celebrating six-or-so months of not blogging... I recently posted something at wacanaisme...

Death

is but a gateway to the rest of our eternal existence.

Our lives are but a mere blink in the eye of eternity.

Grieve not for our lost ones. Cherish their memory. And ultimately, remember that our own moment

is yet to come.

I pray we all use our brief time on earth wisely.

Live, my friends. Live.

---

in simpathy to Echie and Monique and their families

So like I'm a subscriber to a mailing list organised by the Creative Commons, named CC-Lessigletter, a mailing list which is usually active during their annual fund drives (the fund drive is a requirement from the United States' IRS to show that the 501(c) Non-Profit organisation has "popular support"). And the fun thing about this mailing list is how it promotes the Creative Commons cause; not by making 'sales pitches' urging 'participation' for the 'public good' (particularly your 'monetary participation). No, they definitely do not shill; in stead they tell war stories, positive stories highlighting what the Creative Commons have done.

And this month's CC-Lessig Newsletter (written by Creative Commons activist Fred Benenson) informed me that Radiohead has released a new album, "In Rainbows," and is making it available as a download where you name your own price. And yes, you can name your price "zero pence". Which is what I did since I'm practically broke thus why I'm volunteering for JiFFest for practically pennies.

I've downloaded the album, its a 48-megabyte zip file containing 10 drm-free high-quality mp3s. Wikipedia says that the songs are pretty good; I don't know since I don't have speakers at my workstation here. And you know what, when JiFFest pays me I think I'll just buy me a box set. We'll see...

I found this post in my "unpublished blog posts" folder dated September 27, 2005; not sure if it really is unpublished so I'm publishing it now (especially since its been a while since I've posted anything). Enjoy.

I saw an ad for ITKP today.

I've 'competed' with them in the past.

The ad was in Kompas.

I had participated twice in InterAD.

When I first saw the ad the first thing I did was ask my brother, who was sitting at our dinner table having breakfast, "Is she interested at all," she being my younger sister, whom had just graduated high-school, "in studying advertising?"

I asked that because in my mind the best advertising school in Indonesia is not my ad faculty, not Periklanan Komunikasi UI. In my mind the best was ITKP.

Its like almost all the coolest Ad teachers at my place also taught there. And its like they're more focused and stuff. Like in several InterAds there was both a team from UI and a team from ITKP, and the ones who made it to Asia Pacific was the ITKP team. In more recent times there were three, one from S1 UI, one from D3, and one from ITKP, but that's another story.

But if there's one thing wrong with ITKP that I can think of, its that ITKP has no contact whatsoever with the most basic of social sciences. At least the humanitarian part. And thats dangerous, because marketing communications is a knife.

When doing advertising, or any sort of promotion or marketing communication, even when making simple, below-the-line, extreme low cost advertising, such as making a simple hand-written brochure to be planted on the school bulletin board, you gotta realise that you are disturbing one of the most precious of social fabrics. That of Adam Smith's supply and demand.

But everyone's doing it, doesn't that mean that we should too? As stupid a logic as it is, crowd mentality, I would have to agree that yes, everyone must do it. And that's the thing, you know, the essence of free-fight liberalism. Compete or get sidelined. Fight or perish. Eat or be eaten. Survival of the fittest.

As much as I admire natural selection for the progress it has ushered (let's assume its progress for the sake of argument, at least for this moment; I know very well that this, and the modernism resultant, is debatable), there has always been something of an itch at the crow of my back that I just can't seem to scratch. I mean yeah, even the Bible says "many are called but few are chosen," but the Bible can hardly be taken as scientifically empirical evidence now can it? And if we argue to the side of progress, well is it progress when to survive we have to live inside a towering glass cage for half our life to achieve the kind of capital to be considered 'succesful' by society? Yeah its debatable.

Anyway that's the thing. ITKP graduates I'm sure will become great craftsmen and women of the Advertising arts, but there is a very real danger that they don't have any idea of the social, humanitarian, moral consequences of their business actions. If they can learn it on their own, great. But that's an awful big if, considering the neoliberal economy that we are all living in. My sister has a gang that's proud to label themselves materialistic. They have a very solid argument that everyone has got to gather capital to survive, much less to be succesfull. That's very true. Too true, in fact.

Homo homini lupus. [/howl]

The Jakarta Post is opening its internship program again for this year. Check out the internship page at the Jakarta Post website, or click the above image.

To finish reading: How to be a Godfather; book review and excerpts from "Asian Godfathers: Money and Power in Hong Kong and South-East Asia" by Joe Studwell.

An interesting investigative and critical analysis of the immigrant Chinese tycoons. Most definitely controversial, hence its attraction -- and at the same time a good indicator that you should take said book's veracity with a grain of salt. I highly recommend examining the review (and the book should you choose to buy it) with a healthy helping of good sense and reason.

