'Casino Royale': A Human, Brutal Bond

James Bond falls in love? Lost in poker game? Reckless and arrogant instead of cool? Cold-blooded instead of comfortable? Get used to it...!

The new James Bond in its latest installment, 'Casino Royale', is a different kind of Bond. A very human and brutal Bond. And Daniel Craig ('Munich') is very convincing in his first role of Bond. He more than rises to one of the toughest challenges in the world of entertainment, especially as he takes over the character from Pierce Brosnan, who had successfully played and continued the tradition of cool and charismatic British superspy for the past 4 Bond movies before the new Casino, started with Golden Eye (1995) and ended with Die Another Day (2002). He must have given tough time to the die-hard fans of the old Bond in 'Daniel Craig is not Bond' site.

As good as Craig in his portrayal of Bond, how does the movie fare compared to the previous Bond films?

The action scenes are still as thrilling, but there are not many sophisticated new spy gadgets with Q as the chief inventor. Even the tortures scene doesn't display complicated tools like 'chakra' or the 'torture chair' in the past Brosnan movies. No lengthy car chases as well, although there are still the Aston Martins... there are two: the classic and the latest model with its sophisticated tools. Not much special effects seems to have been used in the movie as mostly stunt works dominate the hard-hitting actions. The film focuses on the brutal, physical actions and hand-to-hand fighting. They can be very raw and far from the common savvy, 'intellectual' actions found in most previous Bond movies.

None of the action scenes is overblown; all make a lot of sense. The new Bond has to fight really hard, bleeds and bruises, to win the fights, starting from the beginning with a compelling foot chase when he is assigned to Madagascar to hunt a bomb maker. That is his first assignment after he gets the double O superspy status, so it makes more sense that he is portrayed as a reckless Bond and makes a mistake at the end of this spectacular chase. Compared that to the previous Bond opening scenes from Brosnan or Moore or maybe all, in which they were so comfortable handling their enemies.

Other action scenes are also exhilarating and will not disappoint fanatic Bond fans. The main mission is to stop a global terrorist banker, Le Chiffre (played by Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen) for financing global terrorism. He is setting up a high level poker game in a luxurious Casino Royale in Montenegro to earn more funds for terrorism after Bond thwarts his effort to gain from the stock market with the sabotage of the huge new airplane from Airbus. Bond joins the game accompanied by a government accountant Vesper Lynd (played by stunning French actress Eva Green ['Kingdom of Heaven']) who is assigned by M (Judi Dench) to watch over the government money used by Bond in the tournament.

The game is probably a bit too long, but it may be justified considering the title the movie suggests. Again, Bond is shown as reckless, arrogant, and having a problem with his ego. It costs him and Vesper having to go through painful torture in the hand of Le Chiffre, with Bond shown bare naked under duress. Audiences will see a human Bond who gradually learns from his mistakes. This is a nice setting up for next Bond movies.

As we come to the main plotline, a romantic chemistry develops between Bond and Vesper. The relationship is portrayed nicely in a gradual way. Vesper doesn't like Bond's ego and arrogance in the first place, but as Bond becomes more human and learns the hard way from his mistakes, the relationship turns more romantic. No sex scene is wasted in this movie, in fact there is only one between Bond and Vesper. It's more of a love scene than a sex scene. There is love there, unlike other Bond movies. This romantic portrayal is probably too long, but it shouldn't bore the audience. Eva Green gives a spirited performance as Bond's leading lady. She is not just a flesh to enjoy, in fact she doesn't bare or wear bikinis throughout the movie. She is portrayed as a smart, intelligent lady who happens to be beautiful.

Ok, so Craig is very convincing as the new Bond and I am looking forward to seeing his next movies. The action scenes are rock solid and worthy of a Bond movie. The romantic relationship with the leading lady is a nice addition to show Bond as a human. So what does this movie lack of?

Almost nothing actually, yet too much of something may not be good, either. The obvious one is the usual 'product placement' throughout the movie as commonly found in other 007 movies. This time it becomes the marketing tool for Sony-Ericsson, Ford, Omega, Smirnoff, and Heineken. I found the placement is a bit too apparent. My stomach got sick when Vesper Lynd asked Bond if his watch was a Rolex as it looked expensive. Bond told her that it was an Omega. Vesper responded 'beautiful watch.'

