indonesian version: "Berguru Kepada Sastrawan Dunia" by Penerbit Kaifa) has suggested several techniques, some of which deal with person-to-person conflicts. Let's take a look for this one:

[...]
A: Your threat "you better stay away from me coz I start hating you forever" was so expensive I cannot afford it with my life. Its soo unbearable.
B: As I remember, I think I didn't mention "forever".
A: O yeah?? The recent survay has proven: I recall anything better than you do.
[...]
B: But don't be wrong, _there_is_something_change_ and I'm affraid it can't be fixed.
A: What is it exactly? I deserve to know coz it deals with me directly.
B: My disappointed to you.
A: I think you lie. You wanna say "my trust to you has perished" instead. O my, why do people never give only 2nd chance? Like He does to our sins just before we die? *not fair*
B: No I don't, the sentence described more than the one that you just said
A: Yeah, you've got the right to do so. It must be *love* that hurt me that much, but I don't know as what? As men do to women? Don't ask me. But it's there: *love*. _I_love_you_because_of_Him_. That's why I always pray for you, no matter what you feel, untill izrail fetch my very life. Weird, I thought I did that as a man does. Stupid me.
[...]


The conflict simply comes from such bad experience, which is triggered by a keyword that makes ordinary conversation a quarrel. There is quite a lot examples of this kind of conflict. All you have to do is giving necessary background to put this conflict into appropriate context. This is the most common way.

Anyway, which one is the keyword?

On the next post, there will be a good standpoint on managing conflict with completely different style, which indeed become one of my favorites.

Tuesday, January 13, 2004

What Are You Looking in Creating Weblog of Your Own, Actually? (Part II)

In Part I, I have discussed the most notable issue of people creating weblogs. Second remarks is surely his/her own privacy. This issue exists as most weblogs are merely displaying online diary to be commented by others, most of whom are the maintainer's friends (old and new ones). Guestbook or so-called shoutbox is also popular among bloggers to have smalltalk from simply saying "hello world, i'm here" to leaving "important" message. Does it have any relevance to others? The answer would strongly depend on the motives: why the weblog exists and why others bother themselves to visit it. Since most weblogs tend to cover personal stuffs of their owner, including area of interest and (mostly likely) their thought about certain things, we can safely assume that the owner has defined his/her privacy boundary and taken necessary action to protect it.

Given this assumption, we will attempt to reveal any relationship between motives behind weblog existence and the action taken to protect the privacy. Let's start with the simple one: maintain e-presence for personal networks.

Monday, January 12, 2004

Poem of Depression

--Dont try to understand my heart--1

look at me standing here on my own again.,

don't ask me what I am longing for
coz I can't answer it either

the look in my eyes will answer you completely

this is when all moments turn blue to me
when every sunny day turns cloudy to me
when all smiles show emptiness in my heart

when all happiness feel incomplete
when I ask my heart what will make this happiness a whole

don't push me to admit
don't make me to spell the word
the word that I know I need

don't laugh
don't ask
don't be confused

I just want someone to read this for me
and tell me that I am going to be all right

and I want that someone to be the answer of my heart


O Sep

Copyright ©2004 O Sep www.poetry.com


Gini deh pelampiasan orang kesepian di negri orang, paling banter nulis di website. Tapi ternyata ada manfaatnya juga. selain bikin lega, ternyata puisiku (if i may call it so) masuk semi-finalis poetry contest by poetry .com. aku gak ngerti mereka ngeliat sebelah mananya, mungkin mereka sekedar kasian aja bacanya hehehe...Orit-Diemen 2004

Saturday, January 10, 2004

Our New Creative Writer Has Joined!

We have recently approved new team member: Orit. Hopefully, her postings will make this weblog more fun with girl's touch :P
Welcome aboard, young lady! And shock them with your well-crafted writing talents... ^_^

Wednesday, January 07, 2004

Another Reflection of MAPAGAMA

This is the draft I'm working on. Be sure to read it through, and create the completed version of your own. You can use [...OMITTED...] section as a place to start. Please contact me if you've already done with it, so I can publish it here with the copyright of your own, and others visiting this blog can enjoy your work too (^_^).


NAMAKU IIS
Oleh: Wahyu Adi Setyanto

Namaku Iis. Umurku 21 tahun. Yang kuingat, di dalam tenda yang tak pernah kami tinggalkan dalam beberapa hari terakhir, ada 3 kawan yang terbujur kaku; yang satu tidur meringkuk, sedangkan yang lain hanya terbaring tenang. Semula kami berangkat bertujuh, tetapi 3 orang lagi telah pergi menembus hujan angin yang sepertinya tak pernah berhenti.

