What I learned from "Joker"

“I used to think that my life was a tragedy, but now I realize, it’s a comedy” - Arthur Fleck

That poor guy. Yes, you might have guessed. I just watched the film. It is a beautifully made film yet disturbing. So disturbing that I can’t keep it for myself, I need to discuss it with somebody after the show and now the need to write it down.

After watching the film, some people said, “Bad guys are hurt good guys”. Well, bad guys are the result of bad society, consisting of bad people who tend to do bad things to other people. I mean, why the heck that rascals just hit the clown? He was just doing his job, man. Just because he was a clown doesn’t justify the bullying act. This made me realise how bad the society is, even in real life.  Imagine you are sitting in a cafe. Next to you sits another guy who looks somewhat weird. You have never seen that kind of person before. His skin is too dark. His eyes are… too small, probably. His face is too round. His nose is less pointy and a bit too big. What comes to your mind? Let’s ridicule him? Yes? You are sick. But, hey, you are not alone. They are out there, people with similar thoughts.

The next thing I realised after the film was how important the mental health is. Arthur Fleck had a condition a.k.a. mental illness. His mother was delusional. HE is delusional. He was bullied because of his condition. But he was still functional, the medication and psychiatrist kept him from falling deeper into the hole. Then, it was cut. That’s when everything went from bad to worse, I think.

My friend : “Well, he just had bad luck. Bad things happened to him all the time. He didn’t have somebody to talk to.”
Me : “If he got help, I mean the psychotherapy and the medication weren’t cut, he might still be able to stay functional. ”
My friend : “How can you stay sane when so many bad things happen to you? Plus, he is poor. It won’t make any difference. Let’s say he had money and could afford the therapy, he would still turn out to be Joker anyway.”
Me: “If he were rich, he would become Batman instead”

When you realize your life is a comedy, it's too late

A Tooth Fairy's Tale

When I was studying in the States, we were required to do some sort of assignments called “reflexive questions”. It consisted of several questions about activities you have done and how you felt and what benefits or loss you might conclude from the experiences. The purpose: do something, learn from it, which in the end, learn about yourself. That, plus the great possibility that I suffer from histrionic personality disorder (really, the more I think about it, the more I am sure I have a personality disorder), makes me reflect on what has just happened to me and the reason behind it.

Some of you who have known me for quite a long time – especially if we went to seafood restaurants quite often – might have seen me crushing crab shell or opening a bottle of beer or biting off a label tag with my teeth. You might have felt the pain within yourself, as if YOU yourself had done one of those things.

Well, last weekend I had toothache (again, the same tooth for probably the last three years). I knew it clearly, as it has always been, that I wasn’t fit. This particular tooth was filled when I was in the high school. And everytime I am dehydrated or about to catch a cold, it hurts, as if giving me signal that I need to pay attention to my body and health. I took it for granted. I drank a lot of water, slept or recuperated myself as soon as I noticed the signal. Good thing is: the pain went away as soon as my body was fit again.

But, this time, things are different. The pain stayed put. It dragged my gum since Thursday (or probably Wednesday) and didn’t go away until Monday, regardless what I did to reduce it. On Tuesday, I decided to see a dentist, which I believe is not anyone’s favourite thing. The dentist decided to drill a hole in that tooth so that the heat, as a side effect of inflammation on the gum, to break out from my mouth. I had to go back the next day. He couldn’t pull it out as the inflammation was still there. “Come back tomorrow and hopefully it is fit enough to be pulled,” he said.

On the next day, I was ready and so far three dentists have handled me. The newest dentist tried to pull the whole tooth. This is understandable as it takes shorter time, less work and everybody is happy. But he failed.

“I need to cut the tooth into two so that I can pull each part of the root,” he explained.

I looked at the four surgery lamps above me with the hope that they could blind all my senses. Maybe this is why people hate going to see dentist.

He finally cut it and tried one more time. I don’t need to explain how it felt like when he hold the half-tooth and made a circular movement. He couldn’t do it, either. Oh, good. Then came the second doctor, a rather cool one with ponytail. He took a look and took over the surgery. Oh, man, I bet he does weightlifting quite regularly. I even felt numb on my anaesthetized left jaw when he finally pulled out one part of the tooth.

Thanks. That helped.

The new doctor continued the work. After a little more efforts, he finally took the second part.

Oh, thank God.

“Wait, what is this part?”

Wait. What?

“There is something more. Be patient, we’ll be finishing soon,” he looked at me smiling, trying to soothe me.

After the cracking and wooshing sounds from the machine, the tooth was finally gone. And here comes the explanation.

“Your tooth has three roots, that’s unusual. As you may have known, most teeth have two roots only,” he showed me a picture of anatomy of tooth. “We didn’t see it on X-ray because the film is two-dimensional, and this one hide behind the other.”