I think there is only one nice marketing placement in this movie, which is a cameo by Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic in the Miami Airport. That is very lightning fast that you can miss him if you blink.

Another thing bothering me is the 'calibre' of Bond nemesis, most likely because I had been getting used to see past Bond's efforts to stop his megalomaniac enemies from world domination. On this movie, his main enemy is ruthless banker Le Chiffre, who just wants to profit from the stock market. This blood crying (when he is nervous) bad guy doesn't have ambition to rule the world. He even has someone to report to, who Bond finally meets at the end of the movie. During the break on the poker game, Le Chiffre even gets severely beaten by his African terrorist clients, who come down to Montenegro to force him to give them the money back after the foiled sabotage attack (by the way, the fight scene between Bond and these African terrorists is brutal, yet this is the start of the developing chemistry between Bond and Vesper).
And what about the poker game stake of $10 million each player which make up for a total for a little more than $100 million gamble to fund the terrorism if Le Chiffre win? In my opinion, that is too small for Bond calibre.
Overall, this level of calibre may be fine for a 'Bourne Identity' or 'Bourne Supremacy' type of action drama, but not sufficient for 007 superspy, at least to me as a Bond fan.

However, as a whole, this is a great Bond movie, which more than meets the expectations to rejuvenate the Bond tradition. This is easily one of the best 007 movies, and definitely the most human one. Two thumbs up!

Black Friday, part 2

As expected, the line was very long in some stores like BestBuy. Many people already patiently waited and even set up their tents... yes, some did bring their own tents... 6 hours before the store opened at 5am. I didn't get the cheap $379 HP laptop on top of my short shopping list, but I still managed to grab all others. Below are few examples of the steals I got:

250GB Western Digital 'My Book' Premium Edition external hard drive for only $69.99 in BestBuy. Normal price: 2.5 times of that, for example in Amazon.

2GB Sandisk MemoryStick Pro Duo for only $34.99 in Fry's Electronics. Normal price: more than twice in Amazon.

2GB Sandisk SecureDigital memory card for $29.99 in CompUSA. Normal price: almost 3 times in Amazon.

Great bargains, aren't they?

Waiting for the Black Friday

Here I am back in Houston again for another 3-month assignment. Ten days have passed and almost 7 million seconds remain to go through before I can feel tropical rain and heat again. But the good thing is that it's not that long for me to meet my family as they will come here in a month from today. Can't wait....

It's now fall season in the US. The weather is totally different from when I came here on April - July. A bit cold in the morning and night, around 5 Celcius or can be lower on the windy days, but rising to nice, sunny 15 Celcius from 9am to around 3pm. It's already dark around 5.15 at the afternoon, compared to 8pm on summer. But overall it's mostly always friendly weather on this side of Texas (but not on north or west Texas).

Today is Thanksgiving Day.... and this is what I want to write about now. No... no... it's not about the history of Thanksgiving, which we can find abundantly on the websites, for example on this site or on this wikipedia site. As the title suggests, I am now waiting for the Black Friday -- the good one -- as there are so many Black Fridays in the world and in the US, and most of them are associated with bad things, either financial panic, market crash or even massacre....

This Black Friday that people are eagerly waiting now is the great sales after the Thanksgiving Day, historically and arguably the busiest retail shopping day of the year. According to many sources, the term 'Black Friday' refers to how businesses records their gains in black (opposite of losses which are in red)... it's a usual 'accounting color'. People also say that 'black' is also associated with how early normally retailers open in the morning of Friday after Thanksgiving. They mostly open at 5 or 6am and the great sales usually end around 11am. People normally already line up before the stores open or even hours before in some select stores, especially major electronics chains like Best Buy, Circuit City or CompUSA.

Is it really worth it getting up early in the morning and lining up on the cold? As a matter of fact, it IS. Not only that... a good research is highly recommended days before the D-Day. There are so many stores offering so many items on huge discounts. And the time is very limited, only 5 hours or so, to grab the benefits. Let's see some examples.

