Old songs, friends and bookends

For someone who can hardly sing, or even play a musical instrument, it perhaps is strange that music have such a big influence and presence in my life. They never fail to evoke some kind of emotion or memory from deep within, especially if it is a particular piece that "trademarked" a period of my life, held some special meaning, or was basically "the song" that was attributed to a person or a group of people.

Anyway, after yet another DVD failed on me, I decided to dig out all my old audio CDs I have here and import them into the computer before they too suffer the fate of their less well-taken care of compatriots.

It was a mixed bag of emotions over the weekend as I went through songs... some old, some relatively new, but each bringing back memories of the past. Some going back as far as when I was 12. It's funny how one doesn't forget even after all these years. Each memory when dug out as fresh as if it just happened yesterday.

As iTunes slowly played and went through the songlist, it was akin to looking at shelf after shelf of books... each book being a portion of my life. Each bearing a title of a song. Each period bookended (is there such a word?) similarly by a song tied to some kind of event.

It's almost as good as browsing through an old photo album. Except the pictures exist only in my head. If only there was some way of bringing them out now...

We have it all now

Well, not exactly. As the saying goes, one wants his cake and eat it too. But sometimes there are things that stop us from sinking our teeth into the sweet savoury (insert cake of choice). Or perhaps an even more pathetic situation would be finding your plate empty. No cake.

But if the plate was a city by the name of Jogja, and what is available on the buffet table are natural disasters, this old city with a rich and strong Javanese tradition, certainly has one too many things on its plate now.

A very much active volcano that has erased a few hamlets from existence in its history, an earthquake that leveled 90% of the southern regency, and now... there are whirlwinds. One of which tore through the Gadjah Mada campus, uprooting poles, trees, snapping them into half, ...

Anyway back to the topic of cakes. Well, there is one now. But yet I am hesitant to really take a bite. Is it really because I don't want to, or sub-consciously I want to but am afraid and fearful. This is probably just the same old problem rehashed over and over again. And oddly enough, experience has not made me any wiser in making decisions like this. Guess I'll just go with the flow and not think too much.

If only it was that easy eh?

Where are all the ants?

Broken wings. Millions of them (Ok. Maybe I'm exaggerating. But there were certainly thousands at least) lay all over the ground when I walked to campus early this morning. But where were all the ants that "owned" those wings? It was as if yesterday's deluge had washed out just about every single colony here in the city.

Anyway, this wasn't really intended to be talking about ants and their wings. But rather, their determination to accomplish a certain task no matter how difficult. Think: moving food that is impossibly larger and heavier than themselves.

I finally decided to write. Well, not here. But write a story of sorts as prompted by a dear friend as a means of filling in spare time I have on my hands. Having never done this before the task certainly seems daunting as I pondered on a plot and outline. And yesterday while standing in the local Apple reseller's shop... I hit upon it. A story entirely written on a mobile device. Character by character. Word by word. I shall slowly flesh out the story. And the best part? No pressure to have to sit down and open up a laptop to type, or have paper and pen with me all the time.

Ok, lousy reason to add to the list of "Why I need (read: want) an iPod touch". *cackle* But at least I can find some use for it other than purely for iCal and playing music. :D