Value of time

Have you ever calculated the exact value of time?

What is the meaning of '1 second'?

What is stated in international standard? "the duration needed by caesium-133 atom to responds certain times of radiation at certain level of states"? Is it really reflecting the exact value of time??? No, that just a standard to measure time, a model some scientists universally agreed on to simplified the complexity of the universe.

I thought about it for a second and remember my high school physics teacher once said, "time is a metric that doesn't have negative value". Once it's gone, it's gone. He said that to teach us that there's no such thing as 'second chance', you just have once shot of everything. What we call today as 'second chance' is actually different attempt on different point of time, it's a repetition of experience not the event . There's no turning back from what you've done, not even in a milisecond. Even in quantum physics we learn that it's possible to time travel to the future, not to the past. And maybe that is the exact value of time right? Time is the sum of every single unique event that you will never repeat. Something to be thought of, be evaluated, be regretted, to be happy about, but won't be repeated.

Just a thought.

picture taken from here with the help of Google image search.

Macchu Picchu

I found this question : Where would you like to go right now, if you could go anywhere?

My answer would be: Cuzco & Macchu Picchu

The ruins of Macchu Picchu was found at 1917. At 10.500 feet high, it's maybe the highest ancient civilization ever existed. My interest to Peru and particularly Cuzco and Macchu Picchu started back at my 4th grade. I read this comic series published in Bobo magazine, I forget the title, but it's about a kid that has befriended an alien that used to landed in Cuzco. I gained quite a story about Peru and the Maya and started to wonder about Cuzco since then. Cuzco is the second place in my place-to-visit-before-I-die list, just next after Mecca :)

Kembali ke pojok : Marah pada siapa?

Aku menunggu layar biru itu berkedip dengan perasaan tak tenang. Aku benci mesin ATM. Bukan karena bentuknya, bukan karena aku punya masalah dengannya, lebih karena aku tahu setiap kali aku mengunjungi mesin itu artinya angka di rekening tabunganku akan berkurang. Alasannya banyak, bisa untukku sendiri dan kadang seringnya, untuk orang lain.

"Saldo tersisa di rekening Anda : Rp. 7, 243,657, apakah Anda ingin melakukan transaksi lain?"

Aku menghela nafas dan menekan tombol yang menunjuk 'YA'.

Sudah beberapa bulan terakhir tabungaku terus berkurang, bertambah mungkin, setiap tanggal 1, sebagaimana layaknya pegawai negeri lainnya, tapi sebelum sampai tanggal 5 seperempat dari tambahan itu sudah menghilang -pengeluaran rutin. Sebelum tanggal 15, seperempatnya lagi, untuk kebutuhan sehari-hari. Dan kemudian, pada tanggal 25, saldo tabunganku akan kembali ke posisi sebelum gaji masuk, transfer ke orang tua.

Rutinitas itu adalah siklus standar untuk rekening tabunganku, tapi untuk beberapa bulan ini aktivitasnya bertambah. Adikku sakit. Dan bukan pilek atau flu seperti yang biasanya terjadi padanya, infeksi ginjal. Bisa dibayangkan, adikku, baru saja lulus SMP dan sekarang terkena infeksi ginjal. Dia sering mengeluh sakit perut, aku pikir hanya manja-manjaannya saja. Kemudian mengeluh kencing berdarah, aku berpikir mungkin datang bulannya saja sedang tidak benar. Sampai satu ketika dia sering pingsan, dibawa ke dokter dan difonis terkena infeksi ginjal. Aku kena marah, oleh dokter dan oleh ibuku. Aku juga ingin marah, tapi pada siapa? Adikku sakit, dan terlambat ditangani, aku ingin marah, tapi pada siapa?

Awesome People

(source: http://awesomepeoplehangingouttogether.tumblr.com)

I've got chills down my spine when I saw this picture for the first time. Not because the people in the picture already passed away or that it's a black and white picture... But can you imagine? All the people in this picture are actually people who set standard for new era of science!

Pauli, Born, Broglie, Heisenberg, Lorentz, Bohr, Planck, Schroedinger, Curie and of course Einstein! Names that you'll heard next to constants, laws, equations... names that you'll heard after you understand Newton and his generation, names that start the future! All that names in one place. I don't know where or when the picture was taken, but still... it's a great picture.

NB: Madame Curie looks super cool in the picture, first for her fierce expression, second because she's the only woman there.

Dragon Tattoo

Here is the leaked teaser of US version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I like the Swedish version, and I hope the American version will be better, at least hollywood can give it more dramatic touch... something that definitely least in the Swedish version. I like Rooney Mara interpretation of Lisbeth Salander looks. It looks fierce and yet doesn't too much.

The song used in the teaser is cover version of Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nail and Karen O of The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I love the song!!! And play it over and over... the Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith and Trent Reznor-Karen O version, this song is great!!!

Coming Soon: The adventures of Tintin

Everybody scream on my mark, one... two...three! AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!

This is one of the BEST comic book series ever created, brought to the big screen by two of the BEST filmmaker ever existed, so yes, all of you have a good reason to scream, I will!!!

NB : Dear God, please let all this tax problem in Indonesia to end soon and I can watch all my favourite movie in the theater again, pleaseeeee....

Kembali ke pojok : Every woman want to be loved...

"cariin gw pacar dong"

Kalimat itu langsung melucur dari mulut sahabatku tepat saat dia duduk. Dan aku hanya bisa menjawab: "heh?" -bengong.

"iya, cariin gw pacar, emang di kantor lu gak ada yang bisa lu kenalin ke gw gitu?" tanyanya lagi, wajah memberengut, dan sibuk membalik-balik buku menu, aku : masih bengong.

"ya ada sih, tapi oom-oom, mau?" tanyaku.

