Eragon and Bag of Bones: True Crimes

Eragon

I just bought and read the last book of Eragon, Inheritance by Christopher Paolini. A little bit late, but considering the time and money needed to read the book, I think I bought it in quite the right time.  I’m in maternity leave and my husband was generous enough to allow me to buy Inheritance.
The thing is, I read the third book, Brisingr, years ago (or it feels like years ago) and I already forgot some of the stories and the characters. So, I decided to read the whole pack once more, from Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr, and at last Inheritance plus I rented a DVD of the film, Eragon.

Started from approximately 10 days ago, I finished reading the books yesterday and watching the movie this morning. I thought it would be good, but I was totally wrong. It was a disastrous movie.

First, the images of various characters were off. Arya was supposed to be raven-haired lady with slim sword, bow and quiver, and Saphira’s egg on her lap.  How did it translate to a blond girl with low cut dress and no weapon at all, carrying Saphira’s egg on her back? She was mysterious, calm, and charming because of her smooth physical feature, strength, and silences. Unlike weak frightened teenager who tried to be charming with words as they described. Then there was Garrow with his all friendly attitude while he was actually both warmhearted and curt.  No Katrina in the movie. Roran’s main reason for marching through Alagaesia didn’t even being mentioned. It would be hard to make the reasons needed for Roran’s actions in the next movies without the existence of Katrina. Who did they forget again? Let’s see…Solembum the Werecat. The movie maker must be careful for Solembum was the one keeping secrets of Eragon’s success or failure in confronting Galbatorix. At last, Saphira has membranes not fur. She is a dragon for God sake, not a bird.

Second, I know the words ‘based on’ doesn’t have the same meaning with ‘exactly the same’, but I thought, at least the story would be similar, but noooo…big NO there. The plot in the movie is just twisted as hell.

Third, there was no magic at all. I mean, the feeling was just disappeared into thin air since the first time Arya opened her mouth. Unlike what happened in Fellowship of the Ring when Arwen appeared.  THAT was magical.

So, there’s no point of making the second, third, or fourth movie of Eragon.

Bag of Bones

Several years after his wife's death, novelist Mike Noonan still suffers writer's block. A dream inspires him to return to the couple's summer retreat in western Maine, a lakeside house called Sara Laughs. Shortly after arriving, Noonan is caught in the middle of a custody battle involving the daughter of an attractive young widow and the child's enormously wealthy grandfather. He also discovers that Sara Laughs is haunted and that his late wife, Joanna, still has something to tell him. (http://www.stephenking.com/library/novel/bag_of_bones.html)

You have to feel the chill when King described the cry of invisible child in the hall of Sara Laughs or Michael Noonan's dream about his wife being under the bed and asking for her vacuum cleaner, the green lady in the forest, the knockings in the basement, letters on the fridge, Bunter’s bell, and so on and so forth.

But, Brosnan’s performance was good…

Long opinion made short: Some of King’s ideas are best left to imagination. Don’t waste your time with the miniseries….go read the book.

Cheers,
Nidya

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Hello World!

Hi, it has been a long time since my last post. It doesn’t mean I didn’t read and watch any books or movies…I was just too overwhelmed to write about anything. I watched King’s miniseries of Bag of Bones, downloaded series of The Mentalist, Bones, and Castle. I read Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier, Summerhouse and Knight in Shining Armor  by Jude Deveraux, Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan (Disney’s Official Site), re-read Bourne’s Trilogy by Robert Ludlum, Umberto Eco’s Name of The Roses, to Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Taiko by Eiji Yoshikawa…the list could go on. Wow, I even had the time to watch Lord of The Rings extended versions (run about 9 hours or so).

What will I review in this post? Nothing. The next post will talk about Eragon and the miniseries of Bag of Bones. See you next time!

Nidya

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Intermezzzzooo

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My Deepest Condolences

The Plum Blossom represents strength and agility.

This morning I saw a video of an accident in Tugu Tani, Jakarta.  There was an accident at approximately 11.15 January 22^nd 2012. A black car (Xenia) hit 12 pedestrians and killed 9 of them.  Two of them were kids and one of them was 3 months pregnant woman. The police said that the driver along with three passengers was on drugs and drunk and they’ve been on a party in a hotel all night. It was very unwise of them to get drunk and drive.  Why didn’t they just call a cab? Or better, get into a room and get some sleep?