You can get a Toshiba notebook, Centrino Core Duo Mobile, 1GB RAM, 80GBHD, with DVD burner, wireless-ready, Vista capable, for $759 or Acer notebook with AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual-Core processor, 1GB RAM, 120GB HD, with built-in DVD burner, webcam, wireless, and Vista capable, for $599 in Circuit City. Or if you are fine with a Centrino Solo notebook, you can get an HP with 512MB RAM and 80GB HD, DVD burner, built-in wireless, and Vista-ready for only $379 in Best Buy.

Or you might want a 250GB external hard-drive, so go to Best Buy to get an early bird price of a Western Digital for $69 only! You can also grab a slightly bigger one, 320GB for $99 in CompUSA!

You can also find steals on many types of digital cameras, like Sony Cybershot 6.0 megapixel for $149, Polaroid 6.0 megapixel for $99, Samsung 7.2 megapixel for $129 or Canon ultra-zoom S3 IS (12x zoom, 6 megapixel) for $399.

If you think a 2GB Ipod is still expensive at $149, you can think about a 2GB Sandisk Sansa MP3 Player for only $69 or its 1GB version for $39.

For smaller items, when else can we get a 2GB U3 Sandisk flash drive for only $29?!

Enough about electronics. How about a leather jacket for $49? Go to Walmart on Friday early morning. Levi's jeans for $16.99? Visit Sears.

So many bargains, so little time. Decision, decision, decision...... When it comes to consumerism, this country is unparalleled. As a capitalism nation, the notion is that higher consumption level will trigger higher production and that's good for the economy and people's wealth. It is all up to the consumers to be as wise as they can. Too many temptations could drive unnecessary consumptions and pile up the individual (credit card) debts.

So, come back to the decision making... How can we be wiser on the face of these many temptations? It's good to know that in this age of internet, information is highly overloaded and there are many tools to help us plan for the Black Friday.

Many good people have created very useful websites days or weeks ago relating to the offers that all stores will carry during the Black Friday. The sites are designed to be user-friendly, complete with their filter by stores, category, price, etc. I like the following sites: DealsPlus and BlackFriday2006. Lifehacker and its discussion forum also help finding better deals.

That's all about the 'good' Black Friday. The countdown is now less than 15 hours. Let me do some more research, create a shopping list and get prepared for the cold morning queue.....:-)

Nation of Fear?

Hari ini adalah US Independence Day, tepatnya ulang tahun kemerdekaan negara ini yang ke 230. Usia yang sangat matang untuk sebuah negara. Tapi apakah kematangan usia ini dibarengi dengan kemajuan dalam aspek-aspek bernegara serta penyelenggaraan kenegaraan?

Saya cukup beruntung pernah mengalami tinggal dan hidup di dalamnya, bermasyarakat, mencoba menghayati kehidupan dan budaya orang-orang di sini, melebur bersama mereka, mencoba memahami apa yang mereka suka dan tak suka, mengetahui langsung dari sumbernya mengenai pandangan mereka tentang dunia serta posisi negara mereka dalam konstelasi dunia. Selain itu, saya tinggal dalam beberapa kurun masa yang berbeda: tahun 1991-1994 di masa sekolah di Austin, 2001-2003 waktu bekerja di Houston, beberapa kali trips in between serta sekarang ini selama 3 bulan di Houston lagi.

Kurun waktu tersebut bisa dibagi menjadi 3 kategori: pre 9-11, selama 9-11, dan post 9-11. Pembagian secara kasar ini works well in my case. Banyak sekali perbedaan dalam kehidupan bernegara dan sosial selama kurun waktu 15 tahun ini. Sebelum 9-11, negara ini benar-benar the nation of dream buat banyak orang dari seluruh dunia. Mereka datang dengan modal skills, determination, perseverance, and faith on themselves, dan mencapai sukses yang mungkin susah dicapai di negara-negara mereka sendiri. Arti 'freedom' terasa dalam kehidupan sehari-hari. Meski dibilang 'the Big Brother is watching you' tapi tidak ada rasa takut sama sekali di masyarakat bahwa freedom mereka akan tercabut. Berbagai macam orang dari berbagai negara dengan latar belakang budaya dan agama serta kepercayaan yang berbeda-beda bisa tinggal dengan damai di negara ini. Mudah sekali buat umat Islam untuk menjalankan ibadah solat mereka di manapun tiba saatnya tanpa orang-orang lain memperhatikan mereka dengan kecurigaan, demikian buat umat agama lain. Hatred atau kebencian sangat minimal di antara masyarakat yang sangat plural di sini. Paling banter hanya kasus klasik seperti KKK dan sejenisnya yang menjadi contoh hatred di antara masyarakat.

