I am in desire of rest, but my eyes won't shut and my mind won't calm.

From Digs

”I made a business decision about a month ago to strategically partner with an organization that would handle most of our HR work. “

Partner ? I mean if you are paying another company for a given service, I can hardly say it as a partnership.

Good mornin' cloudy sky.

I had my daily chat and bitch session with Digs last night and it was an unusually juicy one. Man. Anyway, that's not my point.

We touched the topic of travel again where he outlined his plan for Middle East, in which I held my head down in shame, after a year of abysmal record. I watched in envy from the sideline about Paola's adventure in India, Amanda's tale of Kenya, Ying's new life in Sweden, Andrea's night life in Tokyo, stories of Sarah's live-in-two-new-countries-in-a-year, Digs 8 new countries, Becky's El Salvador travel and incoming Australia/NZ gig. Courtney quipped to me weeks ago “it must have been weird for you not to travel” (and she's doing England and Hongkong in a year), Art is going to Jamaica this March, along with Pablo, my sister is in Beijing and then going south west to Tibet, my mom and dad partied at the highland of Malaysia for New Years Eve, Felice just completed her one month tour in South East Asia. Who else? Ah, Mike went to Wales, Santi in Poland, Mahbod was in Brazil, another Becky just returned from Guatemala, Peach spent three months in India (Mel is still there) and another good month criss-crossing Europe, Sapna frequent flight to Brazil, Bulan's Phillipines and soon to be Melbourne moves, Patrick three months in Papua New Guinea, Jamie West Africa Rebel Zone tour, Jason already 6 months study in Syria, Koen's European travel, ...

Sigh, I'm greener than Hulk.

There you go, I just want to get those out of my system. I could scream like Howard Dean. Yeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaarrrrgh!

Good mornin' cloudy sky.

From Wired:

”Aparna Jairam isn't trying to steal your job. That's what she tells me, and I believe her. But if Jairam does end up taking it - and, let's face facts, she could do your $70,000-a-year job for the wages of a Taco Bell counter jockey - she won't lose any sleep over your plight. When I ask what her advice is for a beleaguered American programmer afraid of being pulled under by the global tide that she represents, Jairam takes the high road, neither dismissing the concern nor offering soothing happy talk. Instead, she recites a portion of the 2,000-year-old epic poem and Hindu holy book the Bhagavad Gita: "Do what you're supposed to do. And don't worry about the fruits. They'll come on their own." “

From Martin Fowler:

“The experiences I'm writing about here are based on work done over the last couple of years by ThoughtWorks. We opened an office in Bangalore India in 2001 and have done several projects which have used a Bangalore based team. We've also done some offshore development with our Melbourne office. In these projects we've committed to using as much of an agile approach as possible, since we believe that agility is an approach that's in the best interests of our customers. In this essay I'll describe some of the lessons we've learned so far.”

It's here. Be prepared. Go abroad. Deal with it.

Got a call from Felice. Never fails to lift my spirit up since we started our conversation back in summer of 1995. That's almost 9  years. Amazing.

I called home earlier today and got a bad news, the first harvest failed. Too much rain. I am talking about shrimp farming. Man, that sucks. A smaller harvest is coming in two weeks and we are hoping for a better result (marginally). A season lasts for 4 months. So the next harvest is going to  be on May.

The economy in my island depends on this type of aquaculture. We export most of the shrimp to Japan, which means dollars, which valued very generously against Rupiah, our own currency.

I realize how much exposure to turbulance I have had  growing up in an enterpreneurial family. Little victories here and there and sometimes a series of dissapointments and setbacks. And things are always steady. I am still amazed how my parents kept their cool in one of our worst incident ever happened to us (our 6 months old house got burn down 5 days before I left for Australia. I rushed back home for two days and spared one day, flew out to Australia)  

From The Jakarta Post

“After keeping the bird flu from the public since September, allegedly due to pressure from several well-connected poultry businessmen, the government finally confirmed on Sunday the avian influenza, or bird flu, outbreak in the country.”

