And The Audience Goes Wild!

New Amenity: Reality TV Redefined

Last week I stayed in a four-star hotel in Manado. After enjoying a huge dinner, I spent several minutes lazing around in my room, switching TV channels. Saw II was on one of the channels--people vomitting blood. Switch. Indonesian News channels showing dead bodies. Switch.

Suddenly, channel 25 caught my attention. The screen only showed one particular scene. And a familiar one at that: the hotel lobby.



I couldn't believe my eyes. It's a direct feed from the hotel's security camera! And before I could really chew it, I switched to channel 26 and whoala!--another direct feed; showing the swimming pool!

What is this? Voyeur Channel?

Maybe the management intended to include this as a special service. All they needed to do was putting a brochure in every room, saying, "Dear Esteemed Guests, should you expect a company, ask him to wait in the lobby. Let him wait a couple of minutes. If he picks his nose or scratches his crotch, be advised to wear gloves before meeting him downstairs."

What? Did I use the channel to view the pool the next day? No. I'd seen all the other guests during breakfast. Them in swimwears? I'd rather watch Saw II.

Well, It's YOUR Password

My office held a series of blogging workshops for small business owners in tourism industry. During a session, the participants were advised to change their passwords.

One guy in the side row just stared at the screen with a frown.

I approached him, "Any difficulties, Sir?"

He pointed at his screen, which shows the hint for creating a strong password.


"Does this mean I have to use swear words?" he asked.

Action, Romance, Desire...

There won't be any in this book.

...But I could be wrong. Crashing bookstores in December 2008.

Blogging Drought: Book Project

Three and a half months without an update. It's a wonder why you guys are still visiting. Thanks for that.

Here's the reason for the lack of posts: I'm going to publish one particular category of the blog as book. A hint: it's the category which's suddenly missing almost all of its posts.

The book will be in Bahasa Indonesia. Of course, it'll be more than just a translation of the stuff. Expect lots of revamps; more action (in more ways than one); and more silly commentaries disguised as dialogs. (Wow. More hints!)

I'm also thinking of adding illustrations and stuff. Stay tuned!