"2012: Doomsday"

Okay. I just watched “2012: Doomsday”… all I can say for now is, I wanted to make some comments about this movie. Comments, not review. So there will be spoilers ahead with 50 or so pictures. Let’s start, shall we?



First, the title looks menacing.
Are there any people out there who has never heard about the predictions, premonitions, psychic prophecy, etc – that mentions about year 2012, where the year is covered with some “veil”, thus it’s nigh impossible to predict. Add with the fact that supposedly, at December 2012, the earth is at its closest position with a black hole, so there will be some gravitational disturbance on our solar system. Oh, don’t forget that the year 2012 is the last year in ancient Mayan recording..
Pretty good composition for an “Armageddon” theme, eh?

So, onto the movie. The movie is apparently called as “A modern Christian Epic in the tradition of The Omega Code”. (Code? What Code? Da Vinci Code? ^^). Sounds thrilling. Combining Science and Religion. My first impression was particularly negative – I’m as skeptical as I’ve ever been with any religious movies, since I don’t believe in any religion, really – but I still try to watch it though…

Basically, the main characters are: an Archaeologist, a Daddy Geologist (or something like that) and his Missionary daughter (a Missionarist? Check for yourself what she wears… if all Missionarist wear the clothes she wear, what comes to mind would be “Missionary Position” rather than the religious Missionaries), and an atheist Paramedic (at first I kinda hoped that she would bring the balance to the movie – since she had some similarities with me, turns out that my hope had failed me though – oh wait, according to this movie, it’s rather God said no).


The movie starts with an archaeologist digging site, disturbed by erupting volcano and the arrival of archaeologist’s ex-wife. Apparently they found something in a Mayan cove, which is a golden cross.

Funny, since Mayans exist long way before Jesus Christ born. About this, the movie only said that it was made during 600 A.D. – so they expect us to believe that there are European Catholic Missionaries (there are no Christian at that time – Martin Luther is still yet to exist) coming to South America during the ages where the religion was only started flourishing. Then, why didn’t the Mayans got sick by diseases that the 600 A.D. European Missionaries brought from Europe? Found one logical flaw here. Columbus would never meet any Mayans or Aztecs if European Missionaries came to South America 1000 years before him. Let’s move on.


Oh by the way, the Ex-wife has a bad accented English. You'll get sick of it later on in the movie.... keep reading ^^


The next scene tries to show us how dire the situation we’re facing on 2012, with a scientific approach. They tried, but to me, I think it failed. The theory of the doomsday threat was explained and announced by the Geologist – with a boring lecture sort-of-a-way. The only skeptical comment was said by someone “Impossible, NASA would have known and predicted the position between earth & black hole before!” So what? And the Geologist shrugged it off easily, as easy as I’m not buying any arguments they placed on the movie. The phrase "CHEAP MOVIE" comes to mind...


Ah. Next scene depicts the Missionary position. Oops, sorry. My bad. It depicts the Missionary slut running around the town. Oh, sorry again. She’s no slut, isn’t she? Okay, so the bitch is looking for a doctor. Almost every village member on her Missionary got sick, and unfortunately there are no doctors in town. Then, along came a photographer that apparently was studying for some time in Medical School. Coincidence? No, said the movie. It’s the will of God. Yeah, only God knows what’s in his head when he decided to help the bitch. Maybe he wants to be in a *Missionary*?

Want to see the first EPIC FAIL of the movie? Take a look at that cassette icon and the well-known red dot as a “record” icon on the TOP picture. Compare with the camera that the photographer used, on the BOTTOM picture. Since when did a Nikon DSLR features a recording system?

Up next is the atheist who seems to like drawing about pyramids and cross… Strange, isn’t it? I didn’t realize that she was an atheist and firm believer of science until finally she spat out that “So many good people died everyday… Where the hell is God?” after she failed to save a wounded guy.

With this kind of drawing when she's introduced, you would never know that she's actually an atheist at first, don't you?


Oh, the process of saving the guy is interesting. He’s wounded, and all the paramedics do was just asking his name, heartbeat, trying to convince him that everything is okay with the power of words alone, and not checking on the wound first. Then, after all the lengthy procedures, they put some tissues or bandages over the wound, and the man began to pray. Sounds funny? Apparently not.

