Called out a memory from past : Romance of Three Kingdom IV

Kemarin gw tidur jam 03.00 pagi, gak ngerti kenapa disini pola tidurnya jadi kacau balau. Biasanya tidur minimal jam 3, malah sering gak tidur gara-gara takut kebablasan karna ada kuliah pagi.

Ngapain aja ? buka youtube, browsing, ber-canda-ing, gaming etc. mostly sih kerjaan gak  hehe..

Anyway, recently gw download game favorite gw waktu jaman SMP, nama game nya Romance of Three Kingdom IV. Dulu gw dikenalin game ini sama almarhum Daniel, sepupu gw, dan hampir semua anak cowo di keluarga gw suka sama game ini, dan kita selalu berebutan mau main duluan.

Almarhum Daniel, gw, Fajar sepupu gw, Feri adik gw, Iyan adiknya Daniel we all love this game, but of course this game was like in 2nd place, 1st is always PES/Winning Eleven hehe..

Penampakan cover gamenya

Game ini beranak pinak, dari satu sampe terakhir 11 kalau gak salah, dan ini yang terbaik menurut gw.

Karena ini game PS1 , dan gak mungkin jg beli PS1 jaman sekarang ya satu-satunya cara download emulator PS1. File emulatornya kecil, tp file gamenya 500MB, gede menurut gw.

As long as my internet connection in China is really fast and unlimited, so it doesn't matter hehehe ..

Di game ini, jagoan gw sebenernya Liu Bei, tapi, gw lebih milih bikin karakter raja baru pake nama gw (tetep narsis) biar lebih total dan lebih dapet feel nya (apasih) hehe..

Main goals dari game ini adalah lo harus nyatuin seluruh daratan China, bisa melalui perang, ataupun ngebujuk raja-raja kecil lainya untuk tunduk under your kingdom. Buat gw pribadi, yang menarik dari game ini adalah :

Finding Officer

Lo harus cari, rekrut, dan treat officer lo. tolak ukur dari kemampuan officer ini ada 6 variable, power, mind, politic, lead, charm, dan skill, serta skala nilainya dari 0 - 100.

Power : Kekuatan seorang officer, biasanya jenderal perang powernya 80 keatas. Berguna saat perang, duel, dan training soldier.

Lead : Jiwa kepemimpinan officer, biasanya berguna saat perang, training soldier, dan menjad governor salah satu vassal.

Mind : Pemikiran tokoh tersebut atas permasalahan kerajaan, biasanya berguna dalam membangun kota, melakukan negoisasi, dan berdagang.

Politic : Strategy dan kemampuan tokoh tersebut dalam foreign affair etc. biasanya berguna dalam melakukan negoisasi, menjadi penasihat, membangun senjata, dll.

Charm : Kharisma, berguna saat ingin merekrut offiicer, memberikan sedekah pada rakyat dan memimpin pasukan perang.

Skill : Kemampuan khusus dari si officer. This one is given randomly if you create your own ruler and officer, you can not control it. Tapi, untuk officer yang existing dibuat sesuai dengan sejarahnya.

Lihat gambar dibawah ini :

Zhuge Liang adalah salah satu officer under Liu Bei, dia merupakan perdana menteri terkenal di Jamannya, ada yang pernah liat film red cliff ? Dia itu yang suka pegang-pegang kipas dari bulu burung yang konon katanya adalah phoenix. Dia officer terbaik diantara lainya, jd no wonder seluruh kemampuanya hampir 100 dan kolom kemampuan yang dikuasainya hampir penuh semua.
He's my favorite actually.

Finding Item
Item adalah alat yang dipakai officer atau ruler untuk memperkuat/memberikan nilai tambah pada skill dan keterampilan ruler/officer tersebut.
Item tersebut dapat menaikan politik, charm, lead, power dll. dan berikut contoh dari item-item tersebut.

Item kuda : untuk duel/perang         Item buku kesehatan

Item pedang : ningkatin power        Item buku : ningkatin politik/mind

Dan masih banyak hal menarik lainya di game ini. Gw mau aja jelasin lebih panjang, tapi lagi-lagi penyakit malas dateng kalau udah nulis lebih dari 30 menit. dan i kinda like "turn on" again to play this game, jadi ya terpaksa gw udahin dulu nulisnya, beralih ke game nya sekarang hehe.

Buat yang suka Romance of Three Kingdom, wajib cobain game yang ke IV ini.