“Another thing that makes our surgery today a little difficult is that the root is not pointy at the end as the usual root. Yours are a bit thick at the end. Imagine pulling a bended nail,” he smiled.

As a bonus, I was allowed to see my tooth before it was thrown away. I saw at least six pieces bloody calcium. 

What a tooth!

After that I kind of thought to myself: That is why, I was able to bite off those hard things. Some of them might have more than two roots. I felt grateful that I decided not to wear a brace seven years ago. Maintaining my uniqueness is more important than having the same look like others as I might be defined by my teeth.

Eternal Rivalry and The Victim

One, who is a psychology student or having interest in psychology, should know Sigmund Freud.  Well, in case you don’t know, he is (or was, I am having difficulties to decide which tenses to use) the founding father of Psychoanalysis – once one of  the popular fields in psychology. And his fundamental theory about personality is the Id, Ego and Superego. Some people, including me, have difficulties differentiating those three, which are responsible for our behavior. Some of you may argue that his theory is outdated. But believe me, if you trace deep enough through the modern psychology, you will come back to these famous three.

Okay, enough about psychology and Freud. Let’s talk about those three directors of ours. Id is the part of you, that wants to enjoy the life as pleasantly as possible. That includes all the hedonic urges in you – hunger, sex, buying expensive but unimportant things. On the other hand, there is the police of the mind – the Superego – who regulate or limit the Id so that you don’t live like animals or simply destroy yourself with those desires. So, everytime you want to do something - or behave - these two legendary rivals will fight, or I should say, negotiate. Imagine the devil-and-angel thing like in films or cartoons. The result, or the treaty, of the negotiation is the Ego, things you finally express in your behavior – smiling and say no when a stranger gives you something or nod your head in front of your parents although you didn’t agree with what they say.

And of course, there come times when your Id is so strong but your Superego is surprisingly diligent in doing its work. For example, you want to swear (name all the derogatory words, mostly marked with derog. in a dictionary) but your social values don’t allow it. One thing I find interesting is how our Ego turns out to be, accommodating the hateful feeling yet socially accepted.

Instead of saying the word that means excrement, some people say “Shoot!”, with the same intention and tone of swearing, of course. Some replace the word which means sexual intercourse with “Fudge!”. If you are following the series How I Met Your Mother, you will learn many replacements – such as surgeon for a person who hasn’t had an intercourse or witch as in wicked witch to refer to seducing, annoying behavior of a woman or sandwich as a reference to the leaves that is illegal in most part of the world. In this way, they are safe from trouble: when somebody got mad, they could say, “I didn’t say the bad words.” At the same time, their loath was expressed.

Some people go smarter. Instead of showing one forbidden finger, some show three fingers with the caption “read between the lines”. Or pretending to rub their chin or eye, but the only active finger is that particular finger – as for this one, some do it subconsciously – and here comes another theme: defense mechanism. Oops!

Remember: there will always be a negotiation between Id and Superego within you. And the result is your Ego, for example, this article (and the avoidant of some words, oh, you know what I mean).

From Paris With Love: O-esyiki

Minggu lalu saya berkesempatan mengikuti perayaan O-esyiki (upacara peringatan moksyanya Buddha Nichiren Daisyonin, upacara tahunan terpenting bagi umat Nichiren Syosyu di seluruh dunia) di kuil Shingyoji di Prancis. Berikut adalah kesan saya selama upacara dan perbandingannya dengan upacara yang diadakan di Indonesia.

18 Okt 2012 – Tiba di Paris

Berhubung hanya ada dua kuil di Eropa, yaitu di Prancis dan Spanyol, semua umat di sini “harus berkelana” ke salah satu kuil untuk mengikuti upacara yang dipimpin oleh Bhikkhu. Kemudian saya tahu dari salah satu umat Prancis bahwa Bhikkhu pimpinan kuil di Spanyol sedang sakit dan sudah kembali ke Jepang. Praktis, seluruh umat di Eropa hanya punya satu pilihan.

Saya dan seorang teman dari Medan memutuskan untuk berangkat dari Berlin menggunakan budget airline. Maklum, kami hanyalah mahasiswa dengan pendapatan pas-pasan. Perjuangan saya sendiri diwarnai dengan denda sekitar 40 Euro ketika ingin mencari tahu letak bandara. Pelajaran: kalau memang jodoh saya harus menghabiskan uang sejumlah tertentu, tidak ada cara untuk menghindarinya.

Kuil Shingyoji terletak di 25 Rue Carnot, Montreuil, Prancis. Montreuil adalah daerah pinggiran kota Paris, bejarak sekitar tujuh kilometer dari pusat kota. Kami sengaja mencari hotel yang dekat dengan kuil. Alasannya, lebih praktis dan bisa ditempuh dengan berjalan kaki sekitar 10-15 menit.