Strap on folks, we're going to global def-con 1 pretty soon. Indonesia is the 7th country in Asia that got hit by the virus (and guess what, the spread of the virus actually happened months ago) after Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.

Damn, my whole family is in the region. Eat fish instead.

I watched this movie with a friend last Saturday over soft tacos, on 13 inches TV and seated on a comfy loveseat. Get the DVD (or VHS;which is the case of mine). The movie is a poignant narrative of 6 middle-age men who lost their jobs in a shipping yard somwhere in Spain that closed due to losing competition to Korean ship yards. The first scene actually reminds me of the scene from the “Full Monty“ in which the main characters continued their search for the ever elusive jobs.

It's a smart, funny and thoughtful movie. A great movie for two. Well recommended.

From New York Times

”''Mondays in the Sun,'' which examines the lives of a group of laid-off shipyard workers in northern Spain, similarly surveys the state of the working class in the wake of its historical defeat. The film opens with a violent protest, in which workers in their hard hats face helmeted police officers across makeshift barricades. The rest of the action takes place a few years later, when the barricades are gone and the shipyard has shut down. “

Check out the trailer courtesy of Apple. Rotten Tomatoes gives it 79%.

Contrary to latest trend in dieting (lookup for Atkins and Southbeach) that treat Carbs as 'haram' or 'not kosher', I have piled on pasta and vegetable as my main staple for this cold season. Yeah, I'm going half-vegetarian and I actually feel fine going for days without eating meat.

There's a practical reason for that. I'm too lazy to buy food outside for lunch (brr, it's cold) and I can't stand the smell of cooking food with oil that lingers long after the cooking is done. I would have to open the windows for an extended period of time to clear the air and that's just bad idea in Chicago winter. 

So it's pasta seven days a week. Well, that's boring. Perhaps, but I have been conditioned during my stay in Italy to eat pasta everyday (off course, there you can have bazillion of variety of food that comes with your pasta)

My favourite recipe for pasta would be combining Barrila (stick only to Barrilla) Angel Hair pasta with freshly cut tomatoes over a squeeze of citrus. Yum. Mix a bit of olive oil if you like but skip the cheese. All this took 5 minutes to cook. Tuna would be a great addition to this meal except that I can't be bothered of opening a can of Tuna everytime (hmm, there's a theme of “laziness” here).

And boy, the calorie count is *low*. Combined with a four days a week swimming regime, that makes enough room for the sugar in coffee, once a week chocolate bar, red wine on the weekend, a beer bash and an occasional pig out session with Annie without worrying of putting on weight in winter.

Pasta, milk, veggies and fruit. It's a great diet for a busy lifestyle in a frozen season.

This is the second time in three days I went to bed before midnight and wake up around 2.30 am.

And yet again Asia become the most productive trans-species virus producer. Ain't I proud ?

From the Grey Lady

“Provincial governments in west central Thailand dispatched hundreds of soldiers and prisoners on Sunday to slaughter chickens in flocks infected with avian influenza, as hospitals across Southeast Asia remained on high alert for further human cases of the disease.”

If my day count is correct, Andrea would be in Bangkok by now, leaving the hectic Tokyo behind. I hope this virus scare doesn't ruin her travel plans.

And the virus just claimed its first victim in Thailand.

Bugger.

I found a postcard from Kenya on my mail box this afternoon. Amanda wrote to me. She wrote about the joy she had being on the equator for the first time in her life and compel me to follow her path to the sun baked continent.

“It's a music that finds its rhythm in the most unexpected places. It's hope you can literally feel in the air. The knowledge that  a better life is on its way.”

“Perhaps after I leave, you will take my place and continue to show me more”.

I'm dreaming of a weekend on the sun when the rays etched its mark on my bare skin, just like two years ago, navigating a small boat on the way to my family's farm in the snaking rivers in tropical Borneo. Hmm, the salty smell of the sea. The winter in Chicago starts to bite as I  swam in a cold water, thanks to the broken pool heater.