He knows that his end is nigh, so he prayed while clasping his hands with force, until it goes spastic and thus hindering the *awfully untrained* paramedics’ effort to put oxygen mask on him.

At first I thought the paramedics were trying to finish him off as fast as possible… turns out that they’re trying to save him. Well, they’re not really smart, you know. Even the dying guy was smarter than the paramedics!

starting from this point, I've made my decision to watch the movie to exploit all its flaws, not for my own enjoyment. So, up next is a load of pictures, maybe sometimes accompanied with my comments. I tried to make it as funny as possible, since the movie is rather boring. Please enjoy :D


So apparently we have accurate weather-prediction software available for personal computers on 2012… Bullcrap. It’s another EPIC FAIL, by the way. See the “National Space Administration” and the logo? It’s just NASA without the first A (Aeronautics)… what happened to National Security Agency?


Nobody on the village of the bitch’s Missionary. So, severely sick people can walk now? Oh, I forgot. It’s a Miracle from God!

conversation:
Native guy: Sick, pregnant woman needs help. Her boobs just became this big!
Photographer: WTF?! I’m going!


The Atheist Paramedic has a God-fearing mother… who thinks that it’s already the end of the world, so why bother running away. LOL @ the mom’s expression, which is pretty much the same as the statue

This is God speaking via TV. You two need to go to your temple of dreams: Chichen-Itza. Or else, you’ll end up like the guy you couldn’t save earlier (He had the pyramid-and-cross tattoo)!


Okay. Small particles and grasses flying about, signifies the presence of a high-speed wind flow, or even worse, a tornado building up. But why are those green plants stood still as if there are no winds at all? EPIC FAIL. Oh wait, God wants the plants to stand tall! Who dares to refuse His will?

The Death of the Archaeologist's Partner Scene:

Fat boy struggling for life. Archaeologist says "Hold On", Ex-Wife still need to think what English sentence would fit for this situation. Fat boy screams Noooooo… why do I have to die with ugly special effects?

Ex-Wife felt guilty... on to the "a minute of emotional moment with bad-accented English". EPIC FAIL.

Meanwhile, at the pregnant woman's house...

Bitch asks “are you okay”. Pregnant woman speechless. Photographer says “dang, her boobs aren’t as big as he said! F**k that puny native scum.”


Bad special effects, again. Snow? Like that? Are you kidding me, bub?!


Oh, apparently ex-wife got wounded pretty bad. Why didn’t he notice a wound that big while on those emotional moments some time ago? Oh, God’s will. I see.

Oh crap. She’s losing a lot of blood and yet here we are having another minute of emo-moments…


The mother is the major source of common preachers “Believe in God” cheap propagandas… from “why can’t you feel that He loves you?” “God loves you, it’s not a fantasy and not a lie” “you can’t see it, but you can feel it. And that’s God” “How beautiful the life is… The glory of Life, everyday is a gift.”.


For some reason my atheist comrade seems to get convinced with all this preacher talk. You’re not smart at all, indeed - to be convinced by cheap pep talks like that. You suck at being a paramedic, and you even sucked at being an atheist...


It is the will of God that the photographer parked his car near the hill in the middle of nowhere where the pregnant woman lives. And now we’re having a merry ride…


8 hours before doomsday and… Daddy’s going to Chicken Pizza, umm I mean Chichen-Itza. Daddy’s gonna teach the bitch some lesson!
Oh, it’s another will of God that every cluster of character has always been paired with His believers: The Archaeologist, the mother, the bitch, and now… the pilot. “God was not trying to hurt you.” How reassuring. Have you ever met God in person, pilot?

Apparently all you need to get across in between two huge storms is an extremely light airplane and Faith in Him. Maybe the Aviation companies should try this, because there has been a lot of aviation accidents and plane crashes this year...

Right after getting through the storms, the weather is clear in the airstrip. Seems God didn’t help the filming to provide more consistency, eh? Or is it God’s will for this movie to be an EPIC FAIL?


See how EPIC the FAIL is? All of a sudden there’s a car with full gas and key’s inside. For free.