20 Okt 2012 – Upacara Ottaya

Karena acara gongyo sore diadakan pada pukul 15:00, kami pun mengarah ke kuil sekitar satu jam sebelumnya, setelah makan siang di daerah pecinan Paris. Dari statsiun terdekat, Croix de Chavaux – M9, kami harus berjalan mencari lokasi kuil. Untunglah kami punya peta di tangan dan dengan bantuan Google Map, kami berhasil menemukan kuilnya.

Melihat bentuk kuil di Prancis, gambaran saya tentang kuil agak terganggu karena kuil-kuil di Indonesia dan Jepang yang pernah saya lihat rata-rata berupa bangunan besar dengan ornamen-ornamen khas kuil seperti bentuk atap dan ukiran-ukiran. Kuil di Prancis terlihat seperti rumah penduduk lainnya: dua tingkat, berpagar dan bergarasi. Ketika melihat gambar kuil melalui Google Map, saya agak ragu sebenarnya. Tapi ketika tiba di tempat dan bertemu dengan orang-orang yang ramah dengan sapaan “Bonjour”, saya yakin bahwa kami tidak salah lokasi.

Di meja resepsionis, kami harus mendaftar ulang dan menitipkan jaket atau tas kepada penerima tamu. Umat tidak membayar untuk mengikuti upacara seperti di Indonesia, karena di sini tidak disediakan penginapan dan makanan berat. Juga tidak ada acara pertemuan atau kesenian seperti di Indonesia.

Ruangan gongyo terletak di lantai tiga. Sayang sekali, gongyo telah dimulai ketika kami tiba sehingga harus puas duduk di lantai dua dengan menonton dari televisi kecil yang disediakan.

Selesai gongyo dan sambil menunggu upacara Ottaiya pada pukul 16:30, kami pun berkenalan dan mengobrol dengan umat-umat dari negara-negara lain di Eropa. Sebuah pengalaman menarik bertemu dengan orang-orang yang percaya hukum agama Buddha di negara-negara yang didominasi agama Kristen. Kemudian saya tahu bahwa ada sekitar 200an umat dari Prancis, Austria, Belgia, Jerman, Italia, Serbia, Spanyol dan Swiss yang turut hadir dalam perayaan O-syiki kali ini.

Sekitar 15 menit sebelum upacara dimulai, panitia memberitahukan peserta untuk segera memasuki ruangan gongyo. Umat di sini agaknya lebih tertib dan teratur karena dalam sekejap, taman di belakang kuil yang tadinya ramai tiba-tiba menjadi lengang.

Saya pun naik ke atas, memasuki ruangan gongyo yang berukuran sekitar 4x10 meter. Tidak seperti di Indonesia, umat di sini berdoa dengan duduk di kursi panjang yang disusun berderet. Tiba-tiba saya teringat dengan vihara di Medan. Ruangannya cukup besar namun umatnya sering mengeluh viharanya terlalu kecil dan tidak terjaga.

Sekitar 100 orang mengikuti upacara Ottaiya. Ada yang datang sendiri, bersama pasangan atau keluarga. Melihat umat-umat yang semangat, saya jadi malu sendiri karena jarang gongyo di rumah.

Upacara harus dilakukan dua kali karena ruangan tidak cukup untuk menampung semua umat yang hadir. Karena tidak ada acara lain setelah itu, kami pun pulang sementara umat lain mengikuti upacara shift kedua.

21 Okt 2012 – Gongyo Pagi, Upacara O-esyiki dan makan siang

Gongyo pagi dimulai pukul 8:00. Karena bangun agak telat, kami harus buru-buru berjalan kaki tanpa sarapan terlebih dahulu. Untunglah kami tiba tepat waktu. Selesai gongyo, kami disuguhkan teh atau kopi.

Upacara O-esyiki shift pertama diadakan pukul 10:00. Kami mendapat shift kedua yang diadakan pada pukul 11:30. Sambil menunggu, umat berpindah ke bangunan di seberang sambil menonton video Tozan Umat Luar Negeri 2009. Karena rasa lapar yang tak tertahankan, saya memutuskan untuk keluar sambil mencari sarapan dan melihat daerah sekitar kuil dan berhenti di sebuah kedai kopi sambil mengamati kegiatan orang-orang di pasar tradisional Prancis.

Saya kembali ke kuil untuk mengikuti upacara, yang lebih kurang sama dengan upacara di Indonesia. Yang saya rindukan dari upacara di Indonesia adalah acara salam-salaman dan cipika-cipiki sembari mengucapkan “Selamat O-esyiki”. Sepertinya itu memang budaya khas Indonesia.

Selesai upacara, umat-umat berpindah ke gedung sebelah yang lebih besar untuk acara makan siang. Sepertinya gedung itu memang sering digunakan untuk acara lain seperti acara kesenian atau pemutaran film. Sambil menunggu, umat-umat bisa menonton video atau melihat galeri foto kegiatan umat Prancis. Sekali lagi, saya terkesima dengan keseriusan umat-umat di sini dalam melaksanakan hati kepercayaan.

