Spread your wings and fly...

on being grown ups

2010-02-17T12:59:00.003+01:00

When I was a kid I used to think that being adults is much better, no exams, no homeworks, no mean teachers, no parents telling you want to do. You can go where ever you want, do what ever you like. No need to get up everyday at 6 AM and be at school at 7 AM.

It turns out to be not as easy and nice as I've imagined.

2009-09-29T23:05:00.001+02:00

It matters how're you gonna finish. Are you gonna finish strong?

2009-09-17T08:54:00.001+02:00

It's not necessary to tell all you know. Folks don't like to have somebody around knowing more than they do. It aggravates them. You're not gonna change any of them by talking right, they've got to want to learn themselves, and when they don't want to learn there's nothing you can do but keep your mouth shut or talk their language.

[To kill a mockingbird - Harper Lee]

Bleh

2009-09-11T11:37:00.003+02:00

When you start hearing:

challenging instead of impossible
aggressive instead of bad planning
interesting instead of dislike

and you're okay with it, then you might have a very good chance to be a manager.
But if you feel sick and want to throw up every time you go to work, maybe it's time to quit...

A Series of Unfortunate Events (Trip to Dresden & Prague)

2009-07-20T10:40:00.014+02:00

Saturday, 18.07.09

around lunch hour: I ordered a glass of Vietnam coffee. What I got is a small cup of coffee with neither ice nor sweet condense milk.

After I complained (read: raised my concerns) two times, I got a free canned lychee juice plus 50 cent discount on my supposed-to-be Vietnam coffee.

around 3 pm: The tram we tooked didn't stop at Dresden Hauptbahnhof and we only have 10 minutes left to catch our train to Prague. So we need to run from the closest station to Hauptbahnhof.

around 10 pm: The escalator in Metro Station is very fast and so deep down under. I thought I'm gonna get killed.

late at night at Bridge Hotel, Prague: The receptionist said we are not entitled for breakfast tomorrow as the booking confirmation said "room only".

After some discussions, she let us have breakfast tomorrow morning.

Small travel tip to Prague, DO NOT stay in this hotel, it's far, it's flat-like hotel, and it offers poor breakfast.

Sunday, 19.07.09

before lunch: We got ripped off by Western Union money changer. We just need to get some krone for lunch, and exchanged 25€. Instead of having 525 Krone as we calculated, we received only 425 Krone. It turned out that we have to pay 100 Krone service fee. The teller was so annoying, she said we can't cancelled the transaction and it's not her obligation to inform us about the service fee prior to the transaction since it's written on the board. We check the board and it's written in the smallest ever font size.

Another travel tip: DO NOT buy Krone in Prague, the rate is very poor (1 € = 21 Krone in Prague, in Berlin you got 24 Krone), plus you have to pay 100 Krone service fee.

during lunch: The chinese restaurant we went to tried to trick us. She tried to charge 40 Krone more than we ordered. Later we found out that they have two different menus, where the same food can cost differently on each menu. The lady was pretending to speak poor english. She looked surprised when Fair's father talked to her in chinese! Hah!

Third tip: DO NOT go to the chinese restaurant near Charles Bridge. I repeat, DO NOT go to chinese restaurant near Charles Bridge.

around 3pm, at Holesovice Station: Our train was 25 minutes late, we were in the same compartment with a tattooed guy, no Air Condition, no electricity. We missed our connection train to Berlin, but lucky enough we can continue with this train to go to Berlin directly.

Later we found out that actually they don't have eletricity problem in other wagons.

The tattooed guy seems to be a nice guy, after he tooked the candy I offered. You see, that's the trick, offer some candy to a scarry guy, he will turn to a puppy :)

late night in Berlin: The bus driver didn't accept our Schöneswochenende ticket at the beginning. After some discussions he let us take the bus.

Balance

2009-07-14T10:51:00.002+02:00

Everything should be in balance.

You shouldn't be too confidence about yourself, so people won't think you are an arrogant brat.
You shouldn't be too humble either, so people won't step their feet on your head.

2008-11-11T08:09:00.002+01:00

Life is not easy, it never was.

Sometimes I wonder why our destiny is mostly determined by which nationality we have.

2008-04-19T10:21:00.002+02:00

The more you know, the more choices you have. Although having many choices is not always a good thing, having no choice is always worse.