Entah berapa hari-mungkin lebih tepat, berapa minggu-aku dan kawan-kawan terjebak di situ. Tidak begitu jelas. Hanya ada hujan dan petir yang terus menyambar; angin bernafsu meruntuhkan rangka tenda doom yang kami tahan dengan susah payah. Tak dapat pula kuingat-meskipun sangat ingin-kapan terakhir kali kompor gas dan kompor parafin itu menyala. Yang jelas, bekal kami semakin menipis. Beras, mi instan, lauk, coklat, permen; apa pun yang diinginkan oleh perut yang lapar karena kedinginan. Saat bekal itu tak bersisa lagi, aku ingat orang-orang mulai membicarakan hidangan terlezat yang terlintas di kepala. Tidak. Mereka bermimpi. Mereka tahu itu. Lalu hanya terdengar masakan sehari-hari yang terasa nikmat di telinga. Tidak. Itu juga mimpi.

Ternyata, obrolan telah bergeser ke arah perdebatan tentang setia kawan, kebersamaan, pantang menyerah dan basa-basi moral lain. Tanpa pernah kuduga sebelumnya, semua itu berujung pada keputusan untuk meninggalkan 3 jenazah kawanku dan menyelamatkan diri sendiri, membawa apa pun yang masih melekat di badan dan yang bisa termuat dalam ransel. Sesungguhnya, aku juga ingin pulang menyusul mereka, menembus hujan badai yang tak pernah berhenti selama entah berapa hari.

Namun, keraguan tiba-tiba muncul. Apa itu mungkin? Aku tak sanggup meninggalkan mereka di sini; mereka yang telah menitipkan dompet dan gelang kaki dan kalung berbandul logo segitiga itu, yang terlanjur menjadi salam perpisahan tak terucapkan oleh bibir-bibir yang ranum memutih. Kenapa bisa begini? ratapku. Kemana semangat juang itu? Kemana orang-orang yang dulu bercerita tentang pengalaman mendaki ke puncak ini dan puncak itu? Kemana diskusi-diskusi riuh ditemani pisang goreng dan kopi panas di sela-sela asap rokok yang terus menyembul memenuhi ruangan, tentang menggapai puncak dari tiga arah berbeda untuk bertemu di koordinat ruang dan waktu yang sama? Alangkah indahnya kalau itu terjadi. Tapi itu tidak akan terjadi di sini, aku meyakinkan diriku. Sebab kenyataan sudah ada di depan mata.

Dengan gemetar tanganku mengemasi barang-barang yang masih mungkin kubawa ke dalam carrier, meskipun aku tak yakin apakah itu akan berguna atau tidak karena hujan yang mengguyur deras di sela-sela tenda yang kini telah luluh lantak tidak berbentuk lagi. Termasuk kedua pipiku yang masih basah oleh air hujan bercampur keringat dan air mata yang-suka atau tidak suka-kini telah mengalir mengisi kepedihan hatiku. Mereka semua tahu, aku tak terbiasa menangis.

Tapi toh carrier itu akhirnya kupakai juga. Kupungut raincoat yang tergeletak menutupi sebagian ransel yang kini telah kehilangan pemiliknya, lalu kukenakan dengan perlahan. Badanku terguncang dalam tangis dan hujan. Petir menyambar tiba-tiba, membuatku semakin merinding dan memaksaku mengambil keputusan sulit itu. Sekali lagi, kulempar pandangan ke arah mereka, sambil berharap kalau saja tubuh-tubuh itu masih bergerak, merintih atau apa sajalah, agar aku punya satu alasan untuk tetap tinggal. Tapi mereka membuatku kecewa.

***

Aku tak tahu kemana jalan pulang ke pos terakhir. Kucoba mencari jalan yang kami lalui sewaktu berangkat. Nihil. Semua jalan tampak sama. Yang bisa kuingat hanyalah sisa hujan kemarin; potongan ranting yang berserakan dan beberapa pohon yang tumbang memaksaku merangkak untuk melintasinya. Semakin jauh aku berjalan, langkahku semakin berat. Beban di pundak semakin berat saja kurasakan, hingga kutinggalkan tas coklat itu sendiri.

[...OMITTED...]

Yang membuatku heran, kenapa aku kini merasa kegerahan?! Sejak kapan lereng gunung tidak lagi berhawa sejuk?!

[...OMITTED...]

Kuterobos semak-semak rimbun yang siap menelanku bulat-bulat dengan duri tajamnya yang tak sanggup lagi memaksaku mengaduh. Tapi tolonglah. Yang kubutuhkan cuma air. Aku tak pernah merasa segerah ini sebelumnya. Semakin jauh aku berjalan, rasa sakit akibat luka itu semakin terbenam oleh kulitku yang terbakar. Di sekujur tubuhku, kurasakan letupan kecil seperti gigitan semut. Perutku juga terasa aneh; sepertinya ada benda yang terus bergerak mengaduk-aduk seluruh isinya. Apalagi kepalaku, yang berdenyut nyeri dan melayang berputar tiap kali kaki ini kujejakkan ke tanah. Tolonglah. Aku tak tahan lagi.

