I have to admit that although I like to read a lot, I mostly read online now, articles, news and what not. I have a very short attention span, and I have always associated reading books with sleeping because I almost always read in bed before dozing off. That’s why I find it hard to study by reading, or committing myself to reading a book, especially thick book, unless it’s really a page-flipper like The Da Vinci Code.

Estimate the total number of books you’ve owned in your life.

Probably close to 1,000. Mostly comic books, computer reference books and a few detective novels.

What’s the last book you bought?

Dan Brown’s Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code omnibus (2-in-1).

What’s the last book you read?

Dan Brown’s Angels & Demons.

List 5 books that mean a lot to you.

• The Holy Bible
• The Da Vinci Code
• Angels & Demons
• Perl Cookbook
• Detective Conan (don’t laugh)

Tag five people:

Priyadi, Boy, Andika, Adinoto, Budi

Total volume of music on my computer

18 GB — 3,596 songs, 11 days, 3 hours and 6 minutes.

Last CD I bought

“Perjalanan Panjang” by Jikustik.

Song currently playing

“Trail Blazer” by Acoustic Alchemy.

Five songs I listen to a lot, or mean a lot to me

Now, this is a challenge. Pick five out of 3,596, yes! I’m going to make it more than five. Sue me.

These are the songs that mean a lot to me:

• “You Never Know” by Jim Brickman and Boney James
• “Above All” by Michael W. Smith
• “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking for” by U2
• “Heaven” by Live
• “For the Rest of My Life” by Nelson Rangell
• “Tak Bisa ke Lain Hati” by KLa Project
• “It Never Entered My Mind” by Miles Davis
• “If I Ever Lose My Faith in You” by Sting
• “You Don’t Love Me” by The Philosopher Kings
• “Romance d’Amour” (classical Spanish song), this is the first complete song that I could play a guitar with.

These are the songs that I play a lot lately:

• “This is Such A Pity” by Weezer
• “Feel Good, Inc.” by Gorillaz
• “Lonely No More” by Rob Thomas
• “Give a Little Bit” by Goo Goo Dolls (I like the original Supertramp version, too.)
• “Someday, Someday” by Thirsty Merc

Five people to whom I’m passing the baton

It wouldn’t be fun to pass this to only five people. So if you read this then you’re welcome to post your own. Make sure to trackback here. Have fun!

• A is for animesuki.com – Daily dose of goodies
• B is for bloglines.com/myblogs – Yet another daily dose of goodies
• C is for cvs.company.dom – Top secret company CVS repository
• D is for del.icio.us/ronny – Portable bookmarks. Sharing is the best backup.
• E is for exetel.com.au/members/usage_monthly_query.php – My ISP’s monthly usage meter page
• F is for friendster.com/home.php – This is embarassing
• G is for gentoo.org – Best. Distro. Ever.
• H is for hurricanesgrill.com – Best. Ribs. Ever.
• I is for isohunt.com – Goodies
• J is for jackfruit.company.dom – A top secret company test server.
• K is for kebo.vlsm.org – I thought this was a mirror site, now it’s empty?
• L is for linux.or.id – I maintain the domain
• M is for mambo.terasi.net – = 127.0.0.1
• N is for news.com.au – Daily dose of news
• O is for oreillynet.com – Another source of daily techie news
• P is for planet.terasi.net – An aggregate blog of many cool people
• Q is for qual.auckland.ac.nz – I was doing a research on Qualitative Research Methods
• R is for ronny.haryan.to – What else?
• S is for slashdot.org – Daily dose of techie news
• T is for torrentspy.com/latest.asp – Who knows, might see something useful
• U is for ubuntuguide.org – I installed ubuntu hoary in VMWare
• V is for vodafone.com.au – My mobile phone provider
• W is for whereis.com.au/whereis/home.jsp – I love walking
• X is for xoxide.com/sunbeam-superior-panel.html – Looks cool
• Y is for yhbt.mine.nu/t/ – For the nine-tailed fox demon in me
• Z is for zytrax.com/tech/web/browser_ids.htm – Useful for faking browser info when posting in Priyadi’s blog

I use Mozilla Firefox as my web browser.

From the BBC show with the same title, hosted by Ainsley Harriott. Here’s the top 50 things to eat before you die according to the Brits. Oh, “*” means I haven’t tried it. Hoping I will have no items with “*” by the end of this year. Fingers crossed.Haha, I just read my own writing again and it sounded as if I wanted to die happy after eating everything on this list.

