Around the Globe, MiscellaneousNovember 8, 2006 2:47 pm

If you are a constant visitor to this humble blog of mine you’d notice the recent shrinking of posts. My apologies, that is because we were in the midst of our utopian quest. It is not yet over. The searching will continue yon in a new land that is Singapore: an unknown place for us both, and our suitcase is full of hopes. Kudos to my other-half for all his valiant effort. There were hectic moments in our life, but he has always been my rock. Yes siree.

There are things to let go, and there are things to embrace—and I want to treasure them all in my heart. I’ll keep writing about Hungary, about Indonesia, about Singapore, and just about anything. Thank you for having me, folks.

Around the Globe, Indonesia, MiscellaneousOctober 2, 2006 10:58 am

Yesterday marked the first anniversary of the second Bali bombing. Terrorists have actually succeeded in killing the Indonesia’s tourism industry with deadly blasts which claimed lives of 225 victims since the first bombing. Just in case you didn’t know, Bali is a part of Indonesia, “the haven for terrorists“.

I must admit I’m not happy with the tag. Despite the varied judgments, I don’t think there is any man in his right man who would agree with the attacks—regardless his religion. That makes those who have committed the crime certainly should not be freed without punishment.

Here is how I still remember the island of Gods during my visit over ten years ago.


Click on the picture for the full-color version

I am against plagiarism so click here for the original painting. No doubt it has changed since then. The harm was done and the pain will linger, but hopefully Bali and Indonesia for the whole will revive. My thoughts and prayers go to those who have lost their loved ones.

MiscellaneousAugust 28, 2006 12:10 pm

I’m taking day off to promote the book of this summer—if you’re a geek that is: Windows Developer Power Tools by James Avery and Jim Holmes. The best bit of the book is on Chapter 16. Here is an excerpt:

Dotnet IL Editor (DILE), written by Zsolt Petrény, is an open-source application which gives developers great power to disassemble and debug .NET assemblies. Assemblies can be debugged even when the source code or debugging symbol (.pdb) files aren’t available. DILE’s main purpose is to serve as a Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL) development environment by enabling users to disassemble existing assemblies, develop new ones, and debug them without using any other tools…

Enough said. Congrats to the hubby! The book is due to publish October 2006. Click here to order. For more information on the content, ask the guru here.

MiscellaneousMarch 15, 2006 10:53 pm

Heh, I’m a Cautious Leader! What are you?

MiscellaneousFebruary 13, 2006 9:19 am

What makes a good article? Is it the issue, the way it is written, or the feedback it receives? To me the answer is Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. I just noticed that one of my lamest piece has received 79 comments just because it mentions the couple. Huh?

MiscellaneousFebruary 3, 2006 9:55 am

I don’t write a lot about personal stuff, and when I did, I usually get some opposed opinion. Just to let you all know, I never meant to offend any of you my kind readers (me playing journalist?); at least not in purpose. If I ever did, though, my sincere apologies for that.

Anyways, Apples tagged me, so you’d have to read one more time about me. Feel free to stop reading if I bore you already :-)

4 Jobs I’ve Had
1. Back in college, I worked part-time at the language laboratory–translating books and manuscripts from other departments: law, medical, economics, and such. It didn’t pay well–but extra money is always useful, isn’it?
What’s funny is that last year I received an sms from a classmate, saying that I must see the laboratory caretaker within one hour because he had some books for me to translate. Hmm, it would be great if there’s aeroplane which could take me back to Indonesia in one hour; because I graduated three years ago, and had been in Hungary since then.
2. Unlike Apples, I don’t have impressive experience on my resume :-( So perhaps I should be satisfied with this one also. During the years of doing that translation job, my friends and I managed to create a local Westlife Fan Club. Don’t laugh, I’m warning you! It was more like a NGO–with a more selfish purpose. We didn’t raise money for charity nor did we throw eggs to celebrities wearing fur. We helped Westlife fans, enough said.

The best things were of course, free CDs, merchandise, album launching, accomodation, concert tickets, press conferences, and we got to meet the lads themselves in person. Of course we had to help the record company whenever they had promotional programs in Surabaya. It was lots of fun! But it was lots of headache too. We had the telephone rang each second, plus hundreds of letters each day. And those young madly in love fans–with Westlife, not with us–kept telling us how they dreamed about those lads at night. Ah!
3. A few months before the graduation, I started to work at a forex trading company as a broker. It was a Singaporean company. The job was easy, but a bit boring. It just didn’t fit me, that was all!
4. Since 2003, I have been a housewife to a perfect husband. I continue to write online–being unable to speak Hungarian and all. By now I know I always wanted to write; which is not easy for an amateur like myself. But as the old saying says: “When there is a will, there is a way.”