[...OMITTED...]

Aku terus berjalan dan sesekali merangkak menuruni punggungan bukit. Aku berhenti, memandang ke sekeliling. Tiba-tiba mataku menangkap sesuatu di kejauhan. Bibirku terasa perih, namum kupaksakan untuk tersenyum. Yang kucari ada di sana, di lembah sempit yang membentuk sungai mati dan menyisakan sedikit air di salah satu cerukannya. Tapi sepasang kaki ini tak mematuhiku lagi. Begitu berat melangkah hingga aku tersandung dan jatuh tersungkur, menyusur seperti papan luncur yang kehilangan kendali, membelah semak dan hamparan lumut berselingan lumpur, tak ubahnya seperti permadani cacat. Meskipun lidahku mengecap cairan anyir bercampur tanah yang langsung kuludahkan berkali-kali, sekali lagi aku masih bisa tersenyum. Yang kucari tepat di depan hidungku. Aku pun merayap dan membenamkan diri ke dalamnya.

[...OMITTED...]

Entah kebetulan atau tidak, samar-samar kudengar orang-orang memanggil-manggil namaku, tapi tenggorokanku tercekat. Aku tak mampu berkata-kata. Mungkin eranganku saat terjatuh barusan yang membawa mereka kemari. Tapi alangkah marahnya aku karena tangan-tangan kekar mereka menarikku paksa dari mata air surgawi yang kutemukan mati-matian. Aku meronta-ronta, hingga semuanya menjadi gelap.

***

[...OMITTED...]

Tubuhku terbujur kaku. Pakaian yang mereka berikan membuatku lebih gerah dari sebelumnya. Aku haus. Mereka hanya memberiku teh hangat, bukannya es teh yang kuminta. Entah apa yang mereka masukkan ke dalam teh itu hingga rasanya demikian getir dan kerongkonganku yang harus meneguknya dengan perjuangan.

[...OMITTED...]

Aku tak mengerti. Sesekali aku melihat sosok yang terbaring lemah

[...OMITTED...]

Kulihat mereka menekan-nekan dadaku dan sesekali mempraktekkan apa yang masih kuingat sebagai pelajaran pertolongan pertama pada sesi materi kelas jauh sebelum pendakian ini. Yang kutahu semua beban ini telah lenyap ditandu 3 orang berambut gondrong dan bertangan kekar. Dan satu hal yang kutekadkan dalam perjalanan terakhir itu adalah: aku kapok naik gunung lagi.
******
Jogjakarta, September 2003

Friday, January 02, 2004

What are You Looking in Creating Weblog of Your Own, Actually? (Part I)

I hope I made the title clear. This question often arises in my mind whenever I see others' weblog, which is usually tell the visitors anything related to the creator(s). The term "related" here doesn't imply "relevant" to visitors (let alone "useful"), since the motivation itself lies somewhere very close to showing his/her own existence on the Net. It is interesting to notice that only an intention to show up on the Net has simply turned out many remarkable outcomes.

First thing noteworthy is web accessibility. Surf the net for weblogs, and you will come up with the results, which have many cools but arrogant layout (i will tell you later what its mean), bodytext with exceptionally small font-size, sort of colors that simply burn your eyes to hell (even if you're not partially color-blind), tons of graphics with which the owner provokes you to click the stop button, and sometimes any stupid warning message asking you (who the hell is he/she anyway?) to download plugins foo or bar. Among other things, those are 3 reasons why most weblogs violates web accessibility principles initiated and promoted by W3C Advanced Accessibility Standard. Most likely, violating the standard means either the weblogs itself were meant to be private so that others may not visit or the maintainer was not aware of others convenience yet its benefit to, say, webpage popularity in their hearts. If your weblog conforms with the first assumption, you should ask yourself why you bother yourself publishing to the public infrastructure something that is of your own interest. The Net has been already far too complicated without your insensitive weblog. If the second suits you, I hope you get the point. If you think I'm not good enough on arguing this matter to you, maybe you need to consult Eric with his HTML Hell Page.

Some people would argue that blogs on the net represent the realm of diversity, with anythings created different from each other as they wish. Yet the standards is just aimed simply to be guidance and doesn't have a

Thursday, January 01, 2004

My New Years Resolution

My 2004 Resolution would be like this:

If I still had a chance to live in this tiny world when the new years comes,

I wish I could have a _good_night_sleep_ starting from that day till the end of my life.

So simple. Coz I need a _good_night_dream_ to bear this complicated life ever since I was born.