Useless Facts?

1. Everyone knows that spinach is loaded in iron and makes you stronger - Just look what it has done for Popeye's career. Well, Popeye was wrong. So were all of those parents that stuffed it down their kids' throats. In reality, spinach has no more iron in it than any other vegetable. This spinach misconception dates back to the 1950's when a food analyst made an error while calculating the iron in spinach. His decimal place was off by one place, suggesting that spinach had ten times as much iron content than it really did.

2. The oldest business in the United States of America is the cymbal company Zildjian which was founded in Constantinople in 1623

3. From space, the brightest man-made place is Las Vegas, Nevada.

4. Contrary to common belief, elephants are not afraid of mice. Go to any zoo and chances are that the mice are living in the same quarters as the elephants. The mice eat the grain and nest in the hay that is so common to elephant habitats.

Those might be useless, but it is fun to know, right? If you want to see more of them, just try this one.

Citra Pariwara

Citra Pariwara is an Indonesian annual advertising festival. This time the theme is "Free from Creativity Cuffs", which I think is a moot point, because nothing could ever hold us from our own creativity. Anyway, I went to that event last friday, and surprisingly, it was great. I felt the "heat", as they say. It is fun to see all those creative people packed together in one place, many wore costumes especially designed for the occasion. One agency had its employees wearing high-school uniform, for example. In a word, the party was fun.

The ceremony, on the other hand, wasn't that good. I felt like attending some banal variety show. The stage looked awful (pyramids?), the presenters knew nothing about the industry and we did not even get to see the nominees, only the winners. Make it better next year, guys.

The ads looked slick. There is an improvement in Indonesian adscape, but the agencies did not varied as much. I still see the same ones winning the awards. Congratulations to Ogilvy Indonesia, however, who brought most of the awards back home.

Well, one positive point from the event: it makes me wanting to work harder, and maybe win something next year.

*crossing my fingers, liberating my imagination*

Job in Ads

Ever wondered how to get a job in Advertising? Do you feel creative enough to be an award winning Art Director? Do you ever think that you are THE undiscovered genius? Ego bursting out, heart pumping a million beats a second, broad confident smile, your flashy portfolio in the hands, saying out loud "I AM GONNA GET THAT JOB!", looking at the creative director browsing your babies carefully, waiting for him to say that magic word. Then he puts down your folder, takes off his glasses, rubs his forehead, opens his mouth slowly and finally he mutters...

"your portfolio sucks..."

Thousands lightnings striking you, an elephant stampede crushing your ego, the earth swallowing your body, soul and being, days turning into nights...

Ok, that was kind of extreme. A creative director rarely says "sucks".

Maybe you should take portfolio tips from Dave Trott, AMVBBDO, England.

You know, perhaps changing that stampede into praises, we never know....

cloudy days

Someone asked me... what do they want, when are they gonna stop?

Unfortunately, those are questions that I can't answer. I remember talking with my uncle last weekend about faith. He said that the more one believes in his faith, the less he thinks about his surrounding, because everything he does become something between him and his God, therefore, no one should blame him for anything. I did ponder about this thinking all over the weekend. You know, I have faith in humanity, I have faith that people do care about each other and also that we, as human, with our intellegence and feeling, should not even think about hurting each other.

Maybe I was wrong. Maybe the hope is fading...

When the war in Iraq started, I saw hope... I saw people standing together, holding each other hands, speaking their heart as one... saying, stop the war. That time... I BELIEVED in humanity. I believed that we, humans, do not want to repeat our mistakes from the past, and yes, indeed... we want to live in harmony, regardless of race, skin, nationality... because we are made of flesh and blood... your blood is as red as my bone is white.

red... white... are those the only things we have in common? Are those the only things we share? Don't we all have that one common goal of living together in harmony?

I only want a humanity where its people care about the neighbor next door. Am I asking too much?

Cloudy days indeed.

Excuse my mumbling... but I need those to get out from my mind.

Just want to share...

I'm sorry...

close our eyes and hope...

Few moments ago, a bomb exploded in the lobby of JW Marriot Hotel, few miles from where I work. It did not just damage the building... it damaged hearts, soul... feelings... it took away lifes... somebody's loved one, dreams, and most of all hope... Tears might be flooding our soul, but we must to stand up high... close our eyes and hope... purifying ourselves... so next time at least we have the courage to say no, to spread hope and to push back our feeling of revenge... because it's just like spitting in the eyes of the dragon..., it makes it even angrier.

Enough talking, let's just start praying for the departed, as their soul will be in ours forever, fueling our desire having a better world to live on...

"When God erases, it's because He wants to write"


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good ol' fashioned games

If you are a computer game freak like me since the eighties, you must remember how good the games were in that era... well, nostalgically speaking of course. I've been thrilling myself these past two months with King Quest, Space Quest, Leisure Suite Larry (ahhh, the good ol' Larry), even Digger.. (DIGGER.. can you imagine that?). Well, for those who are keen to turn back time to that golden era, why dont you go to freeoldies.com, a game search engine especially concieved for us eighties geek.. and it's FREE... God, there are some free things in the net, after all... so, enter the time capsule, and play that Alley Cat game...

Eat that Tomb Raider!!