2008-03-09T13:41:00.003+01:00

There are a lot of things to be considered before you decide to have a child. It's more than just because you like babies (be a babysitter is enough for this hobby), or because all your friends have one, or simply because you don't want to die alone and want someone to take care of you in your old days.

Here's a bit of advice from a 28 years old girl who hasn't got any children and thinks that she has gone through a lot of things in her life:

It takes a lot of power to accept that at the end of the day your kid doesn't turn out the way you want him to be. It takes an extremely high self confidence to tell your self that you have raised him well enough and that you have done the best and it's not your fault if someday he doesn't survive in this cruel world. And moreover you still can be happy.

Don't expect you can change someone. People don't change, and hoping that someday they will change is like hoping for a miracle, and I tell you a secret: It's never happened!

I hate it when people say just leave it up to God. Well, here is my two cents: It's just like crossing the street when the traffic light is red and praying that God will help you! Plan everything carefully and know your reasons because as far as I know He just simply doesn't care or simply doesn't exists.

2008-03-06T11:48:00.002+01:00

It's difficult to understand the sum of a person's life. Some people would tell you it's measured, by the one's left behind. Some believe, that it can be measured in faith. Some say by love. Other folks say, life has no meaning at all. Me...I believe that you measure yourself by the people who measure themselve's by you.

[The Bucket List - 2007]

Have you lead your life?

2008-02-03T20:09:00.000+01:00

There'll come the time when you have to lead your life, not just follow it.

[Her Best Move-2007]

www.lbm-furniture.com

2007-06-13T10:04:00.000+02:00

This is my first experience using VirtueMart, the e-commerce edition for Joomla!. So far it provides everything that I need. I also use additional Component for making the Contact Us form, FacileForms. Additionaly, I got to know that there are actually a better WYSWYG editor than the standard version form Joomla!, it is a mambots called TMEdit. It simplifies the process of inserting image to the content by providing a page where we can easily select the image from the /stories directory - visually - and also provides a way to upload new images.

Dua Dongeng

2007-06-13T09:16:00.000+02:00

Sebuah cerita Leo Tolstoy berkisah kurang lebih begini:

Ada seorang pangeran muda yang gagah di Rusia, seorang siswa terkemuka dalam akademi militer, seorang yang jadi buah bibir orang banyak. hasratnya untuk bersetia kepada Tsar dibuktikannya dengan menjadi salah seorang ajudannya, dan bersedia mengawini seorang gadis bangsawan cantik yang dipilihkan Tsar baginya. Tapi urung. Ternyata gadis itu bekas gundik Tsar sendiri. Maka pangeran itu pun memutuskan pertunangannya dan menjadi rahib.

Di kalangan rohaniawan ini ia pun menonjol karena kekerasan hatinya buat menyempurnakan diri. Tapi tak lama kemudia ia juga terpaksa harus pergi; ia menyesal ia telah mencoba membantah kepala biara karena suatu hal yang mendorongnya untuk membuktikan bahwa ia lebih saleh.

Ia pun menyendiri dalam hutan, menyucikan diri. Tapi ia tetap menjadi buah bibir, terutama di antara para wanita bangsawan. Mereka tertarik akan sosok dan parasnya, meskipun kini telah berpakaian rahib. Pada suatu hari di musim salju seorang wanita cantik mencoba menggoda. Ia masuk ke dalam pondok Bapa Sergius. Mata mereka bertatapan dan perempuan itu menangkap api nafsu sedetik di sana. Tapi Bapa Sergius, dengan tangan gemetar, mengusirnya. Untuk melawan godaan ia mengambil kampak. Rahib itu memotong jarinya sendiri. Lalu dengan suara serak diusirnya perempuan itu, yang lari terkejut melihat jari yang berdarah. Wanita itu kemudian bertobat, dan jadi biarawati.

Maka termasyhurlah Bapa Sergius. Ia mulai dikenal sebagai orang suci. Berbondong-bondong para petani datang kepadanya buat mendapatkan penyembuhan atau berkah, dan ia menerima mereka dengan senang. Ia mulai mengganti rotinya yang coklat dengan roti putih yang empuk.

Pada suatu hari datanglah seorang ayah membawa anak gadisnya yang sakit aneh. Ayah itu minta penyembuhan. Ketika Bapa Sergius dan gadis itu sendirian tahulah orang alim termasyhur itu bahwa gadis itu sakit memimpikannya. Ia tak bisa menahan godaan. Yang tak boleh terjadi pun terjadi. Gadis itu kemudian tertidur.