This picture comes from Jakarta. Look at the composition of the picture, a Muslim woman with  a hijjab guiding her children wearing traditional Chinese apparrels.

The Chinese New Year is a national holiday in Indonesia (starting three years ago)

Tomorrow is Chinese New Year, year of the monkey.

If I was in Indonesia with my family, by now I would have sat down around dinner table salivating over  enourmous amount of food to pig out (yeah, just like Thanksgivin). My mom is a great cook. The night before the New Year is called the “big dinner”. That's when you pretty much gather all your family (you hope) to have a feast.

I've missed those dinners for about 9 in 10 years. One of those year when I did make it was in 2002 where for the first time since 1992 my three sisters, parents and me sat down together to have dinner (yeah, t'was a pretty big deal). I get a feeling that's a pretty big hole in anyone's life.

I have no Chinese friend here  (pretty weird, somehow they don't exist in my circle of friends) so I pretty much spend tonight pigging out of my usual dinner (hmm, well, I might add Chicken to my menu tonight).

It's already New Year in Indonesia and I will make a call to my family pretty soon.

Once in a while you are allowed to post pictures of cute babies on your weblog. Isn't she just adorable?

from Bea

From Wired

“Nearly 100,000 people from around the world have descended on Ghatkopar, one of Mumbai's suburbs, for the World Social Forum, one of the largest gatherings of social activists and nongovernmental organizations.”

“Fuck it“, A new bad break up song for guys by Eamon. Lyrics (explicit).

From New York Times

”Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts won the Iowa caucuses here tonight, brushing aside the insurgent candidacy of Howard Dean with an appeal that he would be the strongest candidate the Democrats had to beat President Bush.”

Move on to NH. Let's see what Dean is made of.

”Not only that, the topic of casual “said title” comes into play.  What’s wrong with it anyways?  Can’t buddies hook up and just enjoy themselves without the drama and baggage getting in the way?  That way there’s the automatic trust in friendship without any strings attached.  I know, someone get these rose colored glasses off my face already…” (Jackie)

It's all good. Nothing wrong with that. Sail ahead, full speed.

May I persuade you to listen to three rocking tracks (pre-mastered) from my buddy's band Long Distance Runner ? They are playing at Gunther's Murphy this Thursday, January 22 (which happens to be Adam's 26 birthday) and another show on the 30 (just before SuperBowl)

From International Herald Tribune

”The World Trade Organization's top court ruled on Monday that Canadian provinces subsidize their timber industry, delivering a setback to Ottawa in a 22-year-old dispute involving $5.5 billion in import duties.”

From Washington Post

”This new perspective led Manji to write a book titled "The Trouble With Islam: A Wake-Up Call for Honesty and Change." Recently released in the United States, Manji's book challenges Muslims worldwide to end human rights violations committed against women and religious minorities in the name of Islam. She also calls for an end to anti-Semitism, which she says has no basis in the preaching of the Koran. “

You gotta read the book.

“Her critics say the book is simplistic, and that Manji does not have the academic credentials to criticize Islam. "The Trouble with Islam? I think Ms. Manji used the wrong title," said Mohamed Elmasry, national president of the Canadian Islamic Congress, a non-government organization that represents most of the 600,000 Muslims in Canada. "The book should be entitled: the trouble in the life of Irshad Manji. The book is a personal account of a young lady struggling with her religion, which is common among Muslims and non-Muslims. She is not a specialist to advocate Muslims should revise their religion and holy book. It is not credible." “

What's wrong with being simplistic? Her book doesn't need to be complicated because the troubling reality in many of Islamic practices around the world are obvious. I mean you don't need to be a scholar to wonder what's up with the Jewish bashing we commonly hear from them? Why the majority of the world terrorists claim the faith of Islam? Why whenever the Islamist took to power women's right went down the drain?