Perbedaan paling nyata terjadi sejak 9-11. Peristiwa ini benar-benar seperti titik balik dari pencapaian negara ini sejak ratusan tahun yang lalu. Terlepas dari kebenaran versi yang ada selama ini serta begitu banyak conspiracy theories yang terlontar, peristiwa ini seperti point of no return buat negara ini. Mungkin tidak ada peristiwa yang impact nya sebesar 9-11 di negara ini sejak Civil War.

Kehidupan masyarakat berubah. The nation of dream is slowly becoming the nation of fear. Setiap hari di media, masyarakat disuguhi dengan berita tentang terrorisme, komplit dengan alert level yang berubah-ubah sesuai dengan mood politik pemerintah Bush. Profil para teroris muncul memenuhi layar TV. Ancaman teror muncul di mana-mana, dari mulai dirty bomb sampai bom gas dan banyak lagi yang lebih canggih. Berita tentang keberhasilan polisi serta FBI mematahkan rencana para teroris sering muncul di saat suasana sudah mulai tenang. Al Qaeda muncul mendadak entah dari mana menjadi organisasi paling berbahaya di dunia, sekaligus organisasi paling suka show-off. Sejak kapan teroris menjadi begitu demen posting di internet serta muncul di TV mengumumkan mengenai aktivitas, pandangan serta rencana mereka ke depan? Hampir semua peristiwa teror di dunia langsung dikaitkan dengan Al Qaeda tanpa ada penyelidikan lebih dahulu.

Peran media sangat besar dalam membentuk opini masyarakat. Apalagi rakyat Amerika cenderung percaya sepenuhnya kepada mainstream media (MSM), baik itu established papers seperti USA Today, New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, atau jaringan televisi CNNABCCBSNBCFOX. Rakyat Amerika jarang merasa perlu double check apakah yang disampaikan MSM tersebut benar adanya meski banyak alternative media sekarang ini, apalagi dengan adanya internet. Akibatnya siapa yang menguasai MSM dialah yang menguasai opini rakyat.

Sayang terlalu banyak MSM yang dengan senang hati menjadi penabuh genderang perang terhadap terorisme yang dilontarkan pemerintahan Bush selama ini. Washington Post yang cukup terhormat pun tak lepas dari status ini. NY Times dengan jurnalis andalan mereka seperti Judith Miller dan Thomas Friedman (ini sayangnya adalah salah satu kolumnis favorit presiden kita SBY) aktif mendukung setiap kebijakan Bush dengan kepandaian mereka menulis berita dengan memutarbalikkan fakta yang ada dan menyembunyikan kebenaran yang sejati.

Untuk televisi, FoxNews adalah contoh media paling bias di Amerika. Kebohongan yang dibungkus dengan kemasan yang baik mudah ditelan oleh para pemirsa yang tidak kritis. Setiap penentang kebijakan Bush selalu digambarkan sebagai unpatriotic. Semua kebijakan Bush sekali pun yang paling kontroversial diketengahkan sebagai upaya untuk menangkal bahaya serangan terorisme di negeri mereka. So it's better to attack the terrorists outside the country before they attack the USA.... ini slogan mereka yang merupakan kepanjangan tangan policy Bush.

Talk shows yang ada di FoxNews maupun di banyak conservative radios seperti menambahkan bahan bakar ke dalam api perang yang digembar-gemborkan kebijakan Bush. Semakin susah dibedakan antara facts and lies di dalam talk shows yang ada, sehingga para pemirsa dan pendengar menjadi salah memahami facts from lies atau sebaliknya. Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage, Don Imus, Daniel Pipes, dan masih banyak lagi talk show hosts atau kolumnis adalah contoh the big liars dengan mulut dan pena tajam berbisa dan latar belakang pendidikan yang bukan asal-asalan. Banyak lulusan Harvard dan Ivy League lainnya yang menjadi motor penggerak opini publik ini. Benar kata pepatah bahwa orang paling berbahaya adalah orang pintar yang menggunakan kepandaian mereka untuk kejahatan, termasuk kejahatan informasi.