Now here comes the big mystery. God's major believers, the mother and the pilot, are suddenly gone! Maybe the producer called them for more preacher lines in next TV Channel…


The atheist denies her atheism and prays to God… and Daddy comes to the rescue! SEE THE POWER OF GOD?! HOW HE MIRACULOUSLY GRANT YOUR WISHES IN AN INSTANT?!
Cheap propaganda. Nothing happens that easily in real world.

The first thing Daddy says when some stranger asks for help was... "ARE YOU OKAY?"

Aren't we had enough of "Are you okay" lines, already?!
Every character in this movie said that line at least once. Some even said that same lines over and over, ranging from "Are you Okay", "Are you alright", "How are you doing?"

If I were her, I'd reply with "THE HELL I'M OKAY?! YOU F**KING THINK I LOOK OKAY?! GET OVER HERE, YOU F**KING SCRIPTWRITER! I'LL STICK MOSES' POLE* UP INTO YOUR HOLE!"
*the pole that splits the Red Sea... maybe it could split someone in half if you stick it on to someone's ass...

Just when they finally arrived at Chicken, eh Chichen Pizza, I mean, Chiken-Itza, umm... Chichen-Itza, the Ex-Wife dropped dead at an instant. Probably due to excessive blood loss. And what will the Archaeologist do?

yes! CPR! Just like any cheap movies will do! Just for you to know, death due to blood loss can't be resuscitated by CPR... Futile attempt to resuscitate a person who died of a blood-loss, only with CPR... you’ll need a disinfectant, fibrin bandage, defibrillator, blood transfusion, and skilled paramedic... Which is unavailable at Chichen Pizza.

Dead In Peace, Still Hot Inside Though. (DIP SHIT)

Back to the bitch, the photographer, and the pregnant women…

they’re under some heavy rain of ice…

...But why are the weather outside seems nice? EPIC FAIL


Oh, there goes the falling ice again… but it's still kinda nice ride for them... apparently the ice were thrown by an ice-sprinkler machine mounted on a truck in front of them.
If those ice blocks were made by condensation of clouds from up above, the car would’ve been a Swiss cheese by now.

The Death of the Photographer Scene.

Seems like God is a sniper after all, and he had armed himself with a .338 Lapua Magnum Sniper Rifle.

The Last Words of the Photographer:





That’s all I can get for you now. I don’t put the ending scene since it’ll be a huge spoiler…
I want you guys feel the same disappointment I felt when I saw the ending… after all the shit we’ve been through and all preachy propaganda of Christianity throughout the movie, the Ending just doesn’t fit, pretty much unclear, and totally disappointing… Just, what kind of End of the World is that? Even if it's not the End, but rather a New Beginning (Neon Genesis Evangelion comes to mind ^^), what kind of Beginning is that?!

So... After about 80 minutes of watching the movie on DVD all I can say about the movie is… Craptastic.
A whole lot of inconsistency, faulty mindset, cheap acting (includes overacting, too), relying too much on coincidence (or as the producers would say,” relying on God”), f**king bad ending, and… too many religious jargon and propaganda.

Conclusion: Watch this movie if you’re interested in being totally disappointed.

I think this movie just degraded Christianity by a level, at least in my mind. What a cheap way of spreading the Goodwill throughout the world. Nobody would feel positively interested in Christianity after watching this movie. It’s been thousands of years, and their method of spreading their Bible is pretty much the same...

Atheism is the best.

Food for thought...

after finally returned to my normal emotional state, I decided to have a thing as a subject of my thoughts. no, unlike some of my other friends (not the defective ones), I will not discuss about love or something like that. Romantic love is just... incomprehensible for me. I can't even understand myself when I got that feeling, and I can't even explain my motives or thoughts or reasoning behind my acts at that time. Such feeling is scarily distractive and beyond logic, so I guess I'll pass on discussing about such topic.

Okay. the topic is this: Atheism. ...and Indonesia.

Do you believe in God? I don't.
In western countries, you have the right to choose whether you believe in God or not. Atheism is a common thing and people can gain access to about anything easily regardless of their religious beliefs. Here, in Indonesia, a "religious" and FREE country, atheism doesn't have any legal support. Funny, a free country that doesn't give its people the freedom to acknowledge the existence of God or not...

