Life is simple, but to live it... simply not

Exam results and celebration

2006-11-30T06:11:00.000-08:00

First of all... I Thank God's blessings. Despite of all my worries, I have now officially passed University without ever failing a subject. These are my results for this final semester:

2006	MGF2351	2	INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS	2	6	74	D
2006	MKF3121	3	MARKETING PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION	2	6	61	C
2006	MKF3131	3	STRATEGIC MARKETING	2	6	51	P
2006	MKF3461	3	MARKETING COMMUNICATION	2	6	75	D

This semester is by far the hardest of all my uni life since I have to take 3 third year compulsory strands marketing subjects. Out of all the subjects I take this semester, I fear Strategic Marketing the most. I don't know why during exam time this semester I don't feel as much pressure as the few last semester... maybe because I know deep within me that it was going to be my last ever exams that I have to face. I was definitely struggling to focus on my studies and on the exam day itself, I really didn't manage to finish Strategic Marketing exam and it really bothers me. Now as you can see... I barely passed it with a mark of 51.

On wednesday quite a lot of people gathered at my place to celebrate our results as we planned. I cooked some food and while making them Harianto's suddenly screamed out "The grades are available, I've got mine already via SMS and I PASSED IT ALL!". Some people that have turned up at my place suddenly went quite and starting to take turns to check their results on my computer. Andrew (bokis) was actually praying hard before he managed to mustered the courage to open his results first and suddenly he yelled "PASSED ALL!". Second was Vivi and she also passed all of them, followed by me. As I opened my results, A feeling that can not be described by words builds up inside of me. It was a bitter sweet feeling if I try to describe it since I knew that it was the end of my Uni-life and it was a whole new adventure for me to go through. Kevin then opened his results with a stunning 3 HDs. The last and actually the most sorrowful was Robin as he failed Strategic Marketing as he expected. There is no chance for him to apply for NP either since his grade was too low. After that my home was full of all of my friends that started to come and gathered up in my place one by one to a total of about 14 people. Johan was missing because he said he was sick and he also failed a subject but it is possible for him to apply for NP. My place suddenly became so full of life, filled with laughter, joy and a little bit of sadness.

It was a celebration for our success and it was definitely a memorable day of warm friendship and to recindle the old memories of our lives in University. It was a joyus occation but also a sad thought came across my mind. We all have to go our separate ways, to different countries and different lives. That bond of being in the same boat that created our friendship have disappeared. We are no longer students in Caulfield Monash University living in Melbourne and it was time to decide our futures. The night ended but we had plans to celebrate more with having yum cha in the morning.

Today on thursday we went to Dragon Boat Palace and for those who don't know, it offers all you can eat yum cha on every weekdays. Most of the people from the night before came and this time we had to eat on separate tables since there were too many of us there. However even though we didn't get to talk much, I'm sure we were enjoying ourselves. It was then we realise that Robin have to leave for Indo tomorrow and it will be the last time for him to see some of the people there. We then went back to my place and play some poker. Then at night we planned to celebrate Indra's birthday a little bit early by throwing him into the pool. However the plan actually backfired for me and instead I was the one who ended up soaking wet in the pool with full clothes on. Robin and Kevin just pushed me from behind while I was holding Indra who got away just before the push.

I'm having such a great time these past two days... and recentlt I realised that the future won't be as good as now and the days in Uni are indeed the best time of my life.

University was tough but then, Things that were hard to bear are sweet to remember.

Life of an unemployed

2006-11-18T05:47:00.000-08:00

I finished my exams 2 weeks ago, now I'm officially an Unemployed and since then my life is filled with nothing but having fun. The guys were all thinking about stuff to do for these holidays anywhere from having dinner together, clubbing, to staying over at my place and other ridiculous stuffs. I am having fun now but sometimes I really feel that I should do things that are constructive and even try to start building my career. For these last 2 weeks we as friends have grown really close and somehow I can't shake the feeling that it will be the last time we will have fun like this, since most of these guys will go back for good to indo or go to China to study language.

For the last few days I've been having friends either staying over or just playing around at my place until late. The biggest reason was... POKER. I thought all of them how to play poker and bought this professional looking chip-set. Since then my friends just simply got hooked by it and my place was turned into a pigsty in virtually a day ^_^ with all the people coming in. But it's not a big deal since it was really fun having people to come over, something that I couldn't do just 2 months ago.

This wednesday we went to a restaurant called Old Kingdom. We've been planning to have dinner here since before exams and the funny thing is, Chris (kuda) who suggested to eat here already went back to Indo for holidays. The specialty that everyone must try in this restaurant is its Peking Duck. I just have to admit this is the best duck I ever had in Melbourne and the other guys agreed. We HAVE to book the ducks first before coming to the restaurant and there is no way we can order extra on the spot. The duck was prepared for us in 3 ways, first the owner slices the duck right in front of us and gives us a slice each to make ourselves a peking duck and Yum... it was purely delicious. When the owner threw a slice of duck to Johan's plate, Johan was pissed and we all can see it from his face ^_^.

He said "that is no way to treat a customer you know, what if that duck hits me?".

After that first serve we all got worried that 3 ducks wasn't enough for 8 of us since we liked it so much, but it was alright everybody was happy enough with the portion. The second dish was duck stir fried with beanshoots. Those beanshoots disappeared quite quickly XD and I was surprised to see Makjang (chris) to eat vegetables so eagerly when he never even wants to eat any vegetables before. The final dish was duck soup, Andre and Harianto said they were not full yet. After this dish was finished we were all full and FAT with duck in our stomachs. Everybody starts to talk about random stuff from bacteria to Osama bin laden (WTF?). Anyway all of us agreed that we have to go to this restaurant again after we get our results. Then on impulse I just said that "ooh too bad Johan will not be joining us then" XD

Right afterwards we went clubbing to this event called "Flaunt". This is the first time ever Johan ever go clubbing in Melbourne, Hooray for Johan!!! Since me and Andre was driving so we decided that we won't be drinking. However things just starting to go bad since it was sooo boring when we got there and the only thing to do was drink. Somehow I controlled myself to stop drinking and had no more than 2 shots. On the other hand, Andre had 6 or 7 SHOTS!!!, got drunk and starting to act really stupidly XD while Nic on the other hand starting to flirt with this korean chick named "G", we know her from Caulfield and she works at Kim chi restaurant. Anyway Andre really decided that he's too drunk to drive so he went home at 3 driven by his girlfriend's friend and left his car in Docklands. Now comes the mystery and only some of us know this mystery and I can't tell it to just anyone XD

On Thursday morning we were all feeling tired like hell after last night clubbing. Moreover we didn't have enough sleep plus Andre needs to pick up his car. What I did after is kinda blurry cause we were all damn tired.