Seakan-akan itu semua belum cukup, genderang perang serta kebencian ini masih ditabuh lagi oleh beberapa pemuka agama Kristen evangelist seperti Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Franklin Graham, John Hagee, dll. Mereka menyerukan kepada umat mereka bahwa musuh utama Amerika adalah Islam itu sendiri. Tidak jarang mereka menyampaikan pandangan bias mereka terhadap umat Islam dan Islam sebagai agama. Jerry Falwell menyebarkan nasihatnya ke umatnya bahwa nabi Muhammad adalah teroris. Franklin Graham bilang bahwa Islam adalah "wicked, violent and not of the same god." Pat Robertson berpendapat kepada publiknya bahwa Muslim berencana menguasai dunia serta mereka adalah 'satanic.' Ini semua hanya mengobarkan hatred publik kepada umat Muslim. Banyak sekali backlash yang terjadi kepada organisasi Islam serta umat Muslim setiap harinya seperti selalu dimonitor dan dilaporkan oleh CAIR.

Untuk semakin menekankan pentingnya menghadapi bahaya terorisme, pemerintah Bush tidak tanggung-tanggung dalam melakukannya. Jika perlu, privacy rakyat Amerika boleh dikorbankan demi slogan mereka. Terbukanya kedok wiretapping yang selama ini dilakukan oleh perusahaan-perusahaan telekomunikasi terhadap panggilan telepon hampir semua warga Amerika untuk melayani permintaan National Security Agency (NSA) membuktikan tidak bebasnya lagi masyarakat dari pengawasan pemerintah mereka. Jika dulu hanya rumor saja bahwa the Big Brother is watching you, sekarang hal ini bukan rahasia umum lagi. Lagi-lagi, media mainstream dengan senang hati mendukung policy pemerintah ini, meski sebelumnya pemerintah Bush membantah bahwa mereka sengaja melakukannya.

Sudah bukan rahasia pula bahwa pemerintahan Bush juga sudah lama memonitor aktivitas warganya dalam menjelajahi internet sites. Demikian pula halnya dengan buku-buku yang publik pinjam dari perpustakaan umum pun tak lepas dari monitor pemerintah.

Masih belum cukup dengan semuanya itu, bocoran terakhir di beberapa media menyoroti mengenai pengawasan yang dilakukan pemerintah terhadap setiap transaksi perbankan setiap warga tak terkecuali. Alasan yang dikemukakan adalah untuk mengetahui apabila ada transfer dalam jumlah besar ke organisasi-organisasi yang mereka tuduh sebagai pendukung terorisme.

Praktis tidak ada yang terlepas dari pengawasan 'the Big Brother.' Sayangnya media yang mendominasi publik sepertinya hanya take them all for granted saja. Kalaupun ada ketidaksetujuan itu tak akan bertahan lama dan debat yang terjadi terasa setengah-setengah.

Munculnya media alternatif yang kebanyakan ada di internet seperti Commondreams, Counterpunch, Antiwar, Smirking Chimp, dan masih banyak lagi lumayan untuk menambah daya saing kubu liberal. Namun sayang sekali akses ke media ini kebanyakan hanya menarik perhatian publik yang kritis saja. Jarang sekali masyarakat kebanyakan yang merasa perlu melirik versi lain dari yang sudah ada di MSM dan TV sekedar untuk double check atau sebagai pembanding.

Jadi sekarang ini publik Amerika seperti dihadapkan ke dua kubu yang semakin jarang sekali mencapai kesepakatan pandangan dan kebijakan. Kalau dulunya Amerika dihadapkan kepada kubu Republik vs Demokrat saja, sekarang kubu yang berlawanan ini meluas ke Konservatif vs Liberal, Right vs Left. Republik identik dengan konservatisme serta right wing, sementara Demokrat identik dengan liberalisme serta left-wing. Malah pihak konservatif semakin jauh memojokkan pihak liberal sebagai sosialis yang berpaham mendekati komunis. Mereka menganggap pihak liberal adalah non patriotik karena menentang invasi Amerika ke Afghanistan dan Irak. Anehnya, kebanyakan tokoh Republik yang menganggap diri mereka patriot sejati adalah chickenhawk, yang artinya hanya berani sebatas omongan saja tapi tidak pernah terjun ke perang yang sesungguhnya, misalnya semasa perang Korea atau Vietnam. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove, dan masih banyak lagi tokoh Republik adalah chickenhawks. Kebanyakan tokoh Demokrat adalah veteran perang Korea atau Vietnam.