And since most people in Indonesia doesn't have an access to gain proper education, they either hopelessly clung to the major religion without thinking about it first, or picking their religion just so they wouldn't be accused of being a communist. First, during Soeharto's reign of "New Order", communism is heavily suppressed, if not exterminated. So, that kind of fear is still understandable. Second, atheism is different than communism. Atheism just concerns that someone or something called "God" exists or not, while communism refers to the equality of the people - a society without difference, including religions and social classes.

Well, I don't believe in a totally equal world without social classes (without ion-voltage difference, our nerves wouldn't be able to transmit impulses - that means, they can't work - and without a working nerve system, we're a little better than dead. and in my opinion, the universe is a magnified version of human body - as human body is a scaled-down fractal image of the whole universe) but I support the idea of redistribution of wealth - from the extremely rich to the overly poor and such.

Back to Atheism. I believe, that religion is something that humans make. And religion is a major barrier to get humans to unite. Some examples:

Case 1, happened to a family I know - a certain Islamic family refused a marriage between their daughter with her Christian boyfriend (no, her boyfriend's name is not "Christian" ^^) UNLESS the guy turned his religion and converted into a Muslim.
* comments: I think it's pretty common thing in any religion. Marriage refused just because of difference in their spiritual belief...

Case 2, I think this happens to most of us - parents gave the religion they believe in to their children, even forcefully indoctrinize their children to believe in that religion - without giving the child a freedom to chose the religion as they like. Well, my family still can't accept the fact that their son denies the existence of God. Yeah, my family is an extremely religious Catholic - especially my mom ^^.


Hah. I think what matters are not whether a human believes in God or not. What matters are the things he do and his intentions. Humanity doesn't need religion, but religion is your freedom to accept or to deny.

Atheism should be approved in Indonesia. I strongly support this! And for once, please SHUT THE FUCK UP, members of Majelis Ulama Indonesia. You're just bunch of uneducated, narrow-minded, religious pricks who can't accept any point of view except your own. You guys need to be injected with a pig blood, you know. You'll be surprised when you realize that pig has so much similarities to you.

CANCEL!!!

Supposedly, today, June 19th at 11.00 A.M., I shall attend a skirmish or wargames match with my buddies. I'm a member of an Airsoft Forum, and 2 weeks ago I saw a nice place to play Airsoft in Sunter. Since it's holiday and so, I arranged the event along with my 2 buddies, and I made contact with the field's owner - being I'm the only forum member. So, finally we got about 10 participants and the date is set on June 17th. But then, it turns out that June 17th is also the graduation day of some of the participants (it's a delayed graduation due to the incompetency of the government to arrange National Exams), so I changed the date into Friday, June 19th. Most of the participants positively confirmed the change.

But when June 19th comes, what do I get? More CANCEL notifications - just 1-2 hours BEFORE the game start. Seriously, can't you guys notify cancellations sooner?
This way, I have no options left but to cancel the whole event - and thus lost the trust and respect from the field owner, who is also an acquaintance of mine in the forum. He just laughed at me and blurts my "incompetence" on organizing a simple skirmish event with my friends. I got humiliated because of someone else's fault. Nice.

now I feel mixed feelings of angry, ashamed, hatred, disappointment, and frustration... and I can't describe how I really want to turn these guys into my personal cadavers..

next time, try to keep your words, assholes. when you say you'd join, prove it. don't run away like a chicken by notifying "cancel" just hours before...

Supernatural (TV series) & Evangelion

Haven't watched TV for quite some time, and yesterday I watched the TV series "Supernatural" when my sister played the DVD she just got. The story is about the Winchester brothers whose job was a monster-and-demon hunter. Quite interesting story, with some great action, a little drama, hilarious Hollywood jokes, and - the most important part according to my sister - cute & handsome guys ^^.

