To Blog, Or To Nap? That's The Question

A friend asked me in private message sent through Facebook, why I stopped updating my blog.
I told him I didn’t. I just put my entries up on hold. They’re all there, lining up chronologically in “Draft” section.
The reason why it seemed I was in hiatus is because I was pretty much busy with my work. (Do I hear someone yelled, “Booo! Lame excuse!”?) But hey, that’s true.
My works were pretty tight up choking me, and if I do have some time to spare, I’d used it for ... sleeping. Yes, I read somewhere that by sleeping, one can burn more calories than sitting behind his/her office desk and running his/her fingers on the keyboards, i.e. typing. My belly is getting rounder by day, so I guess I’d just sleep it off.
If you hear some strange purring noise near my office desk after lunch time, please not to worry. Probably that was just me snoring while napping.

Oh and about the hiatus thingy, actually I did create some short writings. They’re what others labeled as microblogging. If you don’t know what I mean, check my Twitter account.
And somehow I just know that this friend of mine in no time upon hearing my reason would certainly asked me: is microblogging count as regular blogging?

Antara Tidur Siang dan Pakai Kemeja Batik

Mengapa sih rasa kantuk itu diciptakan ?
Berhubung tidak ada Galileo maupun Newton apalagi Dr. Oz buat ditanya, jadi terpaksa mencari jawaban sendiri deh. Untung masa kini ada Google buat menemukan solusi atas mayoritas pertanyaan.

Katanya sih, kantuk dan diikuti aktivitas tidur itu sebagai mekanisme tubuh untuk shutting down semua kerja otot – kecuali jantung tentu saja, karena kalau begitu jadinya bakalan is dead – serta untuk memulihkan energi. Selain itu, bisa juga dimanfaatkan oleh sel-sel tubuh untuk meregenerasi diri.
Terkadang, membaca jawaban khususnya yang terakhir, yang terbayangkan olehku adalah sel-sel kulit mengelupas luruh jatuh ke atas seprai kasur, dan akibatnya setiap bangun pagi jadi harus sibuk bersih-bersih deh. Konyol juga imajinasi semacam itu. Memangnya ular yang kerap berganti kulit?

Jadi sebenarnya hendak bercerita, kalau tadi pagi aku baru mulai sesi pertama di gym dengan personal trainer.

Cieee. Serasa keren banget ga sih, pake PT segala. Jadi teringat Madonna yang umurnya sudah tidak belia lagi tapi bodinya masih aja yahud, nyaris tanpa lemak. Melihat tubuhnya di cover Vanity Fair beberapa bulan lalu emang bikin hati ini terluka. Lebay sih, sebenarnya maksudku merasa tersindir saja.

Jadi ceritanya pakai jasa si Personal Trainer ini menjadi pilihan terpenting bulan ini, mengingat lemak perutku udah bleber kemana-mana. No longer cute love handles. Dan khawatirnya kalau sok-sokan mau coba-coba bakar lemak sendiri, bisa jadi ga fokus karena memang ga tau caranya dan tidak punya ilmunya.

Yang kemudian terjadi, sesi pertama bersama si PT sukses bikin banjir keringat, which is good, dan bikin seluruh tumpukan lemak di tubuh ini jadi gemebyar, mirip gerakan umbul-umbul yang ditiup angin. Kalau kurang bisa divisualisasikan, coba aja dibantu dengan lirik lagu ”Rayuan Pulau Kelapa”.

Anyway, setelah pagi-pagi dibolak-balik hingga gemetaran sekujur badan sama itu PT, sampai sesak napas plus keringat dingin bikin aku lagi-lagi cemas terkena serangan jantung (huah!), lantas melewatkan waktu hampir 10 menit di dalam steam room sangat membantu relaksasi otot-otot yang tadinya sempat kaku.