Four Movies I can watch over and over
I like movies but I don’t think I can watch one for many times, except this one, of course: Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy. See, there are three already. I wouldn’t watch them all at once though. Or it can be worse, watch the extended version at once :-)

Four Places I’ve lived
1. Banyuurip, East Java, Indonesia. Perhaps even Indonesians wouldn’t recognize this place. It’s not even on the map. It was a very very very tiny hamlet in East Java. Dad was posted there where he later met mom–the sweetheart of the village lol. There was no electricity at that time, so we used accumulator to watch TV. There was no such thing as tap water. Mom paid somebody to get us water everyday from the well. If you think our life was miserable, I can assure you it was not. People lived peacefully. OK, I hated it that some neighbors called me fatty; but there was no bird flu, the word AIDS was not even popular (has it been found there at that time? I don’t know), not even malaria. We got to eat vegetable and fruit everyday; which I come to value more now that they are very expensive in Hungary, especially during winter.
2. Bojonegoro, East Java, Indonesia. When I was nine, we moved in. Bojonegoro was a metropolis compared to the hamlet. It was a great place too for school. This is where I started to be able to sing New Kids On The Block’s Step by Step. I had lots of fun with friends that I decided to stay when my parents had to move to another town. Stayed with a big sister.
3. Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia. After big sister graduated from Senior High, I reunited with mom and dad in Cepu, Central Java, before going to a state-owned university in Surabaya, the capital of East Java. I hated the heat, but if we had the chance (by “we” I mean Zsolt and I), I wouldn’t mind of going back.
4. Budapest, Hungary. It has been more than 2 years now (we spent the first year with mother-in-law in Eger). Am I still at the phase of cultural shock, what do you think?

Four TV shows I love to Watch
I don’t watch TV too much these days, but here is the list:
1. Anything about Indonesia.
2. BBC’s Pride and Prejudice.
3. Megasztár–something like American idol. I just hate that the some of the judges enjoy giving cruel opinions.
4. VH1 Jukebox

Four Places I’ve been on Vacation
1. Indonesia (duh), although I haven’t been to all of the 13,000 islands. Only to some places like Yogyakarta, Bali of course, Jakarta (not vacation really), and such.
2. Hungary. I remember two years ago we visited a place called Szilvászvárad during Easter, because mother-in-law wanted to avoid guests. Bad choice to travel on that day–people seemed to think the same way like us. There was a huge traffic jam along the road. Perhaps it’d have been faster if we walked. At the park, we wanted to eat grilled trout as the place is famous with the trout. We could hardly find any restaurants which had empty table. We finally found one looking rather empty, so we entered. But after waiting for 30 minutes, no waiter came to greet us or bring the menu whatsoever. So we left. No wonder the place was empty.
3. I haven’t been to any other country, except Singapore and Frankfurt, Germany for a transit (does that count? That’ll make the 3rd and 4th point, right?)

Four Blogs I visit daily
It’d be easier if you check my blogroll.

Four of your Favourite Food
1. Chicken (breast and wing only, please!)
2. Gado-gado–it is some kind of Indonesian salad with peanut sauce.
3. Pepes Ikan–spicy fish wrapped in banana leave. This is the bestest food on earth! Zsolt sometimes gets jealous when I start to mention this food lol.
4. Chips, any kindof chips: potato, banana, cassava, sweet potato–just make it salty

4 Places I’d rather be:
1. In front of my computer
2. Singapore (no kidding)
3. Good cheap restaurant which has pepes ikan :-)
4. Um, Singapore again?

Four Albums You can’t live without
1. Michael Buble It’s Time
2. John Mayer Room for Squares
3. The Corrs Talk on Corners
4. Josh Groban Closer

Four vehicles I’ve owned
1. Tricycle
2. I got my first mountain bike when I was 12–I couldn’t ride one until then, shame on me!
3. Dad let me used his motorbikes when I was 16. Not mine though.
4. A pair of legs

4 Tagees
Difficult one. To be honest I don’t read personal blogs too much so I’d have to give up on this one :-( Volunteer, anyone?

MiscellaneousJanuary 26, 2006 6:26 am

Aaman Lamba:

If you have an interest in South Asia, enjoy writing, and would like greater visibility and reach a global audience, then Desicritics.org may be right for you.

Desicritics.org is part of the Blogcritics.org family of sites, which has over 50,000 daily visitors, and 1100+ superior bloggers.

Desicritics cover the planet from Carrollton to Calcutta, and points between. You get high quality news, opinions, and reviews across a wide variety of fronts AND you get the funky, eclectic, personality-driven spirit of the blogosphere all in
one package.

Oh, and that’s me again over there!

MiscellaneousJanuary 20, 2006 7:05 am

Does anyone know how Blogsome chose their Sample Blogs? Does it have anything to do with the traffic? That is my guess–feel free to correct me if I’m wrong though. Anyways I’m there. Yay! So, folks, thank you for visiting :)

MiscellaneousDecember 23, 2005 4:09 pm

MiscellaneousNovember 27, 2005 11:04 pm

Geez, I was one of the Blogcritics Editors’ Picks for November 12 to November 18. I know I’m late, I’m sorry. I was quite busy last week. Anyways thank you, Blogcritics!

Ah, to be young and talented…(duh!)