"hah? emang masih single?"

"kagak, elu jadi istri kedua gitu" balasku.

"sialan lu!" dia melempar pandangan bengis padaku. Dia meletakkan buku menu di meja dan memanggil pelayan, seperti biasa memesan secangkir hot mint tea -aku tak mengerti untuk apa dia membuka-buka buku menu itu lama-lama kalau akhirnya dia tetap akan memesan mint tea.

"kenapa sih? sejak kapan punya pacar jadi prioritas satu?" tanyaku.

"sejak gw berumur 28 tahun dan wejangan bokap gw tiap hari udah sekitar punya pasangan dan bangun keluarga" jawabnya sambil bersandar malas. Sebelah alisku naik.

Oke, aku beri sedikit penjelasanku mengenai temanku satu ini. Dia seorang akuntan, berkarir 5 tahun di kantor akuntan publik kemudian pindah menjadi manager internal audit di satu perusahaan telekomunikasi. Usianya sekarang 28 tahun, dia tak punya pacar dan tak pernah tertarik punya pacar sebelumnya, apalagi ketika dia masih kerja di KAP -"gmn gw mau pacaran? gw ajak lembur di kantor client? ah ganggu aja!" - begitu biasanya yang dia katakan kalau ada yang bertanya mengapa dia tak serius cari pasangan. Dan hey, siapa sangka angka 28 dan wejangan orang tua bisa mengubah pandangannya itu.

"jadi kalau bokap lu gak ngomong lu gak akan peduli buat nyari pacar juga?" tanyaku.

"hmmm... mungkin, lagian kayaknya gw gak butuh-butuh banget punya pacar, emang apa enaknya punya pacar?" dia balas bertanya padaku.

"hmmm... tangible advantages... ada yang nganter-jemput lu kalo pergi kemana-mana..." kataku.

"gak butuh... ada sopir..."

"... ada yang nemenin lu makan malem dan nraktir lu makan..."

"gw lebih seneng makan sendiri, and I can afford my meal"

"... ada yang nemenin lu belanja..."

"i have ton of friends and I can even hire a stylist..."

-oke, ni cewek emang gila.

"ok, so what's about the intangible one..."

"just one?"

"yeah, just one... at the end of the day, you always sleep at night, wake up in the morning and do your day with a hope that you won't be left alone in this world... that there will be the one that always there for you, love you"

Dia diam sebentar.

"that's very subjective..." katanya kemudian.

"indeed, but it's true..."

"hope is paralyzing..."

"but it keeps you from giving up"

Dia diam lagi.

"emang segitu pentingnya ya ada yang nemenin?" -dia masih keras kepala, aku hanya tersenyum.

"ask yourself, lu sekarang kerja, ngumpulin duit, sukses, deposito menumpuk, aset melimpah, but someday it's only you... no longer parent and siblings, no husband, no children, at that time you own everything, everything that can be bought, but everything else?... no honey, trust me you don't want to be like that"

Dia diam lagi. Pesanan mint tea nya datang. Dia meneguk sedikit sambil memandang ke lengangnya traffic Jakarta di hari minggu.

"jadi musti serius nih gw?" tanyanya lagi.

"menurut lu?" tanyaku balik.

"haaahhh... yaudah kenalin gw ama siapa kek..."

"eh, kenalinnya sih gampang, elunya bisa serius gak?"

"diusahain..." katanya.

Aku hanya tersenyum, seorang manusia satu ini bisa menjadi sangat lucu.

Pintu cafe itu terbuka, dan seorang pria masuk, maaf aku ralat -seorang pria tampan masuk. Dia melihat sekeliling dan matanya bertumbukan denganku kemudian tersenyum, aku balas tersenyum. Dia menghampiriku dan mencium pipiku lembut.

"hai, dah lama? maaf ya say kamu nunggu..." katanya.

"gak apa-apa, dia juga baru dateng kok..." kataku sambil menunjuk sahabatku di seberang meja.

"oi, pa kabar lu?" dia bertanya pada sahabatku sambil menjabat tangannya.

"dia lagi nyari pacar" jawabku sebelum sahabatku bisa menjawab.

"seriously?"dia melirik sahabatku tak percaya.

"eh, gak usah gitu deh ngeliatnya, seolah gw gak mungkin kepengen punya pacar aja" balas sahabatku.

"oh, if you ask that last week, i'll say that would be possible, seeing that you love your bag more that anything" sindirnya. Aku hanya tertawa. Sahabatku hanya melempar pandangan sinis padanya.

"berisik deh... btw, how's the wedding preparation?" tanya sahabatku.

Dia tersenyum dan memandangku, "how is it? dunno, all I know is my bride is ready" jawabnya sambil menicum pipiku. Aku hanya tersenyum.

Dari sudut mataku aku melihat sahabatku tersenyum. Ya, bagaimanapun dia tetap seorang wanita, dan dia pasti akan memilih untuk dicintai, cepat atau lambat. Kita lihat saja nanti.

-It's all fiction, just a thought-

Life is an adventure!

"I miss college life, I want to go back to 4 years ago and being ITB student again"

It'a almost 3 years since my graduation, and surprisingly I heard that words more often now. Don't get me wrong, I do miss my college life, but that doesn't mean I want to go back there again. Imagine you have to redo all your college assignments, OSPEK, committee time, final project time... BLEH... no, I don't! I have enough of that things for a lifetime.

If I have to go back to school, I want to do entirely different thing; different major, different friends, different university, because I want to broaden my view. I've learned extraordinary things in 4 years I had at ITB, something that I'll never regret, but then again, that time has passed and I have to move on. So friends... instead of saying you want to do it again, let's just find something more interesting with our previous college experience as the baseline. Life is an adventure!