NTU is not Singapore, walking around might get caught in SG! [Author Corner]

Sorry, my house in Indonesia is secured enough and we are not really that kaypoh about what other people doing around us, but we indeed know each others around neighbourhood. 

That's what I felt like to tell that policeman last night when he asked me "what will you do if someone walking around your house area in wee hours?". Pardon me for being anal about kaypoh-ness of neighbourhood here and sorry also for my grammar mistakes.

Well, basically last night I was unlucky, because usually when I walk around waiting for my friend, nothing happened to me. But, perhaps I need to learn it in hard way that waiting for your friend in void deck at wee hours might get you being suspected for something illegal to do in Singapore.

It was started when I couldn't sleep last night, so I asked my friend who stay in Jurong for supper, simply want to talk about some stuffs. Aggreed to meet in McDonald, but after I finished all of foods that I ordered, he was not there yet. So my decision was walked to his block and waited for him at void deck. Oh to make it more details, it was 230 in the early morning. 

So while waiting, I walked around, while I still constantly contacted him through sms and phone call, yet no responses. That's the time when police "caught" me. Oh well, there were three policemen, and from my observations, each of them has their own job-desc when holding someone momentarily. One will check all of your belongings, including the contents of your phone, another one will call the station to confirm what should they do to the person, while the last one will start small talks to the person to ease his/her feeling. I thank to myself, because I don't have data plan at that moment, and lucky me for not having any indecent contents in my phone (maybe only a video that my friend sent thru whatsapp). But seriously, they need to make it right when reporting to their station in the first place, while another policemen still questioning the person on hold at the same time. 

"Dude, you don't have the full story, yet you reported to your police station like you know everything". 

Lucky there were only few groups of police who patrolled around, I can't imagine if they have a lot, and at the same time with same SOP that they have and they treat all the same as what they did to me, cant imagine all the crowds that they might have in police station. 

Well, I was suspected because I have similar descriptions with the report that they received earlier. When I asked, what are the descriptions, they told me can't reveal everything, but what they told me it was related with nudity in public.(Yeah right, I will run naked in public like nobody business). At the time they told me that, I was like "oh God, why you gave me this physical body appearances thus I need to get thru this kind of things". To my friends, congrats to all of you who said I have perverted face, you guys might be right all this time. *proven by Singapore policemen* =.=

Moral of story: NTU and home country are not Singapore! Do not walk around during wee hours. You might be questioned by policemen if you do.

Shadow Puppet: 45 minutes show under the moon [Performing Art]

Supposedly, this post was published last month, right after I attended the show, but somehow I postponed it and only after Self Awareness Day I have a chance to publish it, guess why? :P

It was my first time experience watching Wayang, shadow puppet play from Central Java and Bali, and I was totally impressed and enjoyed it much. The dialogue of Wayang was re-written by a person I know: Agnes Christina. According to her, the story itself is based on the original book that she has and she simply made the dialogues with casual jokes which in my opinion any other people who understand the language will understand it despite of their education backgrounds or so whatever.

Information from the booklet given before the show

Within more or less 45 minutes, audiences were entertained by the dialogue, the sound (or can I say music?), and a good Dhalang, master puppeteer and storyteller. As I mentioned, the dialogues were meant for public consumption as long the audiences understand the language, mix of Malay, Indonesia and English. Well, you notice that I separate between Malay and Indonesia because indeed those 2 languages are different, to those who think they are the same, please upgrade your dictionary. :)

All of the sound effects were executed digitally and I love it how it creates the atmosphere of show become contemporary style, yet it still portrays what it supposedly to be shown. I was kinda surprised with the fact that it was the first time experience for sounds effect guy to do this kind of sounds. When it comes to Dhalang, my comments only what a great show by her. First, she can make quite range of different human voices for few number of characters within the show. Yup, it was only her who dubbed the voice of characters. On top of it, there are skills needed to play shadow puppet in my opinion and again she is a first timer as well.

An attempt taking picture

With all of first timers in this show production: script writer, sounds effect person, and Dahlang, I would say it was well executed, as I did not really have any expectations since it is a free admission event as well. But in case, you a bit curious about the write-up for this event, here we go:

This Wayang Kulit performance tells the story of Bima's journey to find the holy water of life in a contemporary manner and features elementx found within the three faiths of Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam.

And this is the video by Suria.

My Haircut is 5 Cents More Expensive Than My Mouth Ulcers Dissolvable Film! [Author Corner]

Recently, I've been out of my comfort zone twice. First is related to my mouth ulcers and second is about my hairdo. So here we go.