Anyway after spending a day of doing nothing at my place, we had a barbeque with Vivi and Luki on Friday to celebrate their b'lated birthdays. It was an awfully fun barbeque at Albert Park. It was especially fun when we decided to play this stupid save the hostage game at a kid's playground with wooden castle. Strangely it attracts everyone to play the game and it was just fun to see people catching people or saving them. I couldn't help but think that we sort of acting like we went back to our kindergarden times when we play those hide and seek or tag games ^_^

Anyway lots of things are happening in this holiday and I'm sure a lot of memorable things is soon to come. I hope I can remember all of them, cause just now I can't even remember what we did on Thursday since I've been having too much fun.

Last day of uni

2006-10-19T08:53:00.001-07:00

Today is my last and final day as a University student since I don't have any more classes to attend. Like most people say, you do tend to get mixed emotions about your graduation. It felt like I'm still this same person, a University student and I thought I will be forever since the only thing that you can really feel about is now, the present time. You do look into the past and your memory of that time is getting blurry everytime you try to remember as time passes and trying to look into the future is just impossible and imagining it, is just too scary sometimes. So what you can actually feel is just what IS happening now... no matter how scary or happy now is. Just today my monitor broke down and I thought it was my computer that broke down. I couldn't help but feel that it is going to be a bad day especially when its the last day of uni. However I could say that today is a pleasant day where I can actually enjoy myself. The marketing people had a nice barbeque at Caulfield lawn today and it is to celebrate the end of our semester. I made a video of the event and I hope I can edit it and make it into a nice memorial video.

The mixed emotions I felt is really just unbearable. You just can tell how fast time is moving by going through events like graduations and nothing beats it. The fact that I'm graduating shows that I won't have the luxury of living under my parents anymore even though I never really felt that luxury. At the same time it also signify how my life is going to change dramatically from now on since most of us have been going to school since we were 5 or 6 years old and suddenly... we just suddenly stop doing what we've been doing for the past 14-15 years. I won't be studying, go to Uni, go out with friends, and even behave a little childish at times anymore. Most of all I'm scared that I will lose the friendship that I have along these years built by our common experiences for having to go to school or uni. An example is my friend from high school Fasco is coming to Melbourne today and to be honest, I do feel that we are not as close as we used to be. There are sayings about "No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship" but in truth if we don't have anymore similarities that built our friendship and we don't spend time or meet our friends, distance grows betweens us.

The other emotions that I feel and what I have been telling everyone of how we should look at the positive side of graduating, that little feeling of relieve. The relieve from doing things like assignments and stressful studies for exams. But if I think about it... going through those rough times are the things that actually made my life meaningful and like a wise saying said:

"Things that were hard to bear are sweet to remember." ~Seneca

Another reason to be happy is how from now on I am no longer a person who have to depend on others. And for some reason I always have this thought in my mind, "Why do people depend on each other? We were born into this world alone and we will surely leave this world alone. In the end you're on your own." Especially depending on parents, it really takes away your freedom and sometimes I feel and know for fact that my parents are actually a burden that prevents me from growing into an independent person.

Like my title... going through life is just not simple. At times I could think that time just stood still, things won't ever change and everything just stay as they are forever. But that is what all of us have to live through: CHANGE and to be honest it scares me at times like this. Change is inevitable and the passing of time equals change...
Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are. ~Bertold Brecht

We just have to make sure that things change for the better. I do have doubts in my mind that I will be able to make it so because sometimes things are just beyond our control. I feel awkward putting in all of these wise saying but they do represent the feeling that I'm going through now. Sigh... I really do hope from this moment on I can change and grow into a better person from what I am now and the friendship I have will remain unchanged despite reality that separates us.

Home alone

2006-10-17T03:52:00.000-07:00

It's been 5 days now since my mom went back to Indonesia, and she will stay there for at least two months. Saying that it means that I'm living on my own now since my sister is living at her friend's place. This is the first time I was left home alone for more than 4 days and I really enjoy the freedom even though it feels a bit lonely at times. However it is not as lonely as I thought it would be since Robin and Johan each take turn to spend the night at my place on the first couple of night ^_^

Just yesterday I had to do a presentation on one of my subject, Marketing planning and implementation. The ridiculous thing is... we have to dress formally to do the presentation since a general manager of the company is coming to see our presentation. Have to admit, our presentation went quite well considering that we only prepared it the day before. Most credit goes to Josh, my groupmate a canadian born aussie with great presentation skill. He could talk for hours if he had to and it is very clear that language plays an important role in our everyday lives. Our presentation I can say was the funniest and most entertaining since we actually made a very big argument with our tutor and Josh just too good at arguing, especially on our idea where we proposed to change their company website. The representative to the company that came that day even joked about being insulted by our proposition and said that he was the one who designed the website. However he later admits that he didn't designed it and even supported that they will redesign the website later on.