A specialist? Yeah, like Iran's Ayatollah?

There is nothing sophisticated or new in her book. She simply ask a simple question that has been ignored for way too long amongst Muslims and non-Muslim. “Why?”. Why the killing? Why the hatred towards the Jews? Why the intolerant? Why the oppressive religious regime? The list goes on.

I hope this book ignites major discussion around this country because it is important. We need  a real and honest dialogue about Islam. Why can Turkey and Indonesia embrace Islam and stay modern (I have high hopes for Iraq) while its co-religionist in much of Middle East and Northern Africa fail to ride the wave of modern civilization?

I know this can be a very uncomfortable dialog and it can be hijacked by both side of the religioust spectrum, from people that think religion is evil and from people think that Islam is beyond critism. But the questions need to be asked and we ought to answer them, otherwise we are abandoning the aspiration of much part of the world for better living and dignity.

I went to hang out with a good friend tonight who is in the process of getting divorce, saying no to Andrea's last minute invitation to Rhytm (a pretty big price to pay but I'll see her on Tuesday before her leaving to Japan and Thailand for three weeks)

The D word.  That's *drama* for ya. It's a pretty big deal I reckon. He's about one month older than me and now he's a divorcee with one boy and one girl.

I joked that he's done everything that ever need to be done in this life.

I then politely refuse the offer to join him (and his entourage) to go to a strip club for his "freedom" party. Nah, it wasn't a moral choice, it just that I didn't feel like going. It felt rather pathetic to me and I have business to do.

On the way home, in my 20 minutes walk over desolate part of South Chicago to the L train, I felt guiltly blessed that I don't have *that* problem. What a life. A quarter century with two offsprings already. It hit me that this is not unusual. My best friend back in Borneo got his second offspring when he was 23 (although he's still happily married right now). I can't even fanthom  a life like that, with a burden of responsibility greater than my own. Not yet, at least now. Does it signify a sign of my own immaturity? I hope not but there's a reason to suspect it (although it's definately a low bar to indicate maturity;making babies is an art well practiced)

Anyway, back to this friend. He just moved out of his old house and to an apartment shared by another friend. He's doing ok for a person going through a divorce. He didn't seem particularly sad about it either. If I were in that position, it would be one of the saddest time in my life. But heck, what do I know. This is one situation that you would never understand until you experience it (and this one experience I'm not seeking)

I don't think he wished it would turn out this way, but he seems to take it in stride. I haven't talked to his almost-ex-wife (paper will be signed in a month);knowing her just a couple months ago. I wonder if she took it as stoically as he does.

Life is weird.

What a week. Finally tonight I got time on my own. I am finishing “the trouble with Islam” book that I bought last night (signed off course). It's a brief book and I'm about an hour away from completing it. More on this later.

From Salon

”Quietly, O'Neill and his publisher have prepared an irrefutable response. Soon they will post every one of the 19,000 documents underlying the book on the Internet. The story will not be calmed. “

If that's the case, finally, the light will shine on one of the most secretive administration in recent history.

Read the transcript of his 60 minutes interview last night. I expect that quotes from his book will be used extensively in the presidential campaign this year.

Irshad Manji, the author of the aforementioned book, will appear on the 15th of January at a bookstore in Old Town at 7.15. You betcha that I'm going to be there. I have a couple of questions in store for her.

From Time

”If anyone would listen to him, Paul O'Neill thought, Dick Cheney would. The two had served together during the Ford Administration, and now as the Treasury Secretary fought a losing battle against another round of tax cuts, he figured that his longtime colleague would give him a hearing. “

From Washington Post

”President Bush showed little interest in policy discussions in his first two years in the White House, leading Cabinet meetings "like a blind man in a roomful of deaf people," former Treasury secretary Paul H. O'Neill says in an upcoming book on the Bush White House. “

From New York Times

“With its rising budget deficit and ballooning trade imbalance, the United States is running up a foreign debt of such record-breaking proportions that it threatens the financial stability of the global economy, according to a report released Wednesday by the International Monetary Fund. “

IMF has usually been scolding plenty of emerging and developing economies around the world about their fiscal prudence and soundness of their countries. It's a bit unnerving to see them come down on the US hard.