So, yesterday I watched the final episodes of season 4. What I found quite intriguing was the similarities of the ideas with Hideaki Anno's Neon Genesis Evangelion. Strange, huh? Well, I'll mention some things that I found to be resembling Evangelion:

- Both features the character Lilith. In EVA, Lilith is the Black-Moon Angel and the source of mankind (Lilim)... in Supernatural, Lilith is the so-called first demon created by Lucifer (remember, Lilith is Adam's first wife who refuses to obey him, according to some religious literatures).
...And both of them play important part in the series: bringing forth the End of the World... or the Instrumentality Project ^^

- Both features being called Angels. While in EVA the Angels are primarily the main antagonist a.k.a. the-ones-that-need-to-be-beaten-by-the-protagonist (Rei, Asuka, and Baka Shinji)throughout most of the series, in Supernatural Angels are pretty much like SEELE's counterparts.
They don't work directly, but performing shady, background, and stealth jobs to make things happen according to the destined fate... or the so-called "God's Will". and some Angels have the hidden agendas of their own, and using humans to perform their job. Pretty much like Keel Lorenz and Gendo Ikari using each other and other people to get their job done.

- Both features the end of the world. And what must be done to end the world is pretty much the same too!
*spoiler warning* In Supernatural, to release Lucifer from his prison, some sacrifices must be made - i.e. by breaking 66 seals which would unlock the prison gate, and apparently the last seal is a demon. The demon dies, the seal is broken, and Lucifer is free and ready to brought the Armageddon. See? that's pretty much like killing all the Angels are the key to brought Human Instrumentality Project into reality in EVA.

- For some reason, the End of the World is pretty much the same thing: New World without war, pain, and suffering, and all negative traits you can think of. All that is left is peace. and... both of the main characters refuse the offer to achieve such world. Shinji wants to live as a separate entity at the final moments of Human Instrumentality Project, and the main chara of Supernatural chose to live as a human in our imperfect world rather than achieving glory and peace at the cost of his brother's life. Pretty much like that...
**Though in the end, we don't know whether Shinji finally returned to Earth and live as a human with the others (the ending scene can be seen as Shinji and the others reverting back to human form and live on earth as they were, but it is also speculatively an end where it's only Shinji's concept of Heaven... nobody is returning to our world and everyone is simply dead. That's the End of Evangelion in my mind... but then again, that's the beauty of the EVA series: you can interpret the ending as you like - ambiguous till the end like V from V for Vendetta ^^), he did make the choice to not merge all human souls into one entity. (after turning the whole world into a primordial soup, Rei had gone through so far collecting the whole souls of humans, and after battling with MP EVAs and Asuka [illustratively] died, and all other stuff, you changed your mind... you're really BAKA SHINJI!!!)

- ah, both uses quite similar names for the Angels! Those who watched EVA would've recognized the name with -el suffix as the name of the Angels, like Uriel, Castiel, etc... and certain angels with Higher Level doesn't use the -el suffix, Zachariah in Supernaturan and Tabris for example - a.k.a. Nagisa Kaworu the gay-ish red-eyed boy with Impenetrable AT-Field and ability to control EVA outside the plug ^^

ahh... I missed Evangelion too much :D
That's probably the best Anime I've ever watched. Not at the quality of the animation, nor the characters, but simply the story and ideas behind them. And I like stories that requires quite some thinking...

Let's hope Rebuild of Evangelion 2.0 to be released as soon as possible. I'm curious about EVA-05 and the new pilot... Makinami Mari Illustrious. Still using the name of a WW II ship as a character name, I see. And since Gainax changed my beloved Asuka's name into Shikinami, why don't you change Kaworu's name into King George V Nagisanami, or Shinji's name into Scharnhorst Ikarinami? ^^
or Pen-pennami
and Aida Kensukenami
and Misato Katsuraginami
also Toji Suzuharanami

....
.....
......

ah dammit, Soryu Asuka Langley was a good name!

Project Babylon

Officially, my next GUNPLA project would be called "Project Babylon".
It shall be my first attempt to combine scratch-building, GUNPLA assembly, hand-brushing, and maybe sculpting and kitbash. Maybe this one is a less ambitious project than my Sinanju Project (which is still unfinished), but surely this one wouldn't be less difficult.