Sekitar pukul 13:00, Y.A. Nakano, pemimpin kuil Shingyoji yang juga pernah bertugas beberapa tahun di Indonesia, memasuki ruangan. Seperti di Indonesia, umat-umat sangat antusias untuk mengobrol atau berfoto bersama. Umat-umat Indonesia yang sudah tinggal di Eropa pun tidak ketinggalan.

Salah satu hal yang menarik di sini dan tidak saya temukan di Indonesia adalah acara kan-pai atau bersulang. Setiap umat mendapat segelas kecil wine dan Y.A. Nakano membuka acara makan siang dengan memimpin kan-pai. Menu makanan juga khas Eropa: salad, keju, daging ayam, sejenis bruschetta (potongan roti dengan topping) dan cocktail snack. Acara makan siang seperti acara standing party. Umat mengambil makanan dan mengobrol sambil minum atau makan. Saya sendiri minum sekitar empat gelas kecil wine dan segelas kecil liquor sampai sedikit mabuk.

Pukul 16:30 diadakan gongyo sore dan pembagian bunga sakura kertas. Umat-umat pun pulang sembari menggenggam setangkai panjang bunga sakura berwarna merah jambu. Khas  O-esyiki. Ada beberapa umat yang ditanya warga sekitar tentang bunga tersebut dan mereka dengan senang hati menjelaskan tentang Buddhisme. Umat-umat pun kembali ke hotel atau langsung kembali ke negara masing-masing.

Selamat O-esyiki.

Foto bersama Y.A. Nakano, Vera Kusuma, Stephen dan Kirana

The Sign Is Out There

All the people in the world are equal. God created humans with the same rights, regardless of their skin color or ethnicity. Therefore, it is unbearable if someone underestimates others because they have different skin color. You have to be kind to everyone you know. You have to treat people equally.

Ending Is Another Beginning

Without realizing it, time has flown. I felt like we were asked to learning blogging and multimedia journalism a week ago and now this will serve as the last post for the class.

I have been involving in more news story journalism during the past two quarters, so I got a bit of overview about what journalism is about.  It is about gathering facts (information) and presenting them in a good flow of story to the public. It was more about writing a news story or brief. However, Multimedia Journalism class has brought me to another level of reporting news. Journalism is not only about written stories. There are a lot of ways to present an idea.

Let’s start with slideshows. I mean, just a couple of pictures and cutlines arranged in a comprehensive flow of story can be a powerful reporting media. Even though I was a bit confused with the regular cutlines in my slideshow, I think creating a slideshow is a doable task. People say, a picture can say 1000 words. Forget the hustle bustle of text, here are the pictures of what is happening.

Pictures also serve as descriptive tools on a narrative. I remembered a friend of mine using pictures of closed-down buildings to describe his editorial about the impact of financial crisis on small business. Should that editorial go plain narrative, I wouldn’t have felt touched. As I might going on a career as a photojournalist, this class (along with my internship and college newspaper assignments) has taught me the importance of pictures and how to produce a storytelling picture.

I have been blogging (mostly for my own life journal) for about seven years now but only recently did I learn about using blog for journalistic purpose. I read some journalistic blogs before but never really thought of using mine to serve that purpose. Hence, another new idea on developing my blog.

The last thing that I don’t really think I would go on is video reporting. It is nice to see the final product but the works do not worth the outcome. It takes too many working hours but will attract less viewership compared to the written article or slideshow. However, the class has pushed me to work with storyboard and recording video interview, which I would reluctant to do. I have had this kind of anxious talking with or interview people for my story, and plus asking permission for video recording? Too much. Nevertheless, I kind of broke through my own boundaries. To be honest, I started to enjoy interviewing people and writing stories.

Too bad that the class is about to end. But no matter what, I will carry on with the skills I learned. As I said before, I’m planning on being a photojournalist, for real!

Keep the fingers crossed.

A Story of A Storyboard

Editor: “Let’s report a story using video.”

Student journalist: “It’s video reporting time. Yay!”

Editor: “Are you ready?”

Student journalist: (looking for a camera) “This camera is too big, can I use my iPhone instead?”

Editor: “Sure.”

Student journalist: “Okay. I’m ready to go out and shoot.” (standing eagerly)

Editor: “Wow, hold on. Calm down. Before you go out and shoot, let’s plan the things you should shoot and how they are shot.”

Student journalist: (sighing disappointedly) “I thought what we need is to contact the source and shoot. Isn’t that the tip: shoot, shoot and shoot?”

Editor: “It’s true. But you don’t want to waste the memory by shooting aimlessly, do you? Let’s start with making a storyboard.”

Student journalist: “Storyboard?”