Two recent episodes of PhD Comics; introducing Gerard the Humanities Major

Personally, I do believe in thought experiments as a valid method of research.

(And that all theories based on empirical observation data (aka. "real life") are valid.)

update 12:02 PM 9/5/2007: In other news, Queen guitarist Brian May finally completes his PhD. thesis on Astrophysics after over 30 years. He will be given his PhD on September pending corrections.

History does repeat itself. Never exactly -- there are always enough differences in the details that people who are determined not to learn anything from the past can find an excuse.

But history shows patterns precisely because human beings don't change.

After the First World War (then called the Great War), Britain and France were exhausted. They had triumphed -- barely -- but they had left more than a million dead soldiers on the battlefields.

Germany suffered nearly as badly. But the German people did not feel defeated. They were ripe for Adolf Hitler to come along and tell them that they had really won the war, except that they were stabbed in the back by traitors at home.

So as Adolf Hitler began to rearm Germany, preparing for a rematch, he found an enemy that simply did not want to fight any kind of war at all.

Reference:
WorldWatch - June 3, 2007 - Learning from History - The Ornery American by Orson Scott Card

Disclaimer: I am a fan of Orson Scott Card's Ender saga. If you're interested in Science Fiction and Fantasy in general, be sure to check out his InterGalactic Medicine Show.

Over-quoted from the Detroit News website :

Miles Levin, whose blog inspired thousands, dies
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Laura Berman / The Detroit News

Miles Alpern Levin, whose on-line writings about his fight against cancer inspired and moved thousands of readers, died early this morning at home in Bloomfield Township.

Two years ago, he was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare pediatric cancer of the soft tissues.

After the diagnosis in June 2005, he consciously made his ensuing battle with the deadly cancer into his life's work. He reinvented himself, growing quickly from a funny and forgetful teen into a conscientious student and a writer who acquired an international following.

...

At the June commencement ceremonies, Miles, 18, urged his classmates to seek justice in the world. "If my struggle with cancer galvanizes actions of goodness," he told them, " I can rest assured that even if I succumb to the rogue cells I will leave behind a legacy of victory. Dying is not what scares me. It's dying and having had no impact."

...

He willingly endured severe pain and torturous chemotherapy treatments -- excruciating nausea, weakness, and pain -- trading off weeks of sick days for a few good ones. His passion for life was matched only by his insistence that it be a good life, a meaningful one. What the world most needs, he said in his last days, is "more kindness."

...

On the Cranbrook Schools campus, he became an outsized object of admiration and awe. Students wore t-shirts honoring one of his sayings ("Keep fighting, stop struggling"), and organized a fund-raising walk in his honor.

Although few of his thousands of blog readers had ever met him, they wrote using adjectives of awe, describing him as a teacher and themselves, most often, as "grateful" to hear his lessons. He compared his life to a golfer swinging gaily at a bucket of golf balls, until only a few remain. "Now with just a handful left," he wrote, "each swing becomes more meaningful."

...

Over the last year, he won several awards, including the Sarcoma Foundation of America's Leadership & Courage Award for 2008. Accepting the award, he said, "The universe is more cruel and random than we would like it to be," calling childhood sarcoma a "total injustice."

But that knowledge never made him bitter.

"I just have to keep going, to search for a higher meaning," he said. To do so was a way to squeeze more out of life, and vanquish death.

He tried to think of cancer as a gift. "I am living more richly than I ever was before cancer, so if I die, will it have been worth it just to get these years of superliving?" he asked at one point.

Mostly, he wanted to live as well as he possibly could. He strived, consciously, for saintliness -- an uncommon aspiration for an affluent 21st century American teen.

Although he was mature beyond his years, he was young and idealistic enough to imagine he could be a beacon of light and wisdom to others.

And he was.

---

How to help
The family of Miles Levin has set up a tax-exempt memorial fund to support efforts to fight pediatric cancer as well as providing a "vehicle to create new directions in patient care." Send contributions to:
UJF -- Miles Alpern Levin Fund
P.O. Box 2030
Bloomfield Hills, MI 48303
Attn: Susie Feldman

Related Articles and Links
• Recent excerpts from Miles Levin's Carepage, an online diary
• Video: Miles Levin interview by the Sarcoma Foundation of America
• Gallery: Cancer fighter Miles Levin graduates
• Miles Levin's blog (Free registration may be required)

It's like... yeah.

Attention FISIP-ers! (especially those from the Class of '98): Ida HI has a new blog, so catch up with her at dugongidae.blogdrive.com. She moved to Blogdrive because she forgot her Blogspot username and password :))

But if you don't know Ida HI, you may not want to visit her place. She doesn't have anything interesting to write about. No, not much at all...

[Oh really!? Yeah like as if I'd really believe that Ida has nothing important to say /:)]