The theme is my favorite character from Fate / Stay Night, Gilgamesh ^^ - hence the Project is called "Babylon". For those who doesn't know about Gilgamesh, here's the pic and link to some details:

"I SHALL PWNZ YOU ALL, LOWLIFE!"

Little details about concept that is going on inside my head:
Painting - simple. just paint it all gold, since Gilgamesh uses a golden armor... but, Which gold? I still can't decide between ACE Hardware's frame color Gold, Tamiya Leaf Gold, Testors Metallic Enamel Gold, or my old buddy Mr.Color Gold.
Decals - need to make custom decals. Gilgamesh's cuneiform markings on his armor and sword should be done during holiday
Weaponry - this one needs scratch build and/or sculpting. Need to make a 12-15 cm long replica of Gilgamesh's sword Ea - the one and only Anti-World Noble Phantasm ^^
and also some kitbashing maybe, especially funnels. I want to simulate Gilgamesh's Gate of Babylon with numerous funnels instead of polearm and swords ^^

and the most important thing... which MS should I pick as the basis for the project?! which MS resembles Gilgamesh's attitude and armor?
I still can't decide... MG Zeta Plus C1 or A1 is the major candidate, followed closely by MG RX-178 Gundam Mk II and MG Hyaku-shiki... any suggestions? I don't really like the designs from SEED and 00, so Universal Century shall be the era of my choice...

ahh... hell... I need to study again for Thursday's SPSS exams!

and here's some random Azu-nyan pic ^^

I'm also in a K-On! fever right now :D
Azu-nyan is my current favorite girl, followed closely by Mugi, Mio, Yui & Ui... and don't forget the nutty airhead Sawako-sensei ^^
K-On! is just hilarious... and the music really gets to me!

yup, need to get back to studying! see ya later, my blog!
* Sinanju, please don't be mad at me... T.T

Jakarta Anti-Tobacco Day

Bunderan H.I.!
Enjoy Jakarta!

umm... what is it to enjoy in this overheated, polluted, flooding city?


well... actually there was a plan for a photography Hunt of Medilens during Jakarta Anti-Tobacco Day at Bunderan HI, but somewhere along the way it got cancelled.


Bicycling is healthy. Jogging is healthy too. Inhaling gas from motorized vehicles are not. So it's good to have a car-free hours on a Sunday morning like this ^^

one of the reason was due to the inability of the Medilens members to gather on Sunday Morning (Maroon 5? "Dying slow on Sunday Morning, and I'll never want to live" ^^).
Most of them just had an exhausting exams on Friday, so I think they could use a good sleep till noon on Sunday ^^. Even the club chief doesn't feel well on the day before yesterday, and I myself was not in a good shape too. I've been ill since 4 days ago, but it got quite severe since thursday... after taking antibiotics for 3 days, I feel a little better and I can go for a little walk on Sunday.

After my business with PERKI (about ACLS) is finished, I decided to take a walk on the car-free Jl. Thamrin, starting from Bunderan HI. It's crammed full with people, doing all sorts of things to celebrate and promote Anti-Tobacco day. From jogging, physical exercises, bicycling, wet themselves on the big fountain of Bunderan HI, join a "balap karung" contest, and even smoking ^^. Funny isn't it? There are still a lot of people enjoying their cigarettes on Anti-Tobacco day ^^

Here are some other pictures I take during my solo-hunt:
(All photos taken with Olympus E-500 DSLR. Image resized to 600x450 with Photoshop to fit my internet connection speed ^^)


It's a Hot day, comrade...


Golden Glow


a fluorescent egrang? ^^


BALAP KARUNG!


Don't trip yourself, mate!


Bike Lane. Kids ONLY.


Bike to Work... with NOS


Exercise under the flare ^^


My Bike, My Wife.


Oh, and there were a lot of unique bicycles on the street! From classic, antique bikes from Netherlands-Indies Colonial era, to Harley-Davidson look-alike... and even more antique bike collectors were there, showing off their collections and even wearing Meneer (it's "Mister" in Dutch, pretty much like a honorific for Foreigners back in Colonial era) clothes... I guess they can be considered as an Otaku too? ^^
And here's one of the most unique accessory a bicycle can get: a cannon ^^


A Bike-mounted cannon


Target on sight. Fire at Will!