Sejauh ini belum ada media dominan yang lebih bersimpati ke pihak liberal. Kebanyakan MSM condong ke Republik serta kaum konservatif. Contoh paling jelas adalah FoxNews. Lucunya, motto jaringan TV milik Rupert Murdoch ini adalah 'fair and balanced.'

Jadi sekarang Amerika bukan hanya nation of fear, tapi juga nation of divided. Citra Amerika sebagai nation of dream dan nation of freedom semakin kabur dan menghilang. Namun bagaimanapun juga, sebagai bangsa, Amerika adalah bangsa yang besar. Tidak secara kebetulan bahwa mayoritas penemuan besar dunia dimulai dari sini seperti misalnya listrik, telepon, pesawat terbang, mobil, internet, dan masih banyak lagi. Tidak hanya dengan membalik tangan juga budaya mereka bisa demikian mendominasi budaya dunia saat ini. Di bidang pendidikan, Amerika masih akan tetap yang leading di dunia untuk hampir semua bidang teknologi, rekayasa, maupun ilmu-ilmu sosial. Peran mereka sebagai polisi dunia juga mereka bangun dari mulai dasar, dimana 230 yang lalu negara ini hanyalah bagian kecil dari kancah politik dunia.

Kebesaran negara ini sekarang dalam tahap ujian yang sangat crucial. Kebanyakan langkah yang diambil oleh pemerintah yang berkuasa sejak beberapa tahun yang lalu malah surut ke belakang. Di masa akhir pemerintahan Clinton, Amerika adalah negara dengan surplus ekonomi yang besar. Sekarang di masa Bush, defisit ekonomi mereka akan membebani beberapa generasi ke depan. Masih ditambah lagi dengan citra negara ini yang memburuk di mata semua negara Islam serta even di mata negara-negara maju lainnya.

Diperlukan langkah yang berani dan besar untuk memutar haluan lagi ke arah yang benar. Dan ini bukan hal yang mudah dengan berkuasanya megalomaniak yang tidak merasa canggung mengutarakan lies sebagai facts dan mislead publik ke arah krisis berkepanjangan serta mengantar negara menjadi nation of fear, hatred and the divided. Only time will tell.

Kadang saya berangan-angan apakah yang akan dilakukan Saladin andaikata ini terjadi di masa abad pertengahan dahulu.

CD's I've Been Listening to This Week

1. Matt Bianco, Matt's Mood

This is a great comeback album for trio Basia Trzetrzelewska, Mark Reilly and Danny White after their first collaboration in 1984. Basia is even much better than she sounds in her solo albums. This is really a nice treat for Basia's and Matt Bianco's cult fans. Very enjoyable, soothing, yet upbeat....

I love I Never Meant To and La Luna.

2. Janis Siegel, I Wish You Love

Despite being a big fan of The Manhattan Transfer where Janis has been the key motor since its founding, I can't very much enjoy her solo albums. That is without exception to this one.

This is definitely not a bad album. Her voice remains powerful and her rendition of some classic hits is at her best. I guess it's just not my mood this week for this kind of soft jazzy vocal.

3. The Yardbirds, Heart Full of Soul

This album is a good one for bringing us back to the 60's, in a great way. This group has graduated three of the greatest rock guitarists of all time: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. You may have been a huge fan of these virtuosos, but it would be worthwhile to spend your time to find out how they sounded 35-40 years ago. Though for Eric's fan, I would rather recommending vintage Cream's albums.

4. Diana Krall, The Girl in the Other Room

This is below my initial expectations. The first few songs are fine and enjoyable, but then I lose my appetite for more. I still like The Look of Love much much better.






