My Blog

[I'm suppose to post this yesterday, but due to technical problems, this blog will be dated September 23 2005]

My Starone postpaid bill payment deadline was officially by the 20th of every month, but they usually start soft-blocking the service by the 23rd. After learning the hard way the consequences of not paying your subscription, I decided to pay my bill. I actually wanted to pay it the day before (the 20th of September), but I procrastinated too much. So last Wednesdsay I promised to have dinner with Sanny and before that, I decided to attended my Starone bill.

Unfortunately (or due to my procrastination) I left my home a bit too late (say, eight minutes before the Indosat Gallery shop closes) and arrived two minutes after they closed. Actually, the gallery’s sign said BUKA (Bahasa Indonesian for ‘open’) but as I went in, the security guard asked what was my business. I said I wanted to pay my bill, and he said, “Sorry, we’re closed.”
“But don’t you close at 4:30?”
He showed his watch which had the longer hand a few edges passed 6.  No more than a couple of minutes.
“It’s already passed 4:30.”
I nearly made a fuss there when I approached the customer service desk asking about the working hours details… man, I really like to smacked one of the guys there.

Only two minutes late?  Come on!

I wanted to catch the Patas (standard public transpotation bus) AC (Air Conditioned) 11 which passes around Sudirman-Thamrin which was waiting at the traffic light a hundred meters from my position. But as I was running toward it, alas, the light turned green, and I lost my bus.

I then calculated my options. I could take a ride back to Jalan Perintis Kemerdekaan, take a Mayasari Bakti P7, a standard bus, and when I say standard, I meant very awful old condition bus. Or I could take an AC03, which is more than the twice the fare of P7, but roughly the same price with PAC 11. But then, taking a ride back to Perintis would cost money, and small changes were something I kind of lacked.

So I decided to take an NE (short for Non-Ekonomis) 2. Much like the PAC 11, the NE2 are operated by the PPD (government sponsored Perusahaan Pengangkutan Djakarta). The NE1s to NE4s are actually imported from Japan, and their condition are still road worthy although their air conditioners seldom worked. I dubbed those green busses, ‘bus sauna’.

Anyway, I had to change some of my larger bills since the NE2 only accept exact change. Passengers may try pay more than the Rp.2500, but I just wanted to be a good passenger who can pay the exact amount just as the rules suggested me. So I went to the 24hour shop Circle K on Jalan Paus. Then I walked towards the Rawamangun Terminal and waited for the NE2. After waiting several minutes (read: go back and forth around the terminal looking for signs of the NE2) I finally boarded one, and smsed Sanny while waiting the bus to depart.

Miraculously, my trip was mostly congestion free. The only hint of traffic congestion was felt when the bus entered the Harmoni/Kota area. But the ride was nice. I inteded to get off on near Cideng river, but instead disembarked a block sooner.

Basically, the trip isn’t that far from the Petojo branch of Dunkin’ Donuts to Sanny’s workplace in Ketapang, but instead I walked by passed a certain person’s house on Petojo Barat. I’ll have the courtesy of not putting down her full address here, but I must say, I did pass by her home.

Whose home?

Putri’s home.

You might wonder why I decided to walk an extra two hundred meters just to pass by a house of some significant person. Beats me… whether I was hoping the chance of a random encounter with Putri, or perhaps just a simple passing through. My point is… why am I doing this to myself?

Well, here’s my truest motivation of passing by Putri’s house:
I passed by Putri’s house, so I can write in my blog, that ‘today I passed by Putri’s house’.

Okay, I did not write ‘today’, but rather, ‘two nights ago, I passed by Putri’s house’.

Humph!

Do you know what a skripsi is?

Basically it means, paper, dissertation, or better yet, thesis.

Well, for the past two years, I’ve been struggling with my skripsi for far too long.

Longer than I intended, and had I know what I’d be doing, I might’ve skipped the first nine months of finding my way.

Here’s my story:

I’m studying Psychology in one of the major universities in Jakarta. I find the subjects very interesting, and my classmates and friends quite interesting, and the lecturers a bit too interesting.

I won’t dabble explaining this subject of Psychology for too long, so I’ll get to my next point.

I like games… computer games to be exact, and I’ve been playing them since I was five. Of course over the past nineteen years computer games have evolved so much since the first Chess game I played on my Dad’s Commodore.

Lately, there’s been this thing called multiplayer computer games, where instead of facing computer opponents, players can have the choice of facing other human players with a variety of skills. Sound like fun heh? Thanks to the improvements of communication technology (i.e. the Internet) and also affordable computer technology, people can now play online computer games (where things get a bit crowded).

Well, I’ve noticed the odd trend around the late 1990s, where people were starting to purchase player’s accounts of high level characters, as well virtual items and estates… I then it came to me as a question: What’s going on here? People spending real money on virtual items?

I decided to make a study on computer games as my final study for my final thesis.

When I start writing the thesis, I had a lot of difficulties, like deciding what variables to measure, what exact topic to work on, choosing the subjects. It took me 9 months to decide on studying gaming behaviors, and another six to decided on studying MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) players. First I wanted to use adolescents and young adults for my subject, but later on focused on the 13-19 year olds. Lately, I’ve decided to rename my study as a study on MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Games). For those who don’t know, there’s quite a difference between MMORPG and MMOG, where the former is the most popular genre of the latter (okay, pardon my English).

Now, I’ve conducted a survey on several places in the Kelapa Gading area, collected 70 valid data, and I am right now writing the report on it. I’ve been writing since late July, and been going on till now.

I originally intended to finish on August, so I can catch last semester’s exam window, but my advisor advised against it. His reasons were sensible, since pursuing 10 days in finishing my thesis may prove hazardous. But instead, I’ve slowly worked in two months, in a very slow pace, and realize so much time I’ve wasted.

I feel so disatisfied about this. Man, I could’ve use my time better, instead of playing and hanging around.

But I guess people choose their priorities, and I happen to choose the less important ones, like writing this blog!

Sigh.

My beloved cousin, Ernst Adhikara Chandra has gone last Sunday to the land of the ancestors.

He left for China, to study… for a year.

Imagine that!

A year separated from him. No more barging in to my house. No more playing games together, or watching scifi films together.

Sigh.

I hope he’s having the time of his life there. For the first time he’ll be standing on his own feet, separated from his family and his parents’ support, relying on nothing but God, his resources and whatever new acquaintances he may found.

Best of luck, cousin!

Hear ye, hear ye!

I proclaim this post, as my first post of my second blog.

Second blog?

WHAT?

Where’s the first blog?

In case ye gentlesirs are wondering where my first blog is, it is still safe and sound at my old blogspot.
But in case you’re wondering, I haven’t updated that blog pretty much, and I doubt I’ll the same to here.

But hopefully (and God willingly) I hope to obtain more audience and readers from among you.

So allow me to once present you this blog.

FRAIX’s blog!