Editor: “Yes. Storyboard is a sketch of how to organize the story and a list of its content.“

Student journalist: “But, I cannot draw.”

Editor: ”Not necessary. You can make a storyboard using stick figure.”

Student journalist: “Well, why bother drawing if the picture is in my head? I mean, I know what I’m doing.”

Editor: “Well, the pictures help you define the scope of the project. Storyboard will help you define the focus of the story. Once you are done you can swap the pictures for a better flow and sequence.”

Student journalist: “I see. Should I make my own box?”

Editor: “It’s up to you. You can choose any available template you want or using a software.”

Student journalist: (fishing his iPhone back to his pocket) “See you soon, video camera. Let’s make a storyboard.”

Editor: (handing sheets of paper) “Here are some tips you can use to make your own storyboard. Make sure you finish it quickly, we’re on deadline.”

Student journalist: “But, I have just learned about it.”

Editor: “No excuse. I want it in my office at 2. You hear me?”

Student journalist: “Aye, aye, Capt’n.”

Sakura-Con 2012 in einem Blick

If you like anime but miss the last Sakura-Con in Seattle, here is an overview of what happened in Washington Convention and Trade Center on April 7-9, 2012.

(The music "Wind" by Akeboshi is the ending theme of Naruto, which was the reason I followed the series)

Geography and Song

The latest issue of the Clipper discusses about meme(s), especially those that are trending in the Internet. So, what’s meme, you ask.

Basically, it is the idea that goes viral. The easiest example to think of is your friend hums a song and you start singing that song or the song plays in your mind for at least the next 30 minutes and you hate yourself of not being able to stop singing.

Personally, songs have been a powerful tool to pass a message or ideas. Long before I came to the U.S., I have learned about its geography (or at least names of cities and states) through songs.

Everytime I hear the word Long Beach, the song “Sway” plays in my mind as the advertisement of Long Beach cigarette used it as jingle.

The same thing goes to Georgia. Since I know the song (Michael Bolton version), originally popularized by Ray Charles, it’s very difficult for me to mention the word Georgia without singing “Georgia….”

“So, if we go up north, where would we end up to?” I asked my friend when we were driving to Orlando during my winter break vacation.

“Oh, Florida’s northern border is Georgia,” he said.

“I said Georgia… “ I started singing.

He laughed.

Alabama follows suit. Who doesn’t know “Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd? (well, if you don’t know, start asking Uncle Google). Or try listen to “Oh Susanna” written by Stephen Foster.

Bee Gees also helped me learning about Massachusetts. Everytime I heard that word, I started singing “Feel I’m going back… to Massachusetts. Something’s telling me, I must go home…” (I’m still singing while typing this).

As for California, it came to me as a song when I watched a film by Wong Kar Wai titled “Chungking Express”. The woman character played by Faye Wong like listening to “California Dreaming” everytime she was doing her job cleaning up an apartment.

On top of all, stood Frank Sinatra with his New York, New York. When I first arrived New York, this song kept playing in my mind. I couldn’t stop singing “Start spreading the news…” for the first 30 minutes since I first step foot on the train station.

Thinking back to my origin, Indonesian songs taught me about cities, too. Kla Project expressed their admiration to Yogyakarta in a song. For sure, if you have ever visited the city, you might be fascinated by the people as described in the song.

Rita Effendi told me about Dili, a capital of Timor Leste, in her song “Januari di Kota Dili.” However, the song was made long before the country separated from Indonesia.

Kuta and Bali were already popular without needing any help from musician. But still, Andre Hehanusa’s Kuta-Bali was a great song to listen to.

So, I said Georgia… (with the hope that you will sing a part of the song).

A Day with The Seattle Times

I had a rewarding opportunity to do a job shadow with Mike Siegel, photographer at The Seattle Times last Friday.

It was all started from my search for internship opportunity as part of the scholarship program.

I am a journalism student at Everett Community College and thought it might be a good learning experience to be able to intern in a big news company like The Seattle Times. So, I tried my luck.

Apparently, there was no internship position at the time I applied. But in return, Jim Simons, one of the editors, offered me a one-day job shadow with their photographer.

I took it. At least, there would be something I could learn. I made the right decision.

So, Friday morning, I was at Seattle. The bus was surprisingly fast that I reached the place far earlier than I thought it would be.

I was supposed to meet Mike at 8 p.m. but apparently he had an assignment to cover a house fire at Mountlake Terrace happened the previous night.

While waiting, I was given a tour to the newsroom, which was so big. I should say that was my first experience being inside the real newsroom.

The staffs were friendly. There I learned how they update online stories and photos.

Then Mike came and I had a chance to see the process of a breaking-news photo went online. In real time.

Again, I was given another tour. This time, we went to all departments in the newspaper. It was so great to witness how people work in newsroom, how newspaper was produced.