The freakiest thing happened the night before that presentation day. At around 1.30 "AM" I found a piece of clothing lying on my balcony. So I went out and check to see it and finds it to be a jumper for men. To my surpise when I picked it up, it has some "Blood stain" on it. I hurry in and turn on the light to confirm that it is blood. After I confirmed that it is blood, I told everyone in my chatroom what I found. I remembered some guy saying "omg... there is a murder in your apartment" and "better call the police". So I did call the police and report what I found while saying "I'm not sure whether this is an emergency or not but I'm not sure what to do". The officer on the other end told me that I can either wait and they will send two police officers to come to my apartment and check it out or I can drop it off at the nearest police station. So I chose to do the later and dropped it off in the police station. When I came the police just looked confused and didn't even want to touch the jumper and made me wait for about 10 minutes. He finally came out, took my details, and said that he will keep it and made a lame joke asking me whether I want to keep the jumper or not. So I thought I did the right thing and that it all ends there...

At about 2 am something I got a phone call from the police and he said that two police officer will come to my place to try and find out where the jumper came from. I was thinking "is he serious? How the hell is he going to find out?" I live at a 3rd floor apartment with the biggest balcony and there are at least 17 stories above me. He said that they will be coming in around 10 minutes and I waited until almost 3 I decided they won't be coming and went to sleep. Suddenly the bell rang and I woke up to see the time is... F*****g 4 in the morning. So I opened up the door for a female and a male police officer. They went straight to the balcony and looked around the place and the female officer asked me a coule of questions about where I found the jumper and how did I found it. The most ridiculous thing is, I get the impression that she suspects someone jumped off their balcony to commit suicide or something and his clothes went flying and thought how dumb is that assumption? I really can't think much since I was sleepy so I asked whether it is human blood on the jumper and she replied "yes, but since we didn't get any complain from anyone so we don't know anything at the moment". She finally decided to leave after getting my date of birth.

I'm still getting a deep surreal feeling about the whole thing. It felt like I was living one of those CSI TV drama as a witness or something. Anyway I still feel something wrong happened and I'm feeling a bit worried if there was really a murder. We do live in a world where psychotic people exists and kill for no reason. Anyway just be careful if you ever come across something like this and be sure that you lock up the doors.

Boo!! ^o^

3 Assignments on one day

2006-10-02T08:19:00.000-07:00

OKAY! even this is a new record for me... To submit 3 assignments on a single day. I knew that these assignments are a pain in the ass and two of them are group assignments, but I've always known that I'll be having a very late night just before Monday but didn't expect to not get a good night sleep at all.

I'm so tired now... spent the past 3 days non-stop in front of a computer screen, be it a laptop, a desktop at home, or a desktop at library or even computer labs. I can feel my bad eye sight is deteriorating even further just from the effects of using too much computers. Last night I only had 4 hours sleep max and somehow it was a good sleep, maybe I was just too tired.

Anyway one more thing that bothers me is my fitness... I haven't been going to the gym lately and I haven't been going to soccer trainings with Gaucho. Man I feel lousy and getting a lot fatter even though the scale says that I've only gained 1 extra kilo.

Sigh... uni life is certainly taking its toll on my body. I just kept on encouraging myself remembering that its only 4 weeks left to go till I don't need to do any of these shits any longer. All the late nights doing assignment and studying for exams. The worst thing is, I still have another 2,500 words assignment due this thursday, a viva voce test, and a presentation of our assignment to corporates and finally EXAMS! I wish this all ends really soon but still some fears lingers in my mind on what I will be doing after uni.

Find a good job and work, stay regardless of not getting any job, or back for good to Indo?

Its a really big question and really urgent. Another option might be to take a masters degree, but f*** that... I've had enough of uni... its already time for me to get paid to do all of these work!

Tulip farm and Barbeque

2006-09-25T07:55:00.000-07:00

After so many hard days we have gone through in university, we finally get a chance for a break to go and have a holiday. This time... I arranged a barbeque outing to Mount Dandenong tourist road about 60-70 Kms away from the city. I have been dreaming about this day for 2-3 weeks now and it finally came through ^_^. After telling Chris and Harry about my plan, Chris told me that we could visit Tulip festival farm along the way. And I thought if it is close, why not? I've never been there before either and after seeing some pictures it looks interesting. So the plan is set for our one day trip to tulip farm and Mount dandenong.

The preparation started yesterday when me, Chris, Hanna, Harry, and JoHaN! went to Queen Vic market to buy foods. We actually got there around 3 but a lot of the shops were already closed! I panicked a bit since that could be the end of our barbeque trip. Luckily some shops were opened and we spent about $90 for the foods. After that we carry on to safeway to get some sauces and other stuffs. The funniest thing is we actually got away getting a free 30 cans pack of coke worth $20 because the cashier forgot that she haven't scanned it.

After shopping we went to Chris' place to prepare the food and marinate them all to be ready for the barbeque. In the middle of the preparations a lot of shit talks were going on and it was really funny. The most useless people there was Robin and Johan, yes you two! hehe... just kidding, actually those two provided us with some entertainment. At the end of the day me, Robin and Johan decided to sleep over at Harry's since it was closer to go from there. So as expected, I couldn't sleep very well since I'm sleeping with those two in the same room...

So the people that was confirmed and coming are: Me, Harry, Robin, Johan, Chris, Hanna, Mike, Kevin, Will, Hans, Andre, Haryanto, Angela, Nich, and not coming with us to tulip farm are: Andrew, Vivi, Alvin, another Chris, and Indra. But Indra canceled at the last moment.

Anyway morning comes and we were all geting ready to depart but some people were late and we had to change our plan from meeting at Caulfield to meeting at Clayton, That actually cost us 1 hour delay, just as all Indo would say: "namanya juga Indo.." So we end up leaving from Clayton at 11 with me leading the way.

Along the way I knew that Andre must be really eager! to be driving fast and I can just tell from the mountain road that we were driving on. Anyway we've arrived at the tulips around 12 and I really liked the colorful atmosphere. I didn't like tulips very much but it was quite a beautiful sight to see and was quite worth the trip. My biggest regret was my damn digicam's battery ran out! I could have made a very good video of us playing around the field and capture the beautiful scenery.

After that everybody was hungry so we rushed to go to Mt. Dandenong's observatory to have our barbeque. Just our luck though, they actually said that the barbequers were broken and we can't use them. I was really depressed and felt that it could never get any worse than this. Luckily though we found a different place to do a barbeque just near the observatory. The place was kalomora park and it was quite nice but we didn't mind at all since we were all starving and needed a barbeque pit straight away.

