(the Royal Game of Ur)

Good morning everyone.

I'm yet to figure out how to re-set the time configurations to GMT, but anyways... this is morning for me (at 11:16, it's not yet past midday.) This morning was the first time in my life I was woken up by a fire alarm. A nice, loud dummy drill for sure.

Even though the museums are likely to be packed today, I'm going. The British Museum is particularly interesting. As a teacher of mine commented, it's where you can go and see "what we have stolen from other countries in the past" (what a witty Brit he is. Kevin, don't be flattered.) There is this interesting exhibition on the Royal Game of Ur, where you have to move pieces around a funny-shaped board and knock/send your opponent's pieces back home. The museum's website has got a demo of the game online. It's interesting to see that we haven't changed that much from the old ages: we crave security, we want a solid base prior to launching an offense, we'd love to kick others around if we're not in our preferred circumstances and yada yada yada. This might be happening just on me as somebody who's got an I-want-to-win-every-competition-I-enter-in-a-fair-manner attitude, but it provides a good chance to discover more about oneself.

(As my [relatively] wise sister briefed me once, never say one wants to explore oneself. It's not something a well-bred woman would say.)

This game got me thinking again. I know the British Museum has considerably more money to throw around than the National Museum of Indonesia. OK, that being said, I'm impressed by how BM has the willingness to employ a team of programmers to develop an online board game just for the sake of getting people interested to come along. I felt that I was intellectually stimulated by the game and that it fuelled me to be more determined to go to the museum... just to see what the game these ancient people made up thousands of years ago. The game generates genuine interest in common people to see and learn more about other cultures, something in which I reluctantly admit Indonesians are not very good at. I'm not saying that Indonesians who do not see items of antiquities with their own eyes as uneducated, but rather their willingness to find out about things novel and unfamiliar to them is rather low. Can it be linked to the markedly low average ability to read? Heck, if it's linked, then my MI proposal hits the issue bulls-eye.

My hunger brings me to the point that I need to go and prepare some sort of decent meal for Dad and me... which will then enable us to walk the miles, queue up and see how this board game really looks like. And then again, the Museum may cop up some spare change when we grab a board game or two to bring home and share to others. You see, sometimes expenses aren't as bad as they may initially seem to be. They have the potentials to turn into investments if you know how to handle them. That being said, we as humans are the managers of funds, not the managed.

(I seriously haven't listened to an awful lot of songs lately... really sorry about that! x-{ )

Take care and enjoy your weekend!