Bapa Sergius pun tahu bahwa ia telah melakukan dosa dan ia pun menanggalkan baju pendetanya, menghilang ke arah hutan. Dibawah sebuah pohon ia tertidur dan ia bermimpi. Ia harus datang ke tempat adiknya perempuan tinggal. Mimpi itu juga memberi pesan kepadanya agar ia belajar dari wanita itu.

Wanita itu seorang janda biasa yang tak nampak bisa jadi pengajar kerohanian. Ia bekerja saja dengan keras dan rajin buat anak dan menantunya. Tiba-tiba Sergius sadar bahwa begitulah ajaran yang perlu baginya. Ia pun pergi.

Pada suatu hari dua orang bangsawan melihat segerombolan fakir menuju ke suatu tempat ziarah. Adalah seorang dari mereka nampak menonjol. Sosoknya tinggi dan paras tuanya tampan. "Siapakah kamu?", laki-laki tua itu ditanya. "Hamba Tuhan," jawabnya.

Pamrih atas nama batin atau atas nama rohani adalah tetap pamrih. Seringkali kita tidak tahu.

[Caping, 29 Oktober 1977 - Goenawan Muhammad]

"Hamba Tuhan, Hamba Tuhan" some of my friends say that very often...

The Closing

2007-06-03T21:43:00.000+02:00

Every time I add another account in my FTP program, I know that I have won a deal. My proposal is accepted, my design is satisfiable, and I get a new customer. The username and password of my customer to access their web server is the closing of my deal. The next thing I should do is to develop their website. And hopefully in the short time, my bank account will get increased :)

"Nop say, throwing away things is the closing of my chapter here." This is what she said one day before she fly away back home, on our way back from the Kleider - und Schuhsammlung.
So sad. So sad but true.

But don't worry Pit say, perhaps in the short time, your bank account will be increased :)

For me, the number of good friends here in Hamburg, sadly, is decreased, hiks...

Jenny's Events - Another work from Avenzo

2007-05-10T10:25:00.000+02:00

http://www.jennysevents.de/

CMS: Joomla! 1.0.12
Photo Galleries: RSGallery2

Our Pet

2007-05-07T11:05:00.000+02:00

Spring is always the time for flirting and dating. It's one of a few things I learned here in Germany. It's a time for human, and also a time for these two birds to mate and make family. Lucky for us, they chose the tree in front of our window to build their nest. We watched from the time they put twig after twig until they have this little egg :)

It was a memorable time, having this real "National Geographic" scene right in front of your window. We watched the mother hatching their egg from day to day and hoping in the short time we could see their baby, and hear their crip crip sound.

But two days ago the nest was gone from the tree, and we were so shocked! The nest is lying on the ground, the egg is broken, and the mother is gone, huhuhu...

Maybe in life, we won't always have a happy end...

When did you have your first computer?

2007-01-15T11:22:00.000+01:00

I have it when I was 13 years old. My parents bought it in a computer shop who also have a computer training center, so they gave me 1 month free computer course. It actually only DOS course, but after that I continued to learn WordStar, Lotus and Dbase III+. I am absolutely sure that it is Dbase III+ which really change my life. Writing a simple codes and queries really thrilled me, and I know since then that someday I will be a programmer. So when I graduated from high school I took Computer Science in Bina Nusantara University, which offers quite good education except for the traffic jam.

Above is the small story every time the interviewer asks my motivation in IT. So far it's quite impressive :p If only they asked why you bought a computer, they will have another story which will not be that positive although it's actually the first trigger.

I was in the 1st grade of junior high and I need it because I joined the computer class for extra curricular activity. I chose it among other activity because, let's see..
cooking class -> not interesting
electronic -> have so much experience with electric shock even when I wear slippers
typing -> I can type 240 characters/minute already

So actually, I chose it because I didn't have much choice left, hehehe... There was so many students chose computer class as their extra curricular activity. The class can only hold 20-30 students so they have to cut the size of the participants. You know how they filtered the participants? By asking this stupid question: Who doesn't have computer? If you raise your hand you will be advised (read: forced) to move to typing class. When the teacher asked me to move to typing class, I said "I already know how to type, Sir". One polite and true answer. The teacher asked me to come in front and he said "Ko kamu nantang sih?"