谢谢 !

Siemens Bribery Scandals : Brief Introduction

Corruption was deeply embedded in Siemen’s business culture.They rationalized this corruption by stating that it was not illegal to initiate bribes to government officials. This was true, however not anymore, the law changed in 1999 prohibiting such acts of corruption.
Siemens spent extra money to secure future business investments. This in, in turn, means that other companies, even ones that might have an advantage, lose business opportunities. The entire concept of such corruption completely disregards competition, because it simply removes it, unless other companies also engage in bribery.
The economists argue that doing such practices such as bribery is the price that must be paid to perform a greater good. They support this claim by stating that it can promote efficiency and growth in countries that have pervasive and cumbersome regulations, and may also enhance welfare in countries that have preexisting political structures that distort the workings of the market mechanism. On the other hand other economists argue that the bribery could reduce the returns on business investments and lead to low economic growth.

Enjoy the very basic of my group slides !

You Are The One

Sometimes i sit and wonder

And i just can't seem to believe

What a blessing it's been to be loved

You're an angel sent to me

Cause you are the one who makes me whole

In my heart and in my soul

And just like the sun you showed me the light

I'm amazed and you're the reason why

(Elliot Yamin)

HAPPY MONTHIVERSARY DEAR !!!!

Ied Al-Adha in China

There's something different about Ied Al-Adha this year. I usually celebrated Ied Al-Adha with wearing sarong and muslim cloth, but now, i wear thick jacket and thick jeans because this year i'm not celebrating Ied Al-Adha in my country Indonesia nor my hometown Cirebon, i'm celebrating it in Qingdao, provincial capital of shandong province in China. The weather here is quite freezing, actually, this time is the transition between fall season to winter, and the weather at that time was 7-10 celcius degree. For tropical people like me, who usually lives in "hot" environment, it was damn cold morning :D

I'll share my experienced praying Ied Al-Adha in Qingdao, and differential things between celebrating it in Indonesia and China.

If you are in Indonesia, you'll obviously feel the ambiance of Ied Al-Adha, there are a lot of people who sell lamb (or sheep), and cow for sacrifice procession (qurban). Of course you'll also hear the sounds of Takbir (Islamic way to praise the god) in every mosque. For those who have lucky life (more rich or wealthy life than the other) they have to sacrifice their money, buying sheep/cow for poor people. After we finished praying Ied, we slaughter those animal and gave the meat to the poor people, for giving them chance to eat meat at least once a year.

Takbiran, praising Allah and usually accompanied with music/beat from bedug (traditional  drum)

They put the sheep/lamp in the street, just like that.

Slaughtering the Qurban Animal

Hand over the Qurban meat to the poor people

In Qingdao, you won't see and won't feel the ambiance like in Indonesia. It's because in China, muslim was a minority, and in Indonesia Muslim is like 80-90% of the population, about 200 million people. They only have 1 mosque in Qingdao, but you can see mosque is everywhere in Indonesia hehe.

Qingdao Mosque 1

Qingdao Mosque 2

Mosque Ambiance

Meat Store

Mosque in China. (own courtesy)

There's a different way of pray also between Indonesia and China. In Indonesia, the structure of praying would be in first rakaat there are 7 takbir and then in the second rakaat there'll be 5 takbir. But here in China, there are only have 3 takbir in first rakaat and 5 takbir in second rakaat.

And also, after Iman (the leader of Shalat or pray) finished saying surah Al-Fatihah, we always say Amen loudly, but here, they don't say it, just say it in their heart. Me and Iranian or Pakistani people only who said it loudly, but the other remains silent.

Besides that, everything have the same way as Indonesian way.

This is the Qurban

Another Qurban Animal Picture

Listening to Qutbah

Waiting for pray time

The Imam, doing speech in Chinese

After Shalat

After doing shalat Ied (praying) , it's time for me to come back to my dorm.  Thats all for my first Shalat Ied in Qingdao, hope can widen your perspective and knowledge about muslim in China.

Last but not least, i'll share my photo and my girl after doing Shalat, narcissistic time ! :D

HAPPY IED MUBARAK ALL !!!!