5. Kate Bush, Aerial

I have been listening to this CD for more than 3 months since I bought it, almost everyday. This is big treat for huge cult fans of Ms Bush after her latest album, The Red Shoes, 12 years ago. Musically creative, expansive... No more display of her high-octave voice like in her classic Kick Inside album that she composed when she was still 18. It's much more mature and personal, better than the upbeat Red Shoes, and very close to the artistic quality of my favorite The Sensual World.

Single King of the Mountain will attract non Kate fans quickly, but all other tracks will take them some time to delve into and appreciate their beauty. For Kate fans like me, all these long-awaited songs are just flawless.

Reunion with N14-DXD

On Saturday I had lunch with my friend Arun Iyer, whom I have known since our days in Conoco Indonesia 8 years ago, and now works in Bartlesville, Oklahoma but commutes on weekends to Houston. We went to Ciro's, a great Italian family-owned restaurant. As usual, the food was delicious. But that's not what I want to write about.

Mr Iyer happened to buy my car, a 2002 Honda Accord (whose license plate N14-DXD I have always remembered very well), before I left Houston on September 2003. And so he came picking me up at the hotel driving it. And I had a great reunion not only with him, but also with my beloved Accord. Mr Iyer was nice enough to give me a total chance to feel it again behind the wheel and strike a pose with it.

It still felt great on the road, much better than my current rental car, 2006 Chevy Malibu, which only has 5,000 miles on it. The Accord now has put up 51,000 miles on itself, but thanks to Mr Iyer, it has been maintained perfectly well. I didn't notice anything different compared to when I had to pass it to him 2.5 years ago.

Why do I feel so sentimental to simply a car? It's not just a car for me and my family. First of all, this is and will always be my first family car, bought new on the second month after I had settled in Houston.

Secondly, it had taken me and my wife safely and comfortably through more than 35,000 miles of roads, backstreets, highways, deserts, snowy routes, etc. not only in Houston or Texas, but many states within US, from Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Idaho, North and South Dakota, Louisiana, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, California, Oregon, to Washington. Few times it was just me and my wife traveled as far as we enjoyed. Some other times we went on road trips with our friends. Those trips were all memorable.

The picture on the left was taken by my wife when we traveled through the West (California, Oregon, Washington through New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah) on winter 2002 while she was still in early pregnancy of our first child. Yes, we were very adventurous at the time. Now, our first child, a boy almost 3 years old, can't stay quiet at home and always eager to go out... most likely maybe because of our adventures in the past and the fact that he was part of them, at least once...:-)

The picture on the right with our baby boy was taken in our apartment in Houston on August 2003 when he was only 1.5 months old.

What a journey this car has been to in only few years.... What an experience and joys this car had brought to me and my family....

Thanks for everything, N14-DXD!

MSN Messenger 1, YM 0

Yup, MSN Messenger is winning this time. At least in one aspect... or at least in my personal case.

I had never thought of using MSN Messenger for chatting purposes, except in my office which happens to use it for internal communication. All my friends and relatives use Yahoo! Messenger; none of them I know ever uses MSN, AIM, or others. YM also never disappointed me or made my system crash, for example. So why bother?

That was until last week when I came across a problem using my new webcams with YM. First I assumed it was because of my internet connection setting. YM requires a 'no-proxy' connection. Ok, I followed the suggestion and changed it to 'no proxy.' The same problem remained stubborn.

Then I thought it was something to do with my wireless connection at home. I googled for some solutions and followed all reasonable suggestions, including installing some scripts as necessary. Still the same old problem -- 'Network error occurred while connecting to the server' came up.

As time was getting closer to my departure to Houston for a 3-month business trip, leaving my lovely wife and my two small, cute boys on the other side of the earth in KL or Jakarta, I gave up on YM and rushed to find an alternative for video calls. As Skype, which my wife and I already had an account, was prohibited in my company machine, I decided to use either MSN Messenger or AIM.

I tried MSN first and as it has worked fine and smoothly for video chatting without any problem at all, I didn't proceed to test AIM.

And here's now I am a happy MSN user, along with my family. The fact that now we can see each other while conversing is so priceless.

A drawback was however found. Once I had started using the new MSN Messenger, all personal contacts in my office MSN Messenger completely disappeared when I logged in it afterward. I had to add them back one by one.