Apalagi, tadi hanya bersendirian di dalam ruangan penuh uap pekat itu. Senangnya! Meskipun ga berani jauh-jauh dari pintu, takut mendadak ada kenapa-kenapa dengan jantung ini yang mendadak mencurigakan kondisinya, jadi biar bisa langsung keluar dari dalam ruangan bertekanan tinggi. *terasa lebay.

Nah, awalnya aku masih saja bersemangat, tiba-tiba siang ini di kantor saat semua orang lagi dibuat sibuk karena ada proses pitching dengan sebuah institusi keuangan plat merah, rasa kantuk luar biasa menghadang menerjang.

Jangankan buat diajak berpikir, untuk sekedar buka mata saja rasanya tak sanggup. Akhirnya setelah segala daya gagal untuk mempertahankan kesadaran, aku pun memilih pulas sejenak di atas sofa. Tapi kendalanya, ya itu tadi, orang-orang lagi pada sibuk mengerjakan pitching, yang ada beberapa kali aku terbangun akibat bunyi pesawat telepon yang bolak-balik berbunyi kencang. Masih ditingkahi oleh suara telepon genggam entah siapa. Berisik!

Pengen murka rasanya karena istirahat siangku diganggu, tapi tak pada tempatnya juga sih. Secara ini di kantor. Dan jam kerja pula. Tidak ada alasan apapun yang bisa menjustifikasi tidur siangku ini.

Kalau di kantor lama sih, bahkan ketiduran di kantor saat jam sudah lewat pukul delapan malam saja masih dijadikan masalah sama supervisor. Alasannya, kantor buat bekerja! Bukan untuk tidur!

Dikira orang robot apa ya? Masa sudahlah masuknya jam delapan pagi dan langsung sibuk, duabelas jam kemudian istirahat sebentar masih tidak boleh? Sudah gila. Untung saja jaman-jaman jahiliyah itu sudah kulalui dengan selamat. Meskipun sempat sakit-sakitan sebentar, tapi untungnya tidak sampai harus rawat inap seperti beberapa orang teman.

Ngomong-ngomong soal inap menginap, sepertinya ada yang berjanji mau menginap in my crib deh weekend ini. Saat janji tersebut dikemukakan, sempat merasakan happy sejenak sih. Sudah kebayang aktivitas seru apa saja yang akan dilakukan. *smirking*.

Lalu saat membuka e-mail, cengiran itu menghilang, terhapus dari wajah. Ya ampun, Sabtu ini kan ada resepsi nikah salah satu sahabat di masa kuliah dulu? Lokasinya relatif dekat pula, hanya limabelas menit dengan taksi. Tampaknya tidak ada alasan sahih apapun yang akan diterima kalau sampai tidak memunculkan batang hidung di sana.

Kalau begitu, nanti sore sepulang dari kantor, harus segera mengeluarkan baju batik kerah Nehru – yang kubeli dua tahun lalu dari Yogyakarta tapi baru dipakai sekali doang itu – dari dalam lemari untuk diangin-anginkan. Mudah-mudahan tidak kusut tertimpa baju yang lain, dan tidak sampai apek karena dikeluarkan dari dalam lemari hanya sekali setahun.

Ajak si Dia buat menemaniku menghadiri resepsi, tidak ya?

Soalnya, Dia kan sudah berulang-kali mengungkapkan keinginannya untuk melihat aku mengenakan baju batik dan tampil dengan gaya tradisional khas Indonesia. Aku rasa, Dia sih pasti tidak akan menolak. Dan toh, aku juga pasti akan senang didampingi. Asyik !

Geoddicted

Lagi bosen tanpa kesibukan berarti di kantor, jadinya ’ngewarnet’ aja. Maksudnya, memanfaatkan fasilitas koneksi internet ’gratis’ di kantor untuk hal-hal hiburan. Mulai dari menonton videoklip dari YouTube, melihat update kabar terkini teman-teman maya di Twitter, dan tentu saja, menjelajahi facebook. Kalau ”abusing office facilities” buat mengunduh porn stuff, itu sih ‘jatah’-nya temanku. *telltale* Hehehe.