This past week, I've been suffering from gastric problem which lead to mouth ulcers. The logic is like:

gastric problem --> could not eat something sour --> less intake of vit C --> mouth ulcers.

Lucky for me, by the time the ulcers appeared, my gastric problem is getting better, so I can consume those vit C without upsetting my stomach and make it worse. But knowing the fact I couldnt really force myself to consume sour stuff, so my friend suggest me to use Dissolvable Film for Mouth Ulcers (picture as shown below).

Payment that contributes to additional 5 cents coin to my wallet

It is so weird (till now I still feel weird), because there is something stick in your mouth wall, but I've been treating it like a candy. Well, from my experiences, when you use this you could not eat or drink. So for now it only works for me when I am going to sleep. So I can sleep well without worrying about my mouth ulcers. *to be noted as well, I have insomnia, which mouth ulcers make it worse*

As I mentioned about my hair, I've been contemplating about trying new hair style since 2 weeks ago and only yesterday I dared to try it. I wanted my hair style as nice as this, but of course my attempted to let hair stylist know was failed. First because I think she has her own imagination about what I mentioned verbally and second I was in a rush to meet a friend who came late for an hour at the end. If only I knew my friend will come late, I might ask the hair stylist to redo my hair. :-(

Well, luckily I used voucher my friend gave to me, so instead of paying 28sgd, I only paid 8sgd! Even cheaper than that QB House haircut fee. So I guess, I could not really complain about the result eh?

Tried to play around with my hair this afternoon, and below is another fail attempts by me.

F'FRIENDS by this collective is NOT For Parents [Performing Art]

A very first post for 2012 will go to this event that I just attended last night with my ex-roomie from my second year in NTU.

Reading a text from your friend to let you know he/she has free ticket to a show already made you happy, but when you watch the show and you like, you are even more thankful for what you have at the moment. Well, at least thats what happened to me yesterday.

It was my first time to watch a theatrical drama show with Black Box theater as the stage. It was pretty amazing for me to realize in such small space with no so much space of backstage, the director can executed it with good flow without any black men at all. The black men are the cast itself. With 6 scenes that the director wants to show to audiences, I could enjoy it with no interuptions. The process in between one scene to another is just like when you fast forward your DVD to next part, where somehow yourself still can enjoy it. On top of it, music for scenes transition also build the atmosphere for next scenes. I would say, continuity of the show is there! :)

The story itself is revolved around group of "couple" that somehow related each other who live in HDB flats. As I mentioned earlier, there are 6 scenes, with title for each scene as following:
1. Natural Disasters
2. Just the Three of Us
3. What Friends Are For
4. Things Happen
5. Gingerbread Men
6. Toilet Talk

Basically, all of those scenes are really in urban (liberal) human life style point of view. When you watch the show, you will understand what I meant.

Among those 6 items, I can relate to everything in fact, but 2 out of 6 are really slapping my face when I watched it in fron of my eyes, namely Natural Disasters and Things Happen scenes. Since I do not want to keep this post too long, I will talk more about those 2 titles instead.

Natural Disasters scenes are about opposite-sex close friends who live together in same flat. I think it is called Natural Disasters scene with some reasons. First, it want to attract people attractions of course. Secondly, indeed it is Natural Disasters, where naturally as people growing older, they will presumes a lot without asking the other party about the matters, until problems come up which forces a person to ask about it. But well, thats how adult survives in world, ASSUMPTION PREJUDICE AND OTHER WORDS FOR IT!

In another hand, Things Happen scenes are about opposite-sex so called friends which apparently both of them had sexual experiences each other before, that nowadays we called it FLING/OneNightStand/SO WHATEVER. When it was supposedly that way, but one of party felt differently and want to bring the relationship further while another party still not so sure or even want to stay it that way. With such conflicts and quite a lot of technology things that being raised up during conflicts, you also can see how technology changes relationship among human in such fast pace i.e. unfriended a person in FB which sometimes we consider it nothing much is actually as same as cutting down every contacts with the person in real life.

Well, I tried to google or FB search for it, but apparently I could not find any link related to this show, but what I know from my friends, the show that available is only for this Saturday, 21st January at 8pm. The other 2 slots, Friday and Sunday are sold out. The show is in Art House. If you are curious about the director and script writer, she gives lecture in NTU and if you are taking Minor in Creative Writting, you most probably will meet her in near future. Her name is Jocelyn Chua. Hopefully none of those 6 scenes are part of her life, because some of them are sad, but some people said anything a person writes, should reflect of her/his life, although not everything. And back again to title, Yup PARENTS ARE NOT ADVISABLE TO WATCH THIS AND IT IS M18 Rating! :)