We had a lot of laughs and eat a lot of meat today and it was really fun. We all had jokes and the biggest one was actually that our barbeque was treated by Johan and we sang him a happy birthday song which we were actually 3 months late! After we finished barbequing, don't know why but we decided to play dodge ball... corny at the beginning but it turns out to be really fun and everybody was actually playing the game. It made me forget about the disappointments of not being able to stick with a plan and it actually turns out fine. Still if only I had my digicam I could have shared this moment with all of you and capture the memory of this day.

At the end of the day while driving back home, I couldn't help feeling that this may be the last time I could have fun with my friends as a student... Since after that it is back to studying, passing exams, graduating, and then get a job and start to live in the real world. Thinking about that really makes me feel uneasy and it actually scared me to think about how fast time was moving. But if time doesn't move this fast, I will have to stay in my current depressing world for too long. Nevertheless this brief moment of happiness, joy and fun; I will always cherish it and remember it always.

I'm BACK

2006-09-11T01:17:00.000-07:00

Man... so many assignment these past few weeks and not to mention those stupid 10-15 pages case study from strategic marketing that we have to do every week. After so long absent from blogging I really should recap on the things I've done for this past month... But really I forgot everything that happened. It's a shame that human have such a short term memory and we can't keep everything that we want to remember in our mind.

Anyway... I have to write something about my Mt. Buller trip last month with Harry, Robin, Chris and the others. remind me to post the picture later on :p

It was a very tiring day but nevertheless fun and exciting. I'm kinda embarrased by the fact that it was my first time ever to go to a ski resort, not to mention the first time ever to be around so much snow before. All I can remember from it now is this blurry white mountain and the pain I felt the day after. The day after that I still had to finish up my damn case study too and my body was truly tired since I went up and down the slope around 4 times that day.

Anyway holiday is over, recently I was interviewed for a graduation job with bloomberg. I didn't think that it went very well or it could have been better but somehow I was really surprised to hear that I went through to the second round interview. To my surprise that second round interview was actually a telephone interview directly from Singapore where I would probably be placed if I get the job. That telephone interview was really nerve-wrecking and worst of all, I was called when I was at campus playing table tennis (strange sport of choice).

Bloomberg is a finance company and the job that I'm applying for is financial sales. The hardest question she asked me was "How will you cope in bloomberg with the fact that you're a marketing student working in a finance company?". Nothing could prepare me for such a question and I know any answer will not secure me the job. And as I feared, the next day I received the bad news that I was rejected. Sigh... I really hoped that this could really be my starting point in my career but I guess its back to job hunting again. Just wishing that I'm lucky enough for my next job interview.

Robin's B'day 4th august

2006-08-05T04:14:00.000-07:00

Hehe... my plan didn't actually went that well that day but nevertheless, mission accomplished. Robin's face was covered by cheap cakes and that is the most important thing (^_^). I was actually busy on that day since I've got a group meeting but there will always be time for a birthday bash. Johan and I went to city and trying to force Robin to come out of his apartment.

I planned to meet him and then pretend to go home while Johan stayed over that night and opened the door for us later at night. However I couldn't go home to buy a cheap cake since it was already too late at night and I thought the shops was already closed. But the one most crucial element was... a cheap $5 cake to bash Robin's face with was available from safeway, YEA!!!

So change of plan I pretended to forget his birthday and pretended to be nice and bought him a cheap cake to celebrate at his place. But... another change of plan happened when I spotted Harry's car parked outside of Robin's apartment. I thought "oh crap... the surprise is over". Lol and Robin did spot his car so Harry didn't have a choice but to cancel the whole thing.

One good thing though... He haven't realised what the cheap cake I bought for him was for. So here is how things turned out... a success!!! Anyway happy 20th b'day Robin.

Paint ball war - part 2

2006-08-05T03:21:00.000-07:00

Ok... after a long break I'm finishing the story... So there we are, getting ready to play paint balls. The first irritating thing was this wet and smelly mask they make us wear. Those masks are irritating and its steamy all the time from the inside, so bad that it covers my whole view. But oh well.. it was really fun and I could say its almost worth the time spent on driving... almost though.

The game was quite tough and the bullets... oh my god... it stings!!! It was true that after playing that game you will get bruises and those damn bullets will hit you at the most unexpected place and the most annoying place to get hit were fingers. But I'm quite happy that it didn't hit me at any vital spots... not that spot you might be thinking about. The worst place to get shot was actually around back of the head or even the forehead.

The worst places that I got hit was at the back of my knee and my left ribs. Those places left a mark now and it was red and it turned bluish black now. Man I was quite lucky not to get hit on really bad places. Rianto got it quite bad when he got hit around 4 times at the back of his head by friendly fire. I was actually laughing at him until I realised he was seriously in pain.

The thing about that game was actually the experience itself... I realised how hard it must be to actually survive a battle if it was real. Soldiers have to fight for days even weeks straight without any rest. No wonder some countries enforces those military training obligations on their citizens. I was really tired and my body was aching after the games.

On the way back home time was really going fast and I really wanted to sleep badly. This is the bad thing for being the driver for 3 damn hours. I had to keep driving while the others are sleeping like babies :p

Oh well it was a great experience and I will remember it for a long time and who knows we might go there again someday.

Paint ball war - part 1

2006-08-01T02:35:00.000-07:00

wow... I haven't updated my blog for a long time. Well I've been busy with lots of stuff in the beginning of this new semester. I'm really screwed this semester with 3 marketing strand subjects and all of them requires a lot of attention. For the other one? I still haven't decided yet and its already week 3 for god sake.

Anyway my whole body is aching since my paint ball adventure on sunday. Woo... it was a really fun day but nevertheless a lot of funny moments happened on that day. Some very funny and some are not so funny. Ok I'll start with the story...

