Data

I deleted my data. Wittingly. It was including several thousands of mp3, a number of movies and at least four folders of my overseas visits photos and videos. It began when I decided to format an SD card that contained a video from 2016. As I entered it, I didn't realize that the drive wasn't detected by my laptop. I thought the drive F was the card that I want to format. Without hesitation, I pushed the button and got shocked to have known that I formatted the wrong drive. My heart instantly beat faster.

In 2016 I did the same mistake. It was the time when I am paving my dream to pursue a master degree--which haven't been accomplished yet up until today. I recorded the video of myself studying IELTS. I also portrayed of how I join the test. The moment of regret came right after I received the result. I didn't pass the minimum score of IELTS to apply for a scholarship. Not to mention the criteria to get the Letter of Acceptance (LoA) from the university.

Up until now, sometimes I think about it. The moments of failure (that I deleted) actually could get me up through the fight, I guess. Unfortunately, no matter how hard I tried to recover, they have gone. One thing for sure, I ought to get over it.

It was awkward to know that data could be that quite important for me--maybe for you as well. I remember to the analysis as told by Yuval Noah Harari. In his second book entitled Homo Deus, this Israeli historian wrote that we are now applying what he called as the religion of data.

Yuval defined religion simply as an ideology. The religion of data could be determined by how its follower(s) apply the freedom of data. It has to be flow uninterruptedly. Who was the adherents of data religion? They could be us. Whomever apply the principle of data freedom, they are the follower of such belief. No matter they accept the label or not. []

Vicinity of Obscenity

Sometimes, we inherit characteristics of our parents unconsciously. Unfortunately, there are a number of attitude that we want to abolish. On my case, it was the taboo of talking the vicinity of obscenity.

 

One day, when I was learning to play guitar, I played a song from Jamrud. I didn’t remember which song it was, but one thing for sure that Jamrud was well known for their sense of funny-obscene lyrics. I sang the song in front of my dad. Eventually, he forbade me to sing that song. No explanation.

 

On another occasion, my wife told me that our daughter sang to Jingle Bell song—which wasn’t our kind of religious song. At that time, perhaps she meant jokingly that we should prohibited our daughter to sing it. Sadly, I took it seriously so much so that I responded to her with saying: “don’t disallow her, don’t give her (too specific) religious value in that age”.

 

Now let’s jump to another day. My daughter once showed me a video that she was watching. Enthusiastically, she told me that there was a video showing Ipin and Upin (her favorite cartoon show) with an adult body—with a proper appearance. Hence, the audio was disturbing. It was a dangdut music with the lyrics about second wife. Even though she wouldn’t understands the meaning, we as adult will known what it tells about. So yeah, I turned it off, remove it from the timeline so that my daughter won’t find it anymore. Consequently, she cried.

 

Later after found out that she was upset because of me, I realize that I have done something wrong. I must not act as such—if I really want to change my father’s way to tell that something has not to be performed. If you face a quite the same situation, I suggest you to let them express their happy feelings. After the device abandoned, take it over. Set the video so that it won’t appear anymore when she open the apps back. Hope it helps you. []

 

 

Hospital

Yesterday was the first time I came to one hospital in Serpong, for I am living here since August last year. Formerly, I always go to hospital for averagely six months. The mission is: removing ear wax.

 

Ear wax was a natural substance that produced by our ears to prevent dangerous materials getting in to the ear lobe. At some range of time, it needs to be cleaned—or have been cleaned by its natural mechanism. In my case, one should be taken out manually.

 

Before I decided to went to the hospital (about a month ago), I tried to get my ears clear by myself. I bought an ear oil, and it worked. Nevertheless, it wasn’t enough to get all the wax out of my ears. Subsequently, in this pandemic situation, I decided to go.

 

When I was arrived at this hospital, the situation was quite deserted. I mean, there were lack of people inside the lobby. I didn’t need to wait for such a long time to register. So did when I wait for a doctor’s calling.

