There are two new articles coming out recently. One is from my relatively new blogosphere research where I compared Iranian and Indonesian blogosphere and the other is an article that I finished long time ago and it’s been delayed at the publisher/editor, even though my article was fully accepted with zero revision. The second article is on meta-narrative, which is conceptually still valid and will retain its currency at any moment even though the cases were past time.

Here is an excerpt and a link to my latest article, the first one I mentioned above: (more…)

To be found is not always a great experience, especially when you’re trying to hide:) But well, being found isn’t the same like being caught. Unlike when I was found by my mom eating a box of peanut in bed, most of my recent to-be-found experiences are pleasantly surprising, flattering and exciting.

Oh well, I know I am that “to-be-lost” individual, and just if my wallet, my keys, my glasses, and my underw*** could be in the state of to-be-found by me…. then my life would be so much easier! Anyway….

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disclaimer: If you think this is a kind of ‘random stuff’ that has been circulated in cyberspace (where someone has to tag 5 or whatever other bloggers to write on the same stuff), you’re wrong. This is not ‘it’ and I tag nobody, so nobody should feel obliged to write this kind of thing, and in fact I warn you not to write such thing! :p*

These are what have been really happening in my last TWO weeks….. True story.
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Do you think living in Phoenix Metropolitan is perfect? Hell no…. Don’t you have many complaints about your life? Do you feel like to complain?

Why not cry out rather than swallow what worries us Phoenix Metropolitan-dwellers? Why not contribute your frustration with professors, students, administrators, legislators, traffic jam, taxes etc. towards a powerful and pleasurable public complaint?

Please click here to participate: http://jus394spring2009.wordpress.com/2009/04/14/the-asu-complaint-choir-coz-to-complain-is-healthy/

Bad me, I haven’t really spent much time and energy to really blog. So what I’ve been doing so far is writing/creating some quotes (as my FB status)…. I can imagine some people get it, some don’t. It’s OK, these are not ‘mainstream’ quotes. Just remember those who laugh last usually don’t really get the jokes, hehehe. (more…)

This is one of some lines I used in my Global Minds Speaker Series’ talk yesterday evening — it’s about cyberactivism etc….

“I found Facebook very educational. Once a friend turns it on, I go to the other room and read a book.” (Lim, 2009, hehehe).*

* inspired by Marx.

Universities cannot escape from the financial crisis. Dramatic budget cuts on state level really impacts state universities such as Arizona State University, where I work. Worse than in some states, a conservative state of Arizona cares more about prisoners than education, that the state decided to cut nearly 40% of funding for public universities while the cut for prison system is less than 10%.
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“Nothing compares with the simple pleasure of a bike ride.” – President John F. Kennedy

I could finally ride my bike again, after sometime…. a long time. The plan to do just a 10-15 minutes ride was changed. I was on the wheels for nearly one hour. It felt so good.

It was just a bike ride, but it felt like heaven. Oh well, that’s hyperbolic. Of course I don’t know how heaven feels. It’s suffice to say that it felts 7.9178 times more exciting than wandering around with a car!
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Responding to some inquiries about ‘how to write’ (academically, mostly) and ‘how to publish’, I’ve been planning to blog on Writing. However, some unexpected things happened and I’ve been getting ‘hangover-without-drinking’ in the last two weeks or so, so I still cannot start.

As a trade, I offer this starter, please accept a podcast of interview (of me and my colleagues) on ‘Perspectives on Good Writing: Clarity, Complexity, and Style’ from ASU Graduate College. (more…)

“Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings.” Jane Austen

I always wonder why many people love to say “I am busy.” Almost none of my colleagues say that they are not busy. Among Indonesian fellows here — even those who don’t have regular jobs — I hear ‘busy’ word too often.

I actually often have people told me that I am busy. Or people assume that I am busy. Guess because it’s not easy to find me without appointment. Mostly because I travel a lot therefore being disappeared too often, don’t come to office often, rarely answer my cellphone (because I rarely remember to bring it) –though it’s very easy to reach me, just email me! To them, I sometime respond,”Oh, am I?” (more…)