Firstly in the morning I picked up Johan and Robin at Robin's and go to McD in south melbourne where we agreed to meet up at 6.30 am. I know how Indonesian kids are like... and Ngaret is expected. So we got there at 7 but surprisingly we were the first ones there! So everybody gathered at 8 and 24 people turns out with 6 cars, so we start the journey.

So riding in my car are Robin, Johan and Harianto. No girls!!! but still very fun. The first funny thing happened was we got lost... after driving for 30 mins I realised that we took the wrong turn and had to go back all the way to the highway in melbourne.

After we got on to the right way we got in to Hume highway. Along the stretch in Hume highway Johan suddenly got a sudden urge to pee and he really want to badly and start saying all these funny shit about his penis going to explode ^o^. Everybody is just laughing so hard and I kept promising him that we'll stop at the next stop station. However maybe its Johan's bad luck there wasn't any of them for 15 minutes of drive and he starts to beg me to stop at the roadside. At one time he actually point a spot under a bridge and said "ey stop the car there. Thats a nice spot to pee got shade there". And we burst out laughing again then we finally stopped at the side of the road. Johan then rushed out peeing for almost 2 minutes!!! lol

Then we continued and only after 3 minutes of drive... there it is... A Shell petrol station. Robin, Harianto, and me started laughing so hard at Johan.

So we go on and really... the drive was very far and it took more than 3 hours to get there. Along the way some people started speeding and the worst was Rianto's BMW reached 200 kms per hour. I was just quietly following them but never exceeded 130 km/hr so I got left behind with Harry right in front of me. Until we were left quite far behind Harry started speeding too. Well I the second moment of the day happened... Harry got pulled over by a police car speeding for 120km/hr at a 100km/hr zone. He got fined $215 for it and I thought to myself... it could have been me when I was trying to catch up to them. The funny thing is... those who really was speeding badly like Rianto was lucky enough not to get caught. At the same time, Chris hit Oto's car from behind when they were stopping waiting for us to catch up.

So we continued on for I don't know how long it felt like a whole day already... but then we stop again for a toilet break at 'ecucha' and then left to the paintball place. Now we have to go into a road that is not shown in my satelite navigation and its a sandy turf road. This is where things start to get ugly for me...

The road is very slippery and suddenly my windscreen was blocked by dirty water. It turns out to be Rianto's wiper and it splashes to my windscreen. Feeling annoyed I overtaken him at quite a high speed around 90 + Ks and when I hit the break to slow down... I start to feel my steering to shift a bit and thats when I realised that my car went out of control. Instinctively I started to counter-steer and I knew that I had to drift the car to slow it down. In such a time I start to feel that time slows down and I felt an adrenaline rush and scared at the same time because I know a Jaguar is not supposed to drift at all... so when the car started drifting I knew that it was going at too much of a high speed so the car could turn and I had to counter steer 4 to 5 times to get it stable. When it was over I breath a sigh of relief and thank god nothing serious happened.

The people in my car was really scared... and after we got to the place people went out of the car and started to say how crazy I was to pull a stunt like that. Then I told them "What the F*** man.. It was an accident and I didn't do it on purpose!". Well I'm glad nothing happened.

to be continued...

Exam results

2006-07-12T22:31:00.000-07:00

Just remembered this night 12th of July was the day exams results are posted. I got a call from makjang and he reminded me that results were out. I was at Robin's place then after buying a present for my sis... Suddenly i felt intense like something bad is going to happen. I even dropped the mouse once before going in to the website and even went blank and forgot my own password for a while.

The very first thing I said out loud after seeing my results was... "THANK YOU GOD!!!" Truly he was kind to me... Anyway these are my results:

Business Data Modelling : P 50
Strategic Management : D 73
Marketing Decision Analysis : P 55
Logistics : C 67

Ok.. so I know these are shit grades but I really don't care much about it now since I know if I fail any of the at all I will have to add another semester doing only 1 subject. For now that is the only priority in my life... finishing my study as quick as possible.

Now that the results are out... I can finally chuck out all of these rubbish lecture notes into hell!!! hehe... anyway I hope all of you out there share the same happiness as mine as I know most of my friends didn't fail any subject. GBU ALL

Italy holder of the 2006 world cup...

2006-07-10T05:19:00.000-07:00

Argghh.... first of all since Italy knocked out the Czech republic I've never supported them anymore. Seriously... they were just a lame team to watch... just look at the Italy vs Czech game... Italy had a 1 man advantage but still the Czech were attacking and pressuring their defences. Personally they are just not the team that deserves to win the world cup.

After working my ass off these past 5 days i counted my earnings from those horrific working hours I've got. 1st day 13 hours, 2nd day 14 hours, 3rd day 12 hours, and finally today 7 hours. hmm... If I thought about it... I can be proud of myself for going through these hours... so a total of 46 hours * $15 = $690. WOW... didn't expect to get that much out of my suffering... well just like one of the manager there said... "Think of the money..." Now that I thought about it... I really don't know what to spend it on.

A PSP sounds tempting... But somehow I don't feel like that its really worthed to get just 1 thing out of that many hours of hard work. My feet is very soar now for standing 39 hours out of 72 hours or the first 3 days. Sigh... I'm just glad that its over and I won't be taking anymore jobs after today for a while. Guys got any idea on what to spend my money on? and oh shit... just remembered my sister's birthday is soon ( -_-')

Physio

2006-06-27T01:51:00.000-07:00

Finally... I went to see the physio today for this ankle that's been giving me trouble for the past 3 or 4 weeks. After wasting my time yesterday for being booked to see a general practitioner instead of a physio I finally get to be treated. As I expected its not easy to tell what's wrong with my ankle because its strange really... I felt pain in both the muscle and the bone.

Anyway it was my first time to see a physio and I must say I was nervous. First she ask me all these questions about the pain and how I've got it. Not long after she starts to massage my ankle and it was pretty painful. She starts telling me all these medical jargons that I don't understand and suddenly said something about charging electricity to my foot...

In my mind I was like... WAT THE F***??? I'm in pain and you want to electrocute my foot???