At 10 a.m. I was invited to join Fred Nelson, photo editor, to editor meeting. It was not much different with my story idea meeting with the Clipper, only this was more serious and hi-tech.

There were two editor meetings in a day (10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.) in a room called fishbowl (because it was a room with glass wall).

The meeting was started with the presentation of readership of yesterday issue. Then, story ideas from each department for Saturday and Sunday edition. Everybody seems to have lots of stories running.

After that Fred explained to me about his job mediating the photographers and writers. Good stories should go with good photos and good photos deserve publication.

There was a breaking news: a Navy jet hit apartments in Virginia Beach, VA. Everybody was busy looking for more information and photos. Again, I witnessed another breaking news in process.

Soon, the news hit the top of a screen showing traffic of online readership.

We were supposed to have a photo session with Kenny G (yes, the saxophonist and he was from Seattle) but it was canceled.

My second press pass

However, we got another assignment to cover Sakura-Con 2012 at Washington State Convention and Trade Center at Downtown Seattle.

Mike contacted the event organizer, asking permission and press pass.  When everything was okay, we geared up. Shooting time!

It was another learning experience to observe how a professional photojournalist worked on the field. We shoot, took notes. I wish I had a camera with voice memo like the one Mike used. But never mind, I learned another way of recording information from him.

When we were done, I observed Mike working on his assignment: selection, editing, captioning.  Photos were sent and ready to publish.

That was pretty much the day.

Back to Everett, I had to work on my own photos and stories for the Clipper.

Haiku: A New Toy

Five – seven – five.

That’s the rule for haiku, a short form of Japanese poetry. Originally written in Japanese and following the language’s on (or morae) - a unit in phonology that determines syllable weight, haiku has been modified and transferred to other language such as English.

One haiku consists of 17 on (or similar to syllables in English) and three lines. The first line has five on, the second line has seven on and the third line has five on. It can tell about anything, from kitchen utensils to political issues.

My Media Writing instructor first introduced haiku to me. Although she had discussed haiku in her previous quarter newswriting class, I’m more involved in haiku today because she assigned us to create haikus.

At the beginning, I found it hard to describe a thing in just three lines. It seemed to me that an object has many things to describe and three line wouldn’t be enough.

However, as I try to play with words and narrow down the descriptions, I’m addicted (literally).

My mind can’t stop thinking in five-seven-five until now, two hours after I finished writing my haiku.

Here are examples of my haiku:

Move from key to key

E – A – D – G – B and E

Pick the strings and sing

Let your pasta swim

Boiled water and olive oil

Add sauce, salt and cheese

Final penalty

Baggio failed scoring goal

Brazil got fourth cup

Slices, chunk or dice

Potatoes, tomatoes, meat


Cut them as you like

Haiku is so fun

Keep thinking five-seven-five

Why don't you write too?

Segede Bagong Tingkat Dewa

Yeehaa….

Akhirnya, setelah sekian lama, aku memutuskan untuk menulis dalam bahasa keduaku, bahasa Indonesia tercinta (bahasa pertama, tentu saja Hokkian, sebagai keturunan Tionghua yang tinggal di Medan). Setelah melihat-lihat blogku, aku terhenyak karena hampir tidak ada tulisan dalam bahasa Indonesia. (What a shame! - abaikan)

Okay, Indonesian fellas (Haduh, otakkku, stop thinking in English!, - English brain: Ay, ay, Captain!)

Pagi ini, status (dan komentar-komentar di bawahnya) seorang teman di BukuWajah memberi ide untuk mulai menulis. Selagi masih pagi dan belum ada teman sekamar yang bangun, aku pun menulis (lebay!)

Oke (baca: baiklah). Statusnya berbunyi kurang lebih sebagai berikut :

“baru mengerti mengapa ibuku menyuruhku membawa tas segede bagong. Ternyata dia mau menitip barang yang lebih gede dari bagong.”

Temannya  bertanya, “bagong itu apa?”

Teman yang lain berkomentar, “bagong itu pig”

Teman pertama membalas, “loh, bukannya kodok ya?”

Haduh…. Tiba-tiba muncul pemikiran, seberapa sering kita pakai istilah gaul tanpa memahami asal-usul istilah tersebut (atau paling tidak memahami alasan kata-kata tertentu dipakai dalam bahasa gaul). Meskipun aku bukan pakar bahasa gaul (apalagi bahasa tak gaul), tapi aku berusaha mencari tahu supaya tidak terjadi salah pemakaian (pada konteks yang salah, atau penjelasan yang salah)

Oke (baca: baiklah). Mari kita tilik istilah “segede bagong” atau “segede gaban” (ini juga lumayan populer).

Gede = besar (dalam bahasa Betawi/Jawa) dan itu sudah lazim dipakai.

