Mangga Dua Club

A little bit scary actually. In senior high, we used to joke about how we will eventually end up selling stuff / offer services in Mangga Dua area.

Recently I met with, not one but two of my junior high friends at the same day in Mangga Dua! And they are working there. It felt weird. I also wonder why didn't I meet with them earlier. I go to Mangga Dua pretty often.

Anyways, tomorrow I'll start my probation period at King Foto. On a Bike! yay! I hope I can arrive safely and not feeling too tired lol.

I'm curious about Mbak Niken's offer too. I keep asking myself, when should I start acting on it...

I hope that it will not be too soon or too late. Simply at the right time.

Microsoft....hmm.....

DJ 005

- I dreamed that I was on my first day of work at King. Funnily, It was located only one block away from a huge SeaWorld. Across SeaWorld was a building under construction.

- I had to pick up a fellow new guy. He really looked like my friend Andre. Only thinner. IIRC, his name was Puka *shrugs*

- I was chatting with a friend of mine. She said that she was looking for a boyfriend. I wonder if this is the same in real life :P

- I was an assassin. I killed people for Rp. 25.000,- per head. In the end, I was being chased. I dont really remember, but it may have involved car chases and gun fights. (I do remember getting inside a taxi to avoid getting killed)

- A very big Furniture store! It was so big it got jungles and lakes and swamps inside. It was a pretty cool concept. It got wood bridges to cross sections. So the customers are practically adventuring for relics...I mean furnitures.

Eceng Gondok + DJ 004

Dua hari kemaren pergi ke daerah Bekasi. Pergi liat pengrajin yg bikin kursi / aksesoris dari eceng gondok. Baru tau juga kalo eceng gondok tuh ternyata seratnya kuat. Katanya jok kursi BMW juga pake serat eceng. Pretty cool. I made myself a wristband from eceng gondok :D

As for my dream last night...I didn't have time to take note. I woke up too late.

One part I really remember is about a kid oracle. A man of power asked the kid about his future. The oracle kid told him that he would eventually grow devillish horn and bring destruction upon the world. The man couldn't accept that so he killed the oracle. Later, on a hill with a blood-red sky as the background, there stood an old man with weird skin texture and horrible shaped horn from his head.

DJ 003

Too many things happened in my dreams last night. I woke up rather tired. Again, I only remember bits and pieces of my dreams. But I remember going from one place to another, often. These are things I remember randomly. I can't remember the timeline:

- A room in a building, probably 2nd floor, with 3 phone booths and a big window at the end of the room. I was trying to relay a message, when a bullet broke the window and severed the telephone cable. It was fired from across the street (I think the building was in a pier). It happened again in the second phone booth. But nothing happened in the 3rd phone booth. I realized later that the 3rd phone booth was hacked, so someone else from the first floor (who hide in a secret room inside a refrigerator) can personify the person I intended to call and collect information from me.

-If there's a continuing theme in my dreams lately, then it must be shopping complexes. Last night I visited one located by the sea with a black sedan. The weird thing is that the shopping complex was joined with a secret government military base. The inside was huge but rather bleak.

- I dreamed about something that has something to do with a great war. (Read more about this later)

- I and maybe 2 other people were being chased on a freeway. As the driver was trying to take a shortcut, we saw animals that howl like wolves, but the can climb dead trees easily with the help of their teeth. It was quite a bright night too. So we could see that some of the animals have black spots on their bodies like dalmatians.

I woke up tired. I was half asleep while writing notes about my dreams. During this period. I saw another 3 very short dreams.

- I saw a very beautiful wristwatch made of silver/platina. Its the kind of watch where you can see the mechanisms inside. One of the very big gears was a beautifully crafted five pointed star covered with diamonds.

- I was trying to remember a part of my dream that involves war. Then I must've dozed back to sleep temporarily. I saw a burning article about war that contains a map in it. Below the article was a thick scroll. I think it was about the ridiculous number of people died. The scroll then opened endlessly down a hill of red dust into the sunset.

- A dark green ball. It was stationery for a while. A moment later it curved violently, smashing itself into a Glass Globe. The glass globe shattered to small pieces.

One of those rare days...awesome...

It was such a pleasure to drive on the roads...No traffic jams! YAY! The journey to Kelapa Gading took much much less time than usual.

One thing I just noticed was how dull the main entrance to Kelapa Gading is now.
Dusty
Not enough plants
Too many bricks around

It felt "dead" to me.

DJ 002

ah... maybe I was too tired. I can only remember bits and pieces from my dream.
* VG like settings. Side scrolling with electricity and laser traps.
* Discussing something with my dad and another person (probably David) in a food hall or something like that.

I don't like it when I feel like I can remember much more but I can't actually remember it.

sori

Minta maaf buat angkot yg tadi marah. Gue tadi emang salah jalan...

Padahal biasanya gue yg kesel abis abisan ama angkot yg suka ngetem sembarangan ^^;

Dan macet lagi...macet lagi....babi...nganter orang ke airport aja bolak balik dah berapa jam tuh?
Pintu tol dah ngaa sanggup lagi nampung arus mobil. Kapan bisa kaya luar negri pintu tolnya...

DJ 001

My dreams are weird most of the time. Last night's was quite bizzare too.

I believe there were at least 2 REM stages in my sleep as I seem to have 3 major and different dream arcs. I can't truly remember the first one, except the part that kind of lead into the second dream arc.