And there was a tandem-bicycle (a bicycle with side-passenger seat on the left) full of EPIC WIN: the bicycle was repainted in camouflage colors and there are 2 boxes of ammo box with markings on the side-passenger seat
"100 ball rounds + 50 tracer rounds
Cal. .50BMG
Fire-Linked Browning M2 Machine Gun"

too bad I can't take any photo of it - the owner forbid me T.T
but he said that when he finished customizing his bike, he'll put it on a kind of "Unique Bicycle Show" or something like that, and everyone may take some pics... Is there any such thing as "Unique Bicycle Show"? ^^

anyhow... today was fun ^^
Now I need to get back to my daily life of a Medical Student... Studying heaps of books and handouts in limited time... Cramming statistics and practice using SPSS is the menu for next week's exams!

* Sinanju, please wait till I finish all the exams!

Photography: Hobby vs Mall Security

taken from my note at Facebook...
I'll put on the pictures later...

To make it short, Kelapa Gading held an event called Jakarta Food & Fashion Festival. In an event that big, Photographers lurking around the area is inevitable. From media photographers to hobby photographers like me. Of course, official photographers wore an ID Tag to identify them as a committee of the event.

But to my observation, there's so few of the DSLR-using people who wore ID Tag!
I counted about 12 out of 15 people who brought DSLR along with them didn't wear any ID Tag or dressed with a proper committee shirt.

Among these 12, 3 or so are PRO Photographers (fellow photographers can't mistake the EOS1, big lens, and that "aura" of Pro ^^).

Then about 7 of them appears to be in their late teens or twenties, implying that they're either college students, amateur photographers, or young photography hobbyists - including me (3 of them even brought tripods).

And the rest are some rich people who bought DSLR cameras only to look cool and use the DSLR as if it was a pocket camera. What a waste. Fuck off and die.

Anyway, as I stroll around took some pictures (for my own pleasure and entertainment), two mall securities with their handy-talky cornered me and asking for some credentials. WTF? My arguments were:
1) DSLR are now available for those who want to have it and have the money - not only for those with occupational needs. That means, nowadays people with DSLR doesn't mean that they're occupational photographers. Hobbyist like me who took pictures for myself and wouldn't post a picture to mass media can have a DSLR if they had the resources and decide to buy one. Even those rich, photography-blind, smartasses can have one!
2) You apprehend people with DSLR, but you let loose people with pocket cameras. Okay, so next time if I decide to be an event-spy or unofficial media agent who wants to take pictures of the event without any credentials, I'll just bring my pocket camera. because you let that happen!
3) Due to my argument #2, I asked them back. If photography is forbidden, WHY CAN'T YOU ENFORCE IT? See? you let loose 12 people with DSLR without ID Tags and hundreds of people with pocket camera or phone camera to take pictures as they like! And you do something only to one of them (me ^^). You call that enforcement? I can conclude that you SUCK at your job.
4) Again, If photography is forbidden, you did nothing to inform the people who brought their DSLR unauthorized. Come on, DSLR are BIG! You can't mistake a DSLR bag with a pocket camera bag, can you?

After defending my arguments for about 10 minutes, they let me go easily. "Alright, you may go around." Without telling me not to take pictures anymore or so. See? You really SUCK at doing your job, you know?
I took several more pictures then head home. Along the way home, I managed to see the "No cameras allowed" sign which is hanged on top of the ceiling. and that's the only sign. That's it? That's the only effort to forbid photography on the area? You can't be serious. Who would bother seeing the sign if there are a lot of kiosk and stands on the area?

So, Mister Ad* and Ri**i, you took wrong Hobbyist Photographer to apprehend :D
I suspect you intend to gain some more money by preying on lone photographers like me, yes?
my dear, that's called an extortion.

bad luck, chummy. I wouldn't give my precious money or - most importantly - my PRIDE to be taken down by people like you ^^
if you asked for my money like a beggar, maybe I'll consider giving you some... you really SUCK at doing your job, you know that? :D

and to the management of " LP ", please change the sign with a better one, or just put them down anyway. It's useless. You can't restrain or limit the people's spirit of photography.

Onward Amateur Photographers!