Mari kita tilik kata Bagong. Bagong bukan babi ataupun kodok, melainkan tokoh wayang. Ingat Petruk dan Gareng? Atau ingat acara Aneka Ria setiap hari Minggu di TVRI? (kalau ingat, sadar umur). Yep, Bagong adalah salah satu tokoh punakawan dalam wayang. Ciri fisiknya digambarkan sebagai bertubuh bulat dan besar. Bandingkan dengan Petruk yang cungkring. Mungkin ukuran tubuh yang hampir sama adalah Semar.  

Sementara itu, Gaban merupakan tokoh polisi robot dalam film “Space Cop Gavan/Gaban” (sedikit penjelasan, bahasa Jepang punya bunyi pengucapan terntentu yang tidak terpenuhi dalam pengucapan bahasa lain. Contohnya: vegetarian akan dibaca [bejitarian] atau Luffy dalam komik One Piece akan tertulis [Ruffy] dalam komik aslinya). Bagi mereka yang berusia remaja pada era 80’an 90’an, film Gaban sangat populer. Sekali lagi, Gaban digambarkan sebagai robot yang bisa menjadi raksasa (semoga aku masih ingat filmnya…)

Jadi, istilah “segede bagong/gaban” merupakan hiperbola, bahwa objek yang dimaksud memiliki ukuran yang besar luar biasa seperti ukuran Bagong atau Gaban. Mungkin lain kali, kita bisa menggunakan istilah “segede Monas” atau “segede Power Rangers” atau supaya terkesan lebih gaul: “segede Hagrid”.

Istilah lain yang juga sempat populer di dunia per-BukuWajah-an atau Pengicau (baca: Twitter) atau juga KurirBeriHitam adalah  “…. tingkat dewa.” (isi titik-titik dengan segala kata sifat yang terpikir).

Karena biasanya situs sosial berfungsi sebagai pelampiasan emosi negatif, maka status-status yang bertaburan juga biasanya menggunakan kata sifat negatif. Seperti: lapar/marah/sebel/bingung/emosi/kecewa/… tingkat dewa. Kemudian, seorang teman (ya, jangan tanya berapa banyak teman yang aku punya) berkomentar seperti ini: “capek aku lihat semua yang berakhiran tingkat dewa. Kalau dewa bisa marah, ga disebut dewa lagi.” Ups!

Oke (baca: baiklah). Mari kita tilik. Semua orang percaya bahwa dewa memiliki kemampuan lebih di atas manusia. Mungkin hampir semua manusia (yang mengenal kata dewa) ingin menjadi dewa. Namun, apakah dewa itu sesuatu yang sempurna? Tentu tidak (baca dengan gaya iklan obat cacing). Dewa-dewa dalam cerita Yunani kuno juga memiliki keburukan seperti manusia. Bahkan dewa-dewa dalam cerita di ktiab suci juga tidak sempurna (Lucifer, dkk). Dewa-dewa dalam cerita Tiongkok kuno juga tidak sempurna (lihat saja Panglima Tian Feng alias Ti Pat Kay). Namun, mereka semua memiliki persamaan : lebih hebat dari manusia.

Jadi, istilah tingkat dewa merupakan hiperbola bahwa tingkatan kata sifat yang dipakai melebihi tingkatan yang bisa ditahan oleh manusia. Tentu saja, istilah tersebut bisa dimodifikasi. Seorang teman menggunakan isitilah “tingkat nasional” yang lebih mudah dicerna. Lapar tingkat nasional berarti rasa laparnya tidak main-main lagi, sudah tingkat nasional.

Istilah berikut mungkin hanya diketahui segelintir orang karena setahuku istilah ini hanya digunakan dalam bahasa Hokkian dan ketika aku menggunakannya dalam bahasa Indonesia, teman dari daerah lain bertanya-tanya…. Mungkin percakapan berikut bisa menggambarkan situasi yang aku hadapi

Teman( sebut saja Tulang) : “Aduh, kepalaku sakit, nih.”

Aku : “Hah? Biasa aja kalee…”

Tulang: “Aduh, beneran aku ga bisa tahan lagi deh. Sakit bangeeeeetttt….”

Aku: “Walah, lebih sakit ga punya kepala tahu…”

Tulang: “Ih, apa sih???”

Oke (baca: baiklah). Tidak ada penjelasan asal usul kata di sini dan tidak ada hiperbola, melainkan sarkasme (lupa arti kata ini? Tanya guru bahasa Indonesia ya). Kadang-kadang orang mengeluh tentang sesuatu yang biasa saja. Sakit kepala. Yep. Seberapa sakit, sih? Kalau masih bisa jalan sana-sini, makan, masak dan kawan-kawan, ya masih bisa ditahan bukan. Daripada mengeluh terus, mending makan obat, istirahat, supaya sakitnya sembuh. Jadi, buat mereka yang suka mengeluh sakit kepala, misalnya, bayangkan mereka yang tidak punya kepala, tidak punya perut…. (amit-amit jabang orok – ada yang tau penjelasan istilah ini?)

