Spongebob's Sailing Stone

Spongebob rode a stone in one late episode of his series. I thought it was only something the makers made up. See the video below for the cut scene from the series.

The stone, the sailing stone, turns out to be something real! In the USA, scientists recently recorded how stones on dried Death Valley. Here, have a look on a video capturing the stones move, which left a serpentine trail. The stones' movement were possible due to extreme weather changes.

[Movie] The Impossible

I have always been bored with my weekends. Last weekend, I’ve got nothing interesting to do. When I wanted to go out for a ride around the city, the clouds went dark and poured rain down. So I decided to take the remote and turned on the TV, where I found “The Impossible”. I have heard the title from a couple of years back when I tuned into an entertainment show. A film director told that he wanted to make a movie based on the disastrous tsunami in later 2004 which hit the western shores of South-East Asia. So he contacted a Maria Belon, a survivor from the catastrophic wave, who agreed to share her story – her family’s story.

This film told about an English family who went for sabbatical in Thailand (They are actually Spanish!). Henry Bennet, her husband (in this film), took her and their three sons to stay in a resort in Khao Lak to spend their Christmast holiday. The resort was located just beside the beach which faces the Indian ocean.

Maria was enjoying the heat of the sun on the pool side, reading a novel (www.people.com reported that the book’s title was The Shadow Wind). Her sons splashed about in the pool, playing ball with their father when out of the blue they heard a horrible sound. Maria Belon said, quoted from people.com:

"Seconds later there was a black wall in front of us. I thought it was death. I couldn't imagine it was water. It was a monster. The most horrible monster you can imagine."

The monstrous wave swept her family and other people from the resort. Maria and Lucas were saved by a tree. They hugged the tree until the waves recede. Later in the movie, the family found each other in a hospital where Maria was taken care for surgery, as she injured her left thigh badly.

To give my review, the plot was enjoyably good, but not perfect. During the beginning of the film, you will see jumping scenes (I can imagine the director did so, as he focused on the aftermath of the disaster). Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts acted splendidly. They bought their characters to life. The actors who played the roles of the three sons were not at all bad. And the effects used were amazing! You will feel the drama!

In a nutshell, I can say that this movie worths two hours of your time. Main actors and actress moves the emotion of this movie’s viewer. If you favor the genre of drama with a couple of special effects, I would not let you miss this film.

Flappy Bird Down! Doge To The Rescue!

"Flap your wings and learn to fly". The saying fits the philosophy of the little birdie's game Flappy bird. This game is all about bringing the birdie fly through obstacles (which is represented as pipes; coloured green just like pipes which Mario Bros can jump into). This game was recently brought dead by its very own creator Dong Nguyen, a Vietnamese.

Flappy bird set its wings to the open air on May 2013 under the flag of .GEARS, a gamehouse in Vietname, where Dong was in.

The reason behind Dong's decision pulling it off the market (both google play and apps store) was still unclear. Many shared their opinion, saying that Dong might had been threatened. Another opinion said that he might have been disturbed by the media, who had been aggressive on gathering news on him.

An article came out of Forbes' editor's room on February 11th, 2014, at 2.30 AM with the title Exclusive: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Says App 'Gone Forever' Because It Was 'An Addictive Product'. Forbes have had an exclusive interview with Dong, where he explained why he drew it off the market.

“Flappy Bird was designed to play in a few minutes when you are relaxed,”

“But it happened to become an addictive product. I think it has become a problem. To solve that problem, it’s best to take down Flappy Bird. It’s gone forever.”

The Verge reported that Dong received a 50 grand income a day from the in-game advertisement banner, which only appear on the start screen or when the bird dies. When confronted with a question regarding his income, he told that he wasn't at all think that it was a mistake to pull the game off market. His life, Dong told, was not as comfortable as before Flappy Bird was booming. He wasn't fairly happy that his creation, which was meant to make people happy, actually is the source of madness and stress. When asked whether he's regretting his 50K daily cheque, he answered:

“I don’t think it’s a mistake,” he says. “I have thought it through.”

Dong is one of those game developers who still think that game should bring people joy, not stress and addiction. Gaming is a leisure activity. When he thinks that the players are boiling their head off playing the game, he's pulling it off. No matter how much money the game brings (IMO, though).

Now that flappy bird is gone, there are options of games you can enjoy, if not replace, which look like Flappy Bird. One of those in the list is 'Flappy Doge', a game, which I thought is a parody of Flappy Bird, with Doge meme as the main character.



You wont feel any difference in gameplay if you compare flappy doge to flappy bird. The only control you have is by tapping the screen to make Doge flap his wings (He's a dog! Whatever) through Mario's pipes. The game physics is rather different. You will feel uncomfortable about how many times you have to tap for the first few times (because it's a dog you're flying? Perhaps).

If you want to help doge flap its tail (Ah, yes! I knew it should have been tail from the beginning). You can play the game in the link below.

Flappy Doge To The Rescue! Much Wow!

Last Day At Office For 2013!

