I woke up early (again) this morning. After showering time, I turned on the TV and watched the morning news (something that I never did when Astro, cable TV, was still around ). Time to feed myself with some news other than the winning of Obama.

Indonesia finance minister said,”Indonesia will cut retail prices of premium gasoline by more than 6% from December 1 to ease inflation and spur economic growth.” The price will be cut by IDR.500 (five US cents) a liter, from IDR.6.000 becomes IDR.5.500 (claimed to be the cheapest one in Asia). But… Diesel and kerosene prices will not be altered. -__-”

That means, the price of premium gasoline will be the same with diesel, IDR.5.500 / $0.5 per liter. Wtf. Ain’t diesel supposed to be cheaper than premium gasoline one? This is not fair for us, the diesel user.

Then, there is this shocking news. A 43 years old man married a 12 years old girl (to be his 2nd wife)~! Double wtf. I’ve heard this news from my Mum’s worker and I can’t believe it is for real. Crazee..

credit: detik.com

That is him, holding a book that he claimed to be his basis of marrying the little girl. I read that he is a rich businessman, a billionaire.

Why do I feel like the world is getting crazier huh?

I woke up this morning, turn on my TV and Astro (paid TV from Malaysia) only to found out a blue screen with words. It was said that Astro cannot broadcast anymore until further notice and they will refund the customer’s upfront payment.

Wth? How could that happen? My parent was thinking of buying home theater lighting so we can have better experience while watching the movies from HBO, Star Movies, etc. And now, it was gone?

I quickly went to their website and found this.

Kini tiba saatnya bagi kami untuk pamit tidak siaran sampai pemberitahuan lebih lanjut. Mohon maaf, bukan kehendak kami untuk berpisah dengan Anda, keluarga Indonesia.

So it is true! Astro is saying goodbye and won’t be able to broadcast until further notice. *crying* There goes the Singapore drama on 3.30pm, Taiwan drama on 7.30pm, Heroes 3 on November, etc. Luckily I can find Taiwan drama and Heroes online, but it is so damn hard to look for Singapore drama online. Sigh.

Astro was ‘black out’ once on April 2008 due to some inspection from the government. But it was back in a week time or so. I doubt this time Astro will be back again cause it seems that there is a huge problem behind this time black out. Astro violated the anti-monopoly law in broadcasting last season’s English Premier League (EPL) in Indonesia.

In September 2007, three cable providers — PT MNC Sky Vision (Indovision), PT Indosat Mega Media (IM2) and PT Indonusa Telemedia (Telkomvision) — reported Astro to the KPPU regarding the alleged monopoly on EPL rights, accusing the company of having received broadcast rights from ESPN Star Sport (ESS) without a tender, thereby creating unfair competition and breaking competition rules.

The KPPU subsequently investigated the case, finding on Aug. 29 ESS and Astro guilty of violating Article 16 of Law No. 5/1999 on unfair competition. The KPPU however, cleared Direct Vision and Astro of all monopoly charges.

In a surprising ruling, KPPU also added a stipulation to its ruling requiring Astro to continue supplying content to Direct Vision — a company controlled by Lippo Group through subsidiaries PT First Media and PT Ayunda Prima Mitra.

In 2005, Lippo and Astro had signed an agreement requiring the latter to provide content to Direct Vision including an undertaking that Lippo would give Astro a 51 percent share of Direct Vision.

But up to now, the shareholding has never been transferred although Astro continued to supply content to Direct Vision, reportedly costing the Malaysian company about US$240 million and eventually forcing the Malaysian firm to file an arbitration claim in Singapore earlier this week.

The KPPU ruling requiring Astro to continue working with Direct Vision would cost it more money, while giving Lippo free benefits, Alexander said.

Quoted from asiamedia.

It was 6am when I was awaken by the sound of the heavy rain and lightning. Due to the cold weather, I continued my sleep and woke up at 7am, 30 minutes earlier than usual, and found out that we were greeted by Mr. Flood!!! ‘Great’~!

The floor ‘vomited’ water

We were sort of trapped in the house. Not only that, the water also flowed out from the floor which made the house (first floor) was flooded with water too. Flood outside and inside the house. Sigh.

I’ve been spending my morning by helping my Mum to throw the water (inside my house) away. I sweat like no tomorrow and ended up with a reddish palm now. But thanks G, the house is clean already. I am going to pending my whatever design and writing task that I have until tonight or tomorrow morning.

I remember last year (2007) around October, there was a huge flood too like today.

Thanks for visiting us, Mr.Flood~! Please, DO NOT come back again.

I was having my lunch and my Mum was telling me about Sebo vacuums when my brother sms me from school. The sms goes like this,”Sis, auntie told me there is solar eclipse now. You go out and see. If true, take a picture for me .”

I hardly believe it cause it seems like a normal bright day. Solar eclipse is supposed to be very dark eh? And, if I not mistaken, we are not suppose to see the sun directly if there is solar eclipse, no?

Anyway, I sms my auntie and she told me to go out and see, the sun is surrounded by a lil bit of rainbow but slightly darker. She knew it because her colleagues ‘ran out’ from the office to see it and so she followed the crows. lol.

I went out, looked at the sky with my hand trying to protect my eyes and I saw exactly what my auntie said. Then, I quickly grabbed my digicam and snapped it before my eyes went blind (incase).

I never see such a phenomenon before. *so kampung* I think it’s a partial eclipse? Or other phenomenon? Somebody enlighten me, please…

Edit:
Alright, so it was the phenomenon called Halo.

Gosh! This is too much already. Black out happened from 7am until 4.15pm without single notice on the newspaper. Lucky the house construction and fence installation has been finished few days ago. This has to be the record of the year for black out in Medan. Normally the power failure last for 4 hours. Once in a while it would be longer, maybe around 6 hours on Saturday.

I was so stress and mad when the power failure still continued after 4 hours. I have so many works that needs to be done with computer and we don’t own any generator. So all I can do is to shift my working time to night time. I have taken a nap this afternoon and ready to ‘burn oil’ for tonight.

I hate living in Medan sometimes.