What the heck? I was a 13 years old girl, just graduated from primary school. Every teachers in my primary school loves me. I was smart, pretty and naive. That was my first encounter with such an asshole. I survived not being filtered though, and my parents bought me new computer the next day after I told them the story. I swear to myself someday I will smarter than him! But he left the school before my 3rd grade, so I never have a chance being tought by him.

So, when and why did you bought your first computer?

Coincidence

2006-11-24T00:05:00.000+01:00

Dulu setelah lulus S-1, gua kerja di sofware house kecil. Pekerja-pekerjanya terbagi 2, web developer dan web designer. Karena gua lulusan Informatika, jatuhlah gua dikelompok para web developer.

Sedikit tentang dunia per-web-an, hehehe... web designer itu kerjanya membuat design website. Kalo kalian buka web page, misalnya hotmail.com ato yahoo.com, para web designer lah yang membuat tampilan-tampilan website itu menjadi indah. Misalnya icon-icon lucu di yahoo, header-header keren, pemilihan jenis dan warna font. Pokoknya segala sesuatu yang berhubungan dengan yang indah2, itu tugasnya web designer.

Nah, kalo kalian buka web page lamaaa banget, ato error, ato transaksi pembelian online gagal... itu yang musti disalahin ya kita2 ini, web developer. Kita bertanggung jawab buat itu. Supaya kalo orang klik tombol "Submit" setelah mengisi form, form tersebut benar2 tersubmit. Ketika orang belanja online, transaksinya sukses dan uangnya tidak lari ke tangan yang tidak berkepentingan.

Masalah timbul ketika si web designer hanya mengeluarkan file .psd sebagai final output. Sebagai informasi, psd itu formatnya Adobe Photoshop. Mereka bisa buat design yang indah banget, tapi sayangnya masih dalam bentuk gambar, dan bukan HTML. Susahnya lagi, most designer, ga bisa HTML dan tidak mau bisa, hehehe... Dilain pihak, pada umumnya web developer itu datang dari golongan nerd yang tidak punya jiwa seni, cuman bisa ketak ketik tanpa tau ini gambar turun 1 pixel, font ini terlalu besar, atau warna biru norak kalo ditaruh diatas background dengan warna merah.

Ntah kenapa ya, dulu gua seneng lho kalo disuruh motong2 gambar dari Adobe Photoshop, trus dirangkai dalam HTML. Gue bisa belajar pake Photoshop, dan dulu bos gua juga seneng ngajarin. Gua mulai dari hal yang kecil2, misalnya gua jadi tau kalo .gif dibuka di Photoshop itu ga bisa diedit, musti diubah dulu formatnya jadi RGB, ato gua jadi tau kalo .gif itu background bisa transparant sedangkan .jpg engga... Lama-lama gua jadi akrab sama Photoshop, tapi gua ga pernah kok disuruh design, cuman sebagai pemotong gambar, hehehe...

Waktu gua ke Jerman, gua jadi punya banyak waktu lebih, iseng2 gua designin website Angklung. Buat dapet inspirasi gua liat2 website2 yang uda ada. Eh selanjutnya disuruh buat website ICTI. Trus ada temen mo merit minta dibuatin wedding website. Karena gua suka design2, salah satu temen gua kasih www.avenzo.com sebagai kado ulang tahun. Karya gua terus berlanjut dengan www.wahyupb.com, ini website bokapnya temen gereja. Sekarang gue baru aja ngelaunch www.ikat-agentur.com dan www.ikat-sprachenwerkstatt.de.

Kalo dipikir2, apakah semua ini kebetulan? ato little things that we did give us what we have now? Is it really a coincidence? Or you take what you've given before?

Sebagai penutup, ini ada kata-kata bagus dari bapak satu ini:

We'll never know where our small decisions at the moment will lead us to.
Maybe in the perspective of eternity, there is no such things as small decisions.
Maybe in the perspective of almighty, there is no such things as coincidence.
Who knows?

PS: bapak itu saya juga lho designin blognya, hehehe...

www.ikat-sprachenwerkstatt.de

2006-11-23T13:45:00.000+01:00

Another masterpiece from avenzo:

www.ikat-agentur.com

2006-11-23T13:28:00.000+01:00

Prouldy present...