Situs jejaring sosial yang disebut terakhir ini paling oke diakses kalau sedang mati gaya, have no idea mau ngapain, tapi sangat beruntung karena sedang ada akses koneksi internet yang lincah (artinya, lancar jaya seperti sedang melaju di jalan tol yang sepi dari kendaraan).

Biasanya, sejak mengenal aplikasi baru bernama Playfish di facebook ini, hampir setiap hari aku setidaknya menghabiskan waktu nyaris satu jam untuk memainkan ragam games Playfish app, mulai dari “Who Has The Biggest Brain?” (jawabannya: not me, mos def!), “Mini Golf” (jadi ingat farewell tiga tahunan lalu di Putt Putt Senayan), "Word Challenge" (a little bit of spelling bee mixed with scrabble, d'oh!), sampai “Geo Challenge”.

Yang disebut terakhir ini, entah kenapa bisa bikin aku ketagihan. Padahal sebenarnya permainan ini cukup sederhana: sang pemain diminta untuk mencocokkan setiap bendera dengan nama negara ataupun union-nya, selanjutnya diminta untuk mencocokkan peta buta suatu negara dengan nama negaranya, dan dua babak terakhir adalah menunjukkan letak kota-kota serta landmarks dengan jarum di sebuah peta dunia. Awalnya kelihatan membingungkan sih memang, tapi selanjutnya kalau sudah ingat, jadi sangat gampang. Seharusnya sih. Cuma berhubung ingatanku kurang mendukung untuk bisa menghapal nama-nama, tetap saja keliru terus jadinya.

Eh tapi setelah bolak-balik main sampai lebih dari duapuluhlima kali mencoba, aku berhasil masuk 10 besar di dalam lingkaran teman-teman facebook-ku. Sempat bangga sedikit, sampai kemudian rasa bangga itu hancur berkeping-keping beberapa menit kemudian setelah melihat rekor skor untuk level Indonesia.

Hah?!?! Masa skorku yang dicapai dengan susah-payah itu ternyata hanya beberapa belas persen dari skor tertinggi untuk para pemain asal Indonesia?

Dan yang lebih bikin shock lagi adalah ... ternyata skorku itu bahkan ga sampai sepuluh persennya dari tiga besar top skorer para kontestan dari seluruh dunia!

Parah parah parah ... Hiks hiks. Tapi ...



Main lagi aaah ... (penjustifikasian rasa malas yang diisi dengan aktivitas ‘kurang’ penting).

By the Power of Schopenhauer

First thing first, I don't really know whether I spell the name mentioned above in the title of this writing correctly or not, or whether the name really does exist in psychology.
Noticed the name while watching the impressive La Vita é Bella, when Ferruccio explained to Guido about the power of one’s will of mind, by referring to a state of mind when a certain person can make other person do what the first person tell the other one to do (hopefully you won’t be confused with this statement, eh?).
At first I just thought Roberto Benigni made that up for his movie, but somehow it looks fun if I have the ability to do so, just like what he told his friend in such a believable way, therefore the Schopenhauer method somehow successfully clung in my mind for so long.

And so that was how I tested it by applying the so-called Schopenhauer method to the course of events that occurred over this month of June.