I was searching for something, driving in a car from a dark forest. In my second dream I ended up in a small island covered with ice most of the time, but scenery and weather can change dramatically from time to time into a cool, damp, place with heavy rainfall and strong winds. The island was shaped like a crescent moon.

When the weather was stormy, one side of the island was full of shops; and on one end of the island there was a huge cinema and cafe.

I was looking for something, I ran back and forth the island. In the middle of the island, I suddenly saw a staircase that leads into a pit that leads into an underwater castle. There was a huge "boss" (like bosses in video games) I had to face. I can't remember what truly happened there, but after that I was running around the castle to find a way out (the castle was self destructing; cliche).

I think I had a change in POV here, as the character who tried to escape was not me anymore. He was half-swimming in a tunnel, sea water pouring in. In the end of the tunnel he met a mad man (who kinda looked like me) with a bazooka on his shoulders. He fired the bazooka but missed the other guy (in slo-mo too, lol, this is probably the most cinematic part of the dream).

I was still an observer at this point. The missile destroyed the tunnel and the main character got thrown into the cold sea.

This is the part of the dream that I remember best. He swam upwards for open air, but layers of the sea were frozen. He met the first thick layer of ice, he dug into the ice and get away. As he was doing this I noticed that the particular point of ice was soft. It was like fate was guiding him to dig at that very point.

He met the second layer and did the same, and it was taking quite some time to reach the final very very thick layer of ice. (In my dream, I was curious why wasn't he gasping for breath; Another signal to lucidity I didn't grasp). I was beginning to see myself as him again. I dug my fingers deep into the ice and tried to split the ice into two. As I did this, I realized that I was splitting a huuuge mountain of ice. "So this is where the wise man hides himself" or something along the line was what I thought. I recited a passage of clue/riddles that I can't remember, which I believe, I received from earlier parts of the dream.

It uncovers a hidden valley of ice with a very big house in one of the ice walls. The valley was shaped like an inverted dome with steps all around the walls. It was full of weird animals that looked like rabbits ( a very very weird kind).

I saw two other characters sitting, waiting for me (I believe they were from earlier parts of my dream that I can't remember). I asked about how the hell could they reach that place so fast. Then they pointed at a pretty big crack on the ice floor. "We found this secret passage".

If I'm not mistaken another thing happened, but I'm not sure when; should be around this time, though. There was a middle-aged man asking "So...your 'boss' was in the middle part of the island, eh? There are three types of bosses here. The one that hides in front, middle and at the back of this island" I wonder if this means anything.

I dont remember my dream well, past this point.

All I remember next is that I was standing in a pretty crowded Shopping area, looking for a frame for something (maybe a map, maybe something I found from the previous dream arc; 8R sized). I found a kiosk that still have one. On it was a beautiful painting of a scenery. A bright moon with a melancholic dark-blue sky) As we negotiate for price, the seller began to cut the painting from the frame. I think we settled at Rp. 20.500,- ^^;

Before I bought it, the alarm went off.

There were other parts I can't remember well from this last dream arc.
An exclusive looking chinese restaurant. I think I saw my mom, uncle, sister, and some other relatives in the shopping area. I probably went to the kiosk with my sister.

Just what I need to do every morning!

Earlier this year, I sometimes visited Steve Pavlina's blog for his entries about polyphasic sleep. I simply thought that it was an interesting read. I've tried to do it, but keeping up with the schedule everyday wasn't a pleasant experience. However, I believe that part of the methods can still help me to get through some nights when I have a lot of work to do (though not everyday).

I also have some problems with my sleep in general. No matter how many hours I sleep, I rarely wake up feeling refreshed. I have difficulties to wake up right after my alarm goes off too. So I think that this blog entry , along with the other 2 articles linked at the end, by Steve that I just found today, can help me a lot.

(I need to read more articles from his blog. Many of them seem to be very interesting.)

Talking about sleep, another thing I'm also interested but rarely achieve is lucid dreaming. I've been lucid for maybe three/four times, but I can't manage to keep the lucidity for long. I still need more practice. As part of the practice, I'll also write about my dreams in this blog.

I almost can't believe it...I'm about to have a job!

I will be working in one of the biggest studios in Indonesia. I'll start there 1st of September :) Not a full employee yet. I'll have to pass 3 months of probation/training period first.

I'm glad and a little bit confused at the same time. I'm glad that I don't really have to choose between being a photographer or image editor anymore, because I enjoy doing those two just as much. However, I'm not sure I totally "get" my job description. According to Ms. Ana (nice lady, I wouldn't have guessed that she had only been working there for a year), my job will be to be a "bridge" between photographers and graphic designers. I hope I'll have a clearer picture about what I really have to do soon.

I must try and realize my plans too. If it works, it could revolutionize wedding photography in general.

And maaaannnnnnnn...Jakarta's traffic jam is a royal pain in the ass. I was about to meet with my old high school friend in Taman Anggrek. It took me 2 hours to go there and only 15 minutes to get back home. If only I could do teleportation.

All the best for your study there, Dania. May the Force be with you.

Test

Tomorrow morning...whoa, wait...its past midnight; Later today, I will go to King Foto again, to meet Dito...I can't really put myself to sleep now. Chatting with my old friend from Malaysia, and one new friend from an online forum.

I really need to go to sleep now.