Today is the last day I go to office for the year 2013. I'm taking two days off until new year's holiday. The office today was relatively quiet, with less people coming. People were going on vacation, spending their days-off. I took a couple of photographs of my office's situation from my desk. On the second picture you can see Mas Ali, my supervisor. Angga's seats behind Mas Ali.

And by the way, this also concludes my last day as a trainee too! The year has gone fast to me. Everything flashes. The next day I'm coming to the office will be my first day as a staff. Mas Ali and everybody at the office (not seen in the picture) have helped me a lot since the first day I come here.

Tonight I'm leaving for Surabaya. I took a photograph of the house I'm living in Jakarta. You can see Si Biru, my scooter, there in the garage. He's been a help to me since 2006. I took him to Jakarta to accompany my career. He's part of me and my career. The white helmet is mine from Surabaya, while the orange one is the one I bought in Jakarta for spare. If my friends are to ride with me, they will take the orange helmet.

That is the door to the kitchen, where I cook indomie for my meals when I don't feel like going out for dinner/lunch/breakfast. The kitchen has about every utensils you would need to cook (well, I only cook instant noodle).

The ladder leads you to the second floor. This is where the washing and ironing are done. And my room too.

Here are some photos I took while waiting for my flight to Surabaya.

people do things while waiting. one in the left fell asleep

[18+] blitz your tit here.. I wonder where they got their name

mom's helping his daughter scrambling her puzzle

a man's taking a selfie, reflected on the aircraft's window. We had to wait inside the cabin around an hour for the aircraft to take off.

a straight line to surabaya from jakarta. I'm coming home.

Winamp: A Short Story of The Legendary Music Player

A couple of days ago, December 20th 2013 to be exact, a legend was buried dead. Winamp, the legend's name, was put on an end by its owner, AOL. Winamp reached the summit when Windows XP boomed. This application's user has expanded throughout its lifetime. Me myself was a Winamp user until they decided to add browser usability inside the application. I dislike the idea and set my eyes to Foobar media player. However, a legend is a legend. Here's a little bit of Winamp's history I took from wikipedia.

Winamp is a media player originally created by Justin Frankel and Dmitry Boldyrev of Nullsoft. They launched the product on April 21st 1997. It had always been one of the first applications I install on my every PC installations. They later added custom skins and plugins to the market's needs of a personalized GUI.

Nullsoft, the app's creator, made a leap (for me, at least) when they released Winamp version 5, a fusion of version 2 and 3. Nullsoft put on a brand new modern skin to its download package. I liked the old skin because of its simplicity. But this new skin was adorable.

I started to look at other music players in 2008, after Nullsoft added a web browser to Winamp. It was a later 2007 version, I cannot remember. But according to wikipedia, it's version 5.5. This version was launched to mark Winamp's 10th anniversary. It started to look unpleasantly heavy to me. I'm using winamp only to play music, not browsing nor streaming online music.

Winamp's most recent default skin

It is sad when I read an article that AOL planned to stop the development and production (and even the previous versions of winamp downloads!). Winamp was part of my computer history. And it will always be in the hearts of everyone. Sayonara, Winamp.

Line Raised Fund From Stickers

Help come from everywhere. It happens all the time. It's another news about the devastating Typhoon Haiyan which hit the Philippines last month. Line, a Japanese app, has raised funds for the victims from selling their digital stickers which can be used inside their messaging application The charity pack raised $550,000 (that's more than 60 billion IDR!).

Business is business. But when it comes to humanity, everyone lend their hand to help. Stickers is a big business nowadays. And Line made a good use for a good cause.

Tarnedi: Please Talk In English

People should be ashamed of themselves for not trying to learn. They might say it is not relevant to their needs, or it is too late, too old to learn, or laugh at people who try. This one person boldly tries his best, despite people despising him. He might not come from an educated background, but he has the will. I put my hat off, saluting him. He’s a living example of a person who will have the ability to live in the future.

Living as a Tarnedi (54) is not easy. He's been trying hard to speak English with his colleagues, friends, and family. But none has been handful. He might not graduated from elementary school, but his will to learn English is remarkable. He didn't give up to his colleagues and friend. Instead, he put this sign on the driver's headrest in the taxi he drives everyday which says:

"TO ALL PASSANGERS PLEASE TALK IN ENGLISH BECAUSE I WANT TO IMPROVE MY ENGLISH. IF YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO SPEAK ENGLISH IT DOESN'T MATTER. THANK YOU."

His passengers responded positively. They spoke in English with him, improving his English skills. Even one passenger gave him a dictionary to help him with his difficulties.

"They think I'm crazy by speaking English, " he told. He said that people should be the ones who learn Bahasa. "That is true, but we must not stand behind them."

"We don't want to leave our culture, but we can't leave behind, so good we learn together," Tarnedi said, diplomatically.

source: http://news.detik.com/read/2013/12/11/185957/2439356/10/2/lika-liku-tarnedi-speaking-english-disebut-sok-tahu-hingga-orang-gila