But then she tells me that this sort of method is normal and it should help muscle regeneration. Afterwards she went out to get this machine that looks sort of like an electrocuter that you see in medical films that can help bring dead people back to life. I kept telling to myself its Okay... it won't hurt... then she pulls out the plungers and sticks them to my ankle. What next???

AARRgghhh...... (2 seconds)

IT'S... GOOD!!!

Don't know why but it sort of relaxes my muscles and it felt quite good. She said that this will stay on for 10 minutes and I thought hmm.. I could take 1/2 an hour if I can (^_^). Anyway afterwards she tells me that my ankle needs to be bandaged for support for 3 days. Oh well... its damn annoying to have a bandage on your body and especially when it itches... that is the worst temptation in the world.

Sigh.. so overall I will be limping for the next 3 days because of the bandage. I'll have to see her again on thursday and it scares me how she said that I should check with my insurance whether I'm covered for X-ray and MRI scans or not. Now those words really hangs on my mind... because my injury could be worse than expected. Please God I hope it won't come to that... Wish me luck guys... hopefully I don't have to get some sort of operation later.

Czech republic out of world cup

2006-06-22T09:33:00.000-07:00

Sigh.. first of all, I am a big fan of the Czech since I started to watch football and I want to see to win the world cup. So damn sad to see my favourite player Pavel Nedved to go out of the world cup like this...

From the start the Czech have shown great risilience in their play and shown great fighting spirit. Despite not having any fit strikers the Czech still attacks with Nedved leading and finishing those attacks. It was great to see my hero fighting and throwing everything he had into this game. He was especially great when he shot the ball countless time to the goal from outside the penalty box but sadly Buffon was equal to the task. I knew of course Buffon was good enough to block his shots since they train together in Juve... never the less it was a great game for the Czech even though they were playing with 10 men it almost felt like they didn't lost anybody at all because the Italians were constantly pushed to defend most of the time. That is what I like the most about the czech... their spirit and they never give up hope even though luck is not on their side but they keep fighting like there is no tomorrow.

It is truly a shame to lost 2-0 to Italy and out of the World cup at this stage of the game and Nedved will retire from international football after this but truly... they will forever be champions in my mind for their spirit and perseverence. As I see Nedved finished the game with a prayer to god... I wish them all the best for the future and who knows... Nedved might be considered to play in the European cup in 2008.

MDA exam

2006-06-13T04:44:00.000-07:00

My god... this exam is seriously by far the worst exam I ever had. Now I'm in the middle of a deep frustration because of it. I left blank 2 questions worth about 30 marks and another question worth 10 marks I know for sure was wrong. I start to regret all those times I had these past few days to study... I wasted too much time not concentrating on what I have to do, which is study this damn subject. 3 days before I could have studied till late but decided to go have dinner at a korean bbq place... wasted time and money ( -_-')

2 days ago on sunday I was planning to study seriously but somehow got distracted so badly... About an hour after arriving to library Harry came along and we chat for about half an hour. Not long after Robin comes and again we chat for about half an hour until our conversation got so interesting which leads us to writing all these things down that we want to do in the near future...

A very interesting subject indeed and not long after Andre comes to our table and we continued to talk and talk... OMG without realising it I have spent 3 to 4 HOURS talking!!! I realised this when they start playing this damn announcement...

"Attention the library will be closing in... 40 minutes..."

I thought Dammit... I haven't even got 1 sample exam done (>_<) sigh.. no choice but to go out of the library but somehow Harry tempted Robin and I to play warcraft in building K. So I thought better than being depressed, just play laa... We played a game but we lost and got so caught on by the game until we look at the time... Holy shit... its 9 o'clock!!! Ok.. time to get out of here and go study at home. Sigh... I don't know why but temptation just keep coming cause just exactly after I got home and got changed The damn WORLD CUP is ON!!!

So overall, it all hits me just today after my exam. Man... if only... I didn't waste all that time to play around I would have been at least sure of passing this subject. Now I really feel like I'm going to fail and starting to imagine if I really have to do this subject all over again next semester and not to mention adding another semester...

All I can do now is pray to god and ask for his help... If you guys read this blog, make this a reminder not to waste these precious study time and learn from my mistake. What am I saying? I'm wasting time right now writing this damn blog! ( -_-')

World cup

2006-06-10T09:15:00.000-07:00

Wow... the world cup is finally here. Yesterday 9/6/2006 the world cup in Germany have officialy started and I watched the opening ceremony with great anticipation. The opening ceremony though disappoints me a bit since it did not have any particularly interesting show. Oh well.. the main point is great football for a month!!!

Too bad that I still have 3 exams to go and MDA is really getting on my nerves... I can't complain too much since I have the best exam schedule I ever had... I've got plenty of time to study but somehow this semester it feels like I haven't study enough all the time and it worries me a little.

Lately I also felt that while I and my friends are studying for exams we grew closer just by sitting on the table and study together. Today my friend is having one of his "bad relationship" day and I can see how bad his mood is even though I wasn't close to him before. Harry and I tried to give him some advices and convince him that to build a good relationship he needs a lot of patience. Harry quoted some very good words and I really feel that he is a lot more mature than the rest of us :p maybe age difference does affect.

Anyway the today went by quite quick I've finally bought this new set of wireless keyboard and mouse which is a lot better compared to the first one I bought. Its almost like comparing gold with shit XD and the price is also better too. Today I also went to dinner with Harry, Acek, and Andre at this korean bbq place in Boxhill. I was suprised to meet Aileen and her friends there and it just goes to show how small Melbourne is. It was pretty expensive having dinner there since we have to pay $30 each ( -_-') but overall I could say its money well spent after a day of study and having a great dining experience with friends.

1st exam

2006-06-05T21:04:00.000-07:00

brrr... yesterday was very cold... and worse it was exam day. I wore the wrong costume to campus yesterday and I was pretty much freezing my ass off. I wore a thin layered jacket because when I went out of the building it was nice and sunny just like the day before. Who would have thought after I got on to the train suddenly fogs come and covered the whole city? I actually like foggy day because it reminds me of when I went to London and it was very foggy at that time. Too bad I didn't have a camera with me or I would have taken that really nice fog covered city view.