About a couple of weekends ago, somehow I kept thinking of my loverboy Marc Miguel Morales. He's not a real loverboy as you think he is (or was). He's just someone I befriended with for almost four years now, virtually. Oh, not the four years that's been virtual, but the friendship is.
Marc and I, we shared secrets and thoughts, even the forbidden ones. He kind of helped me with good advices on my relations with girls back then at university's years, and I helped him with problems with the guys he fell in love with. We talked about sex much, but of course with different preferences and point of interest. Or views. That depends.
Anyway, our communications were so intense but suddenly cut out the moment I started working at a TV station earlier last year. He still dropped messages once in a while but I just don't have time to reply as much as I usually did, so it made sense that the last time I heard from him was in April 2004.
Back to this story and to the early point of my writing, couple of weekends ago he suddenly burst into my mind again, and somehow it made me feel sick. Of myself by ignoring him back then. Missed him so much I decided the first thing I want to do at the office next Monday morning was to drop him a line or two.
So, it's the Monday morning and I arrived early for that matter, around 8 a.m., an hour earlier than the usual office-hours. Prepared a cup of hot chocolate and a strawberry toast beside my computer. Logged in.
And there I found in my mailbox, the sweetest name that came up into my mind the day before, Marc. My loverboy. It's like a coincidence. Smiled sheepishly and happily, suddenly I realized that it was this much how I missed him.
Boy, he desperately needs updates on my life, since he asked me whether I still meet Tora Sudiro on regular basis. He must've been thinking that I still worked in that TV station, hahaha ... Kinda feel guilt, though.
So I replied his e-mail and promised him that I'll send him a very long one that will keep him updated with my current situation.
In which I haven't done up until this moment. Maybe later.
But I feel thankful to find my loverboy again. Told me he has graduated from uni earlier this year and now searching for a job. Said he visits gym regularly and now he's starting to have six-packs. Said he's now looking for a boyfriend. Well, if he stands in front of me now, I would really like to say to him, "I'm your boyfriend! You have me all this time!" (oh, I know this kind of statement will shocked some of my friends, but I believe a few of them won't *wink!*)

Almost the same thing happened with Kiki.
While vacationing over the long weekend in Bandung which I extended until Tuesday, I suddenly thought about her and regretted myself by accidentally erased her cell number. Decided that coming Wednesday, I will launch an e-mail calling every HIlander98 to search and find any news about friends that we haven't heard of over the year before.
And there the Schopenhauer effect happened again !
While watching Mr. & Mrs. Smith at CiWalk 21 together with my nephew, suddenly my cell vibrated in my pocket. A missed-call.
I hate it when people do that. It's bugging me.
But about five minutes later my cell vibrated again and this one was a text message. Didn't recognize the number but surprised to read the sender's name. It's from Kiki !
She asked me how I am doing and where I worked now. Yes, I do miss her, because she was a friend I got quite close with back in university's years.
She was one of the Las Mujeres de Los Bordillos (free translation : the carefree girls of Los Bordillos :-D) I have mentioned in my Friendster's profile that I would like to meet, again. Glad to know that she's doing fine in Palembang.

Now, what I regretted from the Schopenhauer method is that it doesn't happened over me and Greg (with a little significant similarities with the one in Dharma & Greg), eventhough I missed the first night spent with him, talking almost about everything (well, I'm not into his admiration of Punjabi's soap operas' stars and his unfinished grumbling on how I ruined his diet by making him drink a glass of iced chocolate after 9 p.m.), looking eagerly forward for repetitions.
Nor with "the SexxxY BeasT" (I have to drop a message before he give me a call, that selfish prick!) who can easily make my heart (and meat :-D) throbbed.
Nor with Charlie whom reminds me of a Chinese version of Jason Tedjasukmana. What is he doing Down Under while he has many guys who love him so much back here in J-town ?
Was it because somehow in which I did not really understand the rationale, the nature – and therefore, my will of mind – forbid me in getting in touch again with those guys?

Or perhaps, I must try harder to concentrate on the Schopenhauer thing ...

Come again, what was Guido's friend advised him to do to Schopenhauer-ing easier?
Was it by flapping fingers? Or mumbling the name? Hmm ...

Let me try : Schopenhauer, Schopenhauer, Schopenhauer, ...

Note from writer:
The original version of By The Power of Schopenhauer was posted online in my first blog, LoveHateDreamsLifeWorkPlayFriendshipSex, on June 22nd, 2005.
Hardly I had known back then that Arthur Schopenhauer and his metaphysical theory really did exist in history as a critique to Immanuel Kant’s theory.
This version you just finished reading is mostly based on the original version with some minor alterations, notably dictions and inter-paragraphs fragmentations.