1. Fresh fish
2. Lobster
3. Steak
4. Thai food
5. Chinese food
6. Ice cream
7. Pizza
8. Crab
9. Curry
10. Prawns
11. Moreton Bay Bugs*
12. Clam chowder
13. Barbecues
14. Pancakes
15. Pasta
16. Mussels
17. Cheesecake
18. Lamb
19. Cream tea
20. Alligator*
21. Oysters
22. Kangaroo*
23. Chocolate
24. Sandwiches
25. Greek food
26. Burgers
27. Mexican food
28. Squid
29. American diner breakfast
30. Salmon
31. Venison*
32. Guinea pig*
33. Shark (Well, I’ve tried shark fin)
34. Sushi
35. Paella*
36. Barramundi
37. Reindeer* (I’ve tried “regular” deer, though)
38. Kebab
39. Scallops
40. Australian meat pie
41. Mango
42. Durian fruit
43. Octopus
44. Ribs
45. Roast beef
46. Tapas*
47. Jerk chicken/pork* (I’ve never tried the Jamaican version)
48. Haggis*
49. Caviar* (I’ve tried salmon and flying fish roe, but not sturgeon fish roe i.e. caviar)
50. Cornish Pastry*

Inspired by the above, I came up with my own list below. The list is subject to change at anytime without notice.

1. Durian
2. Nasi Campur Buk Matirah (Malang)
3. Crabs
4. Lobster
5. Prawns
6. Fresh fish
7. Salmon
8. Sushi / Sashimi
9. Nasi Padang
10. Sambal Terasi
11. Chinese food
12. East Javanese food: Soto, Rawon, Ote-ote, Rujak Cingur, Tahu Campur, Tahu Tek
13. Ribs
14. Mussels / Clams / Pippies / Cockles
15. My Mom’s “Picnic” Pastry
16. Ice Cream / Gelati
17. Vietnamese Pho
18. Korean food
19. Thai food
20. Curry
21. Satay
22. Clam chowder
23. Steak
24. Huzarensla
25. Avocado
26. “Corica” Apple Strudel (Perth)
27. Tiramisu
28. Honey Dew / Rock Melon (Canteloupe)
29. Tropical fruits: mango, rambutan, longan, jackfruit, pineapple, banana, etc.
30. Oysters
31. Scallops
32. Salted Fish
33. Australian meat pie
34. Chocolate
35. Sandwiches
36. Burgers
37. Celery
38. Tofu
39. Vietnamese Banh Mi (Pork Roll)
40. Mexican food
41. American diner breakfast
42. Pancakes
43. Panettone
44. Roast beef
45. Pizza
46. Barbecues
47. Pasta
48. Kebab
49. Potato: french fries, baked, mashed
50. Indonesian Siomay

Man, I watch TV way too bloody much…

Must Haves

1. Email Client: Mutt is preferred, Squirrelmail or Evolution occasionally (over IMAP).

2. Web Browser: Mozilla Firefox is a must. w3m in “emergencies”.

3. Text Editor: Vim. My text editor must be Vim, otherwise I go crazy. I’m actually less productive and slower using other text editors, like when I have to write blog entries in WP directly.

4. Alarm/Reminder: KAlarm and/or Evolution. Sometimes my Sony Ericsson T610 when I’m away.

5. GNU Tools and Perl.

Convenient To Haves

1. Entertainment: it had changed quite a bit over time, but currently I’m happy with Rhythmbox and Totem (xine backend). GNOME Mahjongg is a must to relieve stress (best times: 3:08 to 3:34).

2. Personal Finance: Moneydance, I’m not too good with money, this kind of apps keep me sane.

3. GKrellM. I’m a control freak. Monitor everything.

4. Terminal: GNOME Terminal. Most people don’t appreciate good terminals until they are forced to use crappy ones. GNOME Terminal (2.7.3) is actually very good, and it comes with GNOME. OpenSSH. PuTTY to “call” home when I’m on another planet.

5. Word ProcessorTypesetting System: LyX. LyX and Latex rule. Proper and structured writing enforced. Pybliographer bibliography database manager helps from time to time.

6. GIMP. ‘Nuff said.

7. GNOME desktop environment.

8. Instant Messaging: Gaim. One size fits all.

Of course, there are other applications that I require on my own machine that are not necessarily needed when I’m away from my computer, such as: postfix, fetchmail, procmail, courier-imap, cron, at, apache, mysql, ntpd, and samba.

What applications do you use on a regular basis that you “can’t live without”?