People try to cope by insulting the driver for her carelessness, but I don’t care about her. She doesn’t matter for me (though I did curse her a lot and in my imagination, I spit her face).  We have law and punishment for her.  Not to mention what she will face in the afterlife. So, I’ll just leave it up to the judge and The Most Righteous. The only thing matters are the victims and their families. It was devastating to see those people laid dead on the street. To witness their families and friends drawing last breath. The eleven years old kid was throwing up blood, too severe that the hospital couldn’t handle it.  

I’m not going to say that I understand what they feel, because I don’t.  I never lost so many family members in the same time, never saw them dying in front of my eyes, and I never want to. I don’t know the victims personally, but all of us die a little bit on one like this. Those people cursing out there are actually sad and they turn their sadness into rage. No one could blame them for being mean with their words.

To all the victims and their families, my prayers are always with you.

Nidya


Kalau ada yang mau melihat videonya, sila DL disini. Semoga belum dihapus.

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Google Initiative! Bisnis Lokal Go Online

www.bisnisgoonline.co.id

Have you heard the latest initiative launched by Google South East Asia in Indonesia? They introduced “Bisnis Lokal Go Online” [Get Indonesian Business Online/ GIBO] to help local Small and Medium Enterprises reach their customers around the world. In their service, Google provides free domain name and other supporting facilities for the first 100.000 applicants in the first year and after the first year, MELSA, Google’s partner, will offer extension with maximum cost of Rp150.000 a year (given the exchange rate of 8.200, it means approximately US$ 19).  Google also offers free tips and training on online marketing using AdWords and it is worth about Rp500.000.

I read the news about this initiative when I was searching for information about Indonesian Ministry of Communication and Information (Menkominfo).   I quote from here, Gatot S. Dewa Broto stated that Google was being unethical by neither coordinating nor informing Menkominfo regarding GIBO. He said that the legality and investment permit were not clear yet, but Google already started dealing with various partners in Indonesia including Kementerian Koperasi dan UKM/ Menkop (a ministry whose job is to organize small medium companies in Indonesia).  In giving this comment, he realized that there wasn’t any regulation that obliges Google to include Menkominfo in the deal (probably that was why he said ‘unethical’ instead of ‘illegal’). Also, Google stated in its Terms and Condition page that GIBO was under the jurisdiction of Indonesian Law and Google would abide to it. Google connects with partners it saw fit and proper and declared its compliance to the law.  So, what was the problem? I got confused at this point. Unless…there was an unwritten consensus agreed by all ministries that in this kind of deal, companies must inform related ministries even when there isn’t any single regulation requires doing so. If that was the case, then yes...Google is being unethical. But, was there?

People are questioning why Google is making such moves in Indonesia. Some said long-term investment, some a shared value strategy and some said there was a negative hidden agenda. While people are wondering about those things, I am more interested on why Indonesian government (or people in the government?) is seriously trying to heighten the barrier of entry to Indonesia when they realize that we need foreign investors, when we must prepare ourselves for free trade era, and when the condition is already unattractive enough for investors.

Cheers,

Nidya

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Organizational Behaviour: Leadership Inconsistency

 “The final requirement of a leader is to earn trust.  Trust is the conviction that the leader means what he says…a leader’s actions and a leader’s professed beliefs must be congruent, or at least compatible. Effective leadership—-and again this is very old wisdom—is not based on being clever; it is based primarily on being consistent.” (Peter Drucker)

http://jeffreykrames.com/2009/02/03/consistency-a-key-to-leadership-aka-beware-of-exceptions/

The Study of Leadership

As a concept, leadership has been around for thousand years (Management Extra, 2007) and studied from different angles depending on researcher’s operational definition and preferred methodology (Hartman, 1995).  Some researchers were trying to find the contrast between leaders and managers and some trying to define the specific traits for a leader to be effective. The theory grew to a more contemporary idea that links the strength of leadership behaviours, the relationship between leaders and the followers, and the interaction within a context and situation (Strang, 2005 in Wells and Peachey, 2010). Stem from opinions and propositions, the idea keeps growing with various moderating, intervening, and dependent variables. 

The Definition of Leadership

I am not going to write another definition in this article because they are already too much.  Each management guru, like Peter Drucker, John Adair, Jack Welch, Rudolph Giuliani, and Peter Scholtes has their own definition of leadership.  If you search ‘leadership definition’ in Google, you will find 15 different definitions of leaders and leadership in a single website.  There are several features they have in common; visionary, consistency, and ability to motivate others. Lao Tse even moved further by saying that a leader must not seek credits over what he had done. As an invisible catalyst, the leader walks beyond word and replaces it with deeds. Though things would not get done well if he weren't there, when they succeed, he takes no credit.