Sweet.  

If I'm in the market for mp3 players, I'll definately get this. There's a lot of grumble about its price ($250) vs its 15 GB cousins ($300). Well, I like the form factor (and the aluminium case) and I have little need for 15 GB (that's a lot of songs). With this size, I can use it comfortably with my running schedule (in this coming Spring)

From the Economist

”

Nine years ago, members of the World Trade Organisation agreed not to take each other to court over farm subsidies. But the “peace clause”, as this agreement is known, expired on December 31st. Will its end mean the beginning of a trade war?

”

I will track this farm issue over the course of the year. My firm is going international this year hence putting me back into the albeit still small part in the globalization system.

Good morning. I'm about to start my work day but let me note that the thermometer here has dropped to zero F as I write this (and this being the Windy City, it must have felt much colder outside). The real Chicago winter has arrived.

From New York Times

Until last year, few Americans felt drawn to museum shows featuring Mesopotamian antiquities. But the looting of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad in April focused new attention on this ancient civilization, and its glories are now the subject of two lavish shows.

The Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, which has one of the world's richest collections of these antiquities, has opened a new hall to display them. “

Interesting. I may pay a visit to these collections.

Take a look at the first set of initial images from the successful landing of the NASA Mars Expedition, Spirit 

This type of engineering marvel created an envious engineer out of me. Whenever I am stuck in a particular set of programming problem(which is a quasi engineering discipline), I keep telling myself, this ain't Martian Science. You can an idea on what kind of engineering/science problems they need to solve to make a successful mission like this by taking a look at this website. Now that is hard.

Paul Graham wrote a wonderful essay about free thinking and in the process present an idea on how to do free thinking without falling trigerring punishment mechanism from the common norms of society. The essay is quite long so give yourself a favour, print it out and read it over coffee as it is a thoughful essay that will require some quiet thinking to digest and gain meaning from it.

“(This essay is about heresy: how to think forbidden thoughts, and what to do with them. The latter was till recently something only a small elite had to think about. Now we all have to, because the Web has made us all publishers.)”

From WashingtonPost

“After three weeks of raw emotional debate and intense private negotiations, members of a constitutional assembly in Afghanistan agreed yesterday on a new charter for the volatile postwar nation, clearing the way for its first democratic elections in 25 years.“

It is quite remarkable to observe the turnaround of a failed state such as Afghanistan which was beyond hope just a little more than two years ago until the US special forces routed the Taliban out of power (and the allied nations committed to stay and rebuild the country).

“The 162-article constitution grants men and women equal rights, a dramatic advance in a conservative rural society in which women have traditionally been subjugated to decisions by their male relatives, with little access to legal protections. “

Look at that progress. It is indeed a great news. If you read the article, you will notice that there are still some contentious issues to be solved. However, this constutition paves the way for the political system in Afghanistan to establish itself and allow its people to learn the ropes of democracy.

They will no doubt stumble in their learning, but as long as there is a strong committment from the Afghan people (and persistent nudge from the world) to the democractic process, we will see a transformed country in this decade.

It's a good start to the year. Good luck folks.

I'm rebuilding dodyg.org from scratch again. You can find the old weblog at http://dodyg.manilasites.com or http://radio.aiesec.ws/users/0000001. This weblog is hosted on SilverKey server and uses a suite of open source software that I've modified.

I make this move because I have a couple of ideas that I want to test out and the most appropriate forum to do it is on my own weblog. A news aggregator for dasBlog is coming and you will see parts of it tested from this website, live. Another reason is that the weblog software that I used before, Radio Userland, has overstayed its welcome. It was a very nice blogging software two years ago but I've found myself less keen to tolerate its bugs and quirks as time pass by.