1 exam down but 3 more to go... yesterday was really sad cos I felt that I have studied enough to at least get a credit average for the subject, but as always it wasn't quite enough. I didn't anticipate that I was going to get a lot of theory quetions and that was my downfall. Business Data Modelling... why the hell did I take this subject??? If I fail this subject I will be really pissed off because I've seriouosly thought about dropping this subject at the beggining of the semester.

Oh well.. now all I can do is leave it up to God's decisions and accept it. To everyone else, I hope you guys are having a better exam than me. All the best to you all and GBU.

Today...

2006-06-02T06:06:00.001-07:00

Hmm.. today was a normal day I thought until the afternoon... This afternoon again I mistaken a stranger to someone I know and this is the 3rd time dammit. Anyway here's the story... When me, Harry, and Johan were going to get something to eat, Harry and I saw an empty parking spot for 4 hours which is veryyy hard to get if you go to caulfield. Then after we passed the parking spot we saw a car driving through and I immidiately thought that the person driving was Sumi's sister because she looks alot like her... Somehow she missed the empty spot and turned around, Harry who also mistaken her to Sumi's sister told me to let her know about the parking spot. And so I did... I put out my hand and told her to stop, not until she opened her car window that I realised that... SHE'S NOT SUMI'S SISTER (OMG)!!! I was stunned and for a moment I almost thought about running away and act dumb. But somehow I decided to just let her know about the spot... I mumbled the words: "err there is a parking spot.. back there.." she couldn't even hear me talking the first time and I had to repeat myself >_< omg. It was so embarrasing and Johan was acting like a jerk laughing his ass off saying "oooh Max ur such a gentleman"

After that things went back to normal.. I studied data modelling but I couldn't concentrate very well today.. something hangs in my mind and it really bothers me alot... (Harry knows this) Right now I really need to just forget everything and get over it because this is my future at stake.

Nearing the end of the night me, Harry, Haryanto, and Andre chat a little about investments and business... Somehow I really like this kind of topics and I don't feel that guilty for wasting a bit of my time talking :p

After we finished packing up and about to be ready to go home, the infamous 'Handy' approached me and saying he wants to go home too. I thought it was fine that we walk out of the library together but then he suddenly asked to have dinner together. I was reluctant to have dinner with him since I don't really like the guy and so many people don't like him either for various reasons. Harry oblivious to the fact that he is 'Handy' didn't mind him too much until he introduced himself to Harry... Luckily he didn't act like his usuall crazy self and behaved a bit. I would like to think that he's just a normal guy now and I don't like to discriminate people based on others perspective because I know how it feels...

Well overall today was both very funny and awkward. Too bad Robin wasn't there we could have so much laugh someday if we remember this day together...

small world...

2006-05-29T07:55:00.000-07:00

sigh.. today was so tiring..I think I slept at 5 am last night finishing up my assignments. I hate it when 2 assignments due on the same day. What made it worse was my ankle is still swollen and it really hurts when walking. In the morning went to school and got there around 10 and I've got class at exactly 10 but I have to submit my assignments first. Because I had to walk to places
between the library to print and building S where I had to submit it. Can't believe when it all finished I spent 20 mins on submitting assignments mainly because I was limping. I started to think of how I have taken my feet for granted and how hard life would be if I was really a handicap...

Anyway after school I helped out my old friend Agus and his friend Tony with something called the golden key. I think its an award only given to HD average students or something... The work that was given to us wasn't hard really its only my ankle again giving me problems. Anyway I didn't expect to recognise most of the people there, however I met my old RMIT friends and strangely Kris was there accompanying Rosi to accept an award.

After the event finishes we all decided to go to the after party at hush bar in melbourne central. When I got there I saw my RMIT friends sitting on the table chating with one of the commitee member named Lidya which somehow looked familiar to me. For about 1/2 an hour or so we were talking until Lidya mentioned something about indonesian events and thats when I start to remember that she was in this IPC show called Pandora's box. Straight after that I asked her whether she goes to IPC or not. To my surprise she was actually Aileen's friend and somehow she knew me only by name... After that I feel a bit awkward and strangely just before that the topic of our conversation was about how the world is small...

Talk about coincidence this is a pretty big one... or its just to show how small Melbourne really is? This is truly a day filled with a twist of fate...

1st time to get a double injury

2006-05-27T03:45:00.000-07:00

Damn.. this injury just can't come at a worse time... I still have to do assignments and exams are coming dammit.. While playing today I felt alright and no prolems seems to be coming at all. But it is just true that we the gauchos have defensive and goal-scoring problem as Harry mentioned (sorry for stealing your favourite quote har ^_^). We are easily pressured and when we were, all the passes are just bad... If only I was 10 cm taller I would volunteer straight away to be the central defender.

Anyway after 10 minutes left I made a bad decision to do a sliding tackle which resulted a sprained ankle. Sigh.. to make it even worse... after lying on the floor for a while suddenly a shooting pain attacked my right foot. It was a cramp... which I haven't had in quite a while. I have no choice but to be carried out of the field since the pain was too unbearable for me to walk. I have to thank Robin, tetsu, and hutama for carrying me out. I felt so damn angry with my own body for being so weak after running out of breath so many time but yet my motivation still push me to keep running. Not long after i got out of the field we conceive the fourth goal... after a very well played second half.

A good thing today, I have managed to let it go... and walk away. However I couldn't stop thinking about what darwin told me on the way home... That I should get a girlfriend before graduating because I will not be able to have friends after I start working let alone to be introduced to a girl. He also said especially for me because I don't want to be introduced to girls in church. Oh well I just hope that one day I can find that special someone according to god's plans... (again Harry's quote)

Well at least today I get to show that I can actually play football and I can attack as well as defend, however I know that I will have to stay as a substitute for the team for some time... but as I say before life goes on and this pain of injury both on my legs and feelings will pass over time.

life goes on ;)

2006-05-26T07:44:00.000-07:00

Finally watched Da vinci code... yay. It was a good movie and I recommend all of you to watch it if you can. The best point is... "to believe in what you believe is true"

sigh just got too many problems to think about still got assignments hanging over my head and just can't get around it. Another problem is also hanging in my head and this one is particularly disturbing my concentration. I just can't go on like this, I have to realise that I just have to let it go... and hoping too much will only make the pain of disappointment worse. I just have to face the fact that life does not always what u hope it will be and there are some efforts that just go to waste even though there's a part of me that still wants to try.