Umlaut problem in phpMyAdmin

2006-10-31T00:14:00.000+01:00

If you have spent weeks searching in google and asking people what the hell happened with the umlaut in phpmyadmin, you might want to consider information below:

Both MySQL 4.0.x and Joomla 1.0.x do not support utf-8

It is possible to convert the data into single-byte character form (i.e latin1)
in various ways:

This can be done with phpMyAdmin (newer versions) by defining the connection charset/collation to the new (4.0) database as latin1 with appropriate collation AND defining the source data as utf-8.
Alternately the sql script file dumped from the original database can be
loaded into an editor (that recognises encodings) and saved as ASCII instead of utf-8. After this conversion it can be loaded into the target database
It is worthwhile to check how the data looks in the database after the migration by browsing the tables with a tool such as phpmyadmin. Once you are satisfied that the data is looking good then try it in Joomla.

[http://forum.joomla.org/index.php?topic=23075.msg136644]

In my case, I think the problem lies in phpMyAdmin. I use MySQL 4.0.26 and extract the database to a .sql file with the help of EMS SQL Manager 2005. The extracted database contains the correct umlaut character. However, after it is imported by phpMyAdmin to my server, all the german character (ä, ö, ü) and even a simple dash ('-') are transformed into question mark ('?'). My server uses phpMyAdmin 2.9.0.2.

To solve the problem, I chose latin1 for the character set of the file (instead of use the default utf-8) when importing the file. Then, TADA... problem solved!

Meine schöne Umlaute wird endlich da :)

2006-10-21T14:19:00.000+02:00

"Dont let anyone ever make you feel like you dont deserve what you want"

one nice excerpt from a teenage movie "10 Things I Hate About You".

an early post...

2006-09-15T19:36:00.000+02:00

I know this could be considered as a too early post, but what the heck :p

8 months ago, I had no other choice than to pick his topic for my thesis. Besides all the bad things people talk about him, his offered topic is interesting. It will give me an opportunity to extend my skill in modelling language as well as in object oriented programming. It also enables me to hone my analysis skills (OK, I think I get carried away here... well, too many sent-and-rejected application letter, hehehe....).

7 months ago, I started using Eclipse, I started learning OCL, got my first encounter with Octopus. Then he asked me to do small things, which I consider useless and not connected to my thesis. I did it anyway...

6 months ago, I still didn't know how to proceed with my thesis, but there was still plenty of time. No need to worry.

5 months ago, another student involved in my project. He did most of the initial task and programming. Every day we shared the same pain and cluelessness.

4 months ago, I was hopeless, my project didn't go anywhere. He kept changing his mind and rejecting our proposal. He was just like a pain in the ass! We thought we would never pass this thesis and thought we would be lucky enough to get 4.0 for our master thesis. We just want to end this suffering soon. I was imagining if only I have started writing right now, life would be much better.

3 months ago, I was so desperate. As desperate as possible. Then, gathered my courage and keep saying to my self "I don't care what will happen", I sent him an email, reminds him about the approaching deadline and propose some approaches. Forced him to read the mail and agree to my approach, hehe.. Out of the blue, he said "if it's possible then you may proceed".

2 months ago, I finally found a way to complete the final step of my thesis. It was like my thesis is over. A short Euphoria! Then I started writing... well it was also like pain in the ass, hehehe... but this time, I can blame nobody. My scapegoat has escaped, hehehe... I remembered we celebrate it by walking from dammtor to sternschanze by foot, tsk..tsk... tsk...

Now, I am preparing my presentation. Soon this whole thing will be over... Thinking over what has happened this past 8 months, here are some points to remark:

We might feel bad, we might feel happy. But no matter what we feel, life goes on. We might, in some point in our life, think that we have the heaviest burden in the world, but remember, no matter how you feel, how you think, hey man life goes on, so keep going with it!
Make friends. They may help you, you never know.
Not like most people think, some chinese are nice. Lesson learnt: MAJORITY doesn't mean ALL.
Be friendly but also be firm. Sometimes you have to stand on what you believe.
Some people might not go your way, but that doesn't make them an enemy.

So, as I said, this is a too early post, what would be the outcome of all of this? I still don't know. But one thing to be sure, whatever happen in the future, I thank You for what has happened.

2006-09-03T10:58:00.000+02:00

time flies... along with single friends :) For Ivanna and David, congratulations on your wedding!

2006-08-30T21:44:00.000+02:00

There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft. When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife’s right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness.

[The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini]