The Hunger Games

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It was around 2006 when I watched this Japanese movie titled Battle Royale, the one with all that post-war near apocalyptic world, where the government will be crazy and desperate enough to throw a full game of setting teenager out in secluded island and kill each other until only one remain and declare as winner. Fast forward to the beginning of 2012, with all the commotion about the upcoming movie, The Hunger Games, I force myself to read the novel with a pang of underestimate feeling caused of its similarity to Battle Royale.

Set in the alternate future of what today is North America, is the country of Panem. With its 12 districts that enslaved by the all and mighty Capitol. Each of Panem's districts is said to has specific characteristic that distinct one to another, which is also the characteristic that been assumed by most of the population of the district itself, from the fact that every character's ability  in the books is being defined by which district they comes from. On the other hand, all that districts share the same characteristic : poor, enslaved and dictated by the capitol, and has a life quality that maybe seems similar to what it's been told about the life in North Korea today.

Mission:Impossible - Ghost Protocol

I'm writing again! And it's about a movie my friends, it's been so long since the last time I write about movie. The thing is, I watched Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol yesterday, and WOW... maybe it is the best MI movie ever. Point to point here...

Kesetaraan

Lelap terus, dan kau pun dipuji sebagai bangsa terlembut di dunia.

Darahmu dihisap dan dagingmu dilahap sehingga hanya kulit tersisa.

Siapa pula tak memuji sapi dan kerbau?

Orang dapat menyuruhnya kerja, dan memakan dagingnya.

Tapi kalau mereka tahu hak-haknya, orang pun akan menamakannya pongah, karena tidak mau ditindas.

Bahasamu terpuji halus di seluruh dunia, dan sopan pula.

Sebabnya kau menegur bangsa lain dalam bahasa kromo dan orang lain menegurmu dalam bahasa ngoko.

Kalau kau balikkan, kau pun dianggap kurang ajar.

[Doenia Bergerak - Oemar Said Tjokroaminoto, 1914]

Birdy

Once upon a time, UK is the center of the world's cultural movement. From punk, skinhead, working class music... britpop, doc marten... name it. And then there's a shift, with the help of a bunch of good looking boys that adding the word 'band' as their last name and also some teenage girl with revealing outfit and ability to move as elastic as rubber, American music become the dominant force in the world. But maybe, just maybe, like what The Beatles did in the 60s, and britpop in mid 90s, once again british music will dominate the world.

And the first strike is a group of heavy talented girl with over the top voice, Amy Winehouse and Adele. Those two girl dominate the US chart and also global chart without being half naked or move like agitated snake, they does it with their amazing voice and beautiful live performance. They just great just the way they are. From Amy and Adele, I travel over the web and found other talented british musician like Ellie Goulding, and now Birdy. This girl is only 15, yes, and yet she can play the piano, she can sing and she can write and compose a song, duh! I fall in love with her voice, and her modest composure. Hey, not every teenager has to be like Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez or whoever else. She just amazing in her own way. 

Wonderful Adele

I watched this trailer of Adele's concert in Royal Albert Hall and feel so emotional. Adele is a wonderful singer. I fall in love with her music from the first time I listened to Chasing Pavement in the radio. I scream with joy when she won her first Grammy, and I definitely one of many people who swore that 21 is the best female singer album ever!

She shared the same birthday as my mother in the same year as I am, which make her just 3 days older than me, yet, she has inspired many girls in the world. You know, when I listen to her music, as a girl, I always think... "it is alright to be brokenhearted, it is great to pour your heart out of your sadness, but the most important thing is to get back to your feet and show the world that you are a big girl! Yes, big girl do cry, but we're not crying forever!"

About Money

"It wasn’t that important, because I never did it for the money … I think money is a wonderful thing because it enables you to do things, enables you to invest in ideas that don’t have a short term payback and things like that … But, especially at that point in my life, it was not the most important thing. The most important thing was the company, the people, the products that we were making, what we were going to enable people to do with these products … I didn’t think about it a great deal … I never sold any stock — I really believed the company would do very well over the long term"

[Steve Jobs]

New book to read : In the Plex

New book on my book-to-read-list : In the Plex, How Google Thinks, Works, and Shape our Lives by Steven Levy. This is the second book about Google that I read, after Googled by Ken Auletta. I read Googled last year, and got a brief history and understanding of the internet giant, from the idea and project of two Stanford graduate students, to a realization of multibillion company that become our main source of looking for information. 

In the Plex is said to be written with cooperation of Google exec, with detail under the hood information about the development of Google culture and business. I found that some blogger using this book as trusted reference to understand Google strategy today. I just googled the book and decided to  read it as soon as I finish Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson which is still in progress. It means I push the Heroes of Olympus series, and The Hunger Games series down to the bottom of the list. Well, I have little time for fiction and the moment, which is still makes me feel uneasy for being a little too busy than usual.

The Great Tech War of 2012

I just starting to read the new issue of Fast Company : The Great Tech War of 2012. Who will win the battle for the future of innovation economy? wooohooooooo... it really great to read it. They compare 4 companies with different starting point which has grown ahead of others to be the leader of digital world, Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook. This is quite a thorough article on each company's excellence, competitiveness and value. And a nice reading for all the tech enthusiast out there... I will update my comment when I finish reading it.