Well... at least my feeling of uncertainty is gone and tomorrow is a new day and one thing about life that we know... "It goes on". If any of you guys are not feeling well just remember, all wounds will heal with time but don't waste too much of it in the process. Anyway, Wish me luck that I can get a chance to play and play damn well tomorrow. Thats all I want to think for now and let things go on as it should.

And I'd like to see Everyone's never say die attitude to tomorrow even when the odds are against us!

bad day?

2006-05-24T08:47:00.000-07:00

sigh.. there are so many things I have in my mind right now... not all of them I can share here but I feel like my mind needs a break so much from everything. First, I've got 2 assignments due on monday and to make things worse I've got no idea on how to do these 2 assignments. I had to stay at the campus from 11am to 7pm today just so that I can work things out. Well at least I'm starting to know how they are supposed to be done and I wish that I can manage my time well enough to finish both of them.

Secondly, I feel so bad today because I have to complain a lot... which I hate doing the most. I just can't be bothered to do it and I don't want to do it as much as possible. Right now its just doesn't feel good to be part of my football team 'Gaucho' anymore... Should I change to another team or stay? The only thing holding me back now is the feeling of responsibility for inviting some of my friends into the team.

sigh.. I just don't know what to do anymore.. should I just give up football for the time being since exam is coming soon? anyway I could use a good break now.. I wished that I can watch a movie soon with my friends before I have to start exam revisions. so guys if u read this.. Lets go watch DA VINCI CODE please!!!

best joke of the day..

2006-05-22T04:06:00.000-07:00

When i was at Robin's place having dinner and doing assignments today we suddenly talk about this completly stupid unrelated stuff that crack us up so badly I have to write it down.

Robin: Oh u know Agnes Monica played in this Taiwanese drama called something "White House"
Max: Oh yea.. I can't understand why Taiwanese would want to watch her...
Lisye: Unless its in an international setting.
Robin: It's quite international, because the title is "white house"
Max: Well it doesn't mean the white house in Washington US ok...
Robin: hehe.. Imagine the first episode.. the actors were sitting around in the room and the next scene a bomb exploded.. and then the end...
Max: Haha... then the next day the headlines in Indonesian newspaper highlights "Agnes Monica Tewas di white house"
Robin: huahaha...
Max: And then the JI in Indo will all come out to the streets and screams.. "AGNES MONICA IS OUR HEROoo !!!"
Max: She became a hero for bombing the white house where no other JI can do...

then we crack up so badly LOL

Afterwards I don't know why but I just have to write this in my blog.. even tho I thought nobody would find it funny other than us, the people in the room. But there u gooo...

No time to grief a loss...

2006-05-20T19:22:00.000-07:00

Sigh.. another lost for Gaucho this season... Its not that I was confident that we could win against Evo but I thought we could at least pull a draw. We played well but only on the second half after we lost 2-0. There were 5 clear chances for goals and 1 even hit the bar after the ball passed the keeper... After the match all of us felt dissappointed about how we could have won the match if it wasn't for bad luck. What made me feel even worse was that I didn't play at all even when I could have gone in as a substitute and felt helpless to watch my team losing.

After the match I became the fourth official for the next match and on the sidelines I see Kris, Robin, and Arden talking to Lego about the way the game was played. I can understand that they don't like the style Lego plays and lead the team since they are new to the team. However I can start to see the cracks in this team and honestly, I feel dissappointed by our lack of team spirit because of Lego's lack of trust in his teammate.

However I don't have time to keep thinking about soccer. I still have 3 assignments to do in this next 2 weeks and my first exam is on the 5th of June... Nothing else is more important than finishing these ass-s early so I can start revising ASAP. Somehow I remembered my conversation with my high school friend Tommy.

Tommy said: ah don't worry about exams... "we study together, we fail together!" (from bad boys 2 "we ride together, we die together")
Max said: Haha.. So negative man.. why can't u say PASS together?
Tommy said: Because I've been slacking all year with u guys... going to library but talking all the time too.

we all laughed ^o^

This could be my last post for this month and if it is I would like to wish all of u the best for exams and don't be negative like Tommy, we still have 2 weeks!

Finally start a blog ;)

2006-05-18T09:13:00.000-07:00

Phew... finally after putting this away for quite a long time, I finally decided to make a blog. Thanx for the encouragement Harry and Robin.

Hmm.. for my first blog.. maybe just want to write some of today's events. The very first was of course. BARCELONA won the 2006 Champions league!!! I must say that was one of the best match-up in Champions league finals. Too bad Lehman had to get a red card so early or it would have been a very great victory for Arsenal (even tho I don't support them). But as always, in a game there will always be a winner and a loser. However Arsenal lost with style and I really respect them for that.

It was a beautiful afternoon in Melbourne, sigh... if only the weather stay this good all year round. Anyway went for a drive at vicroads 2day and all I can say is that it could have gone better.

Another highlight of the day is going to Melbourne Uni to support Sumi's election. Kinda felt bad tho cos I didn't help her out to get even 1 vote since everyone I know in Mel U have gone home.
Afterwards, me, ailin, and sumi went to Ko Harry's place for komsel. Ko Harry sure have a nice home :)which makes me feel that I miss living in an actual Home instead of an apartment :p Funny that the topic of discussion was Da Vinci Code... I actually liked the book enough to do some research on the net to find "The TrUtthh" ^_^

The funny thing that I haven't had dinner nor lunch and I was starving but had no choice to hold it in. Anyway I'm glad to have a bowl of congee afterwards with ailin or I would have been starving on the journey home.