Handsome eh? haha

With my-soon-wife-gonna-be

Before want to Mosque

  

The Last Time

THE LAST TIME

by Eric Benet

The first time I fell in love was long ago

I didn't know how to give my love at all

The next time I settled for what felt so close

But without romance, you're never gonna fall

After everything I've learned

Now it's finally my turn

This is the last time I'll fall in love

The first time we walked under that starry sky

There was a moment when everything was clear

And I didn't need to ask or even wonder why

Because each question is answered when your near

And I'm wise enough to know

When a miracle unfolds

This is the last time I'll fall in love

Now don't hold back, just let me know

Could I be moving much too fast or way too slow

'Cause all of my life, I've waited for this day

To find that once in a lifetime this is it, I'll never be the same

You'll never know what it's taken me to say these words

And now that I've said them, they could never be enough

As far as I can see, there's only you and only me

This is the last time I'll fall in love

Last time I'll fall in love

The last time I'll fall in love

When i watched Running Man (famous korean variety show) , i heard this song played, and instantly i googling wto find out this song. And voila, i found it, the title of the song is "The Last Time" and Eric Benet is the singer of this song. As you know, Eric is a Jazz singer, and i kinda like light Jazz like this one.

I highly recommended this song for you to hear, had a good melody.

Ciao !

What We Cook Today : Nasi Lengko (Lengko Rice)

When you are far-far away from your country, one think for sure, you'll miss the cuisine of your country. Maybe for those who came from world-wide-well-known-food country such as china (does anyone here haven't heard about chinese food?) , United States (KFC, McDonalds, Pizza Hut etc) , Italia (Pizza, Spaghetti, etc) India (Curry etc) and others won't feel that desperate as i am. I come from Indonesia, of course we have a lot of delicious food in my country, but there's not many place overseas put Indonesian food on their menu book.

Let say Malaysia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Hongkong, and Australia are list of countries that sold or had Indonesia food there. Why ? Because a lot of Indonesian people there, for example in Hongkong, many household servant and store keeper are from Indonesia, and in Austaralia many student from Indonesia studied there. But here, in China, especially in Qingdao, there's not many Indonesian people lives here, and most of them (including me) are students, so we don't have enough money to run a restaurant business here.

Back to our topic, the one and only way to cure you from homesick-in-national-food is cooking by yourself. In my case, i really missed my hometown (i came from Cirebon, a city in West Java Province, Indonesia) cuisine called Nasi Lengko or Lengko Rice. The explanation about Lengko Rice was taken from Wikipedia :

"Sega Lengko (Nasi lengko in Indonesian, Lengko rice in English) is a typical cirebonese dish in Cirebon, Indramayu, Brebes, Tegal and surrounding areas.

The ingredients are white rice (better hot), fried tempeh, fried tofu, cucumbers (fresh raw, chopped), bean sprouts (boiled), leaves of chives (cut into small pieces), fried onions, peanut sauce (such as salad seasoning, spicy or not, depending on taste), and a thin soy sauce poured over the top.

Fried tempeh and tofu are cut into small pieces and placed on a plate of rice. Chopped cucumber is sprinkled on top. Well-cooked bean sprouts and peanut sauce are poured over it, with pieces of spring onion leaves. After this it is given a taste of soy sauce until browned, and sprinkled with fried onions. Aci crackers and a piece of white, round or square kondimennya. Kerupuknya smeared with ketchup is a popular appetizer.

This food is usually served with 5 or 10 satay in another dish."

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_lengko

This is the visualization of Nasi lengko

 

So, me and my girlfriend are planning to make our own way Nasi Lengko. We are trying to make it as close as possible in taste compare the "real" Nasi Lengko in Cirebon. Anyway, my girlfriend also came from Cirebon, therefor we know exactly how does it taste because we already ate Nasi Lengko since we were child.
In china, you will hard to find specific ingredient like :

TEMPE :
this one is raw                                               this one is fried
 
taste almost same with tofu (they all made from soybean), but tempe need to be fermented first.


KECAP (Sweet Soy Sauce) :

in China, i can't find sweet soy sauce, they only have soy sauce and it taste salty. Fortunately i bring a lot of sweet soy sauce from Indonesia :)

FRIED ONION (Red Onion) :

This one is raw.                                                  This one is fried.
         
in China, i can't find red onion just like in Indonesia, so this one was replaced by fried white onion (maybe some of you more familiar with garlic, as shown picture below)

    



 *
**

Finally, after dealing with all constraint, our own version of Nasi Lengko was served.
I'll show you our dish :

It taste very similar..

It cure some part of my homesickness..

Every single bite remind me of my childhood (hyperbole hehe)..

Thanks Selly Kartika :)