Wah…. Ternyata saya lebih lancar berbacot dan mengetik dalam bahasa keduaku ini. Tiga halaman dalam waktu 50 menit! Beneran ukuran segede gaban tingkat dewa....

It's Dark And Stormy

“Do you guys want to go home? I can give you a ride if you want!” offered a friend, Mr. Smith, after attending a seminar at Seattle.

I wanted to say yes, but my friend, Mr.OCD had taken the chance to speak, “Thank you very much. But I think we’re going to walk around for a while.”

“Walk around in Seattle at this time?”

It was 10 p.m. on Tuesday.

“Why not?” (I went out from my house at that time in Medan)

“Nothing is wrong here. But, what can you see in weekday like this?”

“No idea.”

***

“I wonder where the people are?” Mr. Talented asked in one of our visits to Seattle.

“It’s now 10 p.m.”

“Yes, I know, but in Jakarta, you can see many people hang around 7-11”

“Who wants to hang around in this kind of cold weather?”

“Maybe you’re right. I’m freezing now.”

***

Several days ago, I read a note in F*cebook about Seasonal Affection Disorder written by a ‘cool’ psychologist. Weather and season can affect your mood and emotional state!

I tried to observe my own behavior in the past months to see how weather changed it.

When I was in Bremen, the first thing I checked when I woke up in the morning was the temperature. Weather forecast had become my breakfast. Why? You need to know what to wear if you plan to go outside.

You didn’t want to wear jacket if the sun shone or T-shirt when it was raining (actually, drizzling).

The thing got worse because the weather changed quite drastically throughout the day.

It might be cloudy and drizzling in the morning, sunny day in the noon, cloudy in the afternoon and freezing at night. Or the variation of those four.

So, if you plan to spend half a day outside, you have to prepare at least 2 kinds of clothes to save yourself (literally). You need to save yourself if weather get too chilly and save your face by not wearing thick jacket on sunny weather.

It was the end of spring. Restaurants and Biergarten (place you can buy beer and sit around) started setting chairs and tables outdoor, greeting the summer. My friend told me it’s typical summertime. People wanted to enjoy the sun. Nobody wants to sit outside, having a glass of beer during winter (or even spring time).

I was unlucky that this year’s summer was kind of late. I was entitled to enjoy ‘only’ 2-week sunny days. The first day I saw the forecast telling me it was 31-Celsius degree, I was so happy. I treasured the sun. That was the first time I really appreciated sunshine even it was 34-Celsius degree. I remembered how I avoid sunny day in Medan (even worse when I moved to Jakarta), which mostly ranged from 27 to 33-Celsius degree. But then, I really enjoyed being sweaty.

I’m now in Everett. A 120,000-population city. The weather is not much different from Bremen.

It was summer when I first arrived and of course the sun shone. However, we were warned that the weather would become worse and prepare for drizzling days.

Summer ended and here came fall.

A friend of mine once asked why a lot of people whine about September and why there was a song like “Wake Me Up When September Ends” by Green Day. Now, I did understand why.

September was the beginning of fall and marked the end of happy summer.

Weather changed dramatically from happy sunny day to gloomy cloudy day. Who wants to go out in a cloudy and windy day? Isn’t it nicer to enjoy the heater and a cup of coffee in front of your laptop? It’s like asking somebody who is playing game to go working on assignments.

(FYI, I think it’s only Indonesia has “September Ceria” (Cheerful September) as a song).

I remembered when I was taking Environmental Psychology class, we discussed about how environmental changed people’s behaviors. In this case, weather.

It’s believed that people who live in places with less daylight are more vulnerable to depression. Offices in Norway, for example, will have lights turn on the whole day to prevent the employees being depressed, especially during winter time when daylight is only 2 hours a day.

I grew up in a tropical country where daylight time is relatively the same in the whole year. I learnt how to read the time from the sun and the sky. I know the approximate time just looking at the sky.

But here (and also in Bremen)? I really need a watch. I was time disoriented. When I was in Bremen, daylight was longer (it could be 16 hours) during summer. I might think that it’s 5 p.m. because the sun was still there. But when I looked at my watch, it was 9 p.m. And here in Everett, the sky might look like 9 p.m. while it was actually 5  p.m. during fall. I couldn’t imagine how my skill would be ruined when winter came.

Weather also affects people’s activities. In cold area, people tend to do things indoor. It’s okay to hang around 7-11 at 11 p.m. in Jakarta. But here? You attempt suicide. Shops usually close at 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. No point to open late because less people want to walk outside (like Mr. OCD and I did in Seattle). So, it’s less likely you can find 24-hour stores.

Does environment affect people?

Yes, definitely.

Now I learn one thing: you know how worse the weather by seeing what people wear.