 

Before entering the doctor’s room, I’ve got several screening. Of course, covid-19 symptom’s confirmation has been asked—including some steps of hand-washing, temperature measuring, and confirmation-form filling. One screening that I’ve been through was the blood pressure test. The result: my blood pressure was categorized as low.

 

As I entered doctor’s room, I sense that she was a communicative kind of person. She hardly stop speaking, but I guess that was still tolerable. I was asked whether I always wear a headset or not. The answer was of course: yes. About six hours a day, I told her. Then, the doctor said that the maximum duration of using headset was actually only one hour, for about 60 decibel of sound volume. While the maximum amount of sound volume in iphone was 102 decibel.

 

Long story short, my ears were fully functioning. In a while, I asked doctor about how to increase my blood pressure. Because even though I work out routinely lately, the number was quite dissapointing. At the end of our consultation, she answered that sometimes, we have to ignore the number. As long as our body felt fine, the number wouldn’t matter. Just keep thankful of what God gives us. She concluded. []

Indie

Apalah arti sebuah nama. Itu kalimat terkenal dari sastrawan William Shakespeare. Maknanya, bahwa nama bukan yang utama. “Andaikan bunga mawar kita namai berbeda, harumnya tetap sama”, kurang lebih begitu kutipan lengkapnya.

Lantas apa yang utama? Menurut Martin Luther King Jr. dalam pidatonya yang terkenal, I Have a Dream, yang penting itu sikap seseorang, bukan warna kulitnya. Dan pesan untuk menyampingkan nama hingga warna kulit, rasanya masih relevan sampai hari ini.

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

Baru-baru ini sebuah video melintas di linimasa medsos. Saya tergelak mendengar nama anak saya disebut sang kreator. Dia memang terkenal membuat parodi tentang identitas—so called—indie.

Irfan Ghafur membuat guyonan tentang bagaimana seorang ayah memanggil nama anaknya untuk sekadar mengambilkan kopi. Ayah “normal”, menyebut nama “Anisa”, "Putra", "Via" atau nama lain yang biasa kita jumpai. Sementara, ayah “indie”, memanggil anaknya yang bernuansa itu tadi: indie. Ada nama "Semesta", "Bintang", "Langit", sampai "Aksara". Yang terakhir itu nama anak saya. Haha.

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Ketika dia baru lahir, di grup-obrolan tempat saya bekerja, seorang teman bertanya tentang makna Aksara. Saya lalu jabarkan makna (sok) filosofisnya. Padahal, nggak seserius itu.

Suatu hari, kehamilan istri saya sudah cukup matang. Dengan dalih memperlancar kelahiran kelak, kami berkunjung ke Kinosaurus, sebuah bioskop kecil di Kemang, Jakarta. Di sana kami nonton film Sunya. Setelahnya, kami "belanja mata" di toko buku yang jadi bagian depan Kinosaurus tadi: Toko Buku Aksara. Nah, dari situlah asal nama anak kami.

Di dalam nama lengkap Aksara, tidak ada kata akhir nama lengkap saya. Maksudnya, tidak membentuk nama marga. Meskipun, lazim juga melanggengkan nama keluarga, bahkan sejak dulu. Setidaknya itu yang saya baca di buku Kehidupan Kaum Menak Priangan1800-1942.

Di dalam buku yang ditulis DR. Nina H. Lubis itu, dipaparkan bahwa ada keunikan dalam tata cara penamaan keturunan bupati di Galuh—daerah Ciamis dan sekitarnya. Ternyata, kabanyakan nama depan putra-putri bupati R.A.A Kusumasubrata, berawalan huruf G: Gardea, Gurnita, Gotawa, Gurtiwa.

“Konon, hal ini dimaksudkan untuk memperkuat identitas mereka sebagai keturunan asli Galuh. Di belakang nama kecil putra-putri bupati ini disertakan nama Kusumasubrata yang menyiratkan adanya pengaruh Barat dalam hal pemakaian nama ayah sebagai nama keluarga. Tidaklah hal ini mengherankan karena Kusumasubrata sejak kecil banyak menerima pendidikan dari orang Belanda.”