The Context

What I am about to write is not entirely based on scientific evidences, international articles or published books.  It is mainly observation, experience and opinion from others and me.  Why do I consider my opinion as the right one? I do and I don’t. My opinion is right for me, however, I can’t claim it as right for others since people are fundamentally different and I will not force them to march along with my drummer.

Leadership Inconsistency

Greenberg and Baron (2005) stated that leaders tend to be task-oriented, relationship oriented, or managed to keep the balance between the two.  A task-oriented leader emphasizes the importance of task completion, but it doesn’t mean that he ignore the interpersonal relationship with his subordinates.  The concept applies the same way with a relationship-oriented leader.  He might have strong emphasizes on relationship rather than the task, but still, as a leader, he needs to manage the achievements of his people. 

In this paper, I still hold the conviction that there are personality traits which can make some leaders proofed to be more effective than the others.  This is where my assumption began.  A task-oriented leader, the one who criticizes and directs his people must have something called competence, a set of skills and knowledge about how to do the task in well manner.  A relationship-oriented leader on the other hand, the one who can relate with his subordinates, must have a splendid character.  Competence, character, and one more ingredient needed to create a great leader, consistency.

Consistency in this matter is not about managing meetings every Friday like some kind of clockwork or being stubborn of using the same leadership method in every occasion, forcing his cultural and educational background to others, thus ignoring the contingency theory.  Denison Leadership Model defines consistency as modelling values and behaviour that create alignment across organization.  My operational definition of consistency for leaders is aligning their inner values and behaviour like what Peter Drucker said. 

When a leader said that he wanted his people to work in teams, while he was doing his own individual project without including others, then his people will be confused.  They don’t know what to expect from their leader and it was (in my personal experience) frustrating.  Cremer (2003) in European Journal of Social Psychology even mentioned that inconsistent leader is considered as procedurally unfair and he creates the feeling of uncertainty about oneself in ongoing interpersonal interactions.

I quote a sentence from Toyotomi Hideyoshi, one of the greatest leaders in Japan. He stated, “Great leaders can be wrong, but they cannot be unclear. A steadfast, focused vision of the future- one that inspires hope and confidence among followers- is the mark of true leadership”.  I could work with a strict leader, a demanding one, or a slowpoke, but I couldn’t adjust my behavior to follow someone who has no standpoint, someone whose words are as dependable as an umbrella in a storm system.

What other danger an inconsistent leadership could pose?  A research by Wells and Peachey (2010) found direct negative relationship between leadership behaviors with employee’s turnover intentions.  Furthermore, they said that voluntary organizational turnover is often dysfunctional and can be detrimental to organizations (Mobley, 1982). For instance, several studies in sport management have found negative effects of voluntary turnover on organizational performance (Hill, 2009; Salomo and Teichmann, 2000; White et al., 2007). So, unfair behavior leads to turnover intentions which can be a prediction of voluntary turnover and at the very end, organization performance is suffered.

Someday, we will become a leader (or already are) and we must remember that if we are being inconsistent, then our subordinate will confused, unable to adjust their behavior to us, and feel that they are being treated unfairly.  One thing leads to another and the organization is the one who will receive an enormous negative impact.

Hill, G.C. (2009), “The effect of frequent managerial turnover on organizational performance: a study of professional baseball managers”, The Social Science Journal, Vol. 46, pp. 557-70.

Salomo, S. and Teichmann, K. (2000), “The relationship of performance and managerial succession in the German premier football league”, European Journal for Sport Management, Vol. 7, pp. 99-119.

White, P., Persad, S. and Gee, C.J. (2007), “The effect of mid-season coach turnover on team performance: the case of the National Hockey League (1989-2003)”, International Journal of Sports Science and Coaching, Vol. 2, pp. 143-52.

Wells, J. and Peachey, J. 2011. “Turnover intentions: Do leadership behaviors and satisfaction with the leader matter?”. Team Performance Management Vol. 17 No. 1/2, 2011 pp. 23-40

Greenberg, J. and Baron, R. 2005. Behavior in Organizations. Prentice Hall of India; Eighth edition.


 
Nidya
(very late post, sorry)

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