But that was a small hassle compared to the happiness my family and I have found of being able to see each other in real-time... enjoying our smiles and laughters while sharing stories, checking each other's health, or just saying hello.

Forgetting for a while that we are now half the earth away, but also assuring ourselves that our love will only grow bigger and bigger, surpassing any existing physical and virtual walls.

Thanks, MSN!

Furl is Cool

Furl is really cool...

I was looking for a way to save, manage, and retrieve webpages that I have frequently found useful, interesting, nice-to-have-for-reference-later, etc. while I surf the internet when I came across this great site, www.furl.net.

Bookmarks certainly are not enough nowadays. Pages keep on changing at the blink of your eyes and you'll be left behind in this world of information overload if you only depend on bookmarks, though it's online bookmarks which you can open anywhere there is internet access.

Furl provides a much anticipated solution to this problem. It's your personal web. It saves any pages on the Web and lets you find and retrieve them later. This way it's definitely great for many purposes, whether it is for research, travel planning, info sharing, etc.

Furl also serves as a 'social bookmarking' tool. We can share what we have 'furled' with our friends and others. We can subscribe to others' archive and get alerts on what they have found in the internet.

There are few other sites competing with Furl on this area, like Spurl, Simpy or del.icio.us, but I found Furl as more user-friendly and, more importantly, the sites are saved, not just bookmarked. As we know, links can die. And with a quota of 5 gigabytes per member, thousands of webpages can be safely stored for your personal archive.

For detail review of Furl, check out this Techcrunch posting. All sites that I have 'furled' can be viewed at www.furl.net/members/arief78741.

Seandainya bukan ExxonMobil...

Tulisan Ralph Nader yang terbaru agak lain dibandingkan kebanyakan karya dia akhir-akhir ini, yang berupa kritik atau ulasan atas isu-isu hangat yang muncul terutama di arena politik Amerika Serikat. Kali ini dia menulis surat terbuka kepada chairman ExxonMobil yang baru, Rex Tillerson.

Sayang sekali tidak disinggung di situ mengenai Blok Cepu yang akan diserahkan sepenuhnya operatorshipnya ke ExxonMobil setelah melalui proses tarik ulur yang alot dan panjang. Tetapi kandungan surat terbuka Nader ini sudah cukup untuk menyadarkan pembaca akan kuatnya pengaruh raksasa minyak dunia dari Houston ini.

Cukup panjang daftar andil (baca: dosa) ExxonMobil dalam pengambilan keputusan serta peristiwa-peristiwa bisnis, politik dan lingkungan, dari mulai soal ExxonValdez, global warming, Aceh, dan masih banyak lagi. Check out http://exposeexxon.com for more facts.

So, kembali ke judul tulisan ini... Seandainya bukan ExxonMobil, apakah mungkin sebuah perusahaan yang di-hired Pertamina untuk technical assistance contract (TAC) semata bisa menjadi operator dan main partner setelah blok yang bersangkutan diubah (paksa) statusnya menjadi sebuah production sharing contract (PSC)?

ExxonMobil masuk ke Blok Cepu melalui anak perusahaannya, Ampolex, pada tahun 1997 setelah Humpuss Patra Gas melepas sahamnya di TAC blok Cepu. TAC ini akan selesai kontraknya pada tahun 2010, dimana setelah itu akan menjadi milik Pertamina 100%.

Setelah mendapati cadangan minyak dan gas bumi yang besar di situ (lebih dari 1 milyar barrel minyak dan sekitar 2 tcf gas), ExxonMobil ngotot untuk mempertahankan kehadirannya, bahkan berusaha mengubah status area itu menjadi PSC dimana dia menjadi operatornya sampai at least 30 tahun mendatang.

Mungkinkah ini terjadi seandainya bukan ExxonMobil yang terlibat di dalamnya? Mungkin saja tidak dan tentunya pemerintah Indonesia masih cukup berwibawa untuk menolak tuntutan yang mengada-ada, kecuali kalau itu datangnya dari salah satu kontributor terbesar dalam kampanye partainya Bush (Republik) serta one of the top all-time donors di bidang lobi-lobi legislatif di Amerika Serikat.