Pemberian nama yang kini dicitrakan sebagai identitas “indie”, pasti terkait pula dengan pengaruh sosiologis ketika nama “indie” populer. Kondisi ini, bikin sesepuh kultur “indie” dari masa awal istilah itu populer, geleng-geleng kepala. Pasalnya, memang ada perubahan makna. Dewi Lestari alias Dee, pernah mencuit begini:

Kenapa anak2 asuhan senja yang bentar2 berpuisi galaw disebut "anak indie" ya? Saya yang generasi '90-an punya konotasi jauh berbeda untuk istilah "anak indie" 😁 https://t.co/GHa5LHupoU

— Dee Lestari (@deelestari) June 18, 2020

Selain dikenal sebagai novelis, Dee sohor juga sebagai penggerak scene “indies” di Bandung pada dekade tahun 1990-an. Hal itu terekam dalam buku yang ditulis Idhar Resmadi tentang biografi band Pure Saturday: Based on a True Story. Istilah yang saat itu populer, memang “indies”. Bukan “indie”. Dia merujuk ke musik britpop. Dalam kata pengantar buku tadi, Nishkra yang sempat aktif sebagai penulis di Ripple Magazine menulis sebagai berikut:

“Memasuki 1994, musik indies kian menjadi-jadi terutama berkat perilisan album Definitely Maybe oleh Oasis. Suede pun kembali merilis album, diberi judul Dog Man Star”

Seiring perkembangannya, kata “indie” yang bermakna “independen” semakin sumir jika dilekatkan ke satu identitas tertentu. Meski begitu, indie tetap menjadi semacam zeitgeist atau semangat zaman yang relevan sejak istilah itu mulai populer di akhir abad ke-20. Memasuki dekade kedua abad ke-21, kata “indie” terus dimaknai. Setidaknya relevan sebagai parodi. []

Neo-Nazi

BBC reported that there was a violence-promoting group on the internet. They work online to get young white people recruited. This organization also promoted their illusion of white supremacy. By being so, they could categorized as a neo-Nazi.

Nazi was a party that formed in the early world war II. The loss of Germany in the first world war, incinerated the spirit of German nationalism based on their dominance of certain race. The Nazis believed that their Aria race are the best amongst others. They think that Aryans was the next stage of human evolution. Considering the principle of “survival of the fittest”, they eliminate another non-aryan human.

The central figure of this Nazi movement was Adolf Hitler. He was a soldier in the first world war. After all, he was the one who started world war two and end it with his own loss. Hitler known to be dead by suicide. And nobody knows where his remaining body was.

In one title of the movie, Hitler came back to life. This was a fictional story. Even so, the film depicted of how the spirit of hatred actually never died. The film was: Looks Who’s Back.

One day, Hitler woke up in the surrounding of his previous bunker. He shocked that Germany has changed. Unbeknownst, a news reporter was taking a video while Adolf was resurrected. Later on, he looked for Hitler and took him to travel across Germany.

The trip was packed in a documentary movie. Then, he proposed it to his boss on TV company. The chief editor of this TV was a female, Katja Bellini. Later on, she became the key role in re-promoting Hitler to public. Hitler imagine that she was the Leni Riefenstahl of a modern age. Leni was a movie director whom also being a Nazi sympathizer.

As a satire, this movie was quite an entertainment. Hitler shown as a clumsy man who hardly adapted to the new technology, such as personal computer and email. He was also portrayed as a caricature drawer when he needs money to continue the trip. This became some kind of an alternative universe considering Hitler himself was actually a painter back then before world war one happened.

At the end of the story, Hitler’s popularity gained back as well as his deadly ideology has been risen up. A glimpse of picture of right wing politician shown as a symbol of Hitler’s awakening. And the report from BBC in the beginning of this essay, prove so. []